Transformative Leadership for Change Fellowship | 2023 Cohort

Eudelia Contreras (she/her/ella/de ella) is the incoming Executive Director for Full Circle of Lake County, a non profit organization that empowers community through youth development, family supports, immigrant services and resource connection. This is Eudelia’s first role as an ED, and although this has been one of her long-time goals, it was hard to see herself in this role because she has never seen anyone that looks like her in a leadership role in Lake County. Eudelia is excited to inspire young people who are also struggling with finding their place in a rural Colorado mountain town. 

Eudelia was brought to this country only months after being born in Mexico. She has had to navigate the challenges of starting school where her native language was not spoken, being held back because she didn’t understand the language, and receiving the negative message that she wasn’t smart. Eudelia is very proud of her community work, such as being a former president of the Lake County School District BOD and Director of Community at Lake County Build a Generation. Most recently, Eudelia was instrumental in organizing the members of Cooperativa Nueva Union to purchase their mobile home park for $1.6M. 

Eudelia is a single mother of three daughters and enjoys bike rides, live theater, concerts, having carne asada with her family, and traveling back to her hometown in Mexico where she immerses herself in her roots and heritage, taking a break from the day to day struggles of the challenges she faces navigating different systems.   

Jean Crowley (She, Hers, Queen) is the Co-Founder and Chief Operations Officer at the Crowley Foundation, Inc. Jean was born and raised in Muskogee, Oklahoma, as the oldest of 3 siblings. She is a first-generation college graduate from the best HBCU in the world, Langston University (Langston, Oklahoma), where she also met her husband of 29 years, Kenneth D Crowley Sr.

Jean’s background began in telecommunications and then migrated to the healthcare industry where she served in a leadership role for 11 years.  While working in healthcare, her true passion ignited when she helped launch the Crowley Foundation to help young Black and Brown men ages 14-25 to realize their true potential, transcend life challenges, and become leaders and role models in their communities.  Young men of color face social, economic, and health disparities stemming from generations of systemic racism, trauma, a lack of resources, and false narratives. Through her work at the foundation, Jean learned that inspiring young men of color to overcome these disparities and realize their potential and value requires patience, love and time. She describes her role as “the heart that gives life when the visionary has spoken.” For 13 years, the Crowley Foundation has grown by leaps and bounds internally and externally, extending their programs beyond Denver, Colorado to Dallas, Texas and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. To date, the Crowley Foundation has reached over 21,000 young men and families.

Jean is the proud mother of two children: Kenneth II (Jaliah) and Jayana. She is also blessed to have one grandson: Jaxsen.

Fecha (she/her/hers) is the co-founder and director of partnerships at Karana Rising, a nonprofit focusing on advancing justice and healing for wrongfully incarcerated survivors of human trafficking and GBV. She is a recent graduate of Stanford graduate school of business LEADership program and a legal victim advocate with seven years of experience in advocacy and direct service, working to further the overall mission of Karana Rising and the individual goals of the survivors of human trafficking and gender-based abuse.

Talaso works alongside the executive director to develop and advance policies and programs supporting survivor justice in the Karana Rising advocacy lab, including external earned media and owned media consumption. She is also responsible for the development and management of programmatic and development partnerships that include social media, bricks and mortar sustainable, and ethical fashion brands and organizations.  She additionally creates and manages Karana Rising’s communications, website, virtual survivor mentoring, workshop portal, and social media channels to advance the mission to help every survivor use their past to create a better future for themselves and the survivor community around them.  

Prior to Karana Rising, Fecha was the prevention education specialist at FAIR Girls, a nonprofit that serves young women survivors of human trafficking, and residential counselor for FAIR Girls’ Vida Home.  She dares to dream and passionately fight criminal and social injustices, as well as retrogressive practices that marginalize vulnerable populations.

South Carolina-born and raised, Ash Ferguson (they/she), was nourished and nurtured by a village of Black Women: her mother Jacquelyn Ferguson, aunt Frances McCarroll, and granny the late Mae Ferguson. Their tenacious testimony of Black Womanhood instilled an unwavering spirit in Ash which inspired her to become a truth teller, visionary, and channel. Her primary work is centered on decolonizing love and spirituality as a tool for collective liberation. 

