The Team:
Jennifer Rangel: Executive Director
Jennifer’s parents arrived to Oak Cliff, located in Dallas, Texas, during the early 90’s from Mexico. Jennifer grew up in Oak Cliff and was shaped by both the inequities she observed in her neighborhood and her family’s economic hardships. This consequently fueled her passion for social justice, activism and service. Despite the odds, Jennifer was motivated to honor her parent’s sacrifices and decided to pursue a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree. Jennifer holds a Bachelor of Science in Recreation, Park and Tourism Science from Texas A&M University and a Master’s Degree in City & Regional Planning from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Immediately after graduate school she joined the Inclusive Communities Project, an affordable fair housing organization, where she served as the Planning & Community Outreach Director. Today Jennifer is the Executive Director at RAYO Planning.
Email: jrangel@rayoplanning.com
Evelyn Mayo: Planning Director
Evelyn’s last point of departure before leaving the U.S. as a child was Austin, Texas. She spent her childhood moving around Europe and Asia, which exposed her to different cultures, languages, foods and ways of life. After graduating High School in Singapore, she moved back to the U.S. and where she pursued an undergraduate degree in Environmental Science at Barnard College, Columbia University in New York City. In 2017, Evelyn moved to Dallas, Texas to pursue her interests in environmental justice and community organizing in the “belly of the beast”. She worked in poverty law as an advocate for fair housing and environmental justice issues from 2017 to 2021 with Legal Aid of NorthWest Texas and Disability Rights Texas, while also acting as Chair of the Board of Downwinders at Risk. Evelyn is AICP certified and received her MCRP from the University of Texas at Arlington. She is the inaugural Urban Research Initiative Fellow at Paul Quinn College, where she leads research and advocacy efforts to use planning as a tool to address systemic racial injustices in Southern Dallas.
Email: emayo@rayoplanning.com
Catherine Rosas: board Chair
Catherine Rosas is a recent graduate from Texas A&M University with a B.S. in Environmental Geoscience. Catherine is dedicated to communicating and developing sustainable and innovative solutions at the crossroads of human systems and natural resources. Over the last year, Catherine reported on Dallas’ business landscape with D CEO Magazine, focusing on stories that dive into sustainable and ethical development. Passionate about helping marginalized communities access resources that create sustainable solutions, Catherine has also created Gentrification_Is, an education initiative uplifting BIPOC experience with gentrification, and worked closely with Somos Tejas making Dallas’ WOCAP more equitable. Catherine is currently a prospective policy and law student. She hopes to use the degrees to continue creating sustainable solutions.
board members:
Fran mayo: Board member
Raised all over the world (with her younger sister, Evelyn Mayo) — including in France, Australia, Japan, Singapore, and China – Frances Mayo majored in Urban Studies (with a concentration in economics) at Columbia University’s Barnard College. After graduation, she moved to Dallas, Texas, where she joined Rebees — a creative real estate development and hospitality firm. In 2018, Frances was made a partner in the company, and she continues to collaborate internally with the Rebees team on strategic creative initiatives and concept brand-builds. Now based in Western Massachusetts, Fran is pursuing a certification in Tiny House Design/Build at the Yestermorrow School in Vermont.
SUMMER Payton: board member
Summer first came to urban planning during her time at Barnard College, Columbia University where she earned her undergraduate degree in Urban Studies. Her studies helped her to make sense of the inequities in her native Boston and she became enamored with urban planning as a crucial tool for addressing systemic injustices. At Barnard, her research focused on historic neighborhood transition in the historically Black Boston neighborhood of Roxbury and she developed findings on effective racial and cultural integration at the neighborhood level, as well as implications for larger-scale, ongoing patterns of spatial and social mobility. While at Barnard, Summer worked as an intern at the Columbus Amsterdam Business Improvement District and later as an intern at Project for Public Spaces. Summer joined Public Works Partners full time in 2018 where she worked with public and nonprofit clients committed to serving New York’s diverse communities and to making city planning an effective and inclusive practice. Summer’s time in planning motivated her to pursue her Master of Fine Arts in Interior Design at Parsons School of Design in 2021 because she sees interior design as a creative, tactile approach to social innovation. Summer is a proud volunteer at the New York Abortion Access Fund and is currently based in Brooklyn, NY.
