About Us

Gabriela Trejo
Board Chair

Gabriela is an entrepreneur in the esthetics field.  She was raised in Washington Heights and upon her return home, she helped establish Helping Our People Evolve. She is the organization president, where she focuses on creating hands-on learning and collaborative programs that foster development in cognitive, social, emotional, and physical growth. Gabriela has honed her managerial skills through extensive years of marketing and advertising, alongside her degree in business administration.  She aims to provide authentic experiences for all community members to enjoy and create opportunity for real change.  She has coordinated community events to distribute book bags, graduation assortments and technology. She has inclination towards liberal arts, international relations, and health. She is overjoyed to interact with the youth especially through dance, as she dedicated over 10 years to competitive dance in ballet, jazz, contemporary and more.

Robert “Skematics” Gabriel
Board Treasurer

Robert is a NYC born and raised entrepreneur and a former hospitality specialist. His 13 years in the hospitality industry cultivated his customer service skills and taught him the importance of teamwork in intense and fast paced environments, like Times Square and The Empire State Building. After balancing being an entrepreneur and managing restaurants, Robert decided to fully commit to his visions of changing the world for the better through music, his ultimate passion. In the competitive NYC music scene he has had to learn many things on his own and has fought hard to eventually be able to work with some of the best artists and producers in the world. Thus he decided to join HOPE to help provide opportunities that weren’t available for him not only in the music business as an adult, but also growing up in a low income neighborhood as a kid. His contributions as a positive, influential public figure have already began to be of great value to HOPE as he is fully committed to our cause.

Arlene Rios
Board Secretary

Arlene Rios-Neder is the Board Secretary at HOPE. She is involved in supporting and coordinating activities for the community. Before joining HOPE, Arlene worked as the Assistant of the Chief of Staff at Urban Health Plan, Inc. She supported the Chief of Staff with the WIC and Nutrition program that helps families stay healthy. Arlene also supported the MICHC Department in teaching new mothers the importance of breastfeeding newborn babies. While working at Urban, Arlene also supported the Adolescent program that helped keep students engaged with after school activities to help them stay active within their community. Arlene’s objective is to bring similar programs to the neighborhoods that need them.

Luis “LA”  Jimenez
Community Program Coordinator

Luis is a Dominican born, Washington heights raised educator. He is passionate, dedicated and a resourceful education professional with close to 20 years of experience in working for schools and nonprofit organizations in New York City. His goal and belief as a community program coordinator is that providing community programs and opportunities to learn and grow will enhance the community as a whole. His main objective is to help better the current condition in our communities through academic enrichment, health consciousness and psychical activity.

Benne “Benny Heightz” Lovett
Board Member

Benne Lovett III is an entrepreneur and soon to be retired member of the United States Air Force after 20 years of service. He was born in the Bronx, but after a chaotic childhood and spending time in family shelters, he moved to Washington Heights as a foster child in 1993. He went on to complete his Bachelors of Science in administrative and management studies at Excelsior College.  He has been lucky enough to travel the world while acquiring knowledge in building businesses from music to real estate. His goal is to take all of his experiences and provide communities the aptitude to realistically make their dreams a reality while advocating the idea of ownership. 

Rafael Gabriel
Board Member

A veteran of the United States Army, Rafael served in various countries to include Operation New Dawn in Iraq and Operation Unified Response in Haiti. He continues his selfless service by choosing a career working for different branches of the government at different capacities, yet equally important. Prior to joining the military he graduated with his Associate’s degree in Business Administration majoring in management from Mitchell College. Upon successfully completing his military obligations he graduated with his Bachelor’s in Economics from New York University. He continued attending New York University for his Master’s in Global Affairs graduating with a concentration in Transnational Security and a specialization in data analytics. As a native of Washington Heights, helping his community progress has become a passion fueled by the desire to see his people thrive and build their own path to success. With HOPE, the idea of uplifting the community can be realized through positive engagements with the local population of all ages.

Anjulee Sebastian
Board Member

Anjulee is a proud New Yorker from The Bronx.  She is a caring, enthusiastic and dedicated intensive care nurse. She specializes in care of open heart surgery patients as well as general recovery of surgical patients. Anjulee believes every community should have equal high standards of access to affordable health care and education as these are essential aspects everyone should possess.  Her goal is to help HOPE create and provide opportunities to inspire these changes.