2022-2023 Emerging Leaders Profiles
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Ashley Nicole Clayton
Communication Coordinator – Los Angeles Black Worker Center – California
Ashley Nicole Clayton is a Communication Coordinator who founded the Self-Love Development Coach. Ashley believes that Effective Communication is an art form, one that not everyone has mastered. Your image, choice of words, and nonverbal expressions can be the defining factor in whether you manifest your dreams. That is why she started Love & Other Things. Before working as a Communication Coordinator, she worked as a Director of Publicity for Hiram College.
Angela Dawson
Community Organizer – Jobs to Move America – Mississippi
Angela Dawson is a Community Organizer from Carthage, Mississippi. Angela is the youngest of five. Her family serves as a constant source of strength and inspiration. Since graduating from Jackson State University, she has worked on various campaigns, from Obama for America to United Autoworkers Union for Nissan-Canton to the fight to fully fund education in Mississippi’s public schools. Angela is passionate about doing the work that will propel her home state forward and promote equality and justice for all. She is currently working as the Community Engagement Coordinator for Jobs to Move America. She is currently building The Mississippi Coalition for Community Benefits. She is looking forward to continuing this work and getting Community Benefits Agreements between companies and the communities they serve and ultimately bringing change to her home state.
Kim Dinh
Communications Program Manager – SEIU- Pennsylvania
Kim Dinh (they/them) is a Communications Program Manager at the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) in the Public Services Division. Kim is based in Philadelphia, PA, and was born and grew up in Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam, and immigrated to the United States at the age of 14. They came to the labor movement through community organizing, working alongside labor unions on immigrant rights issues, workers’ rights issues, and more. Prior to coming to SEIU, Kim also worked as a public civil servant at the City of Philadelphia. Kim is a chapter leader with the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, a constituency group of the AFL-CIO. Kim holds a bachelor’s degree in Biological Sciences, and a master’s degree in Social Policy. Outside of work, Kim is also a cultural worker, storyteller, and artist. They have a big dog named Juniper!
Maguette Diop
Lead Capital Strategist – SEIU – New York
Maguette Diop is a Capital Strategist with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), where she works closely with trustees at the public pension funds from Maine to Virginia. In this role Maguette works to protect the retirement security of SEIU members by advocating for appropriate funding of their pension funds, participant representation of the governance of their funds, the preservation of defined benefit plans, and the active ownership of their investments to protect shareholder value and investment returns. Maguette lives in Harlem, NY and works out of the SEIU NY regional office. In addition to food and arts, Maguette’s passion is releasing capitalism’s chokehold on disadvantaged people.
Tyfani Faulkner
Digital Campaigner – United for Respect – California
Tyfani Faulkner is a Digital Campaigner at United for Respect (UFR), creating digital content, managing texting platforms, building emails, and collaborating on organizing strategies. In 2011, Tyfani joined UFR, formerly OUR Walmart, to fight to make immediate improvements and transformational change for her and her coworkers. Walmart fired Tyfani in 2015 but that didn’t stop her from continuing to organize with her former coworkers to fight for change. Tyfani was hired in 2017 to help develop and implement the WorkIt app. She is driven by her passion for helping people and giving them the tools they need to feel empowered. As a strong believer of the need for good data, Tyfani regularly assists in training people on databases and how to best utilize them. Tyfani enjoys crocheting blankets, diamond painting and spending time with her family.
