Meet the Fellows

Ismahan is a fierce human rights advocate, community organizer, motivational public speaker and an unapologetic Muslim Black Somali refugee woman who is relentless in working for justice. Ismahan has a track record of building power alongside community, engaged in political, civil and human rights advocacy. In her past role as Director of Movement and Campaign Strategies at PANA, she built grassroots community power through organizing, advocacy, alliance building, designing and implementing a civic engagement infrastructure in refugee communities, developing leaders, tackling hate head-on and using an integrated voter engagement strategy to build a visible refugee electorate. She also served as a member of the Strategic Council for Mobilizing the Immigrant Vote and Steering Committee member for Power California. She currently serves as the National Executive Director for the Muslim American Society’s Public Affairs and Civic Engagement (MAS-PACE). She continues to be engaged in and work on issues that address racial disparities, social injustices, equity and political inclusion for disenfranchised communities. Ismahan has received numerous recognitions and awards for her work.

Montserrat began her career in advocacy in 2010 when the infamous “show me your papers” bill SB1070 passed in Arizona. The unfortunate acts of discrimination towards her community lead her to social justice work. Since then she has lead substantial campaigns like Prop 206 which passed in 2016, giving 5 million families a living wage. Montserrat is now the Table Director at One Arizona, a coalition of twenty organizations focusing on voter registration and civic engagement. The One Arizona coalition registered has registered close to 500,000 voters since 2010.

Maya Castillo is the Political Director for New Virginia Majority, where she uses her experience in policy, elections, and organized labor in order to ensure that everyone has a role in building democracy. New Virginia Majority’s massive field campaign in the 2019 cycle was key to flipping Virginia's General Assembly. Maya believes in the power of working families, and the power of women of color, and served as SEIU Arizona President and with the Immigrant Justice Campaign with SEIU. She currently serves on the Virginia Civic Engagement Table Board of Directors as well as the Virginia State Library Board. Prior to her work in elections and organized labor, she served working families as a public librarian, as an arts advocate, and an advocate for clean water in Latinx communities.

Briana is a California native, born and raised in Los Angeles, and a graduate of University of California, Berkeley. After graduating, she worked at the California Mental Health Association, specifically focusing on advocacy for more accessible and comprehensive youth mental health services. Briana moved to Nevada in 2015 to work on Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign in Washoe County and northern Nevada’s rural communities, where she led a field team in volunteer recruitment, voter contact, and get out the vote efforts. Briana also worked as a legislative aide in the 2017 Nevada Legislative Session and as Nevada field director for the League of Conservation Voters. Most recently, she served as the Nevada State Director for the Human Rights Campaign for the 2018 and 2020 election cycles, successfully leading efforts to mobilize LGBTQ and pro-equality voters in Nevada. She lives in Reno with her fiance, Katie, and their cat, Everest.

Dione Friends joined Vision First, a project of New Venture Fund, as Senior Digital Campaign Manager in June of 2020. Dione previously worked for Equality Federation as Director of Communications where she oversaw the Equality Federation's branding and messaging.

Prior to joining the Equality Federation, Dione spent eight years on the communications team at the ACLU of Texas. During her three years as Communications Director, Dione managed six communications staff members and seven community engagement staff members. In her previous roles with the ACLU of Texas, Dione led the organization's branding and digital engagement efforts.

Dione has been committed to social justice throughout her career. She previously spent three years as an organizer and communications specialist for the Houston Organization of Public Employees Local 123.

Dione received her Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of Missouri Kansas City. She can be reached on LinkedIn @dione.friends.

From building a grassroots infrastructure across all 50 states for the first Black woman to launch a formidable candidacy for president to leading the organizing efforts at the DCCC in 2018 ushering in massive voter turnout and a Democratic majority in the House of Representatives, Anatole Jenkins has been organizing at the forefront of historic fights for the span of his career. Jenkins got his start organizing for President Obama’s reelection campaign before serving as the Field Director for the Nevada State Democratic Party in 2014. He served in many leadership positions for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, and since then, has played a leading role in organizing against Donald Trump, at the DCCC and in his role as National Organizing Director for Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign. He is the National Organizing Director for Organizing Together 2020, an independent campaign focused on beating Donald Trump.

