Our Mission: South Dakota Voices for Peace builds power and enables healing in immigrant, refugee, and Muslim communities by amplifying their voices and working in solidarity with all who dismantle bigotry and racism.

Our Vision: We imagine a South Dakota that is diverse, inclusive, and anti-racist.

Our story begins in 2017, when two bigoted resolutions and one bigoted bill were introduced during South Dakota's legislative session...

Our Executive Director, Taneeza Islam, was contacted by lobbyist friends in the state capitol about these bigoted pieces of legislation. She organized people to be present and heard during committee testimony in Pierre, and utilized social media and local news to inform South Dakota about these issues. Each time, people showed up to fight against the propaganda that tried to instill fear in our state about Islam, Muslims, immigrants, and refugees.
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After 2017 legislative session, we witnessed a surge in anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant, anti-refugee speakers coming to South Dakota.

These speakers are part of a national circuit of anti-Muslim hate, xenophobia, and bigotry, and they came to SD to further sow seeds of hate and fear in our communities. Our group continued to meet, grow, and openly resist the imported hate in our state. SD had no organizations devoted to advocacy against anti-Muslim hate and anti-immigrant/refugee activities, and none committed to empowering impacted communities to use their voices and become civically engaged.
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So in October 2017, South Dakota Voices for Peace 501(c)(3) was incorporated as a nonprofit in the State of South Dakota. South Dakota Voices for Justice 501(c)(4), its sister organization devoted to lobbying and policy work, was also incorporated. Together, the two organizations work together on grassroots empowerment, building strategic allyship, and countering top-down legislated hate against Muslims, immigrants, and refugees in South Dakota.

MEET OUR TEAM

Taneeza Islam, Esq.,
​Chief Executive Officer

Taneeza is a first-generation American Muslim immigration lawyer who has called Sioux Falls home since 2012. She began her private immigration law practice in 2013 after receiving a Bush Foundation Leadership Fellowship, and in 2017 she co-founded South Dakota Voices for Justice and its sister organization, South Dakota Voices for Peace. Taneeza is also the Chief Executive Officer for South Dakota Voices for Justice.

Jen Dreiske,
Chief Operations Officer

With over 20 years of leadership and teaching experience, Jen is a skilled community collaborator and advocate. She regularly presents and leads complex conversations on topics of diversity equity and inclusion, being an upstander, individual purpose, and the spiritual tapestry of South Dakota. Jen is the first ever Interfaith Chaplin at Augustana University, and former president of the Mt. Zion Congregation synagogue in Sioux Falls, the Project Manager of South Dakota Faith in Public Life, and a board member of SD for Healthy Families.

Olimpia Justice,
Bilingual Paralegal

Olimpia is committed to diversity and equity work. She is a trusted interpreter and translator with over 20 years of experience, and is passionate about bilingual literacy and education, as well as suicide and gun violence prevention. She graduated from the University of the Americas-Puebla school of law and has called Sioux Falls home since 2005. She lives with her husband, three daughters, three rescue cats and a dog.

Olimpia is fluent in English and Spanish, and helps manage the cases of our immigration legal services clients.

Lorena Franco,
Bilingual Paralegal

Lorena Franco earned her bachelor’s degree in arts, Humanities & Social Sciences from South Dakota State University. She is a Barry Scholar from the Bary Foundation, Fargo, ND & was selected for the Cohort of Courage: Youth Advocates 2021 program at SDVFP.
Lorena is fluent in English and Spanish and serves as a crucial liaison between our clients and immigration attorneys. She describes her role as “impactful and rewarding.”

Erica Aguilar,
​Community Health Worker

As the daughter of Mexican immigrants, English was not Erica's primary language. Nevertheless, she was resolute in her pursuit of higher education in the United States. After successfully completing the ESL program at college, she relocated to Yankton, SD in 2015. Erica's bilingual proficiency has enabled her to create meaningful connections within the community, and she has always possessed a passion for helping others. Erica believes that pursuing a career as a community health worker is an ideal way to positively impact people's lives. Currently, Erica is actively working towards obtaining her CHW certification at Minnesota West Technical and Community College.

Erica is fluent in English and Spanish. She helps to connect Yankton community members with essential social and medical resources.

Dana Vuong,

Staff Attorney

Dana is a South Dakota native who was raised in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Ms. Vuong earned undergraduate degrees in philosophy and global studies from Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota, and subsequently graduated from the University of St. Thomas School of Law in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Following law school, Ms. Vuong clerked for the Honorable Judge Jeffrey Kritzer in Austin, Minnesota before beginning to practice criminal and civil law in Luverne, Minnesota. There, she not only focused her practice on family law but also worked as a prosecutor in Rock County, Minnesota, gaining valuable courtroom and negotiation experience. Determined to return home to South Dakota, Ms. Vuong later worked for the Minnehaha County Public Defender’s Office, defending a variety of cases and further learning the nuances of South Dakota criminal law. Afterward, Ms. Vuong opened her own practice, focused primarily on providing criminal defense services to indigent individuals.

Ms. Vuong’s primary focus and passion is on providing quality legal representation to those in need. Her experience has taught her that the justice system economically and racially profiles against minorities and lower-class citizens, and she hopes to provide approachable, compassionate legal services to those individuals.