Our Board

Samantha Rosas, Chair
Intake Case Manager, Hopelink

Bevin Taylor, Secretary
Faculty, Highline College

Carolina Guzman, Treasurer
Director of Marketing and Communications, Business Impact NW

Jake Garcia, Member
Public Policy Manager

Alex Finale, Member
Senior Project Manager at Facebook

Our Staff

• Virginia Herrera-Páramo, Executive Director
• Esther Kim, Operations Manager
• Benny Mendoza, Early Learning Specialist
• Verónica Huerta, Social Media Communicator
• Gabriela González, Aprendamos Juntos Program Logistics
• Márgaret Gleeson, Program Manager
• Liliana Plazas, Computer Lab Instructor
• Reina Blandon, Creciendo en Comunidad Program Coordinator
• Sonya Yahyaoui, Executive Assistant
• Cynthia Catalan, Community Organizer
• Alondra Gonzalez, Youth Organizer

Samantha Rosas

(She/her) is a first-generation Mexican-American born and raised in the Pacific Northwest. She graduated from Western Washington University where she received her Sociology BA with a focus on race and ethnic studies. Sam is currently an Intake Case Manager at Hopelink for their Housing and Case Management Programs, where she serves homeless and low-income communities in East and North King County. Sam is passionate about empowering and advocating for youth and BIPOC communities through an empathetic lens. She believes that sharing individual experiences are vital when it comes to learning how to best serve our communities. In her spare time you will find her spending time with family and friends, crafting, or playing pinball.

Bevin Taylor

Bevin Taylor teaches English to speakers of other languages at Highline College. She thoroughly enjoys learning about other languages and cultures from the adults in her classes. In her role as an educator, Bevin’s passion is to work with students to find their own path to achieving their goals in the classroom and beyond, and she brings this same passion to her work with Para Los Niños. 

Carolina Guzmán

is originally from Valdivia, a college town in southern Chile and has been living in the Seattle area since 2018. She earned her B.A. in Business Administration from Universidad Austral de Chile, a Master of Finance from Universidad de Chile, and a Certificate in Marketing from UC Berkeley. Currently she is the Director of Marketing and Communications at Business Impact NW, a nonprofit economic development organization. Being the daughter of university professors, Carolina highly values education. Para Los Niños mission to foster academic success for Latino students resonates with her own mission. She knows how important that success has been to her life.

Jake Garcia

(he/him) is the Public Policy Manager for Northwest Harvest, Washington’s statewide food justice organization. He hails from Vancouver, WA where he cut his teeth organizing farmers and farmworkers for equitable land-use policy and working for various state and local political campaigns. Now, Jake spends his time lobbying for food security and developing public policy to reduce poverty. His work in South King County has included co-designing policy solutions to barriers to public benefits access. In his spare time, he can be found rooting for the Mariners and Kraken, hiking in the North Cascades, or fishing for rainbow trout in one of Western Washington’s many pristine lakes and rivers.

Alexander Finale

Alexander Finale is a first-generation Cuban American who was born and raised in East Los Angeles, California. His parents fled communist Cuba in the late 1960’s and managed to send all three children to College. He is fluent in both English and Spanish. Alex holds a master’s degree in Architecture from the University of New Mexico and has over 20 years of design and construction experience with companies such as Los Alamos National Labs, Intel, Globalfoundries, and Facebook. He is also a licensed architect in the state of Washington and a member of the American Institutes of Architects. His interest in the Board of Para Los Niños stems from a desire to share his experiences and to serve other Latin Americans who aspire to attain higher education or professional vocation.

Virginia Herrera-Páramo

Virginia Herrera-Páramo comes to Para Los Niños from El Puerto de Veracruz, México. She has worked with our communities in King and Pierce counties for the past 20 years. Her work expands a variety of roles and capacities, such as storyteller, peer literacy worker, doula, family advocate, community liaison, health promoter, breastfeeding consultant, and community health worker. Her emphasis has always been to promote cultural diversity in the King & Pierce County area. Write an email to Virginia.

Esther Kim

Esther M. Kim was born in San Francisco, CA. Her family immigrated back to South Korea when she was four, and she spent more than half of her life in South Korea. While in Korea, she attended American/International Schools in Seoul. She came back to the United States to complete her education, receiving a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in Social Work from the University of Washington, Seattle.  She learned Spanish in Korea at Seoul American High School and had an opportunity to study abroad in Salamanca, Spain. 

