OUR STAFF

Scott is the Chief Executive Officer of Generation Citizen.  He co-founded the organization at Brown University with fellow student Anna Ninan during their senior year in 2009, and has worked the last seven years to build up GC’s programming and work to expand action civics throughout the country.

Scott’s passion for the importance of youth political engagement stems from his experience growing up abroad. After his father joined the State Department, Scott lived throughout Latin America and Africa, learning about diverse cultures and peoples. In 2002, Scott served as an observer in the first truly democratic elections in Kenya’s history, where he began to recognize the transformative potential of democracy. He also witnessed a coup in Ecuador in 2005, and met with opposition members during run-off elections in Zimbabwe in 2008.

During college he served as the Student Director of STAND, a national student anti-genocide coalition. STAND worked with over 800 high school and college chapters to advocate US action to prevent and end genocide, and create a permanent student anti-genocide constituency. Scott also helped lead successful campaigns to divest Brown University, the City of Providence, and the State of Rhode Island from companies conducting business in Sudan.

Scott was named an Echoing Green Fellow in 2010, and a Draper Richards Kaplan Fellow in 2012.  He continues to write on subjects ranging youth political engagement to African politic to sports, and has been published in the Christian Science Monitor, New York Daily News, Huffington Post, San Diego Union Tribune, Sports Illustrated, Philadelphia Inquirer, and the Providence Journal.

In his spare time, Scott enjoys running, traveling, and religiously following his hometown teams: the San Diego Padres and Chargers.

Josh has over 15 years of nonprofit management experience working with national education and youth development nonprofits, including Teach For America, Youthbuild USA, and Peace First. He led the launch of a national fellowship program for young leaders at Peace First, scaled up Teach For America’s alumni giving and volunteerism programs, and managed technical assistance to over 100 YouthBuild programs.  Josh received his BA from Williams College and his MBA from the Yale School of Management.  Josh was also chair of the Young Nonprofit Professional Network’s national board during a period of rapid expansion, and led the Development and Search Committee for The Food Project.

A lifelong follower and debater of politics, nationally and locally, Josh is excited to support Generation Citizen’s mission of engaging young people in fashioning solutions to community challenges in partnership with local and state government.  His experience working with youth from diverse backgrounds in each of his roles, and seeing how their voices broadened the conversation, grounds his commitment to ensuring that our civic institutions are representative and responsive to all of their constituents.

Josh grew up in Guilford, Connecticut and lives outside Boston with his wife and newborn son. In his free time he enjoys hiking, coffee snobbery and wine tasting.

Jessicah joined Generation Citizen in 2016 as the Director of Development. She leads fundraising and communications for the organization nationwide as a member of the leadership team. Prior to GC, Jessicah established her nonprofit career at Per Scholas, a no-cost technology job-training organization, where she spent several years helping build the organization. She established the organization’s communications department, corporate partner model, diversified its fundraising streams, and lead a number of efforts to raise the organization’s profile and fuel its expansion into new markets across the country. Jess brings a tremendous amount of experience to GC that will advance its growth and deepen its work in its destinations old and new. Prior to her career in nonprofit, she worked in advertising at Team One, an agency of Saatchi & Saatchi.

Raised in the heartland of America in Winfield, KS, she is a graduate of the University of Kansas and has been a transplant in New York for the past decade. Not a total novice to community organizing, Jess is energized to follow the GC student’s lead and push herself to become a more engaged citizen and active member in our democracy through this work. She will be keeping tally of her participation in local elections from this point forward.

When taking a break from running fundraising campaigns and building HONY-worthy stories, she has no shame in touting her love for creating custom Halloween costumes, finding solitude in coloring books (she claims being ahead of the trend), and choosing a new destination on the globe for disconnected R&R far away from the concrete jungle.

As Director of Programming, Sarah manages Generation Citizen’s program quality, evaluation, and pilots across the country. She joined the team in 2011 to help launch GC’s New York City site and served as NY Program Manager and NY Site Director before stepping into her current role.

Sarah is driven by a lifelong curiosity about how communities influence their residents and how residents influence their communities, from the scale of a classroom community to a national democracy. Her sense of social justice is grounded in how well communities support this balance – offering access to and promoting the agency of their members.

Before coming to Generation Citizen, Sarah taught high school math in rural Mississippi, planning and leading lessons, tutorials, and even prom at her one-hallway school, working to help students gain the confidence, skills, and requirements they would need for graduation and beyond. She was drawn to Generation Citizen by its power to encourage students in developing not only academically but as advocates for themselves and their communities.

At GC, Sarah grew the NYC program from a small pilot to partnering with teachers in serving more than 2,000 students per year, developed a NYC advisory board and grew local fundraising efforts, and co-led a successful campaign to amend state legislation to allow 16- and 17-year-olds to serve on local NYC community boards. She has published numerous articles on and has led workshops across the country about GC’s work and the potential and pedagogy of youth civic engagement.

Sarah grew up in Houston, Texas and received a B.A. in Geography and Plan II Honors and a certificate in Social Inequality, Health, and Policy from the University of Texas (hook ‘em!). She now lives in Brooklyn and spends her free time consuming obscene amounts of bagels and iced coffee, going to comedy shows, and giving tours of Grand Central Terminal as a volunteer docent with the Municipal Arts Society.

Andrew Wilkes serves as Generation Citizen’s Director of Policy and Advocacy, where he leads GC’s thought leadership, coalition building, and policy initiatives as a part of the national leadership team. Andrew comes to this role with nearly ten years of experience in public policy, advocacy, and community organizing, particularly among congregations and community-based organizations. Prior to joining GC in 2017, he served as the executive director of the Drum Major Institute, a social change organization founded by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. In that capacity, he executed public affairs events in Dallas, TX and Washington D.C. to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act; established the Beloved Community Initiative, a national resource on spirituality and social justice for faith communities; and relaunched the nationally renowned Marketplace of Ideas Forum – a forum for bringing policy ideas to an audience of changemakers, policy professionals, and nonprofit leaders.

