Oscar A. Chacón is a co‐founder and executive director of Alianza Americas. Before stepping into his current role in 2007, Oscar served in leadership positions at the Chicago‐based Heartland Alliance for Human Needs and Human Rights, the Northern California Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, the Boston‐based Centro Presente, and several other community-based and international development organizations. Oscar has also served on multiple advisory committees to national and international processes including the Civil Society Consultation process associated with the Global Forum on Migration and Development and the World Social Forum on Migration. Oscar is a frequent national and international spokesperson on transnationalism, economic justice, the link between migration and development, migrant’s integration processes, human mobility, migration policies, racism and xenophobia; and U.S. Latino community issues.

Annette Uriostegui serves as Alianza America’s Operations Manager. As operations manager, Annette seeks to give administrative support to her team while finding innovative ways to sustain and maximize organizational capacity. Before joining Alianza Americas in June 2020, Annette’s leadership and organizational management come from managing legal offices and community-based non-profit organizations both in her hometown of Melrose Park and Chicago. After being enlisted in the Army National Guard for 8 years, Annette received a Bachelors in Gender and Women Studies from the University of Illinois at Chicago. As someone whose family has been impacted by the broken immigration system in the United States, her personal experience as a Mexican-American daughter of immigrant parents is what has always rooted her work in social justice and advocacy with an emphasis on human and immigrant rights.

Yanira Arias joined the Alianza Americas staff team in August 2014 to coordinate the network’s response to the detention and stigmatization of thousands of Central American children and their families at the U.S southern border. In December of that same year, she became Alianza Americas new National Campaigns Manager. A native of El Salvador, she brings more than a decade of experience in the field of public health, with special expertise in community mobilization and participation, community organizing, and capacity building to address health disparities and social justice issues. From 2003 to 2012 Yanira was part of the Latino Commission on AIDS in New York, where she served as Director of Community Organizing for the Latinos in the Deep South. In that role, she led the development and implementation of the Dennis deLeon Sustainable Leadership Institute for emerging leaders in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. Yanira graduated from the University of El Salvador in 1996 with a degree in journalism.

Zorayda "Zory" Avila is originally from Zacapu, Michoacan, and now lives in Chicago. She holds an undergraduate degree in psychology from the Universidad de Morelia and a certificate in sexual education from the Instituto Mexicano de Sexologia in Mexico City, as well as a graduate degree in Citizen Integration Politics from the University of Valencia. Before joining Alianza Americas, Zory served as executive director of "Casa Michoacan," a cultural and educational center in Chicago. She is a board member of the Network of Mexican Leaders and Organizations and a member of Colectivo de Mujeres Trasnacionales. Zory's focus areas are in mental health and human rights, with a particular focus on building women’s leadership and strengthening the capacity of immigrant women as community leaders.

Hazel Contreras is the regional coordinator in Central America for Alianza Americas. She also leads communication and strategy in social networks of the Joven Camerata of El Salvador. She has experience in planning and executing projects such as VII Central American Journalism Forum (ForoCAP 2017), for which she served as logistics producer, Workshop on the Fight against Illicit Traffic of Cultural Property organized by UNESCO in Central America (2016) as an on-site coordinator, Exhibition "Museo del Museo Prado in San Salvador" (Cultural Center of Spain in El Salvador, 2015) as coordinator of cultural mediators, among others. In her role at Alianza Americas, Hazel helps identify and strengthen partnerships and collaborations in the region to grow Alianza’s transnational work.

Cindy Cruz is a Salvadoran journalist who graduated from the University of El Salvador. She began her journalistic career writing articles on labor conditions in Guatemala and Nicaragua for the Tecoloco job market's blog in 2011. Later, she worked for two years in the web department at Editora Bavaria, for the Salvadoran newspaper Diario El Mundo, where she had the opportunity to manage social networks and write articles for different printed and online magazines. In 2014, she joined El Economista Centroamérica by Grupo LPG, an online and printed magazine. Her work as a writer and multimedia manager for the editorial group allowed her to learn firsthand about the relationship between economics, politics, and migration, in addition to her in-depth work on strategies for supporting the growing readership. Since September 2020 she has been part of the Alianza Americas communications team managing the organization’s social media accounts to grow our audience and digital presence.

Yanci Núñez joined the Alianza Americas team in Central America in July 2018. In her role as Communications Coordinator, she works transnationally to increase the visibility of the Alianza Americas network and advance its advocacy agenda. After graduating with a degree in Journalism from the University of El Salvador in 2012, she gained experience in the newspaper El Mundo as a reporter and multimedia editor. In October 2015, she joined El Faro, an independent online newspaper that carries out investigative journalism on issues of human rights, inequality, corruption, violence, migration, and impunity, with a regional focus. Her work at El Faro, as editor and community manager, allowed her to deepen her research on issues of minority rights. She also implemented strategies to increase El Faro’s community of readers and supporters.

Helena Olea currently serves as Associate Director for Programs at Alianza Americas. She is an international human rights lawyer with advocacy and litigation experience before intergovernmental bodies and governmental agencies. Helena is an attorney authorized to practice law in Colombia, with an L.L.M. from the University of Notre Dame. She has over 12 years of teaching and research experience on human rights, migration, refugees, and gender. She has also worked for non-governmental organizations in Colombia and Chile. Helena has dedicated her professional life to the human rights of migrants, refugees, internally displaced persons, and women, combining advocacy and academia.

Mony Ruiz-Velasco is a human rights advocate, immigration lawyer, organizer, and the Associate Director for Network Power at Alianza Americas. For more than two decades, Mony has worked to combine organizing, advocacy, and legal efforts on behalf of immigrant rights and social justice. Before joining Alizanza, Mony was the Executive Director of PASO – West Suburban Action Project. Having grown up in Mexico and South Texas and being queer, Mony has dedicated her career to providing legal counsel and representation to thousands of immigrants and their families, focusing on women, LGBTQ immigrants, survivors of crimes, and other vulnerable populations, actively organizing and collaborating with community leaders regionally and nationally on campaigns. She also advises and assists legislators and their staff regarding policy and legislation at the federal, state, and local levels. Her work includes the Violence Against Women Act, the Illinois Trust Act, RISE Act, VOICES Act, and previous efforts on immigration reform. She is currently on the board of advocacy organizations and had previously served as the Board President at the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant & Refugee Rights. In 1999, she graduated from St. Mary’s University School of Law in San Antonio, Texas.

Amy Shannon serves as a Senior Advisor to Alianza Americas, providing strategic and programmatic analysis and guidance. She has worked extensively in philanthropy, both as a consultant and as a program officer in the Environment Programs at both the C.S. Mott Foundation, and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. She holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School, where she researched rural financial systems, sustainable enterprise, and social marketing. Amy has lived and worked extensively in Latin America, and now resides in Arizona.