Blanca Molina is president and executive director of CEUS, and one of its founders. She was born in Morazon, El Salvador, one of 14 children. Blanca studied science education at the Universidad Nacional de El Salvador, while working with the aid organization Save the Children in El Salvador, and is a certified para-legal. She immigrated to the United States in early 1990, fleeing El Salvador’s civil war. Blanca now works part-time for CEUS and part-time as a paralegal with the American Friends Service Committee in Newark.
In 2012, Blanca’s work was honored with a Russ Berrie Making a Difference Award, one of several honors and awards she has received. In 2002, the El Diario newspaper of New York named her one of the most distinguished Latina Women, and most recently, the Salvadoran Consulate of New Jersey honored her community work in 2017. The Salvadoran Government named her as one of 100 women who make an impact on the Salvadoran community outside their home country.
She lives with her husband and two children, and they are certified foster parents with the State of New Jersey. Email: bmolina@ceusnj.org.
Ana Salgado is a legal assistant and manages the CEUS office. She grew up in El Salvador and studied medicine for three years as an undergraduate at the Universidad Nacional de El Salvador. She arrived in the U.S. in 1990 and worked in child care, retail, and the restaurant industry before joining CEUS in 2005. She has four adult children and lives with her husband.
Matilde Aldana Gonzalez is the supervisor of the CEUS Community Health Worker (CHW) program, Proyecto Buena Salud, and also the workplace rights program, Conoce Tus Derechos Laborales (CTD). She trained as a CHW at the Colette Lamothe-Galette Community Health Worker Institute. She is from Bogotá, Colombia, where she earned a degree in Business Administration.
Erika Abarka is a Community Health Worker (CHW) and a health insurance navigator. She attended the Colette Lamothe-Galette Community Health Worker Institute and is certified as a health insurance navigator by the New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance. She obtained a Degree in Legal Sciences in El Salvador, her native country.
Melanie Machuca-Perera is the Workplace Outreach Specialist for the CEUS workplace rights project, Conoce Tus Derechos laborales (CTD). She previously worked at Make The Road New Jersey and Citizen Action. She has a degree in political science from Rutgers University and has worked as a field director on several New Jersey political campaigns.
Isabella Osorio is a Community Health Worker (CHW) who trained at the Colette Lamothe-Galette Community Health Worker Institute. She earned a degree in political science with an emphasis in international relations in her native Colombia, where she worked for the city government of Cali.
Maya Laur is the Community Outreach Coordinator for the CEUS project Apoyo A Las Familias Separados (AFS), which supports the families of people who have been detained or deported. Maya graduated with a degree in Modern Culture and Media from Brown University. She worked as a volunteer with immigrants at the Mexican border and, in 2024, wrote and produced her own play focused on immigrant stories. She worked as a field organizer for the Harris for President Campaign. She is from Massachusetts.