Kalia Abiade is the Vice President of Programs at Pillars Fund, a national nonprofit organization that amplifies the leadership, narratives, and talents of Muslims in the United States. She is responsible for sharpening the organization’s vision and collaborating across the team to advance and execute Pillars’ mission and strategy. She draws on nearly two decades of experience advocating for equity and racial justice in media, policy, and philanthropy.

Prior to joining Pillars, Kalia served as an organizer and policy advocate, working on a range of issues including media accountability, immigrant and refugee rights, religious freedom, voter access, and civic participation. Through the Federal TRIO Programs—Upward Bound and Talent Search—she worked closely with high school students in Southwestern Virginia in their pursuit to become the first members of their families to graduate from college.

Kalia is a former newspaper journalist and editor, and her analysis has been cited in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Nation, National Public Radio, and the Associated Press, among other outlets. She currently serves on the board of Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees and is part of a national network of racial healing practitioners through the W.K. Kellogg Foundation TRHT initiative.

Kalia was raised in California, is a graduate of the University of Florida, and lives with her family in Chicago.

Dimple Abichandani is the Executive Director of the General Service Foundation (GSF), a private family foundation that supports organizations building power and advancing racial, gender and economic justice. Dimple joined General Service Foundation in 2015, bringing almost two decades of social justice experience advancing as a lawyer, funder and educator.

Prior to joining GSF, Dimple was the Executive Director of the Thelton E. Henderson Center for Social Justice at UC Berkeley School of Law. As the founding program officer of the Rise Together Fund at the Proteus Fund, Dimple managed a donor collaborative aimed at challenging post-9/11 Islamophobia and discrimination and restoring civil rights and liberties. Earlier in her career, Dimple worked at Legal Services NYC, firstas a staff attorney where she represented low wage workers and later as the Director of Program Development.

Dimple serves on the board of Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees and Northern California Grantmakers. She has also served on the boards of Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Asian Law Caucus, Forward Together and the Third Wave Foundation. Dimple earned a JD at Northeastern University School of Law, and a BA in English with Honors at the University of Texas at Austin.

As one of the Deputy Executive Directors at IRAP, Nisha oversees the departments of Policy, Communications, and Legal Strategy, and is building IRAP’s new climate refugee movement.

Previously, Nisha served as Commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs since the beginning of the de Blasio Administration, building landmark initiatives like IDNYC, the City’s municipal identification card, and Cities for Action, a national advocacy coalition of local elected officials. For the second term of de Blasio’s administration, Nisha took on the role of Senior Advisor to the Deputy Mayor to boost civic engagement among New Yorkers and build DemocracyNYC’s efforts on immigration, people with disabilities, and justice involved communities. A child of immigrants from India, she became a public interest lawyer out of Harvard Law School, leading the Health Justice Program at the New York Lawyers for the Public Interest in 2006. She later was the deputy director and co-founder of the Center for Popular Democracy and the executive director of the Immigrant Justice Corps.

Nisha received her A.B., summa cum laude in Social Studies, in Harvard College in 2000; a British Marshall Scholarship in Oxford University, St. Antony’s College in 2003; and a J.D. at Harvard Law School in 2006, where she received a Skadden Fellowship.

Nisha is a member of the New York bar. She enjoys gaming, travel and cats.

Fahd Ahmed is the Executive Director of DRUM - Desis Rising Up & Moving, which organizes low-income South Asian & Indo-Caribbean immigrants, workers, and youth in NYC for racial, economic, immigrant, educational, gender, and global justice.

Faisal Al-Juburi leads the philanthropy team at RAICES, a migrant justice not-for-profit that provides holistic legal and social services, direct representation and litigation, and grassroots organizing and advocacy in Texas, in federal courts across the country, and in the halls of Congress. A strategist committed to advancing social justice through activist philanthropy, Faisal has positioned public and private partnerships in the not-for-profit sector for over 15 years. Previous credits include negotiating the merger of Bridges of Understanding into Soliya, a pioneer in Virtual Exchange education; heading the environmental initiative MillionTreesNYC; serving as a corporate relations specialist at the Kennedy Center, where he advised on Arabesque: Arts of the Arab World; and working with Ford’s Theatre to launch a $60 million campaign that reinvented the historic site as an education campus. Standing at the intersection of art and administration, Faisal has also executive produced myriad experiential tributes in honor of trailblazing global citizens and creative-directed the 70th anniversary celebration of Rodgers & Hammerstein's South Pacific, featuring immigrant rights activist Jose Antonio Vargas. A first generation Iraqi American, Faisal holds degrees in communication (MS) from NYU and history (BA) from UVA. He resides in Manhattan, where he serves on the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors for Rosie’s Theater Kids alongside the organization’s namesake Rosie’ O’Donnell.

Born to Sudanese parents and raised in northern Virginia, Azza’s passion for community organizing and cross-movement solidarity stems from her upbringing. Over the past several years, Azza has immersed herself in Disability Justice learning, organizing, and advocacy, and they are committed to envisioning new approaches to movement work that values rest, sustainability, and joy.

In their full time capacity Azza is a senior policy manager at Liberation in a Generation, a national movement support organization building the power of people of color to totally transform the economy—who controls it, how it works, and most importantly, for whom. Previously, Azza was a senior program manager at the Groundwork Collaborative and a research and advocacy manager at the Center for American Progress' disability policy project, where she focused on mental health policy, surveillance, and advancing economic security for disabled people.

In addition to their full time work, Azza serves as an advisory committee member for the Center for Democracy and Technology’s project on algorithmic fairness and disability rights, and an advisory council member for “Raising the Bar: Health Care’s Transforming Role,” a multi-year health equity project. Azza is also involved in various community organizing projects and formations, including local labor organizing efforts by public sector workers in northern VA.

Nomzana Augustin is the Senior Manager for Partnerships and Strategic Initiatives at the WES Mariam Assefa Fund who are a binational immigrant and refugee funder in the United States and Canada through grants, impact investments, and co-funding partnerships. Nomzana leads the Fund’s external and internal engagements and partnerships, applying a racial equity and justice lens to fund solutions targeting immigrant and refugee students, social entrepreneurs, and proximate leaders. As an African immigrant to the United States, Nomzana brings a profound understanding of the needs and solutions required to integrate and support immigrants and refugees. Previously, Nomzana oversaw and supported domestic and international economic development and equity-focused initiatives, grant programs, and partnerships at Save the Children, FHI360, and Management Leadership for Tomorrow (MLT). Nomzana received her bachelor's degree in business administration from California Lutheran University and her master's degree in public policy from Johns Hopkins University. She currently lives in Washington, D.C.

My name is Nataly Avendano, 21 years old, I’m a DACA recipient. I first got involved with Mano Amiga when I helped organize the campaign to free my father from an ICE Detention Center in 2018. I realized my words had power when I stood in front of Beto O’rouke pleading him to help me get my dad released and when I went to Will Hurd’s office to plea him to take action to not separate my family. After freeing my own dad I saw the power my actions had and that our pleas to our office representatives make a difference. It makes a powerful difference when all of us come together and organize to help minority and marginalized groups of people. I fell in love with the organizing world and the commitment Mano Amiga has to offer to help the local immigrant and criminalized community. I have hope I will continue my education and get a degree in Criminal Justice. 

