Speakers (S-T)
Angelica Salas is the Executive Director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA). Since assuming that role in 1999, Angelica has spearheaded several ambitious campaigns locally, state-wide, and nationally. She helped win in-state tuition for undocumented immigrant students and established day laborer job centers that have served as a model for the rest of the nation. She led efforts to allow all California drivers to obtain a driver license and is a leading spokesperson on federal immigration policy as an active member of FIRM and RIFA. Under Angelica’s leadership, CHIRLA and its partners across the country have built the foundation for the recent upsurge in immigrant rights activism. As part of a national coordinating committee, Angelica helped convene a coalition of organizations in California which have successfully mobilized millions of immigrants to demand comprehensive immigration reform including legalization with a path to citizenship, family reunification, and the protection of civil and labor rights. One of her greatest accomplishments at CHIRLA has been the transformation of a coalition of social service providers into an organization that empowers immigrants to engage in advocacy on their own behalf. In this respect, she has blazed a pioneering trail among immigrant coalitions around the country and has propelled other immigrant rights groups to follow her lead. She comes by her understanding of the immigrant experience firsthand: As a 5-year old, Angelica came to the U.S. from Mexico to rejoin her parents who had come to the U.S. to find work and better provide for their family.
Daniela Salas, Mission Asset Fund COO, has been a key member of MAF’s staff since the organization started. Responsible for the startup and implementation of Lending Circles, she also oversees the operations, programs, and serves as the technology officer. Daniela previously worked for Operation Hope, a worldwide nonprofit social investment banking and financial literacy empowerment organization. She serves on the SF Foundation Consumer Advisory Board and Cloud Lending Consumer Advisory Board.
Frank I. Sanchez is the Executive Director of the Needmor Fund. He was the lead plaintiff in New Mexico’s first successful Voting Rights Act lawsuit, Sanchez v King. For the past 30 years, he has worked with public and private foundations in a grantmaking capacity. He currently serves on the Board of Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees. In 2007 he received an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from the University of New Mexico for his contributions to voting rights, community organizing, and public service in New Mexico and the Southwest.
Isabel Sanchez serves as a Policy Advocate for the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA). In this capacity, she works in conjunction with CHIRLA’s Policy Team to protect the rights of immigrants by promoting policies that advance immigrant integration and civil rights. She also serves as a liaison between federal policy members, federal agencies, and CHIRLA. Isabel holds a Bachelors of Arts degree from the University of California, Riverside in Political Science/Law and Society. Prior to joining CHIRLA, Isabel worked as a congressional staffer for former United States Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) in Oakland, CA.
Todd Sanders is currently President and CEO of the Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce. Prior to assuming his current role, he represented the interests of the business community at the State Legislature as Vice President of Public Affairs for the Phoenix Chamber. Prior to joining the Chamber, Todd served as a Policy Analyst for the Arizona House of Representatives in the areas of taxation, environment, political subdivisions and international trade. He is a native of Bogotá, Colombia and a graduate of Northern Arizona University with a Bachelor of Science in Political Science. Todd is married and a proud father.
Sandra Sandoval Chavarria is the Citizenshipworks Program Manager at the Immigration Advocates Network in October 2013. Prior to joining IAN, Sandra worked with San Antonio Immigrant Youth Movement (SAIYM), a youth-led movement to empower undocumented youth to help navigate the higher education system. She received a B.A. in Political Science and Spanish from the University of Texas at San Antonio and a MPA from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University.
Paola Santana leads the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce’s college access and success portfolio. She is responsible for student programming, higher education policy advocacy, and systems change initiatives. Previously, she developed business-education partnerships through the Chamber’s Pillar initiative, and worked for the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education. Paola is a proud graduate of the Pahara NextGen Network, the Riordan Leadership Institute, and is completing the California Education Policy Fellowship Program. Paola transferred from Glendale Community College to UC Berkeley where she earned her bachelor’s degree in Political Science and is an alumna of the Harvard Graduate School of Education where she earned a master’s degree in Higher Education.
