Staff
Laura Emiko Soltis, Ph.D.
Executive Director, Full-Time Staff
Dr. Laura Emiko Soltis is a human rights educator and proud public school kid originally from rural Minnesota. Her family genealogy is Japanese and Bohemian Czech, and her movement genealogy is rooted in the Southern Black Freedom tradition and knowledge brought to the U.S. South by Indigenous migrants from Mexico and Guatemala. As the daughter of an immigrant and a road-construction-worker-turned-violin maker, she was exposed to immigrant realities, working-class wisdom, and classical music at a young age. Emiko's early work experiences alongside diverse groups of immigrant coworkers in restaurant work, janitorial services, and farm labor eventually inspired her to study interracial labor movements and human rights. Emiko received the Foundation Fellowship 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. 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 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 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.
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 at Freedom University.
Outside of her work at Freedom University, Emiko is an active public scholar who writes and lectures frequently on topics such as human rights advocacy, undocumented student activism, immigration and higher education, migrant justice movements, workers' rights and economic justice, and music and mobilization. Emiko is also a frequent keynote speaker at colleges and conferences across the country, and served as the Editorial Officer of the Georgia Advisory Committee of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights from 2020-2023. 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 to human rights education and interracial community building, Emiko was awarded the Telemundo Héroe Luchadora Award, the Ashoka Fellowship in 2017, the Ford Foundation Public Voices Fellowship in 2018, and the Good Trouble Advocacy Award in 2025. Emiko is an accomplished photographer, violinist, and vocalist, and performed with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chorus from 2015-2021. She speaks a confluence of English, Spanish, and Japanese, and enjoys dancing salsa, watching unlikely animal friendship videos, being a good friend and auntie, and loving on her two scruffy Cuban street dogs: Churro and Mochi.
Emiko’s dear and longtime pup Bento, a three-legged rescue dog who also served as Freedom University’s silly but official Ambassador of Love and Minister of Education, passed away peacefully in November 2025 at the age of 18.5!
Responsibilities: Administration (Fundraising, Budget, Board Relations), Faculty and Staff Management, Accounting, Program Operations, Know Your Rights and Digital Security Trainings, Human Rights Education, Community Encuentros, Communications, Legal Program, Photography, Graphic Design, Web Design. 40+ hours/week.
Alejandra Franco, PhD
Executive Assistant and College Prep Coordinator, Part-Time Staff
Alejandra Franco is a researcher, writer, and educator from Southern California’s Eastern Coachella Valley, and is deeply committed to educational equity. Her background in this region, shaped by agricultural labor, vibrant migrant communities, and stark socioeconomic inequality, has instilled in her a profound understanding of the systemic barriers that many students face. As the proud child of immigrants, Alejandra’s early life was marked by intergenerational wisdom and a strong sense of place. These formative experiences now shape her commitment to building pathways for all students, particularly those from low-income and undocumented backgrounds, to achieve success and thrive.
Alejandra holds a Ph.D. in Hispanic Studies from Emory University, where her research centered on the lived experiences of Mexican migrant farmworker families in the Eastern Coachella Valley. Drawing on oral history, feminist and decolonial theory, and participatory methods, her dissertation highlights how migrant families navigate systemic exclusion, intergenerational knowledge, language brokering, cultural resilience, and digital inequality, tracing how these shape access to upward mobility, while cultivating care, resistance, and a sense of belonging. Her collaboration with local community members and the Migrant Education Program shaped the work. During her time at Emory, Alejandra served in multiple instructional and leadership roles, most recently as a Graduate Fellow for the Emory Libraries and the Emory Writing Center. In this position, she developed inclusive programming, supported first-generation and multilingual students, and facilitated research and writing workshops across disciplines. She also served as instructor of record for several lower- and upper-division undergraduate courses, teaching topics such as critical migration studies, U.S.-Mexico border studies, and migrant narratives and history. Her trauma-informed, student-centered pedagogy created affirming learning environments that empowered students to connect lived experience with academic inquiry.
Beginning on July 31, Alejandra will serve as the Executive Assistant and College Prep Coordinator. In this role, she supports the Executive Director with internal and external communications, coordinates the College Preparation Program, and oversees the Writing Tutor Partnership with Emory and Agnes Scott College. She also provides one-on-one mentorship for students working on college applications and essays, helping to nurture a college-going culture grounded in dignity, solidarity, and imagination. Her passion lies in supporting students in telling their stories, navigating admissions barriers, and envisioning futures rooted in dignity, joy, and community. Outside of Freedom University, Alejandra is a lifelong learning enthusiast and a strong advocate for accessible education. Her mission is to develop spaces to support and equip historically excluded students to reimagine—and transform—the systems that have sought to marginalize them.
Responsibilities: Scheduling and communications for Executive Director, College Preparation and Writing Workshop Program Coordination, Teaching Assistant, Copy Editing. 20 hours/week.
