Meet Our Board
Our board is a collective of local community organizers and community residents who grew up or currently live and or work in Lincoln Heights. Motivated by the resilience and power growing within community spaces of Lincoln Heights, we founded this organization to serve our community’s low—income, immigrant, and long-term residents and to protect our community’s autonomy and identity.
Diego J. Zapata
President & Co-FounderBorn and raised in the Eastside, Diego grew up in a working-class family and was intimately shaped by Lincoln Heights’ culture and environment. As a young boy, he always kept seeds in his pockets and flowers in his hands, and with age has continued to find ways to protect and steward life in his community. Since high school, Diego has worked on community-based greening projects, open space preservation, affordable housing protections, and anti-gentrification + anti-displacement work at various scales. He is determined to leverage this organization to protect a Lincoln Heights that has afforded him a chosen family, opportunities to learn and grow, and an identity built on the resiliency he has witnessed in every seed, street, and soul of Lincoln Heights.
Alumni of Hillside Elementary, Nightingale Middle School, Bravo Medical Magnet HS, Occidental College, & UCLA.
Fernanda Sanchez
Vice-President & Co-FounderRene Camarillo
Treasurer & Co-FounderRene Camarillo is an East Los Angeles born and raised textile and garment creative who has actively been involved in bettering his neighboring communities. While growing up in his hometown of El Sereno, Rene has volunteered and dedicated over seven years of community art and craft programming, operating and offering free apparel design classes through collaboration with different Los Angeles Parks and Recreation Centers throughout El Sereno, Lincoln Heights, and Boyle Heights. Camarillo has earned a Certificate of Community Appreciation, by the City of Los Angeles in 2018 as well as a Certificate of Recognition, from the District 14 California Legislature Assembly in 2014. Most recently, Rene Camarillo has become a recipient of the prestigious Society of Presidential Fellows Award granted by the Rhode Island School of Design where through his textile work, examines the tapestry of East Los Angeles and what he curiously describes as “Unseen Rituals”. Rene Camarillo prioritizes community involvement through the arts and aims to uplift and motivate the youth in East Los Angeles to cultivate and pursue careers in the arts.
Alumni of El Sereno Elementary, El Sereno Middle School, Woodrow Wilson High School, Los Angeles Trade Technical College, California State University of Los Angeles, and Rhode Island School of Design.
Johanna Iraheta
Secretary & Co-FounderJohanna Iraheta is a multidisciplinary community organizer who aims to create avenues that protect the rights, safety, and access of communities affected by inequity. Johanna has worked alongside many organizations, art initiatives, and educational programs that support community organizing, mental health wellness, and youth empowerment. Johanna has recently worked in community garden stewardship, green space advocacy, and open space programs.
Johanna holds a Master of Arts in Teaching from the University of Southern California and a B.A. from California State Northridge. Johanna is also a certified Wilderness and Outdoors Educator from the Diverse Outdoors Leadership Institute and is a certified League of American Cyclists instructor.
Hannya Ortiz
Board Member & Co-FounderMelany Guzman
Board Member & Co-FounderMelany is a lifelong resident of Lincoln Heights. Her experience working in habitat restoration/land stewardship has driven her to work toward ensuring that existing open spaces in Lincoln Heights are preserved and accessible to everyone in the community. However, having witnessed firsthand how rapid urbanization and displacement affect the environment and culture within her community, Melany is determined to uplift and empower the voices of those usually overlooked in communities like Lincoln Heights.
Alumni of Bravo Medical Magnet High School and UC San Diego.