HL | Milestone Series – Honors Rocio Medina van Nierop

HL | Milestone Series – Honors Rocio Medina van Nierop

Jun 6, 2026 | Milestone

HL | Milestone Series – Honors Rocio Medina van Nierop

Purpose • Influence • Courage

When Rocio Medina van Nierop co-founded Latinas in Tech in 2014, she set out to create opportunities for Latina professionals in an industry where representation at leadership levels remained limited. What began as a vision to support and connect Latina women in technology has since evolved into a global movement that has impacted more than 40,000 women through mentorship, professional development, leadership training, and career advancement opportunities.

For more than two decades, Rocio has combined innovation, leadership, and advocacy to help create pathways for future generations of Latina professionals. Her journey reflects the power of purpose-driven leadership and a commitment to ensuring that talent, opportunity, and representation intersect in meaningful ways.

Rocio Medina van Nieropwill be recognized during  our HL | Milestone Series – Silicon Valley event, taking place on June 17, 2026. This invitation-only reception brings together a curated audience of executives, entrepreneurs, and community leaders for an evening of connection, conversation, and recognition.

👉 Event details & RSVP: https://bit.ly/41B5Z3J

Throughout her career, Rocio has demonstrated that leadership extends beyond personal achievement. Prior to leading Latinas in Tech full-time as Chief Executive Officer, she held leadership positions within the technology sector, including serving as Director of Product Marketing at Prezi. In 2019, she made the decision to leave her corporate career and dedicate herself fully to expanding the impact of Latinas in Tech.

Her influence extends well beyond the technology industry. As founder of the Sierra Viva Project, she championed environmental conservation, scientific research, and community sustainability initiatives. Today, she continues to serve nonprofit organizations through governance and advisory leadership, helping organizations create meaningful impact while advancing causes that improve lives and strengthen communities.

A Journey Shared with Courage and Transparency

What makes Rocio’s story especially powerful is her willingness to openly share both her professional accomplishments and her personal challenges.

Through her website, “My Journey with Cancer,” Rocio offers an honest and deeply personal look at her experience navigating cancer treatment, recovery, and resilience. Rather than stepping away from leadership, she has chosen to use her voice to inspire others facing their own challenges while documenting the realities of balancing health, purpose, family, and community.

The site serves as both a personal journal and a source of encouragement for others, reflecting the same spirit of service and advocacy that has defined her professional career.

Explore Rocio’s Journey:
👉 https://rociomedina.com

“Life’s most meaningful milestones are often measured not by the obstacles we avoid, but by the strength, grace, and determination we demonstrate while moving through them.”

Milestone Moments

  • Co-founded Latinas in Tech and helped grow it into a global network serving more than 40,000 women.
  • Led one of the most influential organizations dedicated to advancing Latina representation and leadership in technology.
  • Transitioned from a successful corporate technology career to focus full-time on mission-driven community leadership.
  • Founded Sierra Viva Project, supporting conservation, scientific research, and sustainable community initiatives.
  • Served in leadership and advisory roles across nonprofit and technology organizations.
  • Represented Hispanic leadership on international stages, including participation in discussions surrounding the World Economic Forum in Davos.
  • Featured speaker at SXSW, TEDx, Dreamforce, L’Attitude, and other global leadership forums.
  • Earned national and international recognition for advancing opportunities for women and Latinas in technology.
  • Honored for her leadership in mentorship, innovation, community impact, and professional development.
  • Recognized as a changemaker helping shape the future of leadership and representation in the United States.
  • Continues to inspire communities through advocacy, nonprofit leadership, and her public journey of resilience and hope.

Today, Rocio’s story represents more than professional accomplishment. It reflects the impact that one leader can have when she chooses to create opportunities for others. Through her work, thousands of women have gained access to mentorship, leadership development, professional networks, and the confidence to pursue careers and executive roles within the technology industry.

Her current journey has added another chapter to that legacy one defined by resilience, courage, and an unwavering commitment to helping others. Even while navigating personal challenges, Rocio continues to inspire communities around the world through her advocacy, leadership, and willingness to share her experiences openly and authentically.

Rocio Medina van Nierop’s legacy is measured not only by the organization she helped build, but by the thousands of lives she has touched, empowered, and inspired along the way.

The HL | Milestone Series is a national platform designed to celebrate leadership across business, community, education, and innovation.

The 2026 HL | Milestone Series is made possible through the support of Wells Fargo, the series’ funding partner, whose commitment to community engagement and financial empowerment helps bring these important conversations and recognitions to life.

Aspiration & Affluence

Aspiration & Affluence

Feb 25, 2026 | Money, Finances & Wealth

Aspiration & Affluence

A Closer Look at Latinas Defining Wealth in the U.S.

There is a quiet shift underway.

Across the United States, Latinas are moving beyond conversations about participation and potential. They are building assets, strengthening balance sheets, leading organizations, investing in property, prioritizing health, and thinking generationally. The narrative is evolving from earning to ownership, from visibility to influence.

This March, during Women’s History Month, HL | Culture & Influence will launch an ongoing documentary-style series titled:

Aspiration and Affluence: A Closer Look at Latinas Defining Wealth in the U.S.

