Verenice joins our Public Benefits team after completing her two-year language access fellowship at the Center, which ended in August of 2021.  After working with community partners to advance language access services at state agencies, she will continue to push for language access in her new role as it relates to public benefits and the Center’s work as a whole. She will also continue to partner with community organizations to remove barriers to public benefits, focusing on child care assistance, increasing food security, and immigrant issues. Verenice was born in rural Chihuahua, Mexico, and grew up in the San Luis Valley of Colorado. While in law school she was the Multicultural Relations Editor/Managing Editor of UNM’s Tribal Law Journal and the president of the Mexican American Law Students Association (MALSA).