Our Board
Our board membership comes from a variety of fields of practice and expertise, and is drawn from a spectrum of constituencies (e.g., nonprofit, academia, corporate, and community). Our board is invested in learning about the organization and has an outstanding commitment to the organization's success, mission and vision. They provide strong direction, support, and accountability and are engaged as a strategic resource.
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Founder & President
Dr. Daniela Domínguez is an Associate Professor at the University of San Francisco and the Founder and President of On the Margins. She is a licensed psychologist and professional clinical counselor with a special interest in liberation psychology, anti-racism, migrant justice, and gender and sexuality matters.
Her program of research has focused on understanding how Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) cope with stress and use specific strategies to draw upon resiliencies to achieve positive health. In 2020, the Society of Counseling Psychologists honored her with the “Early Career Award for Distinguished Professional Contributions to Counseling Psychology.” In 2021, the Society of Counseling Psychologists honored her with the “Social Justice Award” for her demonstrated evidence of achieving community change that supports groups on the margins.
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Board Director
Talene is a former venture capital banker turned full-time mother and youth advocate. She held numerous roles at leading technology banks in Silicon Valley prior to transitioning to working with local charitable organizations. Her latter work has focused on supporting our most marginalized communities with specific outreach to children and their care-takers. She believes in living intentionally, and in the power of connection to create equitable practices for our most under-resourced community members.
Talene holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics and Business Administration from Saint Mary’s College of California and an MBA from Santa Clara University. She lives with her beloved husband and three daughters/teachers.
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Board Director & Treasurer
As a queer, transracial adoptee from Bogotá, Colombia, Mara has a deeply rooted passion for building power among people, workers and communities historically disenfranchised and systemically marginalized. She believes deeply in self/community determination and approaches her coaching and consulting from the perspective that people already have the ability to accomplish their collective goals and shift the balance of power, and her role is to simply help be a guide.
Mara got her start in organizing at the University of Colorado and then eventually the University of Oregon. She has served communities as an organizer, a Lead Organizer, an Organizing Director, and eventually an Executive Director. Most recently, she built the country's first national organizing training program for workers, the Always Essential Fellowship, and has been leading that work since early 2021.
She currently runs her own consulting business, sits on the Board of Directors for On the Margins, and is the co-founder and a Board member for the Latino Alumni Association of the University of Oregon. She resides in El Paso, TX with her wife and their adorable dog, Emilio.
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Board Director
Víctor Ferrer, Folkloric dance director, newspaper editor. Victor was born in México, DF – Mexico City. He had the great fortune to be raised all over Mexico, getting to know the whole country, thanks to his step-father’s job which moved him just about every year. Victor is grateful he got to know so much of his country, from north to south, from Baja California Norte to Yucatán.
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Board Director & Secretary
Marianne Marar Yacobian (she/her) is Professor Emerita of Global Studies from Menlo College. Dr. Marar taught Diversity in the Workplace, Sex & Culture, Human Rights Education, and Global Studies. She earned her doctorate and Outstanding Dissertation Award at the University of San Francisco in International & Multicultural Education with an emphasis in Second Language Acquisition. She is an expert in the intersectionality of racial/ethnic/gendered identities and human rights activism. Her research interests include refugee human rights education, transnational citizenship, genocide recognition, social movements/revolution, and the sociopolitical underpinnings of critical global education. As a mother-educator, Dr. Marar’s teaching pedagogy is predicated on the importance of decolonizing education whilst reclaiming agency and dignity vis-à-vis social justice consciousness.
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Board Director
As a nonbinary trans person who grew up in poverty in the South, raised by a single mom who cleaned houses to care for her 4 children, I have definitely experienced many layers of discrimination and injustice. Being a member of a marginalized minority helped to open my eyes to the rampant destructive powers of racism and white supremacy.
As an educator and school therapist I have spent many years empowering youth to stand up for DEIB in their schools and helped get several DEIB trainings into the schools where I formerly worked. Since running my own private therapy practice, I have felt a shift in being regularly involved in social justice action and very much want to be dedicating more time and energy to this movement. I am dedicated to antiracist education and action and believe in the abolition of borders and prisons and all of the institutions which uphold/reinforce white supremacy. I am also dedicated to continuing to grow in my own knowledge, understanding, and impact around antiracism and social justice. I believe that the inner and outer work is a journey of growth and healing, not a destination.
Thank you for your time and dedication to this incredible organization and for considering me as a potential member of the OTM board.