Vilma Aracely Sandoval-Sall
English Language Learner Program Coordinator
Prince George’s County Memorial Library System

Vilma Aracely Sandoval-Sall (She/Her) is a product of Prince George’s County and a proud Salvadoran immigrant who is passionate about public service work. She has spent her 20-year career working for the Prince George’s County Memorial Library System in various capacities. In her current role as the English Language Learner Program Coordinator in the Intercultural Services Department, she has spearheaded numerous innovative cutting-edge programs and services that address the needs of non-English speaking populations, language learners and integrating the community through interculturality. 

Vilma’s passion stems from her immigrant experience, and her goal is for public institutions to provide services and programs that integrate communities, elevate society, embrace and celebrate diversity, promote equity, advocate for marginalized populations, and create opportunities to close the achievement gap. In addition, Vilma was one of the co-founders and is the current Vice President of the Mid Atlantic REFORMA Chapter, a non-profit organization that promotes the development of library services to Latinx and Spanish-speaking populations in Washington, D.C., Maryland, Delaware, and Virginia. Furthermore, in 2019 Vilma was a recipient honoree of the 100 Latina Women Leaders for the DMV area.

In academics, Vilma is a graduate of Northwestern High School and the University of Maryland, College Park with a bachelor's degree in Studio Art. She is currently working towards her master’s degree in Library Information Science at San Jose State University. In her spare time, she enjoys being a mom to her children and a wife to her husband.

Yolanda Quintanilla
Financial and Policy Advisor

Yolanda Quintanilla is a community advocate from Prince George’s County. Yolanda has over 15 years of experience in community advocacy for human trafficking, domestic violence, youth development, urban development and immigration. She currently holds a Master in Public Administration in Policy and Management from Bowie State University and is currently working as a financial and policy advisor for a local government agency. Yolanda has dedicated her career to working for the rights of women and children. She currently resides in Hyattsville, Maryland with her husband, seven-year-old daughter, and two dogs.

Ivonne Rivera
Consultant

Ivonne has over fifteen years of experience in qualitative research design, development, training, evaluation, and implementation. Maria Ivonne’s consulting practice focuses on providing services to organizations in the design and development of focus groups and key respondent interviews, intercept interviews, dyads and triads, cognitive testing interviews, evaluation, shop-alongs, and quantitative community surveys. 

Ivonne has worked extensively with the African American, Ethiopian, Asian and Latino communities in the DC metropolitan area and nationwide in the areas of interpretation, translation, training, forum and group facilitation, outreach, health education programs and evaluation.

Ivonne worked at Children’s National Medical Center for 13 years as a Research Coordinator for the Department of Psychiatry, overseeing various projects on mental health. She built a Language Services Program to provide medical interpretation to parents and children from various ethnic groups and trained medical interpreters in culturally appropriate interpretation techniques.

Her qualitative research experience is centered on consumer, social, and health issues. Her research engagements have included explorations of respondent preferences regarding consumer goods/products and retail sales, packaging woods, media preferences, barriers to decision-making, sectoral employment practices, political campaign messages, publications and audiovisual informational materials on a variety of health issues and products, traffic accident issues, health program evaluations, media campaign message evaluations, assessments of health risk factors in high-risk populations, barriers to health care decision-making, and health screening practices. Her clients include advertising agencies, research companies, local and federal government agencies, universities, private corporations, pharmaceutical companies, associations, and unions throughout the country.

Besides providing a full range of research design and development services, Ivonne also provides her extensive cultural and linguistic skills to recruit and conduct focus groups with various Latino subgroups in the United States. She also provides logistical services with respect to coordinating research locations, participant recruitment, recording and transcription services, language translation, editing, oral interpretation services, and development and editing of final research reports. 

Ivonne holds a Master of Public Health degree from The George Washington University. She has received qualitative research and moderator training at the RIVA Training Institute in Bethesda, Maryland and is an active member of the Qualitative Research Consultants Association (QRCA). She is also a member of the Board of Directors of The HSC Foundation.

John Sanchez
Community Outreach Specialist
Housing Initiative Partnership, Inc.

John Sanchez is an accomplished Community Outreach Specialist for the Housing Initiative Partnership, Inc. and former Big Brothers and Big Sisters (BBBS) Program Director who has developed and implemented new initiatives in Washington, D.C., Virginia, and Maryland, helping over 5,000 at-risk youth and their families. He has cultivated partnerships with individual donors, corporations, and foundations to secure $1.2 million in annual program investments. John has motivated program teams to exceed contractual requirements and within budget, and has recruited and trained boards of directors.

Currently, John is volunteering at the Culmore Clinic in Fairfax County, Virginia as liaison of the Development Committee. He is also a Board Member of DC Charter Montessori School LAMB-PCS and Co-Chair of the Greater Riverdale Thrives Coalition. John is highly skilled in strategic leadership and fostering critical relationships among public officials and key stakeholders to garner public support for social impact initiatives and policies that seek long-term solutions to issues of poverty, access, equity, and opportunity.

John has had many encounters with families and people in need of additional social services and passionately enjoys being able to be there for them in any way he can. John holds a BBA from Universidad de Lima, speaks 3 languages, and has a remarkable daughter who loves helping others.

Ana Patricia Rodríguez
Associate Professor
University of Maryland, College Park

Ana Patricia Rodríguez is Associate Professor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese and the U.S. Latina/o Studies program at the University of Maryland, College Park, where she teaches classes on Latin American, Central American, and U.S. Latina/o literatures and cultures. She has published widely on Central American transnational cultural production. She is the author of Dividing the Isthmus: Central American Transnational Histories, Literatures, and Cultures (University of Texas Press, 2009) and co-editor (with Linda J. Craft and Astvaldur Astvaldsson) of De la hamaca al trono y al más allá: Lecturas críticas de la obra de Manlio Argueta (San Salvador: Universidad Tecnológica, 2013).

She is completing book manuscripts on trauma and (post)memory in the Central American diasporas, and Central American cultural production in the DMV. She dedicates a great part of her time to working on community-based projects with local immigrant communities in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area and serves on the boards of Teach Central America / Teaching for Change, CARECEN-DC (Central American/Latino Resource Center), La Casa de la Cultura El Salvador, and the Smithsonian Molina Latino Gallery opening in 2021.

Alvi Escobar
Prince George’s County Council

Alvi Escobar is a dedicated public servant that works to ensure the needs of vulnerable communities are met. He currently works in the legislative branch of Prince George's County, representing a highly diverse working-class community. Most recently, he has organized and supported numerous COVID-19 vaccine clinics, which were strategically coordinated to reduce language, transportation, and technology barriers. He looks forward to being able to continue representing working families and advancing their priorities.

Alvi holds a bachelor’s degree in Communications from the University of Maryland, College Park and is a Prince George’s County native.