Las personas de CCATE
“I think of CCATE as almost like a tree. Rooted in the community and drawing strength from everybody around it.”
At CCATE everyone teaches and everyone learns. Our students include children and family members; our teachers include children and family members; a volunteer may teach a class on Tuesday and take one on Thursday.
Voces de la comunidadVoices from the community
CCATE is built and run by the families who use it. Members teach classes, lead circles, cook for Noche de Arte, sit on committees and decide what this place does next.
“I came to CCATE because I needed so badly to spend time with others who spoke my language.”
A member of the adult classes
“In the CCATE community, everyone learns something new every day.”
A parent and community leader
“To give and to receive is what motivates me to get ahead in life.”
A member of the women’s art collective
“This is where we come together to learn and collaborate with a lot of love, with extremely intelligent and talented people — and where I discovered my love of reading.”
A member of the adult reading circle
“At CCATE we give with our hearts, we see each other as equals, and we believe that ‘all of the knowledge of the world for and from everyone’ is a reality. It is a safe space where we are free and where we see ourselves represented as a community — and where we welcome everyone.”
A community leader and volunteer teacher
“Here there is always an opportunity to be a leader. If you had asked me when I started whether I saw myself leading classes, I would have said no way.”
A volunteer teacher who began as a participant
“Todo el conocimiento del mundo, desde todos y para todos.”
All the knowledge of the world, from everyone and for everyone.
“Un talento que no se comparte es un talento desperdiciado.”
A talent not shared is a talent wasted.
Both phrases came from inside this community, not from a strategic plan. They are why there is no line here between who teaches and who learns: the person leading a class on Tuesday may be sitting in one on Thursday.
EquipoStaff
Founder of CCATE; photographer, anthropologist and media producer; part-time lecturer at Penn’s School of Social Policy and Practice.
A former bilingual teacher and consultant in ESL and dual-language education. She leads CCATE’s participatory research center; her work on Latinx students and schooling has appeared in the Harvard Educational Review, the American Educational Research Journal and the Journal of Latinos and Education.
Educator, artist and environmental justice advocate. She arrived in 2016 as a volunteer co-teacher of gardening and environmental education, studied at DePaul and Millersville and at the Institute of MesoAmerican Permaculture, and joined the staff in 2021.
Master of Science in Social Policy from Penn, with research in media studies, racial equity and public policy. At CCATE since October 2022, working in research, grant writing and digital communication — and volunteering to teach coding, yoga and mindfulness.
PhD student in Educational Linguistics and Research Fellow at Penn, and a former K–2 dual-language teacher. She supports CCATE youth in their post-secondary plans and, as researchers and changemakers, in investigating what matters to them.
Junta directivaBoard of Directors
Ten voting members — pastors, accountants, architects, professors and psychotherapists — several of whom also teach classes and co-lead research at CCATE.
Twenty years as an accountant for corporations and nonprofits, most recently the American Baptist Home Mission Society; now senior pastor of Lower Merion Baptist Church. He brought the vision to expand CCATE’s financial capacity and find a permanent home. M.Div. from Eastern University.
A financial specialist, graduated from the Instituto Politécnico Nacional. Senior IT auditor at Pfizer’s Collegeville campus; she brings corporate experience and the partnership with Pfizer’s CRG Latino group.
Associate Director of Latin American and Latinx Studies at Penn; PhD in Political Science from Temple. Her research covers Latin American politics, democratic theory and civic education — and she co-leads CCATE’s research-practice partnership with Penn.
Class of 1965 Endowed Term Professor of Political Science and Director of the Latin American and Latino Studies Program at Penn; PhD from Northwestern. She opened the Model OAS pathway that brings CCATE students onto Penn’s campus.
Advisor to the Secretary for Strengthening Democracy of the OAS; formerly Director of Political Studies at FUSADES in El Salvador, and a journalist in Central America. Her words on organizing for sustainable democracy inspired the mural “Voices of Peace and Social Transformation,” painted by 52 CCATE students at Norristown Area High School.
Associate professor in Villanova’s Department of Geography and the Environment, PhD from Penn. She co-leads the Veritas Project on lead exposure in Norristown and teaches with an emphasis on diversity in STEM and environmental justice.
Assistant Professor of Environmental Science at Villanova, PhD from Rice University. His research covers air pollution and environmental health, and he has run several environmental education programs at CCATE.
A Latinx genderqueer psychotherapist and Executive Director of Ramírez Psychotherapy, specializing in work with queer individuals and their families. Doctorate in Clinical Social Work from Penn; master’s from Columbia.
Architect and landscape architect, with a Master in Landscape Architecture from PennDesign. She joined CCATE in 2019 assisting the architecture class and serves on the Plaza Latinoamericana y del Caribe subcommittee.
Tu talento también cabe aquíYour talent belongs here too
If you can teach something, learn something, cook, drive, translate or just show up — there is a place for you here.
¡Viva la comunidad!