Ash is a queer, non-binary, mystic, spiritual coach, friend and community leader. A lover of Black people, Ash is committed to creating spaces for Black Femmes and Thems to heal and thrive against all odds. Her work personally and professionally is fueled from her knowing that all Black people are destined to live pleasure filled lives. They are a manifestor, with a deep knowing that anything you think of, you create, so Ash works hard to hold a high vibration so that the things she attracts are in alignment with that which her heart desires. As a pleasure & intimacy coach, they journey with people in creating and birthing a life filled with pleasure. She also holds space for beloveds healing from trauma using Acudetox, Reiki, and sacred touch. 

Ash is currently based in Denver, CO – ancestral land of the Ute, Cheyenne, and Arapahoe nations – and is the Associate Director of Programs & Community Wellness for Soul 2 Soul Sisters, a fiercely love-based, Black-centered racial justice, reproductive justice organization, focused on actualizing Black healing and Black liberation.

Rocio Franco (Ella/She/Her) was born in Delicias, Chihuahua, Mexico. She moved with her family to the USA in her late teen years. Rocio is the oldest daughter of her family and learned fast how to navigate systems to assist her family with better opportunities. While adapting to this role, she encountered other families struggling with the same situation, and that’s when she grew her passion for helping others, allocating resources, and advocating to overcome barriers. 

Rocio joined Cultivando’s leadership team in 2017 as Director of Strategic Partnerships, bringing her years of experience working for Mapleton Public Schools and managing her family’s business. In this role, she led many of Cultivando’s outreach efforts, resulting in more impactful collaborations with various organizations and city governments. In 2018, she was promoted to Associate Director in recognition of her leadership skills, passion, and dedication to the Promotora model and philosophy of “Corazón de Servicio” (heart of service). 

Rocio is a current student at Metropolitan State University, majoring in Clinical Social Work. She has two beautiful daughters who she is raising with her husband, teaching them a love for nature, community values, and social justice.

Luz Galicia (She/her) is a single mother of two daughters, Katherine and Diana, who both already graduated from college. She also became a grandmother of Dimitri two years ago. Luz emerged as a fierce community leader in 9to5 ‘s housing campaign to stop the eviction of the Denver Meadows Mobile Home Park Community where she was a resident. She was “the Vecinos Unidos HOA”  president for Denver Meadows during the entire closing process of the Park. Luz was helping to lead the fight against all odds to stop the rezoning of her community and collectively purchase the park.

She is currently working in collaboration with the City of Boulder and 9to5 at The Different Mobile Home Communities at Boulder to organize the residents – especially those who are underrepresented. In this role, Luz has a passion to help mobile home communities through: informing, educating and empowering resident leaders; building collaborations with organizations, elected officials and other city representatives  to benefit residents; and organizing resident leaders around new state legislative efforts. She does this in part by providing “know your rights” trainings to empower and motivate residents to voice their concerns and get actively involved.

Luz brings a wealth of lived and professional experience to her organizing role, having earned her journalism degree in Mexico and also working in the hospitality business for over 26 years.

Karla G. Gonzales Garcia (She/Her/Ella) is originally from Iquitos, Peru. Since moving to the U.S, Karla has focused on outreach and engagement with immigrant communities; advocacy for and with survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence; education and advocacy for sexual and reproductive health; and advancing reproductive justice, immigrant rights, and economic justice policy. Karla has won numerous awards and served her community at the highest level, including being chosen as a part of the U.S. Delegation on Reproductive Health and Sexual Violence for the 49th Organization of American States Assembly in Medellin, Colombia. Karla was also an appointee to the Colorado Governor’s “Health Care Cost Analysis Task Force,” and upon finishing this role, she was once again appointed by Colorado’s Governor to the Health Care Affordability Enterprise Board, where she will be working toward health care accessibility and affordability for all Coloradans regardless of immigration status. 

The latest win Karla and her team brought to our state was the Healthy School Meals for All (Proposition FF), which ensures that kids in public schools in our state have free healthy meals, towards the goal that no kid goes hungry in our state. Karla earned her MA in Ethnic Studies with Women and Gender Studies in 2016 from Colorado State University where she developed a strong foundation in knowledge, research, and skills to advance a decolonial, multiracial, transnational feminist, and human rights centered framework within the work she does.