Murad is a strategist, organizer, and advocacy expert currently serving as the Executive Director at the New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC). The son of Palestinian immigrants, Murad has dedicated over two decades of his life fighting for low-income communities of color across the State of New York. He grew up organizing to stop dangerous and hazardous developments in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, and engaging community residents to build power and bring transformational change to their neighborhoods. As the NYIC's Executive Vice President of Advocacy & Strategy he successfully led electoral, legislative, and policy campaigns at the federal, state and local levels, and mobilized hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers at demonstrations against anti-immigrant policies. As the Executive Vice President of NYIC Action, the NYIC’s sister 501(c)4 political advocacy and action organization, he has successfully led grassroots electoral campaigns to elect progressive candidates. Murad has been featured in VICE and the Huffington Post, and was honored with a U.S Congressional Recognition, and Public Service Awards from the NYS Senate and Assembly. He serves as a Trustee of the New York University Family Health Centers Board, as a member of the Justice 2020 Committee, and as Commissioner of the New York City Civic Engagement Commission. 

Sheila (she/her/hers) joined the RISE Together Fund team in February 2018. In addition to making grants to approximately 15 grassroots organizations, Sheila leads RISE Together Fund's civic engagement and gender justice portfolios, ensuring that grassroots immigrant, refugee and BAMEMSA leaders have access to stronger data, resources and leadership support. Before joining RISE Together Fund, Sheila served as Program Director at California Bar Foundation, where she launched a statewide Legal Fellowship program which helped to build capacity for legal aid while generating career entry points for law students and attorneys of diverse backgrounds. Sheila received her J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania and her B.A. from the University of Arizona.

With over 20 years of experience in global nonprofit social entrepreneurship, organizing, and legal advocacy, Amalia has worked to advance the rights of immigrants and refugees around the world—including in Ecuador, Egypt, Tanzania, Thailand and across the United States. As a Fulbright Scholar in Turkey and through work at Jesuit Refugee Services, the ACLU, Amnesty International and other organizations, Amalia has launched several initiatives that continue to provide aid and advocacy for vulnerable people around the globe.

Amalia is a licensed lawyer in California and while receiving her Juris Doctor degree at Washington College of Law, she co-founded Asylum Access, an international nonprofit fighting for the rights of refugees in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Amalia was born in Venezuela and raised in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Juanita is a member of the Maya Mam Nation from the Western Highlands of Guatemala. She is a survivor of the internal armed conflict in Guatemala and a former political refugee. She has both personal and professional work experience in the defense of Indigenous peoples’ human rights. Her focus has been to use international law and organizations and traditional knowledge for the development of an Indigenous human rights response in the areas of immigration, land rights, and environmental protection. She works with Maya leaders and elders in Guatemala and the United States through their traditional institutions. The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is a key pillar to her work advocating for standards to advance Indigenous peoples'rights. She holds a Master of International Public Policy from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. 

Davin Cardenas is the Director of Organizing with North Bay Jobs With Justice. He has lived in Sonoma County since 1999, graduated from Sonoma State University with a BA in Liberal Studies, and has been a community organizer for over 18 years, organizing immigrant and faith based communities for social, ecological, and economic justice. He has been trained in popular education, as well as Alinsky-ian organizing methodologies, and believes that solutions abound when we listen to the land, and listen to the workers. He is currently organizing farmworkers in Sonoma County in response to wildfires, and at the intersection of climate crisis and worker dignity.

Nancy Cárdenas Peña is a policy expert and an organizer at heart advocating at the intersection of im/migration and reproductive healthcare with a desire to see communities exercise their full bodily autonomy. She currently works at the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice (Latina Institute) as the Texas State Director for Policy and Advocacy. Born and raised in the Rio Grande Valley, she lived in Mexico before returning to the United States and continuing her public education. Nancy graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a degree in political science. She worked for the City of Austin developing and promoting the passage of local level reproductive healthcare initiatives and served on the Commission for Women. She is also a part of the Texas We Testify cohort, a group of abortion storytellers seeking to advance narratives around abortion access. Nancy is a board member of the Frontera Fund, an abortion fund that exclusively serves the Rio Grande Valley withpractical support and abortion needs.

Cathleen is an attorney with over twenty years of human rights experience in the United States and abroad. Prior to launching Justice in Motion (formerly known as Global Workers Justice Alliance), she was in East Timor where she directed a national needs assessment of the human trafficking situation for the Alola Foundation, chaired by East Timor’s First Lady.

Additionally, Cathleen worked in Florida as a staff attorney with the Migrant Farmworker Justice Project, successfully litigating class action employment cases on behalf of foreign migrant farmworkers. She also consulted with Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative on labor migration issues, run by the former President of Ireland, Mary Robinson. Before entering law school, she worked inGuatemala for over three years where she assisted Guatemalan lawyers in domestic human rights litigation, researched the needs of internally displaced persons in urban squatter settlements, and directed a regional indigenous rights program for the United Nations.

Cathleen is a summa cum laude graduate of the American University Washington College of Law and Dartmouth College. Several institutions have lauded her lifetime commitment to human rights. From her law school she received the Outstanding Law Graduate Award and the Peter Cicchino Award for Outstanding Public Advocacy, as a student then again as an alumnus. Her undergraduate institution awarded her the Martin Luther King Jr. Social Justice Award for Ongoing Commitment. In 2010, the American Constitutional Society bestowed her the David Carliner Public Interest Award.

Janay (Jani Cauthen) has been a member of Families For Freedom (FFF) since 2005. She is the former wife of deported immigrant rights activist Jean Montrevil. It was Janay’s hard work that kept Jean free for over 13 years until he was unjustly deported on January 16, 2018. They are both co-founders of New York’s New Sanctuary Movements. The daughter of a Jamaican immigrant father who also struggled with the broken immigration system, Janay has a love for advocacy against injustices. Janay is the current board co-chair of FFF and has served many roles with the organization since she started as an intern. Janay attended and successfully completed the speakers bureau. She has represented FFF for several years at Detention Watch Network conferences in various states, including as chair of the board. Janay has also been very active in showing her strong love and dedication on serval news and media outlets. She has volunteered on several occasions, including putting together FFF's last fundraiser. Janay has a B.A. in Liberal Arts and Social Work. 

Francisco Cedillo is one of the founders of Living Hope and has served as the financial coordinator for many years. Francisco is currently interim co-director, leading Living Hope in its program work and keeping the administration of the organization going. Francisco lives in Houston with his wife Maria and their son Danny.

Chávez-Peterson is an integral member of San Diego’s civil rights community, with nearly two decades of visionary leadership, organizing and advocacy experience in California’s second-most populous county and southern borderlands. She joined the ACLU of San Diego & Imperial Counties (“ACLU SDIC”) as organizing director in 2012, and became the affiliate’s executive director in 2013. She was instrumental in creating the ACLU SDIC’s integrated advocacy campaign to advance priority issues such as criminal justice reform, police accountability and immigrant rights. Under her leadership, ACLU SDIC staff size has more than doubled to forty dedicated professionals who work with, and within diverse communities to build power together. Further, the affiliate expanded its presence in the Imperial Valley, establishing an Imperial County office in January 2018.

Prior to joining the ACLU, Chávez-Peterson was executive director of Justice Overcoming Boundaries, a collaborative network of faith, community, education, business and labor partners she co-founded to advance social justice. She currently serves on the boards of Partners For Progress and Engage San Diego; and most recently, helped to launch the San Diego Rapid Response Network.

