Team
Nicole Santamaria
Executive Director
nicole@ellaparatranslatinas.org
Nicole (she/we) has expertise in healing justice and anti-violence work and has been providing support to transgender women and survivors of violence for 20+ years. Forced to flee El Salvador because of her advocacy work for human rights within the LGBTQI+ community, Nicole now serves as Executive Director of El/La… [Read more]
Program Staff
Roberto Morales Baez
Health Educator & PrEP Navigator
roberto@ellaparatranslatinas.org
415.322.0150
Roberto has 8 years of experience working to support the LGBTQ+ community in San Francisco and the Bay Area through Health, PrEP and HIV care, prevention and education. In early 2015… [Read more]
Ckatalella Letona
Program Associate
ckatalella@ellaparatranslatinas.org
Ckatalella Letona (she/her) is an indigenous Guatemalan trans woman; refugee migrant and fighter as a survivor; artist and activist. Born in the Republic of Guatemala… [Read more]
Admin Staff
Sofía S Ríos Dorantes
Deputy Director
sofia@ellaparatranslatinas.org
415.322.8278
Sofía (she/her) was first hired by El/La in 2018 as a Data Specialist and has since climbed the ranks to become our first Deputy Director. As a volunteer with Amigos De Cleto in México in 1998, Sofía served LGBT and heterosexual HIV+ communities… [Read more]
Lauren Nicole Bakus
Finance & Operations Manager
lauren@ellaparatranslatinas.org
Lauren Nicole Bakus (she/her) has over 16 years of experience in real estate, finance, and accounting, and currently serves as the Finance & Operations Manager at El/La Para TransLatinas. Lauren holds an MBA degree and…[Read more]
Ali Meyers-Ohki
Grants Administrator
Ali (she/her) brings over a decade of administrative experience and a degree in Creative Writing to her work as Grant Administrator. She began her nonprofit career as a Youth Organizer with the Family Violence Law Center where she generated curriculum, recruited youth, conducted workshops and… [Read more]
Frances Prochilo
Special Projects Manager
frances@ellaparatranslatinas.org
Frances (she/her) has dedicated over 15 years of her professional life to being of service in the nonprofit sector. Hailing from New York, Frances has lived, studied and worked abroad in Bolivia, Mexico, and Abu Dhabi, but her passion for social justice… [Read more]
Jaime Montiel
Interim Data Administrator
jaime@ellaparatranslatinas.org
Jaime (he/him) is an experienced Salesforce Administrator with a demonstrated history working in the non-profit industry for over 15 years. His work in the non-profits space began supporting an organization in San Francisco, CA…[Read more]
Advisory Committee
Aldita Gallardo
Advisory Committee Chair
aldita@ellaparatranslatinas.org
Born in Lima, Peru, Aldita Gallardo (she/they/ella) is an organizer, facilitator, and resource mobilizer based in Oakland, California, on unceded Ohlone Land. She joined the El/La Para… [Read more]
Jade Mora
Advisory Committee Member
As an undocumented migrant from a working-poor family, Jade Mora Gutierrez (she/her) grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin with her family of eight having migrated from farmlands in Jalisco, Mexico as a toddler… [Read more]
Ámate Cecilia Pérez
Advisory Committee Member
Ámate Cecilia Pérez (she/we) is a decolonizing Pipil Nahuah from Kuzcatlan (El Salvador) and the founding director of Decolonizing Race and the Latinx Racial Equity Project. She is a race equity and liberation trainer, a social justice warrior and a writer… [Read more]
Marcel Pardo Ariza
Advisory Committee Member
Marcel Pardo Ariza (they, them; b. Bogotá, Colombia) is a trans visual artist, educator and curator who explores the relationship between queer and trans kinship through constructed photographs, site-specific installations and public programming… [Read more]
Juniperangelia Gia Loving
Advisory Committee Member
Juniperangelia Gia Loving (she/her) is a trans-Latina, mother, artist, and organizer for TQ2S liberation. Gia began her advocacy work in high school… [Read more]
Program Staff + Sofía’s photos:
Niko Storment