About Us

Jennifer Lopez

Request Specialist/Board Member

Jennifer Lopez is a Dartmouth College graduate. Her home is located in a small neighborhood on the west side of Chicago, IL. She comes from a family of seven; she is the oldest of five girls! She was the first intern for Hearts You Hold, and is now a board member! She has been excited to be part of this non-profit organization from the very beginning! What keeps her going and gives her hope is her family overall. Just seeing them thrive and be there for one another even when it gets difficult makes every moment with them worth it. Jennifer finds it challenging to open up to people at the beginning when she first meets them, but once she gets to know them, she starts building a stronger connection with them and her beautiful, gentle and passionate side is there to see! 

Lizet Garcia

Volunteer

Lizet is a junior at Dartmouth College studying Geography and Education. They has been working with the FUERZA Farmworkers Fund team and HYH since 2021. FUERZA collaborates with HYH to support Farmworkers in the Upper Valley (and other nearby states) by providing a variety of support from clothes, shoes, to translation services to financial aid. Lizet specifically focuses on outreach and connecting with the Farmworkers about their needs. 

Rachel Milito

Volunteer

Inspired by her grandfather's stories of immigrating to the US from Italy, Rachel began working with immigrants when she was in high school. Since then, she has dedicated herself to learning Spanish and exploring the connections and relationships that shape how people move around the globe. She has a Bachelor's in the Science of Foreign Service in Culture and Politics with a focus on immigration studies from Georgetown University and currently works as a Spanish teacher at the Sharon Academy in Vermont. She believes strongly in the power of experience, community, and connection to make us all more open-minded and empathetic citizens. Before moving to Vermont, Rachel worked in the field of experiential education, leading gap year programs across the globe. She still spends her summers leading backpacking and canoeing trips for the Hurricane Island Outward Bound School in Maine. Rachel loves to cook, hike, and play the violin.

Sadie Jones

Social Media Manager

Sadie Jones is a native Vermonter living in Addison County with her growing family. Sadie has spent over a decade committed to the welfare and well being of children and families across the globe. Beginning with political advocacy work with child soldiers in sub-Saharan Africa to local families of hospitalized children. She works full time for a non-profit in Development and Marketing and she also works with a few select clients to help them amplify their mission and message through social media and digital strategies.

Sadie enjoys spending time in her garden, cooking plant-based cuisine and the occasional Netflix marathon.

Eloise Ginty

Founder/Executive Director

Eloise had a full and inspirational career in public education. After being at home for many years parenting her own three children, she worked at Hannah House in Lebanon, NH teaching parenting classes to pregnant and parenting teens. She went from there to 13 years of public school teaching and then 11 years of being an elementary public school principal. She retired from education in 2019 and started off on a new learning adventure by founding this nonprofit organization. Most recently, she began a remote job working for Readeo. Readeo combines video chat with read aloud and is connecting loved ones who are far away from each other through the joy of reading aloud together. She lives in Thetford, VT with her husband of 35 years. They have three grown children and eight grandchildren who of course are all amazing!

Emma Darragh

Executive Assistant

Emma's fulfilling a life dream of working from home caring for her young children. Prior to entering into full time motherhood, Emma’s 8 year career the higher education field focused on admissions, student services and faculty support. She also served in AmeriCorps working to increase community involvement in school and after school programs. In each role, Emma most enjoyed getting to know a diverse population of students and community members with rich backgrounds, stories and life experiences. Emma lives in Vermont with her husband, two children and two dogs.

Bise Wood Saint Eugene

Volunteer

Bise Wood, a native of Haiti, has spent his life working to improve the lives of the Haitian people by engaging Haitians and foreigners in helping the country. In Haiti, from 2004 to 2006, he worked as a media assistant for journalists from The New York Times, The Boston Globe, NPR, and many other organizations. In 2010, after the earthquake, he became a program manager for the American Red Cross, where he managed relief and reconstruction efforts. He is a philanthropist and founder of the non-profit organization ODEVICH, which operates the Ferrier School in Port-au-Prince. A resident of the Upper Valley since 2014, Bise Wood has worked in many different capacities at Dartmouth College; most recently, he was an Academic and Operation Assistant. Bise Wood lives in Lebanon NH with his wife Mertichela, 6-year-old daughter Reina, and 11-year-old-son Wood Broadsky. In his free time, he continues to stay active in Haiti through his organization and activism, volunteers in organizations around the Upper Valley, and likes to play the guitar.
In his role as Administrative Coordinator at LISTEN, he greets the public, directs clients to services, schedules trucks, assists with Accounts Payable, and manages the 60 Hanover Street office.

