2021 Workshop Schedule

Rebecca Garrard is the current Legislative Director of Citizen Action of New York and previously served as the Campaign Manager for Housing Justice for the organization. She is a member of the coordinating team of the Upstate/Downstate Housing Alliance/Housing Justice for All Coalition. Rebecca started her career as a labor leader in Dutchess County. There, she organized for racial justice within schools and access to community resources in impoverished communities. Rebecca is also a member of the State Steering Committee for the New York State Poor People’s Campaign, and serves on their Legislative and Policy Advisory Committee as well.

Nicole is a Citizen Action member who has been working with the Political Education committee since last summer, and the NYC chapter since early this year. Though her career has mostly been in digital ad sales, she recently began an account management role helping advocacy organizations and unions to recruit and grow their supporters. She is especially passionate about housing justice and reparative planning, and will start a master’s program in urban planning in the fall.

Salka has been with Citizen Action for about 6 years now. Salka started off as a Citizen Action volunteer and board member in the southern tier and is now a staff member working on housing and environmental issues. She also previously ran for office and was endorsed by Citizen Action . Salka is really passionate about ending mass incarceration and reforming the justice system, and addressing housing issues—especially in Black communities. As a survivor of human trafficking, Salka said she sees holes in laws that are supposed to protect people, and that’s what fuels her passion to speak up.

Stevie Vargas is the Upstate Campaign Coordinator with the Alliance for Quality Education, Co-Founder of Free the People Roc, and Chair of the Working Families Party Rochester Chapter. She began organizing and fighting for educational equity for Black, brown, and immigrant children living in poverty across the state in 2018. By working in community to mobilize, organize, and develop parent and student leaders in the region to fight for full funding of our public schools, and ending the school to prison pipeline, she alongside community members, parents, students, and other stakeholders brought home a major victory of successfully getting cops out of public schools.

She now brings her skills and passion for education equity to AQE helping parents in regions across NYS navigate and effect change in systems at both the state and local levels. This year she was featured as one of City and State’s most powerful people in upstate politics.

Stevie is dedicated to the liberation of those impacted by the injustices of inequities in our schools system, prison system, and all systems built by white supremacy.

Jasmine Gripper is the Executive Director of the statewide advocacy group Alliance for Quality Education. She initially embarked on a career as an educator, but shifted to advocacy after realizing education policies steeped in inequity were harming children and limiting their potential. In order to affect genuine change and address the growing opportunity gap it was time for a career shift. Jasmine moved to Cleveland, OH to work as a Field Organizer for Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign. In 2013 she then joined the team at the Alliance for Quality Education, a perfect combination for her background as an educator and organizing talents. In 2016 she was named one of City and State’s 40 under 40 rising stars and in 2020 made the Education Power 100 list. Jasmine is dedicated to empowering parents, students and community members to dismantle systemic racism in education to create well resourced, high quality, culturally relevant community schools in every Black & Brown neighborhood.

Tanvier Peart is a Buffalo-area resident by way of Baltimore who oversees the Free the People WNY state working group. She fights alongside formerly incarcerated leaders, the directly impacted, organizers, and advocates to dismantle systems built on white supremacy and oppression — uplifting decarceration through a racial justice lens across issue areas. Tanvier currently oversees the just recovery efforts at the Partnership for the Public Good, a community-based advocacy and research think tank in Buffalo, creating short- and long-term strategies to counter structural inequalities through the region and state.

TS Candii is a leader in the social justice movement for Black and Brown Trans Civil Rights. As a former sex worker, TS Candii uses her first hand experience with racial and transgender profiling as well as employment and housing discrimination to expose the roots of transphobia and white supremacy. In 2020 TS Candii founded Black Trans Nation (BTN) and Black Trans Nation NY (BTNNY), organizations which seek to uplift black and brown trans people and GNCP through advocacy for policy changes and helping get trans people elected to public office. She has been a leader in the movement to ban the policing practice of arresting trans women for soliciting prostitution, also known as “Walking While Trans.” Her work, along with many others, saw the law officially repealed and expunged on Febrary 2, 2021.

