Staff and Board
Staff
Angie Condor
Program Associate
Angie Condor (she/they) is a Latine daughter of immigrants and native to Miami, FL. Their work as a writer, community organizer, poet, and cultural worker has been shaped by their commitment to the liberation of all people. As a student of abolition, Angie has organized across varying roles and grassroots initiatives challenging the carceral system in South Florida.
During her time in (F)empower, a queer feminist collective shifting culture in Miami and her political home, she supported housing logistics and mutual aid for folks bonded out through the (F)empower community bail fund. Prior to joining the FCYO team, they served as the Operations Coordinator at The Dream Defenders. In this role, they created and implemented systems that supported the organization's accounts payable process, membership supply requests, and in-person gatherings.
As the incoming Program Associate, Angie oversees program logistics and grant management for FCYO's GenPower Labs. Angie offers strengths in sustainable operations, facilitation, research and power mapping. She is grounded in her vision of an abundant and transformative world as she seeks to continue creating innovative containers for change.
Mónica Córdova
Executive Director
Mónica Córdova is the Executive Director of the Funders’ Collaborative on Youth Organizing, a dynamic collective of social justice funders and youth practitioners dedicated to building the leadership and capacity of youth organizers to create meaningful institutional and social change. Mónica holds a lifelong commitment to the critical role of BlPOC youth, working-class young people, young women, and queer and trans youth in transforming social and economic conditions. She honed her vision and practice for nearly a decade as the youth organizer and then Co-Director of the SouthWest Organizing Project, a local grassroots organization in New Mexico. As Co-Director, she focused on building power among people from low-income communities of color through leading multi-issue, multi-generational community organizing and civic engagement campaigns. Today, Mónica uses her grounded experience to bring philanthropic leaders and youth organizers together to ensure young people have the resources and tools they need to fight for a more just and democratic society. She serves on the Advisory Board of the Climate Equity Policy Center and is the Board President of the New Mexico Immigrant Law Center. Mónica is a proud mama, New Mexico Chicana, and certified professional coach.
Kandice Head
Communications Manager
As the Communications Manager of The Funders’ Collaborative on Youth Organizing, Kandice leads FCYO’s growing content strategy, helping to develop communications materials and implement multi-faceted narrative plans that center the role young people of color play in social movements. Prior to joining the FCYO team, she served as the Communications Specialist at the Forum for Youth Investment in Washington, D.C. for 2 years. In this role, Kandice developed and executed marketing strategies for the Forum’s products, services, and events. A Chicago native, Kandice earned her Bachelor’s degree in Journalism - Strategic Communication from the University of Missouri. When she’s not working, she’s writing and performing spoken word poetry.
Kel Kroehle (they/them)
Director of Learning & Development
As Learning & Development Director, Kel supports FCYO's resource mobilization, funder organizing, and research and evaluation efforts. Whether in service of FCYO’s field scans, funder advisory, or grantmaking and capacity building programs, Kel is committed to identifying the lessons emerging from our work and weaving together youth organizing’s lineages, practices, and visions for the world. Prior to joining the FCYO team, Kel served for seven years as Director of The Bryson Institute at The Attic Youth Center in Philadelphia. In this role, they coordinated and resourced a youth-driven education and training program, working alongside queer and trans youth to advance anti-oppressive practices and just policies among the region’s youth-serving systems. Their experience also includes facilitating participatory action research projects on trans student equity and youth sociopolitical development. Kel earned their Bachelors degree in Gender Studies and LGBTQ studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison before earning their Master of Social Work degree at the University of Pennsylvania. Beyond the workday, Kel can typically be found connecting with loved ones and other rabble-rousers, negotiating with their four-legged muppet-companion, TumTum Geraldine, or prepping for an upcoming crossword competition.
Jennifer Maldonado
Program Manager
Jennifer Maldonado, also known as J-Mo, was raised in El Sereno, Los Angeles (CA). She is the youngest of 4 and shares the same birthday as her grandfather, Malcom X and Yuri Kochiyama- May 19! At an early age, she began organizing with InnerCity Struggle’s youth program called United Students. J-Mo’s first campaign win brought millions of dollars to under-resourced and over-crowded schools in the Eastside and Southside schools. She graduated from UC San Diego with a BA in Ethnic Studies and minor in Education Studies to return to her Eastside communities and work with families for educational justice. She loves to travel- while in college she did a study aboard program in Ireland and was able to visit France, Spain, Portugal, Scotland and Italy. Her favorite movie is Yes Man! with Jim Carrie and the Jurassic Park series. If she could live in any creative world it would the Matrix to take down the status quo with karate.
