Our Team

DR. Saudi Garcia

Dr. Saudi Garcia is a queer Dominican immigrant and the Executive Director of In Cultured Company. She is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology who investigates the synergy between industrial pollution and climate change in the Dominican Republic to better understand the shape of environmental and medical injustice in the Caribbean region. At the age of nineteen, Dr. Garcia began her training as a facilitator and social transformation practitioner with the Minority Peer Counseling program at her alma mater, Brown University. Between 2015 and 2018, she volunteered for the collective We are All Dominican, an organization working to secure the citizenship of persons impacted by the TC-168-13 denationalization sentence in the Dominican Republic. She also formed part of La Sala, a collective of Dominican women using arts, cultural activism and healing methodologies to decolonize Dominican identity. This work led her to join In Cultured Company in 2018. Dr. Garcia has written about the early years of In Cultured Company, the lessons learned from this transnational, transcultural activism, and the potential pathways ahead for Dominicans and Haitians seeking reconciliation and reparations. She enjoys exercise, yoga, surfing and spending time with her extended family (especially her young nieces and nephews).

Dr. Evan Auguste

Evan Auguste, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Massachusetts Boston. His identities as a Haitian-African American man have informed his work on examining how the U.S.’s history of anti-Blackness has shaped psychological realities both in and outside of the country’s borders. His work focuses broadly on addressing the mental health consequences of structural anti-Blackness through the lens of Black liberation psychology. To date his research has primarily examined these experiences among recent Haitian migrants to the United States as well as justice-involved Black boys. He also focuses on developing and piloting anti-carceral and community-based health interventions, such as the Association of Black Psychologists’ Sawubona Healing Circles, which he co-developed, to promote healing from an African-centered framework.

Isabel reyes

Isabel Reyes (she/they) is a first-generation Afro-Dominican from the Bronx and a graduate of the University of Chicago where she studied Sociology and Critical Race and Ethnic Studies, with a specialization in Black and Latinx Studies. In the past, she has worked in Sociology and Public Policy labs that investigated themes of gerrymandering, housing inequality, and social exclusion in Chicago. Isabel is currently a research assistant in education and the Research and Communications Specialist at In Cultured Company. For their BA Thesis, Isabel researched what racial frameworks and ethnic options Afro-Dominicans in New York City must navigate to identify as Black. Isabel has also led workshops and given presentations on several topics related to Blackness, including topics like the history of reggaeton and anti-blackness, understanding Afro-Latinidad in the U.S. racial context, and discussing experiences as children of immigrants.

Jean Semelfort, Jr., M.A, LPC

Jean Semelfort, Jr., M.A, LPC is a licensed professional counselor in the State of New Jersey. He has been an advocate, educator and clinician for 15+ years, merging feminist principles with his clinical skills to address issues surrounding domestic violence, sexual assault, and trauma. Jean is the founder of the Cactus Center LLC, a private practice where he provides individual, family and couples psychotherapy, specifically sensitive to the needs of people of color. Because of his work, Semelfort has been invited to speak and guest lecture at colleges and universities across the country. He has presented his leading program, Rolling with Rejection (RwR) on the TEDx stage, as well as countless professional conferences. Jean served as the co-lead for New Jersey’s Safe and Inclusive Learning Environment Taskforce, a consultant for NJ’s Partnership for Change, and a Train the Trainer for hundreds of students. Due to his dynamic areas of expertise, he was featured on The Boris Lawrence Henson Foundation’s media publications, founded by American actress and producer, Taraji P. Henson to eradicate the stigma around mental health issues in the African-American community. Jean began this work at Ramapo College of New Jersey’s Women’s Center, engaging men on campus on the intersections between unhealthy characteristics of masculinity and gender based violence. He has continued to work with individuals on developing healthier ideas of masculinity in various settings ranging from schools to prisons. Jean received his Masters degree in Counseling Psychology at the College of Saint Elizabeth, and Bachelor's degree in Psychology from Ramapo College. Jean is dedicated to continuing his work towards challenging problematic structures of masculinity and helping men and women develop healthier identities.