In her annual Salute to Women Leaders, California Assemblymember Shirley N. Weber, Ph.D. named Chávez-Peterson the 79th District’s Woman of the Year for 2017, saying “Norma demonstrates the kind of strong, passionate, visionary and effective leadership we need so desperately right now to protect the rights of our most vulnerable residents.”

Norma Chávez-Peterson attended San Diego State University where she earned a BA in Political Science and Chicano/a Studies. She is married and lives with her family in Chula Vista.

Amanda is responsible for overseeing people, culture, and systems at Stardust. Prior to joining Stardust, Amanda was the CEO of The Simmons Foundation where she led the development of a unique, justice-focused philanthropic strategy that invested over $25M in Texas. Amanda serves as a board member for The Houston Immigration Legal Services Collaborative and Co-Chair of Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees. In addition, she is on advisory councils for Funders for LGBTQ Issues -Out in the South Initiative, Grantmakers for Southern Progress and The University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work. Amanda holds a BA in Political Science focused on Women’s Studies from The University of Houston anda Graduate Certificate in Nonprofit Management from the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University. Amanda is based in Houston.

Mary Cruz is a Program Manager at the Durfee Foundation. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Politics and Latin American Studies from the University of San Francisco. Mary’s ties to social change lie at the intersection of immigrant justice and language access, stemming from her experience growing up as the daughter of Indigenous Zapotec immigrants.

Prior to the Durfee Foundation, Mary worked with the California Immigrant Policy Center (CIPC) where she supported CIPC’s government affairs, policy, and advocacy work in Sacramento. Mary has also advocated for immigrant rights in the Bay Area and Los Angeles with organizations including La Raza Centro Legal, University of San Francisco law clinic, and the Law Offices of Curiel & Parker where she has worked to address the intersections of social inequities impacting immigrant and low-income communities.

Mary currently serves on the steering committee of Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy’s Los Angeles Chapter. She is a member of the California Immigrant Integration Initiative (CIII) collaborative hosted by Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees (GCIR). In 2019 Mary was selected as a Hispanics in Philanthropy (HIP) Líderes Fellow, based on her commitment to racial equity and social justice.

Danny Diaz is a campaign strategist and organizer advancing the power of immigrant and working families to harness policy to win transformative change. Born and raised in the Rio Grande Valley, he serves as LUPE's Director of Organizing wherehe leads campaigns on immigrant justice, family unity, and to win thriving neighborhoods. Previous to this role, Danny managed Jessica Cisneros’s insurgent progressive primary campaign in South Texas’ 28th Congressional District. He also led LUPE’s policyefforts during a major mobilization that secured streetlights and flooding protection for RGV colonias, and recently led efforts against Governor Abbott's border disaster declaration that intended to further criminalize asylum seekers. Danny attended La Joya ISD schools, and graduated with a degree in History from the University of Arkansas.

Kevin Douglas (he/him/his) joined GCIR in 2019 and has more than 13 years of experience in the nonprofit sector. He most recently worked as the Co-Director of Policy and Advocacy for United Neighborhood Houses of New York, a network of New York City’s settlement houses and community centers. While there, he led advocacy campaigns that resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in investments in community services by city and state governments. His areas of focus included immigrant opportunity, youth education and skill building, nonprofit contracting, older adult programs, and community services at large. As a consultant, he developed and led what is believed to be the first training in Saudi Arabia for the philanthropic and nonprofit community on effective advocacy techniques.

Kevin was named one of New York Nonprofit Media’s 40 under 40 and a Next Generation Leader by the Human Services Council. He co-founded the giving circle 100 New Yorkers Who Care, and has served on several boards, including the New York Immigration Coalition. Kevin earned an MSW from the University of Pennsylvania and a BSW from Eastern Connecticut State University. He enjoys spending time with his wife and two cats, and can often be found in the outdoors running or cycling.

José Eduardo Sánchez has spent the last 12 years collaborating with communities to create, transform, and reclaim public space – as a community organizer, language worker, and socially engaged artist. He is a national leader in worker organizing and workplace campaigns and has held key roles at Fe y Justicia Worker Center, Workers Defense Project, Young Invincibles, and the Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance. In 2020, José Eduardo co-founded Tecolotl, an immigrant/queer/trans/poc-led consulting and capacity-building collective cultivating language justice, popular education, and relational infrastructure to transform the public project ecosystem. José Eduardo also specializes in the creation of multilingual spaces and works with local, national, and international organizations as an interpreter, translator, and language justice consultant. He is a former Art & Social Engagement Fellow at Project Row Houses - UH KGMCA, a Greensboro Justice Fund Fellow at the Highlander Center, and an inaugural fellow at the Dennis deLeon Language Justice Institute. José Eduardo is originally from Guanajuato, Mexico and now calls Houston, Texas home. 

For more than 25 years, Katharine (she/her) has worked to enhance arts, career, and education opportunities for young people. She has developed innovative programs in schools, housing projects, and detention facilities. Her work with young people has been highlighted in college textbooks, literary anthologies, magazines, and national newspapers, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Pod Save America, Harvard Educational Review, PRI’s The World, KQED, San Francisco Chronicle, and Fast Company.

Outside of her work with Immigrants Rising, Katharine serves on the board of Horizons at San Francisco Friends School, TheDream.US, and the Underground Scholars Initiative at UC Berkeley. She was previously board president of the California Immigrant Policy Center (CIPC) and advisor to the Nelson Fund at The Silicon Valley Community Foundation, where she oversaw the fund’s philanthropic investments in arts and education.

Katharine was born and raised in San Francisco, and received her BA from Yale University and MFA from the University of Oregon. She is the proud descendant of Chinese immigrants, who first came to the U.S. in the 1860s to work in the gold mines of California and later during the restrictive Chinese Exclusion Acts. She is also mother to Anna Dido Nordeson and partner to Kjell Nordeson.

Dr. Gloria Gonzales-Dholakia is the Executive Director of Jolt Initiative and Jolt Action. Gloria is a first generation to college Tejana committed to equity and underrepresented communities. Gloria was the first Latina elected as a school board trustee for her local public school district. She continues to dovetail her passion for innovation, equity and inclusion, and education as a community organizer and volunteer. She believes in the power of people unified working for a greater good.

Meghna leads the grants strategy to strengthen residents’ access to civic and electoral processes. She collaborates with leaders from nonprofits, public entities, and philanthropy to increase voter participation and immigrant civic integration. Bringing the region’s best minds together to solve complex problems is among the most rewarding aspects of Meghna’s work.

Collaborating across sectors to tackle tough issues is her lifelong pursuit. She has worked in community development, gender equity, immigrant rights, and affordable housing. Prior to joining Houston Endowment in 2010, Meghna led counseling and client services for Daya, an organization working with South Asian survivors of domestic violence in Houston.

Originally from India, Meghna has called Houston her home since 2003. In her spare time, she loves exploring Houston, traveling off the beaten path to non-touristy destinations, and spending time with her husband and two sons.

Meghna holds an undergraduate degree in economics from Delhi University, India, and a graduate degree in social work from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in India. She is a licensed social worker in the state of Texas.

Lisa Graybill oversees NILC’s litigation and legal advocacy activities. She joined NILC in 2020 after having served, most recently, as a deputy legal director at the Southern Poverty Law Center and, previously, as the legal director of the ACLU of Texas and a trial attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division. Lisa also taught at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law, focusing on civil rights and immigration issues. She is a graduate of Smith College and the University of Texas School of Law. Raised in San Antonio, Lisa speaks English and Spanish.

