Sin Fronteras Board of Directors - 2006

Nolan Arreola was born in Lincoln Heights, California. As the first generation child of Mexican immigrants, Nolan encountered many of the challenges that youth like him experience growing up in an environment plagued with poverty and little hope for the future. After being a Sin Fronteras program participant at the age of 16, Nolan joined the Sin Fronteras Board of Directors as its first youth representative in 2003.

Nolan has spoken at various conferences, was featured by La Opinion in 2004 as the Youth Services Coordinator for Sin Fronteras, and organized a youth forum in 2004 which drew dozens of youth from all over Los Angeles County. He also served on the Executive Board of the Violence Prevention Coalition, and continues to advocate for the needs of youth, who like himself, find themselves in between two cultures-that of their families and mainstream culture in the United States. Nolan currently attends Pasadena City College.

Susan Cruz, B.S. From mobilizing marginal communities in El Salvador, to founding Sin Fronteras, Susan Cruz keeps herself at the forefront of social justice issues related to youth in Central and North America. She helped developed two publications on how to respond to gangs, one for the City of Los Angeles and one for the National District Attorney's Association. Most recently she wrote a report on the sexual and reproductive health of Latino adolescents for a Maryland state agency. She has presented to various audiences in Central America, Mexico, Europe and the U.S. on topics related to youth in conflict with the law, gangs, migration, capital punishment, gender, sexual and reproductive justice and human rights issues. Susan has received recognition and awards for her community work from the U.S. Congress, California State Senate, California State University Northridge, the Violence Prevention Coalition of Greater Los Angeles, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, and the Central American Resource Center in Washington, DC among others.

Her educational background includes a B.S. in Public Health, with a focus on Education, a minor in Central American Studies, completion of various certificate programs in human services, and is completing a graduate program. She is a Women's Policy Institute Fellow and a Coro Neighborhood Leadership Program graduate, but it is her personal experience as a pan-ethnic immigrant, systems and gang-involved youth that strengthen her connection with the youth she has the honor to work with.

Donna De Cesare was born in New York City. After completing an M.Phil degree in English Literature at Essex University, England (1979), she began working as a photographer, writer and later as a videographer.

DeCesare is the recipient of fellowships and grants including the Dorothea Lange prize (1993), the New York State Foundation for the Arts Photography grant (1996), the Alicia Patterson fellowship (1997), the HYPERLINK "http://www.fiftycrows.org/photoessay/decesare/index.php" \t "_blank" Mother Jones International Photo Fund grant (1999), the Soros Independent Project fellowship (2001). In 2003 she was named a fellow of the Dart Society for Journalism and Trauma. In 2005 she was awarded a Fulbright fellowship to continue her documentation of children affected by armed conflict in Colombia.
 DeCesare's photo reportage of US and Latin American gang violence has won national and international awards. In 2002 she was awarded a top prize in the NPPA Best of Photojournalism contest for her photo-essay on Colombia published by Crimes of War.
DeCesare's work has appeared in news and arts publications including: The New York Times magazine, Life, Newsweek, The Atlantic, Aperture, DoubleTake, Mother Jones and others. Since 1996 her work as a videographer/producer has been broadcast on PBS, Discovery and TLC (The Learning Channel). Recognized as an expert on issues of youth identity and gang violence, DeCesare has worked as a consultant to The Pan American Health Organization, UNICEF, the National Association of Social Workers, and Save the Children.
 Donna DeCesare joined the journalism faculty at University of Texas in 2002. In 2003 she joined the Advisory Board of the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas. In 2004 she was a judge for POYi, the International Pictures of the Year competition. She teaches photography workshops for at risk youth, journalism students and professional photojournalists in the US and in Latin America.

Thomas W. Ward,Ph.D., (UCLA, 1987) has taught for nine years in the Department of Anthropology, University of Southern California. For eight years, Dr. Ward served as Research Anthropologist at the Neuropsychiatric Institute, UCLA, and served as a consultant with LTG Research Firm, the RAND Corporation and the Ford Foundation. He has conducted anthropological fieldwork for over twenty years in urban settings with different ethnic groups. 
 Former research projects on which Dr. Ward has participated include a multi-site study of risk prevention for HIV infection; clinical trials recruitment of minorities for HIV testing; health care for elderly people in East L.A.; adaptation of homeless people with chronic mental illness; patterns of homelessness in Los Angeles; community adaptation (post-deinstitutionalization) of people with mild mental retardation; and the adaptation and psychological adjustment of Salvadoran refugees. Dr. Ward has also worked with African American, Asian, Latino and Anglo youth in multicultural organizations, and served as an expert witness in court cases involving gang members. For approximately eight years, Dr. Ward conducted participant observation fieldwork with Salvadoran gang members in Los Angeles.