Marcela Escobar-Alava serves as the Deputy Director Office of Administration Information Technology Enterprise Applications where she delivers enterprise solutions across the Executive Office of the President. During this Administration, she also served as the Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Director of White House Information technology. Prior to her federal service, she was the transformational Chief Information Officer for Monarch Companies where she led the integration of acquisitions into a single culture and operating system. Prior to Monarch, she was the Chief Digital Officer for the Hispanic Scholarship Fund where she developed the digital products, technology and marketing strategy to enable the broadest reach, largest grants and donations and generational impact the organization has ever attained. 

Prior to Hispanic Scholarship Fund, she was the Divisional CIO for Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, a multi-billion-dollar division of Sony Pictures Entertainment. In that role, she oversaw the Global Information Technology strategy and direction to support and enable Home Entertainment’s business operations, including sales, marketing, manufacturing, distribution, business intelligence, finance, and digital functions. Originally from Los Angeles, Alava holds a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in International Business from Loyola Marymount University, and a Master’s degree in Business Administration in Information Systems and Operations Management from the University of Southern California. She has served and led a variety of non-profit boards and Advisory Committees at the local and national level within the STEM, Early childhood education, Higher Ed and Diversity, Equity & Inclusion spaces.

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There is so much to talk about when it comes to celebrating the victory and potential of Rep. Travis Nelson, but unfortunately we have to start with the events of January 30 and February 1 of this year when he was pulled over by Oregon State Police twice in that span, leading many to wonder: was unconscious racial bias playing a role in these stops? He is, after all, the only black male in the Oregon Legislature.

Rep. Nelson ascended to his current seat when its former occupant, Tina Kotek, resigned so she could run for Governor. She won, becoming one of the first openly gay women to become a state governor in US History. Nelson, who is also openly gay (and Oregon's first gay black office holder), will discuss the future of LGBTQIA2S+ trends in public office, as well as most recent DNC meeting events (he is also an elected representative of that body), post-COVID America from his perspective as a Registered Nurse who worked through the pandemic, and much more.

Many eyes are on Rep. Nelson to perhaps become Oregon's first non-white governor, and we at Weekly Town Hall concur. We are thrilled to introduce him to a more national audience.

Lori Sokol, PhD, is the Executive Director and Editor-in-Chief of Women’s eNews, an award-winning online publication that “reports the stories of women and girls to create a more equitable world,” reaching 50,000 annual subscribers and 3.5 million readers per year. Dr. Sokol has been a champion of not just women’s rights, but also gender equity.  Dr. Sokol was one of the first to warn, loudly and often, that Roe vs. Wade was in trouble, long before it eventually fell. The term “tireless champion” is often overused, but it is defined by Dr. Sokol’s lifetime of advocacy for women’s issues.  She has written for The Baltimore Sun, The NY Times, Slate.com, and Ms. Magazine, and has been interviewed on national news outlets like MSNBC, Forbes, CNBC, and the Wall Street Journal. The team at Weekly Town Hall could not be more honored to have you, Dr. Lori Sokol.

Weekly Town Hall Podcast is a political discussion/roundtable officially hosted by The Democratic National Committee, though thoughts and opinions expressed here belong solely to those who voice them.  Each week we tape an episode via the official DNC event platform, Mobilize.us, with guests who are experts and have personal experiences to shine light on our most critical issues. Our podcast is your podcast, serving as a beacon and community space, curating content that informs and inspires any listener. Listen every week as we explore issues with our amazing guests, and find out what you can do to help make this a better world.