Monica C. Lozano

Monica Cecilia Lozano (born 21 July 1956, Los Angeles) is an American newspaper editor, the publisher and Chief Executive Officer of La Opinión and CEO of its parent company, ImpreMedia, LLC. Based in Los Angeles, La Opinión is the largest Spanish publication in the United States. She is a member of President Obama's Economic Recovery Advisory Board. She was appointed by the California State Legislature to join Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's Commission on the 21st Century Economy.

Family background

Lozano is one of four children of first generation Mexican-Americans, Texas-born Ignacio E. Lozano, Jr. and Arizona-born Marta Navarro. Her paternal grandfather, Ignacio E. Lozano, Sr., a famous Mexican journalist was born on the border of Mexico and Texas. In 1913 founded La Prensa in San Antonio which became the largest Spanish daily publication in the United States. La Prensa sold copies in New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles. In 1926, with much help from his wife, Lozano's grandfather founded La Opinión in Los Angeles, where La Prensa had had a particularly large following.

Lozano's father studied journalism at Notre Dame University and, in 1953, took over La Opinión after the death of her grandfather. Meanwhile, her grandmother, Alicia Elizondo de Lozano, returned to Texas to keep La Prensa in business.

Early life and education

Lozano was raised with her siblings in Newport Beach, Orange County, California. Although Marta Lozano had studied literature for about three years at UCLA before marriage, she was a stay-at-home mom to Lozano and her siblings, while their father commuted to L.A. to work on the paper. In 1976, Ignacio E. Lozano, Jr. was appointed US Ambassador to El Salvador by President Gerald Ford.

Lozano first attended school in Corona del Mar, but graduated from Santa Catalina School in Monterey in 1974. She then studied sociology and political science at the University of Oregon. While there, she became interested in the new field of women's studies and worked for the Eugene, Oregon-based feminist newspaper Women's Press. Leaving the university in 1976, Lozano traveled with a friend through Mexico and South America. She lived in San Francisco, where she earned a degree in printing technology at the City College. She also worked on a couple of bilingual newspapers. Then in November 1985, she went to work with her family as managing editor of La Opinión. Early in the following year, her brother, José I. Lozano, the paper's publisher at that time, sent her to the Poynter Institute for a two-week intensive training course in media management.

Marriage, family, and career

Lozano married South American Marcelo Centanino in 1986. From this marriage, she has two children: a son, Santiago (b. 1987), and a daughter, Gabriela (b. 1989). The couple eventually divorced.

Lozano began to work at La Opinión at a time when AIDS was still a taboo issue, especially among the predominantly Catholic Latino communities, and she fought hard against prejudice and fear to address the disease. She was also alarmed by the high rates of infant mortality among Hispanic women and she worked on stories covering prenatal care. Lozano also oversaw an increase of what she called "proactive" political journalism. California Governor Pete Wilson and Senator Barbara Boxer were interviewed in its pages.

She became publisher of El Eco del Valle (in the San Fernando Valley) in 1990. Her husband, previously working in the circulation department of La Opinión, went to organize the distribution of El Eco del Valle. Around the same time, Lozano was promoted to Associate Publisher, under her brother, at La Opinión.

Board seats

Lozano has been on the board of directors at the Walt Disney Company since 2000. She was named an independent director of Bank of America in April 2006. She is on the board of Southern California's Weingart Foundation and the National Council of La Raza. She is a member of the Board of Regents for the University of California and the Board of Trustees at the University of Southern California. Since 2001, she has been on the board at UnionBanCal Corporation. In 2012, Lozano was named to the board of the Rockefeller Foundation. From 2002-2005, she was a director of the Tenet Healthcare Corporation. Since 2014, Lozano has sat on the Board of The Cisneros Center for New Americans. In March 2016, she was appointed to Target’s board of directors. She is also a member of the Inter-American Dialogue.