Maria del Carmen Ferrer | 2024 Latina of Influence
Hispanic Lifestyle is pleased to honor Executive Director of Las Comadres Para Las Americas and the Las Comadres & Friends National Latino Book Club, Maria del Carmen Ferrer Lopez as a Latina of Influence. Ms. Ferrer will be recognized for her leadership in our community during Hispanic Lifestyle’s Connecting Latinas of Influence | Bronx, New York to be held on September 24, 2024.
Maria del Carmen Ferrer Lopez is Executive Director of Las Comadres Para Las Americas and the Las Comadres & Friends National Latino Book Club. She is also a Board Member of Latinx in Publishing LLC; a Judge for The International Latino Book Awards (ILBA); Past President of the Romance Writers of America / New York City, Inc.; and Founder of The Latina Book Club.
Maria joined Las Comadres Para Las Americas in 2006 and immediately felt at home. She found a group of strong, like-minded Latina women who came together in sisterhood and community. Maria was an integral part of the Comadres & Compadres Writers Conferences held in New York City and launched the Las Comadres book club in New York City. The Las Comadres & Friends National Latino Book Club celebrates its 17th Anniversary this year and has become an internationally renowned book club with monthly book selections, teleconferences with live author interviews, and a popular Summer Reading List. The teleconferences are videotaped and posted to the Las Comadres YouTube Channel for posterity.
Maria was named Director of Las Comadres Para Las Americas in 2021, and Executive Director in 2023. In the past three years, she has launched the Latinas Speaker series, an Entrepreneur Club, a Marketplace Directory, Las Comadres Kitchen and a Mind, Body, and Spirit series. There is also a monthly Members’ Accomplishments List and coming soon a Comadres Authors Database. Maria has also produced and organized two virtual Worldwide Comadrazos whose keynote speakers have included the legendary Dolores Huerta and Nellie Gorbea, former Rhode Island Secretary of State. Maria (2025) is working on a Live Worldwide Comadrazo for next year to celebrate Las Comadres 25th Anniversary. After the mandated seclusions caused by Covid-19, Maria’s goal is to re-connect all Comadre Facilitators worldwide and form a cohesive, multifunctional, multigenerational group of Latina Leaders to serve all members and their communities.
Maria is a Board Member of Latinx in Publishing, a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to increase the number of Latine in the publishing industry, and promote literature by, for, and about Latine people. Maria has organized speaker panels for the annual Brooklyn Book Festival and the New York Public Library. And, she continues to judge at the annual International Latino Book Awards (ILBA).
She founded The Latina Book Club known for its Book Cover Friday features. Maria was also Past President of the Romance Writers of America / New York City, Inc., and served on the National RWA Board as Regional Director and Contest Chairperson. She was recognized and awarded three Service Medals. (RWA is an international organization representing 10,000+ romance authors around the world.) Yes, Maria is a published romance author with short stories published in Cosmopolitan for Latinas and Penthouse.)
When not working on any of the above, Maria is a professional meeting planner with over 20+ years’ experience in organizing conferences, events, and exhibitions around the globe often with political figures like U.S. Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev, Former U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and Former Prime Minister of New Zealand Dame Jacinda Ardern.
Maria is a native New Yorker, and enjoys writing, reading, photography and painting
