Pomona Economic Opportunity Center

PEOC Staff

Executive Director

Claudia was born in a small rural community in Zacatecas, Mexico, migrated to the US at the age of 11, and worked alongside her farmworker parents in the avocado groves of Southern California during middle school and high school. Claudia became highly interested in social justice during her college years at UCLA. She graduated in 2009 with a double BA in Political Science/ International Development Studies and a minor in Labor and Workplace Studies.

Claudia moved to Phoenix, AZ, during the early years of SB1070 and became involved with the hotel workers’ union, UNITE HERE, as a labor and political organizer. She also worked with the United Farmworkers (UFW) Legal Department as a paralegal. Claudia came back to Los Angeles in 2014 when she joined the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON) as the Regional Campaign Coordinator for the Los Angeles Region and, later, the State of California.

During her time at NDLON, she built a workforce-development project for day laborers—through a partnership with local community colleges and labor unions—to create a pipeline to more stable job opportunities. She also worked in local efforts to combat the criminalization of immigrants by law enforcement in Los Angeles and beyond. Claudia also coordinated Chant Down the Walls, a ser ies of concerts outside of immigrant detention centers and prisons created to bring attention to the injustices ingrained in the prison industrial complex and the mass deportation machine.

In 2019, Claudia graduated with a Master’s in Social Welfare from the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs with a focus on social and economic justice.

 

Operations Manager

Karen graduated from Pitzer College in 2015, where she received her B.A. in Psychology and Spanish. After graduating, Karen became Pitzer College’s Hecker Community Fellow where she connected students to local organizing efforts and programs at the PEOC and other local organizations. In May 2016, she joined California Partnership as their Los Angeles Organizer. During her time there, she organized statewide efforts to protect, improve, and expand health and human services programs In the Fall 2018, Karen returned to her organizing roots in Pomona to lead PEOC’s first Integrated Voter Engagement campaign for the 2018 Midterm elections. Karen currently leads our civic engagement work and Census outreach in Pomona and the Inland Empire. Karen is committed to supporting the PEOC in its efforts to turn out Pomona’s low propensity voters in the 2020 presidential election and ensuring an accurate count for the 2020 Census.

Inland Empire Organizer​

Fanelly has a Communications background but started her career early on with nonprofits in Pomona.  She was first a youth advocate for the Community Wellness Partnership and then became a community liaison for the Pomona Valley Center for Community Development (PVCCD).  More recently, she was a Traffic/Production coordinator at a Hispanic ad agency.  As a DACA recipient herself, she knows and understands the plight of low-wage workers & the immigrant community.  She hopes to continue promoting health, safety, and well-being through her volunteer work with the Pomona Valley Runners/Pomona 5K/10K as well as continuing to serve her community through her new role at the PEOC.

Immigrant Rights Director​

Laura was born and raised in Santa Ana, CA.  Growing up in an immigrant family and community, she has been exposed to injustices at a young age.  In 2006, she participated in the LA protests against HR 4437 when her mother took her to her first protest.  It was here that Laura saw immigration issues were a lot more complex and affected different people from around the world.
In 2007, she graduated high school and moved to San Diego, CA, to go to San Diego State University.  As a college student, Laura participated in political organizations, like MEChA.
Laura has been a basketball coach to middle school students, a tutor, a Janitorial Union Organizer with SEIU-USWW, and recently had worked with UNITE HERE Local 30 as their Immigration Coordinator.  During the 13 years Laura was in San Diego, she also participated in community organizing and was Chair of San Diego Immigrant Rights Consortium (SDIRC), and continued to be their Ex-officio Chair for several years.
Now in the Inland Empire, Laura and her family recently moved to this community and is proud to be part of the Pomona Economic Opportunity Center as one of their Immigrant Services Coordinator. 

Immigrant Rights Advocate

As an immigrant to this country, Ingrid understands the importance of working to uplift migrant communities. Since graduating with B.A. in Gender, Ethnic, and Multicultural Studies from Cal Poly Pomona, she has worked at community-led organizations in LA County and the IE. She joined the PEOC as the Migrant Youth Community Advocate to support the children at the Fairplex EIS in Pomona. Since then, Ingrid has led volunteer programming, donation distributions, and facilitated meetings between county, state, federal, and community stakeholders. Ingrid hopes to continue to work in support of the migrant children in LA County, the Inland Empire, and surrounding areas.

Citizenship Education Instructor

Vanessa was born in Southern California, but considers both Topeka, Kansas and Southern California her home. She’s passionate about holding down her community in whatever small ways she can. She’s an advocate for immigrant rights, creating community garden spaces, and loves working with students of all ages. She’s helped create a grassroots organization in Topeka, Kansas modeled after the Pomona Economic Opportunity Center. 

 

Before coming to the Centro Jornalero, she enjoyed working with children making crafts and telling stories at Lawrence Public Library. She hopes to one day become a great children’s storyteller and stuffed animal maker. You will find her teaching English and citizenship classes in Pomona and around the Inland Empire. 

Housing Justice Coordinator​

Debra has been part of the PEOC Volunteer community since 2017 and joined the organizing team in July of 2021 as Housing Justice Coordinator.   Debra was instrumental in helping pass the City of Pomona ordinance that safeguarded the immigrant community from ICE raids and has been part of various local campaigns including the grassroots advocacy for rent control and tenant protections in Pomona.  Most recently she was the Census Field Manager for the cities of Pomona, Diamond Bar, LaVerne, Claremont, and Glendora ensuring that ALL residents are counted and represented. 

