In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, Walden created the Latino Changemaker Award to highlight the efforts of Walden students who are making the world a better place.

Latino Changemaker of the Year—Dr. Ramona J. Armijo
Dr. Ramona J. Armijo, a Ph.D. in Education student specializing in Knowledge Management, is Walden’s Latino Changemaker of the Year. A donation of $2,500 is being made to a nonprofit of her choice that helps the Latino community.

Armijo works for the Ventura County, Calif., public health department coordinating a nutrition network project that addresses the obesity epidemic among food-stamp-eligible and Latino families. Armijo’s duties include coordinating staff outreach at farmers’ markets, work sites, schools, community-based organizations, low-income markets and neighborhoods.

She says that the impact of the project is already being felt in a number of areas: Latina women are taking advantage of the public health department’s exercise liaison who coordinates exercise and walking groups, local work sites are promoting physical activity breaks and healthier lunch options, and area schools have created healthier school lunch menus.

Other Changemakers—Luis Rodriguez and Gladys Hernandez
Walden would also like to recognize the social change works of Luis Rodriguez and Gladys Hernandez.

Rodriguez, who works in Puerto Rico, is a lieutenant of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps assigned to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. He is in Walden’s Ph.D. in Public Health program specializing in Community Health Promotion and Education and works as a consumer safety officer at the FDA.

His daily duties include conducting inspections and investigations at domestic and international establishments where food, pharmaceutical drugs, medical devices or cosmetics are manufactured, processed or stored.

Specifically, his work involves product recalls, the investigation of consumer complaints and oversight of importations. He says these efforts touch the lives of millions of U.S. citizens because approximately 80 percent of drugs consumed in the United States are manufactured in Puerto Rico.

Gladys Hernandez is a Ph.D. in Education student specializing in Community College Leadership. She works as a federal grant proposal editor at the University of Puerto Rico at Aguadilla’s training and development center for people with Down syndrome. The center provides counseling, services, and cultural and social opportunities to persons with Down syndrome and their families. It is the first center of its kind in Puerto Rico. Hernandez is completing a doctoral practicum at the center and has supported and initiated several of its programs, including a pilot work-study program to help young people with Down syndrome gain work experience.

Hernandez wrote about her work in the July 2006 Walden Ponder article “Promoting Puerto Rico’s First University Down Syndrome Service Center.”

November Ponder front page