Advancing Social Justice Through Government Supplier Diversity
Caltrans
Sponsored by Presented by
Dream Big About
Dream Big brings together entrepreneurs, government executives, diverse leaders and advocates to discuss ways to advance racial justice through government small business programs that close the income inequality gap.
Dream Big is sponsored by the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) and the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD) whose aim is to work with more minority small businesses.
Forum co-hosts include the Los Angeles Latino Chamber of Commerce, Los Angeles African American Chamber of Commerce, Southern California Minority Supplier Development Council, Construction Contractors Alliance and Latino Coalition for Health Equity.
Dream Big is presented by LAVA and hosted by MWD Headquarters.
Program and Participants will learn how government contracting helps entrepreneurs and business executives close the income inequality gap.
9:30 10:00
am am
Schedule
10:20 11:00 11:30 Noon
Registration
Continental Breakfast
Welcoming Remarks
John Arena, MWD
Michael Aguillio, Caltrans
Luis Vasquez-Ajmac, LAVA
Angela Gibson, GLAAACC
Darrel Sauceda, LALCC
Virginia Gomez, SCMSDC
Jacqueline Pruitt, CCA
Dr. Dan Turner-Lloveras, LCHE
am am am
Panel Discussion
Q & A
Networking
The End
Speakers Panel
Dream Big will feature these panel speakers:
David DeLuz
Caltrans’ Deputy Director of Civil Rights.
David DeLuz is the Caltrans Deputy Director for Civil Rights. David is responsible for leading the Title VI, Disadvantaged Business Enterprise, Disabled Veteran Business Enterprise, Small Business, and External Equal Employment Opportunity programs. The programs include Supportive Services and Outreach, Certification, Contract Compliance, and the American Disabilities Act Infrastructure Program.
David has over 20 years of executive leadership, policy and program management experience as a chief executive, and senior leader in government and non-profit organizations. He also is a recognized thought leader in diversity, equity and inclusion, having led civil rights and social justice organizations and campaigns to empower communities and change lives.
Liji Thomas
Metropolitan Water District’s Chief Diversity, Equity & Inclusion O icer.
Liji began her career lobbying on Capitol Hill for an increase in housing for low-income women and children. In 2005, Liji joined Countrywide as a Project Manager and quickly rose through the ranks to become Assistant Vice President of Compliance and Risk Management. In this role, she oversaw compliance and risk assessment in Countrywide’s o shore operations and authored Countrywide’s Model for O shore Compliance, a cross functional, global, risk-based approach to the company’s compliance e orts. In 2008, Liji joined the Internal Audit.
Department of Southwest Airlines. During her time in Internal Audit, Liji led the company’s first Capitalization of Labor Audit and published an article advancing thought leadership in the space in the 2010 issue of Internal Auditor magazine. She then assumed a role as Manager of Business Strategy, implementing new business initiatives impacting over 3,600 individuals. These initiatives included strategies to increase revenue, improve customer experience and realize process e iciencies. In the first six months of 2012, Liji impacted revenue generation in excess of $40 million. As a testament to her leadership, Liji Thomas was shoulder-tapped to help build diversity and inclusion e orts for Southwest Airlines. In this role, she informed all aspects of diversity and inclusion for the nations' largest domestic airline and helped align Southwest Airlines culture with an award-winning diversity and inclusion strategy. Liji then led diversity and inclusion e orts for both Southern California Edison, an investor-owned public utility, as well as Beautycounter, a high growth clean beauty and cosmetics company, before being named the inaugural Chief Diversity, Equity & Inclusion O icer for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, the largest supplier of treated water in the United States, responsible for delivering water to 19 million residents across Southern California. In her current role, Liji oversees workforce development e orts, business outreach, community engagement and the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Council, consisting of representation from ten (10) employee resource groups and five (5) labor unions, and seeks to strengthen the organization’s commitment to equity and inclusion across all stakeholder groups.
Tasha Higgins MBA, PE, PMP Port of Long Beach’s Director, Program Management Division.
Tasha Higgins, MBA, PE, PMP, is Director of the Program Management Division in the Port of Long Beach Engineering Services Bureau, named to the post in March 2022, having served as Assistant Director since October 2020.