Joy Green is the Legal Director for Justice for all Immigrants (JFAI), which is part of the National Justice for our Neighbors Network. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Rice University and her Juris Doctor from Tulane University Law School. While in college, she spent a semester abroad at the University of Havana in Cuba. Prior to working with JFAI, Joy spent four years in private practice in Dallas, Texas with a law firm that exclusively specializes in immigration law. There she represented individuals across the United States with family based immigration, removal defense, naturalization, and humanitarian relief. Joy is a member of the State Bar of Texas, the Texas Bar College, and the American Immigration Lawyers Association. She previously served on the Executive Committee of the Houston Immigration Legal Services Collaborative. Prior to starting her legal career, Joy was a public school teacher. She is proficient in Spanish.

Stephanie Guilloud is originally from Houston, Texas with roots in Alabama. Stephanie is an organizer with over 25 years of experience and leadership in global justice work and community organizing. At Project South, Stephanie works closely with Southeast regional organizing projects, the Southern Movement Assembly, and membership programs. Stephanie worked as the National Co-Chair of the Peoples Movement Assembly Working Group of the US Social Forum from 2008-2013. She served on the board of Southerners On New Ground (SONG), a multiracial queer organization, from 2005-2014. Stephanie is the editor of two anthologies: Through the Eyes of the Judged; Autobiographical Sketches from Incarcerated Young Men and Voices from the WTO; First-person Narratives from the People who Shut Down the World Trade Organization.

Nana Gyamfi is the Executive Director of Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI), the largest Black-led social justice organization representing the nearly 10 million Black immigrants, refugees, and families living in the U.S. A Movement attorney for the past 25 years, Nana is co-founder of Justice Warriors 4 Black Lives and Human Rights Advocacy, both dedicated to fighting for human rights and Black liberation. She is the current President of the National Conference of Black Lawyers, and a member of the Movement for Black Lives Policy Table. Nana is a former professor in the Pan African Studies Department at California State University Los Angeles, and has long been a sought after voice for legal and political insight into issues affecting Black communities. She has appeared in documentaries and other media, including Tales of the Grim Sleeper and Democracy Now! With Amy Goodman.

Jennifer Harbury is an author, activist and attorney who has worked to promote basic human rights in the United States and Central America since 1978. She is a member of the Angry Tiasand Abuelas, a group dedicated to the dignity, safety and well being if migrant families on both sides if the Rio Grande. Her current work with the Angry Tias is full time.

Taryn Higashi is the Executive Director of Unbound Philanthropy, which she joined as the first staff in 2008. Taryn has helped Unbound grow into a significant actor in building just and vibrant societies in the US and UK where all of us, including immigrants and refugees, can flourish. The foundation has co-founded numerous vibrant institutions, such as the Pop Culture Collaborative, to unleash the superpowers of pop culture to build widespread public yearning for a pluralist culture. In 2019, Unbound was awarded the Mover and Shaker Award for Bold Peer Organizing from the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy. Prior to Unbound, Taryn managed the migrant and refugee rights portfolio and was Deputy Director of the human rights unit at the Ford Foundation, where in 2003 she co-founded the Four Freedoms Fund, a collaborative that has re-granted more than $190 million to state and local immigrant organizations. Taryn has received numerous recognitions for her work, including the 2008 Scrivner Award for Creative Grantmaking from the Council on Foundations (shared with Geri Mannion of the Carnegie Corporation). Taryn is the Board Chair of the International Refugee Assistance Project, a former chair of the Advisory Board of the International Migration Initiative at OSF, and a former co-Chair of GCIR.

Sandy Ho is a visionary disabled community organizer with a long standing commitment to grassroots disability activism and advocacy. Sandy is the program director of the Disability Inclusion Fund at Borealis Philanthropy. She is the founder and co-organizer of the Disability & Intersectionality Summit, a biennial national conference that uplifts and celebrates the lived experiences of disabled people of color. In 2015 Sandy was recognized as a White House Champion of Change for her work with the Thrive Program in Massachusetts, a mentoring program for young women with disabilities who were mentored by older disabled women. Prior to joining Borealis Philanthropy, Sandy was the research project manager at the Community Living Policy Center at Brandeis University where she expanded the capacity and facilitated partnerships to support national disability-led policy research. She is the co-partner in the Access is Love campaign that she leads with Alice Wong and Mia Mingus. Her essay Canfei to Canji: The Freedom of Being Loud is included in the anthology Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century edited by Alice Wong. Sandy's approach to movement-building is driven by a future where all justice-informed work includes dismantling the structural, systemic, and social consequences of ableism, and that a just world is one where disabled people are thriving. She identifies as a disabled queer Asian American woman, and obnoxious Red Sox fan. 

LaToya Johnson, LMSW is the Organizing Director at the New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice. She is also a forensic social worker. Toya stands on the shoulders of multiple generations of elders that helped shape her decision to center her work on gender, racial, and economic justice. As a native New Orleanian and social worker, she believes that the foundation of any healthy and vibrant community is the well-being of all its residents. Her interests lie in providing effective, gender and racially specific programming for Black women who need to protect and nurture their mental health while also confronting the many political, social, and economic barriers they face daily. She received her B.A. in Political Science from the University of New Orleans and her MSW from Southern University at New Orleans. Toya enjoys traveling, especially internationally, and her love for food and music festivals is only topped by backyard BBQs and lounge sessions.

Guerline Jozef dedicates her life to bringing awareness to issues that affect us all locally and globally such as Immigration, Domestic Violence, Child Sexual abuse, human rights violations.

Ms. Jozef is the co-founder and executive director of Haitian Bridge Alliance (HBA), a US-based nonprofit organization that advocates for fair and humane immigration policies. HBA provides migrants and immigrants with humanitarian, deportation defense, legal, and social services. It has a particular focus on Black migrants from the Caribbean and Africa, the Haitian community, women and girls, LGBTQA+ individuals, and survivors of torture and other human rights abuses.

Ms. Jozef is also the co-founder of the Black Immigrants Bail Fund, which provides free assistance and relief to black immigrantsshe is also the Founding Member of the Cameroon Advocacy Network (CAN) fighting to get TPS and other protection for our Cameroonian community members.

For her leadership, she has been the recipient of prestigious awards—most recently, the Las Americas’ 2021Border Heroes Award, 2021 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award, and 2022 NationalHaitian-American Elected Officials Network Community Champion Award.

Her motto in life is “Anpil Men Chay Pa Lou” (Haitian Creole -many hands lighten the load). 

Angie Junck is the director of the Human Rights program at the Heising-Simons Foundation. Prior to joining the Foundation in 2018, Angie was the director of Immigrant Defense Programs and Supervising Attorney at the Immigrant Legal Resource Center (ILRC) for over 13 years. In that role, she led a state and federal policy agenda and programs on crim/imm, immigration enforcement, and immigrant youth.

Under her leadership, Angie strengthened the capacity of organizations and entities in California and across the country, and she incubated and led multi-issue collaboratives and campaigns engaging a variety of partners, resulting in innovative state and local models and policies to address criminalization, incarceration, and deportation. Prior to ILRC, Angie worked in the law offices of Norton Tooby and at Van Der Hout, Brigagliano & Nightingale, in both cases working on complex immigration law issues.

