
CHCI Los Angeles Regional Event Highlighting LGBT+ Latino Leaders
Friday, June 15, 2018
5:30 pm – 8:30 pm PDT
University of Southern California
Davidson Conference Center
Vineyard Room
3415 S. Figueroa Street
Los Angeles, CA 90089
Sponsors
The California Endowment
Univision Communications, Inc
AARP
California American Water
Union Bank
Southwest
Official Airline of CHCI Regional Events
Strategic Partners
Human Rights Campaign
Equality California
In the spirit of LGBT Pride Month this June, CHCI is proud to convene leaders from various sectors for an engaging, insightful and thought-provoking conversation on the intersectionality of Latino and LGBT+ communities, and some of the core issues affecting the Latino community.
As CHCI celebrates its 40th anniversary, it recognizes that leadership is not one-dimensional; rather, it embraces various aspects of a leader’s life experiences that go beyond the workplace or profession.This fireside chat will feature LGBT+ Latino/a trailblazers ,and highlight the work of these extraordinary individuals in advocacy, business, policymaking and more.
SPEAKERS
- Domenika Lynch, President and CEO, CHCI
- Haz Montana, Vice President of Content, Univision Communications
- Ximena Delgado, Senior Vice President and ESG Program Manager, Bank of America Charitable Foundation
- Jose Luis Plaza, Manager, California Endowment
- Bamby Salcedo, Founder, TransLatin@ Coalition
- Rick Zbur, Executive Director, Equality California
Speakers

Domenika Lynch
President and CEO, CHCI
Domenika Lynch is the President and CEO of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, Inc. (CHCI), a nonprofit and nonpartisan leadership development institute founded by Hispanic Members of Congress in 1978. CHCI’s mission is to develop the next generation of Latino leaders and to build a diverse and inclusive workforce across industries.
Since taking the helm of CHCI in July 2016, Ms. Lynch has been focusing on maximizing the organization’s platform through strategic partnerships, unique stakeholder convenings, and critical leadership development. During this period, CHCI has raised over $8 million and organized the second highest grossing CHCI conference and gala in the organization’s history.
Prior to joining CHCI, Ms. Lynch spent more than a decade as the executive director of the Latino Alumni Association (LAA) at the University of Southern California, where the LAA awarded more than $800,000 in scholarships annually. Ms. Lynch was the second director since the organization’s founding in 1973. During her tenure, the LAA raised more than $15 million and more than tripled the LAA’s endowment, growing it from $2.3 million to $7.3 million. It also more than doubled membership through unique alumni programming.
Ms. Lynch credits her corporate experiences as vice president, market development manager at Bank of America and an account executive at Univision as essential to her success. She is an active member of the Latino community and currently serves on the Board of Hispanic Association for Corporate Responsibility (HACR), the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda (NHLA), and the Latino Advisory Council for the Kennedy Center.
Ms. Lynch’s work on behalf of the Latino community has been recognized by various organizations. She was awarded the 2017 Plaza Community Services Bridges of Opportunity Award in Education, named a Latina of Influence by Hispanic Lifestyle and a Los Angeles Community Hero by Telemundo. She is a graduate of the USC Price School of Public Policy and holds a master’s degree from the USC Rossier School of Education. She is also the proud parent of a Trojan alumnus.
Reflecting her own life’s journey, Ms. Lynch is most inspired by stories of immigrants in pursuit of the American Dream.
Ximena A. Delgado
Senior Vice President and ESG Program Manager, Bank of America Charitable Foundation
Ximena Delgado is a Senior Vice President and Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Program Manager in the Bank of America Charitable Foundation. She manages the Foundation’s Asset Building, Native American, and Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) portfolios at a national level. She engages in issues relating to community development, neighborhood preservation, community revitalization, economic mobility and D&I. Ms. Delgado served as the San Francisco Market Manager for GM&CA, where she managed the local foundation, sponsorship budgets and Market President Strategy. Ms. Delgado joined Bank of America in 1998.
Ms. Delgado graduated from UC Berkeley with a Political Science degree and earned her Master’s from the Graduate School of Management and Urban Policy at the New School for Social Research in New York. Ms. Delgado also holds an Executive MBA from the Pacific Coast Banking School. She is a Woodrow Wilson National Fellow.
