Wendy Ho, Chair

  Team Lead, Sales & Marketing

  SouthStar Energy Services

  Allison Ehrler-Meyer, Treasurer

  President and Principle Strategist

  Beacon Advantage Solutions

  Senior Manager

  North Highland

  Melanie Alavi , Director

  Small Business Marketing Manager

  South Atlantic District, UPS

  David Pass, Director

  Chief Advancement Officer

  MedShare

  Lino R. Rodriguez, Jr., Director

  Attorney at Law

  Kuck Immigration Partners, LLC

  Bernadette Ludwig, Honorary Member

  Ph.D Candidate, The City University of New York

  Co-Founder, Culture Connect, Inc.

  Alexis Dalmat

  Executive Director
  alexis.dalmat@cultureconnectinc.org

Alexis Dalmat is a native of Atlanta with a global perspective. She has developed and nurtured an interest in immigrant issues for over twenty years. Alexis received her Bachelor’s Degree in International Relations and Cultural Anthropology at Boston University. Her extensive travel, mainly throughout Latin America, has developed her Spanish language and anthropological skills. She studied with International Honors Program to better understand indigenous perspectives and ways of life in Mexico, India, New Zealand, and Canada.

Alexis has worked in the fields of public health and safety, labor advocacy and campaigning, and communications/marketing. Ms. Dalmat has experience managing non-profit programs, overseeing personnel, and writing successful grant proposals. In addition, she has a proven track-record of establishing successful relationships between immigrant communities and their American neighbors.

  Christine Nguyen
  Director of Operations
  christine.nguyen@cultureconnectinc.org

Christine Nguyen came to Atlanta in July 2005.  She is a native of Vietnam and came to the United States with her mother and two sisters as refugees in 1979.  As a first-generation Vietnamese-American and the first born child, Christine understands the struggles immigrants endure while acclimating to a new life.  Often times the biggest barrier is language.

Prior to living in Atlanta, Christine lived in Northern California and graduated from the University of California, Davis with a degree in Psychology.  Through a summer job program with a local non-profit while in college, Christine developed a passion for the work of non-profits and eventually changed her undergraduate studies from microbiology to psychology.  Her studies and personal life experience have allowed Christine to work with several non-profits at varying capacities, all with the mission of helping immigrants and disenfranchised communities connect to resources and education that are available to the broader public. 

  Caitlin O'Donnell
  Director of Development
  caitlin.odonnell@cultureconnectinc.org

Caitlin O’Donnell was born in Carrollton, Texas, and moved to the Atlanta area in 1999.  She attended the University of Georgia in Athens and graduated Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Arts in International Affairs and a minor in African Studies focused in Swahili.   Caitlin has lived in England and volunteered at an AIDS-affected orphanage in Kenya. 

Prior to working as the Director of Development, Caitlin served as an Americorps*VISTA with Culture Connect.  Caitlin’s passion for community work with a global focus and her commitment to equal rights inspired her to join the Culture Connect staff.   Some of her experience and skills include grant proposal writing, event management, and donor cultivation and stewardship.

  Anna Zaytseva
  Office Manager

  anna.zaytseva@cultureconnectinc.org

Anna Zaytseva came to Atlanta in March 2005 from Vladivostok, Russia. She earned a Bachelor's of Science in Economics, Management, and Law from Moscow Regional University. During the three years she spent accompanying her husband on his international work assignments, she visited over 30 different countries.

As a first-generation Russian-American, Anna understands the immigrant’s life personally, which is her motivation for committing to serve her community when she moved to Atlanta. In 2008, she successfully completed Culture Connect's Bringing the Gap medical interpreter training and became a free-lance Russian medical interpreter for Culture Connect. With all her passion, Anna helped her community during many medical appointments and procedures and sincerely knows how important and valuable the interpreter role is.

In 2010, Anna became a Russian language coach in Culture Connect's Culturesmart Medical Interpreter Training.  She also served at The Southern Center for International Studies and The Coca-Cola Company. Anna is very proud to live and work in Atlanta, the city that gave her a new home and brought a lot of amazing opportunities and one of her core values is that when we are help others we are helping ourselves.

