ABOUT US

Our Team

Ana Sofía Peláez

Co-Founder / executive director

Ana Sofia Pelaez is an activist and award-winning food, culture, and political writer who has organized Latino get out the vote efforts since 2016.

Biography

Ana Sofia Pelaez is an activist and award-winning food, culture, and political writer who has organized Latino get out the vote efforts since 2016. Her first cookbook The Cuban Table, was nominated for a James Beard Award, and she contributed to The Immigrant Cookbook to benefit the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project. She currently works in the childhood nutrition space and is a frequent contributor to national media outlets.

Sofía Hidalgo

Digital Director

Sofia Hidalgo is a Gen Z activist who specializes in digital content and social media management. 

Biography

Sofia Hidalgo is a Gen Z activist who specializes in digital content and social media management. In 2020, she moved to Miami and served as the Instagram coordinator and content creator for Cubanos con Biden, a group of Cuban Americans creating public support for then-presidential candidate Joe Biden. Today, she works as a freelance social media manager for Miami-based accounts while studying Advertising and Public Relations at Florida International University.

Frances Colón

Chair

Dr. Frances Colón is the Senior Director, International Climate Policy at the Center for American Progress. She is the first Latina to serve on the President’s Council. 

Biography

Dr. Frances Colón is the Senior Director, International Climate Policy at the Center for American Progress. She is the first Latina to serve on the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. She is the former Deputy Science and Technology Adviser to the Secretary of State at the U.S. State Department. As a science diplomat in Washington, D.C., from 2006–2017, she promoted integration of science and technology into foreign policy dialogues, global advancement of women in science, and climate change policy for President Obama’s Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas. Dr. Colón earned her Ph.D. in Neuroscience in 2004 from Brandeis University and her B.S. in Biology in 1997 from the University of Puerto Rico. She currently consults on evidence-based decision-making for governments and scientific civic engagement. Colón was a 2018-2019 City of Miami Climate Resilience Committee member and a 2020 Yale-OpEd Project Public Voices on the Climate Crisis Fellow. She is a member of the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine Roundtable on Science and Technology for Sustainability and the Global Science Diplomacy Roundtable.

Alana Greer

Alana Greer is the director and co-founder of Community Justice Project. As a movement lawyer, she supports community-led campaigns for racial justice and human rights.

Biography

Alana Greer is the director and co-founder of Community Justice Project. As a movement lawyer, she supports community-led campaigns for racial justice and human rights. Alana is passionate about lifting up the voices of the community members she works with and using her legal and analytic skills to support grassroots movements seeking to dismantle structural racism and inequality. She is an Echoing Green BMA Fellow and an advisory board member for the Dream Defenders, the Law for Black Lives, and New Florida Majority. Originally from Miami, Alana attended Boston College and Harvard Law School, where she was a student attorney at the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau, and returned home to support youth organizing that arose after the killing of Trayvon Martin. Prior to law school, she was a member of the Jesuit Volunteer Corps and worked with the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area to defend individuals from the criminalization of homelessness. 

Carlos Odio

Carlos is the co-founder and senior vice president of Equis Labs. He is an advisor to progressive funders on strategies around civic engagement, advocacy, and politics. 

Biography

Carlos is the co-founder and senior vice president of Equis Labs. He is an advisor to progressive funders on strategies around civic engagement, advocacy, and politics. For more than five years, he acted as Executive Director for the Florida Alliance, a state donor collaborative that helped fund campaigns for democracy reform, civic participation, and legislative accountability, among others. Previously, he was Director of Special Projects for New Organizing Institute, leading experiments on candidate recruitment and online campaign training. He was a member of the DNC Platform Drafting Committee in 2012. Earlier, he served in the White House Office of Political Affairs, acting as a liaison for Latino leaders and an advisor on political issues in the southern and western regions, after working as Deputy Latino Vote Director for the 2008 presidential campaign. At American University, he majored in Spanish Studies, focusing on Latin American literature.