We were invited to the visit of Vice President Kamala Harris at the Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts in Raleigh where she spoke about the importance of Hispanic businesses in the country and their impact on society. It is an honor to sit next to our Latino Credit Union partners to continue supporting the mental health of Latinos and on this time, we were able to witness the impact that has been taking place in our community thanks to the support of the Biden administration.
“They are civic leaders, they are role models, they are the one who sponsors the local softvoley they are the ones who see the kids in the community growing up and will mentor them or give them feedback and advise, they are the ones who will ask ‘How is your day?’ ‘Why are you looking a little down today?, let me put some food in you, that I know you like to eat’ … that is how we feel about them, how we experience them, and small businesses employ half of America’s workforce. We understand the importance of lifting up community”. – VP Kamala Harris
“At El Futuro we are proud to support Latino small business owners, and their employees. We know that our community comes to this country with many dreams and hopes, we see their strengths, and we feel their resilience, despite the many obstacles they face each day. We want to do everything we can, when mental health becomes an issue for them, so they can get back on their feet and continue working for those dreams that brought them here. We are very proud of our Latino community and their leaders. Today, we feel hopeful for a better future, and we feel thankful for the efforts that the Biden-Harris Administration, and the Latino Community Credit Union are doing, to help our comunidad prosper. We feel especially proud of our Latino Business owners, who are making a difference in our economy, and the wellbeing of our country” – Mary Jones, Community Engagement Manager at El Futuro.
During the presentation, some of the people that spoke in support of the small business owners were Representative Deborah Ross, Representative Wiley Nickel, Governor Roy Cooper; Vicky Garcia, LCCU Senior Vice President; SBA Administrator, Isabella Casillas Guzman and Vice President, Kamala Harris. We also have the pleasure to share the room with many Latino non-profit leaders, Local government representatives and black and Latino business owners.
“Our Hispanic/Latino Business owners do so much for our community all across North Carolina” – Governor Roy Cooper
Thanks to our partner Latino Credit Union for extending such a wonderful invitation and we are sure that we will continue to support the growth of local Latino businesses and the mental health of the latino community in order to see a better future.
Starting from the left, Marla Bilonick, NALCAB’s President & CEO. Gabriel Treves-Kagan, Senior Director of Investor Relations in Latino Community Credit Union and Mary Jones Community Engagement Manager at El Futuro
Mary Jones next to the Durham City Council Member, Javiera Caballero
President Joe Biden appointed Marla to lead the US Department of Treasury’s CDFI Fund Community Development Advisory Board; she is the first Latino and only the second female to hold this position in its 27-year history.
Alvely Alcántara, LCSW
Rossy C. Garcia, MEd 
Katy Sims, MD 
Everardo Aviles, LCSW, LCAS (Eve)
As a medical anthropologist and social work researcher, Dr. Gulbas’ research embodies interdisciplinarity through the integration of applied theories of health and human development with qualitative and ethnographic methodologies. Her work seeks to understand how people—children, families, and providers—navigate complex sociocultural landscapes in the pursuit of mental health. Most of her work, to date, focuses attention on developing more robust interpretations of suicide risk. With funding from the National Institutes of Mental Health, this body of research has contributed to advancements in theoretical and empirical knowledge of the broader contexts within which youth suicide risk is situated. 
R. Gabriela Barajas-Gonzalez is a developmental psychologist and an assistant professor of Population Health at NYU Grossman School of Medicine. Dr. Barajas-Gonzalez is the principal investigator of a study that examines the impact of immigration-related threat and stress on school communities. She earned a PhD in developmental psychology from Columbia University and hold a BA in human biology from Stanford University. Dr. Barajas-Gonzalez is the daughter of Mexican immigrants and a first gen college student.
Dr. Parra-Cardona is an Associate Professor in the Steve Hicks School of Social Work (SHSSW) at the University of Texas at Austin. At the SHSSW, he serves as Coordinator for Mexico and Latin American initiatives. He also serves as Area Director for Research at the UT Austin Latino Research Institute. Dr. Parra-Cardona’s program of research is focused on the cultural adaptation of evidence-based parenting interventions for low-income Latinx populations in the US and Latin America.
Bianka Reese, PhD, MSPH is a research scientist and program evaluator specializing in adolescent and young adult sexual and reproductive health. Her previous research in the experiences of Latinx LGBTQ+ youth stems from her work as the Research and Evaluation Manager at SHIFT NC (Sexual Initiatives For Teens), where she led largescale evaluations of multilevel, community-based sexual health promotion initiatives and research projects aimed at elevating the voices of diverse youth in North Carolina. Dr. Reese is currently the Senior Research Strategist at Creative Research Solutions, LLC, an award-winning national evaluation, research, and assessment firm.
Tania Connaughton-Espino, MPH is an independent researcher focused on adolescent and young adult sexual and reproductive health. Her interest in the experiences of Latinx LGBTQ+ youth stems from her previous work with SHIFT NC (Sexual Initiatives For Teens), where she led the training and evaluation department, conducted capacity-building workshops for youth serving professionals including on the topic of how to be more affirming of LGBTQ youth, and from her extensive experience working with the Latinx population in NC.
Maru Gonzalez, EdD is an Assistant Professor and Youth Development Specialist in the Department of Agricultural and Human Sciences at North Carolina State University. Her areas of inquiry include youth development with a focus on activism, social justice, and the experiences of LGBTQ+ young people across familial, school, and community contexts. 
Nayeli Y. Chavez-Dueñas, PhD
Hector Y. Adames, PsyD