Former U.S. Ambassador to Argentina Named Harbor Commission President
Councilman Joe Buscaino with newly-elected Los Angeles Board of Harbor Commissioners president Vilma Martinez, former U.S. Ambassador to Argentina. (Photo Credit: Joe Buscaino)
The almost all-new Los Angeles Board of Harbor Commissioners elected former U.S. Ambassador to Argentina Vilma Martinez, as its president yesterday, and voted to re-elect Vice President Dave Arian. The five-member board oversees decisions for the Port.
Originally from San Antonio, Tex., Martinez did her undergraduate work at the University of Texas at Austin and finished her studies by graduating from Columbia Law School in 1967. She’s worked for the NAACP, the New York State Division of Human Rights, and was the first woman to join the board of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF). MartÃnez was appointed to her first position in the U.S. Diplomatic Corps by President Jimmy Carter in 1977. In 2009, President Barack Obama chose MartÃnez to replace Earl Anthony Wayne as the United States Ambassador to Argentina.
Martinez proceeds former Harbor Commission president Cindy Miscikowski, who was replaced in October by Commissioner Anthony Pirozzi, one of four new members appointed by Mayor Eric Garcetti.