She currently serves on the boards of directors of Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees (GCIR), Al Otro Lado, Human Rights Watch’s U.S. program, and California Coalition for Women Prisoners. Angie has also previously served on several other commissions and boards, including the American Bar Association’s Immigration Commission, and has served as the co-chair of the American Bar Association’s Criminal Justice Section’s Immigration Committee, and as an advisory member for the California Alliance for Youth and Community Justice, Center for Immigration and Child Welfare, and California Coalition for Women Prisoners. Angie earned a Juris Doctor degree from the University of California, Hastings, and a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley.

Sally Kinoshita is the ILRC’s Deputy Director based in San Francisco, California. In this role, she weaves together more than 20 years of nonprofit experience in immigration law, capacity building, advocacy, program development, and collaborative facilitation. Sally has provided immigration legal technical assistance, training, and facilitation to groups on local, state, and national levels and has co-authored a number of practice manuals and publications.

Prior to working at the ILRC, Sally was a Staff Attorney at Asian Law Caucus and a consultant with ASISTA, the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild and Family Violence Prevention Fund/Futures Without Violence. During law school, she worked with the UC Davis Immigration Law Clinic, Northern California Coalition for Immigrant Rights, ACLU of Northern California, and California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation.

Sally is currently a member of the Leadership Council of Immigrants Rising and has served as a Federal Bar Association Immigration Law Section Advisory Board Member and Central Valley Immigrant Integration Collaborative (CVIIC) Steering Committee Member.

Sally earned her law degree from the University of California at Davis. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of California at Berkeley, where she majored in sociology. She is admitted to the California bar.

As the Executive Director of HILSC, Zenobia leads the strategic vision of the Collaborative through facilitating meaningful collaboration among members, amplifying funding available to member organizations and leading grant-making processes, implementing creative solutions to issues affecting Houston’s immigration legal services providers, and building strategic partnerships.

Zenobia is a seasoned civil legal services lawyer who has worked with low-income immigrant communities throughout the country. She has centered her career on making legal services available to those who lack financial resources, political power, English proficiency, or knowledge of the American legal system. Zenobia helped coin the term “community lawyering,” leveraging resources from private law firms and other professionals to help low-income communities make systemic changes. She is both a practitioner and an educator, helping design training curricula, train trainers, conduct numerous lawyering skill trainings to the legal services community, as well as preparing aspiring law students and human services professionals for career growth as an adjunct professor at University of Massachusetts-Boston for 7 years. Prior to her legal career, Zenobia was a broadcast journalist in Hong Kong. She also helped run a Cantonese cable television show for more than two decades in Malden, Massachusetts

Fernanda Maldonado is a first-generation Texan born and raised in both cities of the Laredo, Texas-Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas border. She graduated from Texas State University in 2019 with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and a minor in Journalism. During her time there, she interned with local publications in Laredo and San Marcos, which sparked an interest in community-centered conversations and local politics. Prior to graduating, she joined MOVE Texas as part of a Field Organizing Fellowship during her senior year in the Fall of 2018, where her passion for civic engagement and organizing flourished, after registering hundreds of students and joining the fight, along with the Texas Civil Rights Project, to secure a polling location for students on campus during the 2018 midterm election. After graduation, she joined the MOVE Texas staff and helped dramatically shift the MOVE landscape in Central Texas as Austin Field Organizer for about two years. As of January 2021, Fernanda now leads the statewide operations for the entire Field department in areas of youth voter registration, civic education, campus organizing, and much more as their Field Director.

Sebastian Margaret is an anti –ableism and disability community educator, capacity builder and strategist. They are the senior national organiserof the Disability Project at the Transgender Law Center which seeks to magnifies the leadership, collective power, and visibility of LGBTQ disabled/Deaf/ill constituents.

A disabled TGNC queer, Sebastian was raised in Yorkshire and are informed richly bywhite working-class racial justice values and by coming of age in the pushback to Thatcher’s Britain. Arriving in the US fleeing organised right-wing violence,Sebastian has been kept deliciously exhausted and hopeful parenting a pair of gorgeous kids, both of who are now far, far taller than they. They are passionate about the validity and inherent glory of imperfect body and minds, our right to body sovereignty and the critical need for disabled leadership. Sebastian works to highlight the exclusion, criminalisation, exploitation, and oppression experienced by disabled communities; particularly those living at the fore-front of disposable and the cross-hairs of eugenics and population control . They have been working to insert and reveal disability justice values in multiple justice movements, while supporting multi –issue capacity and vibrancy in disability communities for decades. You can often find Sebastian inventing fictious names for their service dog as an act of quiet resistance to everyday ableism, while clutching tight to a good cup ‘o tea.

Rae Martinez is a native San Antonian that currently serves as the Texas Rising Senior Director at the Texas Freedom Network and is the Board Treasurer for the Transgender Education Network of Texas. in 2013, they got their start by activating for a non-discrimination ordinance inclusive of gender identity/expression and sexual orientation. After which, a whole world of organizing was opened for them. They currently lead one of the largest youth organizing programs in the state through Texas Rising and is working to build power among young people of color in Texas by registering, educating, and activating young voters on issues that matter most to them. 

Cairo Mendes (he/him) joined GCIR in October 2021. He is a queer-Latinx-undocumented organizer, facilitator, and community builder who has been an active leader in social justice spaces for 10 years. Prior to GCIR, Cairo was Co-Director at Access Strategies Fund and Senior Associate at The Boston Foundation, where he authored a framework to guide investments toward social justice movements and deepen the foundation’s relationship with organizing and advocacy groups. In his current role at GCIR, Cairo is committed to pushing philanthropy to be more representative, transparent, and accountable to the communities it aims to support.

Cairo began his journey as an immigrant rights activist with the Student Immigrant Movement (SIM), one of the first undocumented youth-led groups in the country. During his time as a community organizer, Cairo co-led anti-deportation and education equity campaigns, and was responsible for overseeing recruitment, team management, media, and the design and facilitation of SIM’s programs. Cairo was also an active national leader through United We Dream.

Cairo has served as a fellow and advisory board member of Young People For, a member of the New Leaders Council 2019 Boston Cohort, a board member of the Boston Alliance of LGBTQ+ Youth, and a member of the community investments committee at The Lenny Zakim Fund. He is a recipient of El Mundo’s 30 Under 30 Award and the Princeton Prize in Race Relations.

In his spare time, Cairo likes to draw, write, and learn how to cook and bake (especially pão de queijo). He also loves traveling, watching corny Netflix movies with his friends and family, and playing with his beloved dog, Snoopy.

Adamou Mohamed is the Associate Director of Grassroots Organizing with the Immigration and Refugee Program at Church World Service. Adamou leads a team of Refugee Community Organizers in six states engaging refugee leadership teams in leadership development, community organizing, and civic engagement capacity building trainings. He coordinates refugee and immigrant advocacy efforts in key states lifting refugee voices, stories, and promoting the welcome of refugees and immigrants. Adamou is also an executive member of the Opportunity for All campaign. He previously worked as the Detention and Deportation Pipeline Interruption Fellow at the American Friends Service Committee of the Carolinas. Adamou is based in North Carolina and holds anMA in International Studies from NC State University, Raleigh, NC.

