An author, journalist, and communications strategist, Laurie Cantillo grew up in rural Colorado and has been interested in border issues since coming to Arizona in the late 90s. Her career took her from being an award-winning radio news anchor and programmer to NASA and JPL, where she directed communications and led a team that won an Emmy award for the InSight landing on Mars. 

Laurie joined Humane Borders in early 2022 in response to the rising number of migrant deaths in Arizona. In addition to being board chair, she's a water truck driver and manages the Humane Borders website and social media accounts, working to counter disinformation and raise awareness of what's happening at the border, putting humanity before politics. 

The daughter of a U.S. Marine, Cantillo says her father taught her the value of defending freedom and the rights of people everywhere.    

"The border has become so militarized and political, yet lost in the narrative is that people are dying. Migrants are risking it all for what we, as Americans, take for granted."

Born and raised in the New York City area, Bob was never far away from the Spanish language (remember West Side Story?) He arrived in Tucson in 1967, by then having become fluent in Spanish, to attend the University of Arizona. Quite by accident, Bob ended up in the radio business, first in the English language, and then in the Spanish language. His radio career lasted 40 years and took him to Phoenix for a while, and then back to Tucson where he lives today.

Bob is the grandchild of Jewish immigrants. Each year his family celebrates the Passover Seder at their homes. The story of the Exodus, of being lost in the desert, and his grandparents' flight from Europe had a profound effect on him. Bob read about a group called Humane Borders, with a mission to prevent people lost in our deserts from suffering, as occurred in the Sinai.

Bob says, "I'm a Spanish-speaking Jew who the Hispanic community of Arizona accepted with open arms. How could I not want to be a part of Humane Borders? Its mission is part of my heritage."

David's roots in the Arizona desert borderlands run deep. His maternal grandmother’s family, who were of Indigenous Mexican descent, immigrated to Southern Arizona in the late 1910’s, first as migrant workers, then as refugees of the Mexican Revolution. His maternal grandfather was of Native American, Enslaved African, and Irish descent. David's gradfather came to Arizona in 1917, leaving the bigotry, racism, and violence of Jim Crow Texas behind, and going on to serve as a Buffalo Soldier throughout Southern Arizona. In the late 1800s, his father’s family, German and Galician Jews, immigrated to the U.S. to escape the violence of European antisemitism. They settled in Los Angeles where his parents met in the sixties.

David says, "my multi-cultural heritage and family’s teachings left me with a strong urge to help our fellow humans, and along our border is where migrants need it most. People crossing over into the U.S. fleeing violence, bigotry, and food/water insecurity need our empathy and compassion, not hatred and fear. I feel called to help in the hopes of creating a more just and humane border environment, and with the wish that migrants find a kinder, safer place for themselves and their families than those that they left behind."

Dinah Bear began her involvement in causes involving migrants while growing up in southern California. She began volunteering as a high school student to support the Delano grape strike and boycott and learned about the plight of migrants. She has been volunteering for Humane Borders since 2003.

Professionally, Dinah works in the field of environmental law and policy. She served for many years as General Counsel for both Democratic and Republican administrations at the President’s Council on Environmental Quality, the environmental agency in the Executive Office of the President. Ms. Bear has chaired the Standing Committee on Environmental Law of the American Bar Association and the Environment Section of the District of Columbia Bar Association. She received the Chairman’s Award from the Natural Resources Council of America, the Distinguished Service Award from the Sierra Club, and the Distinguished Achievement Award in Environmental Law and Policy from the American Bar Association.

Ms. Bear now lives in Tucson, Arizona, where she remains professionally active in environmental law and policy with a special focus on the borderlands. She received a Bachelors of Journalism degree from the University of Missouri at Columbia in 1974, and graduated from McGeorge School of Law, Sacramento, California, in 1977.

Fernando "Fernie" Quiroz has been recognized as one of the "Most Influential Hispanic Award Honorees" for Leadership and Community Involvement.  Born into a migrant farm-working family, he was the first in his family to earn a college degree from the University of Arizona.  Early in his career, Fernie served his community by organizing citizenship forums and classes for farm working families. 

