|
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, Associate 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.
Jazmin Segura, Federal 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, Organizing Director
As SIREN’s Organizing Director, Cesar is responsible in designing, implementing and monitoring SIREN’s organizing campaigns that will build diverse immigrant community power. Born in Tlanelpantla, State of Mexico, but having family roots in Guanajuato, in 1993 he immigrated alongside his mom and older brother to the United States to be reunited with his father in San Jose. Cesar was first exposed to social justice while reading about the indigenous rights, anti-globalization Zapatista movement in Southern Mexico during his senior year of high school. At that early age he became involved with the forums and actions organized by Voluntarios de la Comunidad. While at Evergreen Valley College 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 by attending the organizing meetings and by being one of the 13 Security Commanders of the march. 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 was the Community Liaison for 2 years. 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 planting and harvesting every summer, reading 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.
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.
Efrain Trujillo Jr., Community Organizer
Efraín is SIREN’s Community Organizer in which his responsibilities include educating, engaging and empowering Spanish-speaking immigrants and SIREN’s diverse immigrant leaders into immigrant rights and social justice campaigns. Efrain is a Puebla, Mexico native and migrated, as a first generation immigrant, in the early 90’s. As a successful UCLA graduate he comes with experience working with immigrant rights organizations and professional companies like the UFW, and UCLA Healthcare which have instilled in him the interest, passion, and knowledge, that makes him a solid asset to SIREN. He has directed events ranging from cultural to educational and developmental. He also has been the president of various student-directed human rights organizations. He also founded the Education for Everybody Scholarship Fund for AB-540 students, where his responsibilities included doing community outreach and presentations, producing accountability reports, managing databases for both students and supporters, and organizing and training volunteers. As president of this scholarship fund, he often met with different business owners, community leaders, and elected officials to encourage them to donate to the fund and to lobby for immigrant rights. Efrain has also been actively involved in politics; he has walked precincts, been a significant player in campaigns, and worked for a political consulting firm.
Zelica Rodriguez, Policy and Advocacy Program Director
Zelica is SIREN’s Policy Advocacy Program Director in which she is responsible for directing SIREN’s policy advocacy work on immigrant Rights. Zelica joined SIREN on October 5, 2009 after being Senior Field Representative for Assembly Majority Leader Alberto Torrico’s office, where she was the staffer for all health and human services issues. Immediately prior to that, she worked in East Oakland providing supportive/case management services to survivors of domestic violence through a program called Prevention First. She has also worked as a Bilingual Family Advocate for a Domestic Violence shelter where was able to help women learn more about VAWA and the U-Visa. Zelica’s family are Salvadoran immigrants who came to the United State in 1984, fleeing Civil War. She is the first person in her family to graduate college, receiving a BA in Latin American and Latino Studies and Sociology from UC Santa Cruz, and a graduate degree in Political Science from San Francisco State University. She comes to SIREN with organizing, electoral/political, and advocacy experience. Zelica is committed to the liberation of all oppressed people and to the right that all people have the basic right to reach their full potential.
|
|
|
