Veronica/Vero's (she/her/ella) role at ICIRR is as Deputy Director of ICIRR which includes managing the Organizing, Political and Communications departments and leading overall organizational operations. Vero is a Latine/x community builder and organizer from Chicago. She is passionate about intersectional organizing and training that applies a gender, class, and racial lens. A large part of Vero's experience is rooted in deep grassroots organizing and electoral work in the immigrant rights movement and as a national cross-movement trainer.

Vero believes in building power in immigrant communities through 

national, state and local campaigns like Legalization for All, the TRUST Act, deportation defense and state budget fights. She has been extensively involved in at least 6 cycles of ICIRR’s non-partisan voter registration and GOTV campaigns. As the Immigration and Worker Justice Campaign Director at National People's Action, she led campaigns that connected immigrant and economic advocacy issues such as divestment from private prisons. During her time as the National Training Director for Planned Parenthood, Vero led the overall vision and plan for national base-building of volunteer and ally engagement programs for over a thousand volunteers and staff.

Vero has worked on partisan campaigns ranging from local school councils to a U.S. Senate seat and held the position of District Director for Cook County Commissioner, Jesus "Chuy" Garcia. In 2018, she served as the Campaign Director for Gente4Abrams, a statewide voter mobilization effort to build Latinx political power and get Stacey Abrams elected as Governor of Georgia.  She is also a member of Mijente, a Latinx political organization, and is part of the National Leadership Circle.

Vero's favorite skill shares include facilitating organizing and electoral training, direct action strategy and tactics, and coaching people directly impacted by issues to use their stories as a tool for change. You can typically find her hanging out with her big family and collecting books she hopes to find time to read. Twitter: @VeroCastro