BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Chichi Armstrong, President
Chichi is co-founder and Board President of Ladies Let’s Talk. Chichi began building her volunteer credentials at eight years old by selling Kool-Aid and vanilla wafers to raise money for nonprofits. She later held summer jobs with the American Red Cross and Save the Children Federation. After college she worked for Xerox Corporation, advancing from secretary to senior financial manager. All the while, she continued to volunteer, serving as executive director of an arts organization, a community policing organizer in Chicago, and president of a large volunteer chorus. In her 60s she finally realized her dream of becoming a jazz pianist and performed in gigs in Chicago and Wisconsin. When Chichi and her husband moved to Austin, TX in 2015, she learned about Austin’s refugee community and volunteered to run an English conversation get-together, which in 2019 officially became the nonprofit Ladies Let’s Talk. Chichi remains tightly connected to and supportive of Austin’s refugee community and was instrumental in the Afghan refugee resettlement effort in 2021. She founded LLT’s Basic English Program for Afghan Women Refugees and is a driving force behind the organization’s strategic and programmatic initiatives.
Laura Erickson, Vice President
Laura is co-founder and Vice President of Ladies Let’s Talk and manages the organization’s English Conversation and English Practice Partners programs. With her background as a civil engineer and a start-up entrepreneur in healthcare and education, she has powered multiple projects that change people’s lives. Laura began volunteering in refugee resettlement in 2017 after her son participated in the Global Youth Peace Summit. Laura explains that until then she had no idea about Austin’s large refugee community, and she quickly began volunteering in refugee services and adult ESL classes. She loved working with ESL learners so much that she is now a certified ESL teacher! As a board member of the Austin nonprofit Hope and Sesame, Laura was part of the team that rolled out the Friday conversation meetup groups, which eventually became Ladies Let’s Talk. Laura provides guidance and direction on LLT’s strategic and programmatic initiatives and serves as the first and very welcoming contact to our more 1,000 volunteers across the United States.
Suzann Madeley, Secretary
Board secretary and longtime volunteer Suzann Madeley was born in Los Angeles but has lived most of her life in Texas. After a more than 30-year career, Suzann retired in 2011 from the Texas Supreme Court’s administrative staff, where she worked for many justices, including Chief Justice Nathan Hecht. She is married, a mother of two, and a grandmother of four. After 9/11, Suzann was one of the founders of the Muslim Jewish Community Council, an experience she describes as bringing entirely new knowledge and love to her life. Suzann joined Ladies Let’s Talk as a volunteer during Covid and says that “working with LLT has added another layer of beauty to my life.” Suzann is a dedicated and much-loved volunteer in our Basic English Program for Afghan Women Refugees.
Jacquie Ring, Treasurer
Jacquie brings extensive experience in the areas of language access, social impact, and multilingual business solutions. She has served as principal consultant with over 15 years’ experience managing complex initiatives and developing cross-cultural and multilingual business solutions. During her career she has managed national, state, and local court language access initiatives that included policy and program analysis and research to support state-specific efforts to implement language access plans. Jacquie also founded a social impact business focused on artisan employment. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Sarah Lawrence College and her Master of Social Work degree from Hunter College. Jacquie resides in Austin, TX.
Angelica Gomez, Director
Originally from Honduras, Angelica attended the University of Texas at Austin and graduated with a major in Youth and Community Studies and a minor in Social work. She has worked in nonprofits for a decade, starting with part-time jobs during college at organizations such as El Buen Samaritano, United Way for Greater Austin, and Foundation Communities. Angelica offers particular insight into the refugee journey having worked in organizations that provide refugee resettlement services. Angelica is very active in Ladies Let’s Talk’s English Conversation Program and in her spare time volunteers for Austin Jews and Partners for Refugees, reads, hikes, and spends time with her husband and son.
Peyun Kok, Director
Peyun was born and raised in Toronto, Canada, and received a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Toronto and a Master’s degree in Environmental Studies from York University. After stints living and working in Taiwan, Suriname, and Houston, Peyun settled in Austin in 2019 with her partner, Alex, and dogs Fern and Jade. She has spent her career to date in the field of sustainability consulting, with a focus on the socioeconomic, health, and human rights impacts of development projects and business activities on workers and affected communities. She has pursued her love of exploring different cultures since childhood through literature, travel, food, and various forms of dance and martial arts.
Lorena Perez, Director
Lorena is a shining example of how Ladies Let’s Talk helps women find belonging in their new community. An immigrant to the United States from her native country of Venezuela, Lorena first joined LLT as a learner in our online English Conversation Program. She is now a member of our board of directors, and brings insight into the immigrant journey to help inform our programs and growth. Her graphic design expertise came to the fore when she lent her skills to enhance our marketing materials, including crafting our logo and giving our brand a fresh, new look. Lorena currently resides in the Chicago area.
Elham Sadat, Director
As a woman who experienced war during childhood in her home country of Iran as well as her own battles with immigration, Elham is honored to help refugee families who have escaped circumstances and left their friends and families, much like her own situation as she grew up. Her passion for language in Farsi/Dari has greatly benefited her career as a case manager and interpreter for the Austin refugee community. With Ladies Let’s Talk, she connects volunteers and learners to create a welcoming community for women to share their experiences and thoughts. In Iran she worked as a dentist for many years in the nonprofit sector, until her eventual immigration to the United States with her family in 2011. The mother of two grown daughters, Elham likes to garden, sew, and talk to her family overseas.
Gail Goodrich Totten, Director
Gail runs Ladies Let’s Talk’s English Pronunciation Program and oversees student assessments in our English program for Afghan women refugees. Born in Atlanta, Gail moved as a child to Panama when her father got a job with the Panama Canal Company. She remained in the former Canal Zone and then in Panama for 26 years, where both of her children were born. While in Panama, known as the Crossroads of the World, Gail met people from around the world who spoke Spanish, Chinese, Hindi, Hebrew, and many varieties of English. Her career includes teaching English, Spanish, and reading in secondary schools in Panama and Texas. After attending graduate school at the University of Texas, Austin, she became a bilingual speech-language pathologist, working mostly in primary schools with Austin ISD. After retiring, Gail volunteered with ESL programs where she discovered her love of working with pronunciation, and she generously shares her expertise with learners in both our online and in-person programs.