Up from the barrio she's dedicated to help juveniles in justice system - comisionado del Departamento de Justicia Juvenil de Nueva York - TA: commissioner of the New York City Department of Juvenile Justice

Hispanic Times Magazine, May-June, 1997

What better role model for young people -- when juvenile intervention is indicated -- than a young Hispanic woman, born in the Barrio to a single parent on public assistance, who herself is a former gang member!

Meet Marta Moczo-Santiago, of Puerto Rican descent who incredibly, despite all the odds, turned her life around and currently serves as Commissioner of the New York City Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ). In that capacity, she stands ready to move mountains to improve the lives of young people who are misguided and at a crossroad in their lives.

The Department of Juvenile Justice is responsible for providing custody and care for youth referred to the detention system, while they await adjudication. DJJ is a concerned agency which

assesses each resident's needs, and develops an individualized service plan, and delivers such services during the young people's detention as well as after their release.

Ms. Marta Moczo-Santiago's professional achievements are but one dimension of a woman whose compassion, altruism and ethnic pride have prompted her into the role of community and political activist, with a life commitment to instill a sense of identity, a sense of pride and a motivation to achieve, in all with whom she comes in contact.

"I successfully escaped from poverty and obscurity as a result of the values I learned from my mother," Marta told this reporter. She also credits a public school chancellor for going out of his way to set her on the right track. One of the lessons she learned from that educator's intervention in her life, Marta recalls, is that although authority figures may offer guidance and assistance, it is the endangered person himself or herself who must make the effort at self-improvement.

Although some of her own young years were spent visiting her older brother when he was being held at the Spofford Juvenile Center in The Bronx, and then suffering through his early death, Marta went on to earn two college degrees, become a certified teacher, educational administrator and political and social activist. It was Mayor Giuliani who appointed her to the top DJJ job; and she indeed has the specialized training to bring to the Correction Department.

While a college student, Marta worked in organizing Hispanic migrant farm workers and founded El Mueso Escolar, an educational Museum on Puerto Rican and Hispanic culture.

She has been appointed by the President to the position of Director of Political Affairs for the Grand Council of Hispanic Societies in Public Service in 1992. Currently, she coordinates meetings between representatives of the Grand Council and Hispanic members of President Clinton's Cabinet -- and has established a supportive network to exert political pressure on the State Legislature and the EEO Commission to move forward with an agenda for Hispanic empowerment.

As Commissioner at DJJ, Marta is determined and goal-oriented, and recognizes that some 67 percent of the young people who become DJJ's responsibility started out either in foster care, or as victims of physical or sexual abuse.

"We must coordinate our intervention and maximize our expertise," she says. Marta Moczo-Santiago is hard at work to achieve those goals, to turn lives around, -- much as happened in her own life. She is truly a role model in the Hispanic community -- respected as a woman who has overcome every social obstacle.