The Program Management Division oversees the Port’s capital improvement program, which includes dredging, wharf, terminal, building, railroad, bridge safety, roadway and utility projects, and Ms. Higgins has made a significant impact to the division’s implementation of quantitative risk assessments, as well as helping to improve small business participation on contracts within the Engineering Services Bureau.
Her three decades of experience include posts with Long Beach Transit, the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), Los Angeles County Metro, City of Los Angeles World Airports, Arcadis and others.
Ms. Higgins earned a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering in 1993 from the Henry Samueli School of Engineering at the University of California, Irvine, going on to obtain a Master of Business Administration degree with highest honors from the Cromwell School of Business at Biola University in 2017. She is a board-certified Civil Engineer with the state of California and a certified Project Management Professional. Ms. Higgins is also a member of the Leadership Long Beach class of 2022.
Moctesuma Esparza
Legendary filmmaker and board member of the Los Angeles Latino Chamber of Commerce.
Moctesuma Esparza, an award-winning filmmaker, producer, entrepreneur and activist, is revered for his contributions to the movie industry and commitment to Latinos.
Esparza established Maya Cinemas, a chain of modern movie theatre complexes with the focus on providing main stream entertainment in Latino centric underserved communities. A few of his production credits include: Selena, Introducing Dorothy Dandridge (HBO), The Milagro Beanfield War, Gettysburg, The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez, and Walkout (HBO). Esparza founded the Los Angeles Academy of Arts and Enterprise Charter School, is Co-Founder of NALIP, Co-Founder and former Chair of the NAA, and is a Founding Board Member of the Sundance Institute.
He has served the City of Los Angeles as a Commissioner to the Los Angeles City Employees’ Retirement System and was also appointed by U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to the planning commission of the National Museum of the American Latino. He is also a trustee of the American Film Institute.
He has been nominated for an Academy Award, Golden Globe and Emmy and has been awarded over 200 honors and awards including an Emmy, Clio, John F. Kennedy Journalism Award, Ohio State Award, Cine Golden Eagle and The EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award for the Los Angeles Region as well as being listed as one the most influential Latinos in the US consistently for over three decades.
Christopher Earl Assistant Deputy Director, CalOSBA
Christopher Earl, appointed as Assistant Deputy Director for the O ice of the Small Business Advocate at the Governor’s O ice of Business and Economic Development in December 2022. Earl was previously appointed as Southern California Regional Advisor at the Governor’s O ice of Business and Economic Development since 2020. Previously, Christopher served as Executive Director of Economic Development and Entrepreneurship at the Riverside Community College District, where he held several other positions from 2012 to 2020, including the Statewide Director of the Federal and State Technology (FAST) Partnership Program, District Director of the O ice of Grants and Contracts, Assistant Director of TriTech Small Business Development Center serving the Southern California Region. Christopher started out his career with the Department of Transportation (DOT) serving as a Civil Engineer/State Inspector on Federal Highway and Bridge construction.
Christopher has an undergraduate degree in Civil Engineering from South Carolina State University and post-graduate degree in Technology Transfer and Commercialization as part of the Integrated Technology Transfer Network (ITTN) fellowship program at California State University San Bernardino in partnership with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU), the Department of the Navy (DoN), and the Army Research Lab (ARL) (Aberdeen, MD). Additionally, Christopher’s graduate studies was focused on Entrepreneurial Management and Marketing at California State University San Bernardino.
Gabriela TeissierJournalist, radio personality and news anchor, Univision’s KMEX, Los Angeles’ morning news
LA Press Club "Best News Anchor" Gabriela Teissier is a journalist, writer and radio personality who serves as news anchor and host of Univision LA's morning news at 5A and 6A.
She has been recognized by the Mexican government for empowering the lives of Mexican nationals and by the California Senate for her contributions to the betterment of her community. She is passionate about reporting environmental, educational and social issues.
Teissier has served on the board of the American Heart Association and the board of directors of Autism Care Today, a non-profit organization that provides therapy and services for people and families living with Autism.
She was born and raised in Mexico City where she learned German and English, and moved to the United States in the early 90's. She lives in Southern California with her two sons.
Mil gracias and much appreciation to all Dream Big sponsors, partners and teammates for making the first “Dream Big” Small Business Inclusion Forum a success—LAVA Force.
We are now planning our next Dream Big event. For sponsorships, partnerships and media interest, contact Luis Vasquez-Ajmac at luis@LAVALosAngeles.co or 310-421-6479
