Maritza Maldonado is the Founder and Executive Director of Amigos de Guadalupe Center for Justice and Empowerment.  Maritza was raised in East San Jose’s Mayfair community, Maritza learned advocacy as a child, where she lived in the same neighborhood as labor and human rights leader Cesar Chavez. Her family would conduct house meetings on social justice issues teaching Maritza advocacy at an early age.  After graduating from San Jose State, Maritza worked as a leader in PACT (People Acting in Community Together), eventually becoming Co-Chair of the community-organizing agency, where she led campaigns on the Children’s Health Initiative (It was this initiative that resulted in San Jose becoming the first city in the nation to insure all children regardless of immigration status.) and helped create a local school reform movement.  She served 20 years in education within the Alum Rock School District, where she continued her advocacy for parents and children.  She has devoted her life to empowering and creating systems change for low-income communities of color.

Philip Nguyen is the Founding Executive Director of the Vietnamese American Roundtable (VAR), a nonprofit organization committed to educating, mobilizing, and advocating for the Vietnamese American community in the South Bay Area. After graduating from UC Berkeley with B.A. degrees in Ethnic Studies and Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies, he earned his M.A. degree in Asian American Studies from the College of Ethnic Studies at San Francisco State University, where he teaches courses on Vietnamese American Literature, the History of the Vietnamese in the US, and Asian American Artistic Explorations. Philip also serves as the President of the Union of North American Vietnamese Student Associations (UNAVSA). He has also been involved with community-based organizations dedicated to amplifying and advocating for Asian American, Southeast Asian American, and Vietnamese American voices through his involvement with PIVOT -- the Progressive Vietnamese American Organization and the Diasporic Vietnamese Artists Network.

Victor Duarte-Vasquez migrated to Oakland, CA at the age of 7 from Mexico. After seeing racial conflict in his middle school, Victor began organizing with Youth Together Inc. to eliminate unjust discipline practices, lack of resources and pushed for alternatives to suspension for all students. The campaign resulted in the creation of the One Land One People Multi-Cultural Center at Skyline High School. Victor continued organizing in college with various grassroots and nonprofit efforts in the Bay Area around police accountability, electoral campaigns, educational, and neighborhood issues impact Black and Chicano families. Victor holds a master’s degree in Mexican American Studies with an emphasis in education from San Jose State University and a BA in Ethnic Studies from the University of California, Berkeley. In 2014, he joined SOMOS Mayfair’s during the In Our Hands Campaign in 2014 as a workshop facilitator and leadership development coordinator and quickly moved into the educational organizing work. He supported the SOMOS promotoras to develop the Mayfair Equity Platform to identify common issues in the community and increase community decision making power. Victor is currently one of the Acting Co-Director for SOMOS Mayfair and supports the Organizing and Transformational partnerships work. He is a former lecturer at San Jose State University, a member of the SJSU Institute of Emancipatory Education, SVCN Policy Council, member of the East San Jose PEACE Partnership, and a member of the City of San Jose Open House Committee.  As part of SOMOS Mayfair and the Si Se Puede Collective Victor is committed to building a movement the advocates for community decision making, alternative solutions and economic justice in Santa Clara County.