Meet our writers

We are an extended family and we take advantage of opportunities to work together.

  • Gary M. Stern

    +60 articles

    Gary Stern, a contributing writer for HO  has written hundreds of articles that have appeared in such leading publications as The Wall Street Journal, Investor's Business Daily, USA Weekend, Crain's New York Business, Electronic Business, and Tennis. 

  • Frank DiMaria

    +60 articles

    Frank DiMaria is a freelance writer living South Carolina. When he’s not writing he teaches computer science and digital literacy in a middle school in Fort Mill.

  • Gustavo A. Mellander

    +60 articles

    Dr. Mellander was a university dean for 15 years and a college president for 20.

  • Mary Ann Cooper

    +50 articles

    Whether the subject is health care or movies, women's issues or trends in television, Mary Ann has written about it or spoken about it. She is the author of more than 100 book projects including “Natural Cures for Common Diseases,” “101 Ways to Pamper Yourself,” and "Easy Ways to Lower Your Cholesterol." She was a nationally syndicated columnist for 30 years and contributing writer to an eclectic group of magazines including Hispanic Outlook, Women's World, Television Week, GRAND Magazine, Boxoffice Magazine, Looking Good Now Magazine, and American Media Special Magazines.  

  • Peggy Sands Orchowski

    +40 articles

    Peggy (Dr. Margaret) Sands Orchowski Ph.D. has been the credentialed Congressional Correspondent for the Hispanic Outlook on Higher Education magazine in Washington DC since 2006.  Her new book “The Law That Changed the Face of America: the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965” was published by Rowman & Littlefield in September in time for the 50th anniversary of its signing.

  • Enrique Del Risco

    +40 articles

    Enrique Del Risco Arrocha, also known as Enrisco, was born in Havana, Cuba, in 1967. He has a degree in History from the University of Havana and a doctorate in Latin American Literature from New York University (NYU), where he currently works. as a teacher in the department of Spanish and Portuguese. He was a finalist for the Cintas Foundation Fellowship for Creative Writing -for the project “Trilogía cubana del Hudson” (2011), and has received the following awards: Prize of the Contest Trece de Marzo 1993, Prize of Short Story magazine “Revolución y Cultura” 1994, Villa Awards de Madrid 1996 and V Ibero-American Cortes de Cádiz Award 2008, for the works: Shrunken Works (1992), Loss and recovery of innocence (1994), Crocodile tears (1998), Leve Historia de Cuba (2007), and ¿Qué Will they think of us in Japan? (2008).

All our writers

Luis Santos-Rivas

Luis Santos-Rivas is director of the Latino Resource Center at NIU, where he leads initiatives focused on student belonging, retention and leadership development. With more than a decade of experience in higher education, he advocates for equitable access and culturally responsive support for Latinx and first-generation college students.  

Teresita Paniagua

Tere Paniagua is Executive Director of the Office of Cultural Engagement for the Hispanic Community at Syracuse University, where she leads La Casita Cultural Center and Punto de Contacto/Point of Contact, two university-sponsored arts and cultural centers. With more than two decades of experience in nonprofit and university leadership, she develops programs that connect higher education, the arts, and community engagement. Paniagua is committed to fostering cross-cultural dialogue, experiential learning, and community partnerships that amplify Latino voices in Central New York. She also serves on the Board of Trustees of WCNY/PBS.

Dr. Irene Oujo

Dr. Irene Oujo is the Executive Director of the Hispanic Center and Center for Student Success at Fairleigh Dickinson University. Since 2006, Dr. Oujo has worked as a faculty member and administrator, striving to increase the college entrance, persistence and graduation rates of Hispanic and all students.

R. Lennon Audrain

R. Lennon Audrain, PhD, is a researcher at Arizona State University and the executive board president of the National Association of Community College Teacher Education Programs.  

Harikrishna Kundariya

Harikrishna Kundariya is a marketer, developer, IoT, Cloud & AWS savvy, co-founder and Director of eSparkBiz, a Software Development Company. His 14+ years of experience enable him to provide digital solutions to new start-ups based on IoT and SaaS applications.  

Norma Poll-Hunter, PhD

Norma Poll-Hunter, Ph.D. serves as Senior Director, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion at the Association of American Medical Colleges. She earned her Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology at the University of Albany, SUNY, and her BA in Psychology at Lehman College, CUNY.     

Joelle Leinbach

Joelle Leinbach is the Program Manager at Fund for Education Abroad. She studied abroad in Germany and Russia with the help of scholarship programs and is dedicated to the pursuit of making study abroad more accessible. 

Adriana Rodríguez

Adriana Rodriguez is the Vice President for Programs at Excelencia in Education. She leads the strategic direction and operations of the Programs team to ensure high-quality implementation of two major portfolios (Examples of Excelencia and Seal of Excelencia certification). Adriana has 20 years of experience in the non-profit education sector.   

Sherrell Smith

Sherrell Smith is the Executive Vice President and Chief Academic Officer, UTI, Inc.  

Loreno Jameson

Loreno Jameson serves as President of the Barrientos Scholarship Foundation (BSF), leading efforts to expand educational opportunities for Latino students. A long‑time advocate for equity and community leadership, he is dedicated to developing and strengthening the programs that help students succeed in college, career, and life.    

Dr. Aristides "Ari" Baraya

Dr. Aristides “Ari” Baraya is the Director of the Latin American Business and Development Initiative and advisor of the Southeastern Association of  Latin American Students, College of Business- Southeastern Louisiana University.

Gina Astorini

Dr. Astorini, Ed.D., currently serves as the Associate Director for The Leadership Alliance. Dr. Astorini is focused on developing, evaluating, and improving programming that serves underrepresented students to support preparedness and critical skills necessary to pursue careers in research.