Sienna Fontaine

General Counsel

Sienna is Legal Director/General Counsel of Make the Road New York (MRNY). She joined Make the Road in 2015 as the Deputy Legal Director, drawn to the organization’s dynamic law and organizing model. During her time at Make the Road, she has overseen the development of the legal department into a major legal services provider, serving 10,000 annually, contributing to major policy victories, and engaging in cutting edge litigation. She became Co-Legal Director in 2017 and transitioned to Legal Director in 2020. Now, Sienna joins the executive team to support some of the emerging legal needs of the organization as General Counsel. 

Prior to joining Make the Road, Sienna was the Director of Public Benefits at Bronx Legal Services, representing indigent and low-income Bronx individuals and families in civil litigation and administrative hearings to secure access to and maintain public benefits. Sienna’s litigation resulted in wins for recipients of public benefits throughout the state, including amending the Social Services Law to expand due process rights for appellants who have defaulted on administrative fair hearings. Sienna began her legal career at Bronx Legal Services as a Skadden Fellow working on a medical-legal advocacy project, providing legal services to Bronx residents in partnership with Montefiore Hospital. Sienna graduated from NYU School of Law in 2007, and serves as 1st Vice President of the Law Alumni of Color Association (LACA). She has a BA from U.C. Berkeley, where she studied Sociology and Spanish.

Natalia Aristizabal Betancur

Deputy Director

Natalia will be returning to Make the Road New York as Deputy Director. Natalia joined Make the Road as a youth member after immigrating to New York from Colombia at the age of 12. She joined our staff as an organizer and later Co-Director of Organizing. In her years at Make the Road NY she organized alongside young people and TGNIC community members. She played an instrumental role in many of our large-scale organizing victories, including our fight for higher education for undocumented youth. Most recently Natalia was the Director for Immigrant Justice at our sister organization, the Center for Popular Democracy. She currently is also serving as an adjunct professor at the Leadership Center of the Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership at City College and the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies.

Jose Lopez

Co-Executive Director

Jose Lopez is one of the three Co-Executive Directors of Make the Road New York. For two decades, Jose has demonstrated his commitment to Make the Road New York and the communities which we serve. Prior to being named Co-Executive Director, Jose served as Deputy Director and Co-Director of Organizing where he helped to shape and deliver on impactful projects and policies in the arenas of housing, education, labor and police reform. His commitment and policy expertise on affordable housing and renters rights helped to secure the strongest rental protections passed in Albany in a generation. Outside of providing campaign support to our team of 44 organizers, Jose sits on the board of Communities United for Police Reform Action, a coalition committed to ending discriminatory and abusive policing in New York State. In December 2014, Jose was appointed to President Obama’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing and since has published pieces on changing youth attitudes towards policing. Jose is a graduate of Hofstra University and dad of Amelie Soleil.

Arlenis Morel

Co-Executive Director

Arlenis immigrated to the United States from Venezuela in 1992. She is a long-time resident of Bushwick, Brooklyn. In 2003, Arlenis joined MRNY’s staff as a part-time receptionist. She became more and more involved in MRNY, taking advantage of the organization’s leadership development trainings, and eventually worked her way up to lead the organization’s Operations department. In 2015, she stepped into the role of Chief of Staff, overseeing the Operations, HR and IT departments and is now one of the three Co-Executive Directors of MRNY. She is leading the implementation of MRNY’s strategic plan and is responsible for maintaining overall day-to-day operations of MRNY. Arlenis has trained at Coro’s Immigrant Civic Leadership Program and Columbia University’s Senior Leaders Program for Non-Profit Professionals. She represented District 24 in Queens on the Community Education Council for two years. She holds an Associate’s Degree from Kingsborough Community College.

Theo Oshiro

Co-Executive Director

As Co-Executive Director, Theo Oshiro helps lead MRNY’s strategic vision, leads high-impact service programs, including Adult Literacy and Health Advocacy, heads our Westchester-based work, and conducts key fundraising and finance functions. A Peruvian immigrant raised in Queens, Theo joined Make the Road in 2005 after receiving a Master’s Degree from the University of Chicago. Since he began at Make the Road, he has been a leading fundraiser, building MRNY’s health access team from the ground up and expanding the organization’s overall services infrastructure by tripling our staff size across Legal Services, Health, and Adult Education, and expanding services for members into our Long Island office. Theo helped lead Make the Road’s expansion into New Jersey, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania, as well as special projects on immigrant integration, civic engagement and voter mobilization, green space accessibility, and census advocacy and outreach. Theo led MRNY’s advocacy that resulted in the passage of a city-level law and state-level SafeRx legislation to require comprehensive interpretation and translation services to limited English proficient patients at chain and mail-order pharmacies. Theo has been recognized several times for his contributions to immigrant communities, winning the New York Lawyers for the Public Interest’s Felix A. Fishman Award and being named to City and State NY’s Labor Power 100 list in 2021. Theo was also appointed to serve on city- and state-level policy task forces focused on immigrant health and health disparities.

Becca Telzak

Deputy Director

Becca Telzak is Deputy Director of Make the Road New York (MRNY). Since 2009, Becca has been building our health department into a 30+ person operation that serves over 8,000 community members a year and operates in all MRNY’s offices. Under Becca’s leadership, our health programs have expanded to include health insurance enrollment, health navigation services, food stamp enrollment, community health worker (CHW) training, CHW home visiting services, two food pantries, TGNCIQ health services and organizing campaigns to expand access to health insurance and improve care for immigrant communities. Becca led MRNY’s advocacy efforts that resulted in the creation of the NYC Care program at the city level and at the state level ensured that immigrants can access COVID testing and treatment through emergency medicaid.

Prior to working at MRNY, Rebecca received a Fulbright scholarship to Argentina. She has a BA from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor in Latin American and Caribbean Studies and Social Science from the Residential College. She has a Masters Degree in Public Administration from Baruch College. In 2020, Becca received the Joan H. Tisch Community Health Prize.