Melanie is the Operations Coordinator. She brings 7 years of administrative and operational experience to LA Voice, joining 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 is happy to serve as Development Director for LA Voice.

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 as our Community Crganizer representing the SFV Region. She has  a B.A in Technical Management with Honors: Cum Laude.

She has a long experience in community based outreach and organizing, she has received congress 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 is a Communications Assistant at LA Voice. She began her journey at the organization as a community organizer, and transitioned to the Communications team at the end of 2023.

Aliyah was born and raised in Southern California with roots in both LA and Orange County. She earned a Bachelor’s degree from Cal State Long Beach in International Studies with a focus in global social movements and history and politics of the Middle East and North Africa. 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, 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

Yvonne Figueroa was exposed to community organizing while attending California State University Long Beach.

After graduating, she worked on various political and community campaigns before joining the labor movement in the long term care industry.

On her off time, she leads communications for her church in Lancaster.

She loves hiking, camping, reading, live music, eating, and is open to all kinds of new experiences!

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

Rev. 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.

Velvet first joined our team as our first full-time Operations Assistant in September 2015.

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.

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.

Beatriz is a community organizer with LA Voice. She earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Chihuahua, Mexico, and a High School Diploma here in the United States. After graduating with her BA in Physical Education, she began working with youth 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 Proposition 30, 47,57, 10, and 20, and Bills such as AB 60 and SB 54. Beatriz is a Spanish speaker and speaks English as my 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. She is reliable, honest, hardworking, and always willing to learn more and improve.