Two teams work in lock step to actualize the mission and vision of the Hispanic Scholars Program. The Full-Time Core Staffâcomprised of the Executive Director, Associate Director for Strategic Programming, and Administratorâgenerate the long term strategy for the organization and ensure programs are executed and internal structures maintained to meet that strategic vision. Under the supervision of the Associate Director, the HSP Fellows comprise Part-Time Staff members who work in discreet aspects of the organization, expanding the capacity of the HSP while receiving training in non-profit administration and management.
Staff
The Hispanic Scholars Program is led by an incredible staff with years of administrative experience in nonprofits and institutions of theological and higher education.
Full-Time Staff
Rev. Dr. Daisy L. Machado, Ph.D.
Executive Director
Daisy L. Machado serves as the Executive Director of the Hispanic Summer Program and is Professor Emerita of American Religious History at Union Theological Seminary. She holds a B.A. from Brooklyn College; an M.S.W. from Hunter College School of Social Work; a Master of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary; and a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. She is the first U.S. Latina ordained in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in 1981 in the Northeast Region and has served inner city congregations in Brooklyn, Houston, and Fort Worth.
From 1996-1999, Dr. Machado served as the first Director of the Hispanic Theological Initiative, a $3.4 million project funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts to increase the presence of Latinx faculty teaching in seminaries, schools of religion, and religion departments around the country. She was also academic dean at Lexington Theological Seminary in Lexington, KY and Union Theological Seminary in NYC where she was the first Latina to serve as academic dean at both schools.
Dr. Machado has also been invited to teach in various schools including as Luce Lecturer in Urban Ministry at Harvard Divinity School and Lecturer at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, Dallas, Texas. She has also been a speaker at numerous conferences in the United States and abroad. She was the first Latina to serve as Chaplain for the Summer Season in 2015 at the Chautauqua Institution where her sermons were heard in the daily chapels with over 600 participants every day and will return to again serve as Chaplain in July 2023.
Her latest publication is Borderland Religion: Ambiguous Practices of Difference and Hope, an anthology published in 2019, co-edited with Dr. Trygve Wyller (Norway) and Dr. Bryan Turner (Australia), which contains essays by a group of international scholars. In this anthology she also has an essay titled âSanta Muerte: A Transgressing Saint Transgresses Bordersâ. In addition, Dr. Machado has also authored many book chapters on the borderlands, among them: the chapter âHistory and Latino Identity: Mapping A Past That Leads to Our Futureâ in The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Latino/a Theology, 2nd edition, 2023; âBorderlife and the Religious Imaginationâ in the anthology Religion and Politics; âVoices from Nepantla: Latinas in U.S. Religious Historyâ in Feminist Intercultural Theology; ââEl gran avivamiento del â33â: The Protestant Missionary Enterprise, Revival, Identity, and Traditionâ in Futuring Our Past: Explorations in the Theology of Tradition; âThe Southern U.S. Border: Immigration, the Historical Imagination, and Globalizationâ in Rethinking Economic Globalization; and âLa Otra AmĂ©rica â The Other Americaâ in A Dream Unfinished: Theological Reflections on America from the Margins. She is also co-editor of the anthology, A Reader in Critical Latina Feminist Theology which contains her essay âThe Unnamed Woman: Justice, Feminists, and the Unnamed Woman.â Her first monograph on the issue of the borderlands was Of Borders and Margins: Hispanic Disciples in Texas, 1888-1945. In May 2023, she received an Honorary Doctorate from Drew University in Madison, N.J.
A native of Cuba, Dr. Machado came to the New York City with her parents at the age of three and though she has lived in many parts of the United States, she is a New Yorker at heart who loves a good bagel and will always make room for a pastrami on rye with mustard.
Jorge Juan RodrĂguez V. Ph.D.
Associate Director for Strategic Programming
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 âOccupying Abuelaâs Church: Latinx Religious Activism and the New York Young Lordsâ 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 âTheological Education ÂĄLatinamente!â 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 âThe MĂĄs Alla at First SpanishâThe Peopleâs Church: Race, Religion, and the New York Young Lordsâ was transformed into a multi-part public scholarship project, done in collaboration with the present congregation of FSUMC: The Peopleâs Church in East Harlemâthe very church occupied by the Young Lords in 1969.
