Alianza Staff

ADELITA MICHELLE MEDINA

Executive Director

Office # 505-224-9080
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Biography

Adelita Michelle Medina, returned to Alianza as Executive Director in April 2010. She had previously served as Executive Director of the organization from February 2000 to November 2008.

Ms. Medina has more than 30 years of experience working in a wide-range of fields in both the private and public sectors. She has worked as head administrator for numerous non-profit organizations at the local and national levels in New Mexico, New York City, and Washington, DC, as well as for the State of New Mexico and City of New York. Before her first stint at Alianza, Ms. Medina was a private consultant for several years, and in that capacity helped raise funds for various non-profit organizations serving women, children and families, including several that addressed domestic violence. She worked for the Sister Fund as editor of its newsletter and for the Ms. Foundation for Women, where she was a Program Officer in charge of the Women’s Safety and Girls Empowerment areas.

Throughout her career, Ms. Medina has been a keynote speaker at various local, state, and national forums and conducted various training workshops both within and outside the domestic violence field. She has also published numerous articles on a variety of topics ranging from worker, immigrant, veterans' and women's rights, to women's health & safety, business, and arts and culture.

She holds an M.S. degree in Journalism from Columbia University's School of Journalism and a B.A. in English and Art from New Mexico Highlands University. She lived and worked in New York City for 30 years and returned to her native New Mexico in December 2004. She has one son, one grandson, and one granddaughter.

IVONNE ORTIZ

Training and TA Project Coordinator

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Biography

Ivonne Ortiz has been providing grass roots leadership in the domestic violence movement for more than fifteen years. She has contributed to the anti-domestic violence movement at the local and national level in many ways. Ms. Ortiz has provided a wide range of technical assistance and training services to many domestic violence programs throughout the U.S. , Mexico and Puerto Rico. Her major areas of expertise are in the provision of crisis intervention and culturally and linguistically sensitive services, as well as community organizing and culturally appropriate support group sessions for women of color.

She was involved since the beginning with Project Esperanza, which was a grassroots training program for Latinas to address DV in their communities across North Carolina. Ms. Ortiz was the force behind the creation of the “Latinos in the Movement.” This group’s aim was promoting leadership opportunities and training for Latinos in the domestic violence movement. Ms. Ortiz also created an “Immigrant Outreach Toolbox” for The North Carolina Coalition Against Domestic Violence in 2003.

In 2004 she was honored with the “Comadre en la Lucha” award by the national Latino organization Arte Sana. On April 2007, she was recognized by the North Carolina Division of Community Corrections for her efforts to improve service provision for immigrant victims of crime. She was instrumental in the 2007 “A Call to Action” by the WOCN in order to raise awareness regarding the workplace challenges that women of color advocates and activists face in their violence against women programs and the lack of women of color leadership within the anti-violence against women movement as a whole.

In 2009 Ms. Ortiz served as a consultant for the Domestic Violence Awareness: Action for Social Change Part II: Organizing and Communications Developed by the Domestic Violence Awareness Project.

Ms. Ortiz served as Alianza’s OVW Project Coordinator from Oct 2007 to April 2009. She returned to Alianza in May 2010 as our Bilingual Trainer.

She is the author of “MiPelo,” a collection of poems highlighting the intricate issues regarding Puerto Ricans and violence against women. She is a native of Puerto Rico where she attended the University of Puerto Rico majoring in Sociology. Ms. Ortiz currently resides in Florida with her husband and three children.

DEANDA MONTOYA

Administrative Assistant/Office Manager

Office # 505-224-9080
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Biography

Deanda Montoya started her career in the non-profit realm in 2001. It was at this time that she saw the significant increase in statistics, deaths and the impact domestic violence had on children. It was for this reason she continued her career in the domestic violence field. She is currently with the National Latino Alliance for the Elimination of Domestic Violence (Alianza) since early 2009.

Prior to Alianza, Deanda was employed at Career Works, a non-profit program to help "Welfare to Work" clients receive job training and placement, parenting classes, life skills and domestic violence training.

Ms. Montoya started her career with non-profits when she worked at the New Mexico Coalition Against Domestic Violence where she was an Administrative Assistant/Library Specialist.

She resides in Albuquerque with her husband and children. Her hobbies include camping and fishing and spending time with her family.