Our Focus

Alejandra Esqueda Hunt graduated from the Universidad de Guadalajara in 1988. After immigrating to the U.S., she studied linguistics and interpreting at Bellevue College. Alejandra has worked in the field of immigration since 2012 and is a mediator with the Dispute Resolution Center of Thurston County. In addition, Alejandra works as an activist, an advocate for immigrants, and an active member of the Strengthening Sanctuary Alliance. She was on the board of CIELO (Centro Integral Educativo Latino de Olympia) from 2016 to 2021.

Vannessa Margarita Blea (she/her) is a senior marketing and communications leader and currently serves as Creative Chief at King County Metro Transit, where she leads creative strategy and storytelling to improve rider experience, increase transit ridership, and strengthen public trust. With more than a decade of experience across public agencies and mission-driven nonprofits, she has guided brand strategy, crisis communications, and digital engagement for organizations including the YMCA of Greater Seattle and Girl Scouts of Western Washington. Vannessa brings deep expertise in equity-centered messaging, cross-departmental collaboration, and audience-driven campaigns that deliver measurable results. She has volunteered with CIELO as an instructor and outreach lead, serves as a career coach and mentor for early-career professionals from historically underrepresented communities, and holds a BFA in Design from Cornish College of the Arts, graduating Magna Cum Laude.

Brian has worked for over 30 years for the State of Washington, including 25 years managing state and federal grants and contracts.  Currently he is a Contract and Finance Specialist at the Washington State Department of Health.  His interest in immigrant and refugee assistance and other policy issues impacting communities of color has always been reflected in his volunteer work. He serves on the Asian Pacific Islander Coalition of South Puget Sound as a Co-Chair and on the Hawaiian, Asian, Pacific Islander Empowerment Network (HAPPEN) Business Resource Group as the Policy Lead. 

As an immigration attorney, Steffani has focused her legal career on asylum, consular processing, deportation defense, family immigration, general immigration, and naturalization/citizenship cases. She represents clients before the US Citizenship and Immigration Services, Immigration Courts, and US embassies and consulates worldwide.  Steffani was involved in advocacy that supported the Olympia City Council as it debated whether to declare Olympia a Sanctuary City. She volunteered with the Northwest Immigration Rights Project and the Texas Civil Rights Project in the summer of 2018 to represent a mother separated from her son at the border and brought to the Pacific Northwest. Over the last several years, she has worked with other members of Strengthening Sanctuary Alliance to encourage local law enforcement to review and change their policies and procedures on how they engage with immigrants and to provide the Know Your Rights presentation to immigrant community members. 

For most of her life, Lonnie has loved the challenge that comes with collaborative decision making. As a second grader she noticed that some of her classmates were lagging in reading. Lonnie asked her teacher if advanced students could engage in what is now known as peer learning. Those same qualities led Lonnie to pursue careers in legal and social service work. In retirement Lonnie has chosen to apply her life skills in collaborative decision making to community service in social justice and engagement across diverse cultures. Lonnie is a 35-year resident of Thurston County, a mother of four, married to Dan Locke.