Kimberly Flores
Deputy Digital Director – Action Center on Race and the Economy – California
Kim is the Deputy Digital Director at Action Center on Race and the Economy (ACRE). She believes the internet is a powerful tool for change and frequently uses campaign microsites, mass email, social media graphics & video, and digital ads to accomplish organizational goals. Prior to joining the ACRE team, Kim was the Digital Deputy at Movement Voter Project, working to strengthen their digital presence with grassroots organizations before and after the 2018 midterm elections. She has also worked as the Digital Manager at TaskForce, Shella Films, and Brave New Films, working on a variety of campaigns from equity in public education and health advocacy, to criminal justice, income inequality, and taking on the military-industrial complex. She has a BA in Film & Digital Media from the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Azucena Garcia-Ferro
Disability advocate, Digital Content Creator and Speaker – California
Born and raised in San Diego, CA, Azucena is a self-advocate with Cerebral Palsy. She is the daughter of Mexican immigrants who did not speak English at the time they received Azucena’s diagnosis, which left them with many questions but very few resources in Spanish to understand how this diagnosis would affect her in the future. Thanks to this, Azucena learned the importance of having resources available in multiple languages, and she learned to advocate for herself and others with disabilities from an early age. She is a very active member of her community, volunteering for various non-profit organizations such as the Adaptive Sports and Recreation Association (ASRA) in San Diego and mentoring first-generation Hispanic/Latino students pursuing higher education. In her free time, Azucena enjoys reading, walking, taking photos, and traveling. Above all, she tries her best to live by her motto: “What we do for ourselves dies with us, but what we do for others remains immortal.”
Jeannette Garcia-Alonzo
Program Representative – New York State Nurses Association – New York
Jeanette García-Alonzo is a Program Representative at New York State Nurses Association. She has been fighting alongside nurses to improve healthcare services and working conditions. Growing up, she heard family struggles as Dominican immigrants in Puerto Rico. Her immigrant background sparked her interest to study Psychology at the University of Puerto Rico. Realizing that with a Law Degree she will be directly engaging with immigrants helping them, she pursued her Law career at the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico. Her passion was beyond immigration paperwork. She completed a Master’s degree in Political Sciences, specifically in Immigration Management at Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain. As she finished her Master’s, an opportunity appeared in a Corporate law firm in San Juan. She created C-MIGRA, a program to empower and integrate immigrants to Puerto Rico’s social-political arena. She has participated as a speaker in seminars, and conferences regarding immigration policies, protocols, and procedures in collaboration, as an Advisory Board Member with the American Civil Liberties Union and as part of the Police Reform Community Group. In 2015, she started her engagement with Puerto Rico Labor Movement at Unión General de Trabajadores 1199SEIU, planning the fight for healthcare workers’ rights. Jeannette is part of a group that focuses on educating Puerto Ricans about the current socio-economic crisis in Puerto Rico.
Jenifer Garcia-Pelaez
Domestic Worker Organizer – New Labor – New Jersey
Jenifer Garcia Pelaez, Domestic Worker Organizer transitioning into a Safety and Outreach Strategist for New Labor. Jenifer’s goal is to create and foster spaces for members to freely express themselves and empower them to create change collectively for the betterment of our families and community. As a New Brunswick, NJ native, Jenifer saw the struggles of the Mexican-American community working in jobs that do not prioritize health and safety and where wage theft is common. Having the experience of her father being injured at work, Jenifer decided to learn more and help educate her community by receiving a B.A and Labor Studies and Employment Relations at Rutgers University. At Rutgers she met New Labor and their mission to educate and train on labor rights, and she decided to join them. The best accomplishment attained is paving the way in creating a safety protocol along with the Transformative Justice Project of Asbury Park. Jenifer is inspired by member stories of resilience and loves to learn about topics in racism.
