Alejandra Arce, PhD

Mental Health Instructor

Alejandra is originally from El Salvador and moved to the U.S. in her teens. She earned her BA in psychology from Florida International University and her PhD in clinical and community psychology from Georgia State University. She completed her pre-doctoral clinical psychology internship at the UCSF Child and Adolescent Services Multicultural Clinical Training Program, where she primarily worked with immigrant youth and families in school and community-based outpatient settings. Alejandra is currently a postdoctoral scholar at UCLA. Her program of research, which she began to develop while at Georgia State, is strengths- and community-based and investigates factors that may facilitate positive development, resilience, and empowerment among immigrant and BIPOC communities. 

Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of California Los Angeles

David Barba, MFA

Professor of Media Studies

Born in Monterrey, Mexico and raised in Mexico City, David earned his BA in Feminist Studies from Stanford University and his MFA in Film from Columbia University. He has worked in fiction and documentary in both short and long formats. His short films have screened at over 200 festivals around the world, garnered national and international awards and aired on Showtime, HBO Latino and AXN Network in Latin America. He has produced and directed three feature documentaries alongside James Pellerito, Pop Star On Ice (2009, IFC Center, Sundance TV) about 2-time Olympic figure skater Johnny Weir; American Cheerleader (2014, Film Buff, Fathom Events) that follows two of the top high school cheerleading teams to the National Championships in Orlando; and Anatomy of a Male Ballet Dancer (2018, Film Forum, The Orchard) a portrait of Brazilian ballet star Marcelo Gomes, which won the Audience Award at the 2017 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival. David served as co-creator and Executive Producer on two seasons of the documentary series Be Good Johnny Weir (2010, 2012) for Sundance TV and Logo TV. He is a graduate of the 2-year Meisner professional acting program at the William Esper Studio in New York, a member of the Producers Guild of America (PGA) and the National Association of Latino Independent Producers (NALIP).

Assistant Professor, Department of Film and Media, Emory University 

Emil’ Keme, PhD

Professor of Indigenous Studies

Emil’ Keme (aka Emilio del Valle Escalante) is an Indigenous K’iche’ Maya scholar from Iximulew (Land of Corn, and the K’iche’ name for Guatemala), and professor of English and Indigenous studies at Emory University. He is a first-generation college graduate and scholar. His teaching and research focus on contemporary Indigenous literatures and social movements, Central American-American literatures and cultures, and postcolonial and subaltern studies theory.

Keme is a co-founding member of the binational Maya anti-colonial collective, Community of Maya Studies, Ix’balamquej Junajpu Wunaq’, and volunteers as a cultural advisor for the International Mayan League in Washington, D.C.

Keme is the author of Le Maya Q’atzij/Our Maya Word. Poetics of Resistance in Guatemala (2021; Spanish, 2020 and 2022), which won Cuba’s prestigious Casa de las Americas Literary Criticism Prize in 2020, and Maya Nationalisms and Postcolonial Challenges in Guatemala (2009; Spanish 2008). His current research focuses on Indigenous struggles for self-determination in various parts of Abiayala (the Indigenous ancestral name of the Americas). His work aims to highlight the potentialities of building trans-hemispheric Indigenous alliances by critically exploring the field of Indigenous studies, settler colonial borders, Indigenous forced migration, Indigenous approaches to environmental justice, and Indigenous women and LGBTQ2s+ rights.

Professor of English and Indigenous Studies, Emory University

Whitney Lewis, M.Ed.

Professor of College Preparation

Originally from southern California, Whitney has worked domestically and abroad as an admission professional, teacher, tutor, and college counselor for over 10 years. She is a graduate of Brown University, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts with Honors in English Literature. After several years as a high school English teacher, she pursued her graduate degree at the University of Georgia, where she graduated with highest honors with a Master of Education in College Student Affairs Administration.

Most recently, Whitney served as the Dean of Admission & Financial Aid at Oglethorpe University in Atlanta. She is highly engaged with the regional and national professional associations for college admission and a frequent panelist and presenter at conferences across the country. Deeply committed to advancing access and opportunity to high-quality college guidance for students from all backgrounds, Whitney has served as a graduation mentor with Communities in Schools in Atlanta. She commits a significant portion of each admission cycle to conducting workshops, outreach, and individual sessions for clients from backgrounds historically underrepresented or excluded from higher education.

Outside of work, Whitney loves reading and writing fiction, cooking new recipes, exploring different cities, and trying in vain to stop her rescue pup Scout from jumping on houseguests.

Independent College Admissions Professional

Pedro Márquez-Zacarías, PhD

Professor of Biology

Pedro is a Purépecha biologist from Michoacán, México. He is broadly interested in the origins and evolution of biological complexity, and also has an interest in the history and philosophy of biology.

Pedro holds a PhD in Quantitative Biosciences PhD in Quantitative Biosciences from the Georgia Institute of Technology. Previously, he did his undergraduate degree in Biomedical Research at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, completing his research thesis in the group of Prof. Valeria Souza.