She was first hired as a Fellow through the Funder’s Collaborative on Youth Organizing(FCYO) at InnerCity Struggle, later as a School Site Organizer at Woodrow Wilson High and Lincoln High School and recently as the Community Planning Justice Organizer.
From school based organizing, city, and county organizing, J-Mo has been able to mentor generations of youth in her community and shift power in tenant and land use policies in the county. She is now joining FCYO as incoming Program Associate.
Kaleia Martin
Climate Fund Program Manager
Kaleia Martin is the Climate Fund Program Manager at FCYO where her job is to support the development and execution of various projects.. Kaleia started as a youth organizer at Youth Empowered Solutions (YES!) where she supported her young people as they worked to increase access to clean water in schools, helped innovate the Charlotte Public Health department’s tobacco prevention outreach strategy and became sought out leaders for making the connection between racial justice and climate justice in order to create effective policy. She is the former Environmental Justice working group co-chair for the Southeast Climate and Energy Network (SCEN) and a current leadership team member for the NC Climate Justice Collective. Kaleia is looking forward to carrying out her dreams of helping the worlds of climate activism and racial justice collide. She holds a Bachelor of Social Work degree from UNC- Greensboro as well as a Master of Social Work degree.
Kaleia is a free, audacious soul who strives to disrupt everything that hinders human ability to dream radically and live more harmoniously with ourselves, each other and the planet. A true Carolina girl, she grew up outside of Charleston, SC before moving to her home of Charlotte, NC. She enjoys spending time with loved ones, exploring new places, trying out random Pinterest recipes, observing nature from her stand-up paddle board and novel experiences. Additionally, she devotes time to being a filmmaker, creative producer, speaker, facilitator and Founder and Striving Embodier of Disrupt Transform.
Rapheal Randall
Director of Special Projects
Rapheal Randall is a trained designer, urban planner, and political worker who specializes in strategy and organizational development. While with Michael Graves Design Group in Princeton, NJ, he co-designed products, as an urban planner and designer in Philadelphia, PA, he drafted community revitalization plans for nonprofits and neighborhood groups throughout the tri-state area. During this period, Rapheal participated in local anti-displacement fights and minimum wage campaigns, utilizing his skills as a community planner in these organizing efforts. These experiences led him to Youth United for Change (YUC) in 2014, where he spent seven years as Executive Director rebuilding the organization through a dialectical process rooted in rigorous experimentation. The lessons his team learned through this approach are captured in two self-published books -- Y’all Tryna Win or Nah?! and Doin’ The Work. Rapheal received his Bachelor of Science in Design from The Ohio State University and a Master of City and Regional Planning from the University of Pennsylvania.
Troy Price
Operations Associate
Troy joins FCYO as Operations Associate, where he supports grant and financial management for the organization overall as well as meeting and event logistics for YO-CARE and TAP specifically. He has explored a range of roles prior to joining the FCYO team–with stops in international immigration law, trade show exhibits, and one night as a cocktail server. His most formative experience came while supporting nonprofit membership at the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, where he authored a blog series featuring original interviews with movement organizations across the country highlighting ways in which the philanthropic ecosystem can be a stronger partner in organizing and advocacy work. Born in the DMV with no plans to ever leave, Troy holds a Bachelor’s degree in government and politics (with a minor in astronomy) from the University of Maryland and a Master’s degree in public administration from American University with a focus on nonprofit management. Outside of work he can be found playing board games with friends, obsessing over his plants, and learning to do a handstand
Tatianna Santos
Donor Engagement Manager
Tatianna Santos, known as Tati, was raised in Paraná, Brasil. At the age of seven she moved to the United States and has since lived in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Colorado. Growing up as an undocumented immigrant she began her work in activism at an early age, supporting work in Newark, New Jersey combatting the attacks of ICE and barriers to citizenship in her community.
During her time at Lehigh University, she began exploring activism in the LGBTQ movement all the while coming into her own identity as a queer woman. Previously she has worked with the Boys and Girls Clubs of Metro Denver, Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains, and the Gill Foundation, a leading LGBTQ funder.
As FCYO's Donor Engagement Manager, Tati will support efforts in building out a new individual donor network and increasing resources for the field of youth organizing. Outside of working hours you can find Tati watching the sunset with her cat (Bandit), browsing the internet for artwork, growing her earring collection, and kitchen dance parties to Marc Anthony's "Vivir Mi Vida".
