Silvia Henriquez

At only 30 years of age, Silvia Henriquez has already accomplished an enormous amount. Despite the rapid increase in the U.S. Latino population, many societal inequalities affect the lives of Latino immigrants. The daughter of Salvadoran immigrants, Silvia is an outspoken leader in the Latina reproductive rights movement and currently serves as the Executive Director of the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health (NLIRH). NLIRH promotes policy and advocacy initiatives to improve the health of Latinas. Silvia has also worked as the outreach director of the National Abortion Federation, developing strategies to increase reproductive health access for women of color in the U.S., and as the coordinator of the Feminist Majority Foundation’s national campus organizing program. Women’s economic equality is part of Silvia’s approach to improving women’s health and she has worked both in the U.S. and El Salvador on labor issues. She is also the co-author of Our Health, Our Rights: Reproductive Justice for Latinas in California. See: www.latinainstitute.org.
September 2005