Ivanna Gonzalez
Director of Campaigns – Florida Rising – Florida
Ivanna is a first-generation immigrant from Caracas, Venezuela, raised in Miami. She began organizing alongside campus workers as a student at UNC‐Chapel Hill where she graduated with majors in political science and public policy. For over five years, she was on staff at Blueprint NC, North Carolina’s civic engagement partnership, where she served as a project coordinator, deputy director of policy and alignment, and interim co-executive director. During that time she supported local and state partner-led coalitions for police accountability, immigrant justice, and redistricting education and reform. Before that, she was a student organizer for the HBCU Student Action Alliance at Common Cause NC and an Autry Fellow at the Southern think-tank, MDC, Inc. She is currently staff at Florida Rising, the largest independent political organization in Florida, building a multi-racial movement that wins elections, changes laws, and creates a state where everyone can be safe, happy, healthy, and whole. As the Director of Campaigns, she coordinates issue-based campaigns on members’ priority issues: housing, climate, reproductive justice, and criminal systems reform. She’s here for sustainable, joyful movement-building that gets the goods for our folks. She moved back home to Miami mid pan dulce (pandemic) where she takes full advantage of the year-round access to croquetas, the beach, live music, and tios trying to get in a round of cards or dominoes.
Karina Hernandez Salcedo
Communication Manager – AFSCME 3299 – California
Karina Hernandez Salcedo is AFSCME 3299’s Communication Manager, she’s in charge of the union’s digital communications for its almost 30,000 members across the state of California. Her labor career began eleven years ago when she took an internship with the California Faculty Association as a Student Organizer. Her work was recognized by the Monterey Central Labor Council and received the “Outstanding Participation in Leadership” award for her Organizing efforts. That internship ultimately led to her position with SEIU-UHW as a Labor Representative, then to AFSCME as a Communication Specialist, and for the past five years has found her home with AFSCME Local 3299. Born in Michoacan, Mexico, and raised in Salinas, California, she’s no stranger to the injustices immigrant workers face. Growing up, her family worked in the fields and she herself was undocumented for fifteen years, and it’s where her passion for worker and migrant justice stems from. Karina is a first-generation college student that graduated Cum Laude from CSU Monterey Bay while working three jobs. She now resides in Sacramento, CA with her husband and son.
Alicia Hernandez
Organizer – Missouri Jobs with Justice – Missouri
Alicia Hernández is the St. Louis Organizer with Missouri Jobs with Justice. She leads civic engagement campaigns to improve democracy and economic conditions for everyday people in Missouri. Alicia is a union member of TNG-CWA Local 36047, where she is part of the Member Organizing program. She is also co-creator of the STL ICE Rapid Response Line, a response hotline that supports community members concerned about immigration enforcement in their neighborhoods. Alicia believes in the innate dignity, worth, and power of all people.
She is also mom to Rosa Maria, a rambunctious toddler who can often be seen attending actions, rallies, or meetings with Alicia.
Stasha Lampert
Research Analyst – SEIU Local 2015 – California
Stasha Lampert is originally from Boston and has worked as a Research Analyst for SEIU Local 2015 in San Francisco since 2015. Stasha brings experience as a former student activist, organizing with others for more affordable, accessible public higher education, and worker’s causes on campus and in Boston. Having been raised by a single mother along with a younger brother who has a developmental disability, Stasha is excited to forward the mission of Local 2015’s membership which is comprised of family caregivers and long-term care workers who, together, fight for quality care and dignified working conditions in the long-term care industry.
Lawren Long
National Policy Coordinator – ROC United – Mississippi
Dr. Long is a proud mother, public servant, and millennial leader. She is a two-time Jackson State University graduate earning a Bachelor of Business Administration and Ph.D. in Public Policy and Administration. She serves as the Director of the Eric Holder Public Policy Program, Assistant Professor of Public Policy, Chief Finance Officer, and the National Policy Coordinator, among other roles. Her background includes non-profit management, research, and grassroots advocacy for issues and policies impacting women, Black, low-income, and underserved communities. Dr. Long serves as a youth leader at The Word Center Church in Jackson, MS. She is the Vice President for the Young Democrats of MS, a certified community health advisor, a policy board member for the Southern Disadvantaged Farmers and Ranchers (SDFR), an active member of the American Society for Public Administration, Conference of Minority Public Administrators, and the MS NAACP. Dr. Long has gained a wealth of experience, specifically in engaging the next generation of leaders in the political arena that will, in turn, help to educate them on how public policies affect their everyday lives. Dr. Long dedicates her service to her mom, Latonia, and two daughters, TaLeah and Zuri, of Jackson, MS.