Jen Stevens
Operations and Finance Manager
While organizing with CYAP, Jen became involved with the Girls Rock Camp Alliance (GRCA) - an international membership network of youth-centered arts and social justice organizations. The GRCA provides resources and space for community building to over 100 members worldwide in order to build a strong movement for collective liberation. Jen has been involved with the GRCA movement since 2014, most recently serving on the member-elected Board of Directors for the last 5 years. As a Board member, Jen helps organize an annual convening of over 200 program organizers and volunteers and focuses most of her time on member connectivity and engagement.
When not working at FCYO or organizing with the GRCA, Jen can be found reading about astrology (they’re an Aquarius sun, Capricorn rising, and Gemini moon), creating to-do lists in Google Drive, playing sports, or taking photographs of cats. They love to travel and sing karaoke - their go to song is I Want It That Way by the Backstreet Boys.
Jen joins FCYO as the Operations and Admin Associate after nearly a decade of working in higher education administration. She is excited to help support the operational and logistical side of FCYO’s work.
Helena Wong
Associate Director
Helena joins FCYO as its Special Projects Director where they are excited to develop and test out new initiatives. Prior to FCYO, Helena's experience spans over two decades playing different roles in social justice organizations around the US: director of Seeding Change, Feminisms and Gender Justice Organizer at Grassroots Global Justice Alliance and coordinator of It Takes Roots, organizer and executive director of CAAAV Organizing Asian Communities in NYC where she organized in low-income Asian immigrant and refugee communities around gentrification, community development/land use, and police violence. Helena has also led delegations to China, meeting with organizers and advocates around land rights, migrant workers, environmental protection, queer visibility and sex work. She is based in NYC and one day hopes to cultivate a green thumb.
Christopher June Zizzamia
Program Director
Christopher June is an experienced organizer, trainer, and strategist who believes that building the multi-racial working class’s power is the key to transforming the world towards justice. They bring to FCYO a deep history of building Black and Brown-led community organizing groups, centering the development of those with the most to gain from society’s transformation; youth, LGBTQ folks, gender-oppressed folks, working class folks, and immigrants. They come to the FCYO team after a decade spanning different parts of the movement eco-system, from educational justice in a base-building organization to statewide community-labor coalition work.
Before organizing Christopher June could be found on roofs and in basements all over Connecticut where they spent years as a construction worker. And before that they could be found nose buried in a comic book or making an elaborate play-city with garage finds. All of – the commitment to their people, the construction, the reading, the imagination – grounded in one desire: to close the gap between what is and what can be.
Board
Traci Callender
Annie E Casey Foundation
Isabel Sousa-Rodriguez
The Edward W. Hazen Foundation
Sam Kiyomi Turner
The Kresge Foundation
Jonathan Jayes-Green
Marguerite Casey Foundation
Alexis Harewood
The Nellie Mae Education Foundation
Fela Thomas
San Francisco Foundation
Brandon Thorne
W. Clement & Jessie V. Stone Foundation
Javier H. Valdés
Director, Civic Engagement and Government
Ford Foundation
Javier H. Valdés is director of the Civic Engagement and Government program. He supports grantmaking to strengthen representation, participation, and leadership in US democracy so that communities can shape their futures, with dignity, inclusion, and equitable access to economic resources. In 2013, President Barack Obama awarded Javier the White House Champions of Change Cesar Chavez Award. Javier has a masters degree in urban planning in community and economic development from the NYU Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service and a bachelor of arts in international studies and environmental design and architecture from Texas A&M University.
Dimple Abichandani
Executive Director
General Service Foundation
Dimple Abichandani is the Executive Director of the General Service Foundation (GSF), a private foundation that supports organizations building power at the intersection of racial, gender and economic justice. Dimple joined General Service Foundation in 2015, bringing almost two decades of experience advancing social justice as a lawyer, funder and educator. Prior to joining GSF, Dimple was the Executive Director of the Thelton E. Henderson Center for Social Justice at UC Berkeley School of Law. As the founding program officer of the Security and Rights Collaborative (SRC) at the Proteus Fund, Dimple managed a donor collaborative aimed at challenging post-9/11 Islamophobia and discrimination. Earlier in her career, Dimple worked at Legal Services NYC, first as a staff attorney where she represented low wage workers and later as the Director of Program Development. Dimple currently serves on the board of Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees and Northern CA Grantmakers and has served on the boards of Asian Americans Advancing Justice- Asian Law Caucus, Forward Together and the Third Wave Foundation. Dimple earned a JD at Northeastern University School of Law, and a BA in English with Honors at the University of Texas at Austin.
