Tea Rozman
She/Her/Hers
Tea Rozman
Ever since working in the refugee camps in the war-torn former Yugoslavia in the 90s, Tea made a commitment to serve those whose lives had been unjustly disrupted by conflict. Years later, as she visited Srebrenica as part of her postgraduate studies at New York University and later University of Nova Gorica, Tea realized the profound impact of first-person digital story sharing. In 2013, she received a PhD in Cultural History, specializing in oral history recording, and has since committed her life to healing trauma, empowerment and amplifying the voices of immigrants and refugees. She is passionate about social justice, creating brave spaces, social entrepreneurship and immigrant leadership.
In 2013, Tea co-founded Green Card Voices, an organization that combats stereotypes by empowering immigrants to tell their stories. She and her team has recorded and shared stories of over 500 immigrants and refugees coming from 150 countries and living in Minnesota, North Dakota, Wisconsin, New York, California and Georgia. She is the editor of eight books—all award-winning collections of first-person immigrant stories and 2015 Bush Fellow.
Tea is passionate about travel, running, hiking, kite flying, horses and growing vegetables. She is a mom to two amazing pre-teen daughters and two loving and [occasionally] naughty beagles. In the summer, she can be found hiking in the Slovenian Alps and swimming off of the Croatian coast with dozens of members of her immediate and extended family.
Aaliyah Hannah
She/Her/Hers
Aaliyah Hannah
Julie Vang
She/They
Julie Vang
Shiney Her
She/Her/Hers
Shiney Her
In 2018, Shiney graduated from the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities with a major in Strategic Communications and Graphic Design. Soon after, she started her two years of service with AmeriCorps Public Allies – Twin Cities, where she developed an interest and drive working with nonprofits to give back to her community—using her assets in visual communication.
Shiney continues to partner and contract with nonprofits and small businesses. In the near future, she hopes to do work that’s deeply rooted in her culture and identity as a Hmong American woman.
A fun fact about Shiney is that she got her first name from the translation of her Hmong name—Chi-Ia [chee-ia]. It translates to “shiny”—hence, the birth of her name, which spells “Shiney”.
When she’s not creating, Shiney spends time caring and playing with Ginger, her Australian Shepherd mixed Border Collie fur friend. She also enjoys watching kdramas and listening to kdrama OSTs.
Sylvie Dosseh
She/Her/Hers
Sylvie Dosseh
Sylvie has worked as an educator since 2001 and is passionate about child and family advocacy, ensuring that children are always a priority. She joined AmeriCorps Public Allies – Twin Cities in 2019 and on this year’s journey with the Organization/Program, she has been placed at Green Card Voices.
Sylvie has always embraced cultural diversity and fills most fulfilled when surrounded by people of different cultural backgrounds. She still reminisces about her time at Winnetka Learning Center, working with families that came from all corners of the world and being enriched by their stories. So, she is thrilled to be the new Program Associate at Green Card Voices where she hopes not only to help the organization build capacity but also to gain new skills from the experience.
Sylvie believes that being placed at Green Card Voices is a true stroke of serendipity since writing is one of her hobbies. She hopes someday to be able to share her work with the world as an emerging writer.
Sylvie lives in Minneapolis and enjoys spending her free time with her family and going on walks.
Zaynab Abdi
She/Her/Hers
Zaynab Abdi
She graduated as magna cum laude from St. Catherine University, St. Paul with three Bachelors’s degrees in Political Science,
Zaynab is a co-author in Green Card Youth Voices: Immigration Stories from Minneapolis High Schools and was featured in Malala’s new book We Are Displaced. Besides her advocacy life, Zaynab loves to play soccer and bike during her free time.
Rebecca David
She/Her/Hers
Rebecca David
Luis Versalles
He/Him/His
Luis Versalles
Leslie Rapp
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Leslie Rapp
Esther Ledesma Pumarol
She/Her/Hers
Esther Ledesma Pumarol
As an active member in her community, Esther volunteers as the president for the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers Twin Cities chapter. She’s held Inclusion and Diversity roles throughout her career, serving as a corporate co-leader for the Hispanic and Latino employee resource group, as a board member for the SHPE National Industry Partner Council (IPC) and also leading the SHPE National Diversity Committee at Eaton and more recently as a Chair for the Liaison Network at Medtronic. After relocating to Minnesota in 2018, she’s a twice published author with her participation in both “Green Card STEM Voices: Stories from Minnesota immigrants” from the nonprofit Green Card Voices and “Hispanic Stars Rising” from the We are All Human foundation in New York.
Andrew Gordon
He/Him/His
Andrew Gordon
As a result, Mr. Gordon has dedicated his legal career to advocating for, and empowering, communities of color, immigrant communities and other marginalized communities. He understands that there is nothing that separates him from the plight of his clients and their families. In 2016, he was awarded a Social Justice Award by the Minnesota Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild for his work representing individuals charged with protest related crimes following the murder of Jamar Clark. In 2020, Mr. Gordon was part of a team awarded with the “Law for the People Award” for his work supporting community advocates following the murder of George Floyd. He continues to be honored to work with advocates here in Minnesota and nationwide on issues related to justice reform, abolition and decarceration.
When he was asked to join the Board of Green Card Voices (‘GCV’), Mr. Gordon had to say yes. He had been lucky enough to work with the organization in its first round of oral stories, and felt a sense of belonging amongst the GCV team, the community it sought to empower, and his colleagues on the Board. Mr. Gordon serves on the Development and Gala Committees and is also one of the Board participants in RaiseMN’s Campaign Institute alongside GCV’s Executive Director, Tea Rozman. He will continue to work alongside all the GCV staff to continue building safe spaces for immigrants to celebrate their struggles and accomplishments.
Laetitia Mizero Hellerud
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Laetitia M. Hellerud
Debjyoti Dwivedy
He/Him/His
Monique Thompkins
She/Her/Hers
Thorunn Bjarnadottir
She/Her/Hers
Salah Khouri
He/Him/His