Annelisa Luong
Senior Community Organizer – Chinese Progressive Association – California
Annelisa Luong (they/she) was born and raised in San Francisco, the fourth daughter of two refugees from the American war in Vietnam. At an early age, Annelisa knew that they were interested in serving the people. They became politically active during college amidst austerity cuts and learned about community organizing upon graduating. Since 2012, they’ve had the opportunity to organize alongside public sector workers and private sector workers. They started organizing at the Chinese Progressive Association in 2015 and have since supported over 150 immigrant workers in winning back over $3 million of owed wages. They’re passionate about supporting individuals and collectives tap into their inner power through healing justice work and building powerful campaigns to shift material conditions. Their hobbies include thrift shopping, herbalism, and astrology.
Fareeda Mabry
Senior Campaign Lead – Communication Workers of America – New Jersey
Fareeda Mabry is a Philadelphia native fierce progressive activist, organizer, and social change agent who has been organizing since being in high school and currently working in New Jersey. Fareeda is a public speaker, organizer, and activist who has worked with the City of Philadelphia Managing Director’s office on the Performance Management Team under the former Mayor Michael Nutter, and the Center for Progressive Leadership as the Pennsylvania Recruitment Director helping to recruit and train leaders across Pennsylvania who wanted to run for office or start a nonprofit and is currently working with Communications Workers of America as a Senior Campaign Lead organizing and empowering workers in the private and public sectors across the state of New Jersey. Fareeda has dedicated her life to the betterment of humanity. God ordered her steps and that brings her to where she is today, still leading the charge as an exceptional leader ready to uplift people and empower them to take action for the betterment of their communities and their families. Her goal in the next 5 years is to gain a doctorate degree to be able to teach others about the labor movement and prepare the next generation of leaders by passing the wisdom baton to all those who she wants to uplift.
Lizbeth Marquez Gutierrez
Organizer – Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste (PCUN) – Oregon
Liz Marquez Gutierrez was born in Guerrero, Mexico. She grew up in Idaho before moving to Oregon to pursue higher education. She is a first-generation college graduate, earning a B.A. in Sociology from Western Oregon University (WOU) in 2021. During her time at WOU, Liz was involved in advocacy and organizing as a student senator and as a Legislative Intern with the Oregon Student Association where she helped secure funding for higher education, textbook affordability, and tuition equity for graduate students. Liz was elected Senate President of the ASWOU during the 2020-2021 academic year where she successfully defended student fee autonomy, and along with BIPOC student leaders, organized and secured funding to create the Freedom Center, a center for BIPOC students. Liz has also worked with Oregon AFSCME Council 75, ensuring members were engaged and counted in the 2020 Census, elections and health care interpretation policy, and voter outreach.
Lindsay McCluskey
Senior Strategist – Care That Works – Massachusetts
Lindsay McCluskey is a Boston-based organizer who most recently served as Deputy Director of Community Labor United. She has over 15 years of experience organizing in the student and labor movements. With roots in organizing for a more affordable and accessible system of public higher education in Massachusetts, Lindsay continued this work on the national level as President of the United States Student Association from 2010-2011. Her experience building power at the local and statewide level with youth and students led her to the labor movement. Lindsay worked for the AFL-CIO in Massachusetts from 2012-2016, where she gained deep experience in electoral organizing, engaging young union members, and coalition organizing. Most recently, she spent six years on the staff of Community Labor United where she collaboratively developed and launched a child care pilot program that enables single moms to pursue pathways to union jobs by supporting them with the child care they need. Lindsay is currently taking some time off to reflect and plan for her next role in the labor movement.