Paula Schriefer joined the Spring Institute for Intercultural Learning as President & CEO in 2014. She oversees Spring Institute’s eight intercultural learning programs and services. Ms. Schriefer is also a member of Denver’s Workforce Development Board. She came to the Spring Institute from the State Department’s Bureau of International Organization Affairs, where she was a Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights and Humanitarian affairs. She graduated Summa Cum Laude with a B.A. degree in Russian Area Studies from the University of Denver and completed coursework for an M.A. in Russian and Eastern European Studies at George Washington University.
Lindsay Schubiner is the Advocacy Director at the Center for New Community, a national research and advocacy organization at the forefront of efforts to defeat anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim hate. Lindsay previously served as a Congressional staffer handling housing, health, and immigration policy, and managed advocacy for sexual health and rights at American Jewish World Service. Lindsay holds a Master of Science degree from the Harvard School of Public Health.
Derrick Seaver is the Executive Vice President at The Silicon Valley Organization. He oversees the SVO Foundation and Silicon Valley IDEA business lines of business at The SVO. He is a former member of the Ohio House of Representatives, representing the 78th District from 2001 to 2006. His election in 2000 was notable as he was elected to office at 18 years of age. Derrick received his Masters Degree in International and Comparative Politics as well as a BA in Political Science and Government—both from Wright State University. He currently lives in San Jose, Calif.
Alejandra Seluja is an Independent Consultant who works with credit unions throughout the US for the Federation of Community Development Credit Unions. Her work focuses on helping credit unions develop and implement products and services to immigrant members and CDFI related work (certification, grant writing and compliance). Ms. Seluja led the first full service bilingual branch for Guadalupe Credit Union, concentrated on providing mainstream and alternative financial services to new immigrants since its beginning. Ms. Seluja is originally from Uruguay, and grew up in Paraguay. Her education background includes Accounting and Journalism, and she holds a Certificate as Public Translator.
As the Socio-Emotional Learning Coordinator for Internationals Network for Public Schools, Sonia Sendoya provides socio-emotional learning-related supports to counselors and social workers in our schools. As an advocate, she believes in the power of education and joins the efforts to provide guidance to those families who find themselves lost in the process. Sonia formerly worked for Make the Road New York as the College Access Coordinator, providing guidance to recently arrived immigrant students and families on the college process. She continues to this work through the Latino Youth for Higher Education Program (LYHEP) as a volunteer. Sonia holds a B.A. from Baruch College and an M.S.W. from the Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College.
Arjun Sethi is a writer, attorney, and adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law Center and Vanderbilt University Law School. A frequent commentator on civil rights and civil liberties related issues, his work has appeared in numerous national outlets, including CNN, The Guardian, USA Today, and The Washington Post, and he is often quoted by The New York Times, The Independent, BBC America, BBC World Radio, and NPR. He is Co-Chair of the American Bar Association's National Committee on Homeland Security, Counter-terrorism & Treatment of Enemy Combatants, and is writing a book on hate and state violence in America.
Amy Shannon serves as Alianza Americas’s Senior Advisor, providing strategic and programmatic analysis and guidance to the Alliance and its members. She is also a nonprofit management consultant, primarily assisting foundations and NGO’s with program design and project evaluation. She has worked extensively in philanthropy, both as a consultant and as a program officer in the Environment Programs at the C.S. Mott Foundation and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. She holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School. Amy has lived and worked extensively in Latin America, and now resides in Chicago, IL.
Bnyad Sharef is an activist from Iraq, advocating for refugee and immigrant rights. As a child of a SIV recipient, he became involved in political activism when he and his family were affected by the first Muslim travel ban and his family was deported back to Iraq. Speaking out against the injustice and explaining their story to the media helped them get back to the USA. He now works closely with refugee and immigrant advocacy organizations such as Church World Services and the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition in Nashville.