Anandrea Molina is originally from Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico. She immigrated to the United States in 2000, lived as an undocumented trans woman for 19 years, and was granted asylum in 2020. Anandrea is a survivor of substance use and abuse and has been sober with AA for 14 years. Anandrea also has experience in the sex trade and all that it entails, so she has learned many ways to survive. Tired of the lack of security and protection and the fact that no one defended the rights and humanity of people like her, Anandrea founded OLTT in 2015 and the Casa Anandrea program in 2017. With no experience running an organization, Anandrea created OLTT based on the needs of migrant Latina trans women living in Harris County. She founded the Casa Anandrea program in 2017 to free trans women from prisons and detention centers (ICE). All of this was possible because the project was led by undocumented trans women with the leadership of Anandrea. As a Latina, trans, undocumented woman, Anandrea managed to found OLTT and Casa Anandrea with all the odds against her.

Anandrea Molina es originaria de Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico. Emigro a los Estados Unidos en el año 2000. Vivió como una mujer trans indocumentada por 19 años, y en el 2020 logro un alivio migratorio (asilo). Anandrea es sobreviviente al uso y abuso de sustancias, y se declara como AA (alcohólica anónima) por 14 años. Así como ser una persona con experiencia en el comercio sexual, ella es sobreviviente a todo lo que conlleva serlo. Cansada de la falta de seguridad, protección, y de que nadie defendiera los derechos y humanidad de personas como ella, decidio fundar Oltt en el 2015 y el Programa de Casa Anandrea en el 2017. Sin experiencia y sin saber cómo hacerlo, Oltt se creó con base a las necesidades de las mujeres trans latinas migrantes que viven en el condado Harris. Anandrea inició el programa de la casa en el 2017 con fines de liberar a mujeres trans de los sistemas de prisiones y centros de detención (ICE). Todo esto fue posible porque fue liderado por mujeres trans indocumentadas y el liderazgo de Anandrea. Anandrea es una mujer latina, trans, indocumentada, y con todos los pronósticos en contra, logro fundar Oltt, siendo: Mujer, Trans, Latina, Migrante e Indocumentada.

Kham S. Moua spearheads SEARAC’s policy portfolio through policy analysis, community engagement, and legislative and regulatory advocacy. He also serves as co-chair of the National Council of Asian Pacific American’s Immigration Committee on behalf of SEARAC. Kham has spent over a decade community building, organizing, and advocating on a wide range of issues, ranging from immigration to military justice. His primary areas of expertise are in immigration and internet/technology policy.

Prior to SEARAC, Kham was the Associate Director of Policy and Advocacy at OCA – Asian Pacific American Advocates. While there, he directed the organization’s policy, advocacy, and campaign efforts. Together with Asian Americans Advancing Justice – AAJC, he helped to establish the infrastructure for the AAPI Technology and Telecommunications Table, the only national coalition focused on those issues from an AAPI framework. Before OCA, he worked on state and local advocacy at Hmong National Development and Hmong American Partnership. Kham is also involved with AAPI LGBTQ organizations and issues. He currently serves as a board member for the National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance (NQAPIA) and was previously the chair of Shades of Yellow, an organization based in Minnesota focused on Southeast Asian LGBTQ equity.

Kham hails from Minnesota and holds a political science degree with a minor in Chinese from Winona State University, where he was part of Pi Sigma Alpha. In his free time, Kham enjoys catching up on politics; playing and analyzing video games; writing short stories and poetry; and repeating Ariana Grande and Fifth Harmony (RIP) on Spotify. You can follow his sparse Twitter account @KhamMoua

Claudia Muñoz is the Co-Executive Director of Grassroots Leadership, an organization dedicated to ending mass incarceration, deportation, criminalization, and prison profiteering. Prior to becoming the Co-Executive Director, from 2017 to 2020, she was the Immigration Program Director at Grassroots Leadership. She has worked as an organizer for various labor and immigrant rights organizations throughout the country and has led multiple policy and practice-change campaigns.

Born and raised in Monterrey, Mexico, Claudia has called Texas home for over 20 years. Claudia is formerly undocumented and began her political activism and community organizing in 2003 while attending Navarro High School (formerly Lanier) in Austin, TX, to defend access to in-state tuition for undocumented college students in Texas. She later turned her organizing efforts to the intersection of criminal justice and immigration after a family member was racially profiled by police and detained by ICE. Her workand activism have been featured in multiple media stories as well as in two books she co-authored. Claudia is a proud graduate of Prairie View A&M University and received a B.A. in Political Science in 2009. Claudia serves on the Board of Directors of Just Futures Law.

Qudsiya Naqui is a lawyer, policy researcher, and disability justice activist based in Washington DC. She hosts Down to the Struts, the podcast about disability, design, and intersectionality. Qudsiya began her career representing immigrant women and girlsfleeing domestic violence in immigration court and before USCIS. Later, she designed and implemented legal services programs for immigrants facing deportation at the Vera Institute of Justice and Equal Justice Works. She regularly lectures on the intersection of immigration and disability for the Immigrants' Rights Clinic at CUNY Law School. 

Phi Nguyen is the Executive Director for Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta. In her previous role, she was the Litigation Director where she focused on impact litigation in the areas of voting rights and immigrant justice. Since joining Advancing Justice-Atlanta in early 2017, Phi has helped block a Georgia state law that restricted voters’ right to an interpreter at the polls and represented a class of Vietnamese immigrants suing the federal government over the indefinite nature of their detention in ICE prisons.

Phi graduated from the Georgia State University School of Law in 2009 and practiced as a medical malpractice trial lawyer for eight years before dedicating herself to community-centered civil rights litigation. Growing up in the South as a Vietnamese American with refugee parents, Phi's life experiences formed into her passion to protect and expand the civil rights of AAPIs and other marginalized communities. Phi was introduced to Advancing Justice-Atlanta in 2016 when she partnered with them to lead Vietnamese Voices, a voter registration drive targeting Vietnamese Americans; this became a jumping off point for further grassroots efforts to politically mobilize AAPI communities. Outside of her legal practice, Phi co-produces Wake Up, Atlanta, a web series dedicated to educating and civically empowering AAPI millennials in Georgia.

Phi is a 2020 recipient of the National Asian Pacific Bar Association’s Best Under 40 award.

Laura is the Organizing Director for Workers Defense Project (WDP). WDP is a statewide membership-based organization that empowers low-income workers to achieve fair employment through education, direct services, organizing and strategic partnerships. Laura is deeply committed to movement-building and brings 14 years experience building people power, economic power and political power with immigrants and communities of color in Harris County. Prior to WDP, Laura led a successful economic justice campaign at the Texas Organizing Project targeting corporate tax breaks, and served as the Executive Director of Fe y Justicia Worker Center where she built a strong membership base and coalition which won the City of Houston's Wage Theft Ordinance.Laura is originally from the Philadelphia area and received her B.A. in Political Science and Spanish from Davidson College in North Carolina.

Marco Antonio Quiroga has a long history as an advocate for the LGBTQ+, immigrant, and racial justice movements. Marco is the Founder and Director for ContigoFund, the first and only LGBTQ+ Latinx fund in the United States and largest LGBTQ+ participatory grantmaking organization in the US South. Contigo launched in the aftermath of the horrific 2016 Pulse nightclub massacre in Orlando to support the immediate recovery and healing of those impacted and advancing the long-term transformation taken root by building power for historically marginalized LGBTQ+ communities in the region, particularly Latinx individuals, immigrants, and other people of color. He also has extensive experience working with United We Dream as co-founder of its Queer Undocumented Immigrant Project, the American Federation of Teachers and AFL-CIO leading labor rights and electoral campaigns, addressing issues of LGBTQ+ youth homelessness as Public Policy Director at True Colors United, and advancing LGBTQ+ immigrant justice as National Field Officer at Immigration Equality. His commitment is a direct result of his own life experiences as an undocumented and queer person of color, including family separation through deportation, poverty, unstable housing and homelessness.