He is currently the Executive Director of Arizona Interagency Farm Worker Coalition, and also serves his community of Yuma by being an active role model in affordable housing, education, health care, and farm workers rights. 

Fernie is a firm believer in the American Dream, and takes great pride in helping others fulfill their dreams.  Of the asylum seekers he assists at the wall every day, Fernie says, "I see my mother's eyes in a lot of the mothers, knowing the steps they had to take and what they had to leave behind to seek something better." 

Scott Larson is one of Humane Borders' most active volunteers, working tirelessly as a water truck driver on Tucson-based water runs since 2022. 

His awareness of migrant lives and border issues stems from a lifetime of experiences. He observed migrant crews harvesting crops on his grandparents’ farm in Colorado, toiled alongside workers in restaurants and as a landscape laborer, and taught Dreamers as students in his Urban Studies classes at Queens College in New York City. 

Scott is passionate about art photography, discovering and photographing objects left behind on migrant journeys through the harsh Sonoran Desert. His work, which has been displayed at Tohono Chul gardens in Tucson, explores the issue of migrant visibility/invisibility. 

In his artist's statement, Scott says his vision is to "amplify what otherwise might go unnoticed...as a means of focusing attention on how migrants, if seen at all, are often envisioned in the abstract, not as manifest human beings."

Since 2017, Dr. Brad Jones has worked as a volunteer and driver for Humane Borders, making numerous trips to the border each year. As a proud third-generation Mexican American, he is compelled to assist migrants in need in the U.S.-Mexico border zone and am deeply involved in issues related to social justice and immigrant rights.

As a Professor of Political Science and Faculty Affiliate with the Global Migration Center at the University of California, Davis. Brad teaches  and researches in the field of race and ethnic politics, particularly emphasizing immigration policy, attitudes and opinions about immigration, and Latinx politics more generally. His research agenda is multidisciplinary, encompassing not only political science, but also social psychology and sociology as well.

Dr. Jones strongly believes we should engage questions that produce research with an eye toward making a change. As such, his recent work has focused on the implications of deportation policy as well as the relationship between border enforcement and migrant deaths on the U.S.-Mexico Border.

Lynn Moriarty began volunteering with Humane Borders in 2016. A registered nurse, she is a native of Connecticut who landed in Arizona in 1990 after two years serving in the Peace Corps in Guatemala. During the 90s, Lynn worked as the outreach coordinator for a migrant center training community health workers in rural Maricopa County. Currently, she works as the Health and Social Services Coordinator for Alhambra Elementary School District, where her aim is to eliminate barriers to education for Alhambra families who have trouble accessing the system.

Lynn is gratified to be a member of our organization because volunteering with Humane Borders gives her the opportunity to have a hand in protecting people who make the difficult decision to cross the desert in search of safety or a better life. Volunteering in the desert compels her to witness the harsh realities of the current border situation and to remember the risks that people take daily in their attempts to get across. Her medical background is invaluable in educating Humane Borders volunteers about triage for heat exhaustion and other injuries they might encounter in the field. 

Dora Rodriguez is a lifetime advocate and activist for migrants' rights. She is a survivor of the July 1980 tragedy that took place in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, wherein 26 Salvadorans fleeing civil war in their home country were abandoned by their guide shortly after crossing the border near Lukeville, Arizona. Thirteen people, including three teenage girls, died horrible deaths. Denied U.S. asylum, Dora Rodriguez was one of the first people assisted by the Southside Presbyterian Church in South Tucson, the site where the U.S. Sanctuary Movement was launched. The movement emerged against the background of thousands of Central American refugees like Dora who made the difficult decision to cross the U.S./Mexico border to escape violent U.S.-backed military dictatorships in their home countries.

Through the telling of what happened on her own journey, as well as relating her day-to-day experiences volunteering in shelters and network organizations on both sides of the border, Dora’s mission is to raise awareness of the brutal challenges that immigrants continue to confront making the perilous border crossing into the Arizona Sonoran Desert. Her hope is one with the Humane Borders’ mission: to save as many lives as possible and to humanize the border environment.