As a Senior Grants Manager at The American Red Cross of Greater New York, he worked with elected officials, public agencies, and community stakeholders to administer a $45 million budget for Superstorm Sandy recovery in New York state and Connecticut. Before that, he worked at Habitat for Humanity – New York City, where he mobilized 140 faith communities across the city to serve, donate, and advocate for affordable housing.

Andrew is a graduate of Hampton University, Princeton Theological Seminary, the CORO public affairs fellowship, and is a doctoral candidate in political science at the Graduate Center, City University of New York. He also serves on the board of directors for the Labor-Religion Coalition of New York State and Habitat for Humanity – New York State.

Siobhan (pronounced sha-von) is a Bay Area native who has worked as an educator, political community organizer and non-profit fundraiser. She aligns deeply with the mission of Generation Citizen and has spent the majority of her career working to support young people in developing the skills and resources needed to become transformative change-makers and leaders in their community.

Siobhan believes all people, especially those from undervalued and underrepresented communities, have the power and ability to influence our democracy. Siobhan was raised by a strong-willed single mother who taught her at an early age the importance of utilizing her voice to advocate for policy change. In college, Siobhan studied to be a high school History teacher with the goal of using stories of past social and political movements to inspire young people to become active and engaged citizens. Simultaneously, she began cutting her teeth as a community organizer, working on local and national equity and justice issues, which taught her more tactics for influencing those with power.

Since then, Siobhan has spent several years organizing and training low-income youth, youth of color, and lgbtq students and community members to use their voice and personal stories to advocate and fight for policies that support their communities. Siobhan has trained hundreds of young people with political organizing and leadership skills. She has supported all levels of civic engagement- from helping first time voters participate in federal, state and local elections, to teaching students how to lobby their state legislators on issues ranging from street safety to affordable housing, to helping LGBTQ community members successfully demand more inclusive and protective policies. Throughout her work, she has been inspired by young people who are identifying and pushing for meaningful solutions to the pressing issues that directly impact their communities.

Siobhan is excited to be a part of the Generation Citizen family and looks forward to continuing to support the development of the next generation of engaged and motivated citizens.

When not working, Siobhan can be found traveling the world, cooking spicy food, dancing around the house, meditating by the ocean or hanging with her “Jazz” kitties, Louie and Mingus.

DeNora is a native New Yorker and passionate advocate who over the last decade has fought to improve our democracy at the national, state and local level.

Like many of GC’s students, she was in high school when she had her “light bulb moment” about the importance of being a strong advocate and how to mount an advocacy campaign to seek change.

DeNora attended John Jay College of Criminal Justice and Fordham University School of Law. She cut her teeth working on local democracy and government reform for former New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn. Throughout her career, DeNora has shaped state and local policy on a host of reform issues, including as Campaign manager & Legislative Counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, Policy Director for then-Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, Policy Director at Citizens Union, Legislative Director at the New York State Trial Lawyers Association, and Legislative Attorney for the New York City Council’s Governmental Operations Committee. She has worked to modernize state voting and campaign finance laws; increase government accountability and transparency; improve New York City’s education and social welfare systems; and enhance police accountability and oversight. During her democracy and social justice travels, DeNora has contributed to the New York Times’ City blog, Huffington Post, the Des Moines Register, Newsday, and Gotham Gazette.

DeNora values giving back to her community. She serves as a board member of Union Settlement and Planned Parenthood NYC Votes. She also volunteers with the New York Junior League and with the Greater New York Chapter of the Links, Inc., where she works to improve outcomes for and provide opportunities to underserved young adults.

DeNora is a mother of three who lives on New York’s Upper West Side with her husband, Mark. In her non-existent free time, DeNora enjoys traveling to relaxing beach destinations, reading, and trying random fitness classes.

​Arielle developed a love for civic engagement early in life when her high school offered civic action opportunities inside and outside of the school day. She was personally empowered and realized the importance of youth voice but saw that many youth did not have access to these experiences and when they did were often marginalized from having real decision-making power. Arielle believes that our schools have a civic mission to fulfill to teach young people how to be life-long civic actors. Arielle is particularly excited to be part of Generation Citizen because of its dedication to high quality programming​​ and its voice in the national movement to see action-based civics in every classroom.

Arielle​has been working in the nonprofit and civic engagement field for ten years. She ​earned her master’s degree in Education from Harvard Graduate School of Education and her bachelor’s degree in psychology from The George Washington University with a minor in ​​human ​services. Early in Arielle’s career, she worked with nonprofits in Boston and Washington DC addressing issues of food insecurity, homelessness and ex-offender workforce re-entry. It was ​t​here she realized the importance of ​underrepresented voices taking ​political action ​to create long-term change around ​issues that affect them. She has since worked in ​K-12 ​schools and universities promoting youth voice and civic action ​both domestically and in the U.K.
When she is not working, Arielle enjoys walking her dog, playing soccer, listening to This American Life, and traveling​.

Tom came to Generation Citizen in 2012 after working in politics for a number of years. He joined Generation Citizen to help young people learn how to be engaged and powerful advocates for themselves and their communities. While participating in Generation Citizen, students in Rhode Island have used their voices to lobby for crosswalks to be painted, state legislation to be introduced, and rules within their school district to change. Working alongside young people to help them understand how to impact the political process is what Tom loves most about Generation Citizen.

Tom grew up in North Kingstown, Rhode Island, and graduated from the University of New Hampshire with degrees in political science and history. He has worked in public and private lobbying in Washington, D.C. and Rhode Island for good government organizations, education nonprofits and healthcare institutions. He also served as the Finance and Campaign Director for a Maryland state campaign for Comptroller.

