Staff Bios

(Simply click on any name below to send an e-mail to that Hogar team member.)

Allison Corbett
Manager, Education Services
Allison is a Virginia native returning to her home state after a year of teaching ESL at the community learning center, Universidad Popular, in Chicago.  Allison graduated from the College of William and Mary in 2009 with a degree in both Hispanic Studies and American Studies. She has been working with the US Latino immigrant community since she was seventeen years old, when her passion for adult education began. She spent her college years volunteering as an adult ESL teacher/interpreter and traveling to places like Nicaragua, Mexico, Argentina, and Chile, as well as a stint on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. Allison fell a little more in love with Spanish with each successive trip. She enjoys cooking, dancing, running, yoga, climbing indoor rock walls (not ever having tried the real thing), and reading endless amounts of books. She one day hopes to grow her own food.

Brooke Hammond Pérez
Program Director, Education Services
Brooke came to Hogar after months volunteering at the Asociación Rumiňahui Hispano-Ecuatoriana, an organization that works with immigrants in Madrid, Spain.  Brooke received an MA in International Development, with a concentration in NGOs and Civil Society, from the University of Pittsburgh in 2009.  She focused much of her graduate education on development efforts to immigrant groups and conducted research on the feminization of Ecuadorian migration to Spain.  Brooke also received a BA in Spanish and a BA in International Affairs from James Madison University in 2005.  After completing her undergraduate education, she lived and worked in Spain for two years at the Education Department of Madrid.  Born and raised in Charlottesville, VA, Brooke now lives with her husband, Iker, in Arlington.  Brooke enjoys traveling, watching movies, and salsa dancing in her free time.

Carla Perantoni Walsh
Manager, Education Services
Carla has lived in the Washington DC area since her student days at Georgetown University, where she earned her BA in Government.  After working in the Carter administration and graduating from Catholic University Law School, she practiced law for a number of years before turning to nonprofit program work, in which she has been engaged since 2005.  At Hogar she is enjoying working with immigrant communities for the first time, and is even picking up a little Spanish!  Carla has two grown sons and finds time to play the piano, study Italian and indulge her passion for opera.

Chelsy Weber
Staff Attorney, Legal Services
Chelsy joined Hogar after spending several months as a volunteer attorney at Just Neighbors Immigration Legal Services, where she worked after deciding to enter non-profit immigration practice.  Prior to Just Neighbors, Chelsy worked in white-collar criminal litigation in the DC office of Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP.  She attended law school at the University of Colorado in Boulder, and received her Bachelor’s degree from George Washington University.  Chelsy is from northwestern Montana and now lives with her husband, Jeff, and two dogs in Virginia.  She enjoys hiking, skiing, and music.

Christie Turner-Herbas
Staff Attorney, Legal Services
Christie joined Hogar after completing a fellowship at the National Women’s Law Center in Washington where she researched and co-authored a report on barriers to high school graduation faced by Latina women. Christie attended law school at the University of Texas at Austin where she participated in the school’s immigration law clinic. Her immigration experience also includes internships at the Spanish Catholic Center in DC, the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees (UNHCR), and the Political Asylum Project in Austin. Christie was born and raised in New Hampshire and now lives with her husband, Mauricio, in Washington. She enjoys cooking and spending time with Harry, her Welsh Corgi.

Cindy Brown
BIA Accredited Representative, Legal Services
Cindy began working with Hogar’s Education Services department in December 2006 and transitioned in 2008 to the Legal Services team as a paralegal.  Having studied Latin America and the Spanish language at the College of William and Mary, Cindy has dedicated herself to the advancement of immigrants in the US through past positions in social work and teaching English to speakers of other languages.  Cindy’s strong Loudoun County roots have not stopped her from traveling the world.  Highlights of her travels include teaching stints in Nicaragua and the Czech Republic.

Enrique Vargas
BIA Accredited Representative, Legal Services
Enrique was born in Bolivia and came to live in the United States three decades ago.  Motivated by his love of helping the diverse population of immigrants in northern Virginia, Enrique has worked in the immigration legal field for more than twenty years. In his spare time, Enrique enjoys reading, soccer, swimming, biking, basketball, and tennis.  In addition to his full-time job as a paralegal at Hogar, Enrique occasionally "moonlights" as a deejay.