A former schoolteacher, farmer, outfitter, and rancher, Tom Wingo settled in Ajo, Arizona after retiring. He became involved with humanitarian aid work in 2018, participating in water drops in the southern Arizona desert and visiting migrant shelters in Sonoyta, Sonora, Mexico. During the summer of 2023, Tom jumped in to help deliver water to the newly-positioned Humane Borders water barrels near the border wall in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument.

Says Tom, “I really appreciate the opportunity to work with Humane Borders, and I’m looking forward to what the future has in store.” 

Jose A. Vazquez is a native of Southern Arizona. He joined the Board in 2020. A 2006 graduate of the University of Arizona’s James E. Rogers College of Law, he brings years of on hands-on experience in the realms of both immigration and criminal law.

As a felony prosecutor at both the Santa Cruz County Attorney’s Office and the Pima County Attorney’s office he’s handled and tried a wide array of cases including controlled substances, sexual assault, child abuse, fraud, and violent offenses.

As an immigration attorney, Jose has handled all immigration-related cases to include business visas, family-based visas, and matters in Immigration Court. Jose is a former Arizona Chapter Chair of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) and has served on AILA’s national Board of Governors. He is committed to making Southern Arizona a better place and is active in the community.

Joel Smith was born in Tucson, though as a result of his father’s Air Force career, he grew up all over the United States and Europe. After a stint with the U.S. Marine Corps, Joel moved back to Tucson, working with Humane Borders in 2009. In addition to managing the field operations for Humane Borders, Joel often leads trips into the desert to search for signs of people in need. He is a prolific hiker who knows every mountain range and valley in Arizona's Sonoran Desert. 

"I'm a strong believer in the humanity of every person and of the Humane Border’s mission," he says.

 In July, 2016, Joel was the subject of the cover story in the Tucson Weekly, discussing both his personal values and Humane Borders' work. He was quoted saying, “I am an Air Force brat and a Marine Corps veteran. I love my country. If you want to call me unpatriotic, it's like barking at a tree.” 

Since the summer of 2017, Rebecca has been deeply involved in Humane Borders, often leading water runs out into the desert. However, she has been active in the Tucson borderlands community since 2010, the year she became aware of the humanitarian crisis happening on our southern border and of the terrible reality that thousands of migrants die for lack of water crossing the Arizona Sonoran Desert. 

Rebecca balances the important work that she does for our organization with teaching online courses in diversity for a nonprofit university. Within this context, she seizes opportunities to raise student awareness about the causes and conditions that trigger migrant diasporas globally, as well as to educate them about the trench work being carried out by desert humanitarians along the U.S./Mexico border.

Elizabeth Blue is a graduate of Western Washington University in Bellingham, with a degree in Business Administration. With a passion for people, community wellbeing, and operations, Elizabeth serves as volunteer coordinator for Humane Borders, where she oversees onboarding of new volunteers and scheduling of water runs, to ensure all our routes are covered.    

Additionally, Elizabeth recommends improvements for processes and workflows, and enjoys being in the field on Humane Borders water runs. 

"Sharks" keeps Humane Borders' fleet of water trucks rolling in the desert of southern Arizona, as well as working with volunteers in Yuma and Ajo.   

Our water trucks take a beating, and Sharks ensures they're supplied and well-maintained for trips into the desert, as well as suggesting continuous improvement of day-to-day operations. 

For the last 25 years, Sharks has worked primarily as a community theater stage manager and an IATSE Local 415 journeyperson stagehand.  

 Sharks says, "It has been a journey to find my place in the world, always knowing I  want to help make things better for all people." Sharks believes wholeheartedly in the Humane Borders mission and is incredibly proud to be part of the team. 

JoJo serves as the Policy Advisor and Digital Strategist at Humane Borders where she analyzes immigration policy implications and helps translate complex issues into actionable insights for the organization. She also manages digital projects, including the website, to enhance our mission.

JoJo first joined Humane Borders as a fall 2024 intern in Tucson, where she gained hands-on experience in the field and developed a deep appreciation for the border community. Her work reinforced her commitment to humanitarian aid and immigration policy.

She holds a Master of Science in International Migration and Public Policy from the London School of Economics, where she wrote her dissertation on the impact of U.S. border policies on humanitarian aid efforts.