Tom currently lives in Providence, and loves working with Generation Citizen in his home state. He enjoys running, Crossfit, being out on Narragansett Bay and hiking in the woods with his dog.

Isa joined Generation Citizen in 2017 as Finance Manager. She spends her time building and refining GC’s financial management systems, from budgets to audit and beyond. Prior to GC, Isa worked in operations at Venture for America, a nonprofit startup where she wore many hats – finance, HR, amateur IT support, and more. She got her start as a campus organizer with the California Student Public Interest Research Group, recruiting and training students to run campaigns to promote clean energy and increase youth voter turnout. Her time as a community organizer cemented her passion for youth civic education, and she’s excited to be part of building GC’s operational infrastructure as the program scales.

Isa grew up in Vermont and received her B.A. in politics from Pomona College. When not buried in a spreadsheet, she can be found hiking, camping, and exploring new neighborhoods in the city.

Sally became the Bay Area Program Associate in 2016. Before joining GC, Sally mobilized students on her college campus to participate in their local government. She led a group that organized lobby visits and encouraged students to directly engage their elected officials on higher education issues. Through this experience, she learned how much real change requires action and activism. Driven by a love of working in education at all levels, Sally also spent her undergraduate career in a myriad of instructional roles that allowed her to teach and mentor youth ranging from elementary school students to college students, in addition to interning at various government offices including the U.S. Department of Education and the SF Mayor’s Office of Education. Her passion for addressing social inequality through education stems from her own experiences growing up as a low-income, first-generation student in East Los Angeles.

Sally was drawn to GC because of its commitment to serving and empowering youth. She particularly likes the program’s capacity to ignite a lifelong passion for political engagement within young people. She appreciates how her role gives her the unique opportunity to help students grow into leaders of change within their communities.

Sally went to UC Berkeley where she earned her B.A. in Political Science. In her free time, she loves trying new foods, diving into a good book, playing video games, and finding the best swimming holes.

Molly Cohen is Generation Citizen’s Rhode Island Program Manager. Molly first developed a passion for community empowerment at Vassar College, where she spent three years interning as a counselor and advocate for victims of domestic violence. She helped clients navigate the complexities of court dates, welfare applications, childcare arrangements, and hospital visits in addition to managing their own trauma. The experience was both transformative and troubling, motivating her to focus her career on helping amplify marginalized voices within social change movements.

In 2013, Molly moved to Providence to serve with City Year Rhode Island. She worked for two years at Del Sesto Middle School, where she first heard about Generation Citizen when her students talked about the advocacy projects they were working on. She joined GC as the RI Program Associate in 2015. In her three years leading the Rhode Island program, Molly has doubled the number of classes served and established partnerships with districts across the Ocean State. Molly is a founding member of the organization’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Steering Committee. She also serves on the Community Advisory Board for the Swearer Center at Brown University, and is an inaugural Fellow of Citizen University’s Civic Seminary Program.

Though originally from Pennsylvania, Molly has a lot of pride in her adopted home state of Rhode Island. When she isn’t working, she enjoys hiking, cooking elaborate dinners with friends, and re-watching Parks and Recreation.

Trudy’s passion for politics, policy and social advocacy began in high school, when she was selected to participate in a summer civics program at Fordham University. As a new immigrant from Ghana with a very curious mind to understand the new environment and culture she was in, this experience did more than inform her about the new country she would come to call home: it presented a first-hand experience that she was welcomed; she had a voice, and that voice mattered.This summer experience empowered her to advocate for the NYC Council to pass the Community Safety Act and also represent her high school on the Borough Student Advisory Council. It also became the catalyst for pursuing Political Science and Public Policy majors at the Rockefeller College of Public Policy and Affairs with a global perspective, and minor in Economics.

Having worked for a government official, educational institution, public relations lobbyist and several non-profits, she found that one theme ran across all fields—policymaking, and thus the need for education. As a result, she spent over 3 years teaching and coaching 6th-12th graders (mostly refugees and new immigrants), as well as fellow college peers on how to navigate the school and education system and succeed academically, socially and professionally.
Undoubtedly, Trudy’s work at GC is personal for her. Since her first exposure to politics and policy occurred in a classroom, Trudy coordinates with college student volunteers, and provides training and support to ensure that young people are receiving the necessary tools they need to pursue policy-making and participate in the democratic political process. She strongly believes that just like her, a young person can be significantly impacted as they go through the GC experience.

During her spare time, Trudy likes to meditate. She also loves cooking and trying new recipes.

Amy joined Generation Citizen in 2016 in furtherance of her professional and personal passion for empowering youth and providing opportunities through education. She began her career with Project Transformation, a community oriented summer day camp focused on building literacy among elementary-aged children from Oklahoma’s low-income urban neighborhoods. Long a community volunteer in a variety of capacities, she currently chairs an organization which operates a food pantry and provides no cost eye care (and other services) to Oklahoma City’s working poor.

Amy is proud to be at the forefront of Generation Citizen’s expansion to the Sooner State. Perpetuating the optimism and resilience of her pioneer forebears, she believes teaching Oklahoma’s youth to engage civically will improve their lives and equip Oklahoma with a new generation of leaders.

Amy holds a B.A. in Letters from the University of Oklahoma and a Masters in Religious Education from Oklahoma City University. She enjoys adventures with her husband and two boys, knitting, cooking dinner with friends, and cheering on the OKC Thunder.

Eli joined Generation Citizen in 2017. He found his passion for civic engagement and advocacy back in his hometown of Ontario, California. At Pitzer College he studied the role of civic participation within environmental and food politics in shaping policy and systemic change from the local to the global level. As a student, Eli became involved in community organizing working on food security and education with a local nonprofit.

