Collaborative Staff and Leadership

Margaret Flores McCabe

Executive Director

Margaret Flores McCabe, the Latinx daughter of two parents who were field workers as children, worked for over 25 years in the for profit world as a successful real estate investor and small business owner.

Throughout those years she was engaged in mentoring and housing many at risk youth and supporting the Town of Windsor in numerous community service projects. When she started to hear the hateful rhetoric coming from the Trump administration, she felt a call to action and decided she wanted to get involved in assisting undocumented immigrants.

She was initially hired as an adult ESL instructor by a generous philanthropist who sponsored adult ESL classes for undocumented immigrants in Alexander Valley. She was quickly promoted to Program Director. While working with the undocumented students, she was approached by a young couple who asked if she was willing to take guardianship of their children just in case they were picked up by ICE and deported. At that time, she was horrified that these hard-working people were fearful of family separation.

In 2018, she was asked to become the Secure Families Collaborative Director. While at the helm of the secure Families Collaborative, Margaret has worked with a dedicated team of Trustees to create an innovative, collective impact immigration legal services service model. The organization will soon have 501 (c)(3) status and will continue to support a network of collaborative partners who are all committed to assisting the undocumented immigrants with quality legal services but also engaged in assisting them with social service navigation and culturally competent, culturally relevant mental health services.

Margaret and her husband (both U.C. Davis grads) reside in Santa Rosa. They have two daughters who live in Boulder, Colorado. One is a graduate of CU Boulder and the other one is in her junior year at CU Boulder.

Jacqueline Brown Scott

Immigration Legal Director

Jacqueline is an Assistant Professor at the University of San Francisco School of Law, where she runs the Immigration and Deportation Defense Clinic and has worked as the Supervising Attorney since its inception in 2015.

The majority of the clinic's clients are asylum seekers from the Northern Triangle in Central America and Mexico. Jacqueline has been in the field of immigration law, focused on removal defense and specializing in asylum, for over 15 years.

She started her career as an attorney advisor in the San Francisco Immigration Court for two years. She also worked for CLINIC's National Pro Bono Project for Children and had her own solo practice for eight years. Prior to law school, Jacqueline received an M.A. in International Relations, with a focus on migration and development.

Jacqueline served as an Asylum Liaison for AILA NorCal from 2015-2019 and she has been a co-coordinator for AILA NorCal's Family Detention section since 2016.

Maria Elena Valle

Executive Assistant

Maria Elena brings five years of administrative and immigration non-profit management experience to the Secure Families’ team.

Currently, Maria Elena works directly under the Collaborative’s executive director, handling administrative tasks such as grant management and office operations.

A current student of the Paralegal Studies Program at the Santa Rosa Junior College, Maria Elena enjoys walking her dogs and drawing in her spare time.

Jaqueline Levaro

Data Manager

Jaqueline Levaro has worked as both receptionist and administrative assistant in the immigration legal services field for three years, beginning in 2019.

While working at a nonprofit immigration law firm, she has quickly gained skills and knowledge in different positions, from filing USCIS documents (under attorney supervision) to managing the complex infrastructure of grant management for local and state funding. She has been contracted as a grant data manager by the Secure Families Collaborative in January 2022.

As a daughter to first-generation immigrant parents, she has witnessed the complications her parents have struggled through to assimilate in the United States with limited resources. This experience has aligned her towards a lifetime goal to work in the immigration legal services field to help other immigrants and their families throughout their journeys.

Jaqueline earned her Associates Degree in both Sociology and Social and Behavioral Sciences from the Santa Rosa Junior College--She is currently a full-time student studying for her Paralegal Studies degree.

During her free time, she enjoys spending time with her daughter and their two cats, Fairy and Druid.