Florence M. Simán
Director of Health Programs

Originally from El Salvador, Florence moved to North Carolina with her family in 1980 and attended the Chapel Hill-Carrboro school system. In 1988, Florence received her BA in International Studies from UNC-Chapel Hill and in 1991, her Masters of Public Health, specializing in Health Behavior, Health Education. Since then, Florence has worked on several health-related projects throughout North Carolina. In early 1994, Florence was hired to develop and coordinate a Latino Program at Child Care Networks, a resource and referral agency in Chatham County. Exactly 10 years to the day, Florence left Child Care Networks to become the Director of Líderes de Salud, a Lay Health Advisor program at El Pueblo, Inc. Líderes de Salud is a program funded by John Rex Endowment with the mission of improving the health of Latino children and families in Wake County. Florence is now the Director of Health Programs and is a founding Board Member of El Pueblo, Inc.

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Salomé Alejandra Bascuñán,
Outreach Coordinator

Salomé Alejandra Bascuñán was born in Rancagua, Chile and raised in Miami, Florida. She graduated from Duke University in 2007 with a B.A. in International and Comparative Studies, with a concentration in Latin America/Western Europe, and Political Science. While at Duke, she served as a student leader in various initiatives, campaigns and events geared toward the advancement of the Latino community in North Carolina. Salomé has visited various Latin American countries, studied abroad in Spain and England, as well as traveled to Ireland, The Netherlands and Italy. She has a great passion for culture, history, and politics, which has grown from her extensive traveling. Salomé lives in Durham; however, her home is still Miami, where she enjoys spending time with family, eating good food and relaxing on the beach.

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Amanda Giese,
Higher Education Coordinator, AmeriCorps Member

Born and raised in Chicago, IL, Amanda has lived in North Carolina since 2003. After growing up in a neighborhood of Chicago with a large Latino immigrant population and then moving to North Carolina, where the Latino immigrant population is growing rapidly, Amanda has developed a deep love and appreciation for the Latino community and their rich and diverse cultural heritage. She graduated from Duke University in 2007 with a B.A. in International Comparative Studies, with a concentration in Latin America, and Cultural Anthropology. During her years at Duke, she spent two consecutive summers mentoring youth in Bolivia and Peru, and spent much of her spring semester junior year working on a project about the experiences of Latino immigrants to the U.S. That project created in her a strong desire to advocate on behalf of the Latino immigrant community and serve as one of its allies. The project also sparked her interest in El Pueblo, where she is now serving as the Higher Education Coordinator through the AmeriCorps program. She strives to increase Latino students’ access to higher education and desires to work alongside Latino youth in order to encourage them to reach their full potential. In her spare time, Amanda loves to travel. She also enjoys spending her time serving the community alongside other members of her church.

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Aida G. Taylor
Education and Community Outreach Coordinator

Mrs. Taylor was born in Merida, Yucatan, Mexico. She graduated from law school at the Autonomous University of Yucatan and worked on her master’s in Political Criminology at the National Autonomous University of Mexico in Mexico City. While studying in Mexico City, Aida found time to be the equivalent of an Assistant District Attorney for the State of Mexico, specializing in corporate fraud. Back in Merida, not only was she an ADA working criminal cases, but she also served on a federal-level anti-drug task force. In addition, Aida built a very successful private law practice.
Since 1995, Mrs. Taylor has lived in North Raleigh with her husband and three children, where she owns and runs a language and computer training and consulting company. Her clients have included First Union Bank, John Deere, and the North Carolina Highway Patrol.
Aida is very proud of her Latin roots and is thrilled to be working to improve healthcare in the Hispanic community. Such is her passion for people that she has also traveled to El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua as an interpreter for her church.

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Monica Drasal-Hinton
Public Safety Specialist

Originally from  Buenos Aires, Argentina, Mónica moved with her children to  the USA in  2001. She is a Nutritionist-Dietitian who had been working more than 16 years in  Public Hopitals, clinics and the private sector in her country.
 As soon as  she arrived to NC in 2003, she became associated with El Pueblo  Inc. She participated as a health promoter in  the  Líderes de Salud  program funded by John Rex Endowment with the mission of improving the health of Latino children and families in Wake County. Then  she became  the  Liaison of the mentioned Lay Health Advisor program.
Later , El Centro Hispano of Durham  hired  Monica as a  Health Educator  with the mission to develop  and coordinate a Latino Program to prevent Diabetes and Obesity . Additionally  she worked  with the DUI and DWI Prevention Program. She contributed also as a Membership Resources OfficeCoordinator.
 In March of 2008, she joined  the Public Safety team at El Pueblo, Inc.

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Victoria Rose
Office Manager

Born in La Romana, Dominican Republic and raised in Santurce, Puerto Rico. Victoria graduated with a B.A. in Business Administration in 1980. Eight years ago, she moved to North Carolina from Hull England.   She has more than twenty years of experience working in the customer service, medical and entertainment industries. Victoria's professional experiences are national and international, public and private sector. Victoria is fortunate to have several members of her family living locally and one son, Christian at home. In recent years, she has been a member or Board member of several local, nonprofit organizations. Her personal slogan is “Be Happy!” Her favorite poem, “Desiderata”, and her favorite song "Yo Quiero un Pueblo" by Danny Rivera. What makes her happy are; good manners, excellent friendships and organizational teamwork.

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