AF³IRM ELECTS NATIONAL EXECUTIVE COUNCIL, HEADED BY THE FIRST CHICANA CHAIRPERSON IN ITS HISTORY
Los Angeles – AF³IRM is pleased to announce the election of its 2025-2028 National Executive Council.
During its triennial convention of voting delegates at the 2025 AF³IRM Congress, chapters from across Turtle Island and the illegally occupied Kingdom of Hawaiʻi elected a complete slate of officers to guide the organization through the fall of fascist authoritarianism in the US. The elected leaders are:
National Chairperson – Valeria Espinosa is a descendant of Indigenous insurgence and part of a long lineage of women who resisted patriarchy and settler colonialism. Guided by the intergenerational strength of her Purépecha grandmother, Chair Espinosa served as an AF³IRM LA Co-Coordinator beginning in 2017 until promoting into AF³IRM’s collective leadership body, leading to her subsequent election to National Programme Coordinator (NPC) for the 2019-2022 term. Following her term as NPC, she led cultural work both locally and transnationally as a member of AF³IRM’s esteemed International Committee. She moves into the role of Chair with deep commitment and pride as a proud brown Chicana who organizes from a foundation of culture, community, and liberation.
National Programme Coordinator – Mykie Ozoa-Aglugub is the Filipina-Boricua daughter of witches, sex trafficking survivors, woman warriors, farmers, and plantation workers, born in the illegally occupied Kingdom of Hawaiʻi. She is a founding member of the Hawaiʻi chapter of AF³IRM and an expert in anti-gender violence advocacy and training, working in Title IX and survivor advocacy for over 10 years. Of AF³IRM Hawaiʻi’s 10 years of history, Mykie led the chapter for four of them. She believes wholeheartedly in our ability to end patriarchy in our lifetime and is honored to serve as National Programme Coordinator, ensuring that each chapter has the guidance and tools they need to further AF³IRM’s feminist fight.
National Organizing Director – Roslyn Cassidy has been a San Diego resident for the past 13 years. In her paid work, she is skilled at developing and activating workers to win, and has served as lead negotiator on numerous collective bargaining campaigns. Having grown her home chapter in only six months from organizing committee to full-fledged chapter, Roslyn was elected National Organizing Director in 2022, and is now elected to her second term.
National Communications Director – Joanna Hicks was born on the unceded land of Kānaka ʻŌiwi. Informed by her great-grandmother’s experience as a survivor of sex trafficking from the Philippines, she is committed to ending sexual violence and gender-based oppression. She started the AF³IRM Boston Organizing Committee in 2021–now AF³IRM’s newest chapter–and led the Engagement Committee during two national School of Women’s Activism (SOWA) cohorts.
National Education Director – Victoria Roland’s fight and deep desire for liberation is rooted in her Black and Filipina lineage. She is a proud social injustice disruptor and resilient anti-trafficking warrior since her paid work with non-profits beginning in 2005. Since becoming a resident in the illegally occupied Kingdom of Hawaiʻi in 2017, Victoria has held leadership and administrative positions providing survivor advisory and consulting, trainings’ nationwide, and mentoring for victims and survivors of human trafficking and the sex trade. She is a recognized lived experience expert leader, educator, community mother, nurturing aunty, and more infamously, Queen Mama Vee. Victoria became a member of the AF³IRM Hawaiʻi Chapter in 2021 and is honored to lead as the NEC Education Director, following the footsteps of fellow fearless feminists fighting fascism.
National Fundraising and Finance Director – Skylar Perez Grogan is a proud Valley Girl who has been in feminist organizing spaces starting in 2005, campaigning against a California proposition that would have required minors to obtain parental permission before obtaining reproductive health care. Raised by fierce women with a passion for social justice, it only made sense for AF³IRM to become her political home.
For her paid labor, she is a licensed clinical social worker working with justice-involved individuals. In her time with AF³IRM, she has served as Youth Coordinator of the Los Angeles chapter, co-coordinator in 2019 through 2022, and was elected to the office of National Fundraising and Finance Director for the 2022-2025 term. In her first term, Skylar raised more funds than the organization has raised in its entire history, enabling alliance and capacity building to propel AF³IRM forward.
Grounded in the theme ‘Forged in Our Foremothers’ F³IRE,’ the gathering honored the legacy of revolutionary ancestor Assata Shakur. Members convened to vote on key decisions for the upcoming term; engage in ideological, political, and organizational discussion; and deepen the bonds of sisterhood.
AF³IRM was launched on October 2, 2010. During the Congress, the organization celebrated 15 years of existence; 36 years in total since the 1989 launch of Gabriela Network, its predecessor organization.