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VOTEVOTEVOTEVOTE
What: PUSH Buffalo’s annual meeting is the moment when our community elects board members* and our organization reflects on our achievements over the last year.
When: This year’s annual meeting will be held on Saturday, December 12th from 3-5pm on the virtual platform Zoom to ensure that as many of our members can safely participate as possible.
Access problems? We’ll be working with members who might be part of the digital divide to talk them through how to participate via phone, Facebook live, and other methodologies. You can request special accommodations by emailing harper@pushbuffalo.org.
*You must be a member of PUSH Buffalo to vote in board elections.
Topic: PUSH’s Annual Meeting
Time: Dec 12, 2020 03:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Link: PUSH’s Annual Meeting
Meeting ID: 994 2127 9384
One tap mobile: +19292056099,,99421279384# US (New York)
Dial by your location: +1 929 205 6099 US (New York)
Felicita has been a PUSH member since 2012 and has been on the board since 2013. She is interested in joining the Board of Directors so she can get to know the Board members and understand who she is working with as a PUSH member. Felicita has seen a lot of progress and wants to see how she can help more people. Her favorite thing about PUSH is that it is a group interested in the community. Felicita has been on many other Boards and held many officer positions on these boards. She hopes to bring these skills and experience to the serve on PUSH’s Board. 
Nicolalita Rodriguez is a Licensed Master Social Worker, Community Health Worker and the Director and Founder of Little People’s Victory- a holistic life coaching and consulting company grounded in utilizing dance, movement and somatic practice(s) as culturally empowering tools for community based holistic healing. She became a PUSH member while completing her graduate internship at PUSH, where her work alongside the organizing team and in the GSNC afforded her opportunities and platforms to speak up about the intersectionality our current systems ignore and how this in turn creates health inequity and an overall poor quality of life for our communities.
Nicolalita joined the board of directors Nicolalita in 2016 chairing the Board Development Committee and co-chairing the Racial Justice Committee. Nicolalita has a long personal and professional background and passion working with and advocating for underserved populations, in particular, our youth. She has also been known for her love of dance and Zumba- a passion which she has used to bring together PUSH staff and community members as a way to celebrate culture, wellness, and healing through dance and movement.
Nakia Hock was born and lived on the island of Antigua and Barbuda in the Caribbean Sea with her grandmother Nakia Hock the age of 9 when her parents were finally able to have her emigrate to the United States to reunite with them. She is the first in her family to graduate from high school and is currently pursuing a degree in accounting.
Nakia showed interest in helping others by volunteering with organizations at an early age and has continuously made that a part of her lifestyle. In addition to her numerous volunteer efforts, Nakia is a former employee and current member of PUSH Buffalo, Inc. Nakia served PUSH in her role as Senior Finance Administrator and towards the end of her time with PUSH, as Accounting Manager.
Although Nakia decided to term her employment with PUSH, her heart is still with the organization and the people it serves. She believes in PUSH’s mission and running as a board member, her wants are to learn from the unified current board members and help to empower others through PUSH’s work to build a sustainable future. 
Earning a Master of Arts Degree from the State University of New York at Buffalo, Shirley Sarmiento was conditioned in the European poetic traditions, as all American students, during her formative years of schooling.
Her love of poetry itself drew her close to the works of the greatest poets in that tradition– As with the European poetic tradition; in the 1960s & 70s her passion for poetry drew her to the poetics of the African tradition–poetry bursting with truth and energy—being advanced and advocated by The Black Arts Movement. In all honesty, not totally abandoning her favorite poems by the European poets of that time — she is adept in both traditions with her works skillfully embodying both traditions while throbbing with her own love of life.
Sarmiento is a published poet; however, to tell the truth, she is primarily a writer, a lecturer, and a performance poet. She has worked with over 200 unknown upcoming artists of various mediums, helping them complete their own projects for public viewing. She secured alternative spaces, workshops, and performance places for artists.
Sarmiento has several noteworthy literary and professional accomplishments such as founder of Buffalo Urban Arts, Inc.; editor of Drum Beats (anthology, 1st ed. Urban Arts). The Meeting (play, Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, Black n Blue Theater). The National MAMAPLOOZA (Rustbelt Books); Just Kickin` It (27 week run, Public Cable TV); Beyond Bones (poetry vol ll Fall 2010): Go, Tell Michelle: African American Women Write to the New First Lady (poetry /stage); Nickle City Nights/Voices from Buffalo, New York. Moreover, her poems appear in several Maja Black History Birthday Booklets (MBHBB) and are featured in the booklet titled National Women’s History Month: Impactful Black Women (2019), complied by Black History Historian Dr. Kuda Kuumba for White Rock Missionary Baptist Church, Buffalo, New York. In March 2020 she had her first reading/performance of her original play script “Tolley’s Place” at the New Phoenix Theater/2nd reading/performance at the New McCoy Center. Partnered with Lisa Brown and Jalen Law of “Buffalo’s Own” artist venue. I was very fortunate to have the outstanding actress Verneice Turner(May) for my director.
Muna Abdiraham was born in Somalia and raised in Kenya. She enjoys running and working out. She is currently attending Buffalo State, where she is majoring in Journalism. She has volunteered at PUSH Buffalo for the last couple of years, canvassing about housing and climate justice, as well as registering people to vote. She is particularly passionate about working with youth and would like to sit on the Board of Directors to make sure that they have a voice.
Rachel Fix Dominguez is a Buffalo resident and education researcher. She currently co-chairs the Buffalo Parent Teacher Organization, an all-volunteer group of Buffalo Public School Parents and other community members.
Through her affiliation with BPTO, Rachel has been partnering with PUSH and Our City Builds for the past several years. She belives in an intersectional approch to movement building, where we recognize that both people and ideas benefit from a robust understanding of the complexities of identities and issues.
Her knowledge and experience in the field of education, along with her deep concern for racial equity in schools, bring a valuable lens to PUSH’s work at the intersection of housing and climate justice, as these are enmeshed struggles.
