Our Team

He has worked with government agencies, international organizations, civil society, and religious institutions to promote fair labor mobility. His legal background as a human rights lawyer has shaped his approach to protecting migrant workers, refugees, and vulnerable communities. Axel leads CIERTO México’s regional strategy, designing rights-based recruitment and verification models in labor mobility. His work builds bridges between employers and communities in Mexico, Guatemala, Canada, and the U.S., fostering trust and transparency in global labor supply chains.

As Chief Operating Officer, Carolyn brings over 25 years of experience in executive management and grassroots development to her work on clean and ethical recruitment.

With a background in the coffee industry, she has worked to confront complex issues in smallholder farming communities, addressing the endemic poverty, and educating and engaging the global coffee industry in new practices based on the recognition of the need for greater transparency in the value chain.

As COO, Carolyn’s work at CIERTO has focused on embedding an ethical paradigm in streamlining global supply chains within an ethical paradigm, building stakeholder engagement, and fostering collaboration between farm owners, vendors and retailers.

After living most of her life in the Southwest and Pacific Northwest, Carolyn currently resides in Michigan.

As Director of Recruitment and Training, César oversees the ethical recruitment program for H-2A agricultural workers emigrating to the US.

In addition, he coordinates training to professionalize the workforce, bringing value to every link in the fresh food production chain, improving return on investment for growers, while offering more stable income for farmworkers.

Originally from San Luis Potosí, César earned his degree in Economics at the Autonomous University of San Luis Potosí.

Cesia is an internationalist and political scientist specializing in migration processes. Before joining CIERTO, she collaborated on various projects seeking to establish labor and social relationships for workers returning from the United States to Guatemala.

She has experience creating sustainable and ethical models, taking into account international regulations, to ensure a safe, transparent, and efficient labor migration process for both workers and employers.

She has supported the coordination of development and strengthening projects and programs in ethical recruitment and economic empowerment for rural communities and minority groups.

As an H-2A Coordinator, Gilberto strives to create a safe housing and work environment that results in a positive impact for all stakeholders – from migrant workers, to their families and communities of origin, growers and consumers.

Gilberto believes that better, more dependable job opportunities for migrant workers will lead to a better future for them. Determining what ‘better,’ means comes from listening to workers’ experiences, and letting their voices guide us.

With a graduate background in social science, Gilberto’s interests have led him to work with immigrants who have been deported from the US, and on programs dedicated to assisting workers who wish to emigrate legally to work on farms in North America.

She develops her training activities in accordance with personal and professional values, including accountability, transparency in the recruiting process, and teamwork.

Gricel is proud to work for an organization that prioritizes clean, ethical recruitment practices that have a positive impact at every link in the food supply chain. Her management and training skills provide workers with a pathway to improving their lives through personal and professional evolution.

Since co-founding CIERTO, Joe has worked closely with NGOs and international governments to address farmworker recruitment and labor practice issues. A key component of this work has included the establishment of transparent, ethical labor agreements that create strong ROI for growers, while protecting migrant farmworkers from fraud and trafficking.

Joe has dedicated his career to creating frameworks that allow for communication and cooperation between Mexican State governments, worker communities of origin, North American growers, international retailers, and labor representatives.Joe has a B.A. in International Political Economy and Comparative History of Ideas from the University of Washington. He is based in Tacoma, Washington.

As Project Coordinator, Karen’s dynamism, creativity, and empathy have led her to design, implement, and execute change actions that impact the lives of workers, their families, and their communities of origin.

Karen has worked for more than 15 years in civil society, public institutions and private companies on issues of importance to immigrant workers including gender violence, fraud, and other concerns.

She has extensive experience as a trainer in the aforementioned topics, applying gender perspective and game-based pedagogy to her work.

Karen volunteers at UNICEF with indigenous peoples, migrants, women, youth, and other vulnerable populations.

Isabel’s work with CIERTO focuses on helping agricultural workers take advantage of the opportunities they have to grow professionally – a process that benefits their families, their communities of origin, and the farms where they are assigned – while protecting their rights as workers.

Throughout her career, Isabel strives to apply her core values of teamwork, honesty, and transparency to projects that support migrant workers and other vulnerable groups.

Isabel’s specialty is the development and application of game-based strategies for training. Game-based training starts from a place of respect, empathy and cooperation, and results in improved worker engagement, more efficient tracking of training progress, and improved communication and teamwork.

Isabel’s work results in strong season-to-season worker retention, reduced long-term training costs for growers, and workers who feel seen and respected.

Her expertise – developed over 15 years working in the H-2A program – helps agricultural industry employers navigate the complex legal and compliance issues of the H-2A process.

Emphasizing ethical and transparent recruitment processes, Norma has helped CERTO develop a full-scale approach that creates value up and down the supply chain.

She lives in Yuma, Arizona, the winter lettuce capital of the world.

Pablo’s background focuses on helping responsible, mission-driven companies and non-profits fulfill their goals related to health, education, civil society, justice, and biodiversity.

Passionate about great customer service, Pablo loves to apply the knowledge he’s acquired over his career to solving the difficult and unique challenges faced by non-profit organizations and socially-responsible companies.

Pablo is most excited about working with CIERTO to improve the prospects of the Guatemalan people and their communities through clean, ethical recruitment practices that prioritize the voice of the workers, and their contributions to a reliable global food labor supply chain.

When he’s not at work, Pablo spends time hiking, sharing time with his family and volunteering to help keep Guatemala’s beautiful lakes clean and safe.

She loves working with her team, and building trust, transparency and communication with workers.

Knowing that her work drives change in workers’ lives , and in their communities is the most gratifying aspect of her job, along with a strong commitment to personal and professional growth.

Samanta has a background helping migrant workers and their families get ahead, working with Pastoral Social de Tlaxcala-Caritas in the past.

When she’s not training workers for their new employment prospects, Samanta is an avid and enthusiastic dancer! She loves dancing because it helps to facilitate self-knowledge, teamwork, healing and rehabilitation, and is a way to learn about new cultures.

Samanta studied Financial Engineering, and has a degree in Mexican Economics, and Migratory Pastoralism.