Monika joins Colectiva as its Fundraising and Development Coordinator, bringing twenty-five years of organizing, legal advocacy, and fundraising experience to the work of building community power for migrant justice. She brings deep experience in major gifts, foundation grants, donor stewardship, and campaign development. Monika has successfully cultivated and stewarded individual, institutional, and corporate funders to invest in programs that defend immigrant rights and develop community leadership. She also served as a strategic fundraising consultant to Colectiva in 2014. 

Before dedicating herself full-time to fundraising, Monika spent over two decades working as a community organizer, an immigration attorney, and an immigration clinical law professor at Seattle University (SU) School of Law. While at SU School of Law, Monika also built a detention courtwatch project and trained law students to observe immigration court proceedings at the Northwest Detention Center. It was through this courtwatch project that Monika first met Sandy Restrepo, then a law student, whose vision would soon become Colectiva Legal del Pueblo.

Monika also served on the board of the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project for nine years and currently serves on the board of OneAmerica. Monika holds a B.A. from Columbia University and a J.D. from UC Berkeley School of Law. She is thrilled to be joining the Colectiva family to help lead its strategic fundraising efforts in this most urgent moment for immigrant communities.