Ian is a community leader and community organizer whose work for nearly 10 years has been directing youth leadership and college preparatory programs for local urban youth at Neighborhood...
Champions of Change: Immigration Reform
The White House honors eleven people who embody the spirit of Cesar Chavez’s legacy and commit themselves to working in their communities to advocate and organize around immigration-related issues.
Judy Rickard, author of Torn Apart: United by Love, Divided by Law, Findhorn Press, 2011, has worked to promote civil rights since 1973 as a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) activist...
Matthew Soerens serves as the US Church Training Specialist for World Relief, which is the humanitarian arm of the National Association of Evangelicals. Matthew previously served as a Board of...
Jason Mathis is the executive director of Salt Lake City’s Downtown Alliance and EVP of the Salt Lake Chamber overseeing policy initiatives for immigration and urban development. He excels at...
Rich Stolz was born in South Korea, grew up in California, and lives in Seattle, but has lived and organized in communities as diverse as Maine, Alabama, Arizona, and Washington, D.C. He is the...
Javier oversees the organizing and policy work at Make the Road New York in the areas of civic participation, civil rights, education, housing, environmental justice, LGBTQ, and immigration. He...
Yvanna Cancela lives in Las Vegas, Nevada. She is the political director at UNITE HERE’s Local 226, the Culinary Workers Union. Yvanna’s work has increased clergy and community involvement and...
Lawrence Benito serves as the Chief Executive Officer at the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR), one of the leading organizations with the Fair Immigration Reform Movement...
L. Mireya Reith is Executive Director of Arkansas United Community Coalition (AUCC), Arkansas’ first nonprofit working at the state level to empower immigrants. Inspired by her experiences growing...
Maria has worked to defend basic human rights of low-income and migrant peoples for 25 years. She is a graduate of Georgetown University, where Maria was active in the anti-apartheid and Central...