Ms. Delgado serves on the Workforce Investment Board and Enterprise Community Partners Northern California Leadership. She also served as Chair, Bank of America SF Bay Area HOLA (Hispanic/Latino Organization for Leadership & Advancement) Affinity Chapter.
Ms. Delgado and her wife of twenty-two years reside in San Francisco and have two children.
Haz Montana
Vice President of Content, Univision Communicationsn
Haz Montana is a VP/content for Univision Radio, overseeing three of its brands; Latino Mix (Spanish CHR), Mas Variedad (Spanish AC), and Univision’s CHR/English brands. Montana got his start as a CHR DJ at WVIC/Lansing while a student at Michigan State University and worked his way through multiple formats, programming roles and markets prior to joining Critical Mass Media in Cincinnati as a programming consultant.
Montana learned Spanish and joined WRMA/Miami as PD in 1996, which merged with SBS. LA called, and Montana joined KSSE/Entravision to pioneer Spanish CHR for a U.S. audience. He later directed all Entravision Radio programming as VP/Programming, and joined Univision Radio in 2005 to run programming operations for the Los Angeles cluster.
In 2007, the first Radio Ink Spanish-radio awards were held, and Montana won the first “Medalla de Cortez” (Medal of Cortez) as Programmer of the Year, Markets 1-10 as voted by industry peers. He was also recognized in Radio Ink’s “Best Programmers” 2007 and 2008 issue as a top programmer in a Major Market, regardless of language.
Mr. Montana attended in 2009 the Aspen Seminar for Leadership, Values and the Good Society, a leadership development program for global leaders. In 2014 he served on the board of Homedog LA, a non-profit dedicated to keeping pets with their families and away from being returned to the shelter when financial hardships hit families.
A native of Chicago, Montana is based in Los Angeles and has a B.A. in Telecommunications from Michigan State University.
Jose Luis Plaza
Manager, California Endowment
Jose Luis Plaza is a manager at The California Endowment, one of the largest private health foundations, working on various statewide portfolios ranging from immigration, civic engagement, Latinos, and LGBTQ issues among others. Previously, he served as the Bill & Melinda Gates Higher Education Fellow with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute (CHCI) where he furthered his research and practice focusing on macro policy and political issues to ensure quality impact in his home base. He worked in the office of Congressman Raul Ruiz as part of his placement. Following his role at CHCI, Jose served as the national director for Latino engagement for Enroll America. Jose has served on the boards of the Latin American Youth Center, New Leaders Council- DC, and most recently was president and board chair of the Latino LGBT History Project. Born in Guanajuato, Mexico, Jose is the proud son of migrant laborers. Jose earned bachelor’s degrees in social science and English from San Diego State University. He also holds a master’s in counseling from California State University, Long Beach and is pursuing a doctorate in higher education from the University of Southern California.
Bamby Salcedo
Founder, TransLatin@ Coalition
Bamby most recent employer was Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. She spent eight dedicated years as the Health Education and HIV Prevention Services Coordinator at the nation’s largest and most experienced clinical program providing multidisciplinary healthcare and services to trans youth.
Her remarkable and wide-ranging activist work has brought voice and visibility to not only the trans community, but also to the multiple overlapping communities and issues that her life has touched including migration, HIV, youth, LGBT, incarceration and Latin@ communities. Through her instinctive leadership, she has birthed several organizations that created community where there was none, and advocate for the rights, dignity, and humanity for those who have been without a voice.
Bamby’s work as a collaborator and a connector through a variety of organizations reflects her skills in crossing various borders and boundaries and working in the intersection of multiple communities as well as the intersections of multiple issues. Bamby has served and participated in many local, national and international organizations and planning groups. This work mediates intersections of race, gender, sexuality, age, social class, HIV+ status, immigration status and more.
Bamby has participated as an inspiring keynote speaker in numerous state and national conferences, universities and organizations as well as a workshop leader and panel member.
Her powerful, sobering and inspiring speeches and her warm, down-to-earth presence have provided emotional grounding and perspective for diverse gatherings. She speaks from the heart, as one who has been able to transcend many of her own issues, to truly drop ways of being and coping that no longer served her, issues that have derailed and paralyzed countless lives. Her words and experience evoke both tears and laughter, sobriety and inspiration.
