Work Experience

Renaissance Social Services, Chicago, Illinois 

Bilingual PATH Street Outreach and Housing Specialist April 2023- August 2024

• Serviced homeless clients living with severe mental illness and/or substance use on the West side of Chicago. Provided mental health support, case management and linkage to permanent housing programs. Assisted clients in applying for government benefits and documents, including state IDs, birth certificates and social security cards

• Advocated for clients’ rights and autonomy in medical, housing and legal settings and collaborated with local homeless agencies and city representatives to coordinate services

• Acted as the team’s sole Spanish speaker: translated complicated medical, legal and bureaucratic processes for clients, and conducted the city’s standardized housing assessment in Spanish  

The Living Room: Recovery Support Specialist (Part-time) Sept 2022- April 2023

• Assisted guests struggling with mental health issues, homelessness and/or addiction by offering basic needs in a crisis center. Provided peer support using a harm reduction and trauma-informed approach; helped guests stabilize during a crisis, prevent future psychiatric hospitalizations and, among other tasks, apply to government benefits

Journalism Experience

El Diario Perfil, Buenos Aires, Argentina (March-June 2022)

Journalism Residency

• Wrote in Spanish for the international section of a bi-weekly newspaper circulated in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Published stories in print and online about political, social and legal issues around the world.

• Interviewed a range of sources in Spanish and English. Spoke with immigration advocates in the United States about the Biden administration’s decision to revoke Title 42 and  journalists in El Salvador about President Bukele’s state of emergency. Discussed Russian influence in Latin America with a political scientist and the painful history of extrajudicial killings with human rights lawyers in Colombia

• Completed the Sunday “Semana Internacional,” a section devoted to summarizing the week’s breaking news in each continent.

Wilmette Watch, Wilmette, Ill. (June-August 2020)

Investigative journalism internship

• Investigated matters that affected the Wilmette community

• Published three articles, including two stories surrounding racist material that had been circulated in the community, and the renovation of a Frank Lloyd Wright home

Course Projects

Health and Science Reporting, Northwestern University, Medill; (January-March 2022)

• Wrote an over 2,800 word story on harm reduction; translated to Spanish

• Traveled to Seattle, Wa. to spotlight the People’s Harm Reduction Alliance

• Interviewed employees, harm reduction specialists, historians and drug users

Feature/Magazine Writing, Northwestern University, Medill; (April-June 2021)

• Produced a 1,500-word story about the state of parole hearings in Alabama

• Interviewed over 10 sources, including inmates, their loved ones, defense attorneys, ACLU lawyers, activists and officials from the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles

• Combed through years of parole hearing results, finding that the parole board was releasing only a fraction of the inmates they were in years prior

Skills & Languages