Before joining Generation Citizen, he worked in Oregon for the Oregon Student Association. While in Oregon, Eli was involved grassroots organizing around civic engagement and legislative advocacy with community college and university students to improve access and affordability within higher education. He had the privilege of working on many successful pieces of state legislation and witnessing the impact of student advocacy on the local and state levels. As a program association, Eli is excited to build on his previous experience and passion for cultivating engaged citizens on a larger scale through Generation Citizen’s programming.

Eli moved to New York City in the summer of 2016 and continues to be a confused Californian on the east coast. He spends his free time exploring the city, hanging with his dog-child Louis, drinking mildly concerning amounts of coffee.

Clara graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Sociology and Legal Studies. Clara joins GC after several years in the legal profession, working as a paralegal in both the public and private sector. As an avid follower of American politics, as well as a native of the Bronx, Clara believes fostering a democratic spirit among urban youth is paramount, and is deeply committed to Generation Citizen’s mission.

Clara is obsessed with the Knicks and New York Giants, and enjoys reading in her spare time. She is also a first-generation American whose parents hail from Nigeria.

Carra has always understood education to be a vehicle for social justice, and she is thrilled to apply that ideology to her work in actions civics. A former teacher, Carra loves that her role as MA Program Manager at Generation Citizen allows her to exercise her passion for the empowerment of young people and still lets her focus on curriculum development and meaningful, student-centered learning.

Before joining Generation Citizen, Carra spent five years teaching English literature and one semester as a program manager at the nonprofit Tutors for All, which aims to defeat the achievement gap in Boston public schools. While teaching in a large, diverse high school in the greater Boston area, she also spent two years coaching Model Congress students beyond the classroom and into civic engagement. Carra was continuously awed by what her Model Congress students accomplished when they combined passion with thoughtful action. Working at GC means expanding these efforts, beyond those students with a natural proclivity for political action, to all students, especially those who don’t see a place for themselves in civic engagement.

Carra is originally from central Connecticut and received both her BA in Secondary Education and English Literature and Ed.M in Curriculum and Instruction from Boston College. When she’s not pondering the future of our democracy, you can find her with her nose in a book, on her yoga mat, or walking her dog Scout on the beach.

Bianca joined Generation Citizen as an Americorp VISTA in 2016. During college, Bianca interned with the TransBorder Institute where she developed a deep understanding and appreciation for the judicial system. Her work primarily focused on asylum advocacy and femicide in Mexico; she spent countless hours learning about US-Latin American relations and the role that civic engagement can play in international and domestic politics. Her frequent travels to Mexico and her time studying abroad at Queen Mary’s University of London exposed her to various forms of participatory democracy, and fueled her interest in civic engagement.

Bianca earned her Bachelors of Arts degree in International Relations & Ethnic Studies from the University of San Diego. As an ethnic studies major, she gained valuable tools to discuss and explore issues of racism, inequity, and self-determination. She was drawn to GC because the advocacy hourglass encourages students to identify the root causes of an issue affecting their community and helps them identify ways to address those causes. Bianca believes that GC’s emphasis on community and youth self-determination can improve the state of our participatory democracy.

Bianca grew up in both the East Bay Area and Las Vegas. She loves strong coffee, scrolling through pictures of dogs on Instagram or Mexican food, and cheering on the Golden State Warriors.

Dana’s background is in research and innovation consulting.  She has helped policy makers better understand their constituents in order to design instrumental policies, and helped big brands to better understand their consumers to develop and improve products to better meet their needs.

She completed her MSc in Social and Cultural Psychology at the London School of Economics and Political Science, studying decision-making and the processes underlying human behavior. Her dissertation examined intergroup empathy in the context of racial equality activism. She has her B.A. in Media Studies and Political Science from Vassar College.

As Advocacy Manager at Generation Citizen, she is excited to combine her professional and academic experience with her passion for social justice, developing a strategy for action civics demand building. She hopes to propel the movement so that all students across the country have access to effective civics education – and the empowerment and agency that comes along with it.

Dana is a born and raised New Yorker who loves eating delicious and interesting foods and exploring new and interesting places.

Jasmine is a CCSNE AmeriCorps VISTA. She supports the Northeastern University chapter to
help build organizational capacity through student leadership development and student retention. She also collaborates with Generation Citizen to help build partnerships within the local communities.

Jasmine graduated from the University of Cincinnati, where she received a BS in Software Development. Her interest in advocacy work stems from her involvement in many non-profit organizations that focused on helping underserved populations develop new skills. One of them included a study abroad to India, where she advocated for women and children who were victims of sex-trafficking, in order to bring awareness to different communities and organizations.

Born and raised in Cincinnati, OH, Jasmine enjoys exploring new cities. In her free time, she likes to attend local poetry events, work on different art projects, and figure out what to explore next.

While studying government at St. Edward’s University she realized that her education granted her the confidence to speak her mind on policy decisions, but many people in her community found the prospect so unapproachable that they never lobbied their legislators on policies they were concerned about.

Previous to joining Generation Citizen, Elaine used her political science degree to encourage access and participation in government within her community. Through her work in voter registration, community associations, and transparency in government, she has sought to make communication and personal relationships with government available for all Texans. She holds certificates in Anti-Corruption and Transparency and American Government from Transparency International and Universidad de Los Andes. Elaine is a proud Texan who is passionate about her community’s voice and power to create change.

With her VISTA year with Generation Citizen, Elaine hopes to expand programming in her community and build lasting relationships. Her service year will include bringing more voices together to increase civic engagement in central Texas.

When not in the office, Elaine can be found posting pictures of her dog on Instagram or at the greenbelt enjoying one of Austin’s 300 days of sunshine a year.

Kelly joined GC as its first Senior Advisor for International Programming in January 2018. Her role is to connect leading civic educators around the world and further youth-led policy development globally. Kelly previously worked at the U.S. Department of State in the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs on President Obama’s flagship program for African youth, the Mandela Washington Fellowship for African Leaders under the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI). As a Program Officer, she worked to empower African civic leaders through leadership training at U.S. higher education institutions. Many of her former participants visited the GC NY office and have replicated GC’s models in their countries in Africa.