Manuela Arciniegas
Program Officer, Civic Engagement and Government
Ford Foundation
Manuela Arciniegas is a program officer with the Ford Foundation’s Civic Engagement and Government team. She brings more than 20 years of experience in the racial justice nonprofit sector, ensuring young people from low-income communities grow as leaders and have the opportunity to hold their governments to account.Prior to joining Ford, Manuela was director of the Andrus Family Fund, overseeing a grantmaking portfolio advancing policy, community organizing, direct service and capacity building for organizations serving youth advocating for change. She has additionally served as a grantmaker and community organizer across issues, including environmental justice, narrative change, arts and culture and education access. She is a selected participant of the Soros Social Justice Fellowship and New York Humanities Fellowship and a recipient of prizes from the National Association of Latino Arts and Culture, the New York State Council of the Arts, along with being recognized with the Kennedy Center’s Next 50 cultural leadership award.
Lori Bezahler
President
Edward W. Hazen Foundation
As President of the Edward W. Hazen Foundation, Lori Bezahler leads a national grant making program supporting organizing and leadership by young people and communities of color to dismantle structural inequity based on race and class. During 2013, Ms. Bezahler was also a Senior Fellow at the Center for Social Inclusion where she now serves as chair of the Board of Directors. Her writing and commentary have appeared in The Nation, the Washington Post, Education Week, Foundation Review, the Journal of Responsive Philanthropy, and on numerous blogs and other media outlets. With over 20 years’ experience as a leader in the not for profit sector, she has served on several boards including Grantmakers for Education, the National Center on Schools and Communities at Fordham University, Philanthropy New York, and the Center for Community Alternatives, and has taught as an adjunct assistant professor at NYU’s Wagner School of Public Service.
Shona Chakravarty
Senior Program Officer
The Hill-Snowdon Foundation
Shona Chakravarty is Senior Program Officer at the Hill-Snowdon Foundation (HSF), and is responsible for leading and managing HSF’s Economic Justice grantmaking program, as well as developing and implementing learning and leveraging activities related to HSF’s economic justice interests. She was previously the co-chair of Neighborhood Funders Group (NFG) Working Group on Labor & Community Partnerships, and currently serves on the board of the Funders’ Collaborative on Youth Organizing. Before joining the Hill-Snowdon Foundation staff in 2006, Shona served as Program Officer for the Four Freedoms Fund, a philanthropic collaborative that made grants to enhance the capacity of local and state organizations to actively engage immigrants in the civic, social and economic life of their communities and participate in national policy and advocacy efforts.
Alicia Olivarez
Narrative and Policy Director
Power California
Alicia is a daughter, sister, xicana and organizer in Fresno, CA. Growing up in a small Central Valley farm working town has served as the main motivation to create leadership pathways and opportunities for young people to grow into their power across the Central Valley. Alicia brings 10 years of experience in program development, youth organizing, and collaboration management. After receiving her BA from UC Berkeley, Alicia worked for an Oakland social-impact organization to build coalitions and programs on the issues of reentry, housing, and economic development. She went on to receive her Masters in Public Policy from Harvard and has since returned to the Central Valley to build 99Rootz, Power California's organizing and voter engagement program that’s building a transformative youth-led movement in rural communities. In 2019, she became the organization's Narrative and Policy Director where she leads communications, policy and cultural strategies.
Eli Cuna
National Field Director
United We Dream
Eli Cuna is United We Dream’s National Field Director. Eli is a community organizer and movement builder from New Mexico, and develop the field and political strategy and implementation plan for our branches Texas, New Mexico, Florida, and affiliates from CA, NY, OK and other states to mobilize. She came to the U.S. at age 14 with one of her siblings and reunited with her parents and the rest of her siblings at age of 16. Eli is proud of her story as an undocumented young womxn of color who was raised by hardworking migrant workers. Eli came out as undocumented and joined the immigrant youth movement in 2004 when she participated in her first class walk out at Capital High School in Santa Fe to voice the need for access to college education for undocumented youth in New Mexico. Eli’s organizing practice is rooted in racial justice, intersectionality and indigenous epistemology. She has organized in rural communities and developed curricula to engage her community in the necessary work of undoing racism and fighting for environmental and economic justice. She also served as a racial justice community project manager at the Community Engagement Center at the University of New Mexico and was an ethnographic research associate at the Center for Study of Urban Poverty at UCLA. Eli co-built a statewide network of immigrant youth in New Mexico and has strengthened the organizing and advocacy infrastructure in the state by creating initiatives like: UndocuHealing, UndocuResearch, The (Un)documented Story Project, and NM DREAMZone. Eli is a member of the Board of Directors for the Center for Civic Policy and holds two B.A. degrees and a M.P.A from the University of New Mexico. Eli’s search for justice comes from her journey of learning from the elders in her tribe & community and is proud to share the wisdom of those elders and her experience with United We Dream as the network embarks on a multi-racial, intersectional strategy to bring justice and dignity to people’s lives.
