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Legislative Fellows Profiles

Abel Camilo Castillo Reynoso Dominican Republic

• Expertise:Sustainable Architecture • Home Organization: Encuentro Internacional de la Contracción Sostenible (ENCONS) / Colectivo Revark / “Cuidemos” Sede Dominicana • Host Organization: Rails -to -Trails • Host City: Washington, D.C.

Mr. Castillo is an entrepreneurial architect, who focuses on renewable and ­sustainable, ­architectural projects. He is interested in ­furthering his work through ENCON and ­Colectivo Revark, both non-profit initiatives that he ­cofounded, which promote sustainable ­architecture in locations of extreme poverty.

One of their many initiatives is to work with 350 organizations to advocate for urban bike paths throughout Santo Domingo in order to ­offer a­ lternative transportation for city dwellers. ­During his fellowship at Rails-to-Trails, Abel will observe the best practices used in the United States to advocate for bike path expansion.

Minneapolis, Alejandro NavarroMO Arredondo Mexico

• Expertise: Education • Home Organization: Camara de Diputados • Host Organization: Hispanic Advocacy and Community Empowerment through Research (HACER) • Host City: Minneapolis, Minnesota

Dr. Alejandro Navarro is a Parliamentary Researcher for the Mexican Congress. Dr. Navarro manages the education agenda of the congressional research center, which advises representatives on social topics and political opinion. For his fellowship at HACER, he will collaborate with other Fellows to research areas that affect the Latino community of Minnesota, especially education policy.

Legislative Fellows Profiles

Alexander Germoso Almonte Dominican Republic

Minneapolis, MO Alexis Rivera Ballesteros Mexico

• Expertise:Criminal and Corporate Law • Home Organization: Law Office of Fausto García / Professor at the Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra • Host Organization: Latino Economic Development Center (LEDC) • Host City: Minneapolis, Minnesota

• Expertise: Migration, Citizen Participation, and International Relations • Home Organization: Center for Research and

Teaching in Economics (CIDE) • Host Organization: Hispanic Advocacy and Community Empowerment through Research

(HACER) • Host City: Minneapolis, Minnesota

As a practicing attorney, Alexander focuses on criminal and corporate law office. He also ­teaches corporate law at the local university. Outside of his work, he is involved in his community as the Executive Director of a foundation for which he organizes youth-focused activities. During his fellowship at LEDC, Alexander will work with local Latino business owners to develop legal structures for various types of cooperatives the community is looking to form.

Mr. Rivera is a research assistant for Center for Research and Teaching in Economics (CIDE). Mr. ­Rivera focuses on migration, citizen ­participation and international relations from a Mexican ­perspective. Through his fellowship at HACER, he will collaborate with other Fellows to research areas that affect the Latino community of Minnesota, such as, immigration, health care and education policy.

Legislative Fellows Profiles

Alin Desire Valenzuela Cabrales Mexico

• Expertise:Communications and Public Relations • Home Organization:Nueva Alianza • Host Organization: Minnesota Council of Nonprofits • Host City: St.Paul, Minnesota

Ms. Valenzuela is a communications and p ­ ublic relations professional for the political party Nueva Alizanza and Fundación Nacional de Becas para la Educación in Morales, Mexico.

Ms. ­Valenzuela is also a consultant for the OAS Educational ­Portal of the Americas, for which she is an e-learning instructor on the ­subjects of democracy, human rights and equal ­opportunities for ­students. During her f­ellowship, Alin will work with the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits to help them advise their member nonprofits on reaching their constituents through ­improved ­communications. Alin will also have her ­fellowship at MN 2020 to observe the new media ­practices they use to reach their target audience.

Minneapolis, MO Lopez Diego Jose Montenegro Guatemala

• Expertise: Parliamentary Law • Home Organization: Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala • Host Organization: Hispanic Advocacy and Community Empowerment through Research

(HACER) • Host City: Minneapolis, Minnesota Mr. Montenegro is a lawyer by training and has begun his career at the National Issues ­Institute of the Universidad de San Carlos de ­Guatemala while also studying for his Masters Degree in ­Parliamentary Law. At the National Issues ­Institute, Diego is responsible for administration, including payroll and budgets as well as a­ ssisting the researchers with technical support. He is ­looking to leverage his position at the National ­Issues Institute to gain research skills so that he can advise Congress on legislation in the future.

