IN THIS FORUM

Moderator

The Honorable Judge Charles E. Williams (12th Judicial Circuit) was raised in St. Petersburg, Florida, graduated from Howard University and the University of Florida School of Law. He serves on the Board of the Community Foundation of Sarasota County, the Boxser Diversity Initiative, the Sarasota African American Cultural Coalition, and many other local organizations. He was awarded the Community Service Award from the Manatee Bar Association, the Manatee County NAACP-Public Service Award, and the 15th Annual Edgar H. Price, Jr. Humanitarian Award.

Panelists

Mercedes Soler is the co-owner of Solmart Media, a Spanish radio and digital media company in Sarasota with seven radio stations reaching an audience of over 1,500.000 listeners. She spent 30 years as a Spanish language international correspondent with Univision, an anchor for CNN Español and columnist for El Nuevo Herald. She taught journalism to international Spanish language students at University of Miami and coached media and press strategies to U.S. diplomats based in Latin America, as a subcontractor for the State Department. Mercedes sits on the Board of the Community Foundation of Sarasota County, The John and Mabel Ringling Museum, is a member of the Advisory Committee of ISLAC, University of South Florida's Institute for the Study of Latin America and the Caribbean and a member of the International Women's Forum, She’s the recipient of 5 Emmy Awards, 1 Peabody and 1 GLAAD awards, among other accolades. Her favorite title is that of mom, to an outstanding young woman who works for Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors in NYC and a son who is completing a law degree at De Paul University in Chicago.