YUCA: Meet the YUCA Board

Meet the Board
	Melvin E. Gaines, Board Chair A lifelong resident of East Palo Alto, California, Melvin began working with YUCA as a member of the Higher Learning Core in the fall of 2000. Melvin credits his time as a Higher Learning Core member as the catalyst of both his desire to improve communities, as well as his pursuit of higher education. Melvin continued working with YUCA as an Assistant Higher Learning Coordinator while obtaining a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Environmental Studies from Santa Clara University. Melvin joined YUCA’s board in 2004 and has been the board chair since 2007. In 2007, the East Palo Alto City Council appointed Melvin to the City Planning Commission, but he left that post in August 2008 to attend the University of Michigan where he is working to get a Master’s in Public Policy and Master’s in Urban Planning. Melvin returns to East Palo Alto quarterly and remains involved in YUCA activities.
	Shana White, Secretary Shana began her organizing journey when she was around 18 years old. Influenced by her cousin Lourdes Best, who was apart of YUCA, Lourdes would take her with her to marches and protests. When Shana turned 19 she worked as a assembly line worker at various hi-tech companies through Temp agencies. This was the time when the “Dot Com” industry was at the peak and at the same time just about to bust. She and other young adults at that time noticed the injustice was done to the temp workers -- young, old, and of different ethincity. Then came Silicon Valley De-Bug. In 2000, Shana and a few other people who worked in the hi-tech companies, just like herself, came together to tell our experiences of what it was like dealing with sub-par working condtions and the poor treatment they received. They all had similar stories and from that a monthly magazine was formed. De-Bug didn’t stop there, with what was going on they also organized around the Post-9/11 backlash towards the Muslim commuinty, Informing the South Bay of what two Muslim women faced on the job: Racism and unfair termination.Shana has also been a part of coalitions that dealt with police brutality and informing people where they can come and report complaints about an officer who harrased them. But as she grew she learned that organizing created a family outside of her family. And even if in the end if you’re not organizing anymore you will still have a piece of that experience that could help the next time something comes up…
	Le Tim Ly, Treasurer As the youth organizing program coordinator at Youth United for Community Action in East Palo Alto, Le supported a staff of three to design and implement successful youth membership organization integrating political education, leadership development and media creation to tackle major three campaigns in the community including efforts to shut down a hazardous waste facility, fight gentrifying development proposals and secure affordable housing for the predominantly low-income immigrant community in East Palo Alto. His additional experiences include working as a union representative at Service Employees International Union Local 362 in Orlando, Florida; leading a successful campaign to stop Stanford Hospital's practice of incinerating its carcinogenic medical waste in West Oakland and build a low-impact on-site autoclaving facility; and TA-ing courses on Community Organizing and Asian American Issues in the Urban Studies Department at Stanford University. In 2003, Le co-founded Liberation Ink, a worker cooperative that designs and produces social justice t-shirts whose profits support grassroots social justice organizations in the Bay Area. He currently on the boards of the Bay Area Immigrant Rights Coalition (BAIRC) and Youth United for Community Action (YUCA); he is currently Program Coordinator at the Partnership for Immigrant Leadership and Action(PILA) and a Lead Organizer at the Chinese Progressive Association (CPA).
	Berta Guillen Berta brings with her in-depth experience of working with youth, especially as a youth organizer in the Mission District of San Francisco as a teen involved with Youth Making a Change. She also brings her experience as a student organizer and as a labor organizer. She is a great event coordinator and helps with grassroots fundraising events at YUCA. Berta was a previous FIRE Fellow, graduated from University of California Santa Cruz where she majored in Sociology/ Latino and Latin American Studies.