Leticia Medina tough cookie.

• Author: Sweeten, Elizabeth
• Position: People

DON'T LET HER DIMINUTIVE SIZE, ready smile and sweet disposition fool you: Leticia Medina is tough. In her personal and professional lives, she's overcome tremendous adversity. "I've experienced just about everything," she says. "Instead of using that as an excuse not to be successful, instead of blaming my circumstances and my environment, I draw from those experiences to improve who I am and to help others along the way."

Indeed, she's helped many others along the way. This month, Medina celebrates her five-year anniversary as the director of the Utah Office of Hispanic Affairs, making her the longest-standing director in the office's history. Medina uses her position to advocate not only for Utah's Hispanic population, but also to ensure all our community's minorities have equal access to services and agencies. Much of her job is education, teaching Latinos how to navigate the system and educating government figures, service agencies, educators and community members about the needs of our Latino citizens. "I have to look at ways to educate the community, not just on a piece-by-piece basis, but as a large opportunity where I can get the message out to many.

That's a tall order, but no less challenging than Medina's previous jobs in youth corrections and mental health. Prior to working for the State of Utah, Medina was director of the nonprofit Salt Lake Neighborhood Housing Services youth program Youth Works. The program took troubled youth and put them to work building homes and revitalizing neighborhoods. "Kids need programs like this," she explains. 'Many of these young people were able to contribute to the community. Kids need to feel successful and be valued." Medina took the program to a national level and was recognized on the PBS special, What Can We Do About Violence?

With Youth Works, Medina was able to utilize the experience she garnered from years working in the correctional and mental health systems. Her career began working with adults suffering from schizophrenia. From there, she went to...