Staff
Laura Emiko Soltis, Ph.D.
Executive Director, Full-Time Staff
Dr. Laura Emiko Soltis is a human rights educator originally from rural Minnesota. Emiko is a proud public school kid and was raised in a biracial and interfaith household, where she developed passions for working-class politics, immigrant rights, and music performance. Emiko's early work experiences alongside diverse immigrant coworkers in low-wage industries such as restaurant work, janitorial services, and farm labor eventually inspired her to study interracial labor movements and human rights. Emiko received the Foundation Fellowship full merit scholarship at the University of Georgia, where she graduated summa cum laude and served in internships at the Human Rights Office at The Carter Center and in the U.S. Senate.
As a young scholar, Emiko focused her studies in international affairs on human rights, with a particular focus on peace and genocide studies. This focus lead her to study restorative justice and reconciliation efforts in Rwanda, Guatemala, and Hiroshima, Japan. However, during her doctoral program at Emory University, Emiko began refocusing her passion for human rights to local movements in the U.S. South, and began organizing cafeteria workers and working as a graduate research assistant at the James Weldon Johnson Institute, where she transcribed interviews with women veterans of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). During this time, Emiko also served as the Area Coordinator for Amnesty International Southeast Regional Office and worked tirelessly on the Troy Davis death penalty case. She also participated as an active member of the Student Farmworker Alliance, where she received her political education and solidarity training in South Florida from farmworker leaders from Mexico, Guatemala, and Haiti. Emiko eventually wrote her dissertation on the Coalition of Immokalee Workers’ struggle for farmworker justice and its transnational advocacy efforts to combat modern-day slavery in the United States.
Emiko joined Freedom University as a volunteer faculty member in 2013. Following the departure of the founding faculty and the closure of Freedom University in June 2014, Emiko re-established Freedom University in Atlanta in September 2014. Emiko introduced a human rights framework to Freedom University’s mission and pedagogy, and began connecting undocumented youth to Black student movement veterans of SNCC and the Atlanta Student Movement. She also founded Freedom University’s social movement leadership training program to help empower a new generation of youth leaders, and expanded the curriculum to include a creative arts program, STEM classes, and mental health workshops in a year-long academic program. As an experienced social movement strategist, Emiko has worked to advance the undocumented student movement by building bridges between undocumented and documented student groups, and advocating for fair admissions policies in higher education across the United States. Emiko co-founded the Freedom at Emory Initiative, which led to Emory’s successful admission and financial support of undocumented students in 2015. She also played an instrumental role in the establishment of the Dream.US scholarship at Oglethorpe University, which now has a student population that is 10% undocumented.. Emiko continues to serve as the Professor of Human Rights, teaching classes in international human rights and social movement leadership.
Outside of her work at Freedom University, Emiko recently served as the elected Editorial Officer of the Georgia Advisory Committee of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights from 2020-2023, which published a report assessing Georgia’s civil asset forfeiture practices and its disparate impact on communities of color. As an active public scholar, she writes and lectures frequently on topics such as human rights advocacy, undocumented student activism, immigration and higher education, workers' rights and economic justice, and music and mobilization. As an organizer, Emiko has engaged in numerous direct actions for workers’ rights, racial justice, and immigrant rights, and has been arrested four times in the Kingian tradition of nonviolent civil disobedience.
For her longtime commitment as a human rights educator and interracial community builder, Emiko was awarded the Telemundo Héroe Luchadora Award and the Ashoka Fellowship in 2017, the Ford Foundation Public Voices Fellowship in 2018, and the Joseph R. Biden President’s Volunteer Service Lifetime Achievement Award in 2022. Emiko is an accomplished photographer, violinist, and vocalist, and performed with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chorus 2015-2021. She speaks English, Spanish, and Japanese, and enjoys dancing, being a good friend, and loving on her three scruffy rescue dogs: Bento, Churro, and Mochi.
Responsibilities: Administration (Fundraising, Budget, Board Relations), Strategic Planning, Faculty and Staff Management, Program Operations, Public Speaking, Communications, Accounting, Photography, Web Design, Legal Program, Human Rights Education and Social Movement LeadershipTraining. 40+ hours/week.
Gabriela Solís
Student Coordinator, Full-Time Staff
Gabriela Solís Gonzalez is a DACA staff member and an undocumented community leader originally from Tijuana, Baja California, México. Gabriela believes Freedom University is crucial in the immigrant rights movement because it challenges the dominant “good immigrant” narrative by welcoming all undocumented young people, regardless of their GPA or whatever mistakes they may have made as young people, and sees them all worthy of dignity and their inalienable human right to education. Gabriela had a difficult time in high school as a low-income undocumented young person, and found a sense of community in gangs. She made unhealthy decisions that led her to drop out of high school her junior year. However, Gabriela was determined to return to high school, and successfully graduated in 2013.
Gabriela joined Freedom University as a student in the Spring of 2018, and was elected to serve as Secretary of the Student Committee in Fall 2018. Her commitment to holding herself and other students accountable to the highest standards of commitment and integrity made her a natural choice to serve as our part-time Student Coordinator. In this role, Gabriela recruits undocumented students from local high schools, ensures student wellbeing and retention, and coordinates safe student transportation to all Freedom University classes and events.
Gabriela also is involved in the local immigrant rights community and serves as a board member of the New Sanctuary Movement of Atlanta. Gabriela’s favorite part about Freedom University is its annual graduation ceremony, when students and their families get to celebrate their sacrifices and hard work in the safety of a beloved community. Gabriela is also a mother of a happy and curious seven-year old boy named Miguel.
