My community engagement work goes back 20 years and started in Boston where I worked with the Greater Roxbury Neighborhood Authority and the Roxbury, North Dorchester Neighborhood Revitalization Development Corporation to creat a Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) agreement with the Massachusetts Bankers Association, and get the city government to repair and replace inadequate street lighting in the neighborhood. Since, moving to Chicago in 1990 I have worked with several organizations: Indian Treaty Rights Committee, Instituto del Progreso Latino, Native American Foster Parents Association, Latino Organization of the Southwest, Mujeres Latina en Acción, and Women for Economic Justice. In Mexico I have also worked with several community and outreach organizations: Alianza Cívica CETLALIC, (language and culture school) University Program on Gender Studies (UNAM), and Nuestra Hija Regresa a Casa. In Chicago, I have worked with groups to advance economic development, promoted community based research by communities, and engaged in popular education programs about the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), Gender Violence, and Immigration issues. 

My current work is with Women for Economic Justice (Chicago) and UCIEP (Mexico). This work is focused on providing financial training for women of color (mostly Latinas so far) who might be survivors of violence and facilitating a process where women have the opportunity to develop cooperatives or social purpose business to meet their financial needs. UCIEP does economic development work in Mexico and I have partnered with them to initiate a joint project tracking and evaluating transnational economic communities since people from their organization have moved to Chicago but still maintain social, cultural, and economic ties to their home communities.