Dorothy Lenore Llariza-Tome is outgoing President of the UP Alumni Association in Nevada. She is a student and facilitator of A Course in Miracles and the Enneagram, certified Law of Attraction Life Coach, podcast co-host in PHLV radio, co-author of two books on self-healing and community connection. Dot taught in a Montessori preschool for 14 years and was a Steiner-Waldorf parent for seven years before coming to Las Vegas.

Dot holds a master’s degree in Education, major in Teaching English as Second Language, and a Bachelor’s degree in Humanities major in Comparative Literature and Broadcast Communication from UP Visayas. She also completed certifications in U Theory from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Science of Well-Being from Yale University.

Daisy M. Rodriguez is the current president of UPAAA, Inc. 2020-2021. Ms. Rodriguez is a nurse educator, author and organizational leader in several local and national organizations of Philippine nurses. She is a published author of three books and book chapter co-author of two others. In her work as organizational leader, she has generated support from the community of various charitable and social advocacy projects that benefited the community at large and the University of the Philippines.

Daisy holds three degrees from UP: Graduate in Nursing from UP-PGH School of Nursing (1965), Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the College of Nursing (1969), and Master in Nursing, College of Nursing (1971). Additionally, she holds a second masters degree in Public Administration/Health Services from the University of San Francisco, California. She also received a Mini-Fellowship in Ethnogeriatrics from the Stanford Geriatric Education Center, Stanford University, California. During her career as an educator in the US, she held faculty positions in three nursing programs at the University of California San Francisco, San Francisco State University, and Unitek College.

Maria Leonor “Leni” Gerona Robredo is the 14th Vice President of the Republic of the Philippines. As a human rights lawyer, she dedicated her life to public service, representing those who have no means of defending themselves. Months after the death of her husband Secretary Jesse M. Robredo in 2012, she was urged by the people of the Third District of Camarines Sur to run as their representative in the House of Representatives. She ran, won the congressional seat in 2013 by a landslide, and served for one term as District Representative before vying for the Vice Presidency in the 2016 elections.

As Representative, VP Leni worked with fellow lawmakers to pass seven bills into law. Some of these were the Graphic Health Warnings Act, Sangguniang Kabataan Reform Act of 2015, and Open Highschool System Act. She was the Vice Chairman of the Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability and the Committee on Revision of Laws; a member of the Committees on Appropriations, Bicol Recovery and Economic Development, Climate Change, Human Rights, Land Use, Local Government, People’s Participation, Rural Development, Suffrage and Electoral Reforms, Welfare of Children, and Women and Gender Equality where she actively lobbied for bills in favor of her advocacies.

As Vice President, she introduced two major programs: Angat Buhay, geared towards raising the quality of life of every Filipino family whose five key advocacy areas are nutrition and food security, universal healthcare, education, rural development, and women empowerment; and Istorya ng Pag-asa that aims to spread hope and positivity by featuring extraordinary stories of ordinary Filipinos through words and portraits shown at events, exhibits, and social media.

Elzar Simon, or Dodjie to friends, graduated from the UP College of Engineering in Diliman with a degree in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research in 1985, and has since gained over 35 years of global Information Technology leadership experience in various industries including finance, government, IT services, transportation and logistics, healthcare, and higher education. He is currently Senior IT Director of Global Infrastructure for the largest private global university based in New York City.

Elzar is an author of two books on artificial intelligence, AI Hacked and AI Hacked 2, which are endorsed by PhDs from Harvard and MIT, as well as IT leaders in UK and Australia. AI Hacked is listed in the “Top 100 AI Books of All Time” by an independent global book curator organization, BookAuthority.org.

Elzar is a recipient of two prestigious awards from UP: Global Achievement Award in Information Technology from the UP Alumni Engineers, and Distinguished Alumnus in Information Technology Award from the UP Industrial Engineering Alumni Association. As a way of giving back to his beloved Alma Mater, Elzar has established the Elzar Lorenzana Simon Professorial Chair in Artificial Intelligence at the UP College of Engineering in Diliman.

Yobie Benjamin is a successful entrepreneur, futurist, speaker, and an internationally-recognized expert on unleashing innovation and creating hyper-growth. He advises leaders on how to thrive in today’s digital era of disruptive technological change.

Yobie was named a 2015 Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum for his technology achievements in virtual reality and is an active member of the World Economic Forum’s Expert Network. Two companies that he co-founded won a 2014 CNN Top 10 Technology Products awards - Avegant Glyph and Skully Systems AR1 Helmet.