Responsibilities: Student Recruitment and Retention, Student Well-Being, Teaching Assistant, Volunteer Ride Coordination. 30 hours/week.
Valeria Pacheco
Executive Assistant and College Prep Coordinator, Part-Time Staff
Valeria Pacheco is a Mexican-American writer from Houston, Texas. Valeria is a recent graduate of Emory University, where she earned a B.A. in Creative Writing and Psychology. Her writing and learning often centers the Latine community and their unsung stories, which led Valeria to work with the students at Freedom University who are doing the same. At Freedom University, Valeria is responsible for assisting the Executive Director in daily communications and coordinating the College Preparation Program. In this role, Valeria works closely with the Executive Director in internal and external email communications, serves as a valuable Teacher’s Assistant in the Human Rights to Education and College Preparation courses, and coordinates the Writing Tutor Partnership with Emory University and Agnes Scott College.
In addition to her work at Freedom University, Valeria works as an Object Learning Teaching Artist for the Museum of Fine Arts Houston. In 2022, Valeria worked as a 7th grade literature teacher at the Breakthrough Houston’s Connect site, helping bright low-income, first-generation students in their educational journey. She also previously served as English Language Learner Specialist tutor in the Emory Writing Center and a teaching assistant for several interdisciplinary courses in the college. Prior to her current role, Valeria served as the Writing and Tutoring Intern at Freedom University in the 2022-2023 academic year.
Outside of Freedom University, Valeria loves to curate uber-specific Spotify playlists, play Bananagrams, and check out a wide range of library books.
Responsibilities: Scheduling and communications for Executive Director, College Preparation and Writing Workshop Program Coordination, Teaching Assistant, Copy Editing. 20 hours/week.
Arelis Palacios, M.S.
Educator Training Coordinator, Part-Time Staff
Prior to joining Freedom University’s team, Arelis served as the inaugural Director of Undocumented Student Services at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. In that role, she implemented a comprehensive institutional engagement strategy with senior campus leadership, business leaders, non-profit stakeholders, local government, and various members of Congress across different coalition-building campaigns in support of permanent protections for undocumented youth and families.
As a native Nicaraguan who grew up in Miami, Florida, the realities of immigration were ever-present in her upbringing and classroom as a formerly undocumented person herself, and helped to refine her interest in supporting immigrant and underrepresented students along secondary and tertiary education. Arelis has focused on the intersections of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and K-16 educational policies, and has worked vigorously to help universities implement their own policies to promote diversity, access, and inclusion for undocumented youth. She holds a M.S. in Higher Education Administration and a B.A. in English Literature from Florida State University.
Responsibilities: Educator Training Program Operations, Higher Education Policy Research. 10 hours/week.
Faculty
2024
Every fall and spring semester, Freedom University offers courses in five areas of study: Human Rights, College Preparation, STEM, Arts, and Mental Health. Faculty members in human rights and STEM course generally hold a PhD in their field, and faculty in the other areas are experienced practitioners in college admissions, the arts, and mental health and wellbeing. Faculty members teach one 60-90 minute course per week, and are offered $2,500 per semester for their professional services.
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
Sunny Brown, M.A.
Professor of American Sign Language
Sunny Brown is an energetic and dedicated educator who brings a wealth of experience to Freedom University. Known as "The Genius Incubator" in Georgia Charter Schools, Sunny thrives in her belief that every student possesses unique talents and potential. In her classes, she focuses on nurturing these individual strengths, fostering creativity, and encouraging innovative thinking. She believes in students developing their own genius and preparing for future success. With a passion for creating inclusive learning environments, Sunny’s teaching style is all about innovation, cultural awareness, and active engagement. Holding advanced degrees in Social Justice and Community Organizing from Prescott College and a rich background in ASL from Cincinnati State, Sunny has spent years fostering connections between language, culture, advocacy, and community.
Outside the classroom, Sunny has worn many hats—from youth pastor to DEI trainer to sports coach—showing a commitment to mentorship and social impact. At Freedom University, Sunny is excited to empower students to connect through the vibrant language of ASL while promoting a deeper understanding of the Deaf community.
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 an Indigenous 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
Charmaine Mora-Ozuna, PhD
Professor of Mental Health
Charmaine Mora-Ozuna, de raices Mexicanas, earned her PhD in Counseling Psychology at the University of Georgia. She completed her predoctoral internship at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso within the El Paso Psychology Internship Consortium. Charmaine is a post-doctoral fellow at Emory University School of Medicine and serves on the Consultation-Liaison Service and the Nia Project at Grady Hospital.
Charmaine’s dedication to advancing Latinx Psychology led her to provide bilingual and bicultural services to Latinxs across various geographical and organizational settings including, rural, urban, and borderland towns. Her clinical and research interests focus on trauma and resilience, with a particular focus on gender-based violence. Charmaine’s dissertation captures the testimonios of Latina survivors of domestic violence and Latina service providers who supported these women on their healing journeys. As an advocate and leader across state and national organizations, Charmaine strives to decolonize psychology by making it accessible beyond the bounds of academia and helping prepare and protect the next generation of bilingual and bicultural clinicians. She cultivates inner joy by spending time with loved ones, traveling, dancing, and eating!
Postdoctoral Psychology Fellow, Emory School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
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
Community
Consultants
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.
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.