In partnership with Central Florida’s LGBTQ+ community, Marco’s leadership during the coronavirus pandemic resulted in more than $650,000 in relief dollars --including from Contigo, CARES Act funding on the County level, and grassroots fundraising --funneled to individuals and community organizations most in need in Central Florida including the establishment of the All Black Lives Fund, specifically to provide relief to members of the Black transgender community in response to the historic racial justice uprising in the summer of 2020.

Marco was honored as the first ever recipient of the Reed Erickson Trailblazing Leadership Award presented by Funders for LGBTQ Issues in 2017, the Haas, Jr. Award for Outstanding LGBTQ Leadership for Immigrant Rights presented at the National Creating Change Conference in 2018, 40 Under 40 honoree by Orlando Business Journal in 2020 and recognized as the LGBT Trailblazer in 2020 at the 8th Annual Harvey Milk Diversity Awards. Most recently, Contigo Fund was recognized as a Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Honoree by the Association of Fundraising Professional -Central Florida Chapter at their annual National Philanthropy Day Awards Breakfast and Marco was presented the Voice of Equality Award by Equality Florida at their annual greater Orlando gala in 2021.

Dominique (Domy) Raymond is strategy director for partnerships at Lumina Foundation, an independent, private foundation in Indianapolis that is committed to making opportunities for learning beyond high school available to all. In that role, she is responsible for amplifying Lumina’s thought leadership, developing new relationships and coalitions, and identifying influencers and change agents.

She advises Lumina’s president on thought leadership opportunities and, at his request, directsstrategic projects and emerging initiatives for his office.

Raymond has over 20 years of policy experience in higher education, state policy,and workforce development. She previously served as a senior program director of philanthropy at USA Funds (now Strada Education Network); vice president of alliance state relations at Complete College America; special assistant to the secretary of education for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and; higher education policy analyst with the Maryland Higher Education Commission, where she co-chaired the state’s K16 workgroup. Her higher education experience began as an academic advisor at the University of the District of Columbiaand the University of Maryland, consecutively.

She serves on the board of Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees (GCIR).

Raymond earned her bachelor’s degree fromNorthwestern University. In 2013, she was one of ten named to the Chronicle of Higher Education’sThe Influence List.

Dauda Sesay is a former refugee from Sierra Leone. At 16, he fled his homeland due to a terrible war and resettled in the U.S. in 2009. He earned a degree in Applied Science in Process Technology and is currently going for his BS. in Administrative Management with a concentration in International Business at the Louisiana State University-Shreveport. Dauda is presently the National Network Director for the African Communities Together (ACT) and the Vice-Chairman of the Refugee CongressBoard of Directors. Dauda is a community advocate and founding member of the Louisiana Organization for Refugees and Immigrants (LORI,) assisting other refugees and immigrants with integration into the United States. He is also a member of Mayor Sharon Weston Broome International Relations Commission and Chairperson of the Commission Culture and Art Engagement. Recently Dauda was appointed as the United States Advisor at the UNHCR High-Level Officials Meeting on Global Impact on refugees.

Silky Shah is the executive director of Detention Watch Network, a national coalition building power to abolish immigration detention in the US. She has worked as an organizer on issues related to immigration detention, the prison industrial complex, and racial and migrant justice for 20 years. 

Kavitha is the Senior Director of the Immigration Philanthropy at the Emerson Collective, where she develops and supports philanthropic partnerships focused on national and local immigration advocacy and services to immigrants. Before her work in philanthropy, she spent over a decade working with non-profits on immigrant rights, as a direct services immigration attorney, through public policy advocacy and providing national technical assistance. She began her career representing immigrant survivors of domestic violence and human trafficking. Kavitha successfully drafted and advocated for state and federal legislation and administrative advocacy expanding protections for immigrants. She also served as a national trainer on immigration issues related to crime victims. At the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice, Kavitha expanded language access policies to benefit limited English proficient immigrants, focusing on LEP individuals interacting with criminal justice systems. Kavitha received her bachelor’s degree from U.C. Berkeley and J.D. from U.C. Hastings College of the Law.

Ivy Suriyopas (she/her/hers) joined GCIR in May 2021, bringing more than 15 years of experience working to advance immigrant justice. Previously, she was a program officer at the Open Society Foundations (OSF), where she focused on immigrant and refugee rights and managed a multimillion-dollar portfolio. At OSF, Ivy developed a grantmaking strategy focused on challenging the systems rooted in the racialized treatment of immigrants throughout U.S. history. Along with her colleagues, she convened leaders from across the racial justice, immigrant rights, and Muslim Arab South Asian movements to cultivate solidarity in a transformative and co-liberating way. Before joining OSF in 2015, Ivy was an attorney and the director of the Anti-Trafficking Initiative at the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, working at the intersection of migrants’, workers’, and women’s rights, providing legal representation, and advocating for policy changes informed by the lived experiences of her clients. Previously, she was co-chair of the Freedom Network, a national alliance of almost 40 NGOs and individuals that serve and advocate for the rights of trafficking survivors.

Ivy has written and presented extensively on immigration, workers’ rights, and racial justice, and her op-eds have appeared in publications such as The Guardian and The Hill. The National Asian Pacific American Bar Association recognized Ivy as one of the Best Lawyers Under 40 in 2014, and she received the New York City Bar Association's Legal Services Award in 2012. Ivy holds a J.D. from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law, is a member of the New York State Bar, and has a B.S. in Policy Analysis and Management from Cornell University.

Renata Teodoro brings to this role a wealth of experience in the fields of advocacy, organizing and fundraising. Her journey into social justice and immigrant rights began in 2007 after her home was raided by Immigration Customs Enforcement that resulted in her family being forced to return to Brazil. Renata’s life experiences motivated her to join the Student Immigrant Movement (SIM), where she played an integral role in coordinating campaigns, fundraising, and organizational development. In 2009, SIM faced an enormous organizational challenge that put the organization at risk of closing. Renata took the initiative to rebuild the organization by spearheading efforts on fundraising, hiring staff, helping coordinate leadership and campaigns, and representing SIM nationally within the United We Dream Network. Under Renata’s leadership as the Lead Coordinator, SIM grew to become a stable youth-led organization with full-time staff and chapters across the state.

Most recently, Renata served as the Student Advocacy Coordinator at the University of Massachusetts Boston, where she led the creation of scholarships, policy changes, and other resources for undocumented students and supervised student-run cultural centers. As Program Officer at the Youth Engagement Fund, Renata builds and maintains relationships and partnerships with movement partners (grantees), supports the development of YEF’s giving strategy, and advances programming that builds the capacity of movement partners, and local and state infrastructure centered on youth of color leadership.

Megan currently serves as Catalyst’s president & CEO, providing strategic leadership and partnership to the entire Catalyst staff, board, members, and community partners. Megan oversees Catalyst’s facilitation of collaborative efforts among its funder members and other stakeholders; leads the production of philanthropy and impact investing skills-building and issue based learning; and spearheads Catalyst’s work related to championing equity and opportunity. She provides strategic and logistical support to strengthen San Diego communities through shared learning and pooled and aligned funding strategies. Current focus areas include early education, STEAM education, immigration, homelessness, military/veterans issues, leadership development, racial justice, and impact investing, as well as support for the steering committees of pooled grant funds, including that of Women Give San Diego, which is fiscally sponsored by Catalyst.

