Staff

Christina (she/her) the Midwest Regional Organizer, is from the land known as Columbus, OH but currently resides in Cincinnati, OH.  Growing up, her views on classism, racism and sexism were shaped in part by being raised by a working-class single mother and through her radical elementary education at the Columbus Africentric School.

Curiosity about injustice led her to major in Political Science and Africana Studies at the University of Cincinnati. As a first-generation college student, Africana Studies called students to practice scholar activism which grounds her work today. After graduation, she joined Public Allies Cincinnati which prepared her for roles at the Office of Human Relations, Cincinnati Union Coop Initiative. These roles afforded her the opportunity to be a part of collectives that have published anti-racist educational guides, aided in passage of Indigenous Peoples Day legislation, and pushed Cincinnati closer towards institutionalizing racial and economic equity in the early childhood sector.

Throughout her journey, Brown has been grateful and self-critical and continues to politically evolve thanks to the mentorship of revolutionary Black organizers. Those folks inspired her to complete her Masters in Transformative Education at Miami University in 2018 which continues her pursuit towards becoming a scholar-activist. Christina sees RG as both curious and meaningful in the pursuit of a just and free world and looks forward to amplifying the role of the Midwest in making that world a reality.

Ekundayo (he/him/his) is a Hip Hop educator and grassroots organizer.  He is a lead organizer with the People’s Justice Project focusing on leadership development and the decriminalization of working class people of color. In 2011, Ekundayo was selected as an apprentice with Public Allies where he worked with The Urban League of Greater Cincinnati to facilitate the relationship between parent, school, and community. Additionally, he co-organized a community conversation campaign that addressed the lack of accessible resources for youth. Once the project was complete, he organized a Freedom School site to address the needs of an entire community by using education as a tool for liberation. In 2014, Ekundayo became a member of the National Juvenile Justice Network through the Youth Justice Leadership program where he co-launched a Freedom School program inside of three youth correctional facilities in Ohio from 2014-2016 to decrease the reentry rate and empower system involved youth. Ekundayo‘s work over the past 5 years has primarily focused on implementing prevention, intervention and restorative practices in schools, after-school programs, and in communities of color. He combines organizing, curriculum development, youth and young adult leadership development, and public policy as tools to liberate the African working class and other communities of color.

When Ekundayo is not in radical action, he watches anime, hits the gym, spends time with his fiancé, filling his life with the aesthetics of art (writing, poetry, visual art, dance, etc.) meditation, and trying new afro vegan recipes.

Eliza’s (they/them) bio is coming soon!

Raised in a working-class single-parent household, Emery (she/her) grew up in so-called Greensboro, North Carolina, a community rich in civil rights and movement history. She was called to action after learning about the increasingly urgent climate crisis and its connections to corporate lobbying, racial capitalism, and other systems of oppression that threatened all human rights.

After several years of grassroots organizing in her community on many climate justice campaigns, she began her career as a National Organizing Support Coach, supporting fellow youth activists across the country find their voice in collective liberation and provide training and resourcing on how to use it. In her former position at Future Coalition, she helped found and lead the Youth Climate Finance Alliance – a youth-led grassroots movement to stop the flow of money towards fossil fuels financiers. Through this campaign, she developed a deep interest and alignment with New Economy work and wealth redistribution.

Emery is Resource Generation’s Local Power Organizer, focused on supporting RG members in building cross-class campaigns to end wealth hoarding for an equitable and just future for all.

Outside of organizing, you can find Emery hosting dinner parties, figure drawing, playing dreadfully at pickleball, and listening to punk music.

Faisal (he/him) is a queer-identified Muslim activist, speaker, and writer, of Pakistani descent. Faisal has organized and worked in social justice movements since age 19 when he founded Al-Fatiha, an international organization dedicated to supporting and empowering LGBT Muslims. He led the organization as its volunteer director from 1997 – 2003. 

Faisal considers himself a global citizen, having grown up in Germany, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and a small town in Connecticut.  He has lived and worked in Boston, Washington, DC, Atlanta (and now New York City), supporting organizations working on HIV/AIDS education & prevention within Asian & Pacific Islander communities, LGBT rights, reproductive justice, public health disparities in communities of color, and international human rights. 

