Sarah Caldera Wimmer, LCSW, is the Director of Emotional & Physical Wellness at LifeWise StL. Sarah has her Master in Social Work degree from Washington University in St. Louis and over 15 years of nonprofit experience specializing in working with immigrants, mental health, perinatal behavioral health, social capital and community building. She is passionate about building inclusive communities that reflect the vibrancy of those living in them. She is fluent in Spanish and has worked alongside immigrants in St. Louis using specialized interventions for emotional wellness for community, groups, and individuals. Prior to moving to St. Louis, Sarah lived and worked in Ciudad Sandino, Nicaragua. She received her certificate in Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorders Components of Care. She is trained in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Trauma Recovery and Empowerment Model, Protective Parenting, and Motivational Interviewing. Sarah has also completed the Leadership Academy for Trauma-Informed Care.

Aya Kawasaki (they, them) is an EMDR-certified therapist interested in cultural sensitivity, trauma, and mindfulness.  They are affiliated with Multicultural Counseling and Research Center in St. Louis City.  Aya is an immigrant from Japan and has been active in Immigrant Service Provider Network since 2016 and served multiple leadership roles, including the co-convener.  They currently serve as Interim Co-convener.  They are also involved in Casa de Salud Mental Health Collaborative and the Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP). 

Anne is the founder and lead consultant of Together, Language. After a fourteen-year career in public education starting at the southern border and coming north to Saint Louis, Anne helps schools and educational institutions create more welcoming and accessible environments for multilingual students and their families. She works with leadership to ensure that information and relationships are accessible across all languages -- not just on paper, but in daily practice. Anne loves to see the many unexpected benefits educators, families and students experience once schools make improvements in this area. Anne is fluent in Spanish, proficient in Portuguese, and has experience working alongside local nonprofits in Honduras, Mexico, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua. She is passionate about ensuring that families, no matter the language they speak, are able to participate and collaborate in their children's education, and that children are able to learn, be themselves, and be free from the burden of translating for their adult family members.

Manar-ul Islam Swaby (she/they) has spent the last nine years working with governments and non-profit agencies to lead holistic organizational transformation by centering both accessibility and language justice. In 2017, Manar was appointed by the City of Boston’s then-Mayor Martin J. Walsh as the inaugural Director of Language and Communications Access. Through her tenure, Manar established the city’s entire infrastructure centering language access, and streamlined citywide efforts with existing efforts around ADA effective communication. Manar onboarded executive leadership and trained personnel across forty city departments through agency-focused strategic planning, implementation, and fiscal analysis. Key to her efforts was establishing real, practical approaches for staff to incorporate into their everyday lives to provide meaningful access to Boston immigrant and disability communities. By 2019, Manar grew this initiative into a formal office, the Mayor’s Office of Language and Communications Access, and advocated for increased funding and staffing investment and support. In 2019, Manar founded the Municipal Language Access Network (MLAN), a U.S.-based informal peer network of language access professionals who work in government and public-funded agencies. This network was created to establish best practices and industry-specific standards for language access and immigrant integration. The network still exists today for any language access professional working in government, and is a space of collaboration, upskilling, and partnership. In 2021, Manar founded Sway B Access to continue centering communities that speak languages other than English and with communications-related disabilities across the country. Central to Manar’s justice and equity-driven methodology and design process is engaging those most readily impacted. Manar has been interviewed and featured in a number of publications to highlight her expertise and frameworks of organizational transformation, community engagement, and systems design. Outside of her direct consulting work, Manar volunteers within her local community to support advocacy efforts that strengthen language access regionally. Manar holds a Master of Education from Harvard University Graduate School of Education, with a concentration in Technology, Innovation, and Education, and a Bachelor of Arts from Washington University in St. Louis, with a focus on International Development: Latin America and American Culture Studies: Race & Ethnicity.

Liz Bender is the Family and Community Engagement Director of Early Learning Programs at Youth in Need.  She earned her Master’s in Social Work from St. Louis University and has primarily worked with education and youth-focused nonprofits.  She began attending ISPN meetings in 2021 and joined as a co-chair of in January of 2025.

Kaelin Richardson (they/them), MSW, is a Program Manager for the Regional Response Team (www.regionalresponseteam.org). They provide facilitative leadership to bi-state community groups, helping them co-develop practice improvements that decrease racial and systemic inequities. Kaelin leverages Critical Race Theory, Community Based System Dynamics, Human Centered Design, and liberatory pedagogies to center community building in their practice. They are the chair of ISPN’s Ad Hoc Committee, which provides a space for ISPN members to receive updates about the immigration landscape, share how they’re responding, and identify strategies for maintaining services for immigrants. 

Fatema Medhat, MSW is Missouri’s State Refugee Health Coordinator (SRHC) with USCRI.  Through her current position, she oversees the refugee health portion of the refugee resettlement program in Missouri, providing funding, guidance and support through four statewide health and public health programs. Fatema has her Masters in Social Work degree from Washington University in Saint Louis and has represented refugees and immigrants through her SRHC role since 2023. Fatema has previously worked with multiple non-profits in the St. Louis area. Prior to joining USCRI, Fatema served as a statewide Program Manager for the Missouri Office of Refugee Administration (MO-ORA). There, she aimed to strengthen refugee families' ability to navigate barriers, achieve economic self-sufficiency, and enhance social, economic well-being for all newcomers to the state. During her tenure at MO-ORA, Fatema fostered stronger ties between governmental and non-profit entities, establishing streamlined processes to serve refugees collaboratively and effectively. Fatema earned a B.S. in Criminal Justice and Criminology and a B.A. in Philosophy from the University of Missouri—Saint Louis. Fatema was honored with the Edward F. Lawlor Activism Award (2021) from Washington University in recognition of her leadership and unwavering efforts to challenge oppression and advocate for social justice. She was also awarded with the 30 under 30 (2023) from  Arab America for her exemplified and deep dedication to both personal and community growth while preserving and championing her own cultural roots.