Katie Roach

Board Member

Katie has been in public education for 22 years. She started her career in Texas and then moved from Texas to Colorado where she continued to work with children with special needs. In 2008, she moved to St. Louis, MO with her husband and worked with inner city high school students. Katie’s passion for teaching continued when she moved to NH with her husband and two children. For seven years she worked as an Early Childhood Coordinator before becoming a prek-4th grade Assistant Principal. Katie is passionate about equity for all families she works with both in education and within the community. She perseveres to search out and access resources within the community for families by building relationships with both the families and the community organizations. She is infectiously cheerful, brilliant and full of love!

Kathy Hastings

Board Member

Kathy calls herself a professional volunteer. With a Bachelor of Science degree in Early Childhood Education and Family Services, she has focused her time on children and youth. While raising her own three children she has been involved with Youth in Action, The Children's Hospital at Dartmouth, a reading mentor program for school age children, and an Outdoor Education program for kindergartners. Kathy lives with her husband in NH, where together they enjoy many outdoor activities.

Frank Loveland

HYH Intern

Frank Loveland is a Thetford Academy high school graduate who will be attending Saint Michael’s College with the plan to pursue a major in International Relations. Frank was born in central Mexico in the state of Puebla and he grew up in Mexico until he moved to the United States in third grade. Being Mexican-American and a bicultural student living in Vermont has exposed Frank to the richness of both cultures, something that goes beyond the linguistic immersion experience. Taking part in two academic programs hosted through the Governors Institute of Vermont, to studying abroad in a private Jesuit school back in Mexico his junior year, and his expedition to Antarctica have all allowed Frank to value the privilege he has had to have access to such a complete education. This Covid unprecedented crisis gave Frank the time and the opportunity to expose the invisibility of our essential migrant farm workers by bringing light to their personal stories, and by raising awareness of the essential role they play in Vermont’s economy. Frank is a strong believer in social work and is thankful with the opportunity to work with HYH as he understands giving back to our vulnerable communities is a way in which we can help people of all ages progress, especially those communities that have been repressed, neglected and forgotten by society.

Rosa Mendoza

HYH Intern

Rosa Mendoza is from Dallas, Texas and currently a Dartmouth College graduate. Her passions include Latinx culture, medicine and science, immigration rights and activism, migrant outreach, and equality for underrepresented populations. Her dream is to attend medical school and to become an advocate in the medical field for those from underrepresented backgrounds like herself. Family is her biggest priority and she is a huge fan of dogs and cheesy jokes. On campus Rosa has worked with Fuerza migrant outreach, the coalition for immigration reform and equality at Dartmouth (CoFIRED), and the Latinx heritage month planning community.

Odalis Hernandez Medrano

HYH Intern

A DREAMer, Odalis has a passion for social justice activism and has her mind set on becoming an immigration attorney, eventually moving on to policy-making. She is a member of FUERZA Migrant Outreach, a student-led organization with the goal of teaching English and constructing lasting and supportive relationships with migrant dairy farm workers in the Upper Valley. In addition, she has taken an active role in organizing for the distribution of drivers’ licenses to undocumented peoples in New Hampshire. Odalis is currently a Junior student at Dartmouth College.

Ella Chapman

HYH Volunteer

Ella Chapman is a Vermont native - graduating from both Thetford Academy, and University of Maine, Orono with degrees in Forestry and Surveying Engineering Technology. She's worked on several vegetable farms in the Upper Valley, and started learning Spanish in Oregon working as a line cook. After returning home, she started teaching English at a dairy farm, and has found personal fulfilment learning from the communities she was unable to communicate with before and making them feel welcomed to her home state.

Sarah Nordstrom

Board Member

Susan Ogden

Bookkeeper

Susan Ogden brings her organizational skills and attention to detail to the bookkeeping end of our non-profit. Susan is a Vermonter with years of experience in bookkeeping, small business ownership and management, volunteer work, and community involvement. For fun, she hikes almost every weekend in Vermont or New Hampshire, weaves, enjoys life on a lake in the Upper Valley, and spends time with her three grandchildren.