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ALEXANDRA GEONETTA-TRIHUS — DIRECTORAle has been on staff with InterVarsity since 2010, serving as team leader at East Los Angeles College, a majority Latinx, urban community college. She first attended LAUP as a student and was struck by God’s power and ability to act in the midst of injustice. As she experienced healing in places of brokenness in her own story as a Mexican-American woman, she felt a new sense of vision and call to be engaged in God’s holistic mission on campus and urban communities. Ale has continued to serve with LAUP throughout her time on staff, leading teams of Latino/a students, and serving on the summer directors team. Through her own story and work with urban Latinx students, she is deeply committed to the power and potential of leaders from marginalized communities. She is excited to further LAUP’s role in empowering leaders from communities of color to be prophetic witnesses of God’s kingdom on the margins. Ale, her husband Sam, and son Emanuel live in East Los Angeles and are also leaders with Jesus 4 Revolutionaries, a community of Christian activists pursuing Jesus, justice and the beloved community.
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AMY OBA — FIELD OPERATIONS DIRECTORAmy Oba Stears is a graduate from UCSD and first attended LAUP in 2012. After her LAUP experience she began to seek God's heart for justice and reconciliation in her InterVarsity chapter and in her city, working in different education nonprofits. Upon graduation, Amy worked as Chemistry teacher and as an administrator for her church Ethnos in San Diego. She has been a Field Operations Director for LAUP for the past three years.
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ROBERT CHAO ROMERO - SUMMER DIRECTORRobert is an Associate Professor of Chicana/o Studies and Asian American Studies at UCLA. Robert authored two books: the award-winning “The Chinese in Mexico, 1882-1940” and his Christian book entitled “Jesus for Revolutionaries.” As an ordained pastor, Robert co-directs the ministry of Jesus for Revolutionaries, a community of Christian activists who connect on various campuses, online, and gather monthly in LA, with his wife Erica Shepler Romero. Robert is also an attorney who occasionally takes cases related to immigration. He received his Ph.D. in Latin American history from UCLA and J.D. from UC Berkeley.
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ERICA SHEPLER ROMERO - SUMMER DIRECTORErica Shepler Romero is the co-founder of Christian Students of Conscience and Jesus for Revolutionaries Church with her husband, Robert Chao Romero. After graduating from Purdue University, she began full-time urban ministry with Campus Crusade for Christ where she was on the founding team of the S.A.Y. Yes! Centers for Youth Development. She served and learned from urban & immigrant churches in Los Angeles for 15 years, eventually becoming the Director of Ministry Partner Relations. In that capacity, she coordinated volunteers and trainings for the LA area S.A.Y. Yes! Centers, and served as youth development staff in South LA at Prosperity Missionary Baptist/Koinonia Church. Later she directed the JAC ministry (Justice, Advocacy & Compassion) at New Song, Los Angeles Church. After marrying Robert, they performed a “ministry merger”, connecting activist students, urban ministry, and a passion to live transformational Christ-centered lives. They live in the LA area with their two young children.
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