Currently, Yobie serves as Innovation Fellow at 4iNNO, working on product innovation with multinational corporations. He is the founder and CTO Emeritus of Token.io, providing software to banks that enables them to issue a payment type designed specifically for use in the digital era. He is a member of the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank Faster Payments Task Force and senior advisor to several startups in the technology, blockchain and synthetic biology space.

Yobie is former Global Chief Technology Officer for Citibank's Global Transaction Services which is responsible for global money flows of $3 to $9 trillion per day. He served as Chairman of Citi’s Research Development Innovation & Learning Center, as Partner and Chief of Global Strategy at Ernst & Young, as Partner and Managing Director for Computer Sciences Corporation’s Business and Technology Risk Management division, and former chair for 10 years for a civilian volunteer group, NASA AMES Collaboration Labs.

Yobie’s book, Tribes of the Valley, chronicles the different power tribes and groups in Silicon Valley. (yobie.com)

Winston C. Umali, M.D., F.A.A.P. is UPAAA’s Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee and Co-chair of the Sponsorship Committee for the UPAAA GRC 2021. Besides serving concurrently as President of the Handang Tumulong Foundation, Inc. and Vice Chairman of the Board of Governors of the University of the Philippines Medical Alumni Society in America, he is also an avid marathoner and a busy pediatrician in solo private practice in Jersey City, New Jersey. He was one of 2019’s UPAAA Distinguished Alumni Awardees in Pediatrics.

Winston graduated cum laude in BS Psychology from UP Diliman in 1988, and obtained his medical degree from the College of Medicine of UP Manila in 1994.

Nathalie “Nannette” Bernabe Quion, MD MPH FAAP, has been a pediatrician in Washington DC for the past 20 years. She is the Medical Director of the Children’s National at Columbia Heights, attending Children’s National Hospital, Assistant Professor at George Washington University, current President of the Philippine Medical Association Washington DC, leader and advocate for Immigrant Child Health, American Academy of Pediatrics, columnist for Raising Juan, Founder and Chair of UERM Young Alumni Development Program, mother of five, and wife to Dr. Jun Anthony Quion.

Nannette obtained her degrees from various universities: BS Zoology, UP Diliman; Doctor of Medicine, UERM; General Pediatrics, University of Texas Health Sciences; Masters of Public Health, University of Massachusetts; and Master Teacher-and Leadership Program, George Washington University

Jazmin Gaite and all her seven sisters finished grade school and high school at St. Paul College of Manila. Then she headed to the University of the Philippines in 1968 where she pursued a degree in Bachelor of Arts, majoring in Political Science, and finished in 1972. She headed straight to law school in 1972 and graduated in 1976. She took the bar exams in November 1972 and became a full member of the Philippine Bar in 1977. Jazmin practiced law in the Philippines for 10 years and left in 1986 during the height of political turmoil in the Philippines.

Together with her three children, Jazmin settled in Los Angeles, USA where she started operating residential care facilities for the elderly in 1986. She is ready to transition to retirement at the end of the year after 35 years in the retirement home industry.

Daisy Briones Macadaeg graduated from UP in 1986 with a degree of Bachelor of Science in Nursing. She was in the top 20 of the Philippine Board Exam in Nursing which was released in the same year she graduated. After graduation, Daisy worked as a staff nurse at the Philippine General Hospital Medical Ward and Intensive Care Unit. She migrated to the US in 1989 and started working at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center where she still works to this day. She is currenting in the Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit, specializing in open heart surgeries.

Daisy is a mother of three young men, two of whom graduated from college and the youngest is a college freshman at the Steven Institute of Technology in New Jersey.

Currently, Daisy is UPAAA’s Regional Vice President for the East and secretary of UPAA-NJ Chapter. She is also a board member of the Handang Tumulong Foundation Inc. Her advocacy in life is to help others, especially underprivileged children and students.

Jesusa “Jessie” R. Wolgamotti is a Speech-Language Pathologist with 33 years of clinical and teaching experience, specializing in pediatric speech-language pathology, and has been working in Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) for 16 years. She has assumed several leadership roles within the Communication Disorders Department at FCPS since she started working there. Jessie’s clinical interest and expertise include developmental delays, autism, intellectual disability, specific learning disability, speech sound production, stuttering, language and literacy, and Augmentative and Alternative Communication.

