MIC Team
Meet the Team
Staff
Frank DeVito
Executive Director
Frank advocates for educational equity and social change empowering immigrant communities.
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Frank is passionate about equity and social change in immigrant communities. As a high school history teacher in Chelsea Public Schools, he co-founded the first project-based program that opened career pathways for immigrant students.
As a non-profit leader at the Center for Collaboration Education (CCE) and the Education Development Center (EDC), Frank collaborated with school districts in New England, New York, Florida, Texas and California to address systemic inequities in education for immigrant students.
Before entering the fields of education and non-profit leadership, he studied to be a Roman Catholic priest for six years and studied Liberation Theology that advances Christianity’s moral responsibility to align with marginalized communities.
Because he is the son of immigrant parents from Honduras and Italy, he understands the cultural, linguistic, and social challenges that many immigrant families experience daily.
He has been a resident of Lynn, Massachusetts since 2005 and is raising twin sons. Frank enjoys writing and Latin dancing.
Stariska Abadi
Immigration Attorney
Stariska navigates complex immigration pathways providing legal support for immigrants.
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She earned her law degree at Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto, and later became licensed to practice law in Massachusetts. Her background is in legal services, with a focus on supporting survivors of violence and helping immigrants navigate pathways to stability and citizenship.
She works collaboratively with partner organizations to provide holistic immigration legal support and helps to expand legal access to underserved immigrant populations across the state. She is committed to trauma-informed, client-centered advocacy.
In her free time, she enjoys reading, trying new foods, and spending time with her family.
Anna Flores-Amper
Legal Access Director
Anna advances legal access leveraging multicultural expertise and immigrant empowerment.
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Anna has served immigrants ever since earning a psychology degree from Yale University in 2013. She leverages her past experiences, and her skills, in her current role. These include:
- Past education work with migrant farm workers and their children, with unaccompanied children, and with refugee children
- Past work supporting and empowering asylum seekers and immigrant victims, as a Department of Justice fully accredited representative
- Past capacity building work and volunteerism at legal aid organizations in Massachusetts
- Bilingualism and biculturalism
- Research and data management skills.
Larry Childs
Strategic Initiatives Director
Larry drives strategic initiatives enhancing organizational development, collaboration and immigrant engagement.
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Larry’s expertise spans Humanitarian Aid, Organizational Development and Experiential Education. Currently, he draws on his diverse skill set to guide MIC on its strategic priorities and is honored to assume a role in welcoming immigrants to his home state of Massachusetts. Previously as senior trainer and consultant with Project Adventure, he applied immersive, experiential approaches to organizational training needs and challenges within businesses, nonprofits and school systems across the US and 5 continents. Authentic and relational Larry heightens awareness and connection while addressing themes of team effectiveness, emotional intelligence, organizational culture and unresolved conflict. He holds a MS in International Administration and BA in Environmental Studies from Middlebury College. Living in western Massachusetts with his wife he enjoys outdoor sports, dance, gardening and visits with their 2 grown sons.
Janey Tallarida
Development Director
Janey leads development and serves on the communications team.
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Janey is a non-profit leader with over thirty years of experience in grant writing and development, communications, finance and operations, human resources, and volunteer engagement. A life-long Massachusetts resident, Janey is dedicated to social justice, access to nature for all people, and supporting the rights and security of the immigrant community. She spent 12 years working at MIC co-founder and partner organization Rian Immigrant Center and has been part of the MIC team since 2022. In her spare time, Janey volunteers with the Community Farm Team at Gaining Ground, a non-profit farm that provides hunger relief; plays music with her friends; and enjoys hiking in the mountains and long-distance backpacking trips.
Erin McEwan
Communications Associate
Erin specializes in effective communication, amplifying MIC’s voice across various platforms.
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Erin is a Communications Associate at MIC, having joined the team in 2024 as an intern. With a passion for effective communication, she plays a vital role in disseminating MIC’s messages across various platforms, including social media, newsletters, and website posts. Erin holds a Master of Science in Digital Media Design from the University of Edinburgh and a Bachelor of Liberal Arts in Graphic Design and Psychology from UMass Lowell. Leveraging her educational background, she focuses on creating content that is both accessible and user-friendly, ensuring that critical information reaches a broader audience. Her commitment to clarity and engagement helps amplify MIC’s voice in the digital landscape.
