Saturday October 12, 2024
9:00am-1:00pm CST
Online Only
All-Spanish Workshop
Ana Garcia Ashley and Sister Dolores Sanchez reflect and share stories, strategies and strength of organizing at the intersection of faith, community and justice. Ana has a rich legacy as a faith-based organizer and director. Sister Dolores represents a legacy of Christian education and spiritual formation in congregations and recently visioning new leaders to fight injustice. In this all-Spanish track these Latin-X organizers will offer a foundation of organizing skills and strategy as power notes from one generation to another.
Ana Garcia Ashley, Executive Director, Gamaliel Foundation
Graduated from the University of Colorado in Denver, and began her career in Denver in 1981, where she organized The Concerned Citizens of Westwood. She affiliated with the Metropolitan Organization for People in 1982 and went on to work on local and state campaigns, including enforcement of the Community Reinvestment Act and affordable public services. Intensely interested in the intersection of politics and faith, Ana attended the Iliff School of Theology in Denver to develop a foundation for organizing congregations. During her theological studies and organizing, Ana’s conviction deepened that organizing was a divine calling for her—the purpose of the miracle that allowed her and her family to safely emigrate from the Dominican Republic to the United States.Ana began her work in Gamaliel in the early 1990s, as Lead Organizer of MICAH (Milwaukee Inner City Congregations Allied for Hope). Ana was also the founding organizer for WISDOM, the Gamaliel-affiliated Wisconsin state organization. In 2009, Ana was named Associate Director, becoming Executive Director in 2012. Ana’s deep sense of organizing as a ministry, her interest in the relationship between faith and politics, and her status as a naturalized immigrant dovetail perfectly with the goal of Gamaliel to be “a community of people living out our faith and values to collectively transform our communities and bring about justice locally, nationally and globally.” She lives outside Atlanta, Georgia. She is married and has two daughters.
Starting out as an elementary school teacher, Sister Dolores Sanchez then served for over 30 years in church ministry, mostly in multicultural parishes in Chicago, Louisiana and St. Louis, as well as being the first full time Director of Hispanic Ministry for the diocese of Shreveport, Louisiana. When she was moving on from her last church position, the memory of the meaningful experience of participating as a church leader in Northern Louisiana Interfaith drew her to become an organizer with Metropolitan Congregations United (MCU) in St. Louis. There she works to develop leaders in churches of a variety of denominations and organizations, particularly in the Catholic and LatinX communities, so they can build power to effectively change public policy for the common good, especially in the areas of immigrant and environmental justice. Along with the rest of MCU, she is also committed to promoting integrated voter engagement, having served as field lead for the Healthy Families ballot initiative. In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with other Sisters in her Franciscan congregation and with friends, playing guitar & singing and reading.
