Luis is Associate Vice Provost for Faculty Advancement, Russell F. Stark University Professor, Director of the Diversity Research Institute, and Professor of Political Science at the University of Washington. His research interests are in racial and ethnic politics, urban politics, politics of immigration, educational politics, and voting rights policy. He is the author of several books, articles and chapters. His last two co-authored books are: Latinos in the New Millennium: An Almanac of Opinion, Behavior, and Policy Preferences (Cambridge University Press 2012) and Latino Lives in America: Making It Home (Temple University Press 2010). In 2011 President Barack Obama appointed him as commissioner to the President's Advisory Commission on Education Excellence for Hispanics. In 2011 he was also named one of the top "100 Influentials" by Hispanic Business.
Board Members
M. Lorena González is a Shareholder at Schroeter Goldmark & Bender, where she focuses her practice on representing individuals victimized by people in authority positions—employers not giving workers the pay and benefits owed to them, police officers abusing their powers, and sexual aggressors preying on those unable to defend themselves. Lorena, who is fluent in Spanish, was admitted to the Washington State Bar in 2005 and has litigated numerous cases in state and federal court. The daughter of immigrant parents from Mexico, Lorena is a native Washingtonian who grew up in the lower Yakima Valley where she and her family worked as migrant farm workers. She is the first and only attorney in her family.
LeeAnn has been the Alliance for a Just Society’s Executive Director since its founding in 1993 as NWFCO (the Northwest Federation of Community Organizations) and has over 28 years of organizing experience. She guides the development of campaigns and reports, and was at the forefront of designing testing models to address under-enrollment in public benefits programs. She has worked as the Director for Idaho Community Action Network and in that capacity she has overseen the successful campaign to cover farmworkers by Idaho’s minimum wage laws. In October 2002, LeeAnn was the recipient of the prestigious Leadership for a Changing World Award from the Ford Foundation, the Advocacy Institute, and the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service at New York University. LeeAnn has been a OneAmerica Board Member since 2006.
Hardeep Rekhi is a partner of Rekhi & Wolk, P.S., a civil rights law firm focused on representing employees. His practice encompasses all aspects of federal and state civil rights litigation with respect to employment, including discrimination, wrongful termination, wage and hour, failure to accommodate, and sexual harassment.
With a demonstrated commitment to social justice, Hardeep strives to serve his community through vigorous advocacy with a human touch. He cares deeply about the rights of all people to be free of discrimination and believes in the power of the law to effect positive change. Hardeep is a member of the legal team for Sikh Coalition. He has also participated as a panel member for various community civil rights panel discussions.
Ann is Directing Attorney for the Washington Defender Association's Immigration Project. She defends the rights of noncitizens accused of crimes and provides education to judges, defenders and prosecutors. She has had extensive experience in legal services and teaching and has served on numerous national boards, receiving the 2005 Daniel Levy Memorial Award for Outstanding Achievement in Immigration Law. Ann rejoined the OneAmerica board in late 2008, after serving previously from 2002-2005.
Abdullahi is working to build the base of immigrant and refugee communities around Washington State and strengthen ties with allies on grassroots leadership and issue campaigns. Abdullahi has been with OneAmerica since 2004. In the past six years, Abdullahi held numerous positions at OneAmerica including Civic Engagement Coordinator, Community Coalition Builder, advisor to the Executive Director, Senior Organizer and is now its newest board member. He is passionate about working with immigrant and refugee groups in the community to empower and find solutions to their problems, providing trainings to assist immigrants in civic participation, maintaining open communications between all groups, and identifying and recruiting members. Abdullahi is currently working in the City of Seattle’s Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs. In his home country of Somalia, Abdullahi taught human rights law at the Somali National University and worked with the Government of Somalia negotiating peace treaties. Abdullahi has an MPA in Criminal Justice from City University in Bellevue, Washington and a Bachelor of Law degree from the Somali National University.
Han is the Vice President for Human Resources at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center where he also handles HR for the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance. He holds an undergraduate degree in Chemistry and an EMBA from the UW. Human and Civil rights have formed the basis for Han’s career, personal volunteer choices and work over the years, most recently with Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest. His past community service includes the Seattle King County Workforce Development Council and the Puget Sound Labor Agency. How US immigration policy affects the mobility of science, and scientists, is of particular passion to Han.
The third daughter of immigrant parents from India, Sudha grew up in Spokane, WA. She has long been an outspoken proponent and educator on environmental and social justice issues with a strong commitment to progressive politics. Sudha currently serves as the Communications Director for SEIU Local 925.