Belinda Ochoa
Organizer – SEIU – Oregon
Belinda has been an organizer with SEIU 503 for more than 5 years in the state services division. Prior to SEIU, she worked for Latinos Unidos Siempre (LUS), a Latino youth organization in Salem, Oregon, where she volunteered as a teen mother. After working numerous low-wage-earning jobs as a single mother of two beautiful children, Belinda returned to work for LUS, an organization that teaches youth to turn their energy away from being reactive and towards being proactive. At LUS she learned more about the systems that impacted her life and the lives of Latino youth and she worked to improve those systems as a young person. It was there that she connected with SEIU and later became an organizer. In addition to organizing, she recently helped to bargain the staff contract. Beyond being a mom, she loves doing Aztec dancing called Titlakawan.
Evelyn Orantes-Fogel
Director, Member Resource Center – UFCW Local 3000 – Washington
Evelyn Orantes-Fogel is currently the Director of the Member Resource Center at UFCW Local 3000 in the Pacific Northwest. She began her career in labor as an intern for the Justice for Janitors history project while an undergraduate at UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles). After graduating, she joined the Fight for 15 East Bay (Oakland) and Los Angeles campaigns as a field organizer. As such, she organized hundreds of low-wage workers to take collective action, going out on strike, changing their workplace conditions, and earning a living wage. She transitioned to internal organizing work with SEIU Local 2015 (Southern California). For three years, she worked as a union representative for thousands of nursing home workers. During her time at SEIU, she saw that there was a lack of participation from women of color in some nursing homes. She developed contract campaigns that engaged members, specifically women of color. For the last four years with UFCW Local 3000 (formerly Local 21), she has spent most of her time bargaining contracts and leading contract campaigns. Alongside members, she has won historic wage increases and novel contract language. Through these contract wins and organizing, she has continued to achieve her goal of empowering and improving the lives of marginalized communities. As a first-generation Guatemalan-American, she saw the injustices that her family and community faced in their workplaces. Her mission is to continue empowering workers through organizing and combating capitalism to create a more balanced world.
Meghan Santonacita
Association Representative – New Jersey Education Association – New Jersey
Meg Santonacita has been a science teacher for 18 years in New Jersey. As a union advocate, Meg represents public school educators in a large suburban high school district in Central New Jersey. She is currently serving as an association representative for her building and the Leave Chair for nearly 1000 members. Her goal is to replicate this position across local organizations in NJ to better serve the members of NJEA. Meg has been a presenter for the NJEA webinar “Leave and Locals: Creating an Association Leave Chair Position” and a panelist for webinars “Overview of Resources for Healthy Pregnancy, Birth, and Parental Mental Health and Access” and “Maximize Paid Leave Options to Care for Yourself, a Child, and/or a Loved One.” Meg was a contributor to NJEA.org during Maternal Health Week 2022. Meg resides in central New Jersey with her husband and two children.
LaRonda Schenck Scott
Development Director – National Black Worker Center – North Carolina
LaRonda Schenck Scott joined the National Black Worker Center (NBWC) in 2021 as its first Development Director, bringing with her over 15 years of fundraising experience. During this time, she’s raised critical mission funds for March of Dimes, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, and Armed Services YMCA. As she advanced in her nonprofit career, she saw fewer and fewer people that looked like her at the table. Organizations gave lip service to diversity and inclusion. In some cases, there was a blatant disregard and racial discrimination towards Black and brown people. She walked away from it all taking her experience, dedication, and sanity with her. She vowed that the next time she jumped in and shared herself with another entity, it would benefit her people – the Black community. God answered that call and introduced her to the National Black Worker Center. She considers it a blessing to work with and for Black workers.
Ruth Schultz
Organizing Director – Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en la Lucha – Minnesota
Ruth fosters a strong organizing culture by building the skills and leadership of our organizing team to develop the leadership and collective power of our membership.
