Staff
Staff 2020
We currently have a full team based on our funding. Check back in the new year for potential openings! Click on the plus sign below to check out our staff member's biographies:
Erica Mosca is a proud first-generation college graduate, daughter of an immigrant, and social justice advocate. Part of the college access non-profit10,000 Degrees in high school and serving as a fifth grade teacher with Teach For America, Las Vegas ValleyMosca experienced educational inequity in both her personal and professional life. “I am dedicated to empowering change from the community, for the community to ensure students can play the game to change the game of systemic inequity and oppression. The opportunity to attain a college education is the foundation, though not pre-requisite, for underrepresented students to become leaders of their own communities.”
Mosca graduated Summa Cum Laude from Boston University in 2008 and has an M.Ed. from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and an Ed.M. from Harvard’s Graduate School of Education. She was the 2019 Boston University Young Alumni of the Year and the 2020 Public Education Foundation's Education Hero of the Year. She has worked in education as a teacher, trainer and former Special Projects Manager for CCSD Superintendent Dwight Jones. Mosca founded Leaders in Training in August 2012 at 26 years old and is in her ninth year as Executive Director growing the organization from a less than $10,000 budget and 20 students to 200+ students in the 9th grade - college graduates with a $300,000+ annual budget.
Erica is an avid J-Cole, rompers, Las Vegas and connecting people fan. She was married over zoom during quarantine in April 2020 to her husband Nicholas Jared Smith who is serving in his 15th year in the United States Air Force and currently stationed at Nellis Air Force Base. Erica continues to own her home 16-houses down from her Teach For America placement school where her mother and father reside and daily run into LIT students and families. Erica and Nick live together with their dog Panda.
Cynthia Romero is a proud first-generation college student, who after graduating with a double major in Chicano Studies and Spanish Linguistics from the University of California, Riverside, has focused a lot of her energy in ensuring educational equity for students in Las Vegas. As someone who grew up as an English Language Learner and became the first in her family to attend college, she understands the need for providing unique support to each and every student to assure they reach both their educational and personal goals. Through her work as an elementary school teacher she has had the privilege to show students at a young age the importance of education and goal setting. She has been able to take those classroom skills and apply them with LIT's high school students as a Program Manager, where now the focus is ensuring college access and giving back to the community.
Jennifer Ashley, known as "Ashley" at LIT, is a proud first-generation Filipino-American female student who has the dream to become an Oncology Registered Nurse in Las Vegas, Nevada. She was born in the Philippines and her parents migrated to the United States in hopes of a better future. She graduated from East Career and Technical Academy in 2017 and is currently a senior at UNLV as a nursing major. Ashley works part-time at LIT as the Cohort 9 Program Manager and is a Cohort 2 member. She chooses to work at LIT because she is "extremely grateful to have Leaders in Training as my support throughout my academic career and want to give that back to my younger peers."
Miriam Gomez is a proud first-generation Latina student whose dream is to become a child psychologist. Being the only child of 5 born in Mexico, her parents strived to give her the same education as her brothers and sisters in the United States. She graduated from Las Vegas High School in 2018 and now attends Nevada State College as a Psychology major with a minor in Counseling. Miriam works part-time at LIT as an Operations Manager and is a Cohort 3 member.