Her background is in international relations, fundraising, capacity building, leadership training, education exchanges, and youth engagement. She is passionate about providing networks and tools to impactful individuals and organizations, especially civil society actors, in order for them to further their causes. Originally from Cleveland, OH, Kelly attended Boston University and received a degree in International Relations and African Studies. She first traveled to Tanzania when she was 15 years old and has traveled and worked extensively throughout the African continent. Kelly previously managed a Tanzanian-based education-focused non-profit called the Olevolos Project. Inspired by the thousands of young leaders she met while working on YALI, she is now developing a leadership exchange program for American youth to travel and learn directly from young leaders around the world, called Exchanging America. In her spare time, Kelly enjoys exploring Brooklyn with her boxer-mix George, playing soccer, and cooking.

Brandon was a New Sector Alliance Summer Fellow in 2015 and graduated from American University in 2016. He previously worked as a Health Educator with the nonprofit Peer Health Exchange, leading workshops on mental health for ninth graders in Washington, DC. He also has experience in federal government relations, focusing on health policy. Brandon believes that voting is a cornerstone of democracy, and loves working with young people around the country to advance the Vote16USA campaign.

Brandon grew up in Minnesota and loves pick-up basketball and good books.

Jaretta first developed her passion for youth leadership at Youth in Action, a nonprofit organization in Providence that aims for young people to be at the forefront of social change. She served on the Board of Directors, where she was responsible for recruiting high school volunteers and creating an evaluation for the Executive Director.

She continued working with youth as a student at Mount Holyoke College, where as a Community Based Learning Fellow she was responsible for recruitment, delivering orientation trainings, and maintaining social media pages.

After graduating, she committed a year of service with City Year Boston where she tutored and mentored students in a 3rd-grade classroom at Blackstone Innovation School, then returned for a second year at City Year Providence to lead first year corps members at Del Sesto Middle School.

A proud Rhode Islander, Jaretta enjoys watching the New England Patriots, dancing, eating, and listening to old school R&B.

Jonathan is a native New Yorker who has worked in advocacy as a student at Hunter College. His time working for the City University of New York (CUNY) and as a student exposed him to the different levels of action civics. Fighting for the Percy Ellis Sutton Search for Education, Elevation, and Knowledge (SEEK) and College Discovery (CD) programs helped develop his passion for action civics.

Before joining Generation Citizen, Jonathan spent his time advocating for the SEEK and CD programs. By joining the United Leaders of CUNY (ULC), he developed an understanding of local government structures and built a network focused on supporting opportunity programs in higher education. As he progressed from chairing the student-led organization to eventually becoming the University Advisor tasked with supporting them at an administrative level, Jonathan continued to stress the importance of voting and working with both community-based organizations and local officials. Jonathan was inspired by his experiences empowering fellow SEEK and CD students with advocacy training to join Generation Citizen and empower our young people.

During his spare time, Jonathan enjoys Olympic style weightlifting, cooking, and watching the San Antonio Spurs.

Bonnie first joined Generation Citizen in 2016 as a New York City Program Associate. During her time on the New York City team, Bonnie helped to create systems for tracking and organization and contributed to program growth by helping recruit, train, and support the largest cohort of Democracy Coaches in GC history. She also contributed to curricular resources by co-creating and authoring a post-election 2-day lesson packaged entitled “Beyond the Ballot” to get teachers and students equipped and motivated to continue participating after the election. Bonnie has now transitioned into her new role as a Manager of National Program Development where she is thrilled to have the opportunity to continue expanding Generation Citizen’s national programming through curriculum updates, the creation and implementation of teacher professional development, and supporting new partnerships for teacher-led and remote programming.

Bonnie first developed her passion for student action driven education programs while in college studying Secondary Education Social Sciences at Auburn University in Auburn, AL. (War Eagle!) Her studies and training focused on utilizing the social sciences to help students become analytical thinkers who apply their knowledge and participate proactively in the world around them.

Prior to working with GC, Bonnie spent 5 years as a public school teacher in Nashville, TN. Early on she worked with students with learning differences in a variety of academic subjects, but she spent the majority of her teaching years educating high school seniors in American Government and Politics. In addition to classroom instruction, she led students in mock national and international governments through Model United Nations and Youth in Government programs. Watching young adults first begin to develop their own independent beliefs as well as their power and role in the political process was inspiring and a motivating factor for Bonnie in coming on board with GC.

In addition to her passion for civic engagement, Bonnie enjoys reading historical fiction, taking road trips, cooking pad thai, and drinking bubbly water. #Lacroix4Life Though Bonnie and her family spent the last year in the lovely New York City, she is excited to be back in her home state of Tennessee where she hopes to engage her community in action civics and keep building demand for this important work!

Juanita joined Generation Citizen in 2017 after teaching 8th grade Social Studies for five years. She taught GC classes for three years at Roger Williams Middle School, which was known for their strong GC projects, polished Civics Day presentations, and being the winningest school in the state. Juanita’s classes brought home awards every Civics Day, and in a single semester, she earned both the coveted Class Change Maker and Teacher Change Maker awards. Her passion for GC led to an invitation to the Rhode Island Board, which she continues to serve on, and collaboration on several curriculum-based projects. Officially joining the GC team only seemed natural!

Juanita is highly versed and trained in project-based learning, culturally responsive teaching, activities-based learning, and question formulation techniques. Through Generation Citizen, her students founded a Student Council, met with district officials to discuss strategies for increasing teacher diversity, and testified to the Superintendent and School Board about closing the achievement gap between English Language Learners and their peers. What has made Juanita truly most proud is the long-lasting impact GC has made on her students.

