Maria Cardona
Maria Cardona | |
---|---|
Born | (1966-11-12) November 12, 1966 (age 57) Bogotá, Colombia |
Education | Duke University |
Known for | CNN commentator |
Political party | Democratic Party |
Maria Teresa Cardona (born November 12, 1966) is an American-Colombian born political strategist and commentator who currently works at the Dewey Square Group and is the founder of Latinovations. Cardona is also a Democratic strategist and CNN/CNN en Español political commentator. Starting in 2020 Maria spearheads ¡MARIA! with Maria Cardona talk show. She dissects advocacy and public policy affecting Latinos in the U.S. through the El Rey Network.
Early life
Maria Teresa Cardona was born in Bogotá, Colombia.[1] She moved to the United States with her family at the age of two and lived in Ohio but shortly after settled in Leesburg, Florida. At the beginning of the 8th grade, she and her family moved to Puerto Rico. She is a graduate of Duke University.
Career
Early start
Cardona spent five years[2] at the United States Department of Commerce, first as Deputy Press Secretary to Secretary Ronald H. Brown and in charge of the press offices of all the 14 agencies.[1] Following the airplane crash into a mountainside in Croatia that killed Secretary Brown, Cardona was left to handle the live press briefing alone. She then went on to be the Press Secretary[2] to Secretaries William Daley and Mickey Kantor. While there, she acted as Lead Communications Strategist for the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1993. In 1997, she was awarded the Department of Commerce's Silver Medal Award for Meritorious Federal Service.
From 1998 to 2001, Cardona was the Director of Communications[2] for the United States Department of Justice's Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), acting as the Clinton Administration's top spokesperson on the complex issues surrounding immigration, including the Elián González affair. She was chosen by Hispanic Business Magazine as one of the 100 Most Influential Hispanics in the country of that year.[3]
From 2001 to 2003,[4] she served as Communications Director[3] of the Democratic National Committee, where she helped coordinate the national Democratic message for the party officials, elected leaders, candidates and state Democratic Party committees.
Cardona joined the New Democrat Network (NDN) in 2003[3] as their vice president for Media Relations, where she developed and directed NDN's ongoing efforts to help Democrats better understand and community to the Hispanic electorate. She also directed NDN's Hispanic Project, which was created to expand research and polling, candidate recruitment, and national paid and earned media communications strategies targeted to Hispanic audiences, in both English and Spanish. The $6 million initiative was, at the time, the largest effort ever[5] to conduct dedicated research and deliver the Democratic message to the Latino community.
Dewey Square Group and Latinovations
Cardona joined the Dewey Square Group in 2005 as a principal, helping their corporate, non-profit and trade association clients develop strategic partnerships at the national, state and local level, especially within the Latino community. She used her background to tap into the Latino community and ensure that Dewey clients were well represented and understand the demographic.[citation needed]
Cardona went on to launch Latinovations,[6] the firm's Latino strategies practice, which uses her influence and experience to advocate on Latino issues, guiding clients searching for building support on positions, products, and brands within the Hispanic/Latino community. Latinovations produces its own daily blog, titled La Plaza, which covers national news and policies that affect the Latino community.[7]
Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign
While at Dewey Square Group, Cardona served as a senior advisor to the Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign,[2] serving as a campaign surrogate and spokesperson and representing the campaign on major national TV and radio, as well as Spanish-language television news and political programs. She also served on Clinton's Hispanic outreach team.[1]
Following the primary, Cardona served as a surrogate for the Obama for America general election campaign.[citation needed]
CNN and present
In October 2011, Cardona joined the CNN Network[7] for the 2012 presidential election season as a political contributor, and was the first Latina Democratic contributor on CNN and the only person, at that time, to contribute to both CNN Domestic and CNN en Español.[8] "Having spent all of my professional career in communications, public policy, and politics, I'm thrilled to join CNN as a political contributor, especially as we are entering the excitement of the upcoming 2012 presidential election cycle," she said.[7] She continues to make appearances on CNN and CNN en Español and writes editorials speaking on a variety of national issues.[8]
Currently, Cardona sits as a board member of numerous organizations dedicated to Latino issues.[6] She serves on the board of directors for Hoops Sagrado,[9] a non-profit organization that provides learning and leadership opportunities to DC youth through a basketball exchange program in the highlands of Guatemala; New America Media,[10] the country's first and largest national collaboration and advocate of 3,000 ethnic news organizations; Citizenship Counts,[11] a non-profit organization dedicated to educating middle-school students on the responsibilities and civic duties of American citizens; PODER PAC,[12] the first political action committee that raises money for Latina candidates at all levels; the Friends of the National Museum of the American Latino,[13] an independent commission established to study the feasibility of creating a national museum dedicated to highlighting the contributions of American Latinos; and co-chairs inSPIRE STEM USA,[14] a coalition of businesses, education advocates and other national organizations supportive of a two-part plan to address immigration and workforce development needs and improve the country's STEM education pipeline.
She was named one of the nation's Top 50 Most Influential Latinos in 2012.[15]
Personal life
Cardona currently lives in Washington, D.C., with her husband, Bryan Weaver, and their two children.
References
- ^ a b c "Influentials Q&A: Maria Cardona - HispanicBusiness.com". Archived from the original on 2013-10-18. Retrieved 2013-12-13.
- ^ a b c d "The Arena: - Maria Cardona Bio". Politico.
- ^ a b c "Maria Cardona to Head NDN Media Relations - HispanicBusiness.com". www.hispanicbusiness.com. Archived from the original on 13 December 2013. Retrieved 22 May 2022.
- ^ "Maria Cardona". HuffPost.
