Anna Araujo is an Executive Director For 15 years, as the Boys & Girls Club and 4 years as East LA Rising, the organization has been under the leadership of Anna Araujo.  During her tenure, Anna has overseen the transformation of a club serving 70 youth a day to the Pre-COVID daily attendance of 250.  Under her direction, annual membership has grown exponentially from 400 in 2002 to the current 1,500 with an additional 2,000 youth served through collaboration with other area CBOs.   

In this position Anna oversees the administration and operations of afterschool programs serving families in unincorporated East Los Angeles, Commerce, Montebello, Southeast Cities and the communities of Union Pacific, City Terrace, El Sereno and Boyle Heights.  Working closely with the Board of Directors, Anna is responsible for developing and managing fundraising efforts, marketing, communications, programming and overall vision for the club.  Anna serves as an Ambassador Emeritus for the Afterschool Alliance, a national advocacy organization.  In 2012, she was selected to the City Scholar Fellowship. 

Araujo has overseen the development and implementation of several high profile programs for Boys & Girls Clubs of America, The OJJDP, The BJA, The Department of Education’s No Child Left Behind,  the State of California’s Proposition 49 ASES program and the United Way of Greater Los Angeles,.

 Through the National Boys & Girls Clubs of America, the club was chosen to pilot the 3-year Latino Outreach Initiative, a specialized program created to address the special needs of the Latino Family.  Club findings were incorporated in the BGCA’s Best Practice ToolKit used to implement this program in other cities.  This initiative continues at the National level.

 Additionally, BGCELA was chosen as a pilot site for BGCA’s Health Initiative, Triple Play.  Araujo was also asked to serve on BGCA’s program committee on the development of a comprehensive Teen Services Initiative, The Club.  Since joining ELABGC/ELAR, we have introduced 23 new programs within 6 core programming tenets.

 Since 2005, club teens have achieved a 100% graduation rate in a community where only 34% of adults have a high school diploma.  She helped secure over 1.2 million dollars in scholarships over the last 19 years focusing on students who normally would not consider college as an option due to finances or GPA.  Staff support children and their families in a way that will develop a mindset empowering every child to see their full potential, their inner-greatness and to help them achieve their goals with confidence and become a character-drive leader.

Prior to BGCELA, Anna worked as an independent producer/writer and in collaboration with her partners at Higher Ground Entertainment, wrote and produced the documentary, Pancho Gonzalez: Warrior on the Court for Spike TV and PBS.  The documentary was nominated for an ALMA Award in the category of Best Documentary and garnered an Imagen Award as part of the PBS Voces Series.  

Araujo spent 18 years in local television at KTLA, Metromedia/FOX and NBC4.  Her Public Service announcements and Educational Campaigns have received several awards. Anna is featured in the book, Aim High, Extraordinary Stories of Hispanic & Latina Women by Laura Contreras-Rowe and was named a 2015 Latina of Influence by Hispanic Lifestyle Magazine.

 Professional and civic honors include the General Electric “Gerald Phillipe Award for Community Service”, Woman of Excellence from Women at Work, Emmy nomination for Night Talk with Dr. David Viscott, an Imagen Award, Woman of the Year Honors from: State Senator Gloria Romero; U.S. Representative Hilda Solis; State Assemblyman Fabian Nunez, Nike’s Spirit Of Community Award and the Maravilla Business Association’s Community Business Woman.  Past board memberships include: the Imagen Foundation; Valley Community Health Clinic and the Latino Museum of History, Art and Culture.  

Lorraine Conaway provides you with value, clarity, and confidence through learning, customized strategies, and approaches to guide you to your retirement income desires.

With more than 25 years of experience in the industry, Lorraine Conaway has helped clients nationwide find clarity and confidence in their retirement income futures. She creates integrated retirement income strategies, incorporating traditional values with a non-traditional approach for business owners, real estate investors, charities, families, and individuals.

Together with her husband and business partner, Jim Conaway, they have raised more $50 million in planned gifts for various charities. Lorraine was a nominee for 2011, 2012, and 2013 Women in Business Award along with the 2014 Excellence in Entrepreneurship Award by the Orange County Business Journal. Most recently, she spoke as a panelist at the California Women’s Conference in Long Beach, and as a keynote speaker at the Orange County Women’s Business Expo. Lorraine holds the CRC (Certified Retirement Counselor), the CSPG (Certified Specialist in Planned Giving) and an LUTCF (Life Underwriter Training Council Fellow) designations.

Joel M. Hernandez

Joel Hernandez is an Associate General Counsel for Amazon Web Services (AWS) where he leads the legal team responsible for worldwide data center construction, data center operations, and physical security.  Joel has been with Amazon for 12 years, and prior to his current role spent over 9 years on the AWS Sales & Marketing Legal team leading legal support for global strategic customer relationships and enterprise sales across the U.S., Canada, and Latin America.  AWS is at the forefront of the cloud technology industry, providing IT infrastructure services such as on-demand compute capacity, storage, database, AI services, and much more.

Before joining Amazon, Joel worked as a corporate associate at Paul Hastings in Los Angeles, representing clients on a broad range of technology transactions and intellectual property matters, including licensing agreements, M&A, and joint venture transactions.  Joel earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Southern California, graduated from Stanford Law School, and is licensed to practice law in California.  

