Monica was born in Vina del Mar, Chile and moved to the United States in 2003 with her husband Patrick. She has lived in Seattle, Washington for 7 years; then moved to Sioux City, Iowa where she lived for 8 years. In 2017, she returned to the Pacific Northwest with her family. She holds a B.A. in Psychology Counseling (Morningside College, 2012) and a Master’s degree in Social Work (Boston University, 2016). She has practiced as Substance Abuse Counselor and holds a CADC and a LMSW for the state of Iowa. She was also part of the crisis intervention team that provided support to first responders after critical incidents happening in the area.

Bryan is an immigrant of Costa Rican and Panamanian descent; raised in  the Bay Area. Before being a college graduate he was a community organizer and DREAM activist. Upon graduation from San Jose State University, he earned his Masters in Counseling Marriage, Family and Child Therapy with a dual emphasis in College Counseling at San Francisco State University. A long-time slam poet and performer, he began to implement Hip Hop education with inner city youth and juvenile offenders through Insights, an AOD and trauma counseling program. Additionally, he has taught Hip Hop education to psychologist and educators in curriculum development classes. He is now a Counseling Psychology doctoral candidate with a Specialization in Spanish Language Psychological Services and Research at the University of Oregon. He provides bilingual individual and family therapy in the community. His research emphasis are on cultural competence development, immigrant psychology, DREAMer experiences, ethnic identity formation, critical consciousness, and postsecondary education attainment. He currently works with Latinx, and undocumented youth in an after-school intervention and research project. He is also working with previously detained immigrants escaping violence and seeking asylum in the U.S. He is a self-identified DREAMer, feminist, dancer, poet, and scholar-activist.

Celeste was born in El Salvador and grew up in Guatemala. She came to the united Stated in 2013. Celeste got her Bachelor's degree in Psychology at the University of Oregon in 2016. She is currently a graduate student in the Masters of Couples and Family Therapy at the University of Oregon. She works at the Stress Neurobiology and Prevention Research Lab more in depth with the FIND project, which focus on enhancing parent-child interactions. Celeste is currently an intern at HEDCO, where she works with families, couples, and individuals from different backgrounds and ages.

Jake Ferrer is originally from Brookings Oregon, where he lived for 18 years. Jake graduated  from Brookings Harbor High School in 2012, he then moved to Coos Bay where he started his academic career. He earned his Bachelors degree in Applied Psychology at Oregon Institute of Technology in 2016. Jake worked as a family mentor and he worked with youth in residential facilities before moving to Eugene in 2017 to study social work. Jake graduated in 2019 with a Masters degree in Social Work. In his free time Jake likes to read, play music and go mountain biking .

He recently joined our Centro family and he is excited on this new adventure. Jake is very passionate about working with our Latinx community and supporting their empowerment.