Who We Are

Daniel Atik is the Employment Specialist for the International Professionals Program. In this role, he assists skilled immigrants in finding employment in their desired fields. Daniel is the son of immigrants from Syria and Turkey, having immigrated with them to the United States when he was two years old. As a child, he directly saw the positive impact of community services which helped connect immigrants, like his parents, to resources and a shared community. Bilingual in both Arabic and English, he graduated from Wesleyan University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Religious and Middle Eastern Studies. During college, he interned at various organizations including the Arab-American Association of New York and The American University of Beirut. In his spare time, Daniel enjoys reading, playing board games, learning languages, and obsessing about movies.

Inez Bruce is the Student Support Coordinator at The Welcoming Center.

Nina Chen joined The Welcoming Center in 2013 after a lengthy corporate career as an employee benefits lawyer at the Philadelphia law firm Montgomery McCracken; a recruiter with an executive search firm Salveson Stetson Group; and a partner at Mercer, a global human resource consulting firm.

As a child of Chinese immigrants who realized success after coming to the U.S., Nina is excited to be a part of a vibrant organization dedicated to helping other immigrant families realize the American Dream.

Rochelle T. Cooks is Director of Workforce Development at The Welcoming Center. She oversees a project bridging the gap between employers and skilled international professionals.

She brings 5 years of experience in workforce development with persons of all ages and skill levels. She discovered this field after participating in a community service spring break trip to Detroit, MI with the UMass Boston Beacon Voyages for Service program. There, Rochelle learned what poverty looks like in the US and how housing demolition and restoration and urban farming could revitalize a community. Since then, Rochelle has recommitted her career to serving individuals in low-paying jobs to empower them to find and retain family-sustaining careers. Rochelle believes education and employment are keys to ending the cycle of poverty and the community is obligated to provide access to these opportunities.

Rochelle received her Bachelor of Art in Psychology and Sociology from the University of Massachusetts Boston. She is a proud Beacon alumna and serves on the External Board of Advisors for Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs. As a lifelong learner, Rochelle is currently completing her Master of Education degree in Adult and Organizational Development at Temple University.

If you would like to learn more about Rochelle or the new employer engagement project, please call or email her. Let’s create access to opportunity together!

Alvaro Drake-Cortes is a Program Manager for The Welcoming Center’s Entrepreneurship program, where he supports immigrant entrepreneurs in establishing and operating successful businesses. Prior to coming to The Welcoming Center, Alvaro worked with departments of health and non-profit organizations, as well as community members and volunteers, to design and implement healthy food access programs that would empower small business owners to market fresh foods in their communities. He was also a certified educator in Philadelphia’s charter school system, and a liaison for the U.S. Army, coordinating with international organizations to deliver humanitarian aid to displaced persons and refugees around the world.

Alvaro is a native of Colombia. He has a deep interest in empowering communities to meet and rise above their social and economic challenges. He believes that “there’s nothing we can’t accomplish – if we are thoughtful in our planning, and diligent in our implementation.”

Alvaro enjoys bringing people of diverse backgrounds together to enjoy each other’s cultures, and has an insatiable curiosity about “the collective human experience.”

Alvaro has an M.Ed, and a BA in film production from Temple University, and holds certificates in project and sporting events management, and coaching. He is married, and is the proud father of two teenage boys.

Aliyah Gardner is Administrative Support Specialist at The Welcoming Center.

While working for PNC Bank, Aliyah obtained over 16 years of banking, administrative, and management experience.

She attended Gordon Phillips Beauty in the year 2000 and studied to become a teacher of cosmetology. She also owns a business called Be-Love-Li Beauty where she makes and sells handmade cosmetics.

Aliyah’s heart is with helping individuals that live in poverty-stricken communities. Prior to the pandemic, she and her family would go to Love Park in Philadelphia and feed anyone that was hungry, while food supplies lasted. They called themselves, Mobile Blessings.

Someday soon Aliyah plans on going back to school to obtain a bachelor’s degree in sociology with a focus on public health. With this, she plans to open community centers and community gardens in poverty-stricken neighborhoods, upgrading the world in a positive way, one neighborhood at a time.

