Board of Directors
La Mesa Directiva

I recently retired from teaching after 24 years at the College of Architecture and Planning at the University of Colorado Denver and CU-Boulder. Over the past seven or eight years I worked extensively in Westwood and other Colorado communities through CU-Boulder’s Community Engagement Design and Research Center (CEDaR). CEDAR brought teams of students and faculty to the Westwood neighborhood to support many collaborative projects from playground and street design to measurement of urban heat.

At the University of Colorado I held administrative appointments including Chair of the Urban and Regional Planning Department, Co-Director of the Environmental Design Program, and Founding Director of CEDaR. Prior to the University of Colorado I worked in state and federal government for 18 years as a policy manager and director of grant, loan and technical assistance programs for community organizations. I am currently Associate Professor Emeritus of Environmental Design at CU Boulder and research, write and consult on urban planning topics.

I have a passion for community building, active living, collaborative partnerships, and sustainability. I have worked for the City & County of Denver for 10 years, currently serving as Senior Program Manager of Health Equity & Community Partnerships with the Department of Transportation & Infrastructure. In that role, I manage $2M of grant funds for programs that focus on catalyzing policy, infrastructure, and educational programs in active transportation and sustainability to improve health and safety outcomes for Denver residents. I am also an artist and event planner, and have utilized my creativity in various local projects from intersection murals to community block parties. I have walked and biked all over Denver’s beautiful and diverse neighborhoods but call Westwood my home for over 10 years. I've lived in the Denver area my whole life, and my grandparents grew up in Westwood. My passions and skills lie in community organizing, equity-centered civic engagement, tactical urbanism, grant writing and administration, and leadership development.

I’m a retired school teacher who taught in Denver Public Schools for 25 years. I taught at Castro Elementary from 2017 to 2023, in the Westwood neighborhood as an ELA-S 4th grade bilingual teacher. Currently, I am a founding member and president of Dong Ngo’s Cycling Pals, a bicycle non-profit that co-host bike events at Title-1 schools. 
I first learned about Westwood Unidos when I volunteered to support their bicycle library at Garfield Park. I’ve worked as the volunteer bicycle mechanic for Westwood Unidos bicycle library for 4-years. During my time there I’ve provided bike safety checks for the bikes of the library, offered free bike repair to the Westwood community through the library and at our bike events at Castro Elementary. I have also been able to get bicycles donated to the library from another organization and a friend. I have taught basic bicycle repair to the students who have worked at the library, and for those students who join the Bike Club at Castro Elementary. 
I welcome the opportunity to serve on the Westwood Unidos Board. As a past teacher of the Westwood neighborhood and current supporter of Westwood Unidos bicycle library. I am dedicated to help unify and organize the Westwood community to advocate for what are their most important needs as citizens of the community.

Sarahi Hernandez has dedicated much of her professional career to creating safe spaces and advocating for both youth and immigrant communities. As a student leader at Metropolitan State University of Denver, she was able to bridge advocacy with cultural pride and communal healing. Through her work in both non-profit and service industry, she found a calling in being of service to others. Now, as a Creative Operations Director at Hecho en Westwood, Sarahi supports programming and opportunities for youth to engage in arts, culture, and activism. Sarahi is a dreamer, a creative, a hip hop head, a beer nerd, and finds comfort in films from the golden age of Mexican cinema. Sarahi has embraced the many lives she's lived, that have become the connections that guide her work within comunidad.

Cecilia Sandoval has lived in Westwood for eighteen years and has four children. She has been involved in the work of Westwood Unidos as a volunteer leader for thirteen years beginning with a campaign to clean up the neighborhood, and she continues to stay committed to this goal currently organizing neighbors and working on a small grant application through the Denver Foundation’s Strengthening Neighborhood program. Her overall vision for the organization is that it continues to work to create a neighborhood that is a safe place for children where there are no longer any murders, drugs, gangs, etc.