Melissa Sanvicente (she/her) began volunteering at Tia Chucha’s in 2002 as a Sylmar High School student and became a staff member over fifteen years ago. Melissa was promoted to Associate Director in 2018 after being Program Director for 5 years. She has previously helped organize Tia Chucha’s annual Celebrating Words Festivals, Winterlandia holiday events, and fundraising Gala celebrations. It was her connection to Tia Chucha’s as a youth that helped her reignite her love for the arts and her passion for music, dance, and indigenous spirituality. Melissa has practiced Mexica indigenous drumming, dance, and song for the past 14 years, as a member of Kalpulli Xochiyaoyotl. She is a graduate of Ethnomusicology at UCLA, with an emphasis on Mexica indigenous song and dance. She is a member of HOODSisters, an all womyn and womyn identified mural arts collective, and completed the 2017-2018 ACTIVATE Arts Advocacy Leadership Fellowship Program of Arts for LA focused on advocacy training and leadership development.