Our keynote speaker on Oct 21! Graciela Tiscareño-Sato is the daughter of Mexican immigrants who first arrived in Hayward over 30 years ago. She served in the active duty Air Force for almost a decade, as aircrew member and instructor navigator onboard KC-135 refueling tankers.
She’s a graduate of U.C. Berkeley where she attended as an Air Force ROTC scholarship cadet. On her first deployment (to Saudi Arabia to patrol the hostile skies over Iraq), then Lt. Tiscareño and her crew were awarded the Air Medal for meritorious service during 34 combat air operations sorties. She completed her Master degree in International Management while on active duty and used those credentials to return to the Bay Area to work in Marketing Management roles in both the telecommunications and solar photovoltaic electronics industries.
Today Graciela is the Founder of Hayward’s Gracefully Global Group LLC, an award-winning, multicultural educational publishing and marketing communications company certified by the SBA and the State of California as a Women Veteran – Owned Business. The firm creates literature, online classes, original marketing content that showcase the positive contributions of Latino Americans in the USA. She’s the author of the ground-breaking Captain Mama bilingual picture book series, inspired by her aviation service and her son. The Captain Mama series is the first-ever published in two languages to show women serving in the military because “Women are Veterans too!”
Graciela’s firm also publishes the Latinnovating book series – the first literature to showcase Latino leadership and innovation in emerging green economy industries. She serves school districts, universities, corporations and veteran-serving organizations as a keynote speaker and bilingual workshop facilitator on campus and at large conferences. Our local social entrepreneur was honored 4 years ago by The Obama White House as a Champion of Change, Woman Veteran Leader and on the floor of the House of Representatives by Congressman Eric Swalwell.
Graciela lives in the Hayward hills with her husband and three teenaged Scouts, who play a combined total of nine musical instruments, so far. You can find her online by searching her entire name on LinkedIn and Instagram and at Captain Mama.com.