Catalina Rodriguez Lima

Director

Mayor’s Office of Immigrant and Multicultural Affairs

As a leading local advocate for immigrants, Catalina Rodriguez Lima knows firsthand what she is talking about.

Lima was born in Ecuador and immigrated to this country in 2000. Six years later, she earned a bachelor’s in International Studies from Towson University. She’s been working for the city of Baltimore since 2007, and took over the Office of Immigrant and Multicultural Affairs, an office she helped create, in 2013.

Among her achievements in that job, she has helped open a nonprofit that provides technical assistance and loans to immigrants and refugees, developed a refugee employment program with the Mayor’s Office of Employment Development and bolstered the Eastside Career Center to better serve new Americans.

Along the way, Lima co-founded the first Baltimore Latino Democratic Club.

Her efforts, she said, have helped position Baltimore as a welcoming city for immigrants and refugees nationwide.

“As an immigrant myself, I can relate to the communities I serve,” she said. “At some point in my life, I shared their hopes, struggles and determination. I was them, I am them. I am passionate about making their journey easier, the same way someone did it for me.”