Damaris Rostran

Director of Community Leadership Damaris Rostran, MA, is from Nicaragua, where she organized and educated agricultural cooperatives using popular education techniques. She graduated from Central American University with a Master of Arts in Rural Development. In 2003, she came to the U.S. fleeing political persecution. She worked as an organizer for ACORN where she directed housing and education campaigns as well as political campaigns in Florida, New Mexico and New Jersey. She later joined SEIU where she developed curriculum forday laborers in coordination with OSHA, Rutgers University, and the NJ Department of Labor. Damaris leads CASA’s community leadership development program. She develops popular education curricula and training materials to support organizer and member leadership development and conducts trainings for CASA’s leadership council and boards of directors. She also serves as a mentor organizer at CASA, supporting organizers accross the 25 member team in a continual process of professional development as organizers.