Meet the Advisory Board!
Dalila Lopez
Dalila Lopez is an active member, energized by our commitment to resist harmful policies affecting our communities. Her passion and commitment continue to grow as she takes on roles of leading action against bad politicians. She brings creativity and new ideas to every space she engages in.
She was born in the State of Nayarit, Mexico. Her parents are both from families that grew their own food like corn, beans, chiles and cucumbers; they separated when she was little. Her single mother was in debt and moved to the US to the state of California to work in the fields, 1 ½ years later they were all here together. She finished High School in Delano CA and was married for 11 yrs. She as 4 children, all adults now, and 1 grandson.
She was living in a world where she believed being involved was just people voting. After she signed a petition for Driver Licenses for All, she went to a community meeting of COPA’s legacy organization, Rights for All People. Dalila was in awe of this new world of organizing and teaching each other to build power. She was amazed to learn that there were a lot of humans interested in the problems of her community and looking for ways to help. And dedicating big parts of their lives to Social Justice! Ever since she tries to be involved as much as she can and invite others to do so. She has seen friends and activists scream, cry, demand, get arrested, call, write, show up, travel and fall asleep of exhaustion for what they believe in and to fight against an injustice.
Hobbies: “I like to read, spend time with my family, and make and learn about home remedies for my aches and pains. Also sometimes giving my unwanted not-asked-for opinion about injustices is my hobby.”
Michaela Miller
Michaela Miller is an educator living in southwest Denver and chair of the Membership Committee within the Advisory Board of COPA. She grew up in the Silicon Valley in a 2nd generation, bicultural and education-driven family and has since moved to Denver with a passion for immigrant justice, cooperative living, and QTPOC liberation. She has witnessed first-hand the degradation of our communities by the capitalist system and its subsequent broken education and immigration systems. She has also experienced the challenges of living and working within the gentrified and cut-throat Denver economy. For that reason, she has co-founded Ladies of the Lake Community House, a cooperative residence that centers the voices of queer and POC voices and culture in the Athmar Park neighborhood. She now seeks to start a tutoring cooperative called, I Am Me, building on her values of cooperatives, to grow a Queer and POC cooperatively-owned education business and is excited to see what direction it will take in years to come.
Michaela spent her first 2 years with COPA working on the immigrant justice committee and in December, 2018, decided to step-up as chair of the membership committee to build a movement within COPA around membership retainment and well-being, with a trauma-informed and racial justice lens. She hopes the membership committee can also become a member-led force for member recruitment in the coming year. COPA’s work is vital for our Colorado communities and Michaela feels that without consistent and thriving membership, we cannot achieve our rapidly-growing goals.
Hobbies: “My #1 hobby is bike touring. I have biked from Oaxaca, Oaxaca to San Cristobal, Chiapas, as well as across Oaxaca, from the city to the coast. Next, I hope to find the right crew to accompany me across the Rockies, carrying all necessary gear on the bike’s caboose. Interested in joining me!? Let’s go!”
Eduardo Gomez
Eduardo Gomez is a leader with COPA, as a member Eduardo has contributed to the Immigrant Justice movement and is now part of the Advisory Board. Eduardo was born in the state of Aguascalientes, México. At the age of 9, Eduardo migrated to the United States in the year 2001 with hopes for a better life. Along with the rest of his family he arrived to his new home, Denver, Colorado. Eduardo is an undocumented student and Dreamer. At the age of 15 he realized what the real real effects of living as an undocumented immigrant in the United States were; something as simple as not being able to obtain a driver’s license, work or travel for the fear of deportation were just some of the obstacles he had learned about at a young age.
Eduardo is now actively involved in the pursuit of immigrant justice with COPA. Eduardo believes that a connected community, is a strong community. Eduardo believes in spreading awareness to the immigrant community to empower those without a voice. Eduardo plans to change the narrative surrounding undocumented immigrants, his message to those in power is simple: immigrants deserve to to be treated with respect and dignity, not because of what they can contribute but because they are human beings regardless of their status.
Eduardo is currently enrolled at Arapahoe Community College, he is pursuing a degree in Cultural Anthropology. His goal is to be able to connect this studies to immigrant justice and the improvement of his community.
Hobbies: “My favorite activities are hiking, rock climbing, and photography. I enjoy any activity that has to do with the outdoors, I love climbing mountains during the summer and diving in cold water in a mountain lake. You can also find me searching for the best coffee in town at any given night.”
Kobi Love
Kobi Love is a winter baby arriving to Earth in Detroit Michigan in the late 1980’s. Originally born Jaimes Michael to a 25 year young married couple June & James. Said to be named after his Dad & eldest uncle James, a.k.a. Black King or Suave. As for the name Michael, his Mom said it was given after the biblical archangel.
His early childhood was molded by experiences of hearing audio cassettes and airwaves that were blasting “Fight the Power”, “F the Police”, & “We’re All In The Same Gang”. He was shaped by experiences of seeing Denzel Washington live out brother Malcolm’s image on the big screen while seeing countless older guys wearing cool leather X jackets. Living in America’s largest Blackest metropolitan area in the country, these were times of great pride and potential. Unfortunately due to the effects of trauma from enslavement, the ongoing holocaust of the enslaved, the political tyranny of the enslavers and the policies from the 50’s all the way up to Bush’s new world order speech of September 11th, 1991. Instead of witnessing his city reach its potential, he ended up seeing segregated poverty and pain. This was a time where young Jaimes was subconsciously being driven deeper into a vivid tale about a “war in heaven”. His “Mama” as he called her, ensured that he acted, felt and lived divinely. But his environment reflected nothing but an attempted genocide. Was the devil real and “who is God?” were not just questions of young curiosity or philosophy. To this child they seemed like questions of survival.
Given the choice on wear to attend kindergarten, he picked Marcus Garvey Academy and enrolled in what he considers the greatest school he could have ever attended. He would go on to stay from kindergarten and grade school all the way until graduation, which was not allowed until going through a mandatory Rights of Passage. After Rights of Passage he was officially given his cultural title & manhood name of Kobi. Now armed with knowledge of Self and an ambition to arm other youth with authentic inner power, Kobi would go on to become President of the student council. Before receiving a vocational trade as a resident of Detroit Job Corps, he became Vice President of the male dormitory at 18. After traveling to Denver, at just 20 years young, Kobi’s desires and abilities to lead his peers gained him employment at a youth center that catered to youth ages 16-24. Despite his age, he led the other youth formally and informally by facilitating men’s group classes, creating a homeless youth resource guide and writing a hip hop curriculum for Hip Hop Class. The center closed after falling to the effects of the Great Recession, non-profit business mismanagement and uncaring local politics.
After the youth center Kobi literally met the woman of his dreams and went on to have 5 sons in what some would describe fairytale fashion. In the last 10 years Kobi has created a functioning framework for a centralized community government, employed over a dozen felons over a stretch of 4 years, and used a labor company created under that same community government to provide west African countries with over 1 million pairs of used and donated shoes. Kobi has knocked on tens of thousands of doors canvassing to better the overall economic and political knowledge of the general public. As well as served on the Board of Directors of Black United Fund Colorado and as Chancellor of the Tribunal Council for United Black America.
Hobbies: “My hobbies are always filled with some sort of laughter & learning. The best of things is honestly just spending time with my wife & children, especially when we’re being creative together. Eating plant-based recipes of the comfort foods I grew up on while sitting around constructively chatting with my sons is the paradise on Earth that I’ve been allowed to experience.”