Faisal embodies the intersections of many identities (as an immigrant, a Muslim, a person of color, and a queer man), and he has shared his personal story of resilience and the stories of other LGBT Muslims at more than 150 colleges and universities. Faisal’s passion lies in bringing people together to share their stories and struggles and to work collectively towards building a just and equitable world. 

As Deputy Director, Faisal leads RG’s team, which manages our Finances, Administration, Operations, and Human Resources. In his free time, he enjoys traveling to see his chosen family around the world, dancing to top 40 music, watching the latest Hollywood blockbuster, and trying out new cuisines.

Falon (she/her) was born and raised in Houston, Texas, in a working-class, multi-generational household and received her B.A. in History and Political Science from Howard University in Washington, D.C. She is a natural organizer of resources and systems and finds solace in using data as infrastructure for building a more equitable world. 

Without the immediate return of stolen wealth and land, no liberation will be achieved in the United States or globally. Knowing this to be true, Falon feels called to use her skills and expertise to organize for structural redistribution, which led her to Resource Generation in July 2020. Before joining RG, Falon worked as a Database Manager in philanthropy and gained her organizing experience from a decade of cultural organizing and environmental and housing justice work in Washington, D.C. 

Outside of the Resource Generation nexus, Falon likely knows more about your astrological placements than you do and enjoys outdoor music festivals, trips to the closest thrift store/consignment shop, and museum exhibitions that feature art from the African diaspora.

Julia (she/her) joined the RG team in 2022 as the Membership Director. Julia was born and raised in Vermont (unceded Abenaki territory). While she regularly returns to the green mountains to visit friends and family, she has come to call Buffalo, NY (unceded Haudenosaunee territory) home over the past seven years. 

Before joining the RG team, Julia worked as a Development Specialist with PUSH Buffalo, a Grassroots Membership Organizer with the Clean Air Coalition of Western New York, and most recently, a Major Gifts Officer with the Ms. Foundation for Women. Julia has been funding and training others to fund social and economic justice work for over 10 years. This has allowed her to deeply understand the tools and skills of fundraising, but more importantly, has equipped her with a decade-long analysis of how we can align our fundraising practices with our values and build a stronger movement for justice in the process. 

Julia is committed to organizing people, their relationship with money, and money itself to fund our movements for justice. When she’s not working/organizing, Julia can be found hanging out with her cat, Toupee, biking around Buffalo, or swimming in any body of water she can find.

Julianne is a long-time community organizer and popular educator, as well as an RG alum from a professional class background and mixed-class adult life. She first learned cross-class, multiracial organizing from brilliant prison abolitionists and theatre artists who were mostly young QTBIPOC from poor or working class backgrounds. Professionally, Julianne has worked a teacher, union sheet metal apprentice, Tribal youth program manager, certified peer counselor in rural community mental health, trauma-informed art trainer, and more. While not working at RG, Julianne currently organizes for rural climate justice and forest defense in the Pacific Northwest.

Katie (she/her) joined RG staff as the Western Regional Organizer in October 2018 and is based in Los Angeles, CA where she supports the Los Angeles, Bay Area, Portland, and Seattle chapters. Originally from the Bay Area and the Boston area, she found Resource Generation after a long journey of activism and organizing work with Asian Americans at the Claremont Colleges, with low-income and working-class tenants in Los Angeles Chinatown, and in her work in other grassroots Asian American communities fighting for social justice in Los Angeles. As a third generation Chinese American cis-woman who grew up with class privilege in the Bay Area, Katie holds gratitude for RG community and her time as a Los Angeles chapter leader. She is jazzed about RG’s vision of liberation and the role of young people with wealth in getting us all free. When she is not chatting about privilege and wealth redistribution, Katie is eating handmade noodles, going to musicals, or doing last minute craft projects.

Contact me if you want to get involved in Resource Generation and live on the western side of the U.S. (think CA, Pacific Northwest)

keithlee (they/them) grew up in a working-class single-parent family in the suburbs of St. Louis, Missouri. They are a founding organizer of the DMV (D.C., Maryland, Virginia) De-escalation Collective, which trained communities in de-escalation strategies to prevent and interrupt state violence. keithlee is committed to organizing at the intersections of disability justice, police and prison abolition, and poor/working class solidarity. They love listening to podcasts about fat liberation, fermenting vegetables, and finding natural bodies of water to swim in. keithlee moves around frequently, often camping their way across the country with their dog, Yuba. Since early 2022, they’ve lived in an intentional community in O’ga P’ogeh (colonially known as Santa Fe, NM), with six chickens, two goats, two other humans, one cat, and Yuba. 

