The third annual AL DÍA 40 Under Forty event serves to highlight and showcase some of the most diverse and impactful young professionals across the Philadelphia region. 

At this year's event, taking place Friday, Aug. 26, George Fernandez will be one of the 40 honorees. 

Biography

George Fernandez is the founder & CEO of Latino Connection, a strategic communications firm that has served millions of Latinos and helped hundreds of other organizations maximize its reach and project its core operations.

Fernandez is also the mastermind behind the CATE (Community-Accessible Testing & Education) COVID-19 Mobile Response Initiative. The very first day the United States announced a national state of emergency due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Fernandez began forging a strategic partnership with the Pennsylvania Department of Health and leading community health organizations to ensure that the Commonwealth’s underserved communities would be provided with the essential resources and education needed during that unprecedented time. Months later, the CATE initiative was born. 

The initiative put wheels to motion to deliver free, essential COVID-19 resources and education into the communities being severely impacted by major social, economic and health disparities, and is an extension of Fernandez’s passion for communication and service.

As part of the lead-up to the AL DÍA 40 Under Forty event, AL DÍA asked each of the honorees a set of identical questions and collected their responses. 

Here are George Fernandez's responses: 

What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced in your professional career?

Growing a small business to a multi-million dollar business has many challenges — the biggest is challenging yourself to go higher and deeper while not losing your self identity, and the real why and purpose of why you began this journey. 

What are steps that can be taken to improve diversity, equity and inclusion in your industry? Why is it important to do so?

To learn other peoples cultures, foods and music is truly fun, and educational — and while some people believe this is the meaning of diversity, and inclusion — the true understanding of DEI is the understanding and embracing the social determinants of health barriers that affect low-income communities and how to overcome those challenges. Helping our communities overcome these challenges calls for better friends, and neighbors in our communities. 

What does being a leader mean to you?

Listening to others. Helping others learn their strengths and weakness points to allow them to become better professionals. By raising each other up, together, we are stronger. 

Where do you see yourself in five years?

 Five years from now, we believe our agency will be one of the leading agencies in promoting equity and inclusion in healthcare, education and government across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania — with the end goal in mind of creating a more inclusive Pennsylvania to live, learn, work, pray and play. 

The 2022 AL DÍA 40 Under Forty event will take place Friday, Aug. 26 at The Vie at Cescaphe. To learn more or purchase your ticket, click here.