PRSA-LA Sunrise Honors

Program:

HONOREE BIO

Christopher Cathcart, CEO & Founder, OneDiaspora Group

Christopher D. Cathcart is a seasoned branding and public relations strategist with more than 37 years of experience helping individuals, organizations, and brands tell their stories with clarity and purpose. His distinguished career includes roles with major media powerhouses such as CNN, Motown Records, and Warner Bros. Television. In 1995, he founded OneDiaspora Group, a communications consulting firm that has served a diverse range of clients across entertainment, business, and public service sectors.

A proud graduate of Howard University, Cathcart is also an author, college professor, public speaker, and passionate advocate for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). Among his most meaningful projects is HBCU Experience – The Book, a celebrated collection of essays he co-edited that honors the vibrant legacy of Black college life.

Cathcart has served as an adjunct lecturer at California State University, Northridge, for more than nine years, where he teaches public relations and journalism courses to a diverse student body. He is also a part-time instructor for Syracuse University and the UCLA Extension program. In addition, he spent a decade as a faculty member at Columbia College Hollywood, a leading film and television school in the Los Angeles area, where he taught marketing and public relations.

Throughout his career, Cathcart has had the privilege of working with iconic artists including Stevie Wonder, Boyz II Men, Jill Scott, and Queen Latifah. He has trained more than 60 public figures in effective media communication and has delivered keynote addresses and workshops for organizations such as Verizon, Ross Stores, the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, Roblox, and dozens of colleges and universities, including USC, UCLA, Howard University, and numerous HBCUs across the country.

Cathcart is deeply committed to mentorship, volunteerism, and community uplift. He is the author of The Lost Art of Giving Back, a powerful guide to finding personal fulfillment through service. He has spent decades supporting youth and social causes, including long-standing work around HIV/AIDS awareness through the Black AIDS Institute, and the creation of Ledge, a lifestyle magazine for Black college students.

Whether speaking on branding, leadership, or the power of service, Christopher D. Cathcart remains dedicated to a singular mission: to inspire others to lead boldly, serve with purpose, and communicate with impact.

Laarni Rosca Dacanay, Senior Comms Leader, Entertainment & Media

Francisco Oaxaca, Chief, Communications and Community Relations, L.A. Care Health Plan

Francisco joined L.A. Care Health Plan, the largest publicly operated health plan in the country with 2.7 million members, in 2014 as Director of Communications. In 2016, he was promoted to Senior Director of Communications and Community Relations and in 2020 was promoted to Chief, Communications and Community Relations. In this role he reports to the Chief of Staff, is a member of the CEO’s Executive Leadership Team and serves on the organization’s Equity Council Steering Committee. He oversees a staff of over 150 responsible for the organization’s internal and external communications, provider communications, community relations and sponsorships programs, community outreach and engagement including oversight of 9 consumer advisory committees, a 16-member volunteer Health Promoters Program, and a network of 14 community resource centers. He also oversees all health plan public facing websites and social media channels, media relations, video production and photography services and crisis communications. He will complete by mid-2025 an effort to expand the health plan’s community resource center network across Los Angeles County to 14 in a first of its kind 10-year, over $300 million partnership between L.A. Care and Blue Shield of California Promise Health Plan. Prior to joining L.A. Care, he served as Director of Public Affairs at First 5 L.A., an independent Los Angeles County commission that is the leading funder of programs for families with young children in California.

Francisco earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Southern California, his Master’s in Business Administration from the University of Redlands and is a certified notary public. He also serves on the City of Rancho Cucamonga’s Enhanced Infrastructure Financing District Public Financing Authority board and on the board of Project Angel Food.

Monica Trasandes, Senior Director of Spanish-Language & Latinx Media & Representation, GLAAD

Monica Trasandes is the Senior Director of Spanish-Language & Latinx Media & Representation at GLAAD. Born in Uruguay and raised in San Diego, she studied International Relations at U.C. Santa Barbara and Writing at Emerson College. Monica has worked as a newspaper reporter and a magazine editor. She has published a novel (“Broken Like This”), short stories and essays and has written and produced several plays. Monica is proud to co-parent her wonderful 12-year-old daughter.

Monica was invited by the U.S. State Department to train embassy employees in Chile, activists in Guatemala and advocates participating in the U.S. International Visitors Council through the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State. She has been invited to give talks to journalism and communications students about LGBTQ issues at Stanford, USC, and Northwestern, among others. In 2023, she was part of the GLAAD delegation that traveled to the Vatican to meet privately with Pope Francis.

Her essays have been published in The Huffington Post (Latino Voices and Voces in Spanish); NBC Latino; Advocate.com, cnn.com and Writer’s Digest. Honors include: Telemundo’s  “Mujeres Imparables” campaign; Recognitions from the Latino Equality Alliance, the California State Legislature and the city of West Hollywood. Profiles include: “Two Latinas Making a Difference” on nbc.com, Latina Magazine and Hispanic Executive magazine.