Brian Dixon
Program Officer and Grants Manager
W. Clement & Jesse V. Stone Foundation
Brian Dixon joined The Stone Foundation in 2012, where he has worn many hats, allowing him to participate at every level of foundation management, including orchestration of the Foundation’s move from San Francisco to its current home in Chicago. Currently, he works with his program making colleagues to support work in education, early childhood development, and youth development, particularly focusing on elevating youth voice through organizing, youth-lead social change, and youth media. Prior to 2012, Brian primarily worked in faith-based non-profits, where he created opportunities to build community and support the needs of marginalized groups which included highlighting and celebrating the contributions of teens and young adults.
James Lopez
Executive Director
Power U Center for Social Change
A native to Rochester, New York, and a graduate from the University of Buffalo, James Lopez first began getting involved in organizing as a college student around issues of environmental justice and policing issues in the city of Buffalo. He worked with the Western New York Law Center where he supported their consumer debt legal clinic, and helped advocate for polices that address predatory lending and Community Reinvestment issues. James was an organizer for VOICE-Buffalo, where he organized with residents and formerly incarcerated in order to push for police accountability and diversion programs in the city of Buffalo. He was also involved in Just Resisting (JR), which is a collective of organizers of color in the city of Buffalo committed to developing transformational organizing in the city of Buffalo. James is an alumnus of Black Organizing for Leader and Dignity (BOLD) and is committed to assisting in the development of the young Black and Brown leadership necessary to usher in a new society where all oppressed people are liberated.
Albert Maldonado
Program Manager, Healthy Youth Development
The California Endowment
Albert Maldonado is Senior Program Manager tasked with developing and managing The California Endowment’s cross-cutting Youth Power & Youth Development Strategy and Portfolio. The Endowment’s approach to youth engagement expands beyond traditional notions of “youth development” by supporting a youth organizing framework and approach to address issues of race, power and equity as part of young people's socio-political development and agency. Albert has played a key role in building grant making strategies and incubating organizations to support youth-organizing and civic engagement, youth-voice, youth-healing and youth-participatory action research at the local and statewide levels with an emphasis on low income, marginalized communities for The California Endowment. Realizing the power of youth as health equity change-makers, he has spearheaded the development and launch of The Endowment’s signature youth engagement strategies and gatherings, including developing and staffing The President’s Youth Council, The Endowment’s Youth Organizing Camps, Youth Advocacy Day in Sacramento, Trans Youth Health Summit, Youth Awards and youth media retreats to hone the story telling craft of youth journalists who cover community health issues across California. Prior to joining The Endowment, Mr. Maldonado was the Senior Director of Central Valley Programs at the Youth Leadership Institute (YLI), an organization committed to creating space where young people and their adult allies come together to address public health issues through youth-led campaigns. Albert received a bachelor’s degree in Politics & Sociology from UC Santa Cruz and lives in Los Angeles with his son, Malachi.
Laura McCargar
President
Perrin Family Foundation
Laura McCargar was appointed as President of the Perrin Family Foundation (PFF) in June of 2016. Laura joined the foundation in 2011 as a Program Officer, where she played a central role in designing the foundation’s youth-led social change grantmaking and the oversaw the development and implementation of capacity building initiatives designed to strengthen, promote and expand youth organizing across Connecticut. Prior to joining the Perrin Family Foundation, Laura was awarded a Soros Justice Fellowship from Open Society Foundations to engage in research and organizing around the role that alternative schools and adult education programs play in Connecticut’s school-to-prison pipeline. Laura brings to her work more than a decade of experience as a youth worker and organizer, having served as the founding Executive Director of a New Haven-based nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering youth to use media and organizing strategies to create community change.