They graduated from Truman State University in 2014 and joined Resource Generation in September 2020 as the College Organizer.

Leah (she/her) lives on Massachusett land known as Boston. She comes from a mixed-class background and is proud to come from a long line of anti-capitalist activists, artists, and educators. Leah is deeply involved in local and national organizing movements for Indigenous solidarity funding. She also organizes with Kavod, a community of progressive young Jews in Boston, where she co-founded their JOCISM caucus. Prior to RG, Leah worked on national labor and policy campaigns at Oxfam America. As an experienced facilitator and political educator, she is constantly in awe of our collective capacity to unite, build power, and incorporate new learning and stories into our movements. Outside of work Leah loves hiking in the White Mountains, growing whatever she can in her window boxes, nerding out on language reclamation, and extolling the many virtues of garlic to anyone who will listen.

Megan’s (she/they) bio is coming soon.

Nicole (she/her) is based on Lenape land in Brooklyn, NY, and works with the New York, Philly, and DC chapters as well as other budding RG formations in the region. She comes from a managerial class background and since 2017 has found a political home in organizing with other young people with wealth and class privilege in RG to build a more just world. After being a member and chapter leader, she joined RG staff in fall 2020. Outside of RG, she organizes with Survived & Punished NY to both free and end the criminalization of survivors of domestic and sexual violence. Outside of organizing, you can find Nicole running, reading, admiring trees, or on a long phone call with a friend.

Nora (she/her) joined the Resource Generation staff in January 2019 as the High-Net Wealth Organizer and became Campaign Director in 2022. She was politicized in the environmental justice movement and has deep respect for land and indigenous peoples from whom it was stolen. The student climate movement taught her about disruption, working in faith-based advocacy showed her the possibility of transforming institutions, and organizing white people to flank the Movement for Black Lives taught her about solidarity, risk, and rigor. As a young person with class privilege, Resource Generation showed her how to be honest with her community and invest in movements like she believes we’ll win. She is an artist and works in natural materials found in the Great Lakes region she calls home.

Sahana (she/her) is a South Asian organizer with class privilege living in NYC. She joined RG as a member in 2020 and joined RG staff as High Net Wealth Organizer in 2022. Sahana was politicized during her time in high school through the movement for Black lives. She is a graduate of Scripps College, where she received her degree in Feminist, Gender & Sexuality Studies and International & Intercultural Studies. During her time at the Claremont Colleges, Sahana practiced organizing and community building alongside AAPI and South Asian communities. Sahana’s commitment to cross-class organizing deepened through her efforts to co-create digital and physical archives for Andolan Organizing South Asian Workers, a South Asian domestic worker-led organization active in NYC from 1998 to the early 2010s. 

Sahana is a boba lover and foodie!

Yahya (they/them) comes to social justice work out of a deep sense of love for their family and community and a belief that our collective liberation is possible. They are mixed-race (white and North African) and have a mixed-class background – born in Morocco with an owning class family there, and they were mostly raised poor in the US with one parent. Yahya enters movements from many places: as the child of a trans and Muslim activist and leader; the experience of racialization and anti-war movement work post-9/11; the cooperative and solidarity economy work they first participated in at Guilford College; Occupy Wall Street and the 2014 uprisings for Black lives. 

Yahya joined RG staff as a National Organizer and Coordinator of POC Programs in 2015, became Campaign Director in 2020, and was appointed Executive Director in the Fall of 2021. 

They currently live in Ossining, NY (historical lands of the Wappinger people) with their partner, their partner’s sister,  and two sibling cats, Lemon and Pepper. Outside of Resource Generation, they sit on the board of Philadelphia’s social justice foundation: Bread and Roses Community Fund. When they close their computer, they can be found being overly confident at games, celebrating their latest cooking experiment, or lost in thought in their car before getting out to their destination.