Mayra Gonzáles (She/Her) is a first-generation Mexican-American, community organizer, and urban planner. She serves as the Director of Community Development at the Montbello Organizing Committee (MOC), a nonprofit community development corporation. Gonzáles leads innovative mobility, transit, and housing projects that prioritize community empowerment and social justice. She is committed to building the capacity of resident leaders and supporting the creation of community-led solutions to systemic issues.

Rayna Hetlage (she/her/hers) is a passionate community organizer and the Director of Political Strategy at the Center for Health Progress. With an MPH in Health Systems Management and Policy from the Colorado School of Public Health, she is dedicated to advocating for healthcare reform that focuses on the needs and experiences of communities of color.

Raised in Portland, Oregon, Rayna learned the importance of being unwavering in her willingness to speak truth to power in the pursuit of a better world. Inspired by Shirley Chisholm’s quote, “If they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair,” Rayna is committed to ensuring that communities of color have a voice in shaping health care policies and decision-making processes. She strives to use her expertise to support community members in becoming leaders in the spaces where decisions are made.

As a self-proclaimed health policy nerd, Rayna’s work has primarily involved advancing legislation aimed at increasing access and affordability of health care, such as SB20-215: Health Insurance Affordability Enterprise, HB21-1232 Colorado Option, and HB22-1289 Cover All Coloradans. She currently serves as the Chair of the Health Insurance Affordability Enterprise, allocating over $200 million annually to make health care more affordable for Coloradans. She envisions a healthcare system shaped by communities, prioritizing people over profit.

In her downtime, Rayna explores creative pursuits, having tried numerous crafts with a closet as proof. On weekends, she enjoys the mountains with her husband and their two dogs, Roxy and Levi.

Nadeen M Ibrahim (She/her/hers) is the Organizing Director at the East Colfax Community Collective. She has more than 7 years of community organizing experience, largely in the Muslim community and its intersections. Her passion for community organizing is driven by her immigrant, Palestinian, Muslim, and rural identities. Through her community organizing, she co-founded the Muslim Youth Empowerment Conference, Denver Day of Dignity, and the Colorado Muslim Leadership Council. She is a recipient of many community awards, including the Spring Institute Intercultural Champion Award and Council on American Islamic Relations Call to Service Award.

She holds a Bachelor of Science in Public Health from the University of Colorado – Denver and a Masters of Public Policy from the University of Oxford, England. As a community organizer, she has always strived to better understand and recognize social determinants of health, especially around housing, in hopes of driving policy change. In her free time, she loves to spend time outdoors, traveling, and exploring the rich, diverse food cuisine Denver has to offer.

Kiera Jackson (she/her) is a community leader and entrepreneur whose mission is to demand equity and build generational wealth. Drawing on her firsthand experience growing up in Montbello, a neighborhood in Denver, Colorado, Kiera’s passion lies in community development, advocacy, and organizing to challenge systemic inequities and bring attention to the issues impacting her neighbors. She is committed to working collaboratively with her ancestors, mentors, neighbors, and peers to co-create communities where everyone thrives. As an entrepreneur, Kiera is driven to achieve economic freedom by localizing the food system and building generational wealth.

Kiera currently is the Student Support Liaison at Robert F. Smith STEAM Academy– the United States’ first HBCU-style high school. Within her role, Kiera inspires curiosity and passion for sustainable agriculture among BIPOC students and staff through hands-on learning experiences in their garden. She also works directly with students, providing them with social-emotional education while connecting them with organizations and resources beyond the school; ensuring they each receive the specific support they need to thrive.

Beyond her work, Kiera finds solace and inspiration in nature and is deeply appreciative of its reminder that life is cyclical. She understands the importance of rest and rejuvenation to blossom and grow, just as spring brings new life after the winter. In her free time, Kiera enjoys spending time with her husband and three dogs, particularly at the school’s farm or plant store.

