Our Leader: Rosario Kennedy
Rosario’s initiative to rid our community of derelict structures being used by drug traffickers garnered the full support of the Miami Police Department and of then State Attorney Janet Reno. The program became nationally known as Rosario’s Crack Attack.
A Pioneer of Her Generation
Rosario was born in Havana, Cuba, as the granddaughter of the President of the Senate and the daughter of the last elected senator before Fidel Castro’s revolution. Her great grand-uncle, Mario Garcia Menocal, was President of Cuba and she counts 3 uncles and cousins as former Mayors of Havana. It came as no surprise that while she embarked as a business person as Vice President of Terremark Real Estate Development, she always found time to give back to her community.
Public Service
As Commissioner, Rosario championed many notable projects including the creation of the Scattered Affordable Housing Program, the redevelopment of the $30 Million Mildred and Claude Pepper Bayfront Park, and the procurement of set-asides for minority and women contractors. Together with Commissioners Sally Heyman and Natasha Seijas, Kennedy was instrumental in mandatory inclusion of mammogram screenings statewide through health insurance coverage. She also demolished over 400 abandoned homes being used as “crack houses” – each time mounting the bulldozer herself to make her point. The program became known nationally as “Rosario’s Crack Attack.”
Governor Bob Graham appointed Rosario to the “State of Florida Hospital Cost Containment Board”, which has regulatory authority over hospital’s budgets, where she was elected Chairperson. Under her leadership, the projected rate-of-increase for a hospital stay was reduced for the first time. Further appointments included the “Governor’s and Mayor’s Task Force on Prison Sites”, the City of Miami’s “Civil Service Board”, and Miami-Dade County’s “Commission on the Status of Women”, where she was elected its first Hispanic-American Chairperson. Governor Lawton Chiles appointed her to the Health and Human Services Board, where she was elected Chairperson by her peers and Mayor Steve Clark appointed her Co-Chairperson of the Host Committee for the 1995 National Conference of Mayors.
In June 1989, Rosario resigned her Commission seat to seek the Democratic nomination for the 18th Congressional District. Now, as a private citizen, she is actively involved in the community and is President of Rosario Kennedy & Associates, Corp., a governmental consulting firm that provides strategy and implementation on legislative issues for local and national clients.
Footprint in The Community
Rosario rightfully gained a positive reputation of listening to the community and acting to its benefit making her highly respected among its citizenry. She was selected by Mundo Latino, an international publication, “Florida Business Woman of The Year”. She is the recipient of Miami’s “Global Citizen’s Award”; the Women in Communications “Community Headliner Award”; the Y.W.C.A.’s “Urban Woman of the Year” Award; the Coalition of the Hispanic American Women’s “Woman of the Year” Award; the Latin Business and Professional Women’s Club “Woman of the Year” Award; the Miami Arts Exchange’s “Maxi Award”, the Latin Builders Association’s “Woman of the Year” Award; The Chron’s & Colitis Foundation’s “Woman of Distinction” Award; The American Cancer Society’s “Most Dynamic Woman of 1995” Award and the Dade County Coalition of Women’s History, “Women of Impact” Award. She has been inducted as a Dame of Malta and in the City of Miami’s “Miami Centennial ‘96 Women’s Hall of Fame”; nominated to the” Florida Women’s Hall of Fame” and is listed in “Who’s Who and Why of Successful Florida Women”, “Who’s Who and Why in the Latin Community”, “Who’s Who among Hispanic Americans”, “Quién es Quién” and “Julia’s Granddaughters”. A chapter in the book Miami, City of the Future is a chapter dedicated to her called “The Americanization of Rosario“.
Rosario co-hosts a fundraiser with Sylvester Stallone and President Bill Clinton.