Arte Sana Board of Directors

Arte Sana Board of Directors

Pamela is first generation Mexican in this country on her father’s side. Most of her family is in Mexico City or Puebla. She is 54 years old and proud of her age and the life experience it has brought her. Pamela is bilingual, bicultural and a single mother of two beautiful young women. She has been doing social justice work for over 35 years, working with migrant farmworker health rights, Central American refugees seeking political asylum, immigrant communities, homeless youth, battered women and their children, and victims/survivors of sexual violence.

In the battered women’s movement she was the Executive Director of Casa de Esperanza for five years in St. Paul, MN, the Women of Color Leadership Development Program Manager for the statewide Battered Women’s Legal Advocacy Project, and Interim Executive Director of Women of Nations – Eagle’s Nest Shelter. Pamela served as the first woman of color Legislative Co-Chair for the MN Coalition for Battered Women and Co-Chair of the state of MN Battered Women’s Advisory Council. She was one of the State of MN representatives on the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence steering committee, and developed a fundraising curriculum for the National Women of Color Institute.

Since 1987 she has worked as a nonprofit management consultant both locally in MN and nationally. As a formerly battered woman and survivor of sexual assault, she is committed to grassroots leadership, collective action and decision-making, and social justice. Pamela considers herself a feminist in the best sense of the word, and believes that our community needs everyone to be part of the solution to ending oppression. Pamela is currently the Executive Director of the Sexual Violence Center that works throughout the Twin Cities metropolitan region in Minnesota.