Staff
CIRC is grateful for an incredible team that enacts our mission to build a unified statewide voice to advance and defend justice for immigrants and refugees in Colorado. (Note: All media inquiries should be forwarded to communications@coloradoimmigrant.org).
Staff members are listed below by alphabetical order of last name:
Nayda Benitez
Organizing Director
Nayda (she/ella) grew up in El Paso County, a notoriously anti-immigrant county in Colorado, as an undocumented immigrant. She immigrated to Colorado from South Central Mexico in 2002. Today, she leads CIRC’s organizing team and strategy as the Director of Organizing. She was pulled into the immigrant rights movement in 2016 as a student who organized against the onslaught of attacks on DACA recipients and the criminalization of the immigrant community during the Trump years. She has worked on campaigns to disentangle ICE from local law enforcement, on passing a statewide Immigrant Legal Defense Fund, on expanding healthcare access to undocumented people in CO, and has worked extensively with migrants in the rural, Southern part of her state. She credits a lot of her organizing skills to working class, undocumented, women of color who are at the heart of the immigrant justice movement in Colorado.
(719) 726-5984
Nicole Cervera Loy
Policy & Campaigns Manager
Nicole (she/ella) is from Perú but has lived in Colorado for 20 years. Nicole’s passion for social justice and advocacy was ignited when SB13-033 was passed in Colorado. This bill allowed Nicole to continue her higher education journey. She obtained a master’s degree in public policy and a master’s degree in international human rights, with her thesis focus being on accessibility to healthcare, primarily focused on the immigrant community.
Nicole is an active community member, continuously trying to advocate for immigrant rights in various fields such as human trafficking work and healthcare. When she is not in the community, she enjoys spending time with her husband, Scott, her son Logan, her dog, Leia, and her chinchilla, Gizmo.
JuanDavid Garza
Legal Services Manager
JuanDavid Garza is a Texas native who moved to Colorado to pursue higher education. He graduated in May of 2020 from the LEEDS School of Business and brings along an immense passion for social justice and equity. Alongside his music career, JD hopes to bring about healing for himself and others with his work at CIRC.
Paola Grimaldo
Membership Engagement Manager
Paola Grimaldo is an immigrant from Michoacan Mexico who migrated to the US as a two-year-old child. From her early experiences as an undocumented immigrant to her extensive involvement in various social justice causes, she is proud of her advocacy and community empowerment efforts. Her work in GOTV (Get Out The Vote) efforts, advocacy for reproductive rights, support for newly arrived migrants, and contributions to political campaigns underscore her passion for creating positive change.
Now, as the Membership Engagement Manager at CIRC, Paola is poised to further amplify community voices and mobilize collective action.
Raquel Lane-Arellano
Communications Manager
As a first-generation college graduate and Chicanx/Latinx major, Raquel moved back to Colorado after college to build power with her community and increase access to opportunity.
From 2019-2023, Raquel worked with CIRC as the Policy Manager and later as Political Director to promote pro-immigrant policies in the state legislature. She has since switched to working as the Communications Manager at CIRC and looks forward to growing with CIRC and the immigrant rights movement in Colorado to continue crafting better realities and futures for our community together.
Annette Leyva
South Regional Organizer
Annette Leyva (she/her/ella) is the eldest daughter to two immigrant parents. She was born and raised in Denver. In highschool, Annette became involved in the social justice movement- working in community to address the issues her marginalized community faced, from food security to a need for more youth activism. She continued this work in college through Latine voter mobilization campaigns and internships with the ACLU of CO. As a proud first-generation student, she graduated from Colorado College with a double major in Political Science and Spanish in May of 2024. She is excited to continue social justice work as CIRC’s South Regional organizer and help advance immigrant rights.
Alma Orozco
Operations Manager
Alma Orozco is a proud first-generation DACA, Queer, Latinx Student. Before CIRC, Alma had been loyal to a restaurant owner-operator for eight years, and what kept her committed was focusing on the people she worked with and managed. Many of the people Alma managed belonged to the immigrant community. Although she created great relationships with them, working with a for-profit organization limited her ability to serve her community. Growing up undocumented and experiencing the hardships of living in underserved communities, Alma decided to join CIRC in 2022 as the admin coordinator and later as the operations manager to continue to fight for immigrant rights. Alma aspires to finish her Women and Gender Studies Degree, loves the outdoors, and loves gardening as self-care.
Caitlin Trent
Political Director
Caitlin (she/her/ella) is from Colorado but has worked around the world in a variety of organizations. Caitlin first worked at CIRC and CIRC Action Fund from 2017-2020 as Operations and Program Director then was on the Board of Directors of CIRC Action Fund from 2020-2023. She is excited to come back to the organization and its community in 2024 as Political Director.
Caitlin has always strived to understand the world, its inequities, and build power for directly impacted people to address systemic issues. From working with small grassroots organizations to large INGOs and statewide ballot initiatives and coalitions, she brings a commitment to social justice. Her work before CIRC centered around research, evaluation and management of international post-conflict policy and justice, as well as investigating patterns of systemic racism, sexism, homophobia and ADA violations by law enforcement and employers. She has an M.A. in International Studies, with a specialization in Conflict, a certificate in International Human Rights Law, and B.A.s in International Studies and Spanish.