Jorge Jasso: secretary
Jorge Jasso received his Bachelor’s Degree from the University of North Texas and obtained his legal education from the University of Houston where he clerked for a summer with the legal department of Mexico's Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Mexico City. Mr. Jasso began his law practice in Houston and then returned to Dallas as a staff attorney with Legal Aid of NorthWest Texas, a nonprofit legal services firm. During this time he gained valuable experience representing clients on zoning, land use, and other planning-related issues that affect low-income neighborhoods and communities of color. Mr. Jasso is an associate of the Patrick E. Higginbotham Inn of Court, which is an association of lawyers, judges and other legal professionals that promotes competence, collegiality, integrity and education in litigation practice. He is licensed in Texas state courts and has briefed and argued civil appeals in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Jorge was born and raised in Dallas, Texas, and is fluent in Spanish.
CARLO CHUNGA: Board member
Carlo is a first-generation graduate student from Piura, Peru. He holds a B.S. in Urban & Regional Planning & G.I.S. He serves as the Latinos & Planning Division Treasurer of APA, APA Representative for the Association of Student Planners, and Advisor to the TAMU Latinx Graduation Ceremony. Currently, he is pursuing a Masters in Urban Planning with a focus on disaster recovery. In the fall, Carlo will attend the University of California-Irvine's Ph.D. program in Urban and Environmental Planning and Policy.
Victoria Ferrell-ortiz: Co Founder
Victoria’s interest in urban planning began in high school, while attending the Judge Barefoot Sanders Law Magnet at Yvonne A. Ewell Townview Magnet Center. But it wasn’t identified plainly as “Urban Planning” at the time. She first became indoctrinated when she learned what gentrification was through a friend's experience around displacement in Old East Dallas. In 2016, she received her Bachelors of Arts in Integrative Studies from the University of North Texas in Denton, with concentrations in international studies, sociology, and public administration and community service. After graduating from college and returning home to Dallas she experienced it personally through the gentrification of her West Dallas neighborhood (Victoria has family in Ledbetter, a barrio of West Dallas) and Oak Cliff. She served on the Arts and Culture Advisory Commission for the City of Dallas as an at large member for one term. Victoria is a Barrio Historian of the Cemento Grande and Oak Cliff Barrios. Victoria was RAYO’s first Executive Director and before acted on the Board of Directors as the founding Treasurer.
Email: vferrellortiz@rayoplanning.com
Emily cortez: Board member
Emily was born and raised in Grand Prairie, a suburb of Dallas alongside her parents and two older brothers. After graduating high school at South Grand Prairie High School in 2011, Emily found her passions of urban planning and policy through the community of Oak Cliff. Her greatest passions were learned while working with local Oak Cliff businesses for just under a decade: admiration for small business owners and artists, the importance of preservation and deep love for her community. Emily is currently enrolled at Mountain View College to move forward to her dream of obtaining her urban planning degree. As for her current position, Emily is a residential and commercial property manager at Proxy Properties, LLC, an incremental redevelopment company that believes in preservation of buildings and its history which includes their biggest redevelopment project to date, The Oak Cliff Assembly. Emily presently is an active cyclist in her bike group called Black Cat Bicycle Club, on the board for Twelve Hills Nature Center and on the board for Rayo Planning.
Kristen Alcaraz: Treasurer
Kristen Alcaraz received her Bachelor's of Science Degree in Psychology from the University of Texas at Arlington. She is a first generation college graduate and has over 10 years of experience in the field of accounting. She has worked in industries such as aviation, marketing, and interior design. She is passionate about helping RAYO achieve their mission in advocating for fair and affordable housing, especially having been born and raised in Oak Cliff herself.