We are from red states and blue; we are both youthful and seasoned; and we represent the rich diversity of America’s immigrants, recent and from decades past, as well as its native population. Together, we work with vigor and vision to end poverty and exclusion in America.
Organizing Team Electoral Team Executive Office Public Policy Team Communications Team Institutional Advancement Team Operations TeamOrganizing Team
Back to Top-
Sulma Arias
Sulma Arias
Interim Director of Immigrant Rights
Quote
“I realized that they could take everything from me except my mind and my heart. Those things I still had control over, and I decided not to give them away!” – Nelson Mandela
-
Wendoly Marte
Wendoly Marte
Senior Field Campaign Manager
Quote
“If we have learned anything in life is that the primary factor in everything is the human being, as well as his or her quality and spirit. Those who have faith and hope in the possibilities of humankind are those who will push it forward” – José María Arizmendiarrieta
-
Michael Anderson
Michael Anderson
Director, Housing Trust Fund Project
Quote
“Concentrate not on the eradication of evil, but the cultivation of good. Evil is not driven out, but crowded out” — Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
-
Katy Heins
Katy Heins
Senior Field Organizer
Quote
“Hope has two beautiful daughters; their names are Anger and Courage. Anger at the way things are, and Courage to see that they do not remain as they are.” –St. Augustine
-
Aida Cuadrado
Aida Cuadrado
Field Organizer
Quote
“Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees, to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people, making widows their prey and robbing the fatherless.” Isaiah 10
-
Evonne Tisdale
-
Byron Hobbs
Byron Hobbs
Senior Organizer
Quote
“The future belongs to those who prepare for it today” – Malcolm X
-
David Kimball
-
Cesar Hernandez
Cesar Hernandez
Senior Organizer
Quote
“The ends you serve that are selfish will take you no further than yourself but the ends you serve that are for all, in common, will take you into eternity.” ― Marcus Garvey
-
Salvador Cervantes
Salvador Cervantes
Midwest Regional Organizer
Quote
“The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.” – Alice Walker
-
Drew Astolfi
-
Elsa Barboza
-
Isaias Guerrero
Isaias Guerrero
Southern Region Organizer
Quote
“Never forget that love is what justice looks like in public” by Dr. Cornel West
-
Mayron Payes
Mayron Payes
Senior Organizer
Quote
“The rose blinds the sharpshooting champions.” – Roque Dalton
-
Ben Hanna
Ben Hanna
National Political Field Director
Quote
“When the water starts boiling it is foolish to turn off the heat.” -Nelson Mandela
-
Alma Couverthie
Alma Couverthie
Deputy Field Director
Quote
“Seamos realistas y hagamos lo imposible” -Ernesto Ché Guevara
-
Rommel Sandino
Rommel Sandino
Northeast Regional Organizer
Quote
“Once social change begins, it cannot be reversed. You cannot un-educate the person who has learned to read. You cannot humiliate the person who feels pride. You cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore.” – Cesar Chavez
-
Chris Genese
Chris Genese
Senior Organizer
Quote
“Life is beautiful. Life is a struggle. Life is a beautiful struggle.
-
Tammy Thomas Miles
-
Rabayah Akhter
-
Bethel Tsegaye
Bethel Tsegaye
Senior Project Manager, Immigrant Rights & Racial & Gender Justice
Quote
“Everything can be explained to the people, on the single condition that you really want them to understand.”
― Frantz Fanon
Electoral Team
Back to Top-
Grecia Lima
Grecia Lima
Political Director
Quote
“Baila, baila Zarite por que esclavo es libre…mientras baila. Yo eh bailado siempre.” – La Isla Bajo el Mar, Isabel Allende Translation: “Dance, dance Zarite because slave that dances is free…while dancing.. I have always danced.” – The Island under the Sea, Isabel Allende
-
Erika Grohoski Peralta
-
Mike Griffin
Mike Griffin
Electoral Organizer
Quote
“We declare our right on this Earth to be a man, to be a human being, to be respected as a human being, to be given the rights of a human being in this society, on this Earth, in this day, which we intend to bring into existence by any means necessary.” – Malcolm X, 1965
-
Gilbert Nuñez
Gilbert Nuñez
Electoral Data Manager
Quote
“The great social justice changes in our country have happened when people came together, organized, and took direct action. It is this right that sustains and nurtures our democracy today. The civil rights movement, the labor movement, the women’s movement, and the equality movement for our LGBT brothers and sisters are all manifestations of these rights.” –Dolores Huerta
-
Kristee Paschall
Executive Office
Back to Top-
Dorian Warren
Dorian Warren
President
Quote
“It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have.” – James Baldwin Read Dorian full biography here.