Ashley C. Kenneth is Senior Vice President for Policy and Legislative Affairs at The Commonwealth Institute for Fiscal Analysis (TCI) in Richmond, Virginia. At TCI, Ashley is able to turn her passion for social and racial equity into action. She leads the Institute’s government relations efforts and works to maximize the impact of TCI’s policy analysis and legislative engagement while strengthening collaboration with partner and community organizations. Ashley previously worked as Director of Advocacy and Policy for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society where she was responsible for policy development, analysis, and volunteer engagement in Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia. Ashley is passionate about activism for social change and service to the community. She has a master’s degree in social policy from the University of Pennsylvania and a B.A. in Communication and Sociology from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Dc Lozano is a writer, community organizer and life-long hammer-wielder, swinging day and night at the patriarchy. She lives in Redlands, California with her dogs Bula and Rodham, and her wife, Jenny. Dc has been an activist since she was 5 years old where she began protesting sexism & racism in her small Wyoming town. She has spent decades being a fierce advocate for marginalized communities. She has worked as a union organizer, written for progressive newspapers, taught self-defense classes to women & children, & trained large retail companies on de-escalation techniques. In 2019 she organized the first ever city-wide Pride celebration in Redlands.

Rebecca Marques is the Texas State Director for the Human Rights Campaign, where she leads the organization’s legislative and electoral work in the state. Prior to joining HRC, she served as a Political Strategist for the ACLU of Texas. In that role, she led the organization’s LGBTQ and reproductive rights work at the Texas state legislature and in advocacy efforts across the state. Previously, she served as the Florida campaign organizer for Oceana’s Climate and Energy Campaign, where she successfully led bipartisan local and statewide initiatives to prevent the expansion of offshore drilling to the Atlantic. Marques holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Central Florida, which is where she got her first experience in political organizing.

Natalie Montelongo is a progressive strategist with national experience in both electoral campaigns and issue advocacy. She was recently a senior operative on Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s Presidential Campaign, and prior to that, the National Political Director for Sec. Julian Castro’s Presidential run. She has led successful campaigns that have resulted in decreasing anti-immigrant federal programs, reforming discriminatory policing, ending racial profiling on corporate bus lines, and shining a spotlight on the illegal mass prosecutions happening at the border during family separation. Her work on electoral campaigns have helped successfully influence progressive policies, and mobilize communities of color to the polls. In both the 2016 and 2020 cycles, Natalie launched national initiatives to harness the power of the Latina vote. She was behind Hillary Clinton’s “Mujeres in Politics”, and Elizabeth Warren’s “Latinas Fight, Latinas Win”.

Melissa is the Executive Director of Somos Votantes (C4) and President of Somos PAC, a Latino Voter Mobilization effort that includes Field and Communication strategies for Battleground states. Melissa is also Senior Advisor (and formerly Research Director) for Equis Research, a Latino voter research project that spans 11 states. Previously Melissa served as Executive Director of SEIU Florida where she planned and executed state political campaigns and coordinated work among SEIU Locals and diverse community organizations.

Melissa managed a statewide campaign for the 2018 midterms as State Director for Win Justice Florida - a coalition including SEIU, Community Change Action, Planned Parenthood Action Fund, Color of Change PAC, and multiple grassroots state organizations. Previously, Melissa managed IE Programs for the 2016 Presidential Campaign with SEIU, worked as a Policy Analyst for the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, and developed direct mail and campaign strategies as an Account Associate at The Pivot Group.

Kunoor Ojha most recently served as the States Organizing Director for the Elizabeth Warren campaign, where she oversaw in-state direct voter contact and community organizing programs, grassroots leadership development in all 50 states, and more. She’s also worked for the National Domestic Workers Alliance, Indivisible, and for numerous other organizations and causes. Kunoor previously worked for Bernie 2016, and eventually, Hillary for America, leading both campaigns’ youth/student organizing efforts. She is originally from Illinois, but has travelled and worked all over the country building power with volunteers and organizers.

