Karen Vigneault is a member of the Iipay Nation of Santa Ysabel which is located in the mountains of San Diego, Ca. She attended San Diego State University (2001), Drexel University (2008).Karen has been a lesbian native activist for 32 years. She was the co leader of nations of the 4 directions. Southern California’s first LGBT organization .She was awarded the Soroptimists Women Making A Difference Award 2007. She was inducted into the San Diego Women's Hall of Fame in 2008 She was awarded the DURGA award in 2010. Karen has been a speaker and presenting about her culture for over 32 years. Karen currently works as a librarian, as well as offers her research skills for free to Native American adoptees. She has helped Native adoptees navigate their way through acquiring legal help using ICWA law, helping to get their records opened, locating families and helping them navigate through getting their tribal enrollment paperwork.

Jesus D. Mendez Carbajal is a 21-year-old undocumented, queer, Chicano, immigrant, college student, and community organizer born to Mexican immigrant parents in Acapulco, Guerrero, Mexico. Jesus grew up in North Park and Golden Hill, where he still lives today with his family. Jesus is a third year transfer student at San Diego State University majoring in Chicana and Chicano Studies. He graduated from the Preuss School UCSD in 2010 and received his Associates of Arts degree in Social and Behavioral Sciences from San Diego Mesa College. Jesus is committed to his local and global community and is determined to become an educator bringing ethnic studies, gender and sexuality and history together. He hopes to one day write and publish his poetry in a book among others to empower and motivate his multiple communities. Jesus looks to change the world one step at a time, one small task at a time, by changing himself first.

Speakers: Saturday, May 3

Mia Mingus is a writer, community educator and organizer working for disability justice and transformative justice responses to child sexual abuse. She identifies as a queer physically disabled Korean woman transracial and transnational adoptee, born in Korea, raised in the Caribbean, nurtured in the U.S. South, and now living on the west coast.  She works for community, interdependency and home for all of us, not just some of us, and longs for a world where disabled children can live free of violence, with dignity and love.  As her work for liberation evolves and deepens, her roots remain firmly planted in ending sexual violence.