Our Staff
![a photo of lourdes escalante who is yoem](https://indigenousalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/IMG_96822-500x500.jpg)
Lourdes Escalante (Yaqui Nation, She/Her)
![Jose rodriguez smiling at the camera in a 3/4 position he is wearing a blue shirt](https://indigenousalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/joseAAheadshot-500x500.jpg)
José Rodriguez (He/Him)
![A picture of JS Torres. They have curly dark brown medium length hair and are smiling at the camera. They are wearing a blue shirt](https://indigenousalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/imagejpeg_0-500x500.jpeg)
JS Torres (Tlingit & Lakota, They/Them)
![A picture of Joel Saldana Perez in a white cowboy hat, blue button up plaid shirt and a red handkerchief](https://indigenousalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/J-Saldana-Perez-Headshot-500x500.jpg)
Joel A. Saldaña Pérez (he/him)
![](https://indigenousalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Monica-Denowh-Carrasco.jpg)
Mónica Denowh Carrasco
![](https://indigenousalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Kathryn-Kat-Rodriguez.jpg)
Kathryn “Kat” Rodriguez
![a photo of lourdes escalante who is yoem](https://indigenousalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/IMG_96822-500x500.jpg)
Executive Director
Lourdes Escalante (Yaqui Nation, She/Her)
Executive Director
Lourdes is a lifelong resident of Barrio Libre located in South Tucson, Arizona. She is a first generation-college student and the first to earn the Bachelor’s of Arts in American Indian Studies from the University of Arizona – alongside her second major in Political Science with an emphasis in Law and Public Policy. She has a background in tribal gaming with the Pascua Yaqui Tribe and Tohono O’odham Nation. Lourdes has an extensive background engaging the Indigenous-college and university communities while at Pima Community College and at the UArizona. Since 2019, Lourdes has been a part of the Healing Our Nations, Offering Resiliency (H.O.N.O.R.) Collective which collaborates with the Alianza, the Pascua Yaqui Tribe of Arizona’s Sewa Uusim Division, and various other partners in the Cukson community to bring awareness of issues such as #MMIW (#MMIWG, #MMIP, #MMIR) and Orange Shirt Day to the local Tucson community. Lourdes is an ever-growing advocate for Indigenous Rights and collective healing for Indigenous Peoples. Most importantly, Lourdes is a mama to two beautiful Yoeme suns (sons).
![Jose rodriguez smiling at the camera in a 3/4 position he is wearing a blue shirt](https://indigenousalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/joseAAheadshot-500x500.jpg)
Director of Development
José Rodriguez (He/Him)
Director of Development
With a background as a project manager and co founder of a community- based café / coffee roaster, José aims to help people and projects thrive. He strives to center his work on empathy, reciprocity and “cultura cura”.
Theater has also been a powerful form for José throughout his career and has served as a medium to foster empathy and healing in the community.
He studied applied anthropology and holds a B.A. in political science and economics from San Francisco State University.
![A picture of JS Torres. They have curly dark brown medium length hair and are smiling at the camera. They are wearing a blue shirt](https://indigenousalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/imagejpeg_0-500x500.jpeg)
Project Coordinator
JS Torres (Tlingit & Lakota, They/Them)
Project Coordinator
JS Torres is a student at the University of Arizona, studying film and television as well as journalism. They have been working in Indigenous focused organizations since 2019, with a focus on administrative work as well as creative content for social media.
![A picture of Joel Saldana Perez in a white cowboy hat, blue button up plaid shirt and a red handkerchief](https://indigenousalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/J-Saldana-Perez-Headshot-500x500.jpg)
Acting Director
Joel A. Saldaña Pérez (he/him)
Project Lead – Indigenous Archives Without Borders / Projects & Programming Intern
Joel (he/him/él) has been with the Alianza since 2018, first as a Graduate Research Associate and then as a Projects and Programming Intern. He has also been serving as the Archival Fellow/Project Lead for the Indigenous Archives Without Borders project since 2021.
Joel is a first-generation college student and immigrant from Guanajuato, Mexico. He is a Ph.D. candidate in Mexican American Studies with a minor in Library and Information Science at the University of Arizona. His interests include Mexican and Mexican American foodways, Mexican Traditional Medicine, Oral Traditions, Decolonial Archival Spaces, and Storytelling and Oral Histories. Additionally, he performs danza folklórica mexicana with Grupo Folklorico Miztontli and Compañia de Danza Folklorica Arizona.
Joel has worked, interned, or volunteered with multiple non-profits/social services organizations, including: Emerge Center Against Domestic Abuse (since 2015); Casa Alitas (2017; 2023-2024); Resplandor International in Guanajuato, Mexico (2013, 2014, 2018); the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona and Las Milpitas Community Farm (2019-2020; 2023) and the Kino Border Initiative (2013) and the Flying Samaritans of Tucson (2014) through the Southern Arizona Area Health Education Center (SEAHEC).
![](https://indigenousalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Monica-Denowh-Carrasco.jpg)
Co-Director of Fiscal Health
Mónica Denowh Carrasco
Co-Director of Fiscal Health
Mónica is a Yaqui/Xicana with over 15 years’ experience in community activism, organizing, promoting human rights, social justice and Peace. She majored in Anthropology and Women’s Studies at California State University Fullerton. She also studied Latin American Literature and Meso-American Archaeology at the Autonomous University in Guadalajara Mexico. Mónica works to build consciousness about sacred site preservation and the infringement of Indigenous peoples rights along the southern US border with Mexico. As a mental Health Advocate she fights against the stigma of mental illness and works directly in the community to make sure the community has equitable access to safe and appropriate mental and physical health care.
Email:monica@indigenousalliance.org
![](https://indigenousalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Kathryn-Kat-Rodriguez.jpg)
Alianza Member
Kathryn “Kat” Rodriguez
Member of the Alianza since 2000
Kat is a Tejana/Chicana with 20 years years working in the border justice movement. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree from California State University- Sacramento and a Masters of Public Administration from the University of Arizona. She has worked with farmworker struggles in Immokalee, Florida and Woodburn, Oregon. Most of her social justice work has centered on issues faced by the (im)migrant communities, specifically related to the deaths of migrants on the U.S.-México border. Kat is a longtime friend and ally of the Alianza Indígena Sin Fronteras and its work of promoting Indigenous border issues since 2000, and joined the staff in 2013.