[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 12]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 17455]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               RECOGNIZING HILARY STERN ON HER RETIREMENT

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. ADAM SMITH

                             of washington

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, November 4, 2015

  Mr. SMITH of Washington. Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor Hilary Stern, 
Executive Director at Casa Latina, on her retirement after twenty-one 
years of hard and dedicated work that has built opportunities and 
provided a voice for members of the Latino community in Seattle.
  Prior to starting Casa Latina, a Seattle-based non-profit, Hilary 
sensed tension between the incoming Latino workers and the community at 
large. In response, Hilary founded Casa Latina in 1994 and began 
offering services on the sidewalks and in borrowed space. These 
services included English classes and educational street theater 
productions.
  Despite the positive impact of these services, Hilary believed that 
Casa Latina could do more. This drove her to expand the scope of Casa 
Latina's services to also assist members of the Latino community to 
achieve greater economic gains and to participate to higher degrees in 
civic efforts. With this vision, Hilary was able to transform Casa 
Latina into a large, nonprofit social organization that focused on 
providing a variety of educational and economic opportunities for 
hundreds of Latino men and women living in Seattle. These services 
included its previous, traditional programs, along with others, such as 
day labor employment, workplace safety and job skill trainings, 
leadership development and dealing with issues of public policy that 
affect immigrant workers.
  After two decades at Casa Latina, Hilary recently announced that a 
new Executive Director would take her place in early 2016. Despite 
moving on from the role of Executive Director, Hilary plans to continue 
to be actively involved in contributing towards building a better 
society for everyone both within and outside of Seattle.
  Mr. Speaker, it is with great honor that I recognize and congratulate 
Hilary Stern on her outstanding work as Executive Director for Casa 
Latina.

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