Felipe Sousa-Lazabellet ¡Aquí Estamos! We Are Here!
Felipe Sousa-Lazaballet serves as the executive director of Hope CommUnity Center, leading with vision, passion and a deep commitment to justice. A proud immigrant from Brazil and LGBTQ+ advocate, Felipe’s lived experiences have shaped his mission to empower marginalized communities and build solidarity for systemic change.
At Hope, he oversees 15 transformative programs, manages a team of 30+ dedicated staff and drives partnerships across Central Florida to amplify Hope’s impact.
Felipe believes in standing and walking with the community and supporting them in finding their voices. Under his leadership, Hope is creating a “bigger we” — a united force fighting for equity, opportunity and belonging. He has championed investments in leadership development, expanded services to reach more neighborhoods and positioned Hope as a leader in the fight against injustice and xenophobia.
Before joining Hope, Felipe held key leadership roles, including advocating for LGBTQ+ inclusion and immigrant rights as the Inclusion, Diversity & Equity Sr. Specialist for the City of Orlando. He also worked on long-term recovery efforts for those impacted by the Pulse tragedy, developing resources and standards through the Orlando United Assistance Center. These experiences, coupled with his roles in national organizations like United We Dream and GetEQUAL, underscore
his dedication to equity and social change.
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Attorney Gisselle Martinez is the legal director and co-founder of Orlando Center for Justice.
Gisselle has represented immigrants before the Immigration Court, the Board of Immigration Appeals, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the U.S. Department of State as well as Florida family and dependency courts.
She is the chair of the Pro Bono Committee for AILA Central Florida (American Immigration Lawyers Association). She received her law degree, cum laude, from the University of Florida’s Levin College of Law and her B.A. in economics and political science, cum laude, from the University of Florida. An immigrant herself, Gisselle has been passionate about immigrant rights from an early age.
During her time at the University of Florida, Gisselle was an active member and officer of CHISPAS, a student-run organization focused on immigrant rights and immigrant advocacy. Gisselle’s passion for immigration led her to pursue a career in law. While in law school, she interned at the Immigration Legal Services Clinic at Yale Law School and the Intimate Partner Violence Assistance Clinic at the University of Florida, assisting the immigrant population.
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McKenna Schueler is a staff reporter for Orlando Weekly who covers workers’ rights, politics and other social and economic justice issues.
A graduate of the University of South Florida with a bachelor’s degree in psychology and English, McKenna previously worked as a freelance reporter and as a part-time news anchor for the independent radio station WMNF 88.5 FM in
Tampa.
She has also written for national and regional publications such as In These Times and Facing South and as a contract writer for health networks and a personal injury attorney firm.
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Dr. Alexis Tsoukalas joined FPI in 2019, focusing on state immigrant and labor issues. Raised in the Sunshine State since childhood, Alexis has lived in the South for nearly 30 years and understands the region’s unique threats and opportunities. She holds a master of social administration/social work from Case Western Reserve University and a Ph.D. in public affairs from the University of Central Florida.
Her career began in direct service, then shifted to policy and advocacy after witnessing the inequitable harms of misguided laws and funding. She has worked in the restaurant business and with the child welfare population, young adults experiencing homelessness, those recovering from substance use disorder, and isolated older adults. A lesson that emerged was how lack of economic mobility exacerbates nearly every social issue, leading Alexis to pursue worker justice.
Alexis was a state policy fellow with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) and co-chair of CBPP’s state Policy Advisory Committee. She was also a THRIVE economic stability fellow with the Central Florida Foundation and a doctoral policy fellow with the Council on Social Work Education.
Alexis also served as a legislative chair and state delegate with the Florida Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) and is a founding member of NASW-FL’s Immigration Justice Task Force.
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Nancy Alvarez is a bilingual journalist with more than 20 years on the anchor desk and in the field covering the biggest stories in the nation and in Central Florida in both English and Spanish.
She started her broadcast journalism career in the Orlando market in 2000 and has reported on various hurricanes, the Pulse nightclub massacre and launches from the Space Coast. Alvarez was the first Central Florida reporter to travel to Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria, subsequently returning to the island multiple times to cover the damage and recovery efforts.
Alvarez is well-known for her work in the community hosting political debates and the annual Puerto Rican Day parade, as well as supporting numerous nonprofit organizations. Over the years, she has served throughout the Central Florida community working with Heart of Florida United Way.
Alvarez also works closely with many other civic and charitable organizations including: Foundation for Orange County Public Schools, Junior Achievement of Central Florida, Latino Leadership, Hope Partnership in Osceola County, the Hope Community Center in Apopka and Libby’s Legacy Breast Cancer Foundation.
In 2021, Alvarez became an advocate for the importance of cancer screenings after her own breast cancer diagnosis. Her message about early detection inspired numerous women to get mammograms at a time many had gone unchecked because of the pandemic.
A daughter of Cuban immigrants, Alvarez is originally from South Florida. She graduated from Florida Atlantic University with a bachelor’s degree in mass communication/media studies. She has called Central Florida home for more than two decades.