Neambe Leadon (she/her) has had the opportunity to work within the field of health equity and advocacy through various lenses over the last fourteen years.  She was drawn to this work following the death of her father from cancer and his mention of alternative medicine.  After attaining her degree, Neambe returned to Denver, CO, and pursued study of massage therapy based in Chinese Medicine. This exploration of physiology and health maintenance led her to think deeply about diet-related illnesses, birthing the desire to grow food.  Neambe began with hands-on food production on a small-scale urban garden, which inspired her to develop a curriculum around consumption and the food system. She received grant funding to administer this curriculum to youth ages 5-25 for over five years. Through this summer program, she co-facilitated training in ecologically intentional urban farming; recycling and composting; an introduction to bioremediation through fungi propagation; alternative watering methods (olla pots, drip irrigation); food crop and flower plant identification; cultivation, harvest, and preparation.  This curriculum grew to include art, culture, and yoga, always with the foundation of health as wealth and food as medicine. 

Neambe’s career continued with various experiences working with youth and the outdoors, direct food access, food production, and science education as well as obtaining her certification for Permaculture Design. Her current role of Senior Manager of Food Sovereignty, in which she guides Metro Caring’s Nutrition, Food Access, and Urban Agriculture teams, feels like a culmination of all the work she has carried out over the years.  Neambe’s work and lived experiences have created a strong sense of health advocacy rooted in the relationship between humans, the land that sustains us, and the systems that impact both.

Ruby Lopez (She/Her/Ella) is an eco-intersectionality-minded community leader and advocate with over 6 years experience serving systematically excluded communities. Originally from Chicago, Ruby was raised in a predominantly Mexican neighborhood to immigrant parents and got her start working with marginalized communities on the south-side of Chicago. She has since dedicated her life to serving BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ communities and believes in harnessing the healing powers of community, nature, solidarity, and art to address the pain of inequity facing these communities. She has a B.S. in Earth, Society, and Environmental Sustainability from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

In her spare time, she is also an experienced dancer and is most likely out dancing if she’s not working, resting, or tending to her house plants. She uses dance, specifically afro-latin dance, and burlesque, as mediums for advocacy and community building. Ruby also enjoys using her voice for storytelling and performing monologues around the themes of gender, trauma, queer joy, overcoming obstacles, and more.

Regina was invited as a TLC fellow, but will be doing a future year of TLC

Regina Lopez-Whiteskunk (She/Her), was born and raised in southwestern Colorado and resides in the community of Towaoc, Colorado, on the Ute Mountain Ute reservation.  Regina is a member of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, graduated from Montezuma Cortez High School, and spent 10 years in the information technology field. 

From an early age, Lopez-Whiteskunk began to advocate for land, air, water, and animals and strongly believes that the inner core of healing comes from the knowledge of our land and elders.  In 2013, she was elected to serve as a member of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribal council. She also served as one of the co-chairs for the Bears Ears Intertribal Coalition and education director for the Ute Indian Museum in Montrose. Lopez-Whiteskunk is a current candidate in the Master’s of Environmental Management program with Western Colorado University. She serves on the Telluride Institute Board, Torrey House Press Board, Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, Great Old Broads’ Council of Advisors, and as an advisor to the Women of Bears Ears. Lopez-Whiteskunk is currently working with Montezuma Land Conservancy as the Cross-Cultural Program Manager, and was recently also appointed to serve on the Bears Ears National Monument Management Advisory Committee. 

Lopez-Whiteskunk has traveled extensively throughout the country sharing the Ute culture through song, dance, presentations, and is honored to continue to protect, preserve and serve through education. Sharing with others creates a better understanding of resources, culture, and beliefs— a great foundation for a better tomorrow.

Allex Luna (he/him/el) is the Organizing Director of UNE (United for a New Economy) and UNE Action. Before moving to Colorado, Allex spent a decade as an organizer with local affiliates of the Faith in Action Network: Inland Congregations United for Change in California and Comunidades en Acción y de Fe (CAFE) in New Mexico. In 2017, he became the Lead Organizer for CAFE, taking on program development and implementation, as well as the professional development of organizers, in addition to his community leadership development work.

Allex has organized in partnership with community leaders to divest from programs that harm our communities, like border enforcement, oil, and gas extraction, and over-policing (reclassifying felonies as misdemeanors), and instead invest in public education (improving graduation rates), raising the minimum wage, and creating a paid sick leave program.