Ben Goebel is one of the Program Managers of the International Professionals Program. In that capacity, Ben helps make sure that skilled immigrants find the jobs they want in this new country. Ben is a French immigrant living in the United States since 2015 and has lived in Canada, China, and Poland. These international experiences made him go through a lot of barriers that immigrants are facing here. Ben is also heavily involved with the immigrant community of Philadelphia outside of work and graduated from the Immigrant Leadership Institute (ILI) offered by The Welcoming Center. He is part of a group of graduates from the ILI, called I Belong, organizing events all over the city. Ben believes that everyone deserves to be treated fairly and is deeply determined to bring more conversations to feel personally attached to every members of our communities.

Ben lives in Philadelphia with his wife. He loves reading about American history and finding new ways to get involved in his community.

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Peter Gonzales is the President and CEO of The Welcoming Center. Over the past 25 years, Peter has gained valuable experience providing many of the same services we provide at The Welcoming Center. After graduating from the University of Scranton, he was an ESL and U.S. Civics teacher in Poland and South Korea and served as an International Development Fellow at USAID.  After returning to Philadelphia, he managed a community economic development program along a commercial corridor in North Philadelphia while attending law school at Temple University in the evenings. For 10 years, Peter worked as an attorney, first for City of Philadelphia and then in private practice as an immigration attorney prior to joining The Welcoming Center.

As a 2017 Eisenhower Fellow, Peter explored strategies to promote immigrant integration and entrepreneurship in Germany and South Korea.

Peter has completed the Harvard Business School’s Strategic Perspectives in Nonprofit Management program and currently serves on numerous boards including the Douty Foundation, The Merchants Fund, the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, the Global Philadelphia Association, and Philadelphia Works, Inc.

Megan “MJ” Johnson is Executive Assistant at The Welcoming Center.

Elizabeth Jones oversees organizational impact and helps support a learning culture in pursuit of the mission and strategic planning goals. She is responsible for all aspects of monitoring, evaluation, and impact reporting.  She works with program directors to assess need and organizational capacity to deliver program outcomes which uphold the mission and support the relationships of all stakeholders who contribute to shaping the experience of Welcoming Center participants.

Before joining the staff, Elizabeth became familiar with the Welcoming Center by volunteer teaching ESL. For the previous 19 years, she was a founding partner in an architecture and urban planning firm where she worked extensively in community development. Through these experiences Elizabeth gained a keen understanding for the complexities of urban communities and overlapping priorities of various groups, and helped clients develop community-driven projects and sustainable methods for decision-making.

Elizabeth proudly serves on the board of East West InterKnit, a partnership ministry serving those in need around the world.  In her free time she works on writing projects, cooks, travels out of her comfort zone, creates playlists with her kids, learns French, and takes long walks in the city.

Elizabeth has a Bachelor of Arts in Geography from the University of Missouri, Kansas City, a Master of Arts in Geography from Temple University, and a CELTA (Cambridge Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults).

Louise Bittout is the Communications Coordinator for The Welcoming Center. She is a recent graduate from Concordia University in Montreal. Louise is the proud child of immigrants. Her parents are originally from France but are also from immigrant families. Her father is Algerian, and her mother is Spanish.

Last year, Louise traveled to France to visit her family. During her stay, she spent time with her grandmother who told her countless stories of her life in Algeria and her decision to immigrate to France for her children. Louise learned about her Amazigh culture which greatly inspired her to work with immigrants once she graduated.

Immigrant stories have always been a close and important aspect of Louise’s life, thus leading her to The Welcoming Center. She hopes she can help immigrants in new ways that weren’t always available to her family. Louise also hopes to find a way to give a voice to children of immigrants during her time at The Welcoming Center.

 Jessica A. Levy is the Director of ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages), responsible for English language development and digital literacy training activities across all program areas at The Welcoming Center.

For many years, Jessica has worked at the intersections of education, the arts, and civic engagement. With over twenty years in the nonprofit & public sectors, she has designed and implemented civic participation initiatives, arts-based community programs, and a variety of education, service, and advocacy events. She was a Founding Partner of The Blue Door Group, a Philadelphia-based consulting company focused on deepening learning and strengthening collaboration through interactive and participatory process design and facilitation.

