President Joe Biden announced his intent Monday to nominate Felix Sanchez to the CPB board of directors.
Sanchez, a former Democratic campaign strategist, chairs the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts, launched in 1997 by then-First Lady Hillary Clinton. Its mission is to “advance the presence of Latinos in the entertainment industry,” according to a statement from the White House.
The White House credited Sanchez with spurring “institutional change at the Kennedy Center Honors, resulting in greater acknowledgement of meritorious Latino/a cultural icons.” He has also created a pipeline program for Latino graduate students studying theater and film at New York University, Columbia University, Harvard, Yale, Northwestern University, the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Southern California and the University of California, Los Angeles.
Sanchez previously served as a legislative assistant to the late U.S. Senator Lloyd M. Bentsen, Jr. In 1988, he was national deputy campaign manager for Paul Simon’s presidential campaign. Sanchez later joined the campaign for the Democratic party’s 1988 presidential ticket, headed by former Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis with Sen. Bentsen as the nominee for vice president. For that campaign, Sanchez led the first Latino “Celebrity Fly-around” outreach to increase turnout among Democratic Latino voters. Sanchez continued in that role for several subsequent Democratic presidential campaigns.
Sanchez has been honored by the government of Mexico with the Ohtlí Award, which recognizes Latino philanthropic leaders.
If confirmed by the Senate, Sanchez would fill the remaining vacancy on the nine-member CPB board of directors.