A first-generation college graduate from Ciudad Juárez, David Tavárez is a linguistic anthropologist and a historian. A former Guggenheim Fellow, he is the author of the award-winning Rethinking Zapotec Time (Texas, 2022), The Invisible War (Stanford, 2011), and 60+ peer-reviewed articles and chapters. He is also the editor of The Oxford Handbook of Ritual Language (2024) and Words and Worlds Turned Around (2017), and a co-author of Painted Words (Dumbarton Oaks, 2016) and Chimalpahin’s Conquest (Stanford, 2010). His forthcoming publications focus on humanistic and devotional texts in Mesoamerican languages.

Ricardo Ambrosio is a teacher and researcher with a focus on Indigenous languages at the BIC (Integral Communitarian High School, Bachillerato Integral Comunitario) of San Cristóbal Lachirioag administered by the Colegio Superior para la Educación Integral Intercultural de Oaxaca. He coordinates the Zapotec language collective Yelaban, has a Master’s degree in pedagogy, and is the author of scientific articles about intercultures, social training, pedagogy, rural education, and the Zapotec language.

Besides her leadership role in CIELO, Odilia is also an independent interpreter of Zapotec, Spanish, and English for indigenous communities in Los Angeles and throughout California. She has over a decade of experience organizing indigenous migrant communities. Her organizing knowledge and experience are held in high regard, with multiple academic publications, awards, and lectures in universities across the United States, including John Hopkins, USC, and UCLA. Ms. Romero has published on the challenges of organizing in indigenous communities, developing women’s leadership, and preparing a new generation of youth. Her work has also been featured in the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, Vogue and Democracy Now.

Ariana graduated with Honors in Anthropology and Latin American and Latinx Studies. She completed several projects as a research assistant at the Field Museum of Natural History, and traveled to the Colombia/Brazil border for her senior project, which addressed the critiques of Tikuna and Murui-Muinane intellectuals regarding the display of Indigenous material culture in museums. While Ariana’s extraordinary career was brought to an end by a terminal disease in 2021, her contributions live on through her work as the founder and director of a Vassar organization that tutored students in the Poughkeepsie school district, the memories of her family in Chicago and her Vassar friends, and her outstanding contributions to this project.

Ariana Sierra-Chacón (she/her) is an International Studies Major from Orlando, Florida. She has special interests in Latin American social movements and education.

I am a first-generation Anthropology student from Miami, Florida. I am interested in cultural anthropology and archaeology–and specifically in cemetery studies. 

Jorge graduated from Vassar in 2023 with a B.A. in International Studies, along with concentrations in Political Science and Education. He graduated with departmental honors and received a special recognition from the President and the Dean of the College for outstanding contributions to campus life during his time as an undergraduate. A former research assistant in the Anthropology Department and the Latin American and Latinx Studies Program, he has a passion for language learning that he hopes to pursue in his future career as a lawyer.

Born and raised in the city of Los Angeles, California, Wendy Cortez is a first-generation college student currently pursuing her undergraduate studies at Vassar College. She is double-majoring in Anthropology and Latinx/Latin American Studies, with a particular focus on migration, displacement, and border studies. Wendy is committed to fostering inclusive pedagogies and curriculums between faculty and students on Vassar’s campus through Engaged Pluralism working groups. She also has a deep interest in the arts and storytelling.

Nicole is Head of Digital Scholarship and Technology Services at Vassar College Libraries (July 2019 – present) and was previously Chief Information Officer at The Library Company of Philadelphia, where she worked for twenty-two years. Nicole is a member of the ConnectNY Digitization Committee (Chair 2020-2022), the Vassar College Committee on Academic Technologies (2019-present), the Vassar College Community Works Committee (co-chair 2022-present), Vassar College Digital Scholarship Services Collaboration (Coordinator 2019-present), Islandora Collaboration Group (ICG) Governance (2021-2023), the Digital Library Federation Forum Program and Planning Committees (2020-present), and the DLF Born Digital Access Working Group (2023-2024 co-coordinator). She was the Communications Director for Historians Against Slavery from 2011-2022 and Vice President of the Center for Knit and Crochet from 2016-2020, following two years as Secretary. Previous appointments include the Philadelphia Area Consortium of Special Collections Libraries board, Philadelphia THATCamp planning committee, DPLA representative, and MARAC Philadelphia Local arrangements committee. 

Baynard Bailey is an Academic Computing Consultant for Vassar College. He has a Master’s degree in Education with a focus on Instructional Technology, and taught for 16 years before coming to Vassar. He loves helping to develop multimedia projects in support of learning and teaching. He organizes and leads numerous workshops throughout the year on topics such as Digital Storytelling, Audio Editing, Poster Creation and Websites for classes. Baynard ’90 is a product of Vassar’s education department. He has K-12 teaching experience in Indonesia, Japan and the United States.