For his fellowship at HACER, he will collaborate with other Fellows to research areas that affect the Latino community of Minnesota, such as, immigration, health care and education policy.

Legislative Fellows Profiles

Fabiola Maria de Carmen Dapello Chaves Paraguay

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Expertise:Education Home Organization:Juntos por la Educacion Host Organization: Basic Education Coalition Host City: Washington, D.C.

Ms. Dapello recently left the private sector to help launch a new civil society ­organization, ­Juntos por la Educación, which advocates for a high quality and equal public education ­system for all students. The three programs that Ms. Dapello backstops through her work are (1) Strengthening Teacher Training ­Institutes; (2) Community Participation; (3) Education ­Awareness. Specifically, Ms. Dapello is in charge of managing the Networking and ­Partnership Department, the Community Participation ­Department and the community volunteers. ­During her fellowship, Ms. Dapello will ­synthesize information presented a UNESCO report into documents that will be used for international education advocacy at the United States capitol.

MO Coronel Fabiola Minneapolis, Noemi Alderete Paraguay

• Expertise: Lawyer for women victims of domestic violence • Home Organization: Fundación Kuña ATY • Host Organization: KS Coalition Against Sexual and Domestic Violence • Host City: Topeka, Kansas Ms. Alderete is a lawyer for Fundación Kuña ATY where she provides legal advice to women ­victims of domestic violence. She explains the legal ­process to clients and matches them with lawyers that will help them through the court procedures.

During her fellowship, Ms. Alderete will work with lawyers in a similar capacity and learn about the additional services offered to victims of not just domestic violence but also sexual violence, so that she can share her newly acquired knowledge with her ­colleagues in Paraguay.

Legislative Fellows Profiles

Georgina Ximena Lacayo Acosta Nicaragua

Minneapolis, MO Arana Gustavo Adolfo Ruiz Guatemala

• Expertise:Legal Analysis • Home Organization:National Assembly • Host Organization: Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy ( IATP) • Host City: Minneapolis, Minnesota

• Expertise: Law • Home Organization: Myrna Mack Foundation • Host Organization: West Virginia Center for Civic Life • Host City: Charleston, West Virginia

Ms. Lacayo works as International Relations Analyst for the National Assembly of Nicaragua where she conducts legal analysis of conventions with Israel and Iran. She also focuses on Asia and Africa as well as Alianza Bolivariana para los Pueblos de Nuestra América (ALBA). Ms. Lacayo conducts official translations, analysis and weekly synthesized news reports on these regions for National Assembly newspaper. For her fellowship, Ms. Lacayo will utilize her training as a lawyer to research and analyze land tenure laws in ­Guatemala and Colombia in order to inform IATP’s programming on land grabs.

Mr. Ruiz is a lawyer who serves the Myrna Mack Foundation as a researcher and analyst. In various indigenous communities, Mr. Ruiz studies each of their individual conduct rules as their means of resolving conflict and then makes ­recommendations on best practices to make the processes more ­ethical. During his fellowship, Mr. Ruiz will learn how the West Virginia Center for Civil Life c­ arries out its community dialogue projects with the ­intent to use this knowledge when he returns to ­Guatemala to improve security and to decrease and prevent violence.

Legislative Fellows Profiles

Jean Alexandre Frisca Haiti

Minneapolis, MO Katjana Aris Haiti

• Expertise:Human Rights Law • Home Organization:Cabinet Exume • Host Organization: Ramsey County Public Defender’s Office • Host City: St.Paul, Minnesota

• Expertise: Legal Counseling • Home Organization: Bureau de Port-au-Prince • Host Organization: Ramsey County Public Defender’s Office • Host City: St.Paul, Minnesota

Mr. Alexandre serves as a public defender for the Haitian government and is an active member of several legal organizations that promote c­ apacity building of emerging legal ­professionals. Mr. Alexandre is the co-founder and legal ­advisor to an organization that holds seminars for women on human rights, with one of the topics of ­focus being violence against women. During his ­fellowship, Mr. Alexandre will learn about the criminal justice system in Minnesota as it ­compares to that of Haiti.