Mark Mildner
Chief Financial Officer
Bend the Arc: A Jewish Partnership for Justice
As Chief Financial Officer of Bend the Arc, Mark Mildner has overall responsibility for all financial aspects of the organization. His responsibilities also include oversight of human resources and office service functions. He brings over 25 years of financial experience and professional expertise to Bend the Arc. Mark has held senior financial positions with several not-for-profit organizations – providing expense controls, instituting best practices and managing complex assignments. Mark earned a BBA degree with high honors in public accounting from Hofstra University and a MBA degree with high honors from Boston University. He is both a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and a Chartered Global Management Accountant (CGMA). Mark is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants.
Sanjiv Rao
Program Officer, Youth Opportunity and Learning
The Ford Foundation
Sanjiv Rao is a program officer on the Youth Opportunity and Learning team. He has focused on educational equity issues in the United States, making grants that have supported improvements in the public education system’s school day to benefit low-income communities in particular. He has supported innovative efforts around the development, advocacy, and scalability of a redesigned school day and year to close opportunity gaps so that underserved youth have access to the high-quality educational and other learning experiences they need to succeed. Sanjiv has been with Ford since 2012. Earlier, he served as executive director of the New York State Afterschool Network, where he led policy efforts to link and integrate youth development and expanded learning more effectively with the public education system. Sanjiv began his career as an elementary school teacher in California, Texas, and Mexico. He has worked in school system improvement as a senior associate at the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University and as a member of the research team studying the Ford-funded Leadership for a Changing World program while a doctoral student at New York University. Sanjiv has a PhD in public administration from New York University, a master’s degree in education from the University of California, Berkeley, and a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Liz Sak
Executive Director
Cricket Island Foundation
Liz Sak is the executive director of the Cricket Island Foundation a private, family foundation founded in 2000. CIF funds youth-led social change programs nationally with a particular emphasis on emerging organizations that work with extremely marginalized populations. Liz came to Cricket Island 8 years ago after almost two decades of experience running non-profit organizations – from a Beacon School in the South Bronx to an arts and youth-led social change group in Manhattan. She currently serves on the Board of Philanthropy New York and on the Executive Committee for the Communities for Just Schools Fund. She spearheaded an effort to analyze the impact of the recession on social justice philanthropy that resulted in release of Diminishing Dollars for Social Justice Philanthropy in partnership with the Foundation Center and often speaks on organizational development and capacity building in grantmaking strategies. Liz got her BA from Lehigh University and her MBA from the Yale School of Management.
Jidan Terry-Koon
Acting Program Director
The San Francisco Foundation
Jidan Terry-Koon is a second generation Chinese American born and raised in the SF Bay Area. As an artist, organizer, and community builder for the past 20+ years, Jidan’s field experience encompasses grassroots organizing, civic engagement, service provision, and institutional reform led by low-income people of color communities. Prior to joining the San Francisco Foundation, she served as the Deputy Director for Mobilize the Immigrant Vote and played a critical role in launching the YVote project to build a powerful millennial of color voting bloc in California. As a service provider, she founded mentoring and enrichment programs for under-represented youth through Reach!, the East Bay Asian Youth Center, and Stiles Hall. Through Youth Together, she launched a multi-service youth center in Oakland that engaged the school community in education reform campaigns. Jidan has also held positions in the Oakland Unified School District as the Special Assistant to the Superintendent and consultant to its Meaningful Student Engagement Initiative. Jidan has a BA in Political Science and a minor in Education from the University of California at Berkeley and a Masters of Public Policy with a certificate in Urban and Regional Planning from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University.
Nahir Torres
Program Officer - Teen Development
The Hyams Foundation
Nahir Torres joined The Hyams Foundation in 2012 with a background in access to educational opportunities for Boston teens and positive youth development. At Hyams, her portfolio includes strategies to disrupt the school to prison pipeline, youth organizing, and immigrant rights. Prior to coming to Hyams, she was a Program Officer for Education at The Boston Foundation (TBF), where she worked on TBF’s college completion portfolio including Success Boston and Achieving the Dream. Her previous work in the nonprofit sector focused on family engagement, child development, and adult education. A graduate of the Boston Public Schools, Nahir received her B.A. degree from Wellesley College and a Master of Education from Harvard University. She is an active member of the Greater Boston Social Justice Funders Network, the Communities for Just Schools Fund, and the Youth Transitions Funder Group. In July of 2017, Nahir was sworn in as a member of Massachusetts' first-ever Latino Advisory Commission to the Governor.