About Us

NC FIELD Coalition Board of Directors & Advisory Board Members

Melissa Bailey is the North Carolina Regional Coordinator for Children in the Fields Campaign and
the Executive Director of NC FIELD, Inc. She is originally from a small coal mining community in Logan County, West Virginia. She worked for local Migrant Education programs for over a decade. She is a co-founder of the Migrant Education Outreach Cooperative in eastern North Carolina. She has a Certificate in Nonprofit Management from Duke University. She is the proud mother of three children, and several "adopted ones", enjoys camping, reading and writing in her spare time.

Emily Drakage is the founding executive director of NC FIELD, Inc. and Prior to joining the AFOP team, Emily served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Bolivia and the Dominican Republic. She has also worked as an outreach worker and interpreter for the migrant and seasonal farmworking communities in Western North Carolina. She is a certified ESL and Spanish instructor and lived 4 years in South America teaching, volunteering, and studying. Emily holds a B.A. in Spanish and Latin American Studies from UNC-Wilmington. Emily is a co-founder of the NC FIELD Coalition and the agency's Executive Director.

Peter Eversoll is a photographer, artist and teacher. Currently he is working as a Regional Recruiter for the NC Migrant Education Program. He has been giving photography workshops to migrant farmworker youth since 2009, and previously to youth in Ethiopia and Mexico City. He spent 14 years living in Mexico, ultimately earning his M.F.A. in Visual Arts from the National Autonomous University of Mexico. He has taught art and photography at the Autonomous University of the State of Hidalgo in Pachuca, Mexico, the FARO de Oriente in Mexico City and Living Arts College in Raleigh. Peter is a co-founder of the NC FIELD Coalition and the Board of Directors Chairman.

Pedro F. Sanchez has been employed with a local migrant education program for over four years. He regularly mentors youth and supervises interns in outreach activities. He graduated with an Associates degree in Criminal Justice in 2004 and a Bachelors in Criminal Justice in 2009 from Mount Olive College. He is a member of the Migrant Education Outreach Cooperative (MEOC), a co-founder of NC FIELD Coalition and the Board of Directors Treasurer. Pedro is originally from Jalisco, Mexico and has lived in eastern North Carolina most of his life. Pedro is a former child farmworker and is passionate about his work with the agricultural worker community.

Rachel Wright is a native of East Tennessee. She grew up in a rural town where she worked on her family's poultry and tobacco farm. In December of 2009 she graduated with her BA in English and a minor in Spanish. She is also a certified TESOL/TESL teacher. Rachel is currently employed by a local migrant education program and feels compelled to help the farmworker community by educating others about their necessity in our communities. Rachel is a co-founder of the NC FIELD Coalition and the Board of Directors Secretary.

Scott Brown, a graduate of Harvard College and UNC Law, practiced bankruptcy and social security law in Atlanta, Georgia for several years. He has done volunteer work in the past for homeless veterans and has been working as the Litigation Coordinator at Diener Law since November 2009. Diener Law is a full-service, non-traditional firm in Eastern North Carolina that advocates for the rights of the under-represented, including many Latino clients. Founded in 2004, Diener Law has grown rapidly but remains committed to its driving principles of inclusiveness, generosity, diversity and excellence. Scott Brown is a co-founder of the NC FIELD Coalition and serves as the agency's legal counsel.

Willie Cartagena,

NC FIELD Coalition Advisory Board Members

Sara Quandt is a professor of public health sciences at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. Her grandparents raised tobacco and subsistence crops on a small family farm in Yadkin County. She has a longstanding interest in conducting research that can be used to address the health and social justice challenges faced by rural and minority populations, including occupational injuries and food insecurity. Sara is a co-founder of the NC FIELD Coalition.

Quirina Vallejos is a working wife and mother. She has worked for the past 6 years working for Wake Forest University School of Medicine coordinating research and health education projects focused on farmworkers. She is proud of the work she does to document the health hazards that farmworkers and their families face. She also enjoys working on volunteer projects that are focused on helping farmworker families overcome the many challenges they face. Quirina is a member of the Housing/Food Scarcity Working Group and the proxy for Dr. Sara Quandt to the NC FIELD Board of Directors.