She expressed that “Our movement needs to bring in new people and develop new leaders in order to have the power to achieve our vision.” CTUL organizes workers who have been historically excluded from institutional power, so every time a new member signs up, Ruth feels proud of the work is been done to grow the movement and build the power of directly impacted communities. Ruth envisions a world where every person believes in their voice, and their agency, and has to hope for the future because they know their voice is valued in decision-making. Ruth loves to explore Minneapolis Parks with her daughters, knit scarves and hats in the winter, watch baseball games in the summer, and eat a home-grilled carne asada with her husband. Ruth is born and raised in Minneapolis, in the neighborhood where CTUL’s office is located, the same neighborhood where she currently lives with her family.
Sofia Solano
Organizing Director – Colorado Jobs with Justice (COJWJ) – Colorado
Sofia Solano is Denver born and raised with a strong commitment and extensive experience in movement building. From a young age, Sofia began learning about the importance of activism and labor rights. Her father worked with the United Farmworkers in Southern Colorado and made sure Sofia was always aware of workers’ struggles and the need for worker power. Sofia is a graduate of Metropolitan State University. During her time at MSU, Sofia spent two years studying abroad at the Universidad de Guadalajara in Jalisco, Mexico. Sofia has spent her career working for living wages, immigrant rights, racial equity, and worker’s rights. She has a wide range of experience working with many non-profit organizations on issues ranging from voter education to sexual harassment in the workplace. Throughout her career, she has organized in schools, churches, synagogues, and mosques, and has organized workers ranging from healthcare workers to janitorial staff. As a labor organizer, Sofia worked with predominately immigrant communities supporting workers to form a union. Sofia is continuing her work to defend and empower workers at Colorado Jobs with Justice as the Organizing Director.
Michell Vilchez
Researcher – Nursing Home Division – SEIU HCI – Illinois
Michell Vilchez began her career in the labor movement at the age of 21. Five years later, she continues at the same local, and is the Senior Researcher for the Nursing Homes Division at SEIU Healthcare Illinois, which represents 10,000 nursing home workers who are predominantly Black and Brown, immigrant, women. As a researcher, she makes it an integral part in her role to center her work around the lived experiences of nursing home workers – not just data and reports. Her research has played a pivotal role in contract fights, public policy, and campaigns such as new organizing. She recently laid down the groundwork on strategically targeting specific non-union nursing homes, which lead to successful union organizing drives of 500+ workers at 9 nursing homes in 9 months. She is passionate on doing work that betters the lives of Black and Brown women. She strives to become a leader who promotes a safe space consisting of transparency, collaboration, and learning. She is the proud daughter of Peruvian immigrants. Outside of work she loves to hang out with her 15-year-old cat named Riko, dance to Bad Bunny, and take long walks on the Chicago Lakefront.
Jaimie Worker
Associate Director of Policy and Advocacy – Caring Across Generations – Maryland
Jaimie K. Worker is the Associate Director of Policy and Advocacy at Caring Across Generations where she leads the state policy and advocacy work and supports federal policy strategy so that all care jobs are good jobs, family caregivers have the support they need, and care is accessible and affordable at every stage of life. She is committed to ensuring that racial and gender equity is a public policy priority and that leaders of communities impacted by structural racism and oppression are key collaborators in developing public policy. Prior to joining the team at Caring Across Generations, Jaimie was the Senior State Policy Coordinator at the Economic Policy Institute where she provided policy support to state policy and research organizations and grassroots organizations focused on advancing worker, racial, and gender justice, particularly in the U.S. South. Previously, she was part of the policy and legislative department at Community Change, where for more than six years she worked on local and national racial and economic justice campaigns focused on jobs and public investment in partnership with grassroots organizations. Jaimie began her career in policy advocacy work at the Restaurant Opportunities Center of Michigan, supporting workplace organizing and policy campaigns to win improved working conditions in the restaurant industry. She holds an M.S.W. from the University of Michigan School of Social Work and a B.A. in Sociology from the University of Michigan. Jaimie is the proud daughter of immigrants and hails from Detroit, Michigan.
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