GALA 2009: Honorees

Pillar Award for Civic Engagement

The Honorable Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL)
United States House of Representatives

Since Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen’s election in 1989 to the United States Congress, she has proudly represented Florida’s 18th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives.
Forced to flee with her family from the oppressive communist regime of Fidel Castro, she became the first Hispanic woman and first Cuban-American elected to Congress.

Understanding the issues facing South Florida, she was elected in 1982 to the Florida State House of Representatives, becoming the first Hispanic woman in that body. In 1986, she was elected to the Florida State Senate. While serving, she met and married fellow Florida legislator Dexter Lehtinen, who became the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida.

When the 18th congressional district seat was vacated by the passing of Rep. Claude Pepper in 1989, Ros-Lehtinen won the seat, and has been strongly returned to Congress since, winning 62 percent of the vote in 2006.

Throughout her life, Rep. Ros-Lehtinen has been dedicated to serving the community.  She completed her public education in Miami, graduated from Miami-Dade Community College, and earned a Bachelor of Arts in education from Florida International University.  She then founded and served as the principal and teacher of a private bilingual elementary school in Hialeah.  Her passion for education continued while completing a master’s in educational leadership at FIU, and she earned a doctorate of higher education from the University of Miami.

Rep. Ros-Lehtinen and her husband Dexter have two children, Amanda Michelle and Patricia Marie, and two step-children, Katharine and Douglas.

The Honorable Norm Dicks (D-WA)	His Excellency Welile Nhlapo	The Honorable Edward Rendell	The Honorable Fidel Herrera Beltrán

Gala Award Descriptions (pdf)

The Washington Center for Internships and Academic Seminars is an independent, non-profit educational organization founded in 1975.  Its mission is to prepare college and university students for civic leadership through experiential education.  In this way, The Washington Center seeks to promote future leadership for the private, public and nonprofit sectors of society.  It has served approximately 40,000 students from close to 1,000 colleges and universities located in the United States and around the world.  For additional information, please visit our website at www.twc.edu.