Melanie is the Operations Manager, and joined the team in 2021.

In her free time, she likes to eat at new restaurants, practice graphic design, and keep her Duolingo streak going.

Rachel Bishop is the Chief Operating Officer for LA Voice. She came to Los Angeles from Brooklyn to join the LA Voice staff in June 2015.

She previously served as Development Director for United Community Centers, a social justice oriented community center in East New York, Brooklyn.

Prior to that, she spent five years with the League of Young Voters in a number of roles ranging from Operations Assistant to National Programs Director.

She has a B.A. in Political Science from New York University. In her free time, she likes to make music, cook food, and take naps.

Mavis Bortey-fio joined LA Voice as the  Development Director in 2024.

Prior to her time here, Mavis led fundraising efforts at nonprofit organizations across Los Angeles, including Planned Parenthood Los Angeles, Children’s Institute of Los Angeles, and Pepperdine University. 

Mavis has a B.A. in Policy Analysis and Management from Cornell University, an M.A. in International Development from Concordia University, and an M.A. in Clinical Psychology from Pepperdine University.

When she isn’t raising funds for her favorite causes, Mavis is somewhere dancing, reading, or enjoying a good belly laugh with friends or family.

Maura Chen is the Housing Project Associate with LA Voice. As an architectural designer, they work between organizers and developers on drawings for permanent supportive housing and other affordable housing types to be built on congregation-owned land across LA County. Chen is an artist, educator, architectural designer, and writer from Los Angeles (Tovaangar) with experience working in the East Bay, San Francisco, New York, and Philadelphia.

Their current research is focused on designing community kitchens to combat food apartheid and connect historically disadvantaged neighborhoods. The occupation of interstitial space and intersection of race, gender, class, and informal economies figure prominently in the work. Chen writes the substack newsletter “Drafting Curbside,” has been an artist-in-residence at Dirtbaby Farm, volunteer cook with the People’s Kitchen, and food runner with West Philly Food Not Bombs. They have been published by Pidgin Press, Haus Red, Disc Journal, and the Dry River, taught as a visiting assistant professor at Pratt University and at the Southern California Institute of Architecture, hold a BA from the University of California Berkeley, and a Masters from Princeton.

Maritza joined LA Voice in 2023 as a Community Organizer and organizes in the San Fernando Valley. She has a BA in Technical Management with Honors: Cum Laude.

She has a long history of experience in community-based outreach and organizing, she has received congressional and state recognition for her work in the communities throughout LA County.

Her experience includes relationship building with constituents, community leaders and the community at large, partnership development and maintenance, and coalition-building. She has a passion for social justice.

She is a proud wife to David and a mother of two beautiful daughters
Carla and Andrea.

Aliyah began her journey at LA Voice as a community organizer in 2021, and transitioned to the Communications team at the end of 2023.

Aliyah has roots in both LA and Orange Counties. She earned a Bachelor’s degree from Cal State Long Beach in International Studies, with a minor in Middle Eastern Studies. She began organizing and coalition-building as a leader of her Muslim Student Association on campus. At LA Voice, Aliyah organized with Muslim communities across LA County and with diverse spiritual communities in Long Beach.

In her free time, she loves playing with her cat, reading, going to the movies, learning languages, and exploring Long Beach.

The following quote grounds her: “You have to act as if it were possible to radically transform the world, and you have to do it all the time.” – Angela Y. Davis

Rev. Zachary Hoover is the Executive Director of LA Voice and is in his 18th year organizing with PICO California and Faith in Action.

Zach holds a Master of Divinity from Harvard Divinity School and is ordained in the American Baptist Church. 

Zach first learned organizing from Zapatistas in Chiapas, Mexico. Since joining LA Voice, he has led organizing campaigns that have dismantled unfair car impound policies targeting immigrants, increased access to groceries in food deserts, increased public accountability for reinvestment by major financial institutions, increased voter participation in communities of color, removed obstacles to employment for formerly incarcerated Angelenos, and bridged gaps between communities divided by race, class and geography.

Esther joined the community organizing team at LA Voice in 2024. She earned her Master of Science in Education from the University of Pennsylvania, where her thesis focused on embedding social justice within the classroom curriculum. In her work, she explored ways to empower BIPOC students to critically examine and challenge existing racist and oppressive systems. As part of her research, she developed a curriculum centered on red-lining and its impact on inequitable school catchment zones, encouraging students to write to the superintendent advocating for more equitable boundaries. After graduating, Esther taught middle school English Language Arts and Social Studies in Kensington, Philadelphia. There, she created culturally relevant, socially-conscious curriculum designed to engage students with issues of justice and equity.

Velvet joined the team as our first full-time Operations Assistant in September 2015, and is now the Operations Director.

Velvet holds a Masters of Science in Nonprofit Management from the Milano School of Policy, Management, and Environment, and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from California State University, Los Angeles.

Her prior experience includes an administrative internship with New York City Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez and a position as Administrative Support Assistant at California State University Los Angeles.

Wendell Miller joined LA Voice in 2024. Prior to that, he spent over a decade supporting executives and managing operations at a national HIV/AIDS nonprofit. He holds a B.A. in Economics from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and an M.Div from Interdenominational Theological Center (ITC) in Atlanta.