As the American Business Immigration Coalition's executive director, Rebecca Shi works directly with a steering committee of 79 Illinois-based CEOs, University presidents, chambers of commerce and immigrant advocates to develop and implement strategy that support the passage of federal immigration reform. IBIC has been extraordinarily effective in moving the politics of the state, winning public bipartisan support from the majority of Illinois's Congressional delegation for commonsense immigration reform. IBIC has helped to launch a sister coalition in Florida, IMPAC FUND. In 2013, Rebecca led the passage of Illinois SB 957 - temporary visitors driver's licenses (TVDL) with bipartisan support from the Illinois General Assembly. Signed by Governor Quinn and continued under Governor Rauner, the program has licensed and insured over 270,000 undocumented immigrant drivers in Illinois making the roads safer for all, protecting hardworking immigrant families, and injecting $30 million new dollars to the state each year. Rebecca also led the successful passage of "AllKids HB3756" to provide health coverage for all low income Illinois children regardless of their immigration status and the Illinois Trust Act SB 31 to enable local law enforcement to focus on community safety and not immigration enforcement in 2017. Rebecca worked closely with Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and the City Council to strengthen its Sanctuary City ordinance by providing $1.3 million in public funds to assist immigrants in legal defense and family protection. Rebecca is skilled at building broad coalition of business, labor, faith, law enforcement, government and immigrant leaders to achieve practical immigration solutions that grows the economy, creates jobs, and protects hardworking immigrant families. Rebecca's organizing work in Chicago's Chinatown community has led to an award winning new library, a new field house, a new district and the first Asian American representative in Illinois legislature. A graduate of the University of Chicago, Rebecca was named a “20 in Their 20s” by Crain’s Chicago Business, and a "Community Leader" by the Asian American Coalition of Chicago, Rebecca's work has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Crain's Business Chicago, CNN, POLITICO, NYTimes, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun Times, and other press outlets. Rebecca is an Edgar Fellow, serves on the board of Alivio Medical Center and UIC Asian American advisory board.
Imraan Siddiqi is the Executive Director of CAIR-Arizona, a chapter of America's largest civil rights and advocacy organization. He has written extensively on Islamophobia and issues affecting American Muslims, and is a frequent contributor in written, TV and radio media. Imraan has also founded the #HateHurts campaign, a platform for highlighting and tracking Islamophobia and its fallout. You can follow him on Twitter @imraansiddiqi
Stacey Simon is Director of IMPRINT, a coalition of organizations active in the emerging field of Immigrant Professional Integration based at World Education Services (WES) in New York. Her career has included the leadership and development of international educational exchange programs both here and abroad, and human resources and fundraising positions with national and local non-profit organizations. Stacey holds an M.A.T. in TESOL and a B.A. in Japanese Studies.
Heather Skrabak is the Associate Director of Policy and Advocacy with the Association of Asian Pacific Community Health Organizations (AAPCHO). She supports policies and programs that benefit the health of Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities in AAPCHO’s member clinics. Heather’s work includes ensuring access for immigrants in health care through language access, right to health, and enrollment policies. Heather comes to AAPCHO from the American Diabetes Association, where she assisted with developing the ADA’s health disparities policy platform. She supported the capacity-building and advocacy efforts of a 30-member volunteer council of health disparities experts and advocates.
Aldo Solano is a DACA recipient who currently serves as the Policy Director for the Oregon Latino Health Coalition, Oregon’s Latino led health advocacy organization. The OLHC recently led a 3 year campaign to pass SB 558 (Cover All Kids), a bill the extends healthcare coverage to undocumented children in Oregon. Before becoming OLHC’s Policy Director, Aldo played a key role in leveraging community voices and engagement as the Field Coordinator for the Cover All Kids efforts. Aldo has extensive experience with electoral and community based organizing work around the areas of farmworker rights, immigrant rights, youth empowerment and education.
