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Meet Luis AvilaYou are powerful,
more so when you are with others |
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Luis' passion is to collaborate with others to create platforms, spaces and opportunities for empowerment. Migrating in 2000 from Mexico, Luis stayed in the U.S. to attend college, where he developed projects with people involved in arts, politics and social justice.
After 9/11, Arizona and other states became proving grounds for legislation criminalizing undocumented immigrants. Luis and other young organizers from all backgrounds effectively advocated and challenged these harsh policies. In 2004 he learned about voting rights while registering voters in Jackson, Mississippi, as part of the American Freedom Summer program. Traveling the country and working closely with communities under attack, Luis learned that despite the toxicity of their political environments, communities are fierce in the fight for social change. These experiences were crucial when he collaborated with organizers and leaders to advocate for the DREAM Act, fight against SB1070 and challenge Sheriff Joe Arpaio's discriminatory practices in Arizona. His work with the Obama campaign in 2008 gave him insight on cornerstone aspects of electoral organizing. This knowledge, paired with technologies developed to boost volunteer engagement, are applied now in all his advocacy work. |
Luis spearheaded Somos América in 2011, the largest immigrant-rights coalition in Arizona, and served as Vice Chair of UnidosUS' Board of Directors (formerly the National Council for La Raza). Luis is a Google NextGen Fellow, and serves as Board Chair for TNTP, an organization working to end education inequality.
In 2013 Luis joined 270 Strategies, a cutting-edge consulting firm founded by Obama’s field leadership team, where he currently serves as an Advisor. There, he has designed and executed important national advocacy campaigns and coached a new generation of community organizers around the world. In 2016, he served as Nevada's Democratic Coordinated Campaign Field Director, contributing to major victories in the state legislature, electing the first Latina Senator and delivering the state to Hillary Clinton. Most recently, Luis served as State Lead for Arizona Ready, a campaign of Organizing Together 2020, an effort to build electoral capacity in the six presidential battleground states. Follow him on twitter: @phoenikera |
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Meet Monica NowakowskiIf you want to serve
your community, build leaders. |
Growing up in Phoenix, Arizona, Monica was inculcated with a dedication to community service, advocacy, and social justice through her family's extensive involvement in community organizations, organizing, and volunteerism.
She initiated her professional career in media in 2002 at a Spanish-language radio station owned by the Cesar Chavez Foundation, a national service and advocacy organization founded by the family of late civil rights leader, Cesar E. Chavez. With over 18 years of experience in media and marketing, Monica focused her expertise on the power of digital communication channels to elevate messaging and create deeper, more powerful relationships. Monica has previously served as a Marketing and Promotions manager for two national radio corporations - La Campesina and Entravision Communications - and managed over 20 million social media followers as CEO of Vision, LLC.
Wanting to return to her sense of duty to community, she now forms part of the Iconico Campaigns team helping coach organizations on their digital communications efforts, building tools that help facilitate organizing and outreach, and developing training on tools that help engage communities.
She initiated her professional career in media in 2002 at a Spanish-language radio station owned by the Cesar Chavez Foundation, a national service and advocacy organization founded by the family of late civil rights leader, Cesar E. Chavez. With over 18 years of experience in media and marketing, Monica focused her expertise on the power of digital communication channels to elevate messaging and create deeper, more powerful relationships. Monica has previously served as a Marketing and Promotions manager for two national radio corporations - La Campesina and Entravision Communications - and managed over 20 million social media followers as CEO of Vision, LLC.
Wanting to return to her sense of duty to community, she now forms part of the Iconico Campaigns team helping coach organizations on their digital communications efforts, building tools that help facilitate organizing and outreach, and developing training on tools that help engage communities.
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Meet Grecia BeltranWork to embrace, enrich, build, and fight for justice and mercy.
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Growing up in the Arizonan suburbs Grecia learned the importance to grow in community, but also to be unapologetic about who you are. As a teenager she left Arizona to California where she began to form passions for justice and community enrichment. With a degree in Political Science from Gordon College in Massachusetts, she was able to get experience in Boston with the Mayor's Office for Immigrant Advancement where she began to cultivate a deeper understanding and desire to help communities that often don't have the power to have their voice heard. This lead to the decision to study abroad in Zagreb, Croatia with the European Center for War and Peace, interning for the American Embassy program, American Corner, giving educational presentations on domestic and international politics. Those months began to form a desire to get involved in practical and tangible way to embrace others, enrich communities, build up necessary resources, and to fight for justice and mercy.
Feeling a sense of duty to the community that built her up, she came back to Arizona to continue her work in embrace, enrichment, building, and fighting for justice and mercy.
With experience in operations in different spheres, she is now handling operations for Iconico, as a way to continue her desire to be present in building up others.
Feeling a sense of duty to the community that built her up, she came back to Arizona to continue her work in embrace, enrichment, building, and fighting for justice and mercy.
With experience in operations in different spheres, she is now handling operations for Iconico, as a way to continue her desire to be present in building up others.
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Meet Jacob AcuñaHave a passion for being a changemaker.
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Hailing from Sahuarita, Arizona, Jacob’s commitment to benefit others and his community began with the lessons he learned from his own family’s history of service.
Commencing his undergraduate career in the Fall of 2016 he became earnestly involved with the work necessary to empower communities of color and low-income communities. He has demonstrated his engagement in this effort through several capacities during his time at university, one of which being a First-Year Success Coach where he helped to support students navigate through the various systems of higher education. In addition, he received comprehensive training in statistical and economic analyses, tools imperative in the construction of equitable and just policy, while participating with fellow changemakers in the 2019 PPIA Junior Summer Institute at the University of California, Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy.
Jacob is ecstatic to join the Iconico team as its Campaigns Associate and is eager to continue in the endeavor of improving the lives of his family and community members.
Commencing his undergraduate career in the Fall of 2016 he became earnestly involved with the work necessary to empower communities of color and low-income communities. He has demonstrated his engagement in this effort through several capacities during his time at university, one of which being a First-Year Success Coach where he helped to support students navigate through the various systems of higher education. In addition, he received comprehensive training in statistical and economic analyses, tools imperative in the construction of equitable and just policy, while participating with fellow changemakers in the 2019 PPIA Junior Summer Institute at the University of California, Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy.
Jacob is ecstatic to join the Iconico team as its Campaigns Associate and is eager to continue in the endeavor of improving the lives of his family and community members.