2012 Cathryn Anne Hansen Buesseler Lectureship

Robert Montemayor

Mr. Robert Montemayor was part of a Los Angeles Times team that was awarded the 1984 Pulitzer Prize for Meritorious Public Service for a comprehensive 21-part series of stories on Latinos in Southern California published in 1983. Montemayor earned a bachelor's degree in journalism in 1975 from the College of Media & Communication at Texas Tech University.

Journalist, veteran marketing executive, consultant, author, and college professor, Montemayor has more than 35 years of media experience. Currently, Montemayor is a journalism instructor in Rutgers University's School of Communication and Information in New Brunswick, N.J. He is also the director of the Latino Information Network at Rutgers, a project launched in the summer of 2010 to create a database of Latinorelated research and stories that will feed a website focusing on the ever-growing, diverse Latino communities within the United States.

Montemayor was editor of Texas Tech's campus newspaper, the University Daily, now the Daily Toreador, during the 1974-1975 year. In the summer of 1975, he took a job with The Dallas Times Herald as a staff writer. His most important body of work involved reporting and writing numerous stories involving the alleged civil rights violations of Mexican-Americans in Texas – most killed while in police custody. Montemayor was a member of reporting teams that twice were nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in 1977 and 1978, and one which earned a George Polk Award in 1978 for its coverage of these civil rights cases.

Montemayor joined The Los Angeles Times in November 1978 as a staff writer based in San Diego, Calif. The work of Montemayor and the Times team, which was awarded the 1984 Pulitzer Prize, was later published as a book. Montemayor co-authored the lead story in the series, as well as three other stories and was the most prolific staff writer involved in the project.

In 1986, Montemayor graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles, with a Master of Business Administration degree in marketing. During the next 22 years, he held a number of executive media and marketing management posts, working in mid- to upper-level managerial assignments at companies such as Dow Jones Inc., the McGraw-Hill Companies, and VNU Business Media. He has worked in virtually all aspects of media, including editorial, advertising, marketing, distribution, direct marketing in all forms, including consumer- and business-to-business marketing, and in the development and management of customer databases. He managed business operations in the United States and internationally. He is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese.

In 2004, Montemayor was the primary author of the book, "Right Before Our Eyes: Latinos Past, Present and Future," a 160-page treatment focusing on the economic, political and social impact of the largest and fastest growing ethnic group in the United States.

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