Marcia “Cia” Price was raised in Newport News, VA where she currently serves in her third term in the House of Delegates representing the 95th District. In 2016, as a project of New Virginia Majority, she started the Virginia Black Leadership Organizing Collaborative (VA BLOC), a non-profit "building empowered communities" through voter engagement, civic involvement, and leadership development. A graduate of Spelman College and Howard University, she is currently attending the School of Theology at Virginia Union University in the M.Div. program. Cia is a member of St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. She loves interacting with constituents and helping awaken audiences to the needs of the community and inspire them toward action. As a fourth generation resident of the Peninsula, Cia embraces her family's legacy of service and strives to make a positive impact in the community that has given her so much.

During the 2018 campaign cycle, Ashley Robinson served as Political Director through the Democratic Party of Georgia’s Coordinated Campaign to one of the country’s most high-profile campaigns in recent history, Stacey Abrams’ gubernatorial bid in Georgia. Under Ashley’s leadership and vision, she effectively built a team of almost a dozen constituency programs and leaders that created strategy to identity groups which effectively increased Georgia’s voter turnout from 2014 to 2018 in the following constituencies: African American: 55%, Latinx: 213.39%, AAPI: 204.42%. Ashley developed national and statewide partnerships with donors, allies and surrogates. Formerly, Ashley served as the Chief of Staff and Georgia House Democratic Caucus Director under House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams, overseeing over 5 election cycles and 7 legislative sessions. Ashley brings a decade of experience in campaign management and program development and currently serves as the Deputy State Director for America Votes Georgia, the state's 501(c)(4) organizing table structure.

Irene Shin has spent over a decade as a professional in the progressive movement. The majority of her career has been in the electoral campaign space, where she has worked on numerous campaigns and initiatives, from progressive candidates for office to comprehensive immigration reform. She is currently the Executive Director of the Virginia Civic Engagement Table (VCET), which promotes civic engagement in marginalized communities in Virginia. Prior to VCET, she served as the Senior Director at Crowdpac, a tech platform focused on combating the influence of big money in politics.

Irene is also the daughter of Korean immigrants, and hails from a long line of Korean freedom fighters – including her great uncle, who was a founding father of the Republic of Korea. She is proud to carry on their legacy in the fight against oppression, dedicating her own career to build a thriving, just, and multiracial democracy.

Brandon is currently serving as Florida Campaign Director for Organizing Together 2020. Brandon joins us from the Kamala Harris campaign for President, where he served as Director of National Campaigns. Brandon worked previously in Central Florida on Obama's 2012 re-election campaign in 2012, and has since served in several state and national roles for campaigns and progressive organizations since, including as National Field Director for For Our Future, National Training Director for the DCCC, and Campaign Manager for the successful Oregon Raise the Wage campaign.

David Villalobos was born and raised in Laredo, Texas a border town community.

After graduating from the University of Texas at San Antonio with a political science degree, David worked as a canvasser for Mi Familia Vota, a non-profit organization focused on engaging the Latino community. In his time there, David registered hundreds of individuals to vote and encouraged thousands of inner city residents and college students in San Antonio to cast a ballot.

David currently works at the Texas Organizing Project, a community organizing group fighting for racial and economic justice. He has worked on community organizing campaigns that include the areas of housing justice, education justice, immigration justice, and criminal justice reform. David directed TOP’s biggest get out the vote program in Dallas for the 2018 midterm leading a team that knocked on over a quarter of a million doors.

Christopher is the Associate Director at Alliance San Diego. Formerly the Director of Civic Engagement, he built out the Alliance San Diego civic engagement program to ensure that the voice of communities of color, low-income and immigrant communities are included in the civic process. Christopher received a bachelor's degree in History and Ethnic Studies from the University of San Diego and was the first African-American Student Government President at the University. Raised in blue collar neighborhoods of Detroit, he has lived in many foreign countries and traveled to many others. His work is centered on empowering communities of color and low-income communities through building bridges, creating collaboration on common issues and leadership development. Christopher’s life experiences, education, training, and work give him a deep understanding of the complexities involved with creating empowered communities amidst oppression and class segregation. He is inspired by his family, artists, co-workers, coalition partners and community leaders, who keep him honest and hopeful.