When he is not advancing the mission of LA Voice, Wendell serves as Senior Pastor at Lincoln Memorial Church, and takes time to enjoy the arts, try new restaurants, and spend time with friends and family.

Angel Mortel is an organizer with LA Voice.  She spent over 15 years in Brazil, serving most of those years with Maryknoll Lay Missioners.  Her ministry involved organizing community health volunteers, coordinating an income generation project for women and fundraising for the national prison ministry of the Brazilian Catholic Church.  Her passion for social justice grew out of her experiences in Brazil, but also from living and teaching in inner city Washington, DC and working with Bread for the World and Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns. Most recently, she managed the faith community outreach program at Brave New Films.  Angel has a Bachelor of Arts in English and Third World Studies from Oberlin College and a Master of Arts in International Development from American University.

Pastor John Oh is the Project Manager for Faith in Housing. His role is to facilitate the building of affordable and permanent supportive housing on congregation and denomination-owned land. He comes from over fifteen years of parish ministry in LA County and has “the soul of an organizer” stemming from his Wesleyan roots of social justice and spirituality. He is passionate about reducing environmental impact and designing greener buildings as a LEED AP with a background in construction engineering and management. John has a Master of Divinity degree from Fuller Theological Seminary.

Yesenia Padilla is the communications director for LA Voice, and joined the organization in 2022.

Yesenia came into movement work as an organizer, working with organizations such as ACLU, the San Diego Labor Council, and the SAFE California Campaign. As a communicator, Yesenia has cultivated and managed communications programs for Alliance San Diego, the San Diego Immigrant Rights Consortium, the Southern Border Communities coalition, and Lawyers for Good Government and has over a decade of movement communications experience.

Yesenia is also a published freelance journalist and is credited with being the first journalist to write about gender-neutral terms in Latinidad for a national publication. 

Yesenia received their Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing with a minor in Political Science from the University of California, San Diego.

Nona joined the LA Voice team as a community organizer in June 2023. She graduated from Loyola Marymount University with degrees in African American Studies and Communications Studies, and a minor in Gender Studies. She participated in on-campus action at LMU, where she organized for the facilities management workers to receive a minimum wage of $21 an hour.

Nona is passionate about education and justice led by faith. She desires to see a world that uplifts the human dignity in all people. In her free time, she loves to learn, read, write, and listen to podcasts.

Carlos is the Director of Organizing at LA Voice. A proud Chicano, son of immigrants, and scholarship kid from LA County’s Catholic schools, Carlos is a lifelong Angeleno shaped by faith, public service, and a deep belief in the sacred power of organizing.He brings over 16 years of experience building grassroots leadership across Los Angeles and California.

Most recently, Carlos served as the Los Angeles Director of Community Organizing at Innovate Public Schools, where he led campaigns that secured millions in public funding for tutoring, expanded parent leadership across Southeast LA, and helped shape major state policy wins like SB 98 and the $5 billion Expanded Learning Opportunities Program.

Carlos began his organizing journey as an intern at LA Voice while attending Loyola Marymount University. He holds a B.A. in Political Science from LMU and a Master’s in Public Administration from New York University.

In his free time, he enjoys exploring stories, songs, good food, and long walks with his partner and little one.

Beatriz is a community organizer with LA Voice. She earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Physical Education in Chihuahua, Mexico. After graduating, she began working with young people to interrupt the cycle of poverty in her town, organizing them and fighting for parks and spaces where they could play, do sports, and be trained for jobs.

Beatriz has over twenty years of experience in community-based outreach and organizing. As a physical education teacher in an elementary school, she organized her students’ mothers to reclaim the after-school building to exercise and play sports, and collaborated with local institutions to develop programs to serve people with diabetes and high blood pressure. 

Beatriz has more than fifteen years of teaching experience, and more than ten years of experience in small business management. She is familiar with volunteer recruitment and training, and has fought for civil rights, working as a strategist in campaigns such as. Propositions 30, 47, 57, 10, and 20, and Bills such as AB 60 and SB 54.

Beatriz is a Spanish speaker and speaks English as a second language. Beatriz has received recognition for community outreach from congregational, state, and local members. She is passionate about empowering, educating, and connecting individuals to information and resources.

Rabbi Suzy Stone joined the organizing team in 2025.

Rabbi Suzy received a degree in History from Brandeis University. While there, she worked on a successful parity campaign for the service workers at her university, and wrote her senior thesis on Kimberlé Crenshaw’s theory of intersectionality. After graduating, she began her career as a labor and community organizer in Boston. She set out to become a rabbi as a way to balance Tikkun Olam (healing the world) with Tikkun HaNefesh (healing one’s soul).

In 2018, she worked as a lead organizer with the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism to help mobilize the Jewish community in support of restoring voting rights to 1.4 million Floridians in coalition with the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition. After being ordained at Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion in Los Angeles, she served in congregations and on campuses in Santa Barbara, Washington, D.C., and Phoenix.

Her grandfather, a refugee from Germany, taught her that life is too short not to cherish every moment, so when she isn’t working, she enjoys photography, comedy, and spending time with friends on Shabbat.