STAFF

 

Isabel Anadon has worked extensively within Chicago’s neighborhoods and with hundreds of community leaders and residents for over ten years. Her work has including community outreach with leadership development, community organizing and capacity building.  Since 2005, her professional work has focused on building power within Chicago’s diverse immigrant community. Through this work she has assisted thousands of residents in basic English Language acquisition, attaining jobs, citizenship and in becoming active and vocal members on pressing community issues. Isabel is a small business owner. 

She received her B.A. in Anthropology and Psychology from the University of Notre Dame and her M.P.P. from the Harris School at the University of Chicago.
 

Juliana Gonzalez-Crussi is an accomplished public service leader with a solid understanding of the housing industry. She previously worked as a Housing Research Analyst at the DePaul University Real Estate Center Institute for Housing Studies and as Director of Housing for the Illinois Migrant Council, a private statewide non-profit agency that provides services to migrant and seasonal farmworkers. Juliana also brings significant international experience to her work at the Latino Policy Forum, having taught English as a second language in Mexico, France and China. Juliana serves as a board member for the Farmworker Advocacy Project.

She received her B.A. in International Studies and a M.S. in International Public Service from DePaul University.
 

 

Mary Beth LeMay has more than eight years experience working with the Latino community in the areas of advocacy, community organizing, administration, and event planning.  Prior to her work at the Latino Policy Forum, she was Events and Partnership Manager for the Enlaces America program, an initiative of Heartland Alliance. There she worked with policy advocates, non-profit organizations, and Latino immigrant-led organizations on transnational issues, immigration policy, and capacity building initiatives.  She also was the principal logistics coordinator for the 2007 Migrant Summit in Michoacan Mexico.

Mary Beth has a wide range of non-profit management and technical experience stemming from her work experiences and background in Business and Non Profit Management. She holds a Masters in Arts from the University of Chicago in Social Work administration and a Bachelor in Business Administration from the University of Michigan. She also is a Board member of the Chicago Fair Trade Organization.
 

Liliana is an aspiring lawyer, entrepreneur, and dedicated volunteer on behalf of children. Liliana has sold real estate, worked with homeless children, researched early intervention for children with disabilities, and served as an interpreter at an elementary school. 

Liliana holds a JD from Northwestern University. She also earned a BA from the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores (ITESM) in Mexico City, along with BS and BA degrees in International Business and Management and Organizational Behavior from the University of Missouri. 
 

Sara has spent the last decade working, traveling, studying and volunteering in Latin America. Prior to joining the Latino Policy Form, Sara worked as a Research Professor at the Universidad Tecnológica de la Mixteca in Oaxaca, Mexico. She also spent a year teaching in rural Japan with the JET Program. Sara has coordinated marketing communications efforts for the American Heart Association and American Red Cross of Greater Chicago, focusing on outreach to Chicago’s Latino community. Before moving to the nonprofit sector, she served as an Account Executive at Concepto Public Relations, a Hispanic marketing boutique affiliated with Dome Communications.

Sara holds an M.A. in Linguistics from Northeastern Illinois University and a B.A. in Spanish and Communications from Bradley University. She  recently published original research, "Elvira Arellano: Mother, Immigrant, Criminal," in the Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Science.

Martin V. Torres has policy experience at both the state and federal level. As a Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute Public Policy Fellow, Martin served in the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans. Following his fellowship, he worked at the Alliance for Excellent Education; a D.C. based non-profit research and advocacy organization focused on secondary school reform. While earning his Master’s Degree, he worked at the Ounce of Prevention Fund on issues related to workforce development and kindergarten readiness.

Martin holds a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign and a M.P.P. from the Irving B. Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago.
 

Rebecca Vonderlack-Navarro is a graduate of the PhD program at the School of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago,  focused on the community organizing and bi-national political incorporation of Mexican immigrants in Chicago.  Rebecca has cultivated extensive fieldwork connections with emergent transnational migrant hometown associations in Chicago along with several Illinois state government and Chicago-based Mexican consular officials who interact with local immigrant communities.  Before beginning doctoral study,  Rebecca worked at a community development agency located in Tegucigalpa , Honduras.  While in Honduras, she was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to support qualitative research exploring the economic and political impacts of a microcredit program on its participants.

Rebecca holds a Masters in Social Work from Washington University in St. Louis  and a Bachelor's in Social Work from Calvin College in Grand Rapids, MI.  She completed her doctoral studies in spring 2011.