On October 1, 2002, Latino Impact Media founders Eduardo López and Arturo Salcedo Martínez were presented with the prestigious Leadership for a Changing World Award by Ford Foundation President Susan V. Berresford, at a ceremony held in the organization’s headquarters in New York City.

Nearly 1,500 nonprofit organizations nationwide had been nominated for the honor, which was widely recognized as one of the most important leadership awards for community-based organizations in the United States.  After a year-long competitive selection process, a total of twenty social service agencies were singled out by the Ford Foundation for demonstrating outstanding creativity, effectiveness, and community impact in their work.  Eduardo and Arturo were nominated by the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ), and were the only media professionals chosen for the coveted social justice award.

“For nearly two decades, these visionary pioneers have fought with great tenacity to provide immigrant Latino families living in the Washington region with information on critical issues utilizing the most important channel of communication for our community – Spanish-language television,” wrote former President of NAHJ, Cecilia Alvear, in the letter that nominated Salcedo and López for the LCW Award.

Eduardo and Arturo were selected for their groundbreaking work in Latino public education, and for their innovative use of commercial Spanish-language television as an effective vehicle for reaching one of the nation’s most underserved and linguistically isolated communities.

Before selecting the final winners of the award, representatives of the Ford Foundation held extensive meetings with fifteen Latino community leaders in order to learn more about the work of Línea Directa. The information gathered through this process was presented to a blue-ribbon panel of national nonprofit leaders who then chose the finalists for the Ford award.

“No one is more passionate and driven to help Latino families than Arturo and Eduardo,” said Lidia Soto-Harmon, Deputy Executive Director of the Girl Scout Council of the Nation’s Capital, and one of the leaders interviewed by Ford.  “Through Línea Directa, hundreds of local Latino leaders, social workers, doctors, teachers, parents, laborers, counselors, and psychologists from every economic background have been able to share their thoughts and experiences directly with the Latino community.”