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Washington, DC—NCLR (National Council of La Raza) is pleased to announce that the October 2009 issue of Washingtonian magazine names NCLR President and CEO Janet Murguía as one of “Washington’s 100 Most Powerful Women.” She made the list with Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor and U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis. Murguía, who has served for five years as President and CEO of NCLR, the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States, is being featured on this list for a second time, the first being in 2006. Other honorees include First Lady Michelle Obama, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, District of Columbia Schools Superintendent Michelle Rhee, and U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, among others.
Washingtonian magazine compiled this list to recognize women leaders in Washington from the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. Candidates were asked to fill out a survey about their work, home lives, and preparation for their careers including education and previous jobs. They were asked to give advice to young women starting out in their careers and to women who are balancing work and family life.
Murguía has devoted her career to public service. She began her career in Washington, DC as legislative counsel to former Kansas Congressman Jim Slattery. She then worked in the White House from 1994 to 2000, ultimately serving as deputy assistant to President Clinton, providing strategic and legislative advice to the president on key issues. In 2001, Murguía joined the University of Kansas (KU) as executive vice chancellor for university relations. She grew up in Kansas City, Kansas and received degrees in journalism, Spanish, and law from KU.
As NCLR President and CEO, Murguía has worked to harness the power of the nation’s nearly 47 million Hispanics and strengthen the partnership between NCLR and its network of nearly 300 community-based Affiliates, which annually serves millions of people in 41 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. She has also sought to strengthen the Latino voice on issues affecting the Hispanic community, including education, health care, immigration, civil rights, the economy, and the rise of hate rhetoric and hate crimes targeting Latinos. She has placed special emphasis on turning Latino growth into empowerment through the Latino vote. In the 2008 general election, NCLR and its partners helped to register nearly 200,000 new Hispanic voters. Other initiatives helped more than 1.5 million eligible immigrants apply for citizenship.
Murguía has been recognized on numerous occasions for her work, including in Newsweek magazine’s “Women and Leadership” issue, as one of the NonProfit Times’s “Power and Influence Top 50” leaders, as People en Español’s “100 Most Influential Hispanics,” as one of Hispanic Business magazine’s “100 Most Influential Hispanics,” and as one of Hispanic magazine’s “Powerful Latinos.”