Allex grew up in Palm Springs, California, in a working-class, mixed-status home. Alongside his family and members of his community, he organized to end predatory towing policies that targeted low-income and immigrant members of his community – when he was just 15 years old. This campaign inspired Allex to become a community organizer to transform the pain of his community into power.

Johnny Medina-McCraigie (she/her) is a member of the Colville Tribes and was born and raised on the Colville Indian Reservation in Washington. Johnny is a practiced project manager and organizer with experience in coalition building, community-based participatory research, and program administration. Johnny graduated with a Bachelor of Social Work from Colorado State University. Soon thereafter, she began working in the housing justice space where she quickly became a prominent leader advocating for Native American housing justice in the Denver Metro area. She then landed in the food space by working to increase food access and education for 0-5 year olds and their families in Southwest Denver. Currently, she is working at First Nations Development Institute as a Lead Program Officer and is working with tribal and Indigenous communities, which is work that is close to her heart. In Johnny’s free time, you can find her making traditional beadwork, sewing, or hanging out with her partner and two doggies.

Crystal Murillo (she,her) serves as the Deputy Director for Colorado People’s Alliance and also as the Ward 1, Aurora City Council Member. She grew up in Aurora, Colorado, where she and her brother were raised by a Mexican immigrant single mother. Crystal was the first in her family to graduate from high school and college, earning a Bachelors in International Business from the University of Denver in 2015

Crystal began her political career at 23 years old when she made the bold decision to run for office. In 2017 she was elected to Aurora City Council, becoming the first Latina and youngest person ever elected to that body. She was successfully re-elected in 2021. Crystal is also appointed to the State Council on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (JJDP) to center youth lived experience in the criminal legal system. She has also served in various leadership roles and committees including as Co-Chair of RTD Accountability Committee and Chair of the Housing, Neighborhood Services and Redevelopment Committee. She led the effort to develop Aurora’s first strategic housing plan to preserve and expand the affordable housing stock and will continue to push for more equitable growth and development throughout the City.

Aurora is the third largest city in Colorado of 400,000 people and home to a vibrant and diverse community of people. Crystal is committed to be an advocate for her community and helping others become change-makers in a way that honors her Mexican-American heritage. “I am looking forward to building deeper relationships across leaders in the movement and to co-create ideas on how we balance the many interests to move towards a shared vision.”

Izzy Nuñez (she/they) grew up in Colorado Springs. They studied Anthropology at Yale-NUS College in Singapore, and returned home to work with Food to Power because they believe that change in our communities and economies should begin with change in our food system. She first joined Food to Power as a high school intern when it was primarily a food rescue organization and was inspired by the ways that food in all of its forms is so integral to our cities, bodies, and movements for justice. Today, she works in the Education & Advocacy department and hopes to facilitate community-building which will change the city as we know it.

In Singapore, Izzy helped lead the city-state’s first openly queer feminist student organization, as well as a multi-year menstrual cup distribution project. They are an ecolesbian (and co-creator of the term), as well as an amateur electric guitarist, climber, and zine-maker. In the coming years, Izzy hopes to develop a closer relationship to the land, witness transformations in Colorado Springs, and engage more deeply with her own multi-general history of Chicanas in the Southwest.

Angelica Prisciliano (she/ella) was born in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua (Mexico) where she grew up before moving to southeast Colorado Springs, Colorado, with her family. She is the daughter and granddaughter of Tlaxcaltecas and Chilangos from the City of Mexico. 

Angelica earned an Associate’s Degree from Community College of Denver and a Bachelor’s Degree from Metropolitan State University of Denver. Through her academic and community-led education, she found her dedication to advancing transformative public policy and social change through organizing and people power. Angelica also worked for 10 years in the food service and hospitality industry while investing in local and national immigrant justice work. While working as a server in Denver’s vibrant food industry, Angelica bared witness to workplace injustices and abuse such as long fast phased work hours, poverty wages, unfair scheduling, racism, sexual harassment, and abuse. This motivated her organizing and advocacy work to include building a Colorado where all workers are protected and can thrive. Angelica’s vision for our community additionally holds access to green space and creative outlets, food and mobility justice, and environmental science-driven technologies. 

