Tia’s President, Laura Libman, will be taking a six week medical leave of absence beginning Monday, August 10th.  During this time, Wynona Heim will serve as Acting Director of the Tia Foundation. Wynona began her career with Tia as an intern during the summer of 2008 before going on to complete her Masters in Global Affairs and Management from the Thunderbird School of Global Management in December.  While at Thunderbird, Wynona was active in the International Development Association, and emphasized international economic development during her studies.

She has further increased her expertise in our practices by serving on the fundraising committee for the past year, and being an all around volunteer resource for Tia.  She brings with her not only an outstanding educational background, but two years of experience as a rural Emergency Medical Technician, and an additional five years of administrative and IT/data management experience prior to her Masters degree.

Although Laura will be severely missed during this time, Tia is lucky to be left in the very capable hands of Wynona Heim.

Tia Foundation President Laura Libman, along with five other alumni, was recognized at the Thunderbird School of Global Management’s Homecoming Weekend on March 5-8, 2009. Laura received the Global Citizenship Award as recognition for her outstanding work towards social justice. She is extremely grateful for this acknowledgment of her passion and work towards sustainable development practices.

Homecoming award winners, from left, Edgar Sanchez Wilke ‘03, Robert Dudley ’79, Laura Libman ’05, Rich Mackney ’77, Bernadette Martin ’84 and Harry Cockrell ’73 stand with Thunderbird President Ángel Cabrera, Ph.D.  You can read more about the winners in the Summer issue of Thunderbird Magazine.

Laura Libman, Tia’s President and Founder, was a featured guest last week on Horizonte. In addition to explaining the work and mission of Tia, Laura discussed the role self-development plays in the reduction of cross-border immigration and how the H1N1 Virus has affected Tia’s project schedule.

You can view Laura’s interview online at: http://www.azpbs.org/horizonte/detailvid.php?id=577

Horizonte, Eight’s weekly public affairs program, focuses on Arizona issues through a Hispanic lens and is hosted by José Cárdenas, senior vice president and general counsel of Arizona State University.

Be sure to watch Horizonte on PBS TV at 7:30 pm on Thursday, July 23^nd to see Laura Libman speak about the Tia Foundation!

Please tune in this Thursday night to Arizona PBS on channel 8, to watch our founder Laura Libman present the Tia Foundation to the greater Phoenix area.  We are so excited that Tia has this opportunity to make such a personal connection to the local community by appearing on this outstanding local prime-time public affairs program!

Laura will be speaking about the exceptional work Tia does in more detail, how the Swine Flu has affected our next launch date, and the relationship between self-development and cross border immigration. Please encourage your friends to watch the show this week as well, so that we can introduce as many people to the Tia Foundation in this forum as possible.

If you don’t live in Arizona, but would like to see a recording of the broadcast, check out Horizonte’s website at http://www.azpbs.org/horizonte/index.php a day or so after the show.

As always, thank you for being a supporter of the Tia Foundation!

The Tia Foundation is one step closer to becoming a registered non profit organization in Mexico!  The registration papers were signed on July 3, 2009 in Zapopan, Jalisco and have been submitted to the necessary authorities.  Soon we will officially be functioning as Fundacion “La Tia”.  Three of our new Mexican board members were present, Monica Garibay Fernandez del Valle, Antonio Dominguez Perez and Eduardo Barron (in picture), as well as our President, Laura Libman.

Becoming a registered non profit organization in Mexico will lead to numerous benefits for the Tia Foundation.  Once the papers are finalized, we will be able to officially hire a full-time medical director.  This will greatly increase the credibility of Tia in Mexico and will also make it possible for donations in Mexico to be tax deductible.  Grant opportunities as well as product pricing benefits will also increase as a result.  This is a huge step forward in Tia’s development!