Isabel Sousa-Rodriguez was born in Bogota, Colombia and moved to Miami with their family at the age of 6. They began organizing for immigration reform in 2007 and has since become the Membership and Organizing Director and the Florida Immigrant Coalition. Isabel has a Bachelor's in Sociology from the University of South Florida and as a graduate student at the City University of New York published academic articles detailing the effects of legal status and marginalization on undocumented mothers and immigrant adolescents. From 2015 through 2016, they were the state coordinator of New York's Mexican Initiative on Deferred Action.
Stephanie D. Stephens is the Founding Campaign Manager for We Are All America, a soon-to-be-launched nationally branded campaign designed uphold America’s commitment to protect and welcome refugees, asylees and TPS recipients. Prior to this, Stephanie was a co-founder of Unite Oregon, a statewide social justice nonprofit leading on issues impacting immigrants, refugees, people of color and low-income Oregonians.
Dr. Warren H. Stewart, Sr. has been Senior Pastor of First Institutional Baptist Church of Phoenix since 1977. He is recognized by others as “a man of conscience, commitment and dedication to the cause of moral leadership, human rights, and a soldier of justice and equality”. He organized and chaired Victory Together, the broad-based coalition that led Arizona to win its Martin Luther King, Jr./Civil Rights Day by a historic vote of the people in 1992. He has been fighting for just immigration in Arizona since 2006 and is a former Chair of the National Immigration Forum in Washington, DC.
Beth Stickney founded and directs the Maine Business Immigration Coalition (MeBIC), a young nonprofit working to educate and engage Maine’s business community in advocating for positive initiatives, policies and laws impacting immigrants. An immigration lawyer since 1986, she co-founded the Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project, Maine’s only nonprofit statewide provider of immigration legal aid and advocacy for low-income Maine residents. She has taught immigration law as an adjunct lecturer at the University of Maine School of Law, co-authored Immigration Law and the Family (Thomson Reuters), and presented frequently at seminars and conferences about immigration law and related policy issues.
Rich Stolz is the Executive Director of OneAmerica, Washington State’s largest immigrant and refugee organizing, civic engagement and advocacy organization. OneAmerica’s mission is to advance justice and democracy by building the power of immigrant and refugee communities, with key allies. Rich was born in South Korea, but was raised in the United States. Prior to OneAmerica, Rich worked at the Center for Community Change and also managed the Reform Immigration for America Campaign.
Regina Suitt is the Vice President for Adult Basic Education for College & Career at Pima Community College. She leads multiple programs including all Arizona Department of Education funded Adult Basic Education, Adult Secondary, and English Language Acquisition for Adults. Like many in the field, she started as a part-time teacher, working and living on the Tohono O’odham reservation teaching English to High School students. Regina has a Master’s of Education in Leadership from Northern Arizona University with an emphasis in Community College Leadership. Regina was honored in 2011 by the Coalition on Adult Basic Education (COABE) as Administrator of the Year.
Amy Taylor is the Legal Director of Make the Road New York (MRNY), where she leads a team of forty attorneys and advocates providing legal services to low-wage workers and immigrants for housing, benefits, workplace justice, and immigration. Prior to joining MRNY, Amy was a Senior Staff Attorney and the founder of the Equal Rights Initiative at Legal Services NYC (LSNYC). The Equal Rights Initiative (now the Civil Rights Justice Project) is a civil rights project created to fight discrimination facing low-income New Yorkers. During her time at LSNYC, Amy spearheaded a coalition to revive the NYC Human Rights Commission. Amy received her B.A. from Oberlin College and her J.D. from the CUNY School of Law.
