Thelma Teresa Carrera is a policy professional with over 7 years of experience in New Jersey's public policy space across non profit and government sectors. She earned her BA in Philosophy & Spanish from The College of New Jersey, and her MS in Social Policy from the University of Pennsylvania. Thelma's research focused on the role of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in displacing Mexican and Central American farm workers and families, creating an exploitative secondary labor market in the United States, and its effects on the economic status and social mobility of undocumented people, specifically blue-collar and domestic workers. Her prior experiences range from policy communications and development in the nonprofit world, to data synthesis and policy making in government, including work at the Latin American Legal Defense and Education Fund (LALDEF), the Office of Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman (NJ-12), and the New Jersey Division on Civil Rights. Currently, Thelma serves on Movimiento Tricolor's Board of Trustees, and as Secretary of the Guatemalan Civic Association of Mercer County.

Thelma is a proud Trenton homeowner, avid horror reader, and mom to Xo (pronounced "Zoe") & Venus, a chihuahua mix and a pitbull rescue.