Patricia Diaz, Executive Director
Patricia Diaz started at SIREN in September 2005 as its Executive Director. Patricia comes to SIREN from the statewide Latino Coalition for a Healthy California (LCHC), where she was formerly their Policy Director. At LCHC she was responsible for educational and advocacy efforts in promoting, monitoring and advancing state legislation and regulations that affect the health and well-being of the Latino community by engaging and involving community members, organizations, and policymakers. Patricia has extensive experience in the areas of policy development, advocacy, research, and campaign development. Patricia was the California Policy Analyst with the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) before joining LCHC and prior to that, she was SIREN's first Policy Director.
Richard Hobbs, Interim Executive Director
We are excited to announce that Richard Hobbs will serve as the Interim Executive Director for Services, Immigrant Rights and Education Network (SIREN), while Ms. Diaz is on maternity leave. Richard will be with SIREN from April 1st to September 30, 2009 on a full-time basis. Richard has been on the front lines serving immigrants in Santa Clara County for many years. Richard comes with an extensive history and experience in providing direct services, advocating for immigrant rights, and promoting models and systems that acknowledge and recognize immigrants. Most recently, Richard served as Director of the Office of Human Relations of Santa Clara County, and for the past 15 years he has served as an elected trustee on the San Jose-Evergreen Community College Board, where he has promoted educational policies and programs that help the underserved. From 1996 to 2005, Richard led Citizenship and Immigrant Programs in Santa Clara County, establishing a model immigrant integration program recognized nationally for its research, cultural competence, programs, and policy development. In 1996, Richard established the Santa Clara County Citizenship Collaborative when 51,000 legal immigrants were about to lose SSI or food stamps due to the federal welfare reform. The collaborative, which SIREN is part of, continues to this day and now has helped over 120,000 immigrants with their citizenship process. From 1990 to 1996 he served as immigration attorney and Director of the Catholic Charities Immigration Program, where he defended immigrants in deportation proceedings and educated employers on how to avoid discrimination in hiring immigrants.
Basil Robledo, Director of Programs
Basil currently serves as SIREN’s Director of Programs in which he is responsible for the overall development, management and implementation of SIREN’s programs: Organizing, Immigrant Services, and Policy Advocacy. Immediately prior to that, he was SIREN’s Interim Policy Advocacy Program Director where he monitored and analyzed local, state, and federal policies impacting immigrant and refugee communities in Santa Clara County. Before coming to SIREN, Basil was the Legislative Analyst for the Santa Clara County Social Services Agency where he was responsible for monitoring and analyzing legislation of concern to the Agency, as well as for advocacy efforts in advancing state legislation and regulations impacting the Agency’s clients. Basil has extensive experience in the nonprofit and public sector world and is active in the community. He is currently a college mentor to East Palo Alto high school youth of color through his association with Foundation for a College Education and also serves on the Board of Hidden Villa, an environmental and social justice nonprofit. Basil is a second generation Mexican from San Antonio, Texas. He received his J.D. from Boalt Hall, UC Berkeley law school and his undergraduate degree from Stanford University.
Jazmin Segura, State Policy Advocate
Jazmin is SIREN’s state policy advocate in which she is responsible for advocating policies that protect immigrant rights and works with Santa Clara County’s immigrant communities to engage them in the political decision process. Jazmin was born in Mexico City and immigrated to the United States in 1994. Coming from a low-income immigrant family, Jazmin knows firsthand the struggles that challenge our communities. She first got involve in the immigrant rights and social justice movement in February 2006, when she participated in a student forum for AB 540 students. Soon after, Jazmin became involve with the planning of the May 1st marches in Berkeley as well as with Centro Legal de La Raza where she assisted low income immigrant workers in need of affordable legal services. In the summer of 2007 Jazmin interned at the ACLU Immigrant Rights Project and conducted research on local anti-immigrant ordinances and 287 (g) agreements between law enforcement agencies and Immigration Customs Enforcement. Jazmin graduated from University of California, Berkeley where she received a B.A. in Political Economy.