Joel is a proud product of East LA, with family roots in the area dating back to the 1920s.  He attended Our Lady of Guadalupe School in East LA and Loyola High School in Los Angeles, where he learned the value of a strong education and service to others.  He is a firm believer in the importance of hard work, resilience, and lifelong learning, but is also acutely aware of the challenges faced by many in underserved communities that prevent the development of these qualities. 

Joel started training at East LA Jiu Jitsu in 2022 after being invited by his much younger nephew.  Despite being one of the older students, Joel has thoroughly enjoyed his time on the mats and is honored to be a part of the ELAJJ community.  Joel is married to his wife Natalie, and is the proud father a young son.  When not working or training, Joel and his family enjoy spending time together traveling, playing video games, watching MMA and boxing, going to car shows, and attending Dodgers games.

Sean Lawrence has over ten years experience leading one of Orange County's largest non-profits, which provided food, medical resources and basic need items to families in crisis both domestically and internationally. Sean recently began a new non-profit focused on serving the current largest refugee crisis in the world, Venezuelan refugees. Sean counts it a pleasure to be invited into others stories and has participated in relief projects in over 30 countries. Sean recently celebrated 25 years of marriage with his wife Crystal and is the proud father of three sons. While Sean has no background in Jiu Jitsu, he studied martial arts as a child in Korea and strangely still has his childhood uniform stored in his garage if he ever decides on a comeback.

Delia L. Franco is the CEO and Founding Attorney of the Franco Law Group and a California​​ Certified Specialist in Immigration and Nationality Law. She is an experienced ​​immigration attorney with over 14 years practicing diverse issues and areas of​​immigration law and specializing in litigating complex deportation defense.

Attorney Franco has accumulated a wide-range of skills, litigating hundreds of immigration trials. These include asylum, withholding of removal, protection under the Convention Against Torture, cancellation of removal, the Nicaraguan Adjustment and Central American Relief Act, Temporary Protective Status, adjustment of status, the Cuban Adjustment Act, waivers of inadmissibility, the Violence Against Women Act, and contested hearings on removability before the Executive Office of Immigration Review, the Board of Immigration Appeals and federal and district appellate courts.


Attorney Franco was born in Hollywood, California to an immigrant mother from Jalisco, Mexico. Her father, born in Roseville, California was of Mexican and German descent. Attorney Franco grew up in East Los Angeles, along with a myriad of immigrant families similar to hers and learned the personal impact that immigration policies can have on a family and a community.


With the collective effort of both of her hardworking parents, grandparents and uncles, Attorney Franco graduated from the famous Garfield High School in East Los Angeles with honors, and went on to pursue her bachelor’s and law degree. She was the first to graduate high school in her family.

As a bilingual speaker, Attorney Franco provides an array of free legal services to English and Spanish speakers in her community. For many years she participated in the LACBA Immigration Court Pro-Bono Representation Panel, assisting​​immigrants who appear without an attorney and educating them on avoiding “notario” fraud and unethical attorneys. Furthermore, she and her attorneys hold monthly legal clinics at Community Lawyers Incorporated in Compton.

To lift the most vulnerable of the immigrant community up, Attorney Franco created the FLG Pro-Bono Program which ensures that ten percent of the Franco Law Group cases are allocated to pro bono services including elderly, infirm and unaccompanied minors. An Associate Attorney is elected each year to supervise the integrity of the program.

In addition, Attorney Franco strives to demystify a profession in immigration law for young minds, which is why she created the FLG Paid Internship Program. The internship program provides an opportunity for individuals interested in immigration law to gain exposure to various components and manage their own cases with the direct supervision of an attorney. The objective of the program is to expose minds passionate about helping our immigrant community to a reputable​​immigration law practice, and create a solid and talented pipeline of legal advocates to​ strengthen our profession and, ultimately, help more immigrants.

Attorney Franco has generated a strong presence for herself, and her law firm, in the community. Below are the organizations and associations Attorney Franco and Franco Law Group have maintained:


Vince Lopez has over 25 years of experience in the electrical distribution industry . He is currently the California Director of Supplier Relations for Rexel USA , where he helps align Rexel with the correct vendors and build relationships. He is a native of Los Angeles and he loves the culture, history and the energy that radiates from it. Vincent is the proud father of 4 children and has been married to his wife for 23 years. Vincent and family have volunteered and served domestically and internationally.

Vincent graduated from Azusa Pacific University ,is a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu hobbyist and is often the oldest person on the mats. When not working Vincent and family enjoy traveling and attending Los Angeles Dodger home games.

Beneil Khobier Dariush, born on May 6, 1989, in Gol Tappeh, Hamadan, Iran, is an Iranian-American professional mixed martial artist competing in the Lightweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). He is currently ranked #9 in the UFC lightweight rankings.

Dariush began his martial arts journey in 2007, focusing on Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ). He earned his black belt in just five years, showcasing his dedication and skill. Throughout his BJJ career, he secured multiple championships, including World No-Gi titles.

Transitioning to mixed martial arts (MMA), Dariush made his professional debut in 2009. He joined the UFC in 2014 and has since achieved notable victories, establishing himself as a formidable contender in the lightweight division. Beyond his fighting career, Dariush is known for his commitment to his faith and his philanthropic efforts, often expressing gratitude and engaging in community service.