GMA correspondent in LA among ‘100 Most Influential Filipinas for 2013’

GMA-7 Los Angeles correspondent Janet Susan R. Nepales has been honored as one of the “100 Most Influential Filipina Women in the World for 2013” by the Filipina Women’s Network (FWN), a San Francisco-based private, non-profit organization.

Janet was recognized as one of the winners in the innovators and thought leaders category during a gala and awards night held recently at the Mark Hopkins InterContinental Hotel in San Francisco.
 
Last year, FWN, which is founded and operated to raise funding and awareness of the activities, careers and status of women of Philippine ancestry, recognized Janet as one of the “100 Most Influential Filipina Women in the US.”

 According to the FWN, the 100 Most Influential Filipina Women in the World Award “is a celebration of leadership, inspiration and achievement.”

“The award recognizes Filipina women who are influencing the face of leadership in the global workplace, having reached status for outstanding work in their respective fields and are recognized for their leadership, achievement and contributions to society, femtorship and legacy. The awardees are asked to femtor a young Pinay and bring her to the Filipina Summit,” it added.
 
Janet is the first and only Filipina member in the 70-year history of the prestigious Hollywood Foreign Press Association that, in addition to presenting the coveted Golden Globe Awards, which recognize excellence in film and television, is active in philanthropy.
 
Janet is also a supporter of the Search to Involve Pilipino Americans (SIPA), a non-profit organization headquartered in Los Angeles’ Historic Filipino Town that serves Filipino-Americans and other communities through youth development, health, economic and social services.
 
A Quezon City High School alumna, Janet has been handing out scholarships to deserving journalism students at her alma mater since 2007. The recipients of the “Janet Susan Rodriguez Nepales Journalism Awards,” chosen by the school, are journalism students who won writing awards in English (for the school paper “The Capitol”) and Tagalog (for “Ang Parola”). The aim of the “Janet Susan Rodriguez Nepales Journalism Awards” is to inspire young aspiring journalists to continue writing and fulfill their dreams of careers in journalism.
 
Janet is a member of the International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF), which is a vibrant global network dedicated to strengthening the role of women journalists as a way to further worldwide freedom of the press.
 
She is also a member of the National Association of Professional Women (NAPW) which is dedicated to providing an expansive and proprietary networking forum for professional women members to foster and facilitate new relationships, both socially and professionally.
 
Based in Los Angeles, Janet won first prize for “Outstanding Entertainment Category” in the 1st Plaridel Journalism Awards presented last October in South San Francisco by the Philippine American Press Club, USA, which is headed by Esther M. Chavez.
 
Last June, Janet won second prize in the Best Columnist/Critic-International Journalism category of the Los Angeles Press Club’s 55th Annual Southern California Journalism Awards held at the historic Millennium Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. A member of the Los Angeles Press Club, she won for her Hollywood Bulletin column titled “Barbra Streisand on Life, Success and Politics” in Manila Bulletin where she is an entertainment columnist.
 
She received the Journalist of the Year award in 2005 from Celebrity Chronicle, Journalist of the Month in 2007 from Asian PR-Wire, and Outstanding Alumna in Multi-Media 2008 from the QCHS Alumni Association. She graduated cum laude from the University of Santo Tomas with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism. She was the managing editor of the university paper, The Varsitarian, and was editor-in-chief of the College of Arts and Letters’ magazine, The Flame.
 
A photojournalist as well, Janet won first prize in the Asian Institute of Journalism’s photojournalism contest where she documented the 1981 visit of the late Pope John Paul II in the Philippines. Her photographs have been published in the Los Angeles Times.
 
She also writes a weekly column for Manila Bulletin, “Hollywood Bulletin,” a weekly column for Philippine News, “Dateline: Hollywood,” is a contributing editor of Candy Magazine in the Philippines, and a contributing editor of BALIKBAYAN magazine which is distributed around the world.
 
Janet was featured in Carina Monica Montoya’s book, “Filipinos in Hollywood,” as well as in Enrique R. Sadiosa and Pierre Tremblay’s “Mga Bagong Bayani, Book One, 2008,” which profiled outstanding Filipinos around the world.
 
A cum laude graduate in Journalism from the University of Santo Tomas, Janet is married to journalist and book author Ruben V. Nepales. They have two daughters, Bianca Nicole and Rafaella Angelica. — KBK, GMA News