As of Wednesday, August 5, 2009, the Tia Foundation is registered as a non profit organization in Mexico. The news came a month after official papers were submitted, making Tia now officially known as Fundacion La Tia in Mexico!

This registration enables us to accept tax deductible donations from Mexican citizens and employ full time staff in Mexico, as well as receive other benefits available only to registered non profits. In addition to these substantial benefits, being registered in Mexico makes Tia eligible for several international grant programs, and will greatly increase the credibility of Tia in Mexico.

Thank you to all of our board members in Arizona for their support during this process. And a very special Thank you and Welcome to our new Mexican board members: Monica Garibay Fernandez del Valle, Antonio Dominguez Perez and Eduardo Barron!

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!