Cesar Juarez, Community Organizer
Cesar is SIREN’s community organizer in which he is responsible for educating, engaging and empowering Spanish-speaking immigrants and SIREN’s diverse immigrant leaders into immigrant rights and social justice campaigns. Born in Tlanelpantla, State of Mexico, but having family roots in Guanajuato, in 1993, he immigrated alongside his mom and brother to the United States to be reunited with his father in San Jose. Cesar was first exposed to social justice by the Zapatista struggle in Mexico during his senior year of high school. In 2004 while attending Evergreen Valley College helped and joined various actions by Voluntarios de la Comunidad. Also at EVC Cesar joined the Enlace Student Association and was the treasurer. During the historic 2006 pro-immigrant-rights marches, he was first exposed to immigrant rights organizing. In the spring 2007 he transferred to San Jose State University majoring in Social Science, single subject preparation, and joined Student Advocated for Higher Education (SAHE) were he has been the Community Liaison since. In addition to SAHE, Cesar was a Steering Committee member of the California DREAM Network, organized by CHIRLA, for a year, and a LULAC member for 3 years. In the summer of 2007 he helped organize at 4-day fast in support of the DREAM Act. In the summer of 2008 he was an intern with Unite Here’s Hotel Workers Rising where he was exposed to union organizing. Also that summer he helped SAHE organize a couple Know Your Rights popular theatre events in San Jose. Cesar’s hobbies include gardening, planting and harvesting every summer and spending time with his family. |
Tuan Nguyen, Immigrant Services Program Director
Tuan was born in Vietnam and immigrated to the US in 1999 to be reunited with his wife and son. Tuan initially came to SIREN for assistance with the naturalization process and later returned as an intern. Eager to continue helping his community and other immigrants in Santa Clara County, he joined SIREN in the spring of 2006 as the Immigrant Services Program Manager. Tuan is trilingual in English, Vietnamese and French and is learning how to speak Spanish to better serve our clients. He was a lawyer in Vietnam and is currently pursuing a BA at San José State University in Social Work. Tuan also holds a degree in Information Technology (IT).
Calvin Nguyen, Program Associate
Calvin is SIREN’s program associate in which he is responsible for political education workshops on citizenship, outreach and citizenship application assistance for the Vietnamese-speaking community. Calvin Nguyen came to the United States from Vietnam at early age. Later in April 1995, he became a U.S. citizen through naturalization. Afterwards, he joined the U.S armed force (U.S. Army), where he served more than seven years. After returning to civilian life, he tutors students from 9th grade and under; he also volunteered teaching citizenship class at Tully Library since November 2005 to present.
Rafael Avalos, Program Associate
Rafael is SIREN’s program associate in which he is. Rafael was born and raised in El Salvador before he immigrated to the US in 2000. Rafael attended Citizenship Day in 2005 to apply for naturalization through which he became a U.S. citizen. Shortly afterwards, Rafael returned to attend one of SIREN's presentations to learn more about American elections. Rafael started off as a volunteer with SIREN during which he assisted SIREN with various activities including, but not limited to, workshops and Citizenship Day in 2006. In March 2007, Rafael became SIREN's Immigrant Services Program Associate to serve mainly Spanish- and English-speaking clients.
Maria Caballero, Program Associate
Maria is SIREN’s program associate; she is responsible for political education workshops on citizenship, outreach and citizenship application assistance for the Spanish-speaking community. She joined SIREN on March 5, 2009 after being an Immigration Specialist for the Center for Employment Training Immigration Citizenship program. Maria is very passionate about helping out the community where she lives and educating them about Citizenship. She enjoys working with a diverse population and being able to learn from them.
Viridiana Reyes, Administrative Assistant
Viridiana is SIREN’s Administrative Assistant providing general administrative, events and volunteer coordination, accounting and technical support to the Executive Director. In 2008 she graduated from Evergreen Valley College receiving an AA in Psychology and then transferred to San Jose State University where she is currently pursuing a BA in Sociology with a concentration in community change. She has a long history of being involved with groups such as: the Associated Students of EVC and Latinas for Change. She is also a co-founder of Cochitlehual-li which is a community/student organization that advocates for educational rights for all regardless of legal status and is currently a member of the CA DREAM Network. |