Juanita lives in Providence with her two fantabulous kids, Lydia and Elias, her grandpa, mother, sister, and niece because it takes a village to raise children (plus Benji, an adorably fun-loving adopted Lhasa Apso). As a proud Rhode Islander, she spends time exploring the many gems the Ocean State has to offer with her family and friends. Juanita loves taking walks through historic Roger Williams Park and experimenting with new recipes.

Lucianne became the Program Associate with the Central Texas team in 2017. She is motivated by her commitment to learning, collaboration, and innovation to have an active role in improving her community at both a systemic and individual level. Before joining Generation Citizen, Lucianne was a teaching fellow in the higher education setting. In addition to leading local and federal government courses, she implemented civics programming on campuses. Lucianne further developed her passion for community building and civic engagement as a doctoral candidate in political science at the University of Oklahoma. Her research focused on how citizens participate in democracy, as she studied the intersection of identity and political behavior in the contemporary American context.

Lucianne loved helping students actualize their democratic responsibility through community involvement, so she is excited to apply these experiences to further promote civic engagement in Texas!

Originally from California, Lucianne now feels that Austin is “home sweet home”. She enjoys hiking (especially with her dogs), traveling on food-themed road trips, and making triple-word plays in Scrabble.

Meredith came to Generation Citizen straight from the classrooms it serves. For four years, she worked as a middle and high school history teacher in San Francisco, CA and Boston, MA. Influenced by her experiences in community engagement as a high school student, her teaching was driven by the idea that student empowerment was the key to educational equity. She dedicated her classroom career to helping her schools build capacity for engaging with young people’s voices through student-centered program and curriculum development.

Starting as a teacher with GC in the Bay Area in 2013, Meredith continued her GC partnership at her school in Boston. Three years, two schools, and four action civics projects later, she can talk for hours about the power, passion, and real world learning that the program brought to her students. From bus safety in San Francisco to Social-Emotional Learning in Boston, her proudest moments as a teacher were watching her students advocate for the change they cared about. Her passion for student-driven learning has now brought her back to her hometown of Austin, Texas, as the Site Manager for GC Central Texas.

Meredith received her BA in International Studies from American University and a MA in Urban Education: Policy and Administration from Loyola Marymount University. She loves Tex-Mex, strong coffee, and traveling.

Carolyn joined Generation Citizen in 2016 as the NY Program Manager. She came to GC after spending five years in the field of human rights. She formerly worked at Open Society Foundations, where she supported human rights advocacy and litigation in the areas of international justice and freedom of information/expression. She also worked at the Center for Constitutional Rights as assistant to the legal director. There she supported legal advocacy work in the U.S. on racial and economic justice and national security.

Carolyn joined GC to combine her human rights advocacy experience with her background in education. She spent two fantastic years teaching English at a secondary school in rural Japan on the JET Program, and before that, worked to expand access to quality education across Latin America with Magis Americas.

Living and working abroad inspired Carolyn to learn from good and bad democracy practices worldwide, and seek out the best ones to strengthen American democracy. She is deeply passionate about increasing citizen engagement with government, and believes young people have the strongest potential to make meaningful, systemic change in the U.S.

Carolyn received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Barnard College, spent a year studying abroad at l’Institut d’Etudes Politiques-Paris, and is currently pursuing her Master’s in Public Administration at Baruch College.

Neha’s introduction to politics and social advocacy occurred when she was a high school student volunteering with a local organization, focusing on political advocacy for young women and girls from asylum seeker backgrounds. Through this experience she became acutely aware of how an underrepresentation of the diversity of citizens could influence the political paradigm and prove harmful to a functional and inclusive democracy. Since then, she has channelled her passion and energy into youth engagement in the space of politics and social justice.

Neha acquired her Master’s in International Development from Monash University (Melbourne, Australia), during which time she worked with the Oaktree Foundation in Australia. During her time at Oaktree, Neha worked closely with her state team to recruit and train college volunteers to implement within schools and colleges a national political advocacy plan geared towards lobbying the federal government to increase foreign aid investment. Further, she worked extensively to develop, implement and integrate a diversity and inclusion strategy within the organization’s internal practices. Following her time at Oaktree, Neha undertook a professional placement at Global Citizen in New York where she co-led a pilot program – ‘The Global Youth Advocates Symposium.’

Neha is passionate about fostering a pathway for the next generation of diverse youth activists and leaders. She is excited to come on board with Generation Citizen to further this mission by empowering young people through action centered civics education and cultivating a more citizen representative democracy.

Born in San Francisco, but raised in Melbourne, Australia, Neha decided to take a leap by moving her life to New York in 2016. In her spare time, you will find Neha eating her way through New York or at every hip hop music festival or concert, engaging in a never-ending mission to run into her favourite celebrities, in the big apple.

Caitlin joined Generation Citizen in 2014. Prior to GC, Caitlin was a Senior Program Coordinator at the San Francisco Education Fund, where she was able to learn the ins-and-outs of the SF public school system, design and deliver community volunteer trainings, and build partnerships with teachers and school leaders throughout the city’s southeast neighborhoods.

Caitlin was drawn to Generation Citizen because it is an organization that fundamentally believes in the power and voice of young people. She is excited to work for a program that gives students the tools and opportunity to become agents of change in their own communities. She also loves that her job requires getting involved in local politics, mentoring a diverse group of college student leaders, and understanding issues that matter most to Bay Area youth.

Before moving to the Bay Area, Caitlin spent two years teaching English at a primary school in rural northern Thailand, where she first developed a passion for youth development and education (as well as spicy food and motorbikes).
Caitlin grew up in San Diego, and earned her B.A. in Anthropology and a Certificate in American Studies from Princeton University. She has been a proud Oakland resident since 2012. In her free time, you can find her spending time outdoors (preferably dog-friendly places) and working towards her goal of reading 15 books a year.

