Lorena Melgarejo has served as the the Executive Director of Faith in Action since 2017. With over 20 years in community organizing experience, Lorena started her career as a union organizer for Justice for Janitors and later worked as a faith-based organizer for Faith in Action National. In 2005, she became Lead Organizer for San Francisco Organizing Project. Before she stepped into her Executive Director position with Faith in Action Bay Area, Lorena coordinated parish organizing and immigrant solidarity for Faith in Action and the San Francisco Catholic Archdiocese’s Office of Human Integrity.

Lorena is a longtime resident of the Mission District in San Francisco.

• lorena@faithinactionba.org

Abby Taylor joined Faith in Action Bay Area as a community organizer in February 2021.

She was first introduced to our organization in February 2020, when she took part in a community-engaged learning course in college. Abby accompanied our leaders in canvassing door-to-door low-income voters of color in Redwood City. Later that year she became a summer fellow, first calling community members who had been impacted by COVID-19 and then calling voters during the fall election season.

Abby is inspired by the love that Faith in Action Bay Area leaders have for their community and by the high value we place on relationships as the foundation for our work. In this work, Abby finds her faith intersecting with justice in community.

She looks forward to moving towards true communal justice, especially as our communities heal from the crises brought on by COVID-19 and rebuilding our world in a way that furthers economic justice and upholds the dignity of all people.

• abby@faithinactionba.org

Adriana Guzman is Faith in Action’s lead community organizer for South San Mateo County, having joined the staff in 2015. She works with clergy and lay leaders in both English-speaking and Latino congregations. In recent years, these leaders have made important strides in securing housing and immigration justice for their communities.

Adriana first became a leader with Faith in Action in 2014, when she worked as a phone banker and canvasser for Campaign for Citizenship. Later that year, she volunteered to answer an early version of the Rapid Response hotline, fielding calls from community members who had encountered ICE and connecting them to legal help.

For Adriana, faith is central to organizing. Faith shapes her values and guides her actions as an organizer; and she constantly turns to faith as a source hope, connection, and strength as she serves her community in its fight for justice.

• adriana@faithinactionba.org

Carolina Parrales Faith in Action Bay Area’s Director of Finance and Operations. She joined Faith in Action Bay Area as a community organizer in 2018.

Carolina was born and raised in El Salvador. She has a degree in architecture from Universidad Centro Americana, a Jesuit university in her home country. As an architecture student, Carolina had the opportunity to work with refugees in the rural community of Teosinte, helping to build a bridge that connected Teosinte to a nearby city for the facilitation of commerce. Carolina’s experience in Teosinte ignited her passion for organizing and justice work.

Before joining Faith in Action Bay Area, Carolina worked for the Archdiocese of San Francisco. She lives in the East Bay with her husband, Javier, and their son Abel.

• carolina@faithinactionba.org

Cynthia Hinestroza has served as the Operations Manager of Faith in Action Bay Area since the merger of San Francisco Organizing Project and Peninsula Interfaith Action in 2014.

• cynthia@faithinactionba.org