-
Emily Andrews
Emily Andrews
Deputy Chief of Staff
Quote
“Freedom is never given; it is won.” – A. Philip Randolph
-
Seth Borgos
Seth Borgos
Director of Research and Program Development
Quote
“Without contraries there is no progress.” – William Blake
-
Susan Wefald
Susan Wefald
Economic Justice Program Director
Quote
we have chosen each otherand the edge of each other’s battlesthe war is the sameif we losesomeday women’s blood will congealupon a dead planetif we winthere is no telling.Audre Lorde -
Lilia Cherchari
Lilia Cherchari
Executive Coordinator
Quote
“A government or a party gets the people it deserves, and sooner or later a people gets the government it deserves.” – Frantz Fanon
-
Emily Fischer
Emily Fischer
Senior Project Manager
Quote
“The cords of bigotry and prejudice here can be cut with the same blade. We have to keep that blade sharp and share it with one another.” –Malcolm X
-
Kyle Grassi
Kyle Grassi
Senior Project Manager
Quote
“Ignorance allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have.” – James Baldwin
-
Mary Lassen
Mary Lassen
Acting Vice President & Managing Director
Quote
“Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.” – Albert Einstein
-
Deepak Pateriya
Deepak Pateriya
Chief of Staff
Quote
“Only people with hope will struggle. If people are in trouble, if people are suffering and exploited and want to get out from under the heel of oppression, if they have hope that it can be done, if they can see a path that leads to a solution, a path that makes sense to them and is consistent with their beliefs and their experience, then they’ll move. But it must be a path that they’ve started clearing. They’ve got to know the direction in which they are going and have a general idea of the kind of society they’d like to have.” – Myles Horton (from The Long Haul)
-
Trish Tchume
Trish Tchume
Leadership Program Director
Quote
“You have to act as if it were possible to radically transform the world. And you have to do it all the time.” – Angela Davis
-
Chirag Mehta
Chirag Mehta
Director of Governing Agenda and Ideas Generation
Quote
“In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” – George Orwell
-
Derek Johnson
Public Policy Team
Back to Top-
Allegra Baider
Allegra Baider
Deputy Director of Public Policy
Quote
“The good we secure for ourselves is precarious and uncertain until it is secured for all of us and incorporated into our common life.” – Jane Addams
-
Kate Kahan
Kate Kahan
Legislative Director
Quote
“If we want a beloved community, we must stand for justice, have recognition for difference without attaching difference to privilege.” – Bell Hooks
-
Rita Medina
Rita Medina
Senior Legislative Associate
Quote
“I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality, and freedom for their spirits.” — Martin Luther King, Jr.
-
Jaimie Worker
Jaimie Worker
Senior Policy Analyst
Quote
“Until you dig a hole, you plant a tree, you water it and make it survive, you haven’t done a thing. You are just talking.” – Wangari Maathai
Communications Team
Back to Top-
Marisol Bello
Marisol Bello
Director of Content Strategy and Development
Quote
“It always seems impossible until it’s done.” – Nelson Mandela
-
Jasmine Nazarett
Jasmine Nazarett
Senior Media Specialist
Quote
“We must use our lives to make the world a better place to live, not just to acquire things. That is what we are put on the earth for.” -Dolores Huerta
-
Jeff Parcher
Jeff Parcher
Director of Communications
Quote
“It is not enough to understand, or to see clearly. The future will be shaped in the arena of human activity, by those willing to commit their minds and their bodies to the task.” – Robert Kennedy
-
Cristina Rayas
Cristina Rayas
Content Creator
Quote
“It may be that when we no longer know what to do, we have come to our real work and when we no longer know which way to go, we have begun our real journey.The mind that is not baffled is not employed. The impeded stream is the one that sings.” – Wendell Berry -
Nancy Trevino
Nancy Trevino
Digital Campaigns Manager, Immigration
Quote
“To love. To be loved. To never forget your own insignificance. To never get used to the unspeakable violence and disparity of life around you. To seek joy in the saddest places. To pursue beautiy to its lair. To never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple. To respect strength, never power. Above all, to watch. To try to understand. To never look away. And never, never to forget.” – Arundhati Roy
-
Marcella Vitulli
Marcella Vitulli
Director of Digital Strategy
Quote
“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” – Howard Thurman
-
Tarah Walsh
