Our Team & Board
Our Team
Anton Flores-Maisonet, Founder/Executive Director
Anton Flores-Maisonet (he/él) is the Founding Director of Casa Alterna. He and his spouse, Charlotte are Friends-in-Residence at Atlanta Friends Meeting. A social worker, spiritual director, and author of Welcome, Friends: Stories of Hope and Hospitality with Immigrants (2025), Anton’s work reflects the conviction that hospitality can be resistance, that accompaniment nurtures justice, and that love crosses borders.
Bernadette Naro, Program Director
Bernadette (she/ella) is a lifelong activist and community builder. Steeped in the Catholic Worker tradition, Bernadette strives to cultivate spaces of hospitality and to build authentic belonging, both in and through difference. As an educator and a theologian, Bernadette has a proven track record of designing, implementing and managing faith and justice based programming for diverse groups. A wife, and mother to three daughters, Bernadette is motivated by the desire to build a better world through our everyday actions and choices, both big and small.
Heather Bargeron, Operations and Communications Manager
Heather (she/ella) has been an advocate and organizer for social justice all of her working life. She lived and worked for more than a decade with the Open Door Community in Atlanta and was a founding board member of Georgia Detention Watch. She now lives in Philadelphia with her spouse and their son. Their church community, Tabernacle United Church has been a sanctuary for vulnerable immigrants in partnership with the New Sanctuary Movement of Philadelphia.
Jacky Veliz Medrano, Compas Guatemala Coordinator
Jacky accompanies families waiting for loved ones being deported, offering simple care and steady presence. She was deported more than a decade ago, and that experience shapes how she shows up for others. She is the mother of three U.S.-citizen children who live with her in Guatemala City.
Our Board
Rachel Bjork
Community Member, Jubilee Partners – Comer, Georgia
Gloria Choo
Retired Social Worker and Current Lead Coordinator with Compas at the Gates of ICE – Atlanta, Georgia
Charlotte Flores
Director of Community and Culture, International Community School – Decatur, Georgia
Anton Flores-Maisonet (ex-officio)
Executive Director, Casa Alterna – Atlanta, Georgia
Alix Janke (Board Vice Clerk)
Assistant Director of Youth & Immigrant Services, Inspiritus – Atlanta, Georgia
Arturo Martinez
Directly Impacted Immigrant, Co-founder of Casa Alterna – LaGrange, Georgia
Fernanda Mucchiut
Director of Youth Faith Formation, St. Thomas More Catholic Church – Decatur, Georgia
Erylyn Pinango
Insurance Professional and Directly Impacted Immigrant – Atlanta, GA
Olivia Santiago Ceto
College Professor – Nebaj, Quiché, Guatemala
Ben Wheeler (Board Clerk)
Community Builder, Seattle Housing Authority – Seattle, Washington