Angelo Falcón Selected for Census Bureau’s Hispanic Advisory Committee

Angelo Falcón, the president and co-founder of the National Institute for Latino Policy, has been selected by Secretary of Commerce Carlos M. Gutierrez to serve on the U.S. Census Bureau’s Advisory Committee on the Hispanic population.

As a member of the nine-person committee, the New York City resident will advise the Census Bureau on the new American Community Survey and ways to achieve a more accurate count of the Hispanic population in the 2010 Census.

“The Race and Ethnic Advisory Committees play a vital role in ensuring that we make the best effort possible to reach race and ethnic groups, not only during the 2010 Census, but also the American Community Survey that is conducted throughout the decade,” Census Bureau Director Steve H. Murdock said.

Falcón is an adjunct assistant professor at the Columbia University School of Public and International Affairs. He created the Institute for Puerto Rican Policy in New York City in the early 1980s, becoming one of the longest-serving chief executives of a Latino nonprofit in the country.

Falcón is a nationally recognized expert on Latino politics and policy issues. He is the author of the “Atlas of Stateside Puerto Ricans” and is the co-editor of “Latino Voices: Mexican, Puerto Rican and Cuban Perspectives on American Politics,” “Boricuas in Gotham: Puerto Ricans in the Making of Modern New York City,” “Opening the Courthouse Doors: The Need for More Hispanic Judges” and “Still on the Outside Looking In: Latino Employment in New York Broadcast Television.” His writing has appeared in various publications, including The Nation, New York Post, El Diario-La Prensa and the Hispanic Link News Service. Falcón has been featured on CNN, CNN en Español, WCBS, WNBC, WABC, National Public Radio, Univision, Telemundo and Comedy Central’s “The Colbert Report.”

Falcón earned his bachelor’s degree in political science from Columbia University in New York and his master’s from the State University of New York in Albany.

Five race and ethnic advisory committees — African-American, American Indian and Alaska Native, Asian, Hispanic, and Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander —advise the Census Bureau on issues affecting minority populations. The committees are assembled from the public at large and representatives of national, state, local and tribal entities, as well as nonprofit and private sector organizations. Members of the committees are academicians, community leaders, policy makers and others interested in an accurate count for their communities.