Sudha attended Cornell University and graduated with a degree in Biology and Society with a specialization in Environmental Policy. Sudha's interest and experiences in changing politics to better protect our environment and public health led her to be chosen for the highly competitive environmental organizing training program, Green Corps. During her fellowship year, Sudha worked on issues ranging from cruise ship pollution of oceans to mercury pollution in water. The 2004 elections brought Sudha back to her home state of Washington to organize in Pullman on behalf of the democratic ticket. Sudha moved to Seattle and joined the team of Corporate Accountability International (formerly Infact) as an organizer and played a key role in launching the campaign to secure the human right to water, prevent corporate control of water and challenge Coca Cola's water use in villages in India. Her time at Corporate Accountability took her all over the country, from sitting in a Southern California avocado farmer's home to delivering a statement at the Coca Cola shareholder meeting in Delaware. More recently, Sudha was the communications manager at Washington Conservation Voters where she led the communications efforts online and offline through emails, the website, newsletters and the Scorecard and also managed outreach to the media around key activities. The time spent engaging in Washington state and international politics has shown Sudha that the issues of environment, public health and social justice are inextricably linked. Her current work in the labor movement allows Sudha to connect these issues together on a regular basis.
Sudha joined the board of OneAmerica (at the time, Hate Free Zone) because of her experiences growing up as the daughter of immigrant parents. After 9/11 and the rise in hate crimes and shifts in attitudes towards South Asians, Sudha wanted to have a more active role in the politics and policies around immigrant issues. Sudha believes in building power for the immigrant community and is appreciative of the opportunity to serve on the board of one of the most effective movement-focused organizations. Sudha also serves as a board member of OneAmerica Votes and has authored two articles for Grist.org, one about connecting the environmental movement and immigration reform and the other comparing the immigration movement's response to AZ's SB 1070 and the environmental community's response to the gulf oil spill.
De’Sean Quinn grew up in Seattle in the vibrant and diverse neighborhood of Beacon Hill and attended the University of Washington, graduating with a degree in Political Science. De’Sean’s interest in politics drove him to be involved in several political campaigns, most notably Ron Sims’ campaign for Washington governor. Following that campaign, he served as the Community Relations Manager for King County Executive Ron Sims for two years and was later appointed as Council Relations Director.
De’Sean is currently a Water Quality Planner and Project Manager with the King County Department of Natural Resources and Parks where he works on community relations, directs public involvement consultants, and represents the agency on various intergovernmental planning groups. He also works with the local communities and the Puget Sound Partnership to update their work in accordance with the regional action agenda strategies.
De’Sean is also a Councilmember for the city of Tukwila and has served for three years. He is a champion for all residents but brings a unique experience to the council, having worked closely with immigrant and refugee groups in King County. He has a particular interest in empowering residents throughout the community. Previously, De'Sean worked in the King County Executive's Office for both Executive Ron Sims and Executive Dow Constantine, serving in various positions including Community Relations, Council Relations, and Regional and Tribal Relations, where he was responsible for managing relationships with the 39 cities and 2 tribes in King County. He has a passion for public service and believes strongly that it is a privilege and a responsibility.
Michele is the Executive Director of the Gates Public Service Law Scholarship Program at the University of Washington and has served as the Assistant Dean for Public Service Law since 2009. She started her legal career as a staff attorney at Evergreen Legal Services in 1988 with a focus on family law, custody and domestic violence. She later served as a faculty member at the University of Washington School of Law in the clinical law program for eight years where she founded the Child Advocacy Clinic. At UWLS she taught child advocacy, family law and interviewing and counseling for lawyers. Prior to rejoining the law school as Executive Director of the William H. Gates Public Service Law Scholarship program in 2006, she was a statewide advocacy coordinator at both the Northwest Justice Project and Columbia Legal Services where she coordinated civil legal aid advocacy in the areas of family law, youth and education, housing, elder law, Native American and right to counsel issues. In addition to her service on numerous boards and guilds both locally and nationally, Michele served on the Washington State Access to Justice Board for six years and is currently a Management Information Exchange board member and is the elected secretary of that body. She was awarded a King County Bar Association Young Lawyer of the Year Award in 1992 and was honored by Washington Women Lawyers with a Special Contribution to the Judiciary Award in 1998. Over the years she has provided training and has written on topics such as leadership and diversity and has served as a facilitator for meetings and retreats for non- profit organizations. She is grateful to have been able to devote her entire legal career to public service and is doubly grateful to be in a position now to encourage and support others in pursuing that path.
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