Health Ambassador

Community Outreach Specialist

Paty began her activist career when she was a student. She is a graduate of the Autonomous University of Nuevo Leon, with a degree in Communication Sciences with a specialty in Public Relations. After immigrating to the United States, she became involved in parent groups such as Migrant Education, LPHS English Learner Advisory Committee (ELAC), HLPUSD District English Learner Advisory Committee (DELAC), School Site Councils/ Shared Decision Making to advocate for her children and the families she met along the way. His passion for helping immigrant people continued to grow when he found the Pomona Day Labor Center (PEOC). Here she began taking classes for her driver’s license under the AB60 law in 2014, moved by the work that PEOC was doing, she decided to start volunteering and be part of the group of Compañeras Lideres, Emprendedoras, Aliadas, Revolucionarias (CLEAR) participating in marches, campaigns, state and national conferences of the National Domestic Workers, National Day Labor Organizing Network and as a delegate of the Safety Network for All. Now as a Community Outreach Specialist for Housing Justice, Ella envisions herself continuing to work for our communities to have safe, sustainable, and dignified lives.

Paty empezó su carrera de activista desde que era estudiante. Ella es egresada de la Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León , con una licenciatura en Ciencias de la Comunicación con la especialidad de Relaciones Públicas . Después de inmigrar a los Estados Unidos, se involucró en los grupos de padres como Educación Migrante, English Learner Advisory  Committee (ELAC) de LPHS, District English Learner Advisory Committee (DELAC) de HLPUSD, School Site Councils/ Shared Decisión Making, para abogar por sus hijos y sus familias que conoció en el camino. Su pasión por ayudar a gente inmigrante siguió creciendo al encontrar al Centro Jornalero de Pomona (PEOC). Aquí empezó tomando clases para su licencia de conducir bajo la ley AB60  en el 2014, movida por el trabajo que estaba haciendo PEOC ella decidió empezar a ser voluntaria y formar parte del grupo de Compañeras Líderes , Emprendedoras, Aliadas, Revolucionarias (CLEAR) participando en marchas, campañas, conferencias estatales y nacionales de National Domestic Workers, National Day Labor Organizing Network y como delegada  de la Red de Seguridad para todos. Ahora como especialista en Alcance Comunitario para Justicia de la Vivienda, Ella se imagina así misma continuando trabajando para que nuestras comunidades tengan una vida segura, sostenible, y digna.

Community Outreach Coordinator

Jessica was born and raised in Montclair, CA. As a first-generation queer Latine who grew up in a working-class immigrant household, she is committed to advocating and empowering socially vulnerable communities.

 

Prior to joining PEOC, Jessica worked as a community and engagement intern at ActiveSGV and connected communities that are disproportionately impacted by environmental racism to climate, health & wellness, and mobility resources. They have also worked at the Mt. San Antonio College Pride Center, where she supported the personal and academic development of LGBTQ+ students. 

 

They hold a BA in Anthropology with certificates in Latin American Studies and Urban Studies from Princeton University. Jessica is currently pursuing their Master’s in Library and Information Science from San José State University, and hopes to utilize their degree to help preserve and amplify cultural knowledge, grassroots movements, and marginalized histories.

Accountant

Mariela is the Bookkeeper at the PEOC and has been in that position since 2005 to present. She has a Master’s degree in accounting from the Universidad Autónoma de Nayarit (Nayarit University). She works for the PEOC on a part-time basis and has been with PEOC for over 10 years. She is also a full-time accountant at PMS in West Covina, CA.

Worker Rights Director

Alexis has been active in the movement for immigrant, worker, and tenant rights in Orange County, CA and across the state and the nation for the last 15 years. They have trained activists on how to use organizing and direct action tactics in strategic comprehensive campaigns that have resulted in stopping deportations under the Obama and Trump administrations, recuperated millions of dollars in stolen wages in many low-wage industries, and increased the rights of the undocumented community in California. They particularly focus on training and capacitating new activists, immigrants and workers into strategic organizers. They are also one of the founders of the Tenayuca Labor Project, a worker rights project that focuses on organizing the restaurant industry in Orange County, CA. Additionally, Alexis helped found the Orange County Justice Fund and currently is on the board for the Harbor Institute for Immigrant & Economic Justice. They are excited to join the Pomona Economic Opportunity Center as the new Worker Rights Director and are extremely proud to be a single co-parent raising a beautiful pandemic movement baby. Alexis’s preferred gender pronouns are him/they.



Immigrant Rights Advocate

Giselle has always had a passion for workers’ rights, immigrant rights and
immigration reform. As a proud daughter of Mexican immigrants herself, she recognized the
multiple, compounding factors that were actively burdening her community. Having been raised
in Santa Ana and Anaheim, she was no stranger to the challenges immigrants and their families
faced in Northern Orange County. Her desire to make a difference motivated her to intern and
volunteer for several different organizations where she was able to obtain valuable experience
servicing undocumented individuals within her community. She recently graduated from Cal
State Dominguez Hills with a degree in Political Science with a focus in public policy, law and
economics. She hopes to one day make a meaningful impact in her community through
advocacy.

Day Labor Center Coordinator