Jessie founded the Communicare Therapy Center for Children in Paranaque in 1994 after working for two private schools. She enjoyed teaching undergraduate and graduate students, as well as supervising interns at the UP Manila College of Allied Medical Professions.
Jessie completed her Master in Health Professions Education in UP Manila, and her Master of Science in Speech-Language Pathology at the California State East Bay. She is a founding member of the Philippine Association of Speech Pathologists, and was its third president

Carolina Esguerra Colborn worked for Philippine pioneering Information Technology companies before she retired and migrated to the US in 2004. While teaching at universities in Seattle, she met and married Bill and they cruised North America full-time in an RV for eight years. Now, she maintains a blog, Cruising Past 70, and writes bi-monthly for the online magazine Travel Awaits while they travel the world. Carol published her first travel book in 2015, Carolina: Cruising to an American Dream, and five years later its sequel, Cruising Past Seventy: It’s Not Only about Outer Journeys. It’s Also about Inner Ones.

Carol has degrees of BS Math (1971), MBA (1982), and Doctorate in Public Administration (all but dissertation, 2003) from UP Diliman.

Eric C. Elnar, Trade Commissioner, arrived in Los Angeles last July 2019 and currently heads the Philippine Trade and Investment Center in Los Angeles (PTIC-LA), an attached agency to the Philippine Consulate General in Los Angeles. This is his fourth overseas assignment with the Department of Trade and Industry after being posted in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Bangkok, Thailand, and Dubai, UAE. PTIC-LA is mandated to promote export products and services from the Philippines as well as encourage investments from the Southwestern corner of the US.

Eric received his BA Communication Research degree in 1998 from the UP Diliman College of Mass Communication. He is joined in LA by his wife, Rachelle, and his two sons, Mark and Nathaniel.

Armi Evangel Nuval Peña (“LabAtt Armi” for short), is a graduate of Bachelor of Arts in History in UP Diliman (2004) and Master of Arts in Islamic Studies (2008). She served as professor of History from 2004-2013 in UP Los Baños, UP Manila, and De La Salle University. She headed the Division of History in UPLB from 2008-2010. She was also appointed as Chief of Research, Publication, and Heraldry Division of the National Historical Commission of the Philippines in 2012.

From 2015-2017, Armi was called on a mission by the Philippine Department of National Defense to lead the retrieval and digitization of documents about World War II in the Philippines stored in the US Archives in Washington DC and Maryland. In 2018, she was appointed as Labor Attaché by Department of Labor and Employment Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III. In August 2019, she pioneered and headed the setting up of the Philippine Overseas Labor Office at Los Angeles, USA and put up systems and work procedures for the newly-established Post.

Gilbert F. Santa Maria has three decades of executive management experience leading multiple companies worldwide. He is currently President and COO of Filipino flag carrier Philippine Airlines which he joined in 2019, published author, and executive coach.

Gilbert has been a key contributor to the success of the Philippines’ BPO industry since the 2000’s: COO of US-based Ibex, Operations Executive of Ayala Corporation’s LiveIt Investments, COO of LiveIt’s investee companies, CFO and board member of US-based IQ BackOffice, board member of UK-based Integreon and US-based Stream (now part of Concentrix), and held corporate development/m&a and various operating roles for Stream and the US-based start-up eTelecare Global Solutions before it merged with Stream in 2009.

Gilbert served as COO for Singapore-based tech startup Similan.com; was the first Executive Director of Manila-based Private Equity firm Argosy Partners; was one of the youngest General Managers of Pepsi Cola Products Philippines’ Manila Operations; was management consultant at Booz Allen & Hamilton in New York; and started his career as management trainee at Unilever/PRC in Manila.

Born and raised in Mindanao, Gilbert holds a master’s degree in Public and Private Management from the Yale University School of Management and a BS in Electrical Engineering from UP. He is married to Dr. Denise Lopez, a Professor of Organizational Psychology at Alliant International University in Los Angeles. They have two grown sons and a very large dog at their home in Arcadia, California. Gilbert currently resides in Manila but is let out to visit his family from time to time.

Arman Talbo is a CPA-lawyer and is currently Deputy Consul General in New York, as well as Manager of the Philippine Center in New York. He is a career diplomat with more than 15 years of experience in the Philippine foreign service. For his accomplishments in the foreign service, he was awarded the Gawad Mabini (Rank of Dakilang Kasugo) and the Presidential Medal of Merit.

