Meet the Team

  • Co-Executive Director

    Jennifer Disla has deep roots in immigrant working communities. Her parents immigrated from the Dominican Republic and she witnessed how her father’s union status allowed her access to resources and spaces that were barred from her cousins and peers. She started organizing in 2008 with the Healthcare for America Now Campaign in Missouri. She continued her career in organizing afterwards as a Labor Organizer. During her time working with SEIU Local 1, she fought with the Black janitors, faith leaders, and responsible shareholders to demand union wages and union protections in the Express Scripts facility. They gained victory and janitors were able to have a fair wage and benefits as well union protection to sustain themselves and their families. As the co-Executive Director of Detroit Action, she was responsible for fundraising and executing a multimillion-dollar operating budget to build strong housing, jobs, economic and transformative justice campaigns. She led the organizing team to engage over 20,000 Detroiters ready to take action since the 2020 election.

  • Director of Fellowships

    Tiffany is the Founding Program Manager for the Leadership for Democracy and Social Justice. She joins us from Braven, a national nonprofit focused on the education-to-employment gap among first generation college students, where Tiffany was the Founding New York City Program Manager. In that role, she launched and operationalized a leadership and career accelerator at Lehman College, one of Braven’s partners, that served several hundred students. Before Braven, Tiffany worked with Sadie Nash Leadership Project. She has been a Young People For (YP4) Fellow and an ELLA Fellow, and currently provides healing justice workshops as part of a collective called Brown Girl Recovery. Originally from Jamaica, she grew up in the Bronx. She is a proud first generation graduate of Binghamton University.

  • Co-Executive Director

    Chris Torres has over 15 years’ experience as a community organizer, electoral campaigner, and movement strategist. He’s worked for a variety of progressive organizations and electoral campaigns including Community Change Action, The Industrial Areas Foundation, New Organizing Institute, The Working Families Party, National Immigration Forum, and United We Dream. He got his start organizing the political campaigns for U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (RI) and former President Barack Obama. Most recently, Chris served as MoveOn’s Political Director where he mobilized voters, small-dollar donations, and endorsements to elect progressive candidates and to advance public policy. Chris is dedicated to strengthening the progressive movement. In addition to his work, he serves on the board of the Alliance for Justice, is a trainer with the Leading Change Network, and is a master’s student at the CUNY School of Labor & Urban Studies (SLU).

  • Pre-Career Program Associate

    Ricardo is currently working as a Project Coordinator for the Leadership for Democracy and Social Justice. He is a graduate from The City College of New York (2020). Throughout his time in undergrad Ricardo organized with the CCNY Dream Team, the club on campus that was meant for undocumented students and their allies. In his senior year he served on the executive board as secretary. In the spring and the summer of 2020 he supported the New York State Youth Leadership Council (YLC), the first undocumented led organization in the state. Ricardo’s interests range from international affairs, immigration, labor, and civil rights. Ricardo was born in Venezuela, grew up in Wyoming, and is now a proud New Yorker.

  • Director of Social Justice Mentoring and Careers

    Sasha is a social justice advocate and experiential learning and career development professional. Most recently, she served as a Program Officer at The New York Women’s Foundation overseeing a portfolio of grants to organizations working on a multitude of interconnected social issues, including, housing, gender, economic, racial, and healing justice. With nearly a decade of experience working in youth development and education, she has designed, facilitated, and implemented programming for hundreds of high school, college, and graduate students. During her time at John Jay College’s Institute for Justice and Opportunity, she directed four college fellowship programs for historically underrepresented students seeking careers in policy advocacy, youth justice, and philanthropy.

  • Operations & Finance Manager

    Nathalie is a former high school teacher who later held various positions at the United Nations. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in French and a Master of Science in Secondary Education. Nathalie is passionate about community service and is a board member of the Red Hook Conservancy. She also regularly serves as a volunteer cook at Crossroads Community Services and as a Team Leader with New York Cares.

  • Social Justice Careers and Leadership Development Associate

    Jake Levin (he/they) is a community and cultural organizer whose work has focused on distributed learning and building power for collective liberation. Jake organizes with Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ) and with a SURJ-affiliated project mobilizing white men against white supremacy and patriarchy. Recent roles include COVID-19 response at Brooklyn College, developing small science museums for public spaces, and building physically immersive spaces to facilitate meaningful face-to-face dialogue between strangers across the globe. He has also conducted research for a book about civic power and was a co-producer of a historic Major Lazer concert in Havana, Cuba for an audience of over 450,000. Jake has studied with the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research, The School for Poetic Computation, Brooklyn College, and Macaulay Honors College.