Aline Mello, MFA
Student Coordinator
Aline Mello is a Brazilian immigrant, writer, and fiber artist. Her debut poetry collection More Salt Than Diamond (Andrews McMeel) is an unflinching, heartbreaking collection about life in the US as a Brazilian undocumented immigrant. In 2012, Aline received two BA degrees from Oglethorpe University: in English Comparative Literature and in Spanish Language. She recently earned her MFA at the Ohio State University, focusing on poetry. In her spare time, Aline likes to read, do crafts, and go on walks while listening to audiobooks. She lives in Atlanta, Georgia with her partner and her very cute dog Molly.
Responsibilities: Student recruitment and retention, student well-being, creative student projects, volunteer driver coordination, community outreach and presentations. 20 hours/week.
Faculty
2026-2027
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.
Raúl Diego Rivera Hernández, PhD
Professor of Latin American Studies
Dr. Raúl Diego Rivera Hernández is a proud immigrant from Mexico City, Mexico. His research focuses on cultural representations of human rights crises in Mexico, particularly violence against journalists, migrants in transit, and victims of enforced disappearance, topics he examines in his award-winning book Narratives of Vulnerability in Mexico’s War on Drugs (Palgrave, 2020). His current projects include a feature-length documentary film, Búscanos (anticipated release 2027), co-directed with filmmaker Tania Romero, which documents the transnational search for missing Central American migrants across five countries, as well as a book manuscript on Mexican immigrant culinary entrepreneurs in Philadelphia and the role of food in shaping cultural identity. In addition to his research, Dr. Diego Rivera Hernández is deeply committed to community-engaged scholarship: he co-directs the Community Interpreter Program in collaboration with Villanova Law School clinics and serves as Vice-Chair of the Board of Mighty Writers, a nonprofit organization in New Jersey and Pennsylvania dedicated to youth literacy and empowerment.
Associate Professor of Spanish and Director of the Latin American Studies Program, Villanova University
Whitney Lewis, M.Ed.
Professor of Academic Writing
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
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
Hector Luis Rivera Ortiz
Meditation and Mindfulness Instructor
Hector has been active as an educator, poet, musician, and healer for over 30 years. Born and raised in the projects in the Bronx, Hector learned the importance and responsibility of community through his large extended family. When Hector was ten years old and attending his Catholic elementary school, he was hired for his first paid job: tutoring for his Dominican immigrant classmate. Hector has loved being an educator ever since. Hector’s first organizing action was in 1989 when he helped organize a student walkout on MLK Jr.’s birthdate at the Taft Boarding School, where he attended high school among students of wealthy backgrounds. When Hector attended Cornell University, he began developing as a poet and ultimately founded the Welfare Poets, a poetry group he served with for 16 years, winning the honorary album of the year via Democracy Now in 2005.
After several police brutality incidents in NYC, Hector was fortunate to have been connected to Caribbean women healers he was supported by and eventually learned from. This began his path towards healing modalities. In 1997, he became a Reiki practitioner, in 2007 an Acudetox Specialist, in 2012 a Reiki Master, and in 2016 received the Five Mindfulness Trainings at Thich Nhat Hanh’s Deer Park Monastery. Currently, Hector is the director of Peace Inside Out, personal and community transformation through arts, restorative practices, community events, and healing practices. Specifically, Hector teaches Puerto Rican bomba song, music, and dance, poetry, restorative justice practices, and convenes community via events and education, and facilitates healing through Reiki, acudetox, massage, and meditation. Hector has been facilitating meditation for ten years and enjoys surprising everyone who thinks they can’t meditate. He believes and has seen that all you need is a breath.
Lock Rogers, PhD
Professor of Biology
An Atlanta native, Dr. Rogers is associate professor of biology at Agnes Scott College. Before joining Agnes Scott in 2008, Rogers taught at Georgia Tech, Lewis & Clark College, and the University of Toronto. At Agnes, his courses include introductory biology, evolution, ecology, marine biology, and comparative vertebrate anatomy. Rogers studied zoology at UGA (BS, 1988), then went on to earn his PhD in evolutionary ecology at the University of Kentucky (1998). Along the way, he has conducted field work in the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Panama, Corsica, and French Polynesia, and held postdocs at both University of Toronto and the University of Florida.
Associate Professor of Biology, Agnes Scott College
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, U.S. immigration history, transnational activism, and the human right to education. 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.
Emiko enjoys dancing salsa, being a community auntie, singing harmony, and loving on her two scruffy Cuban street dogs: Churro (9) and Mochi (8).
Executive Director, Freedom University
Tyrone Webb, MMus
Professor of Music
Tyrone Webb is a music educator, community engagement administrator, and performing artist based in Atlanta, Georgia. After earning his bachelor’s degree from Morehouse College, Tyrone pursued a Master’s of Music Degree in Choral Conducting at Emory University. Currently an adjunct professor of music at Morehouse College, Tyrone is committed to fostering a sense of belonging and humanitarian ideals through cultural expression, with the promotion of community building as essential to the appreciation of the human experience.
Adjunct Professor of Music, Morehouse College; Rural and Community Programs Manager, Georgia Council for the Arts