Marvin Gross started his career as a congregational rabbi, and in 1995 became the Executive Director of Union Station Homeless Services, a full-service center for the homeless in Pasadena. Union Station offers shelters, transitional housing and an array of services to help homeless men, women and children move on to permanent housing and self-sustainability.
Angelica Salas is the Executive Director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA), where she has been on staff since 1995. A statewide and national spokesperson on immigration issues, she is also a founding member of the Fair Immigrant Rights Movement and the Coalition for Comprehensive Immigration Reform, two national coalitions working to build grassroots power to win fair and humane immigration reform.
Melanie Stephens co-founded Centro Latino for Literacy with Marcos Cajina and served on the Board of Directors until becoming the Executive Director in 2003. Centro Latino teaches literacy and offers other educational opportunities to those who have not had the benefit of an education, especially Latino immigrants. Melanie developed Centro Latino’s Spanish literacy campaign model to mobilize, train, equip and support literate Spanish speakers to help their non-literate friends and family members learn to read and write.
Pete White is the Founder and Co-Director of Los Angeles Community Action Network (LA CAN), which builds indigenous leadership with the Central City East community to address the issues confronting the neighborhood’s extremely low-income, predominantly African American residents. LA CAN focuses on housing and civil rights, healthy food access, women’s rights and violence prevention.
