Women Who Inspire Us
Internet

Lavonne Luquis

Lavonne Luquis is president and co-founder of LatinoLink and Latino.com, the first general interest Web magazine for Hispanics on the Internet. In January she received a Top 25 Women of the Web award from SFWoW. Last year, the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce gave her its 1998 National Hispanic Businesswoman of the Year Award, and Hispanic magazine gave her its 1998 Hispanic of Achievements Award (Communications Category).

Since launching LatinoLink in early 1995, Luquis has established content partnerships with a variety of Internet companies, including Netscape, Yahoo! and Snap Online. LatinoLink draws about 400,000 visitors per month with a spicy mix of news, chat, commentary, reviews and bulletin boards. LatinoLink is accessible free of charge on the World Wide Web. The company generates revenue from advertisers such as AT&T, IBM, Microsoft, Compaq, Wells Fargo, Charles Schwab, Sony Pictures, Universal Pictures and New Line Cinema.

Ms. Luquis holds a B.S. in journalism with distinction from the University of Colorado. Her career in journalism has included seven years at the San Juan Star in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where she started as a reporter and was subsequently promoted to assistant managing editor/features. Before starting LatinoLink in early 1995, she spent a year as city editor of The Olympian, in Olympia, Washington.

In 1997 she served as a boardmember of the Northern California Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists and in the Spring of 1996, she served as a Freedom Forum Pacific Coast Associate. She is also a former board member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (1993-94).