This series will examine how Latinas are redefining what wealth means—not as status or spectacle, but as agency, stewardship, and long-term strategy.

Why This Series Now

The U.S. Hispanic market generates more than $3 trillion in annual economic output. Behind those numbers are women executives, entrepreneurs, professionals, investors, and community leaders who are shaping financial futures with discipline and intention.

For years, our editorial lens has highlighted leadership and enterprise. In this next chapter, we take the conversation further: how financial confidence changes decision-making; how career progression becomes asset-building; how aspiration matures into affluence with purpose.

This is not about consumption. It is about clarity.

What We Will Explore

Each installment will approach wealth-building through lived experience and data, examining:

  • From Ambition to Assets: The transition from income to ownership

  • Financial Literacy & Strategy: Investing, retirement planning, and risk management

  • Home & Real Estate: Property as foundation and legacy

  • Career & Equity: Leadership, negotiation, and enterprise value

  • Health & Longevity: Protecting the asset that makes everything possible

  • Presentation & Presence: How confidence and refinement evolve over time

  • Mobility & Lifestyle Choices: Decisions that reflect alignment, not impulse

  • Intergenerational Planning: Teaching wealth with intention

Our aim is to present a measured, research-informed look at affluence as a reflection of maturity and influence—how wealth is earned, how it is managed, and how it is passed forward.

A Documentary Lens with Purpose

In keeping with HL’s commitment to clarity and credibility, this series will pair real stories with current research, industry insight, and thoughtful analysis. We will profile women across sectors and geographies, explore patterns and progress, and ask the harder questions about access, responsibility, and legacy.

Women’s History Month is a meaningful starting point not only to celebrate achievement, but to examine the structural shifts shaping the next generation.

This is more than a theme.
It is a reflection of where we are and where we are going.

Aspiration and Affluence begins this March on Hispaniclifestyle.com.

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HL | Latinas of Influence — Legacy Project

HL | Latinas of Influence — Legacy Project

Jan 26, 2026 | Connecting Latinas of Influence, Latinas of Influence

HL | Latinas of Influence — Legacy Project

For more than three decades, Hispanic Lifestyle has been committed to recognizing the women whose leadership, resilience, and influence have shaped business, culture, and community across the United States. Through this ongoing work, nearly 500 Latinas have been honored each story contributing to a powerful and growing narrative of impact.

Today, that legacy enters a new chapter.

Introducing the HL | Latinas of Influence — Legacy Project

The HL | Latinas of Influence — Legacy Project is a reimagined, living platform designed to preserve, elevate, and expand the stories of Latina leaders whose influence continues to shape our communities and inspire future generations.

This is more than a recognition program. It is an evolving archive of leadership, excellence, and lived experience.

Through updated digital profiles, new editorial features, video storytelling, and national distribution, the Legacy Project ensures that the voices of Latinas past honorees and future trailblazers alike remain visible, relevant, and impactful.

Support the Latinas of Influence | Legacy Project and help preserve and elevate the stories of Latina leaders shaping business, culture, and community. Your sponsorship creates lasting impact and year-round visibility.

Nomination - Update Form

“For more than 30 years, HL has had the privilege of telling the stories of extraordinary Latinas whose leadership has shaped our communities. The Legacy Project ensures these stories don’t fade with time. Instead, they live on, documented, accessible, and positioned to inspire the next generation of leaders.”

Richard Sandoval

Founder, President, Hispanic Lifestyle

Why the Legacy Project Matters Now

Latinas are among the fastest-growing and most influential contributors to the U.S. economy, culture, and civic life. Yet their achievements are still too often underrepresented or under-documented.

The Legacy Project addresses that gap by:

  • Preserving legacy through verified digital profiles and editorial features
  • Amplifying influence via national content distribution and social platforms
  • Connecting generations of leaders, mentors, and emerging voices
  • Creating ongoing visibility, not one-time recognition

As Sandoval notes, “Legacy is not about a single moment of recognition it’s about sustained visibility and continued relevance. Our responsibility is to make sure these stories remain part of the cultural record.”

What the Legacy Project Includes

Each Legacy Project profile may include:

  • An updated leadership biography and professional highlights
  • Editorial features aligned with HL’s Culture & Influence coverage
  • Optional short-form video storytelling
  • A Legacy Project digital badge for professional and social use
  • Ongoing visibility through HL platforms and special editorial moments, including Women’s History Month

Together, these elements create a permanent digital footprint that honors where these women have been—and where their influence continues to grow.

A Platform Built on Trust

For more than three decades, HL has served as a trusted voice in the community recognized for thoughtful editorial standards, authentic storytelling, and meaningful relationships.

The Latinas of Influence — Legacy Project builds on that foundation, offering a platform where recognition evolves into long-term visibility, credibility, and connection.

Join the Legacy

The HL | Latinas of Influence — Legacy Project invites past honorees, partners, and supporters to participate in this next chapter ensuring that the stories of Latina leadership are not only remembered, but continuously shared.

Because legacy is not static. It is lived, shaped, and passed forward.

HL | Latinas of Influence – Update Form

EXCLUSIVE PHOTOS 

2024 Connecting Latinas of Influence | Los Angeles

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