Megan brings 20 years of experience in the nonprofit and philanthropic fields to this role, having most recently served as Executive Director of San Diego Coastkeeper where she built partnerships among the nonprofit, business, and public sectors to advance environmental goals across San Diego County. Megan received her Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Georgetown University and her Masters in Business Administration from Yale School of Management. She serves on the long-term vision advisory committee for Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees and previously served on the board of directors of Hope Horse Ranch, United Way of San Diego County; advisory council for The San Diego Foundation’s Center for Civic Engagement; and the Port of San Diego Environmental Advisory Committee.

Marissa Tirona (she/her/hers) joined GCIR in November 2020, bringing more than 15 years of senior leadership experience at social justice and philanthropic institutions. As President, Marissa leads the organization’s efforts to galvanize philanthropy to build a society in which everyone thrives, no matter where they were born. Previously, she was a program officer at the Ford Foundation, where she managed a $225 million portfolio as part of the Building Institutions and Networks (BUILD) initiative, Ford’s flagship program designed to strengthen organizations and networks core to the global social justice infrastructure. Before joining Ford in 2017, Marissa led the Blue Shield of California Foundation’s programmatic, policy, and grantmaking efforts to address, prevent, and ultimately end domestic violence and promote health equity throughout the state. Prior to that, she was senior project director at CompassPoint Nonprofit Services, where she designed and led comprehensive, multiyear leadership initiatives that developed network capacity, facilitated movement-level work, and centered communities of color. Earlier in her career, Marissa served as program director of the National Employment Lawyers Association and, before that, as an employment attorney at two national law firms.

Marissa has deep experience in organizational and movement capacity building. She frequently speaks on and writes about issues related to transformative philanthropic practice, social justice movement leadership development, and organizational and network strengthening in the United States and around the world. As a certified coach, she has a keen understanding of what is needed to lead and manage thriving, adaptive, and impactful teams, organizations, and networks.

Marissa currently serves on the boards of Change Elemental and Sadie Nash Leadership Project and previously served on the boards of numerous other organizations, including Oakland Kids First, Asian Pacific Islander Legal Outreach, Social Policy Research Associates, and the Asian American Bar Association of the Greater Bay Area. She holds a J.D. from Santa Clara University School of Law, is a member of the California State Bar, and has a B.A. in English literature with a concentration in women’s studies from Swarthmore College. Based in Brooklyn with her family since 2017, Marissa is always from the Town (Oakland).

Dan Torres is the Program Director for Immigrant Rights at the Haas, Jr. Fund. He previously served as the Special Assistant on Immigrant Rights for California Attorney General Xavier Becerra. Dan was the Director of Immigrant Integration in California Governor Jerry Brown’s administration, where he led policy, legislative and budgetary planning for immigrant integration programs and services. Before joining Governor Brown’s Office, Dan launched immigration legal services and outreach initiatives at the California Department of Social Services. Earlier in his career, Dan worked as a staff attorney at California Rural Legal Assistance, the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. 

Michelle, the Co-Executive Director and Co-Founder of TOP, is a 4th generation Tejana, born and raised in a low-income neighborhood in San Antonio. After attending Stanford University, Michelle dedicated herself to fighting for racial and economic justice and returned to her native San Antonio where she worked for ACORN, serving in various capacities including: San Antonio Head Organizer, Texas Legislative Director, and Texas Deputy Director. With two decades of community organizing experience, Michelle is responsible for raising a multi-million-dollar budget, co-developing TOP’s overall strategy to create and win on our economic and racial justice policy agenda in Texas’ 3 largest metro areas, as well as leading TOP’s voter engagement program -the largest grassroots program in Texas -which has mobilized more than 3.2 million Black and Latino voters to the ballot box across the state.

Daniana (Danny) holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Early Childhood Education/Special Education, and an MBA Human Resources and Social Projects from Universidad Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, Lima Peru, as well as Child Development Associate and International Relations studies from Indianapolis Indiana University.

She works with children, young adults, and families using a diverse approach tailored to the unique needs of each new client. Daniana has over 20 years of experience in a variety of settings and with numerous clients, including management experience in strategic planning, new business start-up, non-profit.  She founded DIFY (Developing Integrity in Families and Youth) non-profit organization in Indiana where she’d developed and created five new community programs to educate and prevent drug abuse in youth and adolescents.

Daniana worked in Indianapolis Indiana for more than 14 years where she developed, supported, and   maintained   relationships   with   200   community   service   agencies   that   promote   civic engagement and advocacy for children and families. Assist families in setting and obtaining goals and help them cope with challenges that could lead to family dysfunction such domestic violence and sexual assault.

Moved to Houston, Texas in2015where continues serving families in disadvantages, she is responsible for providing a wide variety from disaster recovery client services, including disaster relief, assessments, supportive   services, information   and   referral, advocacy, and   the development of long-term disaster recovery plans. She also is bringing thought leader and corporate partners to engage in dialogue on issues of diversity, equity and inclusion for low-income workers and refugees. In  the  past  years  she  had  served  as  Executive  Director  for  Faith  and  Justice  Worker  Center, dedicating  herself  to  community  advocacy  and  being  a  voice  for  Houston’s low-income,  refugees  and immigrant workers.

Aly Wane is an undocumented human rights organizer based in Syracuse, New York, originally from Senegal. He has worked on antiwar, economic justice, racial and immigrant justice campaigns. He has been on the Board of the Alliance of Communities Transforming Syracuse, a politically progressive interfaith organization. He has also been on the Steering Committee of the Black Immigration Network and has organized with Black Lives Matter Syracuse. He now serves on the Steering Committee of the Syracuse Peace Council and is a consultant with the UndocuBlack Network.

Janvieve Williams Comrie is a Black and Latina human rights strategist, trainer and organizer with a deep commitment to assisting in the building of powerful social movements for racial justice and human rights. She has worked in a variety of fields and for several human rights institutions, including the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights Regional Office Central America, where she coordinated a regional program on race and racism. Janvieve is internationally recognized for her work with Afro-descendent communities.

Janvieve sits on the Board of Directors of Praxis Project, and on the Regional Advisory Committee for Planned Parenthood Federation/Western Hemisphere Region (IPPF/WHR). She has recently been awarded a Soros Equality Fellowship (2018-2020). She is a mother to two amazing children and lives in the Bronx New York with her life partner.

Community engagement executive with over 10 years of experience on social intervention programs in Latin America and the Southeastern United States. Published author on social issues. Political operative.

Reem Zubaidi is the director of programs for the UC San Diego Center for Community Health, Refugee Health Unit and co facilitator for the San Diego Refugee Communities Coalition. Her work is focused on working toward equity for minority communities in San Diego, specifically refugee communities. She manages the SDRCC’s COVID-19 community outreach program in partnership with the County of San Diego. In this role, Reem is responsible for overseeing a team of 40 community health workers from the coalition of Ethnic Community Based Organizations, including coordinating data collection, training, and program reporting. Reem is also a co-director for the recently launched Advancing Minority Health Literacy project that focuses on addressing health literacy disparities in minority communities across San Diego County with a focus on working towards improved community input, representation, and systems change to address disparities in health literacy for POC communities. Reem has a Master in Public Policy from UC San Diego and a background in journalism and communications.