Ms. Katjana Aris serves as a public defender for both plaintiffs and defendants in need legal ­counsel under the Port-au-Prince city ­government.

She is very passionate about providing legal ­counsel to people that would not able to otherwise pay for the services. During her fellowship, Ms. Aris will learn about the criminal justice system in ­Minnesota as it compares to that of Haiti.

Legislative Fellows Profiles

Luis Alberto Gomez Chow Mexico • Expertise:Multi-Sector Conflict Resolution and Consensus Building • Home Organization:Centro de Colaboración Cívica • Host Organization: Partners for Democratic

Change • Host City: Washington, D.C. Mr. Gomez works as a Project Coordinator at ­Centro de Colaboración Cívica (CCC), which is a ­non-governmental, non-partisan ­organization ­specialized in multi-sector conflict resolution and consensus building in public interest ­affairs. Mr. Gomez conducts and analyzes interviews with ­legislators, government officials, and civil ­society representatives. He also facilitates ­meetings and writes concept notes, project ­proposals, press ­releases and reports for partners and ­donors. ­Outside of his work with CCC he serves as a ­counselor for a Deputy in the Coahuila State ­Congress. Mr. Gomez will work under the director of the Latin American and Caribbean programs to share his experience and pursue initiatives that build upon the existing partnership between CCC and Partners for Democratic Change.

Minneapolis, MO Miranda Marlia Namara Avendana Nicaragua

• Expertise: Women’s Rights Advocacy • Home Organization: Movimiento Autónomo de Mujeres • Host Organization: Comunidades Latinas Unidas En Servicio (CLUES) • Host City: St.Paul, Minnesota Ms. Avendana works as the Development Officer for Movimento Autonomo de Mujeres where she ­advocates for women’s rights through managing proposal submissions and fundraising ­initiatives.

She is also a volunteer for Nicaraguan Youth for ­Democracy. In this role she teaches youth about ­active participation in communities and local ­government transparency. As a Fellow at CLUES, Marlia will make recommendations to the ­organization’s new leadership on improving programming for women’s health services in the ­immigrant community of Minnesota.

Legislative Fellows Profiles

Minneapolis, Melissa Ortiz MO Masso

Melissa Corneille Jocelyn Haiti

• Expertise:Policy Formulation • Home Organization:Secretary General of the Prime Minister of Haiti • Host Organization: Center for Strategic and International Studies • Host City: Washington, D.C.

Mexico

Ms. Corneille is a member of Haitian Prime ­Minister Laurent Lamothe’s policy formulation staff where she also advises which leaders should join the new administration’s cabinet. After obtaining a master of law degree from Louisiana State ­University, she served in Haiti’s National Commission to Fight Drugs (CONALD). During her fellowship at CSIS, Ms. Corneille will report on the challenges involved in developing durable public institutions in Haiti, as well as provide specific recommendations for the U.S. government and the international donor ­community.

• Expertise: Legislative Transparency • Home Organization: Fundar Centro de Analisis e Informacion A.C • Host Organization: The Sunlight Foundation • Host City: Washington, D.C. Ms. Ortiz is a researcher and advocator for F ­ undar Center for Analysis and Research with their ­Legislative Watch Project. She has created and advised several advocacy strategies and initiatives concerning gender budgets, HIV, reproductive and sexual rights, budget and legislative ­transparency transparency, among others. Her placement at the Sunlight is fitting due to her collaborative, ­international work with them and NDI when she founded the Latin American Network for L ­ egislative Transparency. Through her fellowship, she is ­continuing this collaboration and learning about how the Sunlight Foundation offers tools for more ­transparent elections.

