Food & Environmental Justice Educator. Antonia is a Chilean-American clinical herbalist, gardener, educator, community organizer, and artist born and raised in New York City. Growing up in a first generation immigrant household, her family’s passion for herbs and medicinal plants found her bridging the gap between rural and urban spaces, while discovering the intersection of land stewardship, education, and social justice. Antonia’s ten years of academic study included: Environmental and Urban Studies (Bard College); Clinical Herbalism (Arborvitae School of Traditional Herbal Medicine); field work with herbalists and elders throughout Mexico, Chile, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, Brazil, and Thailand. Pérez facilitates workshops and produces events as the co-founder of the NY based collective, Brujas, and Herban Cura – with a focus toward reconnecting diverse communities (indigenous, black, queer and trans) to the earth by tracing the socio-political, ecological history of plants and people. In addition to facilitating workshops in spaces such as Reed, Stanford, New School, and MoMA PS1, Antonia is a respected gardener who has helped in the initiation and development of food prosperity for disempowered communities, namely Salam Community Garden, Sweet Freedom farm, Bard farm, and Soul Fire farm.
Grassroots Organizer, Fair-wage and Healthcare Activist. Gemma is a Hudson Valley organizer for the New York Caring Majority who has been fighting for increased wages for home care workers. Receiving her B.A. in Legal Communications from Howard University, she went on to receive a Masters of Science Management from Kaplan University, specializing in healthcare. She began volunteering with the New York Caring Majority in late 2019, participating in HV and state-wide monthly meetings, funder events and assisting the organization with Covid related outreach. In October 2020 she took a temporary position as a field organizer, helping organize phone banks to make calls for the four legislators endorsed by NYCM. By December 2020, Gemma became a full-time organizer, campaigning for Fair Pay for Home Care and organizing the Home Care Worker Round Table. She co-MC’d a rally at the Governor’s Mansion for Fair Pay for Home Care and a rally for the New York Health Act in Albany.
More recently she was a panelist at the Virtual Legislative Briefing on Child Care, Home Care, & Economic Development; co-MC at the Caregiver Award Ceremony; co-MC at the press release at the Capitol in Albany for all of the co-sponsors of a bill to increase the pay of home care workers, including Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Speaker of the Assembly Carl Heastie.
Labor Organizer, Advocate for Workers’ Rights. Gonzalo, originally from Puebla, Mexico, is from a working family. His mother is a domestic worker, and his father works in construction. When he arrived in the United States, Gonzalo became aware of the labor abuse suffered by immigrant workers. In his first job, he fought for the dignity of his co-workers by suing his employer and recovering more than a million dollars for them.
After working at the Chicago Latino Union as a day laborer organizer in 2010, Gonzalo moved to Port Chester, New York where for seven years he was the director of Don Bosco Workers Inc. He started “No Pay No Way!” and with the support of the Westchester Labor Alliance, in collaboration with universities, unions and community organizations, he helped pass a wage theft prevention bill in Westchester County.
Recovering wages and educating fellow workers about labor rights is Gonzalo’s top priority. In 2015 Don Bosco Workers was chosen to build an oak chair and altar for Pope Francis’s appearance at Madison Square Garden. Gonzalo, in collaboration with CWA Local 1103, used the media attention to speak about wage theft and abusive labor practices in New York.
Gonzalo has worked with numerous organizations: Latin American Workers Project, the Chicago Latino Union, the Labor Justice Project, in addition to his ongoing collaboration with Don Bosco Workers Inc.
Restorative Justice Educator, Organizer, Social Advocate. A fierce advocate for currently and formerly incarcerated community members, Jose co-founded After Incarceration, an organization that helps people process the trauma of incarceration, heal their internalized dehumanization, and forge the resiliency necessary to (re)build relationships. He works with community organizers and systems-impacted people to reimagine the world our grandchildren will live in, fighting together for a legacy of liberation.
Jose also works for the Bard Prison Initiative, harnessing the social capital of his own Bard education to increase access to higher education for other non-traditional students. He recruits students for tuition-free college opportunities in Brooklyn and Harlem and provides additional academic support outside the classroom.
In addition to his professional roles, Jose also serves as the President of the Mid-Hudson Valley Area Council for the Alternatives to Violence Project. His leadership there, as elsewhere, is rooted in relationships. These relationships have enabled him to forge a new path forward—a way for credible messengers to be holistically equipped to both interrupt violence and give life. Finally, as a member of the Transformative In-Prison Workgroup NY Leadership Team, Jose works to support and expand meaningful prison programs, departmental transparency, and wraparound reentry models.
Childbirth Educator, Health & Wellness Advocate. Nubia is a Community Birth Worker, and Founder/President of Birth from The Earth Inc., a non-profit organization steeped in education and empowerment, providing a variety of health and wellness services. In 2021 she opened Earth Groundz, a brick-and-mortar location in the heart of Downtown Yonkers, dedicated to centering Black Healing.
Nubia holds a Masters Degree in Midwifery and a Bachelor's Degree in Sociology. She is currently completing Mercy In Actions Post-Graduate program in International Midwifery and Maternal & Infant Health, and is enrolled in Jennie Joseph's Commonsense Childbirth School of Midwifery, pursuing the CPM (Certified Professional Midwife) credential. She is a childbirth educator, providing birth and postpartum support and lactation consulting. Nubia Martin sits on the Board of the Chocolate Milk Cafe National, The Black Coalition for Safe Motherhood, and the Hudson Valley Birth Network.
Nubia is dedicated to improving birth outcomes for women of color and toppling maternal mortality and morbidity rate disparities. The legacy and lineage of the Grand Midwives runs deep through Nubia Martin. She sees Midwifery, not as a profession, but as a way of life and a rite of passage.