David has over twenty years of experience in government, politics, and civic engagement both in the US and internationally.  As a consultant for the National Democratic Institute (NDI) he worked from 2010 to 2013 on a project to establish a legislative budget office to serve the congress of Liberia.  He then worked for NDI managing their program to strengthen the parliament of Somalia and the legislature of Puntland State in Somalia.  Prior to his international work he was a longtime staffer for the New York City Council specializing in housing policy.  He has also been active in local politics in his home borough of Brooklyn running for City Council himself and serving on the executive committee and as president of his neighborhood political club.

David is excited to be working for GC because he knows that good governance  requires strong institutions, but that without citizen demand government is unlikely to be truly strong, responsive, or inclusive.

David holds a BA in Political Science from Hunter College – City University of New York and a MA in International Development from American University.  When not working or attending meetings, David enjoys bike riding with his wife, playing softball with his eleven year old daughter, and spending time with his nineteen year old daughter (when she’s around).

Samantha’s enthusiasm for civic advocacy stemmed from studying abroad in South Africa. During her time at the University of Cape Town, South African university students sparked the #FeesMustFall movement calling for an end to outsourcing and student fee hikes as well as the decolonization of the university. Witnessing youth mobilization and the capacity to be a change agent first-hand led Samantha toward Generation Citizen. She is truly empowered by GC’s student-centered approach that flips the narrative to demonstrate how youth can make a difference through action civics.

Samantha graduated from Emory University majoring in History and African American Studies. At Emory, she was heavily involved in Alpha Phi Omega co-ed service fraternity, Alpha Kappa Psi co-ed business fraternity, and Pipeline near-peer mentoring program. She also served as one of eight Orientation Captains, designing the transfer student curriculum and training college leaders. Her exposure to relationship building and direct service coupled with large-scale planning contributed to her passion for local advocacy.

Samantha also involved herself in civics at the state and federal level. Samantha canvassed for state political races and interned at both the MA State House and her U.S. Senator’s Boston office. More recently, Samantha continued her interest in civics through interning in Washington D.C. at the U.S. House of Representatives and previously at the U.S. Supreme Court.

A native of Marlborough, MA, Samantha is thrilled to be a part of GC as the FAO Schwarz Family Foundation Fellow and Program Associate. In her spare time, Samantha is an avid biker, enjoys hiking with friends and watching Lost on Netflix.

Monica joined Generation Citizen in 2016 as the Operations Associate for the New York City team. As both the daughter of a NYC school teacher and a recent CUNY graduate, she is constantly raving about the value of public education and looks back fondly on the ways her civics education experience has been shaped by her family and teachers. Monica is incredibly excited to be a part of a team that ensures all students have access to a comprehensive action civics education and encourages them to engage in the political process.

Prior to her GC tenure, Monica has worked extensively with nonprofits across New York City, developing communication strategies, working on campaigns addressing the cost of war, and pushing housing legislation in the New York City Council. Most recently, she worked at the Center for Ethnic, Racial, and Religious Understanding, a diversity education and training center in Queens, where she helped bring conflict resolution, dialogue, and social change trainings to college students and community members. Monica is a graduate of the Macaulay Honors College at Queens College, holding a B.A. in Political Science and English. She is passionate about women’s issues and during her time as a student, she brought a year’s worth of gender-related programming to campus. In her post-grad life, she volunteers with Rock the Vote and PPNYC.

Born and raised on Long Island, Monica is a self-proclaimed beach bum and breaks out into hives if she is not near a large body of water for an extended period of time. Her hobbies include running out of pages in her passport, drinking obscene amounts of coffee, and having her heart broken by New York sports teams. Go Knicks!

As a former high school educator, Jason deeply cares about underrepresented young people receiving more meaningful and purposeful educational experiences. He believes students transform their lives when they are given spaces to engage their passionate voices through project-based learning. Too often, Jason witnessed our most vulnerable young people lacking opportunities to take charge of their own learning through topics that mattered to them, and he thinks this is where the real learning and growth occurs. He is very enthusiastic to be part of Generation Citizen because he believes when students have a chance to genuinely and actively engage in civic issues in their school and community, then young people are empowered to strengthen our democracy and develop their capacity for self-actualization.

For over a decade, Jason taught at Brockton High School and Cambridge Rindge & Latin School prior to becoming Program Director at Generation Citizen. He has earned his master’s degree in the Language and Literacy program at Harvard Graduate School of Education and his master’s degree in English and education at University of Massachusetts–Boston. Since the beginning of his career in education, Jason has stressed the importance of students feeling excited, challenged, and deeply-involved in their learning. He believes Generation Citizen will play an integral role with providing more students with these types of experiences in school.

When Jason is not working, he enjoys hiking and traveling with his wife and daughter, playing guitar, and having moments to just sit and be still with a good book while listening to his eclectic taste in music.

Amanda became the Program Associate with the New York City team in 2017. Her passions surrounding education, equity, and diversity drive her dedication to youth empowerment and civic engagement. Before joining Generation Citizen, Amanda was actively involved in Peer Health Exchange, where she served as a Health Educator and a Co-Coordinator for the NYU chapter. As a Co-Coordinator, she was responsible for recruiting, training, and managing over 100 college volunteers, but it was her experiences in the classroom where she discovered the power and importance of youth engagement.

Amanda’s love for advocacy and politics is rooted in her passion for public health. Her experiences working in NYC public high schools inspired her to get involved in local politics. She volunteered with the City Council where she managed constituent cases and assisted with the 2016 Participatory Budgeting process. Amanda is a recent graduate from New York University where she majored in Social Work and Public Health, and minored in Child & Adolescent Mental Health Studies.

Born and raised on the foggy beaches of San Francisco, Amanda now calls New York City her home. She is beyond excited to work with college students again, and to be a part of a team focused on providing young people with the knowledge, skills, and motivation to be civically engaged.

