Director of Farm Worker Advocacy
farmworkeradvocacy@nfwm.org
Elizabeth was born in the historical Magical Valley border region of South Texas. The Rio Grande Valley is her home, and she was raised in a large Mexican American family. She is a proud daughter and single mother of 5 amazing children.
In 2016, Elizabeth joined the Carnalismo Brown Berets and began advocating for community needs. She graduated from University of Texas Rio Grande Valley in 2017 with a Bachelor of Science in Social Work and a background in cultural Anthropology. In 2018, she began to build relationships with Farm Workers to bring awareness to human trafficking in agriculture. She worked at La Union del Pueblo Entero (LUPE), founded by Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta, as a community organizer, supporting the hardworking community living in rural areas to create power and advocate for policy improvement to help them meet their needs and improve their communities.
As a farm worker advocate when COVID hit, she joined a coalition of non-profit organizations. They helped over 2,000 farm workers and their families receive priority for COVID-19 vaccines and personal protective equipment delivered to their work sites. During this difficult time, she also helped more than two dozen farm workers recover more than a hundred thousand in unpaid wages. After the pandemic, she was part of a team that helped distribute one-time COVID relief funds to farm workers for their work during the pandemic as part of a USDA grant.
Inspired by her experiences, she pursued a Master of Science in Social Work, graduating in the spring of 2024 while participating as a research assistant with the Alford research team collecting data with farm workers. She is dedicated to serving the community. Elizabeth is a product of generations of farm workers, parents who met as migrants in the fields, and grandparents who came into this country through the Bracero Program. She has worked hard to deliver great honor to her family and has been blessed with the opportunity to return respect and dignity to them.