Arman finished his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and Accountancy and his Bachelor of Laws in UP Diliman, Quezon City. He was the Lord Chancellor of the Alpha Phi Beta Fraternity.

Jeanette L. Yasol-Naval, PhD., is Professor at the Department of Philosophy, College of Social Sciences and Philosophy (CSSP), University of the Philippines, Diliman. She has served as the Chairperson of the Department of Philosophy and is currently the Director of the UP Padayon Public Service Office under the Office of the Vice President for Public Affairs, UP System. She has just completed two Postdoctoral Fellowships at Kobe University, Japan where she worked on her areas of research and specialization in Environmental Ethics and Philosophy of Food. Her most current scholarship was published in the book, Medicine and Ethics in Times of Corona, 2020.

Jeanette earned her MA in Philosophy (1994) and BA in Philosophy (1986) from UP Diliman. She can be reached at jlyasolnaval@up.edu.ph.

Lourdes Publico graduated from UP Diliman, Pre-Med in 1973 and the UP College of Medicine in 1977. While a consultant in UP-Philippine General Hospital Department of Rehabilitation Medicine from 1981 to 1988, Dr. Lourdes took courses in Jichi Medical School in Japan and Ljubljana Rehabilitation Center in Yugoslavia, and a brief observership in Stole Mandeville Spinal Cord Center in England. She was the head of the Community-Based Rehabilitation Services Training Team when it was launched by UP-PGH Department of Rehabilitation Medicine in 1980.

Living in New York City since 1988, Dr. Lourdes finished residency in New York Medical College as Chief Resident in Rehabilitation Medicine in 1995. She graduated from Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health in 2005. Since 2011, she has been serving the Harlem Community as Chief of The Rehabilitation Center at Harlem Hospital.

Daisy M. Rodriguez is the current president of UPAAA, Inc. 2020-2021. Ms. Rodriguez is a nurse educator, author and organizational leader in several local and national organizations of Philippine nurses. She is a published author of three books and book chapter co-author of two others. In her work as organizational leader, she has generated support from the community of various charitable and social advocacy projects that benefited the community at large and the University of the Philippines.

Daisy holds three degrees from UP: Graduate in Nursing from UP-PGH School of Nursing (1965), Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the College of Nursing (1969), and Master in Nursing, College of Nursing (1971). Additionally, she holds a second masters degree in Public Administration/Health Services from the University of San Francisco, California. She also received a Mini-Fellowship in Ethnogeriatrics from the Stanford Geriatric Education Center, Stanford University, California. During her career as an educator in the US, she held faculty positions in three nursing programs at the University of California San Francisco, San Francisco State University, and Unitek College.

Ethel Rubio is the Principal/ Owner of Ethel G. Rubio, Assoc. AIA, a consulting firm specializing in construction management and strategic outreach and engagement. She is the co-founder of a mission-driven design enterprise, Sun Girl Prints. Her multi-disciplinary career path that spans over 30 years includes work in the built environment (architecture/engineering/construction) and nonprofit sectors. Ethel’s passion for making a difference led her to serve in various leadership roles in professional, civic, and nonprofit organizations.

She is a mother and a mentor to a confident, compassionate, and self-motivated daughter who recently graduated from Stanford University with a Bachelor of Engineering - Product Design degree and currently finishing up her master's in sustainability.

Ethel completed her Certificate of Architectural Drafting (CAD) in 1986 from UP before emigrating to the US and received her Bachelor of Architecture degree with an emphasis in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Southern California in 1995. Ethel served as the President of the UPAA of Greater Los Angeles from July 2019 through June 2021. She was recently selected as the recipient of the 2021 UPAA Distinguished Service Award for an Alumna, a prestigious award bestowed by the University of the Philippines Alumni Association.

Lourdes “Attorney Lou” Santos Tancinco is a San Francisco-based immigration lawyer. She is currently a partner at Tancinco Law P.C., a full-service law firm providing expertise in U.S. immigration matters since 1992. She is also the Executive Director and Vice Chair of the Friends of U.P. Foundation in America (FUPFA), a U.S-based 501(3) non-profit organization established in 1982 to manage and facilitate donations by alumni and friends of U.P. for various projects benefiting the University in its educational mission as the premier institution of higher learning in the Philippines.
Attorney Lou studied at the UP College of Law and graduated with the Bachelor of Laws (LLB) in 1987 and Bachelor of Arts in Political Science (AB) in 1982.