D. Taylor was elected President of UNITE HERE in November of 2012. Mr. Taylor has been a leader in the American labor movement for 36 years. Throughout the course of his career, he has worked to empower rank and file members to organize and lead their union. Mr. Taylor has led workers across the country to political and organizing victories. Mr. Taylor was born and raised in Williamsburg, Virginia. He graduated from Georgetown University in 1980. During his time in Washington, Mr. Taylor was a shop steward at Harvey’s Restaurant. In 1981, Mr. Taylor was hired to organize casino workers in the Reno/Tahoe area. Eventually he was moved to Las Vegas to help lead a citywide strike of Strip and downtown workers. The strike was one of the largest in Las Vegas history. During his tenure in Las Vegas, the Union’s local, the Culinary Workers Union, grew from 18,000 members in 1987 to over 55,000 in 2013. Mr. Taylor worked as an organizer during some of the union’s most challenging moments including the six-year, four-month, ten-day strike at the Frontier Casino. Mr. Taylor was part of a team that helped successfully rebuild the Culinary Workers Union Local 226. He was elected Secretary-Treasurer in 2002 and remained in that position until 2013. In 2004, Mr. Taylor was appointed as the Gaming Division director of UNITE HERE. He was the chief negotiator and strategist when workers at Local 54 in Atlantic City went on strike. He led casino workers across the country to victories and expanded the union’s organizing in states like Mississippi, Florida, Indiana, and Pennsylvania. He also oversaw the union’s expansion in California Tribal Gaming.
Garrick Taylor is the senior vice president of government relations and communications for the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry, where he serves as the Chamber's lead advocate at all levels of government and the main liaison between the Chamber and the media. Garrick's previous experience includes serving as a public affairs consultant; directing communications for the Arizona Republican Party during a U.S. Senate race; overseeing public policy efforts for a major trade association; and serving as a congressional staff member.
Stephanie Teatro is the Co-Executive Director of NIIC 2016 co-host the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC), a statewide, immigrant and refugee-led collaboration. Stephanie is a member of Nashville Mayor Barry's New Americans Advisory Council, an executive committee member of the national Fair Immigration Reform Movement, and a board member of the National Partnership for New Americans. She co-authored the 2016 national report, Countering the Backlash: Strategies for Responding to Anti-Refugee and Xenophobic Activity from the New South, detailing TIRRC's work to counter anti-refugee policy and Islamophobia in Tennessee. Stephanie is an immigrant to the U.S. from Canada.
Sabrina Terry is the Senior Strategist at the Economic Policy Project at UnidosUS. She implements nationwide pilots that integrate technology and financial products into direct services targeting low-income Latinos and immigrants. She also advocates for the adoption of best practices to create a more inclusive economic landscape for Latinos, providing research and data analysis on the intersections of immigration policies, financial technology, and wealth opportunities in Latino households. She received her Bachelor’s in Political Science from San Francisco State University and Master’s in City and Regional Planning from Pratt University.
Nadia Tonova serves as the Director of National Partnerships for ACCESS, the nation’s largest Arab American organization, where she works to expand their national impact and programming by strengthening partnerships with key foundations and nonprofit organizations. Prior to serving in this role, she was the Director of the National Network for Arab American Communities for seven years. While there, she created and launched the campaign to Take On Hate, an unprecedented national grassroots campaign to challenge prejudice and bias facing Arab and Muslim Americans.
Darcy Tromanhauser is the director of Nebraska Appleseed’s Immigrants & Communities Program. Darcy has worked with a wide variety of community partners across the state of Nebraska to help build welcoming and inclusive communities as part of Nebraska Is Home, and she has worked with immigrant communities in the Great Plains region for fifteen years. Prior to Appleseed, she worked in Guatemala, Peru, and El Salvador, with Des Moines Catholic Charities, with the National Labor Committee on living wage issues, and with Business for Social Responsibility on contingent worker issues.
Lorén Trull currently serves as the Senior Policy Advisor for education at UnidosUS (formerly, NCLR), where she focuses on policy and advocacy for Latino and English Learner students. Previously, she was a program examiner for the education branch at the White House Office of Management and Budget. Lorén holds a PhD in Public Policy from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and a JD from the University of North Carolina School of Law.