Legislative Fellows Profiles

Natalia Maria Gagliardone Dos Santos Paraguay

MO Jerez RogerMinneapolis, Alberto Aguilar Nicaragua

• Expertise:Human Rights Law • Home Organization:Honorable Camara de Senadores • Host Organization: Minnesota State Legislature, Office of the Revisor of Statutes • Host City: St.Paul, Minnesota

• Expertise: Constitutional Law, Human Rights and Democracy Issues • Home Organization: Universidad Politecnica de Nicaragua • Host Organization: Serve DC • Host City: Washington, D.C.

Ms. Gagliardone serves as an assistant and legal advisor to Senator Ana Maria Mendoza Acha, who is the vice-president of the Senate and ­president of the Senate’s human rights ­commission. ­Specifically she works with citizens that are ­processing human rights complaints through the commission. Ms. Gagliardone also organizes ­public hearings to address cases and participates in ­election monitoring. During her fellowship, Ms. Gagliardone will learn and research areas of civil rights and Indian law as they are interwoven with state government.

Dr. Aguilar is a law professor at two ­different ­universities where he educates youth in ­constitutional law, human rights and democracy issues. As a professor, Dr. Aguilar highly values engaging youth through service learning ­activities in their communities and citizen participation ­opportunities within each political campaign.

In that regard, his fellowship will be focused on ­volunteer programming so that he may bring back models to engage Nicaraguan youth in becoming involved in volunteering and local government.

Legislative Fellows Profiles

Romy Fischer Schenk Paraguay

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Expertise:Legislative Processes Home Organization:Semillas para la Democracia Host Organization: Newton City Government Host City: Newton, Kansas

Ms. Romy Fischer is a legal advisor for S ­ emillas para la Democracia, which translates as ‘Seeds for the Democracy.’ Ms. Fischer ­primarily f­ocuses on improving the judicial system, and ­addressing gender and human rights issues through ­supporting the legislative process. She is involved in drafting legislation, as well as ­advocating and working directly with political parties to see that Semillas’ interests are represented in ­Congress.

A secondary focus of her job is in citizen ­participation and political party affiliation through a project with media campaigning through s­ ocial media. During her fellowship she will work with the Newton City Hall where she will review the ­legal system behind the city’s ­initiatives to ­improve the quality of life.

Minneapolis, Victor Samuel PeñaMOMancillas Mexico

• Expertise: Transparency • Home Organization:Universidad La Salle Saltillo • Host Organization: WV Higher Education Policy Commission • Host City: Charleston, West Virginia Mr. Peña is a political science professor at La Salle Saltillo University. He is recognized for ­developing and implementing a state law ­requiring the ­Coahuila State University to follow ­transparency procedures. During his fellowship, he will be ­assisting the drafting of their five year ­projections report for West Virginia’s higher ­education ­policy. Per his specialty, he will be advising the ­transparency aspects of the report.

Legislative Fellows Profiles

MO YoctanMinneapolis, Rodrigo Vilchez Baez

Wilson Ventura Chavez Marte Dominican Republic

• Expertise:Social Service • Home Organization: Congressman José Frco.

Lopez Chavez • Host Organization: Step by Step • Host City: Charleston, West Virginia

Mr. Chavez works for a local congressman and is primarily tasked with organizing food, ­clothing and school supplies banks, medical street ­clinics, literacy programs and other social services. Mr. Chavez is in a position where he makes ­recommendations to the local government on the types of services the community needs most, and then executes his ideas from a small ­government-provided budget and donations. ­Before this role, Wilson was a teacher for four years. Wilson will spend his fellowship at Step by Step, where he will assist in community ­engagement through volunteering opportunities.

Nicaragua

• Expertise: Increase of civic envolvement through education • Home Organization: Fundemos • Host Organization: NAVIGATE • Host City: Minneapolis, Minnesota Mr. Vilchez is the Coordinator of study programs for youth or citizens of a target age throughout Nicaragua in the areas of rule of law, constitutional rights and transparency. The goal is to increase their civic involvement around both local and national issues.

Mr. Vilchez collaborates with academic professors to provide participants with short study programs in each municipality. He recruits attendees through a network of universities, churches and community groups. During his fellowship he will advise undocumented youth on opportunities high education and funding resources for after they graduate from high school in Minneapolis.