Tristan Bruner is a Christian man who is a husband, a father of twin girls and an employee of the Partnership for Children of Lenoir and Greene Counties. He is a servant who loves all people and often cheerleads to encourage action. He participates on the Lenoir County Transit Board, St. Mark Church/Hands for Humanity Community Development Cooperation committee, Hickory Grove United Methodist Church Pastor/Parrish Committee, Migrant Education Outreach Cooperative, Kinston Promise Neighborhood Planning Group, Assuring Better Child Health and Development Stakeholders, Craven Smart Start Evaluation, Oversight and Finance Committee, Eastern Regional Smart Start Evaluators member and organizer, Local Interagency Coordinating Council member and Chairman, Family Friendly Child Care Research Team member and local Project Director, and serves as a consultant to the NC FIELD Coalition and is a Little by Little mentor.

Mike Crum has 15 years of fundraising experience with a wide variety of nonprofit organizations. He started his consulting company as a result of his work as a Board Member, Executive Director, staff member, and volunteer with various organizations. Activism and community service are central to Mike's life, and his wide array of activities lead him to a host of diverse organizations. These activities reflect his commitment to social change. Mike is a consultant to the NC FIELD Coalition Board of Directors.

Mike Crum, Principal
TMC Consulting
1704 Shawnee St
Durham, NC 27701
919.451.8936 v
mike@tmcconsultingservices.com
www.tmcconsultingservices.com

Angelina Mendoza is a working wife and mother of three children residing in Kinston, North Carolina. She enjoys her work in a local restaurant and caring for her family. She likes to cook, volunteers regularly as a surrogate parent for unaccompanied farmworker children and acts as a mentor to immigrant parents. Angelina is a consultant to the NC FIELD Coalition.

Norma Flores has never been shy about shooting for the stars. Her working life began in corn and asparagus fields, where she worked as a young teenager to help her family survive. Today, she’s in college and she hopes to become an aerospace engineer.
Norma entered the Science Academy of South Texas, one of the nation’s most prestigious high schools, in the fall of 1999 and was overwhelmed with the school work she had missed. “I was given two months to complete two months worth of school assignments [that I’d missed as well as] keep up with my normal workload,” remembers Norma. “Many times I contemplated quitting, but my determination kept me going.”
Despite migrating, Norma was able to continue to receive farmworker youth services through the National Farmworker Jobs Program, the national farmworker assistance program operated under the Workforce Investment Act. When she graduated from high school, Norma was recognized for having completed course work as a “Texas Scholar” and was honored for all the community service work she had completed. In June 2002, she was designated as an AP Scholar. In June 2003, Norma was interviewed in Newsweek about her school’s high academic ranking. That same year, she was flown by Collegeboard to Washington to participate in a presentation at the Dirksen Senate building. She has been a speaker at both national and state-wide farmworker service provider conferences.
Currently, Norma is attending the University of Texas—Pan American, where she was awarded the University Scholars Scholarship. She has a message of hope for fellow migrant students: “College today isn’t just for the suburban Anglo like before, but for everyone.”
Norma Flores Lopez is currently the Director of the Children in the Fields Campaign for the Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs and a consultant for the NC FIELD Coalition.

Mario Godinez is a migrant farmworker husband and father of three children residing in Kinston, North Carolina. He enjoys soccer, small building projects, gardening and spending time with his wife, Angelina, and their three children. He volunteers regularly as a surrogate parent for unaccompanied farmworker children and acts as a mentor to immigrant parents. Mario is a consultant to the NC FIELD Coalition.

Melinda Wiggins, Executive Director of SAF, is the daughter and granddaughter of sharecroppers who grew up in a rural farming community in the Mississippi Delta. Melinda received a Masters of Theological Studies from Duke Divinity School in 1994. Melinda served as a SAF intern in the summer of 1993 and began working as SAF's Program Director in 1994. Melinda is the immediate past chair of NC Community Shares and a 1999-2001 fellow in the William C. Friday Wildacres Fellowship Program. Melinda is a consultant to the NC FIELD Coalition.

Billy Green - NC FIELD Coalition consultant.

Sonja Williams - NC FIELD Consultant