Fatima Cortez
Fatima is a Nuyorican from an activist family, and has devoted herself to cultural activism. She’s experienced as a community organizer, performer, producer, exhibitor and healer.
She is the Executive Director of the Don Cornelius Foundation, having served on the founding Board since March 2012. The Foundation is dedicated to creating and supporting community programs for increased mental health services for awareness and prevention suicide.
She created the first therapy program for “bad boys” at Lincoln Hospital Mental Health Services of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the South Bronx, NY. At the University of Connecticut she completed her training as a Gestalt therapist by creating a Peer Counseling Training in her internship with the Office of Minority Affairs. In 1982, she founded the to teach people how to use the tools of therapy and share that skill with others. She has conducted national workshops including, which encouraged women to overcome fear as their obstacle for growth and self-determination. She also created and facilitated culturally sensitive training for crisis counselors at and the Mount Sinai Medical Center Rape Crisis Program.
As an actor, she toured nationally with the Rhode Island Feminist Theater, and in NYC with the Family Repertory Theater. Co‑founder of a federally funded program in the performing arts for 16‑21 year olds in Connecticut, she was the assistant to the director of the HBO all-star music video. Director of the Acting Out Teen Theater, she wrote and produced the rap rock music video by/for teens on sexual assault, which was recommended by the American Library Association for young audiences and was internationally distributed with for 14 years.
Executive Director of, she created and produced two international Film Festivals in 1990 and 1991. She was Associate Artistic Director of —showcasing 92 international film premieres—responsible for all aspects of film selection and programming at the Directors’ Guild of America. As Film Librarian and Distribution Program Associate for the, she provided films for AFI classes and staff programming, edited trailers and marketed student films to the U.S., the European short film market, and A&E network. In 1994 she was Director of Public Relations for the Cultural Festival of Unity
’94 – the in NYC.
Among her many honors, she’s earned recognition by Congresswoman Maxine Waters, former Speaker of the House of California, Willie Brown, a Certificate of Appreciation from the Beverly Hills/Hollywood NAACP, recognition by the NYC Task Force Against Sexual Assault, the as “local hero” for co-founding the Multicultural Alliance for Reproductive Rights and by the as “living history” for her civil rights work with Louisiana CORE, for which she received the Key to the City of Jonesboro, LA (2011). For the past fifteen years she has been part of documentaries as living history and speaks to schools and individual researchers as a member of the. She was interviewed for the BBC documentary about her participation in the March on Washington, which aired on PBS in August 2013. For the past fifteen years she has been part of documentaries as living history and speaks to schools and individual researchers as a member of the Civil Rights Veterans website Speakers Bureau.
Fatima is a Nuyorican from an activist family, and has devoted herself to cultural activism. She’s experienced as a community organizer, performer, producer, exhibitor and healer.
She is the Executive Director of the Don Cornelius Foundation, having served on the founding Board since March 2012. The Foundation is dedicated to creating and supporting community programs for increased mental health services for awareness and prevention suicide.
She created the first therapy program for “bad boys” at Lincoln Hospital Mental Health Services of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the South Bronx, NY. At the University of Connecticut she completed her training as a Gestalt therapist by creating a Peer Counseling Training in her internship with the Office of Minority Affairs. In 1982, she founded the to teach people how to use the tools of therapy and share that skill with others. She has conducted national workshops including, which encouraged women to overcome fear as their obstacle for growth and self-determination. She also created and facilitated culturally sensitive training for crisis counselors at and the Mount Sinai Medical Center Rape Crisis Program.
As an actor, she toured nationally with the Rhode Island Feminist Theater, and in NYC with the Family Repertory Theater. Co‑founder of a federally funded program in the performing arts for 16‑21 year olds in Connecticut, she was the assistant to the director of the HBO all-star music video. Director of the Acting Out Teen Theater, she wrote and produced the rap rock music video by/for teens on sexual assault, which was recommended by the American Library Association for young audiences and was internationally distributed with for 14 years.
Executive Director of, she created and produced two international Film Festivals in 1990 and 1991. She was Associate Artistic Director of —showcasing 92 international film premieres—responsible for all aspects of film selection and programming at the Directors’ Guild of America. As Film Librarian and Distribution Program Associate for the, she provided films for AFI classes and staff programming, edited trailers and marketed student films to the U.S., the European short film market, and A&E network. In 1994 she was Director of Public Relations for the Cultural Festival of Unity
’94 – the in NYC.
Among her many honors, she’s earned recognition by Congresswoman Maxine Waters, former Speaker of the House of California, Willie Brown, a Certificate of Appreciation from the Beverly Hills/Hollywood NAACP, recognition by the NYC Task Force Against Sexual Assault, the as “local hero” for co-founding the Multicultural Alliance for Reproductive Rights and by the as “living history” for her civil rights work with Louisiana CORE, for which she received the Key to the City of Jonesboro, LA (2011). For the past fifteen years she has been part of documentaries as living history and speaks to schools and individual researchers as a member of the. She was interviewed for the BBC documentary about her participation in the March on Washington, which aired on PBS in August 2013. For the past fifteen years she has been part of documentaries as living history and speaks to schools and individual researchers as a member of the Civil Rights Veterans website Speakers Bureau.
