Adrian Bernal – Council Member
Contact: adrian_bernal_2001@yahoo.com
Adrián is a Chicano journalist and human rights activist. Born in San Antonio, Texas he moved to Georgia to work at Turner Broadcasting in both Spanish News (CNN)and entertainment (TNT and CartoonNetwork Latin America). He has also worked as executive producer and producer at various TV and radio stations in the Atlanta area and currently hosts a show on USALA radio in Philadelphia and WRFG in Atlanta. As a journalist he is interested in putting news stories in historical context to help the listener understand the big picture. As a human rights activist he supports causes that promote the sovereignty of individuals and nations. Joined the SOAW Council in 2017 and currently serves as Chair.
Chrissy Stonebraker-Martínez – Council Member
Contact: Chrissy@IRTFcleveland.org
Chrissy is a native of the rust-belt town of Youngstown, Ohio. Chrissy devotes her passion for social justice to her union-laborer father and concern for Latin America to her mother, who moved to the US from Medellin, Colombia during the height of the civil war in the 1980s. Chrissy received her BA in International and Financial Management from Hiram College and her MA and MEd in Higher Education Administration and Counseling from Kent State University. At Kent, she worked in Student Affairs, coordinated experiential education, civic engagement and service learning trips, taught Student Development and Leadership courses and served on Sustainability, Equity and Professional Development committees. While studying at Hiram she helped in the initial creation of the 501c3 Hiram Farm Living and Learning community for people with Autism Spectrum Disorders, and was co-founder of the Olive Branch fair trade store in Hiram, OH.
Since 2013, Chrissy has been the Co-Executive Director of the InterReligious Task Force on Central America and Colombia. She serves on the Executive Committee of the Disciples Peace Fellowship, the National Council of the Fellowship of Reconciliation and as the Chair of the Ohio Fair Trade Network. Her previous board experience includes serving as the Secretary for the Christian Church in Ohio (Disciples of Christ), and as a member of the Higher Educational Leadership Ministries (HELM) national team. She is proud to be a community organizer, organizing in the greater Cleveland area, with groups such as the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) & the Student Farmworker Alliance (SFA), Witness Against Torture (WAT), Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT and ECAP Colombia), Ecumenical Advocacy Days (EAD), Tree of Life Education Fund (Israel/Palestine), the Asociacion de Trabajadores del Campo Nicaragua (ATC), Refugee and Immigration Ministries (RIM) and others.
Kate Speltz – Secretary
Contact: katespeltz@yahoo.com
Kate Speltz is a member of the council representing the Northwest, living in Seattle where she works for county government, and is part of local efforts to end homelessness. She became involved with Latin American solidarity work in the 1980s; working with Central American refugees and the sanctuary movement. Kate has been involved with SOAW for more than 20 years. She first started with SOAW and the vigil at Ft. Benning in the 1990s, was privileged to participate in the SOAW Encuentro in Venezuela in 2010, and has served on the council since 2011. Kate continues to be inspired by the work of the SOAW staff, council and grassroots members, an is proud to work alongside you all to close the SOA/WHINSEC, confront militarism and root causes of migration, and to build a culture of peace.
Lulu Matute – Organizing Coordinator
Contact: lulu@soawatch.org
Lulu has been a part of SOA Watch since 2017, when she first participated as a student delegate at the Border Encuentro in Ambos Nogales, Arizona/Sonora. Within SOAW, her role involves collaborating with a diverse network that includes academics, artists, and community leaders to spearhead educational initiatives and community-engaged research projects. These efforts are aimed at addressing issues related to U.S. foreign policy towards Latin America, the militarization of the hemisphere, and immigration concerns.
As an EMT-B certified Search and Rescue specialist and humanitarian aid volunteer, Lulu combines her passion for service with her academic pursuits. She holds a degree in American Studies from UC Berkeley, where her research emphasized contemporary migration from Central America and the criminalization faced by displaced communities in increasingly militarized border regions. She is a recipient of the Robert and Colleen Haas Scholars and McNair Scholar awards. Looking ahead, Lulu aspires to further her impact by specializing in international and forensic nursing.
Mike Tork – Treasurer
Contact: im4peacenow@yahoo.com
Mike Tork is an active member of Veterans For Peace and helps organize rallies and many direct actions on the East Coast. Mike is currently the liaison between SOAW and VFP.
Mike is on the Board of Directors, and Treasurer, of Centro de Intercambio y Solidaridad (CIS), a non-profit in El Salvador. Over the last 12 years Mike has made many trips to El Salvador as an Election Observer, Delegation Member, and Work Brigade participant.
Rebeca Zuniga-Hamlin – Council Coordinator
Contact: djpc@denjustpeace.org
Born in Nicaragua and grew up in both Nicaragua and Guatemala, from a young age, she has been committed to political action on behalf of the excluded by serving the poor and underprivileged. Her own mixed background – Nicaraguan Miskito Indian and white North American – has allowed her to commit to the long-term struggle for social justice, challenging unfair economic and criminal systems that affect the immigrant communities. She also has a keen understanding of the intersecting patterns of exclusion along dimensions of race, ethnicity, language, gender, immigration-status, and class. Rebeca has served as a translator and interpreter providing humane and culturally aware services to people in need. Rebeca has been an active member of the Louisiana Language Access Coalition. She currently lives in Denver, Colorado, where she serves as the director of the Denver Justice and Peace Committee, a grassroots organization that advocates and educates for human rights in Latin America.