Tarah Walsh
Strategic Communications Initiatives Manager
Quote
“Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul and sings the tune without the words and never stops at all.” — Emily Dickinson
-
Devontae Torriente
Devontae Torriente
Digital Strategist
Quote
“We need, in every community, a group of angelic troublemakers.” – Bayard Rustin
-
Tawana Jacobs
Tawana Jacobs
Media Relations Manager
Quote
“I have the nerve to walk my own way, however hard, in my search for reality, rather than climb upon the rattling wagon of wishful illusions.” — Zora Neale Hurston
-
Verdell Wright
Verdell Wright
Senior Digital Organizing Manager - Immigrant Rights & Racial Justice
Quote
“In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer. And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there’s something stronger — something better, pushing right back.” – Albert Camus
Institutional Advancement Team
Back to Top-
Beth Rayfield
Beth Rayfield
Director of Institutional Advancement
Quote
We must change the world, we must change ourselves, and we must change ourselves in order to change the world. –Kenneth Kraft, The Wheel of Engaged Buddhism
-
Katherine Ollenburger
Katherine Ollenburger
Director of Brand Strategy and Chief Writer
Quote
“You can’t write poems about trees when the woods are full of policemen.” – Bertolt Brecht
-
Susan Rightsell
Susan Rightsell
Deputy Director of Institutional Advancement
Quote
“Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love.”― Martin Luther King Jr.
-
Sandy Elkhoury
Sandy Elkhoury
Senior Development Strategist
Quote
“Peace can only last where human rights are respected, where the people are fed, and where individuals and nations are free.” 14th Dalai Lama
-
Judy Woods
Judy Woods
Institutional Advancement Coordinator
Quote
“Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.” Arthur Ashe
-
Kristin Witting
Kristin Witting
Deputy Director of Development Strategy and Senior Writer
Quote
“When you fight, you sometimes win; when you don’t, you always lose.” Rebecca Solnit
-
Karla McLean
Karla McLean
Donor Communications and Marketing Manager
Quote
“I come as one but stand as ten thousand.”– Maya Angelou, To Our Grandmothers
-
Darylle Sheehan
Darylle Sheehan
Donor Database Manager
Quote
“I cannot do all the good that the world needs. But the world needs all the good that I can do.” ― Jana Stanfield
Operations Team
Back to Top-
Ryan Young
-
Julia Foster
Julia Foster
Director of People and Planning
Quote
“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot,/Nothing is going to get better. It’s not.” – Dr. Seuss, The Lorax
-
Stefan Perazich
-
Trevor Bass
Trevor Bass
Senior Accounting Manager
Quote
“If there is no struggle there is no progress” – Frederick Douglass
-
Marcia Glasgow
Marcia Glasgow
Facilities & Administrative Services Manager
Quote
“I’m grateful for being here, for being able to think, for being able to see, for being able to taste, for appreciating love – for knowing that it exists in a world so rife with vulgarity, with brutality and violence, and yet love exists. I’m grateful to know that it exists.” ― Maya Angelou
-
Amber Hobbs
Amber Hobbs
Senior Technology Support Manager
Quote
“You are the somewhere you are trying to get to.” – Mooji
-
Darnetta Hollis
Darnetta Hollis
Operations Coordinator
Quote
“No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.” ― Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom
-
Kathy Mor
Kathy Mor
Senior Events Manager
Quote
The good we secure for ourselves is precarious and uncertain until it is secured for all of us and incorporated into our common life.” – Jane Addams
-
Linda Nguyen
Linda Nguyen
Director of Talent Acquisition & Development
Quote
“There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening, that is translated through you into action, And because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique. If you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is, Nor how it compares to other expressions. It is simply your business to keep the channel open.” – Martha Graham
-
Irma Rivera
-
Petra Smith
-
Clement Sinclair
Clement Sinclair
Administrative & Technology Support Specialist
Quote
“Without commitment you will never start and without consistency you will never finish.” – Denzel Washington
-
Nader Ghorban Zadeh
-
Victoria Ward
Victoria Ward
Director of Operations & Finance
Quote
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” – Maya Angelou
-
Carlos Vahos
-
KJ Johnson
KJ Johnson
Director of Campaign Advancement and Organizational Sustainability
Quote
Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance. ― Robert F. Kennedy