Staff

Dr. Jorge Juan Rodriguez V, the son of two Puerto Rican migrants, grew up with his parents, grandmother, and uncle in a small affordable housing community in urban Connecticut. His story of diaspora, translanguaging, race, and religion propelled his academic journey, leading him to degrees in biblical studies, social theory, liberation theologies, and a Ph.D. in History from Union Theological Seminary. His scholarship examines Fat Studies as well as the intersections of race, religion, and social movements with a particular focus on Black and Brown religious activism in the 20th century, including groups like the New York Young Lords.

His scholarly work has been featured in several outlets including TruthOut, Latino Rebels, and The Christian Century and he regularly speaks at universities and community organizations as well as podcasts and radio shows. His published work includes “Occupying Abuela’s Church: Latine Religious Activism and the New York Young Lords” in Faith and Power: Latino/a Religious Politics since 1945 (NYU Press, 2022) and a forthcoming edited volume entitled Leading Latinamente: Learning with Daisy L. Machado (Fortress Press). He is also the series editor for “Theological Education ¡Latinamente!” a collection of forthcoming volumes out of Fortress Press that re-examine Latinidad in the 21st century along vectors of gender and sexuality, interreligious identity, indigeneity, Afro-Latinidad, and the like and their impact for theological and higher education. Additionally, his dissertation entitled “The Más Alla at First Spanish—The People’s Church: Race, Religion, and the New York Young Lords” was transformed into a multi-part public scholarship project, done in collaboration with the present congregation of FSUMC: The People’s Church in East Harlem—the very church occupied by the Young Lords in 1969.

Dr. Rodríguez is currently pursuing an Executive Certificate in Non-Profit Management from Harvard University that builds on his years of experience in higher education administration and affordable housing development. Since 2021 he has also served part-time as Visiting Assistant Professor of Historical Studies at Union Theological Seminary. Yet, Dr. Rodríguez’s full-time work is with the HSP.

Dr. Rodríguez joined the, then, “Hispanic Summer Program” in 2015 as a social media intern. By 2017 he began organizing development events, writing grant proposals, and contributing to the organization’s strategic plan. In 2020 Dr. Rodríguez was promoted to Associate Director for Strategic Programming. Since assuming this role, Dr. Rodríguez has worked alongside the organization’s visionary leader, the Rev. Dr. Daisy L. Machado, to help secure nearly $8 million in successful grants, establish strategic partnerships with dozens of peer organizations, triple the organization’s staff, grow from two annual programs to eleven, and establish the internal infrastructure to sustain this change.

Outside of the HSP, Dr. Rodríguez is an incoming Board member of the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee and a current advisory board member of the Office of Community Engagement at the City University of New York. He previously served on the advisory board of the Center for Religion and Cities at Morgan State University and the Leadership Council of First Spanish United Methodist Church–The People’s Church.

Dr. Breanna Escamilla, Ph.D. is an American Council of Learned Societies Leading Edge Fellow where she serves as the Assistant Director for Programming with the Hispanic Scholars Program. She holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with additional graduate training in Latina/Latino Studies and Queer Studies. Originally from Michigan and Texas, Breanna attended Michigan State University where she earned a B.A in Anthropology with minors in Chicano/Latino Studies and African American and African Studies. She is passionate about serving and advancing Latine community, culture, and history. In her free time, Breanna enjoys taking walks through Chicago where she currently lives.

Elizabeth was born and raised in West Memphis, Arkansas. She graduated with a Bachelor of Business Administration from Williams Baptist College (Walnut Ridge, Arkansas), where she met her future husband, Aliou Niang. She graduated with a Master of Business Administration from The University of Memphis (Memphis, Tennessee).

Elizabeth has served as Administrator for the Hispanic Scholars Program since 2018. She states that the best part of her job is the opportunity to interact with students, alumni, professors and sponsors and help fulfill HSP’s mission to provide theological education, mentorship, and professional development to the next generation of Latine/Hispanic leaders in a context of academic excellence. Elizabeth, her husband, and their son Micah live on campus at Union Theological Seminary where Aliou teaches.