Our Leadership
Board of Directors
The dedicated individuals who guide our mission and ensure our communities are served with wisdom, integrity, and care.
Nicole K Rojas
Executive Director
Nicole Rojas has dedicated more than 26 years to walking alongside children, youth, families, and communities throughout Los Angeles County. Her journey began through community organizing and the Chicano movement, where she developed a deep commitment to social justice, cultural identity, and creating opportunities for healing. Over time, that path led her to reconnect more deeply with her Yaqui heritage and the Indigenous teachings that continue to guide both her personal life and professional work. Nicole earned a Bachelor of Arts in Human Development and a Master of Arts in Cultural Family Studies from Pacific Oaks College. Her work has included restorative justice, domestic violence advocacy, gang intervention, youth development, family preservation, human trafficking, reentry, and community-based counseling. Throughout every role, she has remained committed to creating spaces where culture, accountability, and healing come together. Today, Nicole is honored to help steward the vision of the Indigenous Cultural Foundation alongside community members, Elders, relatives, and partners who share a commitment to strengthening Indigenous communities in Los Angeles. She believes that ceremony, cultural identity, language, land, and community are among our greatest sources of healing. Her hope is to help create a lasting place where Indigenous children, youth, families, and future generations can gather to reconnect with culture, strengthen relationships, and carry forward the teachings entrusted to us.
Karina Aguilar
Secretary
Karina Aguilar is a generational practitioner of Curanderismo, born in Mexico City, with ancestral roots in San Luis Potosí, Teotihuacán, and Tenochtitlán. For more than 15 years, she has dedicated herself to preserving and sharing traditional healing practices passed down through generations while continuing to deepen her knowledge through additional healing modalities. Her practice weaves together sobanderismo, sound healing, medicinal plants, and holistic approaches that support mental, spiritual, emotional, and physical wellbeing. Guided by the belief that healing is both personal and collective, Karina creates spaces where individuals can reconnect with balance, resilience, and their own inner wisdom. Her work reflects a lifelong commitment to honoring ancestral traditions while supporting the health and healing of the communities she serves.
Yaotl Mazahua
Treasurer
Yaotl Mazahua is Raramuri/Mazahua and holds a BA in Cultural Anthropology and an MSW and LCSW from CSUN. Yaotl works with probation youth, homeless parolees, incarcerated folks, and children and families. However, working with probation youth is his forte. Yaotl considers himself an Artivist inspired by the Zapatista struggle in Chiapas. He continues healing and enlightenment through music and art. From punk rock to hip hop, to his indigenous roots as a basis for resilience, he survived gang activity and racial violence while sorting out and addressing the ongoing mental health challenges of colonialism, which remains a work in process. Because music saved his life for the better, it inspired a commitment to social justice and decolonizing, he is honored to pay it forward by sharing perspectives via his musical endeavors. Yaotl continues writing and performing social justice music. The Iconoclast, his first band,is an anarcho peace punk band. Aztlan Underground aka Anahuak Underground is an extension of the aforementioned with a focus on decolonization and reconnecting indigenous people as human beings on Mother Earth. Yaotl is also a supervisor children’s social worker, fatherhood group facilitator, music wellness co facilitator at Chino State prison, and aspires to indigenize clinical approaches to wellness.
John "Tino" Torres
Board Member
Tino Torres is a community violence intervention leader, mentor, and advocate with more than 18 years of experience serving youth, families, and communities throughout Los Angeles County. Beginning his career with Soledad Enrichment Action in 2008, he has dedicated his work to violence prevention, gang intervention, crisis response, restorative community engagement, and youth development. Over the years, he has advanced from frontline intervention worker to Program Coordinator, leading multidisciplinary teams serving East Los Angeles, Boyle Heights, El Sereno, Lincoln Heights, La Puente, Pico Rivera, Whittier, Santa Fe Springs, and the San Gabriel Valley. Tino has played a pivotal role in developing community-based intervention strategies, training future intervention professionals, and building collaborative partnerships with schools, community organizations, elected officials, and public agencies. Guided by a commitment to preserving life, strengthening families, and creating opportunities for underserved youth, he continues to champion healing, mentorship, and community-led solutions that promote safer, healthier neighborhoods.
Kanahus Manual
Board Member
Kanahus Manuel is a Secwépemc and Ktunaxa land defender, Indigenous rights advocate, birth keeper, and internationally recognized voice for Indigenous sovereignty. For decades, Kanahus has stood on the frontlines of movements protecting Indigenous territories from extractive industries and unwanted development. She is widely recognized as a leading organizer of the Tiny House Warriors, a land-based movement rooted in Secwépemc law that affirms Indigenous jurisdiction and protects traditional territories from the Trans Mountain Pipeline. Her work reflects a deep commitment to defending the land while strengthening the cultural and spiritual foundations of Indigenous communities. Beyond her work in land defense, Kanahus has become a respected leader in the revitalization of traditional Indigenous hand poke tattooing. Through her dedication to reclaiming this ancestral practice, she has helped bring together traditional tattoo practitioners and artists from Indigenous Nations across Turtle Island, creating gatherings where knowledge, ceremony, cultural teachings, and traditional tattoo practices are shared across generations. These gatherings serve not only as spaces for cultural renewal but also as opportunities to strengthen relationships, honor ancestral traditions, and reaffirm Indigenous identity. As a birth keeper, mother, educator, and cultural leader, Kanahus continues to advocate for Indigenous self-determination in every aspect of life, from birth and family to governance, ceremony, and stewardship of the land. She brings to the Indigenous Cultural Foundation a lifelong commitment to Indigenous resurgence, cultural revitalization, and community-led healing. Her leadership reminds us that protecting the land, restoring culture, and carrying forward ancestral teachings are inseparable responsibilities that ensure future generations inherit both a thriving homeland and a living culture.