Moving to the US from the chaotic city of Juarez has also sparked her interest to reconnect with her cultural and ancestral roots through wandering outdoors, prayer, and medicine. Angelica finds movement healing and spends her time hiking, training for the circus on a slackline, practicing restorative yoga, and dancing cumbias. She values time with friends, family cafecito sessions, and volunteering in community.

Beatriz Oliva Soto Ruvalcaba (she, her, ella) is originally from Chihuahua, Mexico. Through her childhood and youth, she grew up in a bi-cultural setting between Mexico and the United States, navigating the broken US immigration system. She studied architecture at the Instituto Tecnologico de Chihuahua and practiced architecture for over 15 years. 

She has been at the intersection of community building and working towards a stable climate for the past two decades. Beatriz is a LEED certified architect that worked on a variety of energy related projects, from Net-Zero affordable housing to high-performance strawbale homes, sustainable developments in the Pacific coast of Mexico, as well as providing professional trainings with the US and the Mexican Green Building Councils. Beatriz developed a bilingual program for just transition and empowerment of construction workforce, which she ran for the Community Office of Resources Efficiency in Pitkin County.

Beatriz is former Director of Defiende Nuestra Tierra for The Wilderness Workshop, and also a co-founding member of Voces Unidas de las Montañas, the first political non-profit organization in the central mountain region, created and led by Latine leaders to create opportunities for their communities to speak and advocate for themselves. She currently is the Director of Protegete, a statewide initiative from Conservation Colorado, whose mission is to elevate Latino driven solutions to protect our lands, water, air and fight for environmental and climate justice. 

If she’s not out in nature, you can find her volunteering in local schools, encouraging Latine youth to see themselves as leaders in STEM fields, as the next generation of elected leaders, as stewards of the land and as an important voice in environmental and social issues.

Jose Torres Vega (He, Him, His) was born in Guatemala, Guatemala City during the Guatemalan Civil War. He was diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy at six months old. At age twelve, he had his first encounter with the war when his older sister and nephew were forced to leave Guatemala for their safety. At age seventeen, his father was killed and Jose, his mother and younger sister had to hide. He lost all aspects of his life, including his house and his girlfriend. He joined the opposition to the government at this time. 

Jose and his family eventually fled to the U.S. for their safety and he began to advocate for the civil rights of the disabled. He joined ADAPT (Americans Disabled for Accessible Public Transit) and CCDC to advocate for the civil rights of people with disabilities. According to Jose, “In these last years I have met true friends, people who fight with the same passion and love. Now I have a whole new world of opportunities, like being invited to be trained by and work for CCDC. The best has been to be able to work for and with the disability community.”

Jose is also the chairman of the board of El Grupo Vida, working with Latino immigrant families who have kids and/or other family members with disabilities. Jose has utilized his position to increase his work in the immigrant community, connecting CCDC’s advocacy expertise and political power to EGV’s “defensores” for immigrants’ rights.  Nowadays, as a multilingual advocate, he takes complex cases for immigrant families and helps them get access to Colorado state benefits for their undocumented members. Jose has also helped the Colorado Immigrant Right Coalition (CIRC) & the Colorado Consumer Health Initiative (CCHI) pass laws that have created benefits designed for undocumented immigrants.

Born in Michoacan, Mexico, Lilia Vieyra (she/her/hers) immigrated to Northeast Colorado with her family when she was just 3 years old. Her advocacy work began at a young age, as she was forced to take on the role of interpreter for her family and quickly became aware of injustices, particularly when it comes to immigration status, language, and race.  These experiences inspired her to become involved in community building and advocacy at both the local and state level. Since 2018, Lilia has worked at OneMorgan County, a community-based organization serving and empowering immigrants and refugees. She started out as a youth Bridge Builder, then as a language access coordinator, and is now the Programs Director. In this role, she oversees a range of programs and initiatives aimed at increasing access, well-being, and belonging to all those calling Morgan County home.

In addition to her work at OMC, Lilia is also an artist and interpreter. She uses her artistic talents as a personal form of healing and uplifting those around her. As an interpreter, she is committed to practicing language justice. She believes that art and interpretation have the power to bridge divides and create connections. Lilia earned her BS in Psychology from the University of Northern Colorado. She is currently a member of Colorado’s New Americans Community Advisory Committee and the I-Drive Campaign.