Parent Coordinator and Leader. As a native of Chile, Marcela witnessed cruel oppression under the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. For the past 20 years, she has lived in the US. During this time she has been a community leader and organizer in the Hispanic immigrant community in Ossining. Marcela has been consistently engaged on behalf of poor and undocumented immigrants: supporting children’s education; a pathway to immigration reform; affordable housing; access to higher education; equal rights between men and women; LGBT rights, and rights for persons with disabilities. Marcela has been a parent coordinator in the Ossining school district for nearly ten years. She is the voice of the Hispanic Parents Association in her school district and fervently works in support of immigrant parents in their efforts to navigate the school system. She has been involved with Envisioning Westchester in their struggle to bring change and social justice to Westchester County. At her local church, she runs informative meetings in support of Hispanic children’s religious education.

Economic Development Strategist and Community Organizer. LaMont is a professional community organizer, community economic development strategist, and a lifelong South Yonkers resident. In 2006, LaMont launched a youth program out of the recreation room of his building - teaching history and community responsibility to high-risk youth from his neighborhood. As a student at Lehman College, LaMont was the founder and president of the Black Student Union and a Student Senator. He led the initiative to create Lehman’s new minor in Urban Community Development - the first student-initiated academic program at Lehman college in over 30 years. The minor was designed to give students, regardless of their major, the tools necessary to use their career skills towards the development of their neighborhoods. LaMont went on to become an organizer for Picture The Homeless (a housing policy organization in the Bronx) before deciding to dedicate his energy and passion for community development to his native community, South Yonkers.

Artist, Social Justice Leader and Founder. Cornell “Lord Judah” Carelock is the one-and-only professional Hip-hop teaching artist in Westchester New York. He has been working with the Westchester Martin Luther King Jr. Institute for Non-Violence since 2006, building bridges between youth, adults, and law enforcement. In 2017, he founded True He(ART) Academy, specially designed for artists, teachers, law enforcement and other community members to teach self-healing and resilience strategies using the arts as a catalyst. Lord Judah is on a mission to share heart with the world by engaging in creative humanitarian projects and collaborations. He credits his course training with Mindful Schools with enabling him to present his workshops in a more coherent teaching style. Besides working with innumerable arts agencies across Westchester, Lord Judah also directs a group called Highly Intelligent People Healing Our Planet, providing social justice presentations to youth and underserved communities.

Activist, Community Organizer and Assistant Director. Tarin is an Activist and Community Organizer. Her parents fled oppression in Chile under the Pinochet regime and came to the Bronx where Tarin grew up in the 80s and 90s, exposing her to the conditions and experiences that have informed her unique perspective on grassroots organizing. In high school, she struggled until she met a teacher who mentored her regarding her own culture and taught her to understand society through a systemic lens. Tarin became radicalized. A few years ago, Tarin moved to Westchester County and worked as the Community and Family Services Coordinator, as well as the Community Organizer and Facilitator of a Food Justice Committee. She currently serves as Assistant Director of the Connie Hogarth Center for Social Action at Manhattanville College, Purchase N.Y. Tarin holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and a master’s degree in Organizational Leadership.

Board President and Program Officer. Originally from Naranjo, Alajuela, Costa Rica, Mayra came to the United States when she was six months old. Her journey through high school and college as an undocumented immigrant laid the groundwork for her commitment to social justice. In 2010, at age 17, she served as a project manager for the Trail of Dreams, a walk for immigrant justice from Miami to the nation’s capital. She coordinated actions and arranged legal representation for four demonstrators walking through the southeastern United States. A former board member and community organizer for the Florida Immigrant Coalition, Mayra led efforts on the We Are Florida! and ¡No Somos Rubios! campaigns and traveled to Alabama to organize against anti-immigrant legislation. Most recently, Mayra served as the executive director of the Hudson Valley Community Coalition, a grassroots group organizing for immigrant rights. She currently serves as the board president for United We Dream Action. In 2017 Mayra was hired by North Star Fund to be their Hudson Valley Program Director. Mayra leads North Star Fund’s grantmaking and donor organizing in the Hudson Valley.