Dr. RodrĂguez 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. RodrĂguezâs full-time work is with the HSP.
Dr. RodrĂguez joined the, then, âHispanic Summer Programâ in 2015 as a social media intern. By 2017 he began organizing development events, writing grant proposals, and contributing to the organizationâs strategic plan. In 2020 Dr. RodrĂguez was promoted to Associate Director for Strategic Programming. Since assuming this role, Dr. RodrĂguez has worked alongside the organizationâs 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 organizationâs staff, grow from two annual programs to eleven, and establish the internal infrastructure to sustain this change.
Outside of the HSP, Dr. RodrĂguez 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 ChurchâThe Peopleâs Church.
Elizabeth Niang
Administrator
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 Summer Program since 2018. She states that the best part of her job is the opportunity to interact with students, professors and sponsors and help fulfill HSPâs mission to provide theological education for Latinas/os in a context of academic excellence. Elizabeth, her husband, and their son Micah live on campus at Union Theological Seminary where Aliou teaches.
Current Fellows
Yadi MartĂnez Reyna
Senior Fellow for Marketing and Graphic Design
The Rev. Yadi MartĂnez-Reyna (M.Div.) is a borderlander, a founder of a non-profit that serves youth, a bilingual Latinx gender non-binary artist, and United Church of Christ ordained minister. Yadi was born and raised in the Rio Grande Valley in the frontera of Brownsville and Matamoros, Mexico. Rev. Yadi serves as a Pastor 1st UCC in 2nd Life. They have a Masters in Divinity (M.Div.) and a Latino/a studies certification from Brite Divinity School located at TCU in Ft.Worth, Texas. Yadi holds an Associate Degree in Graphic Design and Media from Westwood College, studied Art theory at the Art Institute of Dallas, and various Undergrad studies in Fine Arts, Painting and Sculpting at Texas Southmost College in Brownsville, Texas.
Leslie MartĂnez
Senior Fellow for Marketing and Communications Strategy
Leslie Martinez is the Senior Fellow of Marketing and Communications for the HSP, where she began in 2023 as the Fellow for Marketing and Communications. She earned her MA in Religion from Union Theological Seminary in 2024, focusing on History and Theology in Art. Currently pursuing an MFA in Contemporary Theater and Performing Arts at The New School, School of Drama, Leslie is passionate about exploring the intersection of theology and performance, with a focus on healing. In her downtime, she likes to cuddle with a book and her three cats.
Wendy Cordero Rugama
Fellow for Marketing and Communications
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Lynelle Bathan
Master of Divinity candidate
Lynelle Bathan is a first year Master of Divinity student at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Theology and Religious Studies from Walla Walla University and is passionate about exploring liberation theology, especially Queer Theology and Filipino Liberation Theology. She was born and raised by Seventh-day Adventist Filipino immigrants in Southern California. She aspires to use her skills from this phase of life to become a hospital chaplain and professor of theology. Lynelle is excited to gain new skills, build connections, and help uplift Latinx voices in her work with the Hispanic Scholars Program. In her free time she enjoys hiking, cooking, reading, and converting everyone she knows to womenâs soccer.
Daniela Mendoza
Graphic Design with minors in Theology and Latinx Studies Candidate
Daniela serves as the HAN Fellow for Alumni Relations. Originally from El Salvador, she moved to the United States at the age of 15. Currently an undergraduate student at Dominican University, Daniela is majoring in Graphic Design with minors in Theology and Latinx Studies. When Daniela started her first year of university, she had the opportunity to work for the Center for Cultural Liberation where she still works as a Senior Marketing and Communications intern. A practicing Catholic, her faith has been a guiding force throughout her academic journey. Over the past few years, her experiences at Dominican have deepened her connection to both her faith and her calling to serve the Latinx community. Through the intersection of design and theology, Daniela aspires to create meaningful change and make a lasting impact.