Complexity Postdoctoral Fellow, Santa Fe Institute

Xochitl Munguía-Cuen, MA

Professor of Art History

Born and raised in Mexico City, Xochitl is a graduate of National Autonomous University of Mexico UNAM, where she earned a Bachelors Degree in History and a Masters Degree in Art History. Her research focused on the artistic manifestations of the Chicano community in the cities of Los Angeles, CA and San Antonio, TX and how their works of art reflect a history of movement, cultural affirmation and social struggles. She moved to Los Angeles where she worked in numerous cultural organizations and art galleries which include the branch of UNAM-LA and Slanguage. Xochitl moved with her family to Georgia in 2016 where she has found a new passion in teaching and community support. She has worked as a Parent Facilitator for a non-profit dedicated to enrich the lives of Latino students and their families, as support for ESOL students and as a community organizer for a Literacy Program in the public library system in the Atlanta area. She enjoys the pursuit of continuous knowledge through research and cultural awareness and being challenged by the creative visions of her two daughters.

Art Specialist, Cobb County Public Schools

Laura Emiko Soltis, PhD

Professor of Human Rights

Professor Soltis graduated summa cum laude in 2006 with a bachelor's degree from the University of Georgia, where she was awarded the Foundation Fellowship. Emiko received her Ph.D. from Emory University and wrote her dissertation on the global human rights strategies and local music practices in the mobilization of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, an interracial farmworker organization in South Florida. Her research and teaching interests include social movement theory, racial formation theory, U.S. immigration history, transnational activism, Freirian popular education, and music and social movements. Having served as a longtime student activist, Emiko is committed to mentoring undocumented youth and providing them with the knowledge and skills they need to be effective leaders in their own freedom struggle. 

Executive Director, Freedom University

Benito Thompson, MS

Professor of Mathematics

Benito Thompson is a medical physicist, musician, and content creator with about 1.7 million followers across different social media platforms. He is of Jamaican descent and spent much of his early life in Nassau, Bahamas and then Houston, Texas before attending middle and high school in Georgia’s Gwinnett county. He then obtained a violin performance degree from Emory University where he studied under violinist Jessica Wu from the Vega String Quartet. Benito earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Physics from Emory University and his Master’s Degree in Medical Physics from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He then completed his medical physics residency with West Physics based in Atlanta where he still works today. Benito taught mathematics at Freedom University in the Fall of 2016 and is ecstatic to return!

Medical Physicist and Independent Educator

Melissa Yang, PhD

Professor of Writing

Dr. Melissa T. Yang is a Taiwanese American writer, educator, and administrator originally from New England. She is the Writing Center Director at Emory University, where she teaches courses on a range of topics from environmental rhetorics to professional writing. Melissa received her BA in Anthropology and English from Mount Holyoke College before completing her PhD at the University of Pittsburgh, specializing in Composition and Rhetoric. Melissa’s research explores the intersections between poetry and poultry, asking: what can we learn about writing from birds? Her recent publications include a piece on pigeons and etymology in Composition Studies and an avian analysis of Twitter for an Animal Satire (2023) collection. Beyond work, Melissa enjoys birding walks and community acrobatics.

Assistant Teaching Professor, Director of Emory University Writing Center

Arizbeth Sanchez

Community Engagement Consultant

Arizbeth is an undocumented youth leader originally from Sinaloa, México. Arizbeth joined Freedom University as a student in the Spring of 2014 and excelled in coursework including Human Rights, Spanish Literature, French, and Drawing and Painting. As a Freedom University student, she served in a variety of roles, including as an elected student committee member, board member, and co-teacher in the Movement Leadership Training course. Arizbeth has participated in numerous direct actions with Freedom University, and was arrested in two acts of civil disobedience protesting Georgia Board of Regents Policies 4.1.6 and 4.3.4, which ban her and other undocumented students from equal access to public higher education in Georgia.

Arizbeth has represented Freedom University at various colleges and universities across the country, including Dartmouth, Harvard, UCLA, Bard College, and Lewis and Clark College. Arizbeth works closely with students at Freedom University to develop their public speaking skills so they are better able to share their stories and experiences as undocumented youth and speak truth to power. In 2018, she was selected as a Fighting Injustice through Human Rights Education (FIHRE) Fellow at the Highlander Research Center. Arizbeth now serves as a Community Engagement consultant as a DACA recipient, and former student and staff member of Freedom University, and works to recruit new students and serve on Freedom University educational panels in the community. In her spare time, Arizbeth loves studying linguistics, and is proud to speak three of the most common languages in Georgia: English, Spanish, and Korean.

Contact

Rafael Aragón

Public Speaking Consultant

Rafael is a graduate of Freedom University, originally from Sinaloa, México. Rafael is a respected undocumented youth leader in Atlanta and is currently a senior at Oglethorpe University, where he is studying psychology. Rafael joined Freedom University in the Spring 2017 semester immediately following the 2016 presidential election. Through his study of human rights and social movements at Freedom University, Rafael was inspired to participate in acts of nonviolent civil disobedience in defense of immigrant rights, and has served on the media teams of numerous direct actions at the Georgia Board of Regents. As a powerful public speaker, Rafael has presented on the undocumented student movement at colleges such as Middlebury College, Dartmouth College, Emory University, Morehouse College, and Spelman College, among many other venues. When he is not busy taking classes or helping train Freedom University students in public speaking, Rafael enjoys woodworking, photography, writing poetry, and challenging patriarchy and dismantling machismo culture through feminist praxis.