Danilo L. Concepcion is the 21st President of the University of the Philippines. Fondly called DaniCon by his constituents, he is widely respected as one of the Philippines' leading authorities in Corporation Law, specifically corporate governance, rehabilitation, and insolvency. Currently, he sits in the Board of Governors of the Philippine Red Cross, teaches at the Philippine Judicial Academy, and is a member of its Civil Code Committee.

Just before his appointment as UP President, DaniCon was Dean of the UP College of Law. He served as President of the De La Salle-Araneta University from 2000-2002, returned to UP in 2002 to teach at the College of Law, and served in various capacities as Associate Dean of the UP College of Law, Head of the UP Law Center, and Director of the Institute of Judicial Administration until 2006. He was appointed as Vice President for Legal Affairs of the UP System, as Executive Director of the UP Bonifacio Global City, and elected as 14th Dean of the UP College of Law.

President DaniCon was an elected member of the Batasang Pambansa in 1978 and served until 1984 as a representative of the youth sector. He also served as Associate Commissioner of the Securities and Exchange Commission and Chief-of-Staff of the Chief Presidential Legal Counsel. He was a member of the Mandatory Continuing Legal Education Governing Board and of the Supreme Court of the Philippines’ Committee on Legal Education and Bar Matters.

President DaniCon graduated with a degree in Agricultural Engineering, summa cum laude, from the De La Salle-Araneta University in 1979. He obtained his LL.B. from the UP College of Law in 1983 (cum laude) and his LL.M. from the University of London in 1986 as a Chevening Scholar.

Maria Solacito, DVM, CAWA has been Senior Veterinarian for the County of Los Angeles, Department of Animal Care & Control (DACC) since 2012. Before that, she was Shelter Veterinarian at the Lancaster Animal Care Center for four years until her promotion. As Senior Vet, Maria is responsible for the development, implementation and oversight of the medical programs for the largest animal control agency in North America. She led a team of 11 veterinarians and 28 Registered Veterinary Technicians. In late 2019, DACC reorganized; Maria’s focus is now on the four North County Animal Care Centers and DACC community outreach and disaster response. In 2020, she was appointed by California Governor Gavin Newsom to the 8-member California Veterinary Medical Board and earned her credentials as a Certified Animal Welfare Administrator from the internationally-recognized Association for Animal Welfare Advancement.

Maria is Co-Lead for DACC’s Anti-Racism Committee and represents her agency in the County of Los Angeles Anti-Racism, Diversity and Inclusion Initiative Committee. She is a member of the Philippine Veterinary Medical Association, Southern California Veterinary Medical Association, the World Small Animal Veterinary Association, the Association of Shelter Veterinarians, and The Association for Animal Welfare Advancement. She is also a member and Immediate-Past President of the Southern California Filipino Veterinary Medical Association.

Maria graduated from UP Los Banos College of Veterinary Medicine with a degree of Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (1992). She completed her Clinical Training at Purdue University in 2007, all licensure requirements to practice in the US in 2008, and the University of Southern California’s Sol Price School of Public Policy Executive Leadership Development Program in 2016.

Maria Elizabeth J. Cueva, Esq. is a member of both the Philippine and the New York State Bars. She earned her Bachelor of Arts, major in Political Science (cum laude) in 1987 and Bachelor of Laws in 1992 from UP Diliman. Through a scholarship grant, she earned her Master’s degree in Industrial and Labor Relations with a minor in Human Resources Management in the Executive Cohort Program of the School of Public Affairs and the Zicklin School of Business of the Baruch College of the City University of New York (with honors).

Elizabeth has over 20 years of legal experience in higher education law, corporation law, labor and employment, immigration, and civil and human rights laws. After having worked in the public and the private sectors in the Philippines and in New York, U.S.A., she decided that her niche is with the legal career service with the New York State government where she is currently a Human Rights Specialist and public sector lawyer specializing in civil rights and discrimination cases.

Elizabeth is a member of the International Honors Societies of Phi Kappa Phi, Pi Gamma Mu, and the National Honorary and Professional Management Society of Sigma Iota Epsilon. She was recipient of the 2018 Outstanding Alumna Award in Public Service given by the UPAA New Jersey Chapter; the 2018 Most Outstanding Foreign Workers in Public Service awarded by the Team United Maharlika, Inc.; and the 2019 The Outstanding Filipino American Awards (TOFA) in Public Service and Human Rights.

