Cynthia Figueroa, CEO and President of Congreso de Latinos Unidos, was recognized on Thursday for her human services work within Latino community. She received the Peter B. Goldberg Aramark Building Community Executive Leadership Award at a conference in St. Louis, which included a $40,000 grant to bring home to the nonprofit organization.

“Aramark is pleased to support this award, which recognizes the value of inspirational, collaborative and effective leadership and the impact it has on building local communities,” Bev Dribin, Aramark's vice president of public affairs, said in a statement. “Cynthia has an exceptional ability to ascertain the needs of the community and put the organizations, resources, and expertise together to enable change.  She has clearly demonstrated this at Congreso and throughout her career. We could not have chosen a more worthy honoree.”

The fifth annual award "recognizes and showcases Alliance member executives who demonstrate outstanding community center leadership that improves neighborhoods and strengthens families and communities." Figueroa has been at the helm of Congreso since 2011, and oversees a $24 million annual budget. 

"Cynthia has held many roles at Congreso, including employee, board member, and funder, so she has a real 360-degree view of the work and its impact at all levels” said Susan Dreyfus, president and CEO of the Alliance. “[She] has a clear understanding of the entrenched problems facing the Latino community, around and beyond Congreso’s North American Street Campus, and her dedication to resolve those issues is powerful.”