FUll Bio
FUll Bio
My younger brother, Andres, has an intellectual disability and autism. Caring for him and watching my family navigate systems that were not always built to include or support people like him was one of the earliest catalysts for my desire to fight for equity and change.
It taught me that the rules, policies, and decisions made by institutions aren't abstract. They determine whether a family gets help, whether someone has access to an opportunity, and sometimes whether a person is even seen and heard.
It also taught me something that has stayed with me throughout my life: when a system isn't working for people, we don't have to simply accept it. We can challenge it. We can organize. We can advocate. And we can change it.
Those lessons have followed me through every chapter of my life—as a teacher, advocate, attorney, mother, caregiver, Councilmember, and community leader.
My professional life has taken me from the classroom to advocacy, policy, and the law, but the common thread has always been service.
I began my career as a community organizer in New York City doing public health organizing. This experience led me to want to attend law school, so I could help shape policies in furtherance of equity. Flash forward a few years later, I worked with Liberty’s Promise to teach civics to immigrant and first-generation students at Parkdale High School, an experience that ultimately led me to become a full-time teacher through Teach for America.
Working directly with young people and families gave me an early understanding of how decisions made far away from the classroom can have very real consequences for the people expected to live with them.
My career later expanded into public policy, advocacy, and law. I have worked as a public-policy advisor, civil-rights advocate, and attorney in private practice.
For the past two years, I have served as an attorney with the Maryland Office of the Attorney General, representing the Maryland Department of Health. My work has given me an inside view of how the government operates: how laws and policies are implemented, how agencies make decisions, and how important competent, accountable public institutions are to the people who depend on them.
Across every role, my professional experiences have reinforced something I have believed for years: government can be an incredibly powerful tool for improving people's lives—but only when the people responsible for it are willing to make it work.
For most of my life, advocacy happened through my family, my work, and my community. I knew how to speak up when something wasn't right. What I hadn't yet decided was that I needed to run for office myself. That changed here in New Carrollton.
In 2020, I became increasingly concerned by what I viewed as homophobic rhetoric and treatment coming from then-Mayor Phelecia Nembhard. When residents organized a parade and protest in response, I participated—and subsequently received a citation related to that demonstration. For me, that experience became a turning point.
I could have paid the citation, remained frustrated, and moved on. Instead, I started asking bigger questions: Who gets represented in local government? Whose voices are welcomed? And what happens when the people affected by government decisions aren't sitting at the table when those decisions are made? I decided I wanted a seat at that table. So in 2021, I ran for the New Carrollton City Council -- and I won.
I became first openly queer woman and first Latina elected to office in New Carrollton. But more important to me than being the first was making sure I wouldn't be the last person who looked at City Hall and wondered whether there was a place there for someone like them.
What began as a decision to stand up and speak out became a much larger commitment to my community.
For the past five years, residents have trusted me to represent them on the New Carrollton City Council. During that time, including two years serving as Council Chair, I've learned that governing requires more than fighting against something.
It requires building something.
It means writing legislation, working through disagreements, understanding budgets, overseeing city operations, listening to residents who don't always agree with you, and sometimes making difficult decisions knowing that not everyone will be happy with the result.
I've tried to bring the same approach to City Hall that first pushed me to run -- asking difficult questions.