SAN FRANCISCO, CA – March 24, 2014 – (HISPANICIZE WIRE) – Today the White House announced that California veteran, author, and keynote speaker Graciela Tiscareño-Sato will join nine other women veterans at the White House on Tuesday, March 25th to be honored as “Champions of Change” and leaders in their communities.
Specifically, Ms. Tiscareño-Sato will be honored for her military service as an Air Force officer and for her entrepreneurialism, the latter for creating what may be the nation’s only Latina veteran-owned multicultural educational book/eBook publishing company with global distribution. Gracefully Global Group’s mission is to create aspirational literature to showcase positive images of highly-educated Latino Americans serving this nation as innovators, scientists, entrepreneurs, military members and more. She brings this inspirational content to life as a STEM Consultant and speaker in K-College settings, so that all students and their educators can view accomplished Latinos in a positive light. More importantly, through this unique literature, Latino students are introduced to role models that may be missing in their lives, and aspire to pursue higher educational pathways.
“I’m overflowing with gratitude at being recognized by the White House for my military service and my dedication to creating unique literature that showcases Latino contributions to the USA.”
Tiscareño-Sato, daughter of Mexican immigrants, was awarded an Air Force ROTC scholarship to attend U.C. Berkeley after graduating from high school in a small Northern Colorado town. At Berkeley, she completed both AFROTC Aerospace Studies and her degree in environmental design and architecture. Upon graduation, she became a commissioned Air Force officer and served globally as a navigator and instructor onboard KC-135 refueling jets for nine years. She completed her master degree in international business management while on active duty. She benefited from excellent mentoring by several business women as she transitioned from military to civilian life; now she helps other military veterans build professional networks and business skills via personal branding workshops. She’s equally passionate about raising education expectations for Latino students as evidenced in the literature she helps to create.
“I’m overflowing with gratitude at being recognized by the White House for my military service and my dedication to creating unique literature that showcases Latino contributions to the USA,” said the Chief Executive Officer of the East Bay independent publishing company. “At Gracefully Global Group, we’re driven to create purposeful, bilingual and multicultural literature to address our Common Core Standards in America’s classrooms. Our books are found in print and digital formats in classrooms and libraries, including those serving children on military bases around the globe. We’re hopeful that this recognition from the White House will encourage invitations into the traditional literary ecosystems of organizations like the New York Times Book Review, School Library Journal and the Scholastic Book Fair catalog as America becomes more Latino each day. I’m confident this honor will open doors that so far have remained closed to innovative publishers like us.”
The firm is creating an award-winning series of green economy entrepreneurship profiles under the Latinnovating® brand. Highly-creative Latino Americans create twice as many businesses as any other demographic segment in the USA, yet stories of accomplished Latinos receive little media attention. Young people are therefore denied examples of highly-educated role models in both school literature and mainstream media. Tiscareno-Sato is documenting the life journeys and educational pathways of many Latino sustainability leaders, inventors and job creators so that many more students, especially Latinos, will emulate their examples to benefit both people and planet.
The bilingual Captain Mamá book series was inspired by Tiscareño-Sato’s young son one night when he pulled patches off her military flight suit and asked questions about their meaning. She discovered a total lack of bilingual (English/Spanish) children’s literature about women serving in the military; she decided to create a book series to share her global aviation career with children. She aims to inspire future aviators, even if they, like her, claim Spanish as their first language. Good Night Captain Mamá, the first in the planned series, appeals to K-3rd grade students, their teachers and parents because it features a little Latino boy whose mamá flies onboard a cool airplane that serves as a flying gas station. The gentle illustrations by Castro Valley illustrator Linda Lens (daughter of an Air Force veteran) send a powerful message that “Latinas and mommies are veterans too!” This unique picture book was recently named a finalist in the “Best Educational Children’s Book – Bilingual” category in 2014 International Latino Books Awards that will be decided in June at the American Library Association convention. It’s quickly becoming a favorite in schools, libraries and homes to celebrate Women’s History Month, Memorial Day, Veterans Day and Hispanic Heritage Month.
To amplify the literary voices of women veterans, Tiscareño-Sato recently cofounded the National Women Veterans Speakers Bureau with Navy veteran Linda Maloney. This unique bureau of speakers is comprised entirely of female veterans who are published authors and professional speakers on a wide variety of topics. As this indie publisher enjoys ongoing success breaking into more and more school districts and libraries across America, Tiscareño-Sato hopes more military veterans and Latinos will decide to publish their own stories.
“What’s more important than raising your own unique voice to craft literature that can spark others to dream of bright, adventurous futures?” asks the mother of three.
Tiscareño-Sato’s mantra of always having high educational expectations for children stems directly from her experience raising a daughter with dual-sensory impairments who was born weighing a little over a pound. Alongside her husband Genro Sato, she has advocated forcefully for challenging goals and support services in the special education system to ensure her daughter achieves both literacy and a joy of learning. This parental advocacy work, in tandem with dedicated educators, has resulted in her daughter becoming a literate, joyful Braille reader and Braille technology whiz in middle school. This decade of advocacy experience has led Tiscareño-Sato to insist that ALL educators, administrators and parents raise expectations of Latino children who are capable of everything expected of them. When she speaks at educational conferences, she calls for “expectation reform.” Providing Latino students, their peers, their parents and their schools, with inspirational Latino literature helps raise those expectations.
The White House event honoring the women veterans will be streamed live March 25th from 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Eastern time at WhiteHouse.gov/LIVE. Those interested in viewing the event can participate via social media using hashtag #WHchamps.
About Gracefully Global Group LLC
Gracefully Global Group LLC is the nation’s award-winning, educational publisher of innovation, leadership and entrepreneurship literature spotlighting the Latino community for use in K-12 school districts and university classrooms. The firm creates and presents books, eBooks and DVDs that inform, inspire and motivate a variety of audiences into action and toward higher education. Service offerings include STEM workshops for students, professional development for staff wishing to better understand and serve Latino families and parent engagement workshops in English and Spanish. We assist school districts so that all children and especially children of color, can see MANY successful role models and imagine themselves in those roles too. Find our book fan pages on Facebook and our company site here. The firm is certified by several organizations as a woman-owned, minority-owned and veteran-owned small business and registered in the federal SAM system. Learn more at www.GracefullyGlobal.com.