Search

Our Staff

 

Elizabeth Turner, Executive Director

Elizabeth first started working with the Latino community in Yancey County in 1995, and in 1996 she started Sagrado Corazon, the Hispanic ministry of Sacred Heart Catholic Church. A Community Psychologist by training, Elizabeth is committed to social justice and community action and has a passion for empowering young people to fulfill their dreams. She brings her experience as an educator, administrator, researcher, and program evaluator to her work at the center.

America M. Mauricio, Promotora

America has been a Promotora, or outreach worker, and a community leader for 6 ½ years.  She is from Veracruz, Mexico and she came to the United States to work and share with her family a better quality of life.  She earned a degree in education from the University of the Gulf of México.  In 2003 she began working in the Latino community in Yancey County and continues to develop skills to help the community to improve their educational, cultural, economic, and social development. She is deeply committed to working for social justice.

Laura Boffa, AmeriCorps*VISTA

Laura is excited to be serving with Centro de Enlace through AmeriCorps*VISTA.  Hailing from Ohio, she graduated from Oberlin College with a degree in Political Science in 2008.  A semester abroad in Ecuador and a year teaching English in South Korea cultivated her appreciation for other cultures and deepened her interest in working with the immigrant community in the U.S.  Outside of her work at Centro de Enlace, Laura enjoys writing, hiking, and playing Ultimate Frisbee.

Laura Boggess, Intern and Resident Biologist

Laura is a Yancey County native who has just returned home after two years in Guatemala with the US Peace Corps. She majored in biology at UNC-Chapel Hill and plans to work as a conservation biologist in Western North Carolina. At Enlace she will help promote the sustainable harvest of Galax and look for funding to start a multi-cultural community garden.  She is happy to be able to combine her goals of serving her community, using her Spanish, and working on important conservation issues in the area.  Now that she is back in the States, she will be working on her parents’ farm, rock climbing, playing old-time music and eating apple pie.


Sarah Feldman, High School Intern

Sarah DeWitt-Feldman is fifteen years old and attends Mountain Heritage High School. She is a part-time intern at Centro de Enlace for the summer.  She hopes to go to Costa Rica for several months in the fall and wants to improve her Spanish and, having grown up in Burnsville, wants to help in her community.  She is a rising junior who loves to play soccer.