Prospera

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Florida Team

The Prospera employees and Regional Board volunteer members listed below collaborate to fulfill our mission across the state of Florida.

Central & Northeast Florida Staff

Katia Medina

Regional Vice President
Central & Northeast Florida

Bio

Amaireny Lantigua

Small Business Consultant
Central & Northeast Florida

Brigitte Priscila Ramos

Small Business Consultant
Central & Northeast Florida

Mary Sojo

Small Business Consultant
Central & Northeast Florida

Julby Boutin

Small Business Consultant
Central & Northeast Florida

Editha C. Torres

Small Business Consultant
Central & Northeast Florida

Wilda Martinez

Receptionist / Customer Service
Central & Northeast Florida

Marcela Galindo

Small Business Specialist
Central & Northeast Florida

Juliana Quintero

Small Business Specialist
Central & Northeast Florida

South Florida Staff

Myrna Sonora

Regional Vice President
South Florida

Bio

Angel Leon

Senior Small Business Consultant
South Florida

Soledad Jacobson

Small Business & Community Relations Consultant
South Florida

Geovanna Escorcia

Small Business Consultant
Palm Beach County

Camilo Olaya

Small Business Consultant
South Florida

Walkidia Polanco

Small Business Specialist
South Florida

Shantal Matos

Small Business Specialist
South Florida

Santiago Granie

Small Business Specialist
South Florida

Jhormi Vita

Customer Service Representative
South Florida

West Coast of Florida Staff

Fabian Yepez

Regional Vice President
West Coast of Florida

Bio

Karla Martinez de Salinas

Small Business Consultant
West Coast of Florida

Carolina Smith

Small Business Consultant
West Coast of Florida

Silvia Osain

Small Business Consultant
West Coast of Florida

Carolina Peñafiel

Small Business Specialist
West Coast of Florida

Arlene Ramos

Customer Service Representative
West Coast of Florida

Volunteers

We appreciate the commitment and passionate support of Prospera’s volunteers across our organization and offices. These generous individuals contribute time, talent, treasure, ties, and testimonials to help us deliver services to more clients, support our staff, and serve as representatives of our brand in the community.

  • Quibulah “Quib” Graham, Orlando Health, CHAIR
  • Cesar Abadia, Chase, TAC Chair
  • Dr. James M. Burkett, Florida Technical College
  • Kim King, City of Orlando
  • David Rodriguez, Osceola County Government
  • Alberto Saez, TD Bank
  • Adly Santiago, Orlando Magic
  • George Seda, Bank of America
  • Irma Stenman, Seminole County
  • Jenny Torres, Suncoast Credit Union
  • Ilia Torres, Universal Orlando
  • Jeff Villanueva, AdventHealth, HCMO Representative
  • Thais Asper, AT&T Florida, CHAIR
  • David Boerger, First Horizon Bank
  • Roxana Borges, Bank of America
  • Ana Castilla, TD Bank
  • Jorge Escobar, Holland & Knight LLP
  • Fabiana Estrada, Ascendus
  • MJ Green, Miami DDA
  • Karen Hernandez, Telemundo 51
  • John Lopez, First Bank
  • Orlando Martin, Truist
  • Margueritte Ramos, ShadeFLA
  • Angela Ramos, Univision
  • Anthony Rionda, Florida International University (FIU)
  • Reynaldo Santana, Banesco, Líder de TAC
  • Maggie Suazo, Capital One
  • Rob West, TD Bank, CHAIR
  • Stefano Carnio, Duke Energy
  • Linda Hague, Wells Fargo
  • Francisco Huertas, Bank of America
  • Javier Marin, City of Tampa
  • Jaksa Petrovic, Hillsborough County
  • Tony Selvaggio, eSmart Recycling, TAC Chair
  • Ismael Torres, Suncoast Credit Union
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Katia Medina was named Regional Vice President at Prospera in March 2021. She has occupied a variety of roles at Prospera during more than six years, which has helped her become a well-rounded leader. She understands the needs of clients in various business stages and from different backgrounds.

Her knowledge of the organization, her experience in community relations and fundraising for Prospera, and her experience as business consultant are great assets in her role as Regional Vice President. Katia joined the economic development, nonprofit organization in 2014 as a Business Development Consultant. In that role, she was responsible for providing consulting and a wide range of assistance to Hispanic entrepreneurs, including many immigrants recently arrived from Spanish-speaking countries, to help them establish or expand their business in Central Florida. In her role as consultant, Katia advised entrepreneurs individually to more effectively start and operate their businesses in the U.S. and local markets. This included identifying needs and opportunities, assessing the feasibility of new ideas, serving as liaison for additional professional services, and facilitating access to financing from various lenders. She also delivered educational presentations and worked with experts in various business specialties to train Prospera’s clients in Central Florida.