Her activist public speaking has ranged from testifying to governmental bodies, human rights and social justice organizations, universities and colleges and national and international conferences and featured speaker in various demonstrations and rallies. Bamby speaks to diverse audiences on many topics and intersecting issues. Bamby has spoken about transgender-related issues, social justice, healthcare, social services, incarceration, immigration and detention as well as professional and economic development for trans people. In 2012, Bamby has been invited to participate in several panels at the White House including in 2012 for Women and Girls National HIV/AIDS Awareness Day and in 2015, Transgender Women of Color and Violence and LGBTQ People of Color Summit. Bamby has also participated as the Opening Plenary Speaker at several conferences, including The 2015 National HIV Prevention Conference, The United States Conference on AIDS in 2009 and 2012. She has participated as facilitator with The PanAmerican Health Organization while developing the Blue Print on how to provide competent health care services for trans people as well as health care for LGBT people and Human Rights in Latin America and The Caribbean. Bamby also has participated in The People of Color Conference as a plenary speaker and the Civil Liberties and Public Policy for reproductive justice conference among other.
Rick Zbur
Executive Director, Equality California
Rick Zbur is a distinguished lawyer with a long history of advocacy for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender, and environmental causes. Zbur retired from Latham & Watkins, one of the world’s largest and most respected law firms, where he was a senior partner and practiced law for 29 years.
A lifelong LGBT trailblazer, Zbur was Latham & Watkins’ first openly gay attorney and first openly gay partner. He worked in all aspects of the firm’s environmental, land and resource practice, including leading the firm’s extensive work before the California Coastal Commission.
Zbur was cited one of Southern California’s top ten environmental attorneys by the Los Angeles Business Journal in its 2009 “Who’s Who in Law” feature. He was also cited as a leading environmental attorney by the Los Angeles Business Journal in 2008 and 2009.
He took a leave of absence from his firm in January 1996 to run for Congress in California’s 38th Congressional District, where he became the first openly gay, non-incumbent to win a contested primary for U.S. Congress. At the time, his campaign was one of the larger Congressional campaigns in the country with approximately 14 staff members and a budget of over $1 million. His experience running for office, combined with his years in practice as a senior partner at Latham & Watkins and his significant advocacy work have made Zbur well known in both Sacramento and Washington, D.C.
Zbur is Chair Emeritus of the board of the California League of Conservation Voters, the political action arm of California’s environment community, where he leads the organization and oversees its strategic direction. CLCV is a leading environmental organization that utilizes political strength to protect and improve the environmental quality of California. He formerly served on the board of Lambda Legal and was a founding director and vice president at the Children Affected by AIDS Foundation.
A proud co-parent to three children with their lesbian co-parents, Zbur grew up in a farming community in the Rio Grande Valley south of Albuquerque, New Mexico, where his mother, Erlinda Chavez Zbur and her family have lived for generations.
Zbur is a graduate of Yale University and Harvard Law School.

PHOTOS
Sponsors for the CHCI 2018 LA Regional Event: From left to right: Brian Barreto with California American Water, Rafi Nazarians with AARP, Gil and Jacki Cisneros with The Gilbert and Jacki Cisneros Foundation, Haz Montana with Univision Communications, Inc, Jose Plaza with The California Endowment, and Luis Campillo with AARP.
Jose Plaza (CHCI Alumnus, The California Endowment) sharing one of several touching but humorous moments with his fellow panelists and the audience. From left to right: Haz Montana with Univision Communications, Inc., Bamby Salcedo with TransLatin@ Coalition, Jose Plaza with The California Endowment, Ximena Delgado with the Bank of America Charitable Foundation and Rick Zbur with Equality California.
CHCI President & CEO Domenika Lynch with the members of CHCI Alumni Association Southern California Chapter.
Panelists received a Congressional Certificate of Recognition from the Office of Representative Grace F. Napolitano. Special thanks to the congressional staff who attended, pictured here with the panelists and Domenika Lynch, CHCI President and CEO. From left to right: Gabriella Cid with Rep. Nanette Diaz Barragán, Luz Castro with Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard, Perla Hernandez-Trumkul with Rep. Grace F. Napolitano, and Marcella Cortez with Rep. Jimmy Gomez.
Former CHCI Fellow Alejandro Aviles of the Human Rights Campaign enjoying the event’s outdoor reception with guest Lucy Flores of MiTu.