Ximena Leyte Escalante is originally from Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico and immigrated to the United States with her mother when she was eight years old. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and a Bachelor of Science in Journalism from the University of Colorado Boulder and a Master of Arts in Social Service Administration from the University of Chicago’s Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice. Ximena first joined Alianza Americas in 2019 as part of her graduate internship in social policy and research. She later joined the team as a development consultant in August of 2021, before transitioning into her current role. Ximena supports the management of Alianza’s development efforts by writing and coordinating grants, strategizing individual fundraising, and helping manage the organization’s institutional support and partnerships. Above all, Ximena values working in community with people and is passionate about helping advance the fight for social equity and justice for migrant communities across the Americas.

Based in Chicago, IL, Sarah is a transnational social worker with a desire to promote humane migration policies throughout the Americas through strategic organizing and building collective power. Sarah received her Bachelor’s degree in Social Work from Creighton University and now holds a graduate degree in Social Service Administration from the University of Chicago Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice with a specialization in Global Social Development and a Graduate Certificate in Latin American and Caribbean studies. Sarah spent two years living and working throughout Latin America promoting human rights and now serves as Alianza America’s Membership Organizer. In this role, she supports member organizations through grassroots and digital organizing, capacity building, and legislative advocacy.

Melanie Minuche joined Alianza Americas as the organization’s Climate Justice Organizer in November 2021. In this role, she is helping develop and drive the organization’s climate justice agenda through a transnational, migration, and racial justice lens. Before joining Alianza America, Melanie worked with asylum-seeking unaccompanied migrant youth from West Africa, Central America, and Southeast Asia, many of whom were fleeing gender-based violence, political persecution, and climate displacement. Melanie graduated from Loyola University of Chicago with a Bachelor’s degree in Social Work and a minor in Communication/Advocacy and Social Change studies. As a daughter of Ecuadorian immigrants, Melanie’s passion for advancing human mobility and migration rights stems from envisioning a world free of borders and rooted in community.

Based in Chicago, IL, Jonathan joined the Alianza Americas team in November of 2021 as the Data and Support Resources Manager for the Somos Salud project. In this role, Jonathan helps manage, process, report and analyze data for two federally funded projects. Jonathan has previously worked on a campaign promoting a series of immigrant rights legislations and as a teaching assistant at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where he obtained both a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Latin American and Latino Studies. Jonathan hopes to use his deep understanding of Latin American and Latino history and his commitment to humane policy to help carry out Alianza Americas mission and help the Somos Salud project address health disparities in the Latino community.

Bruce Tyler is the Somos Salud Project Director at Alianza Americas, managing the organization’s national health initiatives. He currently oversees two federal grant projects funded by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). In this role, Bruce works with Alianza’s member organizations to develop and implement health education and outreach strategies that address health inequities impacting Latinx and Latin American immigrant communities. Bruce has extensive experience working with immigrants and refugees from Latin American countries. In his previous experience Bruce helped manage a child nutrition program for farmworker families in the Rio Grande Valley under La Unión del Pueblo Entero (formerly United Farm Workers) in San Juan, Texas. During his time in Boston Bruce helped refugees from Central American countries obtain official refugee status by supporting their application process through INS. Most recently, Bruce worked at the University of Illinois-Chicago (UIC) as a professor teaching Latin American Studies, Mexican Studies, and Latin American Environmental Studies. Bruce holds a Master’s degree from the Universidad de Guadalajara, where he completed fieldwork among artisanal fishing communities in Jalisco, Mexico. He is ABD in Development Sociology from Cornell University, and is currently completing a MPH in Community Health Sciences at UIC.