Our Team
Mónica Palacio
CEO & President
Mónica, the CEO and founder of DEIscovery Partners, is a civil rights lawyer who has dedicated her life’s work to fighting for social and economic justice. For ten years, she led the DC Office of Human rights, one of the largest and most successful civil rights agencies of its kind. Serving under two Mayors in Washington, DC, she designed and fought for resources across a continuum of access to justice and equity programs and became the first de facto chief equity officer for the city of Washington, DC.
Mónica began her career as an advocate for youth affected by exposure to the criminal justice system and violence in their communities. After graduating from Georgetown University Law Center where she worked on juvenile justice issues, Mónica led community violence prevention work across the U.S. as Training Director for the National Crime Prevention Council. As a master facilitator with the National Coalition Building Institute (NCBI) she led coalition building programs to support African American and Latinx community leaders. Her anti-racism projects took her from Austin,Texas to Allentown, PA, and from Washington, DC to Santurce, Puerto Rico and Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
For over twenty years she has helped transform leaders, teams and communities seeking greater impact over systems designed to harm historically underresourced communities. Her passion for ending anti-black racism, xenophobia and ableism and all mistreatment of people is rooted in her lived experiences as a Latina immigrant, mother and sister. Mónica is a proud Colombian-American Latina, born in Bogota, Colombia.. She received her undergraduate degree from Fordham University before moving to Washington, DC to attend law school.
Dahlia Aguilar
Chief Strategy Officer
As the Chief Strategy Officer Dahlia stewards DEIscovery Partners’ strategy internally and externally to ensure the highest quality service for clients aligned with research and best practice in the fields of design, equity, and organizational and business management. In her role as an executive coach, designer and trainer, she helps organizations build their capacity to see how their ecosystem is yielding the outcomes they desire, to understand how their stakeholders and constituents are affected by their practices, and to help deepen their ability to institute lasting, transformational change.
Dahlia’s work in building equitable environments began as a response to dismantling inequities as a public school educator and school leader. Dahlia has worked in regional and national organizations in the education, non-profit, philanthropic and private sectors to support efforts focused on diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging and has supported using frameworks of equity by design and effective change management to support their efforts. Throughout her career, she has focused on building work environments that center equity and function as learning organizations. Dahlia brings over 25 years leading, coaching, and training to the DEI space. Over her career, Dahlia has provided job-embedded training in building professional learning communities with a focus on conflict resolution, building mutual trust and deepening racial literacy.
Dahlia earned her Bachelor degree in English from Georgetown University, her Masters Degree in Curriculum and Instruction from Texas A&M University-CC, and her Masters in Educational Leadership from Trinity University-DC. She is an alum of Teach for America and New Leaders for New Schools.Dahlia is a daughter of El Paso and Corpus Christi, TX and currently resides in Washington, DC where she lives with her son, and two dogs. She is a published poet and proudly lives bilingually in English and Spanish.
Megan jirón
Chief Officer of Culture and Operations
Megan is a bilingual Returned Peace Corps Volunteer with 6+ years of project management and program coordination experience. Her portfolio of work is diverse and multifaceted: spanning four countries and incorporating skills and experience in education, international volunteerism, public and non-profit sectors. She has developed expertise in cross-cultural and intergenerational communication competence, writing and research, education, and data management.
As the Chief Officer of Culture and Operations (COCO), Megan executes, publishes, DEIscovery Partners’ culture, messaging, ethos and DEIB values. She maintains focus on production, recruitment and hiring, marketing and development, administration, project management, and ensures that DEIScovery Partners’ mission and vision are effectively coming to reality.
Megan is a compassionate activist, advocate, visionary, writer, lifelong learner, and teacher who believes in the power of people of color, women and girls, and humanity in the margins to transform our world. She holds a master's degree in Intercultural Communication with a specialization in Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion training, and a focus on conflict resolution. She is new to DC and was born in Albuquerque, NM. She is a Chicana, a desert woman, a daughter, a sister, an auntie. In her free time, find her volunteering at the food bank, on her yoga mat, or in front of her sewing machine, creating funky garments.