Kate Ascione is originally from Cleveland, Ohio, and graduated from Boston College in 1993. She worked for more than 15 years in development for Harvard University as well as with various nonprofits in Los Angeles, New York, and Boston. Today, she is employed at home raising four children while serving on various local Boston area boards and committees.

Genevieve Green’s professional life has been centered around developing and supporting educational programs that provide young people with opportunities to engage in meaningful and productive experiences focused on inclusion and intersectionality, both in and outside of the classroom. During her years working at Middlesex Community College, Genevieve held a variety of roles, across all areas of Student Affairs. She worked closely with campus affinity groups; international students, students of color, LGBTQ students, and allies, to promote equity and inclusion within a social justice framework. Genevieve has presented at numerous academic conferences and has managed a number of grants. As the Assistant Director of Academic Support programs, she implemented and managed programs to develop student leaders and support faculty around best practices for culturally responsive and inclusive instruction. As the Director of TRiO, she oversaw a federally-funded program serving low-income students with documented disabilities, identifying and creating safe and accessible learning environments for students with a wide range of learning and psychiatric disabilities. In her current role, as a Bilingual School Counselor at Waltham High School, she works exclusively with new arrivals to the United States, largely undocumented and unaccompanied minors, and supports all aspects of their transition. Genevieve’s personal experience being raised in a bi-cultural home by a Latinx parent paired with a career centered around learning and teaching to recognize and dismantle systems of oppression, has led her to the Mabel Center, where she hopes to be an effective, compassionate, and creative advocate for this critical work. Genevieve holds a BA from the University of Massachusetts, Boston and an M.Ed. from Providence College.

Andrea Meza is the former Director of Family Detention Services at RAICES, which offers free universal representation to families held in ICE custody at the Karnes family prison in Karnes City, Texas. Andrea began her career in immigration law as a legal assistant in Phoenix, Arizona during the time of SB 1070, the infamous and draconian "show me your papers" law. As a law student Andrea participated in the Immigration Clinic each of her three years of study and received several awards in recognition of her volunteer legal service. Andrea began her work at Karnes as an Equal Justice Works Fellow where she led RAICES' Karnes Pro Bono Project to provide free legal services to imprisoned families. Following her fellowship, Andrea served as the Albert M. Sacks Clinical Teaching and Advocacy Fellow at the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program at Harvard Law School for the 2017 academic year. In 2018, Andrea returned to RAICES to serve her prior team as Associate Director during the waning months of the Trump Administration's Zero Tolerance family separations. In March 2019 Andrea became the Director of RAICES' Karnes program and now leads a team of 27 dedicated advocates towards the abolition of family detention. A fourth generation Texan with ancestors who migrated across the Rio Grande before the Civil War and others pressured to return to Mexico during the "repatriations" of the 1930s, Andrea is acutely aware of the privilege her citizenship provides in the context of U.S. immigration policy and seeks a world where families are safe and free to move as they see fit.

Jackie Robinson is currently an Associate Director of Data Management and Clinical Programming at Rubius Therapeutics. He serves on the board for Story Starters, where he was one of the cofounders. He has spent time volunteering at Clarence R. Edwards Middle School in Charlestown, MA working with middle school students in their afterschool program. He also served on the Board of Trustees at Belmont Day School where he volunteered as the Co-Chair of Braiding Different Strands, the parent diversity group at BDS. Additionally, he served on the Board of Trustees at Lesley Ellis School in Arlington. Over the years, Mr. Robinson has also worked as the financial aid associate director at Wheaton College, MIT, and Harvard Divinity School and served on the Diversity Committee at MIT.

Attorney Seeber began practicing immigration law in 2015, after a successful career at Clifford Chance working in its Capital Markets practice group. Her primary focus in immigration law has been on removal defense work, particularly for mothers and children who have spent time in family detention. Since her first visit in early 2016 to the family detention center in Karnes, Texas, Attorney Seeber has provided pro bono legal assistance within family detention centers, and representation to asylum-seekers waiting in Mexico. Attorney Seeber is a member of New York and Massachusetts Bars and has litigated cases in San Antonio, Pearsall and Boston Immigration Courts.

Elissa Steglich, Esq. is Clinical Professor and Co-Director of the Immigration Clinic at the University of Texas School of Law. In her 20 years advocating for immigrant rights, she has provided direct representation to asylum seekers, immigrant children, and immigrant survivors of violence and human trafficking. Professor Steglich regularly presents at scholarly conferences, public events, and professional trainings.

Professor Steglich previously served as Legal Services Director at the American Friends Service Committee’s Immigrant Rights Program in Newark, New Jersey. She worked with the National Immigrant Justice Center and conducted extensive field research on trafficking in Latin America and the Caribbean for the International Human Rights Law Initiative of DePaul College of Law. She serves on the advisory committee of the ABA Children’s Immigration Law Academy and on the Amicus Committee of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. She received a BA in English from Haverford College and was awarded a JD with Honors from the University of Texas School of Law.

Tony Rodriguez was a founding board member of Mabel Center and served on the Board of Directors until his passing in October 2023. Tony graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Boston University. He grew up in Puerto Rico, where he attended San Ignacio Jesuit high school. He was married to Janet for 47 years and father to an amazing daughter, Nicole, who teaches in the public-school system. Upon his graduation from MIT, Rodriguez served in the U.S. Army for four years. Rodriguez spent the next 35 years working as an IT professional in the financial services industry. He retired in 2014 after 14 years as Vice President of Trading Systems at Fidelity Investments. Rodriguez lived in Lexington and co-led a citizen campaign for the Safe Communities resolution there.

Rodriguez served as Board President of Unitarian Universalist Massachusetts Action. He rekindled his passion for immigrant justice and for fighting economic inequality while leading educational trips to El Salvador, and service trips to the border in Arizona and to family detention centers in Dilley and Karnes, Texas. After retiring, Rodriguez volunteered with the Latino community in East Boston teaching math, English and civics classes. He worked with De Novo as a volunteer advocate for families released from detention centers who were currently living in the Boston area. Rodriguez used his native Spanish to help translate for pro-bono lawyers working with Central American families. He volunteered with Kids in Need of Defense, the Political Asylum/ Immigration Representation Project, East Boston Ecumenical Community Center, and RIAN Immigrant Center. He was an active member of the Boston Immigrant Justice Accompaniment Network and helped to support immigrants detained in detention centers in Massachusetts.