About the Participants.

Eddie Rodolfo Aparicio (b. 1990, US) received an MFA from Yale University in Painting/Printmaking and a BA from Bard College in Studio Arts. He also studied at Southern California Institute of Architecture. He was a resident at Skowhegan in 2016. He has participated in group exhibitions at Steve Turner Gallery, Los Angeles and Zeit Contemporary, New York, among others.

Beatriz Cortez (b. 1970 El Salvador) received an MFA in Art from the California Institute of the Arts and a Ph.D. in Literature and Cultural Studies from Arizona State University. Cortez’s work explores simultaneity, life in different temporalities and different versions of modernity, particularly in relation to memory and loss in the aftermath of war and the experience of migration, and in relation to imagining possible futures. She has had solo exhibitions at Clockshop, Los Angeles (2018); Vincent Price Art Museum, Los Angeles (2016); Centro Cultural de España de El Salvador (2014); and Museo Municipal Tecleño (MUTE), El Salvador (2012), among others. She has participated in numerous group exhibitions, including at Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2018); BANK/MABSOCIETY, Shanghai, China (2017); Ballroom Marfa, Marfa, Texas (2017); and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2017). She teaches in the Department of Central American Studies at California State University, Northridge. Beatriz Cortez is represented by Commonwealth and Council, Los Angeles.

Madeline Janis is the Co-founder and Executive Director of Jobs to Move America. For over 35 years, Madeline has been on the inside and outside of local and state government, working to create high road, equitable economic development, and strong industrial policy. Madeline has written opinion pieces for a variety of publications including Forbes.com, the Los Angeles Times, the Los Angeles Business Journal and the Huffington Post and has been cited as an expert in dozens of publications across the country. She has extensive experience leading nonprofits, working on urban economic and industrial development, women’s rights, immigrant rights, and racial justice. She helped to negotiate the first community benefits agreements in the U.S. and co-authored a book on the subject. Madeline was previously the founding executive director of the non-profit the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy, which she led from 1993 to 2012. Madeline also served as a commissioner on the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency from 2002 until 2012. She received degrees from UCLA Law School and Amherst College in Massachusetts and was granted an Honorary Doctorate in Humanities from Amherst College in 2013.