As a Professional

Nilsa has over 20 years of experience working in the housing industry focused on housing affordability and she earned a graduate degree in Public Administration.

Nilsa has been an outreach worker and counselor at a shelter, an employment and homeownership counselor at a public housing authority, a compliance officer/fraud investigator at another housing authority, a computer skills instructor at a community center, and a data analyst at a company administrating housing programs across the nation. Each position gave her a different perspective on humans’ need for resources, support, and accurate information.

As an Artist

She tells stories about housing, food, and climate insecurity. These stories sometimes are often embedded in narrative, sketches, and in her interactions with the world.

Some of her work appears or is forthcoming in Rumpus, Tahoma Review, Hippocampus Magazine, Huffington Post, 50 GS Magazine, Six Hens Literary Journal, Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies, Selkie Literary Magazine, Writing Class Radio, and Turning Dark into Light: A Mental Health Anthology. Her essay published in Home in Florida: Latinx Writers and The Literature of Uprootedness was nominated for the 2022 Pushcart Prize.

As a Human

Her ancestors were created from rocks and clay, in heaven, and others climbed out of a cave onto the island of Boriken. She was received into a family who suffered from poverty and other disadvantages, but her grandparents taught her strong work ethics, the importance of education & integrity, her responsibilities as nature’s custodian, and a deep love for family and other humans. She stumbled and broke her head a few times. Then she realized her grandparents were right, promised to make them proud, and live by those principles. Every day, she wakes up with that guiding mission.