About Us

Mychal Johnson co-founded the environmental, economic and social justice advocacy organization, South Bronx Unite, as well as a local community land trust to proactively move public land into the hands of the community. He serves on the board of directors of the NYC Community Land Initiative, on the Chairman’s Council of the New York Restoration Project, and on the NYC Waterfront Management Advisory Board. Connecting local to global, Mychal has helped support IFCO solidarity projects over the last two decades with Cuba, Vieques, and Chiapas, and he participated in the historic World People’s Conference on Climate Change in Bolivia.

Peggy Valdés, current Vice President of the Board holds a PhD in Higher Education and Student Affairs. Prior to attending the doctoral program, she was a graduate Fellow in the ENLACE Leadership program at Northeastern Illinois University that seeks to improve the pipeline to post-secondary completion for Latinos at urban Hispanic Serving Institutions. While attending college, Peggy worked as Director of Mexico Solidarity Network where she helped develop an alternate high school, adult learning center, and managed a study abroad program focused on the Social Movements of Mexico. Peggy also worked as Director for Pastors for Peace in Chicago.

Jade de Saussure is a social worker, educator, and management specialist who has educated diverse groups of human service workers and served populations on self-care for over seven years.She has worked in creating ethically-driven support for private sanctuary families in houses of worship. In addition to undocumented families, her past experience includes developing programs for other communities with suppressed voices such as people who are: formerly incarcerated, managing addiction, or lost their children to child welfare. Understanding the power dynamics between targeted communities and those who work with them, her professional mission is to  create participant-driven, sustainable, and effective activities supported by aware and culturally-sensitive allies. Her insights in addressing stress and burnout were featured in Social Worker Today and Prevention, as well as more comprehensively detailed in her co-authored book, Dancing the Labyrinth – Spirituality in the Lives of Women. Jade also has extensive experience professionally developing future nonprofit leaders in organizational development, program design, and supervision and staff development and is currently developing her own training company, Desa Training, Inc. Her work can be found in the text, Nonprofit Management: A Social Justice Approach.

I’m a cinematographer and director of Dare to Dream: Cuba’s Latin American Medical School, official selection in 11 film festivals and winner of Best Documentary Audience Choice at the Tolpuddle film fest in England and Best Director at the Texas REEL film fest. I’m also an Assistant Professor at Essex County College, where I direct the Communications and New Media Technology programs. OTHER COOL STUFF I DO: Co-director, ¡Lucha Sí! Fight for Public Education in Puerto Rico (2018) Director of photography and editor of Newark Forward: State of the City 2017 documentary Co-chair, Newark International Film Festival Submissions Producer for WBAI NYC 99.5 FM Cuba in Focus Creator of “She Got the Shot!”a Digital Humanities project documenting women cinematographers

Dorlimar Lebrón Malavé, B.A., M. Div was born in Puerto Rico and raised in New York. Both her lived and academic experience have equipped her with the tools to think theologically and sociologically about the ways in which communities, particularly communities of color, undocumented communities and poor communities suffer systemic oppression and moral injury. Even more so to think creatively about how we journey together towards lives, ministries and communities that are characterized by wholeness, seeking justice in ways that respond to various experiences and political realities in the world, as a project of realizing the Kin-dom of God on earth.

Her education and experiences have equipped her to preach and lead worship, facilitate leadership development workshops, in English and Spanish, both domestically and abroad. Most recently, she was appointed to serve as Lead Pastor of the First Spanish United Methodist Church, commonly known as “The People’s Church” located in East Harlem, NY. Dorlimar is a community organizer at heart, she is a daughter, a sister, and a believer in change who is passionate about engaging the church with the community and creating spaces where abundant life full of love, hope, peace, and justice is cultivated and sustained.

The Rev. Luis Barrios, Ph.D., is an associate professor of psychology and ethnic studies at John Jay College of Criminal Justice-City University of New York. He is also the chair of the Puerto Rican/Latin American Studies Department. Since 1988, Dr.  Barrios is a columnist of El Diario La Prensa in New York City, one of the oldest Spanish newspapers in the United States. He is the co-editor with Louis Kontos and David C. Brotherton of Gangs and Society: Alternative Perspective (2003-Columbia University) and co-author with David C. Brotherton of Almighty Latin King & Queen Nation: Street Politics and the Transformation of a New York City Gang (2004-Columbia University).   Dr. Barrios is also the author of Josconiando: Dimensiones Sociales y políticas de la espiritualidad (2000-Editorial Aguiar) and Pitirreando: De la desesperanza a la esperanza (2004-Editorial Edil). In addition, Fr. Barrios is a priest in good standing in the Episcopal Diocese of New York. He is also the associate priest at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in West Harlem and the spiritual advisor for the Iglesia San Romero de Las Américas-UCC in the Washington Heights community. He is an active member of IFCO-Pastor for Peace Board of Director.

