On Friday, March 8th, from 5 am to 6 pm, join KXCI DJs Michelle, Soumaya, Elva, Bridgitte, and Hannah in celebrating International Women’s Day. With an intersectional lens focused on gender parity and inclusivity, our DJs will take you on a journey exploring and celebrating the strength, struggles, and empowering solidarity of women, non-binary, and femme-identifying people. Join us for a full day of diverse programming designed to inspire and share perspectives. Throughout the day, KXCI DJs will weave in brief interviews with community voices focused on this year’s International Women’s Day theme: inspiration and inclusion.
📻🎙️Welcome to KXCI’s International Women’s Day Celebration: Inspiring Inclusion!
In honor of International Women’s day, we bring you the voices of four remarkable women, each contributing to the tapestry of our community in unique and powerful ways. These insightful interviews were conducted at KXCI’s Armory Park Studios by KXCI’s Production Manager, Bridgitte Thum.
Meet our distinguished guests:
Yissel Salafsky
Chief Executive Officer, Make Way for Books
Chair of KXCI’s Board Of Directors
Yissel Salafsky has served as the KXCI Board Chair since 2021. She joined Make Way for Books as Chief Executive Officer in January 2023. In prior years, she served as Senior Director of Program Operations & Strategic Initiatives at the University of Arizona, where she led online program development. She has served as a consultant to non-profit organizations, with a focus on organizational development, fund development, and diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. Yissel is driven by a passion for community impact, social justice, and educational advancement. She has lived in Tucson for 28 years with her husband and three children. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communication from the University of Arizona and a master’s degree in Nonprofit Leadership and Management from Arizona State University’s Lodestar Center for Philanthropy and Innovation. 
Maria Mutz
Outreach Coordinator for PIE (Physicists for Inclusion and Equity)
Maria, a 4th year PhD student in the physics department at the University of Arizona, shares her experiences in promoting inclusion and equity through physics outreach. She is interested in uncovering the fundamental principles that govern everything from the tiniest particles to largest objects. She is interested in how we, as humans, translate signals from all over the universe into things we can understand. Hear her inspiring perspective on breaking barriers in scientific fields and recognizing and celebrating the accomplishments of scientists with underrepresented identities.
Valentina Restrepo Montoya
Executive Director and CEO of Arizona Legal Women and Youth Services
Valentina leads a nonprofit organization that has provided legal and social services to victims of crime in Arizona since 2013. After graduating from Berkeley Law, Valentina moved to Alabama to work at the Southern Poverty Law Center where she represented people incarcerated in the Alabama Department of Corrections in a class action lawsuit battling ADOC’s constitutionally inadequate medical care, mental healthcare, and noncompliance with The Americans with Disabilities Act. Following her time at SPLC, Valentina remained in Alabama to advocate on behalf of her clients in her capacity as an Assistant Public Defender. She then moved to Arizona to become one of The Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project’s Mental Health Attorneys, where she zealously represented people living with serious mental illnesses in deportation proceedings. Valentina is the proud daughter of Colombian immigrants.
Carolina Silva
Executive Director of Scholarships AZ
Carolina Silva came to the U.S. at the age of nine from Lima, Peru. Her work is situated at the intersection of education, immigration, and equity. She began organizing as an undocumented college student in Salt Lake City, Utah, and received her PhD in Cultural Studies and Social Thought in Education at Washington State University.
During her time as a doctoral student, Carolina organized in Eastern Washington as Crimson Group’s (Undocumented student support and advocacy group) Graduate Student Advisor. In this role, she focused on attaining access to legal services for immigrant students on her campus and participated in statewide and national education equity efforts such as Washington state’s DREAM Act 2.0, the Keep Washington Working Act, and the 2017 DREAM Act campaign. Her dissertation investigates how the life experiences, namely (im)migration and K-12 schooling experiences, of Latinx Undocumented youth shape their higher education attainment and involvement in immigrant youth movements.
Carolina is leading Scholarships AZ, and transforming obstacles into opportunities for undocumented youth. Discover her insights into breaking down barriers and fostering access for all.
Stay tuned to KXCI for a mosaic of voices, heartfelt stories, and shout-outs to the important and inspiring women who have influenced and guided them. Let’s amplify the voices of these phenomenal women and inspire inclusion together!
🔊Press play and enjoy the wisdom and inspiration in these KXCI IWD 2024 community messages.
