About Us

Jennifer Lopez

HYH Intern

Jennifer Lopez is a senior at Dartmouth College. 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 is currently an intern for Hearts You Hold, and is very excited to be part of this non-profit organization! 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! 

Rosa Mendoza

HYH Intern

Rosa Mendoza is from Dallas, Texas and currently a senior at Dartmouth College. 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 an undergraduate student at Dartmouth College.

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 has had a full career in public education. After being home full time parenting her own three children, she worked at Hannah House 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 this non profit organization! She lives in VT with her husband of 33 years. They have 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.

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.

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.