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 Czech Bohemian, 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 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 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. 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 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 at Freedom University.
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, migrant justice movements, 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, 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 2015-2021. She speaks a jumbled mess of English, Spanish, and Japanese, and enjoys dancing salsa, watching unlikely animal friendship videos, fulfilling community auntie duties, and loving on her two scruffy Cuban street dogs: Churro (9), and Mochi (8).
Emiko’s dear and longtime pup Bento, a three-legged rescue dog who also served as Freedom University’s 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 Trainings, Legal Program, Human Rights Education and LeadershipTraining, Communications, Photography, Graphic Design, Web Design. 40+ hours/week.
Gabriela Solis
Student Coordinator, Full-Time Staff
Gabriela Solis 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. 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 eight-year old boy named Miguel.
Responsibilities: Student Recruitment and Retention, Student Well-Being, Teaching Assistant, Volunteer Ride Coordination. 30 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.
Faculty
2025-2026
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
Aline Mello, MFA
Professor of Creative Writing
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.
English Teacher, The New School Atlanta
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
Ana Carina Ordaz, PhD
Professor of Mental Health
Ana Carina Ordaz, hija de inmigrantes Mexicanos, and a native to East Point, GA is a bilingual-bicultural clinician, earned her Counseling Psychology Ph.D. at the University of Georgia. She completed her doctoral internship at Saint John’s Child and Family Development Center and her post doctoral fellowship at UCLA TIES for Families.
Honoring the strength and beauty that emerge from la lucha, Ana Carina’s clinical work upholds the sacredness of the family system as it navigates and resists oppressive structures. She supports families in reconnecting with their inherent wisdom and intergenerational power. In her scholarship and advocacy, Ana Carina amplifies the voices of Latine and immigrant communities, working to dismantle systems of oppression and uplift collective healing practices that affirm identity, dignity, and joy. Ana Carina’s dissertation is grounded in a mujerista framework, her research implements community-engaged, mujerista-led photovoice to center the testimonios of mujeres from the Northern Triangle of Central America across pre-, in-transit, and post-immigration journeys. This work centers visual storytelling as resistance and healing, highlights resilience and collective knowledge production, and challenges deficit-based narratives of migration among Latine immigrant mujeres in the New Latino South.
Ana Carina enjoys family time, traveling, long naps, cuddling with her dogs Xochi and Melo, and trying new food.
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
Matthew Sorrels, MPPA
Professor of Mathematics
After graduating from Emory University with a Bachelor of Arts in Music and Economics, Matt taught Algebra 1 at Maynard Jackson High School in Atlanta’s Grant Park neighborhood, worked as a resource navigator for people accessing government services such as SNAP and state health insurance, organized field operations on a state senate campaign, and received a Master of Public Policy and Administration degree from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Currently working as a policy analyst for the Senate Democrat caucus in the Connecticut General Assembly, Matt is committed to working toward implementing policy that meets the basic needs of all and maximizes the capacity for marginalized communities to self-govern.
Policy Analyst, Senate Democrats Office, Connecticut General Assembly
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
Community
Consultants
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.