Meet The Team
Isabel Vinent Grimany Ph.D.
Isabel was born in Honduras and has lived in the US periodically since 1983. She earned her B.S. in Social Work from Florida International University, in Miami. She earned her Ph.D. in Education at the University of Oviedo, Asturias, Spain. Isabel holds a Doctorate in Education adscript to the Women's Studies program. Her doctoral thesis focused on Feminist Popular Education and its application in projects of legal training and development. Her interests and areas of expertise include: popular education, gender training, social research, and evaluation and assessments of social projects. Isabel is a co-founder of a "La Tapizca" (the Harvest, in Spanish) in Honduras and now Popular Education Consultants in the US that assesses progressive social organizations in terms of educational and organizational capacity building processes. Isabel is also a Deputy Director of Florida Immigrant Coalition (FLIC) the immigrant State-wide organization that coordinates most of the efforts in Florida to bring justice to the immigrant community throughout the State.
Reca Fernandez Ph.D.
Originally from El Salvador, Reca Fernandez has lived in Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Honduras, Spain, and now in the US. He graduated from law school in Honduras. He worked as a lawyer for the Catholic Church in rural Honduras, defending peasant people and teaching human rights.
Reca earned his P.h. D. in Education at the University of Oviedo, Asturias, Spain. His doctoral thesis (Summa Cum Laude) focuses on Participatory Action Research applied to social development projects. He is also a specialist on Popular Education methodologies applied to community organizing and to organizational development.
As part of his consultant job, he has facilitated educational processes for community leaders on human rights, social leadership, popular education, gender, masculinity and community development. He has been working intensively on Strategic Plans and Strategic Campaings plan in the US.
Dawn Fae Adolfson M.S.
Dawn Fae Adolfson is an Adjunct Professor at Flagler College in Tallahassee.
She holds a Master Degree of Science in Curriculum and Instruction, with a major in Foreign and Second Language Education.
Currently, she is pursuing a Doctoral degree on Instructional Systems & Learning Technologies at Florida State University in Tallahassee.
Dawn is originally from Stuart, Florida. She obtained her Bachelor’s Degree in Liberal Arts and Sciences at Florida Atlantic University’s Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College in Jupiter, Florida. Dawn was awarded with the Distinguished Community Service Award and the First Place for Oral Presentations from the Harriet L Wilkes Honors College at the Third Annual FAU Undergraduate Research Symposium. She concentrated her studies in anthropology, Latin American studies, and Spanish.
Elizabeth Ortel M.A.
Elizabeth Ortel was born in Tallahassee, Florida. Shas a degree in Anthropology and Latin American Studies. She also has a Master's Degree in Latin American Literature and, in addition, she has done a work internship in the Iquitos area, Peru (Amazonia). She speaks English, Spanish and German. Professionally, she is interested in adult education (for social commitment), and research on behalf of social justice movements, and in public history / popular education (developing a broad understanding of the cultural and economic roots of current phenomena). Her hobbies are related to genealogical studies and personality theories.
Liz Ortel has worked as a "Director of Academic Support" at Hope Community Center, a non profit organization in Central Florida. Currently, she is planning to proceed with his Ph.D. studies in Linguistics Anthropology.