Marine Brichard
Development Director
Marine Brichard (she/her/hers) is an immigrant from Belgium currently living in Colorado and working for the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition. She is passionate about fighting for immigrant rights and creating a world where everyone is able to move freely. Marine is excited about reimagining the field of fundraising to one that centers community, equity, and justice. She loves challenges and adventures, hiking and running (somehow), and learning Arabic.
Beatriz Garcia
Western Slope Regional Organizer
Beatriz Garcia Waddell, born and raised in Guanajuato Mexico, is a dedicated leader and community organizer deeply committed to immigration rights, social justice, and equity. With a background in Social Communication and Politics from La Salle Bajío, she has been actively involved in promoting her culture and volunteering in various countries, tackling pressing social issues like mental health and housing access. Currently based in Durango, Colorado, Beatriz empowers immigrant communities as the Western Slope Regional Organizer for the Coalition for Immigrant Rights of Colorado.
Jorge Gutierrez
Mountain Regional Organizer
Jorge was born in Bogotá, Colombia. He graduated as a Sports Administrator from a public university with which he was an activist and participated in student marches for human rights, against violence, gender freedom and against unjust policies.
From a paternal family, based in New York, he arrived in the USA in 2022, because it took him many years to have the opportunity to come. He lives in Summit County, Colorado where he has been a volunteer with a CIRC member organization, Mountain Dreamers, collaborating with his community for the rights of immigrants, their inclusion and their dignified life. Currently all his efforts are focused on participating in the rights of immigrants with CIRC.
Gladis Ibarra
Co-Executive Director
Gladis Ibarra, born in Zacatecas, Mexico, immigrated to the U.S. at the age of 8. From Boulder to Broomfield, she grew up in Colorado and graduated in 2008 from Vantage Point High School. Gladis has been an active volunteer with CIRC since 2012. In September of 2017 DACA was threatened and rescinded by the administration, Gladis participated in the massive Denver Public School walkouts where students marched to Metro State University. This year she joined the staff as a fellow for the Denver Region for 3 months. She is now joining the team full time as the new Hotline Coordinator and Denver Region Organizer support. As a DACA recipient, Gladis’ passion is the main thing that drives her in this fight to protect her family, her community. She is excited to be able to dedicate her time and energy to fight and defend people like herself.
(303) 922-3344
Keilly Leon
North Regional Organizer
Born in Guanajuato, Mexico, Keilly first came to Colorado at 8 months old. After the election of Donald Trump in 2016 and the threat to DACA in 2017, Keilly found inspiration and hope in the social and political movements formed and lead by other young people. As a high schooler, the lack of legal and medical resources for the undocumented community pushed them to involve themselves in advocacy work and to connect with those directly impacted. As a DACA recipient they grew empowered in her story and began involving herself in advocacy and policy work. They are currently studying Political Science with a minor in Legal Studies at Colorado State University and Latin American and Caribbean Studies. Keilly hopes to continue cultivating their passion in policy, advancing immigrant rights, and fostering healing among our minority communities.
Miriam Mata
Denver Regional Organizer
Miriam is the Denver Regional Organizer for the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition (CIRC). Miriam was born in Jerez, Zacatecas and migrated to the United States with her mother in 2002. She considers Aurora, Colorado home and proudly acknowledges it as an Immigrant City. She is passionate about social justice and is interested in building solidarity across movements. She strives to bring a multi-racial and decolonial feminist lens to her work.
Henry Sandman
Co-Executive Director
Henry grew up with a deep appreciation for Human Rights and Immigration Justice because his grandparents came to the US from Europe to escape the Holocaust. His involvement in political activism and immigrant rights began in college when he majored in International Affairs with a concentration on Latin American politics. He also started a chapter of an organization focused on getting young people more engaged in politics.
Henry has worked on a variety of progressive political campaigns and labor organizing movements in Colorado and Ohio. As a Regional Organizer, he built a team of grassroots volunteers that knocked on over 15,000 doors in a challenging rural county. In Denver, he worked on a campaign to secure wage increases and healthcare protections for janitors in the midst of the COVID pandemic at SEIU Local 105. Prior to working as an organizer, Henry supported a government program focused on improving land management of Tribal Reservations.
Before becoming Managing Director, Henry was the Campaign Manager for CIRC AF’s campaign in Aurora in 2019, the Electoral Program Manager for CIRC AF’s statewide campaign in 2020, and the C4 Operations Manager in 2021. As Campaign Manager in 2019, Henry led CIRC AF’s campaign in Aurora, where CIRC AF knocked 100,000 doors in to help elect progressive candidates Juan Marcano and Allison Coombs to Aurora city council. As Electoral Program Manger, Henry oversaw CIRC AF’s Field Operations in support of 16 endorsed candidates where CIRC AF contacted nearly 1.4 million voters. As Operations Manager in 2021, Henry helped CIRC AF develop its first ever non-electoral year budget and created independent C4 internal operations to support its program.
Email: Henry@circaction.org