Benny Mendoza

Benny was born in Mexico City. In the year 2000 she entered the UPIBI (Interdisciplinary Professional Unit of Biotechnology) of the IPN (National Polytechnic Institute of Mexico), but a change in her life made her discover her true vocation and she began to study for her Bachelor’s degree in Pedagogy, graduating in 2005 with a Specialty in Educational Evaluation. She worked as a preschool and primary teacher until 2015 when she had to emigrate to the United States with her husband and their 2 children. In January 2016, she came to live in the State of Washington and since then she has been a volunteer in different non-profit organizations. She believes that children learn best through practice and play because, through appropriate activities, they are able to develop their age-appropriate sensory, cognitive, and motor skills.

Verónica Huerta

Verónica is a Social Media Communicator at PLN. She started her social work at very young age in the sierra poblana carrying educational and health information materials. At PLN, she continues this work with the Latino community, organizing meetings and training sessions for parents through the Leadership Academy and “Padres Unidos” programs. These programs support community decisions by taking action in the processes of change by accompanying families in their decisions and advocacy steps to establish changes in schools, work, and community.  She owns her own arts and crafts business importing products from Puebla, México.

Gabriela González

Originally from Jalisco, Mexico. She studied Business Administration and worked for 11 years for the Human Resources Department with an American Franchise in her Country. In 2010, she arrived in Washington State. In search of personal growth she met our organization “Para Los Niños”, in 2021; where she had the opportunity to assist in our programs taking classes and workshops related to service and support to the Latin community. Presently, she forms part of the pilot project of Health Promoters for Para Los Niños. Some of her passions are serving the community, and her family, and to continue learning and develop. She believes that constancy, education, and support are fundamental for our families to meet their objectives.

Liliana Plazas

Liliana Plazas es originaria de Bogotá, Colombia. Allí recibió su certificado como Comunicadora Social, Periodista y adelantó estudios de Psicología. Llegó a la ciudad de Seattle hace 17 años y desde su llegada creó su propia empresa de limpieza residencial y comercial. Alterno a su negocio, ha sido Caregiver y voluntaria en diversas organizaciones dedicadas a apoyar a la comunidad latina de King County incluyendo la comunidad LGBTQ.  Sus aspiraciones han sido siempre apoyar a la comunidad latina a través del aprendizaje y desarrollo de habilidades tomando en cuenta los atributos, experiencias y capacidad innata de las personas. Su pasión es el autocuidado, la salud mental y emocional a través de terapias complementarias. Llega a Para Los Niños como instructora en el Laboratorio de Computación y como asistente en las diferentes actividades y eventos de la organización.

Cynthia Catalán

Cynthia is a first-generation Guatemalan who was born and raised on the East Coast. She graduated from Western Carolina University where she received her B.S. in Integrated Health Science with a concentration in Health Management and a minor in Psychology. Furthermore, Cynthia is a community health worker whose goal is to help the Latino community access the healthcare they need and educate others to maintain wellness. She is passionate about advocating for the community and assisting them with information about their health. Cynthia is thrilled to be working with Para Los Niños, an organization that carries various programs that value and positively impact the Latino community. In her free time, Cynthia enjoys outdoor activities including hiking, camping, snowboarding, and photography. She is also an advocate for sustainability and taking care of the environment for future generations.

Alondra Gonzalez

She was born in Seattle. Her family comes from Durango, Mexico. She is the eldest of three. She is a first generation Mexican-American. She graduated from University of Washington and received her Sociology BA and a minor in diversity. At an early age Rainier Scholars gave her the opportunity to work towards higher education along with other resources. She thinks it is important to not forget where one comes from and just how her community helped her. She wants to help those in her community.  She is passionate about helping the youth in her community so that they get all the resources needed in order to continue to pursue education along with creating a safe space for them to build new relationships. She previously worked at a middle school in which she was the operations coordinator and the girls soccer coach. In her free time she enjoys the outdoors, playing soccer, learning new languages and trying new foods.

David Páez

David Páez Mican, was born in Bogotá, Colombia. He studied Business Administration with a Specialization in Human Talent, Leadership and Coaching. He has worked for several years with children and young people. He likes chess and years ago he played it competitively, an activity he wants to resume. He arrived in Washington state a little over three years ago and began almost immediately working with Latinos and immigrant youth. He enjoys service, and entrepreneurship. He has a chess club in Colombia and currently wants to continue promoting chess and mental exercise in the community. He is also a dog lover and likes to help homeless dogs or those most in need.