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Dan Ford – President Retired

Dan Ford returned to the Casa Latina board after serving on the board for 6 years. During his earlier tenure, he served as president and vice president of the board. Dan teaches English as a second language at Casa Latina, both in the classroom and by tutoring students using Zoom.

A retired attorney, Dan represented farm workers and other immigrants in employment and civil rights cases for 36 years. Dan has served on the Washington State Bar Association Board of Governors, and the boards of the Latino Bar Association of Washington and the Laurel Rubin Farmworker Justice Project.

He is tremendously proud of his 2 children and 4 grandchildren.

Alex Pace, Vice President & Treasurer Heritage Bank

Alex is a Commercial Lender at Heritage Bank’s Seattle office where he specializes in affordable housing finance and community development lending. Alex grew up in Sequim, WA and now calls Auburn home, where he lives with his wife and three young children. Alex’s interest in learning Spanish and Latino culture inspired him to travel earlier in his life, giving him a glimpse into the lives of the families he stayed with in Mexico. This sparked his passion to work with the immigrant community back in Washington and ultimately lead him to the Board of Casa Latina.

Cristina Gaeta Google

Meghan Flaherty Global Partnerships

Meghan is the Director of Investment Research and Impact at Global Partnerships, an impact-first investment fund manager that seeks to expand opportunity for people living in poverty. Her work leading the impact team at GP builds on many years of experience advancing economic opportunity and gender equity in emerging markets, having held programmatic, strategy, and research positions at several global NGOs. She enjoys volunteering to support organizations aligned with her values and joined the Casa Latina Board in 2022 after having first connected with the organization as a volunteer in the Day Workers Center in 2011.

James Lamar Foster, Ph.D. Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Dr. James “Lamar” Foster is a proud descendant of Spanish-speaking immigrants from Panama. He is a research and data professional with over ten years of experience working cross-functionally to tell stories with data. His work seeks to identify and analyze levers of change to make organizations more equitable for people marginalized due to their race, gender, economic status, and other social axes of difference. He is currently a senior data scientist at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, working at the intersection of employee experience and organizational effectiveness. In his free time, Lamar enjoys spending time with his wife and son at the local library.