Who We Are
Poderistas® is a nonprofit organization built to celebrate Latina culture and harness our community. We launched in August 2020 and have become one the fastest growing and influential digital communities celebrating Latina culture.
Our Mission
Poderistas uses storytelling, convening, and organizing to shift la cultura, build lasting confidence and inspire a lifestyle of civic participation. Our mission is to build a community that INFORMS, CELEBRATES, and MOTIVATES mujeres to take action for ourselves and our community in order to harness our power in the voting booth and beyond.
Our Values
UNITY: We believe our voices have an impact when we come together. Our collective unity will inspire community and civic engagement among Latinas and other diverse communities.
CONFIDENCE: Our message is clear: Latinas are the backbone of our community. Not only are you powerful, but now is the time to think about how you want to believe in and use that power.
ACTION: We don’t just watch, we take action. Our platform is dedicated to sharing empowering content for all Latinas.
INFLUENCE: Our goal is to shift lifestyle, build lasting confidence, and inspire community and civic engagement.
INCLUSIVITY: We believe in inclusivity. We value all who show up – however that is. We value our uniqueness, our varied experiences, differences and commonalities.
HOPE: We believe in a bright and hopeful future for all Latinas. There are opportunities and there are ways forward. We move forward with hope for a better future for Latinas and mujeres everywhere.
Our Team
Founders
Founded by leaders from the worlds of organizing, politics, and entertainment.
America Ferrera
A producer, director, and award-winning actress, America is the co-founder of Harness, an organization that brings artists and activists together to power social change.
Carmen Perez
The president and CEO of The Gathering for Justice, a movement dedicated to eliminating the racial inequities in the justice system, Carmen is also the co-founder of the Justice League NYC, which is dedicated to juvenile justice, and a board member of the historic Women's March.
Christy Haubegger
Now the Executive Vice President and Chief Enterprise Inclusion Officer of WarnerMedia, Haubegger is the Founder of Latina Magazine and served as CEO and Publisher for its first eight years.
Elsa Collins
A social impact consultant working at the nexus of sports, entertainment, and culture, she is the co-founder of This is about Humanity, a movement focused on helping vulnerable families at the U.S-Mexico border.
Eva Longoria
An award-winning actress, director, producer, entrepreneur, and philanthropist, Eva is the founder of the Eva Longoria Foundation, which is dedicated to helping Latinas build brighter futures through education.
Jess Morales Rocketto
The Chief of Moonshot Strategies at Equis Research and the Chair of Families Belong Together Coalition, which seeks to end family separation and detention. Formerly The Political Director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance and the Executive Director of Care in Action, both of which are dedicated to protecting the rights of domestic workers.
Mónica Ramírez
A lawyer and organizer working to uphold the human rights of women, children, workers, Latinx communities, and immigrants, Mónica is the founder of Justice for Migrant Women and Co-Founder of both the National Farmworkers Women's Alliance and The Latinx House.
Olga Segura
A producer, actress, activist, and entrepreneur. She is also the co-founder of Latinx House, a gathering place for the Latinx community creatives in film, entertainment and social impact work.
Stephanie Valencia
An entrepreneur and leader in the fields of politics and technology, Stephanie is also the co-founder of EquisLab, an organization that is working to create a better understanding of the Latinx electorate.
Alexandra Martinez-Kondracke
An award-winning writer, producer of Showtime’s The L Word and HBO's Hung, and a Co-Founder of The Latinx House, a gathering place for Latinx creatives in the entertainment and social impact fields.
Founded by leaders from the worlds of organizing, politics, and entertainment.
Staff
Meet the team behind Poderistas.
MANAGING DIRECTOR
Charlotte Castillo
A seasoned brand builder, Charlotte is a hands-on collaborative leader dedicated to building strong, fearless, innovative, and inclusive teams.
Before Poderistas, Charlotte was an award-winning senior executive at ViacomCBS for 14+ years, managing the strategic development, planning and marketing for all licensing IP. She was also the founding Marketing Director for Latina Magazine.
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EDITORIAL DIRECTOR
Brittany Alfonzo
Combining her expertise in social media and digital marketing with her passion for the Latinx community, Brittany has been an integral member of the organization since the summer of 2020.
Prior to Poderistas, she spent a decade navigating the world of digital marketing while bringing creativity, drive, and purpose to every project including work for Fortune 500 companies, CPG & wellness brands, and cultural institutions. Brittany believes that through the power of social media, we can transform ourselves, our communities & our future for the better.
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SOCIAL MEDIA COORDINATOR
Arely Soriano
A beauty and fashion model as well as social media enthusiast, Arely joined the team as an intern and is now our social media manager.
Before joining the team, she was managing her university’s social media accounts which under her guidance grew exponentially. Arely is proud of her Mexican and Salvadoran roots and continues to advocate for her community in her everyday life.
LinkedIn
Meet the team behind Poderistas.
Board of Directors
- America Ferrera
- Mónica Ramírez
- Olga Segura
- Stephanie Valencia
- Charlotte Castillo
What We Do
By bringing culture and lifestyle content together — with direct and ongoing calls to become civically engaged — we’ve built a unique space that builds trust with our community through non-political social and cultural content – from health to entertainment and beauty to careers. Building that trust helps to create the space to have a conversation about increasing their participation in civic life and reinforcing messages about participation, claiming power and a greater sense of belonging.
Building confidence, providing information, and building a shared community will lead to collective action. We employ 3 key pillars to achieve our goals:
We execute a dynamic calendar of content, convenings and opportunities for organizing based on our issue priorities and ongoing civic engagement. We will create and distribute empowering, sharable and actionable content for our community – from culture, music and makeup to resources on entrepreneurship, healthcare, prescription drugs, student loans, and voting.
We produce digital + IRL events and experiences that strengthen our engagement and trust. We bring together our compelling surrogate roster to create both online and in-person events in areas with large Latino communities.
We will expand our “Power Squad” to organize local communities of Latinas and other Poderistas to take action locally and focus on critical local geographies like Houston, Las Vegas and Phoenix. Through a Poderistas organizer, we will provide the leaders and their circles with tools, training, and motivation to help them feel more confident, prepared and motivated to take action and vote and to inspire their networks to do the same, thus becoming force-multipliers in their community.
Our Community
Our Supporters
Seed Funders
About Equis
Equis Research Inc. is a corporation that primarily focuses on researching and understanding issues of national significance. In doing so they are helping to move past the idea of the Latino community as a monolith, and toward a more sophisticated understanding of the experiences, issue preferences, and political identities of Latino and Hispanic voters. Equis provides Poderistas with strategic administrative support and services.