Esperanza United is proud to announce our 2023 Latina Leader Fellows

We’re proud to announce our 2023 Latina Leader Fellows! After a successful pilot program last year, we are continuing the fellowship program, which provides training, professional development, and networking opportunities for Latina women pursuing careers in research and/or policy advocacy. This year, we’re matching ten mentors with ten paid fellows -details below. The fellows represent eight states with interests ranging from immigration issues to folkloric, from bodily autonomy to Bad Bunny. They are completing research and policy projects this summer to kick-start their careers.

Policy fellows

Tatiana Nuñez

Tatiana Nuñez is a rising senior at Arizona State University majoring in Justice Studies with a minor in Transborder Studies. 

Tamara Antunes

Tamara Antunes is currently in the first year of three years at the Master’s of Social Work at the Portland State University in Portland, Oregon. 

Marisol Garcia

Marisol Garcia is graduating in May 2023 from Trinity College with a graduate degree in Public Policy, where she also completed her undergraduate degree in Public Policy and Law. 

Karen Delgado-Villanueva

Karen Delgado-Villanueva (she/her/ella) is a rising senior majoring in Political Science, with a double minor in Leadership and Chicano Latino Studies at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. 

Yolanda Lucero

Yolanda Lucero (aka Yoli) is a proud Chicana, Mexicana Americana, Pocha, Brown Mujer from Albuquerque NM. She has a BA in Political Science and Chicana/o Latino Studies.

Research fellows

Diana López

Diana is a third-year Ph.D. student in Borderlands History at the University of Texas at El Paso. Her experience as a Chicana Transfronteriza born in El Paso and raised in Ciudad Juárez impact her formation as a scholar. 

Rebecca Angela Ruiz

Rebecca Angela Ruiz (she/they) is a first-year Ph.D. student  at UC Irvine’s Criminology, Law & Society department. Their research interests include immigration, human trafficking 

(labor and sex), critical criminology, media, public opinion, and theory testing.

Yeliani Flores

A first-generation college student and a 3rd year Ph.D. student in the College of Social Work at The Ohio State University, Yeliani Flores was born and raised in Los Angeles, CA before moving to the Midwest.

Thaily Guzman-Jimenez

Thaily Guzman-Jimenez will be graduating in May from the University of California, Berkeley with a degree in Gender and Women studies and a minor in Ethnic Studies.

Veronica Valencia Gonzalez

Veronica Valencia Gonzalez is the eldest of six children born to Liduvina and Salvador Gonzalez, who immigrated from Mexico and worked as agricultural laborers in California. 

Mentors

Dr. Irasema Coronado

Director and Professor
School of Transborder Studies at Arizona State University

Dr. Kathryn Thomas

Clinical Lecturer in Law and Associate Research Scholar
Yale Law School’s Justice Collaboratory and Yale School of Medicine’s SEICHE Center for Health and Justice

Margarita Guzman

Executive Director 
Violence Intervention Program (VIP)

Joey Espinoza-Hernández

Director of Policy and Community Building
Los Angeles LGBT Center

Dr. Maria Corona

Executive Director 
Iowa Coalition Against Domestic Violence (ICADV)

Kevin Swartout, Ph.D.

Professor of Psychology and Public Health and Co-director of Graduate Studies 
Georgia State University

Chiara Sabina, Ph.D.

Associate Professor in the Department of Women and Gender Studies
Delaware University

Alondra D. Garza, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor
Department of Criminal Justice, University of Central Florida

Susana Mariscal, Ph.D., MSW

Associate Professor of Social Work
Indiana University

Rebecca Fix, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor 
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health