Franklin Garcia was elected US Representative (Shadow) for the District of Columbia on November 4, 2014. He is working to bring full democracy to more than 650,000 people in our nation’s capital by helping make the District of Columbia the 51st State in the union. He is part of a Statehood Congressional Delegation that includes two Senators and one US Representative. Representative Garcia is the former President and founder of the DC Latino Caucus, and current President of the non-profit DC Latino Leadership Council. He has held key positions in the campaigns of Hillary Clinton, former DC Mayor Adrian Fenty, Dominican President Leonel Fernandez, and other politicians. Representative Garcia serves on a number of Boards and Committees and served on the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington Host Committee. Representative Garcia came to live in Washington, DC with his parents and sister at the age of 10. He attended public school in Montgomery County, Maryland where he graduated from Montgomery Blair High School. He holds an undergraduate degree in Finance from the George Washington University and a Master of Arts degree in Financial Economics for Public Policy from the American University. He is the founder of the DCiReporter TV Show, writes for a Spanish language newspaper and is a Huffington Post and Examiner blogger. He is an active member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and lives in the Woodrige.

Julia Lara is the president of J Lara Educational Consulting, LLC, a small company based in Washington DC. The company provides best practice research, program evaluations, training, report writing, meeting facilitation, and project management services. Prior to establishing a small business, she worked at the office of the Deputy Mayor for Education in the District of Columbia as the early childhood content specialist. She held various assignments at the Council of Chief State School officers (CCSSO) including Director of the Division of State Services and Technical Assistance center director, program director, and senior project associate. Ms. Lara has written extensively on matters related to the education of English Language Learners and students enrolled in low performing schools. She holds Master’s degree from Columbia University in New York City, and Doctorate degree from George Mason University, in Virginia.

Dr. Jorge Jose Escurra is a water specialist (External Term Consultant) at the Environmental and Water Resource Unit of the South Asia Region World Bank. He is a water resource management expert who specializes in the analysis of climate change impact over the water availability. Escurra has worked in several water infrastructure projects in Afghanistan, Argentina, Bangladesh, India, Peru, and Zambia. He also has developed research and climate change adaptation studies in the water sector in Bolivia, Colombia, Nepal and Nicaragua. Escurra is author or co-author of around 11 peer-reviewed scientific articles and technical reports. As part of his task during his Post Doctorate at the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at Colorado State University, he taught three graduate and undergraduate classes and co-led the Afghanistan Water, Agriculture and Technology Transfer (AWATT) financed by USAID. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Agriculture Engineering from Agraria La Molina University, MSc in irrigation engineering, and a Ph.D. in water resource management at Utah State University.

Ilsy Marilyn is a Public Relations & Communications, Human Rights and Immigration Advocate. She began her career in Communications/PR interning for Univision Entravision Communications in 2008 for former President Obama’s Election. Also interned for Fox 5 as a Spanish Translator. While in the Communications/PR field, she gained extensive experience with print, broadcast, advertising in the DC area for over 9 years. A Radio Commentator of Honduras Radio Universal 1600AM, 950AM in Cabin John, MD, AIM (Arlington Independent Media). Through the years, she has volunteered in number of organizations from Red Cross (2003-2013), UNICEF (2004-2010), Generation Engage, Cherry Blossom DC, Cultural Tourism DC. In 2005, her strong passion to fight for immigrant rights began through the organizations of school walkouts while in High School in Fairfax County, to stand in solidarity with a path for undocumented students to go to college in VA and around the country, such efforts that later gave birth to what is now called DACA.
Moving to DC, she has joined the Young Professional Group for Advocates for Survivors of Torture and Trauma (ASTT) in NW DC. Their main goal was to raise funds and awareness of the plight of international torture survivors and asylum seekers. Her solid expertise in the communications field, led her to obtain 5year opportunity at The Washington Post/El Tiempo Latino, as a client solutions sales executive. She currently lives in Ward 4 in the Brightwood Neighborhood.