In January 2020, she was promoted to Assistant Vice President for the Central Florida region. Katia now oversees Prospera’s client services in Central & Northeast Florida, which are delivered to approximately 2,000 aspiring and established entrepreneurs per year. She also manages Prospera’s volunteer committees in the region, relations with contracted providers, and business educational programs. In 2019, Katia was recognized by i4 Business Magazine as a distinguished Social Entrepreneur. In 2022, Prospera began serving Northeast Florida, the Jacksonville metro area, and it became part of Katia’s regional oversight.

Katia is originally from Ponce, Puerto Rico. Prior to working for Prospera, she worked in San Juan for eight years for the Puerto Rican Legislative Assembly, Senate of Puerto Rico, and Office of Legislative Services. She obtained a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration with a focus on marketing from the University of Puerto Rico, and an MBA with emphasis in marketing from the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico. She lives in Orange County with her family.

In 2011, Myrna became the first Regional Vice President of Prospera for the South Florida region. As such, she has been responsible for establishing and overseeing the day-to-day operations and growth of the organization’s regional office, promoting the Prospera brand, raising local support for the mission, and building and developing a strong business consulting team for all services within the region. During its first decade of service to South Florida, under Myrna’s leadership, Prospera has provided individual business consulting to more than 5,000 clients and marketed over $23 million in loans, helping those with established businesses to create or retain over 9,900 local jobs. Prospera’s total economic output in the region has been $1.84 billion, with $586.3 million in labor income and $40.9 million in direct state and local tax revenues.

Prior to working at Prospera, Myrna had a very successful career in the broadcast and media industry. Professionally trained as a journalist, Myrna began her career as a reporter for WLTV Univision 23 in Miami, where she rose through the ranks to become Central American Bureau Chief and Senior Correspondent for the Univision Network, Hispanic Affairs Director for Fox Affiliate WSVN 7, News Director for WSCV Telemundo 51, and later Vice-President for News and Public Affairs of her first station, WLTV Univision 23. Myrna then became the first General Manager of a Univision television station to have come from the field of professional journalism. As Vice-president and General Manager of the Univision and Telefutura television properties in Arizona, Myrna was tasked with building a state-of-the-art broadcast facility in Phoenix, Arizona, from where she managed the Univision television stations in Tucson, Flagstaff and Douglas, AZ with a staff of over 100 employees. She returned to Miami in 2005 to start her own media consulting firm, Media Strategies, a multi-service broadcast consulting firm.

Myrna serves as Co-Chair of the SFCDC (South Florida Community Development Coalition) and Anchor Host for the Aspen Institute Latinos & Society Program (AILAS) Miami Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Steering Committee. She was appointed by Commissioner Eileen Higgins to serve on the Miami-Dade County Economic Recovery Task Force formed during the COVID-19 pandemic. She lives in Miami and is the proud mother of Julian.

Fabian Yépez became the Regional Vice President for the West Coast of Florida in June 2016. Prospera is a nonprofit, economic development organization that helps start, sustain, and grow Hispanic-owned businesses to achieve community prosperity. In his role, Fabian oversees regional services and operations for Prospera in the Greater Tampa Bay area and adjacent counties. He is in charge of relations with local private and public funders, as well as fulfillment of established and new agreements. He also supervises programming activities and services delivered to entrepreneurs.

A part business owner himself, Fabian is a multicultural marketing strategist with over 20 years of experience. With a background in advertising and marketing, he developed proprietary strategies that helped companies in the U.S. and abroad to effectively connect with the diverse Hispanic market. He helped regional and international companies develop and implement successful Hispanic and general market programs, and his expertise includes campaign research, strategy, planning and implementation, creative and production. His work was recognized with several local and national awards in different categories, including Broadcast, Digital, Print, Radio and Outdoor. Prior to becoming a Prospera employee, Fabian served as a volunteer member and Chair of Prospera’s Technical Assistance Committee.


He currently serves on the Corporate Council of Shriners Hospital for Children, on the Tampa Bay Chamber Minority Business Accelerator Committee, and on the Clearwater Business SPARK Executive Committee. Fabian obtained his Bachelor’s Degree from Universidad Jorge Tadeo Lozano in Bogotá, Colombia, and has owned businesses in Tampa, FL and Quito, Ecuador. He lives in Hillsborough County with his wife and two children.

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