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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF PRESENTER

LORETA GARROTE-TRINIDAD, R.N.
Filipino American Service Group, Inc.
Date: November 2, 2000

Loreta Garrote-Trinidad, is Program Director and Case Manager of Filipino American Service Group, Inc., a community based non-profit social services agency based in Los Angeles.

She left her native Philippines for the US in 1967 to participate in the Exchange Visitor Program at Hahnemann Medical Center in Philadelphia. In 1994 she retired after 25 years of service at Kaiser Foundation Hospital, Los Angeles, where she was Nursing Supervisor for 22 years at the Medical and Surgical floors, Oncology and Bone Marrow Transplant unit. Her work experience also includes Psychiatric Nurse at National Mental Hospital in Manila, Philippines, Charge Nurse at Scenic County General Hospital in Modesto, California and Administrator at an adult residential facility for mentally ill.

She has been an active volunteer for the Filipino community (namely World War II Veterans), Ramona Elementary School, and Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in Hollywood and the East Hollywood Community Association. She served on various committees for the Los Angeles Unified School District. Among them, the Hollywood Instructional Cabinet, School Leadership Council, School Site Council, and Compensatory Education Advisory Committee. She is a community leader among the Filipino-Americans in southern California. Last summer (July 1999) she volunteered in the "Balik-Bohol Medical and Surgical Mission" serving the less fortunate in her home province.

In 1984 she co-founded the first foreign-based alumni association of her alma mater where she was Student Council President, graduated Salutatorian, and Alumni President. She enrolled at Cal State LA College of Nursing and at Los Angeles City College to supplement her college education. She also completed a variety of nursing specialty courses and leadership training and seminars at work and at different training hospitals and university affiliations.

A resident of Los Angeles since 1969, she has been married for 30 years to Eligio Trinidad and mother of four children who, with the encouragement of their parents, implement much of their Philippine heritage in their professions: music, writing, and art. As a cancer survivor she is an advocate for early cancer detection and diagnosis.