In her free time, Erin enjoys hanging out with her cats, reading, and doing crafts.
Board of Directors
Patricia Sobalvarro
President
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She was born in Guatemala and migrated to the United States at age 11 to be reunited with her mother. In 1996 she graduated from Boston University with dual bachelor’s degrees in Economics and International Relations. In 2004, she received a master’s in Non-Profit Management from Cambridge College.
At Agencia ALPHA, a women and immigrant-led not-for-profit organization created in 2002, they empower over 1,700 immigrants annually through accredited legalization, citizenship and leadership programs.. For over two decades, Ms. Sobalvarro has been advocating for fair and just immigration reform and playing key roles in local and national pro-immigrant initiatives. She also serves on the Attorney General’s Immigrant Advisory Council, Governor Healey’s Latino Empowerment Council and the Philanthropy Massachusetts board.
In her free time, Ms. Sobalvarro loves spending time with her family and friends, skiing, going to the beach and taking long walks with Duke, her chocolate Labrador Retriever.
Dr. Geralde Gabeau
Treasurer
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At IFSI-USA, she empowers staff to advance emergency assistance, planning and employment initiatives benefiting immigrant communities. A dynamic leader with deep understanding of immigration issues, she is long regarded as a steadfast proponent for immigrants’ rights with unyielding commitment to social justice.
Her broad community outreach enlightens policymakers, educates the public and cultivates partnerships. She also reaches Haitians locally, nationally and internationally through radio and social media outlets.
Dr. Gabeau earned a Doctoral Degree in Strategic Foresight from Regent University and graduate degrees in Public Health from Boston University and in Management from Cambridge College.
Lenita Reason
Secretary / Clerk
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As a an immigrant- and women-led non-profit organization dedicated to defending and advancing immigrants’ labor and human rights across New England. Now in her second decade of community and labor organizing, Lenita previously served as Community Organizer, Office Manager, Building Justice Workers’ Committee Coordinator, and OSHA-Susan Harwood Assistant Chief Trainer and Outreach Coordinator. Lenita has considerable experience in state-wide legislative and civic affairs, as well, including co-chairing the Massachusetts state-wide Driving Families Forward Coalition, whose efforts resulted in the 2022 legislative passage of the Work and Family Mobility Act and the Tuition Equity Bill. She is Program Director for the BWC hosted and Massachusetts’s first Family Welcome Center, and in 2023 was appointed to Governor Maura Healey’s Advisory Council on Latino Empowerment. Lenita completed a Certificate in Labor Studies at UMass Boston and has especially strong skills and experience in coordinating community-based, participatory research projects on immigrant labor and community issues which she has pursued in partnership with the Massachusetts Immigrant Collaborative, local universities and national organizations, such as the National Domestic Workers Alliance, Boston College, UMass Boston, Tufts, Boston University, Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Leah Zallman Center for Immigrant Health Research.
Reena Parikh
Member
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Under her supervision, her clinic students advocate on behalf of low-wage workers, immigrants and prisoners in Massachusetts through litigation and policy advocacy. Students in her clinic explore different types of lawyering, including individual client representation and community group advocacy.
Prior to joining BC Law, Reena was a Robert M. Cover Clinical Teaching Fellow at Yale Law School, where she co-taught in the Worker and Immigrant Rights Advocacy Clinic. The matters she co-supervised included civil rights and habeas corpus litigation in U.S. District Courts, and the representation of grassroots community organizations on legislative advocacy campaigns. She also taught an introductory legal analysis and writing course.
Reena began her legal career as Associate Counsel in the Office of the Chief Counsel for United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, where she spent five years. During her tenure in the federal government, she completed a detail as a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of New York. She also clerked for the Honorable Margaret B. Seymour of the U.S. District Court, District of South Carolina.
Reena earned her J.D., summa cum laude, from American University, where she was a Public Interest/Public Service Scholar. She received her B.A., cum laude, from Boston College, where she was a Gabelli Presidential Scholar.
Consulting Partners
Leah Zallman Center
Research & Evaluation
eResponders
Strategic Communications
Civic Roundtable
Communications Platform
Mabel
Asylum Law
HR Peeps
Human Resources