Ellie comes to GC from working with various urban education-based non-profit organizations, including three years at Jumpstart as a Corps Member and a Team Leader, where she led a group of college students in providing targeted and intentional supplemental curriculum to preschool children. After graduating, she invested a year of service with City Year Boston, where she spent a year growing and fostering various initiatives at a first-year turnaround elementary school in Dorchester, MA. As a Corps Member, Ellie created, delivered, and evaluated a wide array of services to students in an effort to support their academic success and inhibit the high school dropout crisis.

Ellie is inspired by Generation Citizen’s mission to provide urban youth with the adequate resources to engage with the democratic system, so that they can become active citizens and leaders. Her passion stems from her experiences with education as a low-income youth from a primarily Latino/a community in Los Angeles. She firmly believes that our democracy can grow, benefit, and change for the better through empowering youth to become advocates for their communities. She is excited to both grow with, and be an asset to the development of Generation Citizen through her role as Program Associate, and her fellowship with the FAO Schwarz Family Foundation.

Ellie hails from El Monte, CA. She graduated from UCLA where she earned a B.A. in English Literature. In her spare time, she likes to check-out local breweries, play rugby, and spend hours trying to figure out what to watch on Netflix.

Elizabeth joined Generation Citizen in 2017, as Oklahoma Program Associate. She has cultivated her passion for a civically informed and engaged Oklahoma through collegiate teaching, local advocacy, and working the polls. Elizabeth has seen Oklahoma’s low voter turnout first-hand, and believes that empowering young people to speak for themselves and their communities will sustainably strengthen our state.

Because creative problem solving and critical thinking are fundamental pieces of lasting civic engagement, Elizabeth is proud to be a member of and volunteer with a number of Oklahoma City’s arts sector projects. Through professional and personal commitments, she strives to always celebrate human agency by celebrating human diversity and creativity.

Elizabeth holds a B.A. in Interdisciplinary Studies from Oklahoma Baptist University and an M.S. in Applied Anthropology from the University of North Texas. As an adopted Oklahoman, Elizabeth digs the state’s music, art, food, and long vegetable-growing season.

Chelsea’s experience has predominantly focused on policy, advocacy, community organizing, civic engagement, and government reform. After serving on Generation Citizen’s New York City Associate Board for three years, she officially joined the GC staff in the spring of 2016.

Prior to joining GC, Chelsea managed public affairs and communications at leading government reform organizations including Citizens Union, Common Cause New York, and The Fund for the Public Interest Research Group. She also worked for the startup Nextdoor, bringing innovative community engagement tactics to hyper-local neighborhoods throughout New York City. She graduated from The New School for Public Engagement with an M.S. in Nonprofit Management in 2013 and in 2009 she received her B.A. in Political Science and English from the University of North Florida.

Chelsea developed her passion for youth civic engagement early on as a high school student who wanted to better understand power systems, politics, and the complexities of our democracy. She felt if she could only better understand these systems, she could make an impact.  Because of this, she feels personally connected to GC’s mission: giving students the education and the tools to better understand the power structures that govern them and to empower them to create social change.

An energetic ex-Floridian, Chelsea loves cooking new things, riding her bike, puppies (of course!) and getting people pumped about youth civic engagement!

Ron comes from a third generation immigrant working class family from the suburbs of St. Louis, MO. He attended public schools in and around Ferguson, MO during a tumultuous period of suburban white flight. Ron, a first-generation college graduate, went on to earn graduate degrees in the life sciences and business and then to a long career in biotech and management consulting, two industries wrestling with issues diversity and inclusion.

Leveraging his working-class roots and corporate experiences, since 2011 Ron has devoted himself to addressing the opportunity gap for other low income and underrepresented youth, with a particular focus on providing STEM opportunities. He brings to GC a breadth of strategy and operations experience, ranging from policy and high-level strategic planning to classroom instruction and individual mentoring. Ron is a strong advocate for quality education, equal opportunities for low income and underserved youth, mentoring, community building, volunteering and volunteer management.

Brooke has spent her career working in education and community outreach in New York City as well as South America. After graduating from Brown University in 2005, Brooke spent three years living in South America where she worked with Amnesty International and TransformeArte, researching human rights violations and organizing events and campaigns to raise awareness.

She returned to the United States and started working at Read Alliance, a nonprofit that pairs teen tutors with kindergarten and first-grade students who are struggling with reading. During her time at Read Alliance, Brooke created strong relationships with schools in all five boroughs of New York City and managed program quality which resulted in student growth in reading skills in addition to a positive change in the confidence and motivation levels of students and teen tutors. Most recently Brooke has been managing the daily and strategic plans for the operations of charter and parochial schools which has allowed her to create systems that maximize efficiency.

Brooke is excited to use her background in program management to continue to enhance programming at Generation Citizen in New York. She believes that every student needs the knowledge, skills, and support to use their voice to create a better future and reach their full potential.

Brooke enjoys being active and trying new activities such as surfing. She is constantly planning her next trip and believes that traveling is the best way to challenge yourself and get out of your comfort zone.

Adam is a CCSNE AmeriCorps VISTA serving his year at the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life at Tufts University in partnership with Generation Citizen. His work includes support and training for the college student coaches who work with the civic curriculum in schools of the Somerville and Boston’s Chinatown communities. He also assists both organizations in the development of measurement and evaluation systems for the surveying of outcomes of the GC program. Adam graduated from Northern Arizona University with Bachelor’s of Arts degrees in International Affairs and Spanish, and minors in Asian and Latin American Studies.

Adam is excited to be part of the Generation Citizen team because he shares the vision that all students can have access to the resources that will help them be successful leaders and active citizens in our democratic system. His inspiration comes from past experiences working with student organizations focusing on social justice in the college setting. He believes that empowerment of youths can help them advocate and change their communities, and is excited to work with them to achieve this mission.

Originally from Phoenix, AZ, Adam enjoys Cape Cod beach days, following Sphynx cats on Instagram, cooking new recipes, and planning his next travel adventure.