 Pastor Lozano an activist for the immigrant/undocumented community for decades. Born in Texas, raised in Chicago. She worked alongside her brother Rudy Lozano, an activist for workers and the Latino community who was assassinated in 1983. She is the founder and President of Centro Sin Fronteras where she has worked to stop thousands of deportations. She has worked to give undocumented parents control of their children’s schools through local school councils, has fought against gentrification, and was a part of organizing the largest immigrant rights marches in 2006. She is a co-founder of Familia Latina Unida along with Elvira Arellano who she was pastor to when she took sanctuary in 2006 at Adalberto UMC. She is currently the pastor of Lincoln UMC defending mix status families and works with youth to close the 20 year life expectancy gap that exists in Chicago.

Adjunct Assistant Professor, City College of NY (CCNY). An award-winning journalist whose scholarship is represented in numerous publications. Her research involving Environmental Justice issues have been cited in several Law Reviews . She is the author of several books including Fidel and Malcolm X- Memories of a Meeting. Black Classic Press . A notably recognized and longtime activist for peace, social and economic justice, in 2011, Dr. Mealy was awarded the Friendship Medal by the Council of State of the Republic of Cuba. She is an Advisory Board Member, Harlem NY “While We are Still Here,” Legislative Team NY-NJ Cuba Si Coalition, and the National Conference of Black Lawyers.

Ajamu Amiri Dillahunt is a Ph.D. Student in the Department of History at Michigan State University. He is a member of Black Workers for Justice (BWFJ) and a board member with the Interreligious Foundation of Community Organizations (IFCO). He is also a former intern with the SNCC Digital Gateway Project at Duke University. In May of 2019, Ajamu graduated from North Carolina Central University with a B.A. in History and a B.A. in Political Science.

My name is Dahoud Andre. I am Haitian. I have been living in the United States since 1978. I am an activist in the N.Y.C. area Haitian community. My activism began as a college student in the mid 80’s with the Haitian Students Organization of SUNY @ Stony Brook. We organized ourselves as students and fought to help rid Haiti of the U.S.-supported Duvalier regime, against apartheid in Azania (South Africa), and to support the stuggle of the Palestinian people among many other social justice issues. I have been doing grassroots work in the Brooklyn Haitian community since the late 80’s and education and organizing work through regular radio programs since 2004. Right now, I organize with Eritye Papa Desalin (The Heirs of Jean-Jacques Dessalines) and KOMOKODA (The Committee to Mobilize Against Dictatorship in Haiti). He is also the host of “Haiti: Our Revolution Continues” which airs Saturdays, 4pm-6pm on NYC Pacifica station WBAI, 99.5 FM.

Nadya is a passionate community organizer, born and raised in the Bay Area, with a focus on refugee rights, transitional justice, youth education, and inter-community empowerment. She serves on the national board of the Palestinian Youth Movement and was previously on staff with Eyewitness Palestine. Nadya holds an MSc in Refugee and Forced Migration Studies from the University of Oxford and a BA in Anthropology and Global Information and Social Enterprise Studies from UC Santa Cruz. She is an editor at the Peñasco Vignette Collective and currently sits on the board of the ISLAH Reparations Project and the Majdal Center of El Cajon. She speaks English, Spanish, and Arabic.

Rev. Kelvin Sauls is a progressive and a prophetic advocate for achieving a more just and equitable world though deconstructing and dismantling schemes, systems and structures that violate the humanity and dignity of Black people. With a passion for and commitment to transformative and liberative change in the areas of racial justice, economic and gender equality, and environmental restoration, he has been ordained in the United Methodist Church (UMC) for over 21 years, and holds a master of divinity degree. Born and raised in townships south of Johannesburg, South Africa, he became a youth leader in the anti-apartheid movement through his local Methodist Youth Fellowship. This experience shaped him into an activist in righteous resistance to racial injustice and economic inequity. In 1990, he received the Bishop’s Leadership Scholarship to study in the United States. He served both African American and Black immigrant congregations in Virginia, Ohio and California, and racial/ethnic ministries with UMC general agencies in Nashville and New York. Prior to his current leave of absence, he served as pastor at Holman UMC in Los Angeles—a 1,500-member Pan-African congregation with a membership representing the African diaspora from North and Central America, the Caribbean and African countries. In Rev. Sauls’ six-year tenure, Holman UMC became a moral hub for resistance and reimagination. Additional racial justice leadership roles include co-founder and board chair emeritus, Black Alliance for Justice Immigration; co-founder and board member of Priority Africa Network, Black Cooperative Investment Fund, and Stand Together Against Neighborhood Drilling in Los Angeles; co-founder and board chair, South Los Angeles Transition Age Youth and Homeless Collaborative; city commissioner, Los Angeles Housing Services Authority.