At a women’s co-op in Venezuela and at the Alto Cayma Mission in Peru, Heather Thomas-Flores partnered with women focused on leadership skills, business plans and branding. She worked in a spirit of mutual support and secured grant money for sewing machines for the co-op, which can be powerful tools of empowerment and independence. While studying at Mount Mary University, she started a chapter of Hispanic Professionals of Greater Milwaukee, and, upon graduating with a bachelor’s degree in international affairs, went on to attend the University of Utah for intensive Nahuatl language study. This year she got her master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in linguistic anthropology. At UWM she explored why certain languages are lost and the role that intergenerational shame plays in this. Her graduate thesis was based on an analysis of an indigenous educational system in rural Guerrero, Mexico. Today, Heather is working as a project manager for Life After Hate, an organization that helps people get out of extremist communities and lifestyles.