  Lacell Joseph
  Go-Betweener® Mentoring Program Manager
  lacell.joseph@cultureconnectinc.org

As a child of Panamanian immigrants, Lacell can relate first hand to the many experiences of the youth that Culture Connect serves. She currently holds a license as an Associate Professional Counselor and expects to be eligible for full licensure in the Spring of 2012. She is fluent and literate in Spanish and her interests include intense case management and crisis intervention. Prior to joining Culture Connect, Lacell spent four years working at an Atlanta non-profit as a Pregnancy Counselor and General Therapist. She earned both her Bachelor's degree in Sociology and her Master's degree in Professional Counseling from Georgia State University.

  Josh Dunn
  Language Services Program Manager
  language.services@cultureconnectinc.org

Josh Dunn was born in New York but spent most of his life growing up in the northern suburbs of Atlanta, GA. He graduated from the University of Georgia summa cum laude with Bachelors of Arts in Linguistics and in Spanish, with a minor concentration in Arabic Studies. During college, Josh had the opportunity to practice his linguistic abilities by traveling and working abroad in Peru, Argentina, Uruguay and Morocco.

Before joining Culture Connect, Josh participated in the Teach for America corps as a sixth-grade math and science teacher in the small border town of Mission, Texas. There he experienced for the first time how language can serve as both a bridge and a barrier between people of the same community, specifically within the English-based federal and state educational policies and the majority monolingual Spanish community of the Rio Grande Valley. In addition to a lifelong passion for language learning and diversity, Josh’s experiences give him perspective into the importance of language access rights in our ever-diversifying culture.

AmeriCorps VISTAs

Culture Connect is fortunate to have AmeriCorps VISTAs who offer their time, passion, and expertise.

  Sarah Otto
  Education & Advocacy Coordinator
  program.coordinator@cultureconnectinc.org

Sarah Otto was born in Athens, Georgia and raised in Hampton, Virginia. She returned to Georgia to attend Agnes Scott College, where she earned a B.A. in Religious Studies and Social Justice. Her desire to work for positive social development at a systemic level stems from her personal experiences growing up in ethnically diverse and low-income communities. She joined Culture Connect for the opportunity to work towards promoting cross-cultural awareness and developing intercultural relationships within the Atlanta community. Sarah has gained international experience living in Derry/Londonderry, Northern Ireland, where she studied conflict and human security, and is looking forward to using her AmeriCorps VISTA experience in her future work. She plans on joining the Peace Corps before continuing graduate studies in Violence, Conflict, and Development and pursuing a career in community development work.

  Becky Rowe
  Education & Advocacy Coordinator
  education.advocacy@cultureconnectinc.org

Born and raised in St. Paul, Minnesota, Becky Rowe, a friendly explorer at heart always seeking new opportunity, left the Land of 10,000 Lakes to attend Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Georgia. Majoring in anthropology and sociology with a concentration in human rights studies, her passion and persistent belief in the possibility of positive change and the goodness of humanity sparked her interest in service as an AmeriCorps VISTA. Time abroad in Tanzania, travel throughout the United States, and interaction and experiences in her own backyard as a youth in the Twin Cities and while a college student in Atlanta cultivated in Becky a spirit of continually questioning and seeking to understand the world in which she lives. Serving as an AmeriCorps VISTA with Culture Connect, she hopes to gain a deeper appreciation for the utilization of social science theory in addressing the real problems faced in building a community accepting of all people, while also strengthening her skills as an advocate and learning about the inner workings of a nonprofit organization.

  Deanna Warren
  Go-Betweener® Mentoring Program Coordinator
  volunteer.coordinator@cultureconnectinc.org

Deanna Warren was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and attended the University of New Mexico where she received her Bachelor's in English Literature and Spanish.  Growing up in a multicultural, multilingual city has endowed her with the desire to engage with cultures worldwide. Deanna has lived in Granada, Spain where she attended the University of Granada and studied Spanish literature.  She has worked extensively with educational non-profit organizations in vulnerable communities, and hopes to utilize her experience with school-aged children in her work as the Go-Betweener® Mentoring Program Coordinator.  In her year as a VISTA, Deanna hopes to gain invaluable insight and expertise in the area of community development.  After VISTA, she looks forward to enrolling in a graduate program focused on women’s and children’s rights.