- ^ "Friends of the National Museum of the American Latino: Maria Cardona". Friends of the National Museum of the American Latino. Archived from the original on 2013-11-18. Retrieved 2013-12-13.
- ^ a b Politic365 Staff (18 January 2013). "Maria Cardona".
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ a b c "Maria Cardona and David Frum Join CNN as Political Contributors – CNN Press Room - CNN.com Blogs". Archived from the original on 2013-12-13. Retrieved 2013-12-13.
- ^ a b "Maria Cardona: Wise Latina Mom & Political Operative". Mamiverse. 16 January 2012.
- ^ "About Hoops Sagrado".
- ^ "NAM Board of Directors - New America Media".
- ^ "Advisory - Citizenship Counts – Gerda Weissmann Klein".
- ^ "Board of Directors".
- ^ "Friends of the National Museum of the American Latino: About". Friends of the National Museum of the American Latino. Archived from the original on 2013-12-07. Retrieved 2013-12-13.
- ^ "Meet the Co-Chairs". inSPIRE STEM USA.
- ^ "2012 Influentials List - HispanicBusiness.com". Archived from the original on 2013-11-14. Retrieved 2013-12-13.
External links
- Dewey Square Profile
- Maria Cardona on X
- Appearances on C-SPAN
- v
- t
- e
and hosts
anchors and hosts
- W. Kamau Bell – United Shades of America
- Anderson Cooper – CNN Heroes
- Van Jones – The Messy Truth with Van Jones
- Meryl Streep – We Will Rise
- Fareed Zakaria – The Most Powerful Man in the World
- Christiane Amanpour
- John Berman
- Alisyn Camerota
- Elizabeth Cohen
- Daniel Dale
- Jeremy Diamond
- Stephanie Elam
- Tom Foreman
- Delia Gallagher
- Hadas Gold
- David Gregory
- Sanjay Gupta
- Paula Hancocks
- Nia-Malika Henderson
- Erica Hill
- Omar Jimenez
- Randi Kaye
- John King
- Kyung Lah
- MJ Lee
- Miguel Marquez
- Jeanne Moos
- Donie O'Sullivan
- Frederik Pleitgen
- Manu Raju
- Elle Reeve
- Paula Reid
- Sara Sidner
- Kayla Tausche
- Alayna Treene
- Nischelle Turner
- Clarissa Ward
- Bill Weir
- Jeff Zeleny
- John L. Allen Jr.
- Robert Baer
- Carl Bernstein
- Preet Bharara
- Joan Biskupic
- Gloria Borger
- Ron Brownstein
- Frank Bruni
- Josh Campbell
- S. E. Cupp
- Josh Dawsey
- John Dean
- Harry Enten
- David Gergen
- Bianna Golodryga
- Sanjay Gupta
- Maggie Haberman
- Mark Hertling
- Elie Honig
- Van Jones
- Juliette Kayyem
- John Kirby
- Errol Louis
- Anne Milgram
- Kirsten Powers
- Mark Preston
- Asha Rangappa
- Jennifer Rodgers
- Samantha Vinograd
- David Axelrod
- Paul Begala
- Peter Beinart
- Maria Cardona
- Amanda Carpenter
- Lanhee Chen
- S. E. Cupp
- Lanny Davis
- Josh Dawsey
- John Dean
- Charlie Dent
- Alan Dershowitz
- Brian Fallon
- Ben Ferguson
- David Frum
- Marc Lamont Hill
- Margaret Hoover
- Scott Jennings
- Jason Kander
- Sally Kohn
- Bill Kristol
- Jackie Kucinich
- Matt K. Lewis
- Wesley Lowery
- Kevin Madden
- Timothy Naftali
- Ana Navarro
- Christine Quinn
- Hilary Rosen
- Matthew Rosenberg
- Angela Rye
- Bakari Sellers
- Jonathan Tasini
- Andrew Yang
- Kate Abdo
- Cristina Alesci
- Natalie Allen
- Sharyl Attkisson
- Rudi Bakhtiar
- Brooke Baldwin
- Ashleigh Banfield
- Anthony Bourdain
- Dave Briggs
- Aaron Brown
- Campbell Brown
- Ana Cabrera
- Jack Cafferty
- Joie Chen
- Kiran Chetry
- Connie Chung
- Carol Costello
- Candy Crowley
- Chris Cuomo
- Lou Dobbs
- Poppy Harlow
- Tony Harris
- Michael Holmes
- George Howell
- D. L. Hughley
- Daryn Kagan
- Larry King
- Alison Kosik
- Don Lemon
- Roland Martin
- Reynelda Muse
- Piers Morgan
- Soledad O'Brien
- Michaela Pereira
- Kitty Pilgrim
- Thomas Roberts
- John Roberts
- Christine Romans
- Zoraida Sambolin
- Rick Sanchez
- Isha Sesay
- Bernard Shaw
- Brian Stelter
- Greta Van Susteren
- Jane Velez-Mitchell
- Ali Velshi
- Lou Waters
- Judy Woodruff
- Paula Zahn
- Katie Benner
- Mike Brooks
- Samuel Burke
- Sara Ganim
- Drew Griffin
- Kaylee Hartung
- Ed Henry
- John Harwood
- John Holliman
- Joe Johns
- Sam Kiley
- Andrea Koppel
- Michelle Kosinski
- Liz Landers
- Ian James Lee
- Sheila MacVicar
- Suzanne Malveaux
- Erin McPike
- Chloe Melas
- Ryan Nobles
- Miles O'Brien
- Lola Ogunnaike
- Keith Olbermann
- Ash-har Quraishi
- Christine Romans
- Martin Savidge
- Laurie Segall
- Farai Sevenzo
- Barbara Starr
- Adaora Udoji
- Jessica Yellin