  • Executive Assistant

    Noelia (she/her) joined Leadership for Democracy and Social Justice as Executive Assistant in September 2022. In her role, she supports the institute’s Co-Executive Directors and Co-Chairs. Previously, she worked in administrative and operational support, organizational culture and event planning at the NYC Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs. There and through various government and community-based internships and campaign work, she has developed a passion for public service, immigrant rights and accessible civic engagement. Noelia holds a BA in Anthropology from the New School. She was born in Bolivia and grew up in Queens, the borough she still calls home today.

  • Academic Director

    Lindsay Zafir is LDSJ's Academic Director. She is the co-founder and co-director of the ACORN Oral History Project, a large-scale oral history of staff, members, and leaders of the community organizing group ACORN. She is also the co-editor of Power Lines: Building a Labor-Climate Justice Movement​, an anthology on organizing at the intersection of labor and climate justice that will be published by The New Press in the spring of 2024.

    Lindsay previously served as the editor of The Forge: Organizing Strategy and Practice​, an online publication and learning community for organizers across the progressive movement. She holds a PhD in History from Yale University, where she conducted research on the history of sexuality, science, and social movements. Her dissertation, State of Denial, examines the rise of HIV/AIDS denialism in the U.S. and its contentious relationship with AIDS treatment activism. While completing her PhD, Lindsay worked as an organizer for UNITE HERE Local 33, the union of researchers and teachers at Yale.

  • Development Director

    Jesse is a veteran political organizer with experience from over 35 political campaigns across Canada and the US. His fundraising background spans both the non-profit sector and political space, with experience in mobilizing major gifts and hundreds of thousands of grassroots donations. Most recently, Jesse served as Finance Director for first-time candidate, now Congressman, Jamaal Bowman, from his initial primary challenge through his first re-election campaign.

    Born in Sydney, Australia, to Philadelphian parents, Jesse also lived in Ithaca, NY, and the Bay Area before moving to Toronto when he was nine. Jesse began his social justice activism in middle school and continued through high school, where he helped found a city-wide social justice student group. Jesse studied political science and history at McGill University. Jesse enjoys hip hop, cooking, baking and hiking with his dog Frida.

  • Program Coordinator

    Ashley is the Program Coordinator for the Fellowships for the Leadership for Democracy and Social Justice. She joins us from the Center for Court Innovation, where she led youth diversion programs centered on building youth confidence, self-efficacy, and empowerment. In her role, she launched a summer internship program that matched youth’s passions within their respective careers. Youth worked with real estate agencies, multi-media consulting companies, non-profit organizations, and with beauty entrepreneurs. With over a decade of experience, she has dedicated her career to leveraging her lived experience in the child welfare system to drive policy change and transform service systems for youth. Ashley is passionate about positive youth development and peer support and wants to bring these services to incarcerated youth ages 18-24 and reshape the culture of rehabilitation within justice systems.

    Ashley is a NYC native, born in Brooklyn and now residing in Brooklyn; she is a proud first-generation college graduate from SUNY Plattsburgh. Ashley is currently pursuing a Master’s in Public Policy at Northeastern University.

  • Communications Strategist

    Jorwell Perez (he/him) has been working in community organizing and engagement for over 5 years now, in programs ranging from civic engagement to child welfare. In addition to his role at LDSJ, Jorwell is the Director of Communication and Outreach at The New York Foundling's Strong Families and Communities Training Center (SFC Center).

    Jorwell graduated from Binghamton University with a Bachelor of Science in Human Development and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science with a concentration in International Relations. He later received a Master's degree in Media and Strategic Communications from Fordham University. Jorwell is a native New Yorker from the Bronx.

  • Alumni Engagement Coordinator

    Yamila Martinez is passionate about public policy, immigration, and media. She has written for The Nation, Latino News Network, and more. She has interned with women and black government officials through the CUNY Women’s Public Service Internship Program and Caucus CUNY Scholars. After graduation in May, she will pursue a MPA at NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. She is excited to support the alumni community at LDSJ.

  • Early Career Programs Manager

    Bianca Guerrero (they/them) has worked in movement and progressive politics across advocacy, electoral campaigns, and government. In 2021, they worked at Make the Road NY as statewide coordinator for the Fund Excluded Workers campaign, which won a first-in-the-nation $2.1 billion program for undocumented and other workers that were ineligible for federal unemployment insurance during the COVID-19 pandemic. From 2019-2020, they worked on Jamaal Bowman's 2020 congressional race. From 2017-2020, Bianca Guerrero (they/them) worked on policy research related to health, housing, labor, climate, and the COVID-19 pandemic under Mayor de Blasio.

    Born and raised in New York, Bianca studied political science at Columbia University. They are a 2016 Truman Scholar and they served as the Racial Justice Leader-in-Residence at City College’s Colin Powell School from 2022-2023. Bianca loves going to concerts, making quilts, and roller-skating.

