On Tuesday night, May 15th, I had the privilege to present Hilda Rosario Escher, president and CEO of Ibero American Action League, with a New York State Women of Distinction Award. As President and CEO, she is the voice of the Rochester Hispanic Community. Hilda focuses her efforts on strategic planning, developing leaders in her organization and being a change agent leading innovation. Since 1968 Ibero-American Action League has taken a leadership role in nurturing partnerships, services, and advocacy among the community to meet the needs of the Latinos in the Rochester area. Hilda has an extensive background in Human Services including: developmental disabilities, foster care, adoption, day care and employment and training services. She increased services substantially for the developmentally disabled in the inner city of Rochester. Hilda was able to grow this division to 5 million dollars by focusing on infrastructure improvement. While in the foster care program, she was able to decrease the child’s length of stay in foster care, and implemented the model approach to “Partnership in Parenting” training for foster parents.