Awilda Reinoso Lopez

Awilda Reinoso Lopez holds her Bachelor's in Economics from Clark University and a Masters's in Urban Education Policy from Brown University. She has over 8 years of professional experience working and advocating for systemic change, social justice, and equity on behalf of the BIPOC Community, through education policy, strategic planning, grantmaking, community empowerment, economic mobility, leadership representation, and advocacy. She is passionate about creating spaces for black and brown communities to tell our own stories. Awilda believes in lifting our existence and amplifying our narratives and journey. Her work primarily focuses on the design for liberation of our people by pioneering innovative ways of teaching decolonized mindfulness, community empowerment, financial literacy, wealth, and overall healing/wellness for the BIPOC population through a culturally relevant and equitable lens. She is a certified Reiki master and mindset wellness facilitator. Awilda's natural healing work is done through mindset coaching, mindful journaling, reiki energy, chakra clearing & alignment, sound healing, deep guided meditations, and intuitive readings. Her wellness work is rooted in decolonized spirituality, self-compassion, and principles based on the law of attraction. Through these healing modalities, she focuses on changing people's limiting beliefs in order to live an authentic life. She will support you with finding healing and whole-body wellness through your work on self-discovery, helping you to deepen the connection you have with yourself. In 2019, she founded the company Amorosa Wellness to empower people to master holistic healing and self-love through energy work and spiritual guidance particularly BIPOC communities.”

Yaira Matos

Yaira Matos is a Dominican-American independent researcher, artist and internationalist organizer based in Massachusetts. She is currently a Collective Futures Fund grantee commissioning and sourcing narrative pieces and visual art about place and the impact of generational trauma within the Dominican diaspora to pair with contemporary multi-media documentation of grassroots organizing around the environment, gender and race in the Dominican Republic from Dominican people on the island. As a method to build political consciousness through the articulation of the interrelation of the shared experiences of displacement, oppression, poverty and violence, this project will exist to assert the visibility of those shaping the transformation of the island and inspire those abroad to engage in the transformation in their local place. The Decolonizing Hispaniola workshop drove the conception of this project and continues to inform its editorial direction in order to challenge the historical erasure, current misinformation campaigns and ongoing repression of the demands of Dominican organizers for reproductive, racial and environmental justice. Through teaching, archive building and community building we continue to build a new pathway for the Dominican diaspora to walk on, led by the Island.

Past  Members

France François

France François (she/her) is the Founder and CEO of In Cultured Company. She is a multi-passionate writer, activist, and change agent transforming communities of color around the globe by redefining the way their stories are told and how we impact their lives. After the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, she left Egypt, where she had been working with refugees, to return to her country of birth. France worked on social issues in international development projects in post-earthquake Haiti, acting as a conduit for getting the voice of the community to decision-makers and helping the resources of decision makers flow to communities to make a direct impact. She has also organized extensively on human rights issues in the Dominican Republic. Throughout her career, France has been a leading voice shaping how policymakers, tech companies, and the public address  aid accountability, social inclusion and equity, justice, immigration, and human rights issues. France's expertise is a draw for media outlets, including MSNBC, CNN, Huffington Post, Ebony, Latino USA, The Miami Herald, and in the Washington Post.

Alexis Francisco

Alexis Francisco (He/Him) lives and works at the intersections of spirituality, healing and social change work. Dominican born and raised in Washington Heights and the Bronx, he is a Black Latinx organizer, educator, and currently serves as Assistant Pastor at New Day Church, a Bronx based faith community committed to connecting with God authentically, crossing boundaries and confronting social injustice. He received a Masters in Social Work from Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College and is engaged in community organizing that aims to improve the material conditions of Bronxites and shift the dynamics of power and oppression in New York City.  He is currently a Masters in Divinity student at Union Theological Seminary where he focuses on the intersections of spirituality and healing.