Though it took over ten years for New York-Puerto Rican playwright and author Linda Nieves-Powell to decide to put aside her Business Administration degree and focus on pursuing fulltime her passion for playwriting, it was a dream that Linda conceptualized long before as a nine-year-old putting on plays in her backyard.

"I had no idea that this would become my profession," shared Linda. "I simply was doing what was fun and what came naturally."

Perhaps because it was such fun for her, Linda never seriously considered playwriting as a profession until she saw the actor John Leguizamo in the play Mambo Mouth.

"My life changed overnight. Seriously," said Linda. "He inspired me to get pen to paper and pursue my dream professionally and not as a hobby. He was the first Latino I saw that used theater as a way of sharing his Latino experience."

Today, Linda is the president and founder of New York-based Latino Flavored Productions, Inc. and the holder of a slew of national recognition and playwriting awards.

Through her company, Linda not only produces and stages "Latino-flavored English-language original works but she collaborates with fellow Latina writers and tailors productions to take on the road to college audiences and for corporate diversity programs.

Before long, Ramirez found herself vice president of a construction company. It was while she was managing the business that she noticed that everyone needed an extra boost of energy throughout the day, and it gave her an idea for a new venture.

"A lot of our employees were Latinos and all of us were drinking energy drinks, but I did not like the flavor available," said Ramirez. "I heard over and over again the same thing about the unpleasant flavors of the energy drink. So, I started thinking about developing a drink with a flavor that we recognize and enjoy, and adding to that more energy."

Not one to wait, Ramirez sprang into action and immediately started researching the market. What she found was that there was no energy drink targeting the growing Latino market nor taking advantage of the flavors Latinos are most familiar with, and more importantly like.

"Buzzed" by the potential of her idea, Ramirez quickly founded her company DLR Associates, Inc. and settled on a name for her new 16-ounce canned product, Potencia.

Flores, a 52-year-old lawyer with an Austin, Texas firm that represents clients who suffer from cancer caused by asbestos exposure, spends her spare time as president of the National Women's Political Caucus (NWPC).

Lulu Flores, president of the National Women's Political Caucus

Since the mission of the NWPC is to "recruit, train, elect or appoint pro-choice progressive women to office," Flores represented the NWPC on the Clinton campaign and worked in three states on the Senator's behalf.

"The National Women's Political Caucus was founded on the premise that ALL women should be represented and should be participants and leaders in the political arena," Flores said.

In fact, equality for females has always been something that Flores has striven for since she was a child growing up along the U.S.-Mexico border in Laredo, Texas.

A self-confessed tomboy, Flores, the youngest of nine children, played and competed with the neighborhood boys. In her senior year of high school, she lobbied for a girls' basketball team and not only won her case but became the team's co-captain.

"I instinctively knew that girls and women should have equal rights to do what they wanted to do and become what they wanted to be," Flores said. This is what I do today -- fighting for gender equality in society and in politics."