  • Office Assistant

    Rafael is a young professional with administrative and operations experience in the public sector. As an office assistant, Rafael provides logistical and administrative support to LDSJ’s growing team and programs. Like many immigrant New Yorkers, Rafael attended a CUNY school, double majoring in Political Science and Women & Gender Studies and minoring in Human Rights. There, Rafael was also involved with student groups and in immigrant youth organizing. Since then, Rafael has worked in various nonprofits settings and learned about their efforts to provide legal, health, educational, and other services to local communities. When not working, Rafael enjoys taking long walks, reading random Wikipedia articles, and spending time with their dog, Zoey.

  • Mid-Career Program Associate

    Riki Robinson (she/her) has worked on leadership development, community building, and mentorship for communities of color for over five years. From 2021-2023, she was the inaugural Program Director of New York at the Jews of Color Initiative where she designed and launched a leadership fellowship, project incubator, and network for Jewish People of Color in New York City. She has worked in Asian American Pacific Islander organizations and immigration justice groups including Giant Robot and the Inland Empire Immigrant Youth Collective. Riki was a Fellow with Repair the World where she focused on food justice, particularly urban farming, food pantries, and SNAP benefits enrollment. She received a B.A. in Asian American Studies and Sociology from Pitzer College and is grateful for popular education. Riki was adopted from China, raised in Los Angeles, and has called Brooklyn home for over five years.

  • Operations and Finance Coordinator

    Aravdeep Kaur is the Finance and Operations Coordinator for the Leadership for Democracy and Social Justice and a City College of New York graduate with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics. She previously worked as a Finance College Assistant at the Colin Powell School and developed an interest in issues like the financial barriers to higher education, for first-generation students in particular. As a student, Aravdeep also participated in the Student Success Guide Peer Mentorship Program to support new students and help them achieve their academic goals at the Colin Powell School. In her free time, Aravdeep enjoys reading books and playing the guitar.

Advisory Board Chairs

  • Cristina Jiménez Moreta

    Cristina is a Distinguished Lecturer at the Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership. She is Co-Founder and former Executive Director of United We Dream (UWD), the largest immigrant youth-led organization in the country. Under Cristina’s leadership, UWD grew into a powerful network of one million members that shifted the politics and narrative about immigrants and immigration, ultimately delivering policy changes at the local and national levels.

  • Gara Lamarche

    Gara is Senior Fellow at the Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership at CCNY. He is President of the Democracy Alliance, the largest network of donors dedicated to building the progressive movement in the United States. He was formerly President and CEO of Atlantic Philanthropies and Vice President and Director of U.S. Programs for the Open Society Foundations.

  • Andrew Rich

    Andy is the Richard J. Henley and Susan L. Davis Dean, Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership. He has spent his career working on the development and promotion of public service leadership opportunities for young people. He was formerly Executive Secretary and CEO of the Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation and President and CEO of the Roosevelt Institute.

Advisory Board

Cristina Jiménez Moreta (Co-Chair), Distinguished Lecturer, Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership, The City College of New York

Gara LaMarche (Co-Chair), Former President of the Democracy Alliance; Senior Fellow, Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership, The City College of New York

Andrew Rich, Dean, Richard J. Henley, and Susan L. Davis, Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership, The City College of New York

Anna Galland, former Executive Director, MoveOn.org

Tram Nguyen, Co-Executive Director, New Virginia Majority

May Boeve, Executive Director, 350.org

Juanita Lewis, Executive Director, Community Voices Heard

Dorian Warren, President, Community Change

Marcia Chatelain, Professor of History and African American Studies, Georgetown University

Rahna Epting, Executive Director, MoveOn

Yotam Marom, Founder, IfNotNow, and Wildfire Project

Darlene Nipper, CEO, Rockwood Leadership Institute

Nsé Ufot, Executive Director, New Georgia Project

Alisa Glassman, Lead Organizer, Virginians Organized for Interfaith Community Engagement (VOICE) and an affiliate of the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF)

Jerry Hauser, Senior Advisor and former CEO, The Management Center

Maurice Mitchell, National Director, Working Families Party

Thomas Walker, Lead Activist for Public, Healthcare, and Educations Workers (PHEW), Communications Workers of America

Gladys Palma de Schrynemakers, Interim Associate Dean for Academic
Affairs, SLU (CUNY) 

Nancy Youman, Philanthropic Strategist, Unbound Philanthropy

Dalinda Fermin, Deputy Organizing Coordinator, SEIU

Cecilia Muñoz, Senior Adviser, New America 

Maria Rodriguez, Executive Director, Florida Immigrant Coalition

Ananda Valenzuela, Interim Executive Director, Rainier Valley Corps

Mary Lassen, Senior Advisor, Leadership for Democracy and Social Justice