Krupskaya Elliott
Citizenship Education Manager
Krupskaya is originally from Nicaragua, where she studied Business Administration at the Universidad Centroamericana.  She later worked for The National Democratic Institute (NDI), an organization that provides developmental support to civic organizations working with different political parties and embassies in Nicaragua.  After NDI, Krupskaya moved to the US with her new husband; and, in 2006, they started graduate school in Ohio.  In 2008, Krupskaya did a study abroad in Cuenca, Ecuador where she obtained a certificate in Teaching English as a Second and Foreign Language from the Center for Interamerican Studies.  After finishing grad school in 2009, Krupskaya began working as an interpreter for Health Partners of Western Ohio in the New Carlisle branch— a satellite clinic mainly providing services for Latin American farm workers.  In her spare time, Krupskaya likes reading books by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and watching “Harry Potter” movies.  She also loves dancing.  She and her husband, Michael, are the proud parents of a newborn son.

Lisa Ehm Waller
Manager, Education Services
Lisa joined Hogar after volunteering here as an ESL teacher for three semesters. Previously, Lisa worked primarily in the behavioral health field as a case manager for people with severe mental disorders and as a lead teacher for adults with IDD and Autism. She also worked as office manager and house manager for the Gerald W. Lynch Theater in NYC.  In 2003, Lisa received her MA in Forensic Psychology from John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. She also has an AA in Anthropology. Lisa grew up in Sweden and Austria and came to the US for the first time in 1995.  She now lives in Alexandria with her husband, Matt. In her free time, Lisa enjoys reading, writing, and arts and crafts.

Lorraine LaVia
Office Manager
Lorraine comes to Hogar after a 10-year hiatus from work to be at home with her son.  Before parenthood, she worked for 14 years at the Congressional Research Service in the Library of Congress.  Originally from Pennsylvania, Lorraine came to the DC area to attend the University of Maryland where she received a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish (including one year of study in Spain) and a Masters in Administration.  In her free time, Lorraine enjoys art, reading, needlework, and biking.

Mary Brittingham
Program Director, Legal Services
Mary Brittingham joined the Hogar Staff in November 2011 as the Program Director for Hogar's legal services program. Most recently, she was the Executive Director of DC Law Students In Court Program. Prior to that, she was a former associate professor of clinical law at GWU Law School and a visiting associate professor at Georgetown University Law Center. Originally from Puerto Rico, Mary moved to Washington, DC to attend law school and has never left. She began her legal career at AYUDA where she became the managing attorney. A volunteer ESL teacher, Mary is very happy to be back in the immigration legal community again. Mary lives in Washington, DC with her husband and has two grown children, both of whom live in DC.

Mike Elliott
Immigration Paralegal
Originally from Wyoming, Mike actually moved from Ohio in order to join the Hogar team. While in Ohio, Mike spent two years working with the Migrant Farmworker and Immigration Program of the Advocates for Basic Legal Equality, where he served as a paralegal and outreach coordinator to primarily Spanish-speaking migrant farmworkers. Prior to his work there, Mike completed a Master’s degree in Latin American Studies at Ohio University and an internship with a non-governmental development organization in Cuenca, Ecuador.  Mike's desire to work with the Spanish-speaking community grew out of his time as an Environmental Education volunteer with the Peace Corps in rural Nicaragua. It was during his Peace Corps service that Mike met the love of his life-- fellow "Hogarian", Krupskaya Elliott. The couple live with Krupskaya’s family in Woodbridge and are proud parents of a son born in February 2011.

Nancy Carbajal
Receptionist
Nancy was born in Peru and has lived in the United States since 1982. She has been Hogar's receptionist since 1991, making her the longest-serving member of the Hogar team. Nancy loves working at Hogar because she gets the opportunity to help people every day. Nancy currently lives in Arlington with her husband and three of her four daughters. She is also a grandmother of two. Nancy loves dancing salsa and merengue and visiting the beach.

Richard Eldridge
Citizenship Volunteer Manager

Richard grew up in Falls Church until he left for college and then returned to the area in 1993. After college he was commissed as an officer in the US Navy and travelled extensively worldwide. He lived in Central and South America for almost eight years where he honed his Spanish language skills. He travelled throughout all of Latin America, in addition to much of the Caribbean, Europe, the Middle East and western Africa. He currently works as an engineer for an international telecommunications provider. Richard has a deep passion to help the immigrant community. Most recently he ran a program for ex-offenders in Arlington (including many immigrants) helping them obtain employment and learn other life skills. He holds a BA from Duke University and an MA from George Washington University. In his spare time he likes to cook, collect stamps and he volunteers as a job coach with an employment program in Falls Church. He lives in Falls Church with his family.