Joel Gamo graduated with a BS Zoology Degree (cum laude) in 1981 from UP Diliman and with a Doctor of Medicine from UP Manila in 1985. He had his residency training in the field of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the Philippine General Hospital from 1987 to 1989. He practiced Rehabilitation Medicine in major hospitals in Davao City from 1991 to 2002, aside from being the Dean of the Davao Doctors College School of Physical Therapy and a faculty member in Neuroanatomy at the Davao Medical School.

At present, Joel is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, teaching Gross Anatomy with human cadaver dissection, and an Associate Professor at West Coast University School of Nursing.

Luzviminda Sapin (Gonzalez) Micabalo is a dedicated, multi-awarded visionary who has distinguished herself as an effective organizer and community leader. She is a licensed Registered Professional Nurse who holds a bachelor's degree in Nursing from UP Diliman (1958) and a master’s degree in Professional Studies in Health Care Administration from C.W. Post Long Island University, New York (1975). She went for graduate studies in Nursing at New York University.

Luz worked at Sloan Kettering Memorial Center for Cancer and Visiting Nurse Service of New York. In 1963, she joined the Cabrini Medical Center as an operating room nurse and was later promoted to Vice President for Patient Services until she retired as Assistant VP for Operations in 1996.

Luz is past president, member, and board of director of several non-profits including the Philippine American Association of Nevada, UPAA Nevada, Filipino American Heritage Foundation, and National Federation of Filipino Associations in America. She is also a lector at the Pastoral Council of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton R.C. She founded the Philippine American Charity Foundation (2001) in Nevada.

A recipient of various citations for exemplary community service and social activism in promoting Filipino culture, values, and heritage, Luz was commended by the Philippine Consulate Generals in New York and Los Angeles for volunteerism and civic responsibility, and for ensuring the success of the Philippine Independence Day Celebration in New York and Consular Outreach in Las Vegas. The most prestigious of these awards started with the New York Governor's award for Outstanding Asian American in 1994. Other awards are: Twenty Outstanding Filipinos Abroad (2009), 100 Most Influential Filipina Women's Network (2007), and Presidential Banaag Award (2012).

Jennifer Mijares Zimmerman is a pediatrician in Northwest Florida. She has been providing care to the underserved population for over 20 years. A graduate of UP (BS Zoology 1986) and University of the East Ramon Magsaysay Memorial Medical Center (Doctor of Medicine), she trained at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New York. In 2018, she was a Congressional candidate for the US House of Representatives, FL-1 as a strong advocate for healthcare for all. She was the CEO of Kids’ Care Pediatrics for over 17 years before joining a multi-specialty group whose mission is to make healthcare within reach for everyone in the community. As an adjunct professor for Florida State University, she mentors medical students and physician assistants as they pursue careers in community healthcare.

Dr. Z, as she is known to many, is the first female, the first Asian, and an immigrant of Filipino heritage to ever run as a major political candidate in NWFL for a US Congressional seat. Dr. Z is the proud mother of three children. She is married to Jay, a Jewish American from New York. Her second son is now training to be an Orthopedic doctor in the Army.

Ethel Rubio is the Principal/ Owner of Ethel G. Rubio, Assoc. AIA, a consulting firm specializing in construction management and strategic outreach and engagement. She is the co-founder of a mission-driven design enterprise, Sun Girl Prints. Her multi-disciplinary career path that spans over 30 years includes work in the built environment (architecture/engineering/construction) and nonprofit sectors. Ethel’s passion for making a difference led her to serve in various leadership roles in professional, civic, and nonprofit organizations.

She is a mother and a mentor to a confident, compassionate, and self-motivated daughter who recently graduated from Stanford University with a Bachelor of Engineering - Product Design degree and currently finishing up her master's in sustainability.

Ethel completed her Certificate of Architectural Drafting (CAD) in 1986 from UP before emigrating to the US and received her Bachelor of Architecture degree with an emphasis in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Southern California in 1995. Ethel served as the President of the UPAA of Greater Los Angeles from July 2019 through June 2021. She was recently selected as the recipient of the 2021 UPAA Distinguished Service Award for an Alumna, a prestigious award bestowed by the University of the Philippines Alumni Association.