Jessica’s work has included immigrant rights organizing, community education, and using drama-based approaches to learning and community-building. Jessica has taught graduate-level courses in experiential learning and arts-integrated education with the UPenn’s Graduate School of Education and ESOL and Citizenship classes at District 1199C Training & Upgrading Fund. Her work in English language education has also included developing a curriculum for and co-teaching an Integrated Education and Training (IET) Home Health Aide training program for adult English Language Learners (ELLs). She also designed and taught drama-based ESOL classes for ELLs at Temple University’s Center for American Language and Culture. Jessica brings a strong interest in the role of creativity, arts, and design in learning; and in the role of education / training in supporting community, collaboration, and civic engagement.

You can email Jessica to get in touch with her!

Nicole Marcote is a Philadelphia native who moved to Spain as a small child, spending most of her youth in the Basque Country. She returned to the U.S. to complete her last year of High School in California, with the intent of returning back to Spain, but after a semester at Santa Monica Community College she knew she would miss the multicultural aspect the U.S. offers and decided to stay, later completing her university degree in English Literature at UCSC.

She arrived to Philadelphia, via NYC where she worked as a translator and web producer. She owned and operated a food business on Girard Avenue for seven years, and some of her entrepreneurial passions include being on the lookout for new opportunities, visual merchandising and networking.

She recently worked at the School District of Philadelphia as a Language Access Coordinator where she supported multilingual families in navigating a new education system and providing resources.

She lives in South Kensington with her husband and two young children.

Magda Martinez is Chief Operating Officer at The Welcoming Center.

Manuel Portillo started in The Welcoming Center in 2014 as Director of the Immigrant Professionals Program to help unemployed and underemployed individuals to develop the skills necessary to access professional employment. He is currently the Director of Community Engagement working to develop participatory strategies to build trust and long-term relationships with participants and immigrant communities.

He is a seasoned non-profit leader who comes to The Welcoming Center after a substantive career in non-profit program development. Manuel is a 25-year Philadelphia resident who is originally from Guatemala and is well-traveled and experienced working with people of diverse cultural and language backgrounds. He is a long-time professional organizer working to address local issues while building immigrant social and economic inclusion.

He worked on developing The Welcoming Center’s Participant Advisory Council and a consultative structure to strengthen listening inside the organizations and sound collective decision making. He is currently leading the design and implementation of the Immigrant Leadership Institute, a program offered by The Welcoming Center where he works on strategic civic participation, innovative approaches to civic engagement, and building inclusive partnerships and policies.

He is currently a member of the Working Families Partnership, a project of AFL-CIO in Philadelphia.

Rebecca Rathje joined The Welcoming Center in 2015. She earned her B.A. in Social Science from the University of Michigan and holds a Certificate in Fundraising from the Nonprofit Center at LaSalle University’s School of Business. Rebecca has over 25 years’ experience in non-profit fundraising and management.

Maureen Smith is Program Manager for the Immigrant Leadership Institute at The Welcoming Center.

Maureen is a committed community development professional with a commitment for supporting immigrants, refugees and the community through empowerment, social support, and friendship. She has worked in community assistance for refugee and unaccompanied refugee minors with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Kenya and Botswana. She is knowledgeable in refugee foster care support and community resource development through her work at Bethany Christian Services and a fifiteen year background working with vulnerable communities in Kenya, Botswana and the U.S. through social assistance, support and training.

Bilingual in Swahili and English, Maureen holds a Bachelor of Arts in Community Development and Psychology from Daystar University Kenya with an added creative passion for art and design. She is also a graduate of the second cohort of The Welcoming Center’s Immigrant Leadership Institute and has served on the Participant Advisory Council. Maureen is dedicated, with a heart of encouraging others to realize their potential, utilize their skills in working together towards making a desired difference in our community.

Linlin Wang (she/her/hers) is the coordinator of the ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) & Digital Skills Training program. Dedicating to language education, Linlin has extensive teaching and administrative experience in programs serving diverse students of all ages and cultural backgrounds. Having worked in public, private, and higher education sectors, Linlin has always enjoyed the most supporting immigrants since she first came to the U.S. in 2014. Linlin has many personal interests such as arts and crafts, cooking, baking, wiffle ball, badminton, board games, (cute) video games, among others. Linlin is also a mom of two cats, one chinchilla, and two hamsters.