Shatia (Tia) Strother is the Project Coordinator for the New York state-wide and the former Program Coordinator of Families United for Racial and Economic Equality (FUREE). Her first real introduction to social justice organizing and advocacy began in 2011 with the founding of in her native ‘hood of Bed-Stuy and joining the efforts to form the Black-led Central Brooklyn Food Coop. Since then, Tia Strother has been a leader in the housing, environmental and food justice movements both locally and nationally.

When she’s not running around fighting the powers that be, her time is spent writing and live story-telling, gardening, collecting dead animals and annoying her family with unfinished DIY projects strewn across the house. Tia Strother remains in her native Bed-Stuy blocks away from her childhood family home, living with her partner and their 4 children.

Ryan serves as the Sustainability Organizer for the Long Island Progressive Coalition where he leads efforts for energy democracy and climate justice in New York State. Most recently, he was instrumental in efforts alongside the statewide NY Renews coalition in passing New York’s landmark climate bill, the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act.

Mary Clark, MSW, Citizen Action’s Southern Tier Regional Director, and the co-coordinator of Health Care for America Now (HCAN) in NY, has been a community organizer for well over 30 years. Health care policy has been the primary focus of Mary’s community organizing career: beginning with migrant farm workers in the late 1970s and continuing in the 1980s in Arizona, where she helped to bring about the first statewide indigent health care system. Mary has a long history of building strong diverse statewide and local coalitions to educate the general public and decision makers, and attracting media coverage to effectively bring about need policy changes.

Bob Cohen, Esq., is the Policy Director of Citizen Action of NY and has been on the Citizen Action staff since 2000.  Bob, a lifelong progressive political activist, coordinates Citizen Action’s state health care and climate justice work. He represents Citizen Action on the Steering Committee of Health Care for All New York, a large statewide coalition addressing the needs of New York health care consumers and patients.  He formerly served as acting counsel to the New York State Consumer Protection Board, a state agency, working on a wide range of consumer issues, including health care, consumer rights, and consumer debt.

Joaquin conducts policy analyses on a range of issues to support NYIC’s policy work and improve health care for immigrant New Yorkers. Previously, he worked at Global Health Strategies, a communications and advocacy firm, where he helped bring global attention to disparities in HIV, neglected tropical diseases, and COVID-19 vaccine distribution. Over the course of his career, he has worked on health policy issues with governments, providers, and non-profit organizations at the local, state, and national levels.

Mark Hannay is the Director of Metro New York Health Care for All, a citywide coalition of community groups and labor unions, founded in 1993 by Citizen Action and New York Jobs with Justice.  He also co-chairs the Steering Committee of Health Care for All New York, and co-coordinates the national Health Care for America Now campaign here in NY along with Mary Clark of Citizen Action. Mark is the Interim President of the Public Policy and Education Fund of New York, the research and education arm of Citizen Action.

Theresa works with NYIC’s Advocacy Team to grow NYIC’s statewide presence, deepen the engagement of NYC members and partners in NYIC initiatives, and build the political power of immigrant communities, the organizations who serve them, and strengthen the NYIC’s advocacy efforts. She has nearly two decades of experience working with immigrant communities in NYC, including as a community organizer in Queens with Catholic Charities; she has also directed programs at South Asian Youth Action, Citizens Committee for New York City, Interfaith Neighbors, and the Interpublic Group of Companies. She has directed award winning documentaries highlighting immigrant stories and profiling their ongoing fight for justice and civil rights.

Before joining Citizen Action, Michelle worked to elect gun violence prevention champions at Giffords in Washington, D.C., coordinated in-house legal operations for advocacy programs at Planned Parenthood’s national office in New York, and studied Economics at New York University. She lives in Brooklyn with her cat, Geraldine.

Jason Starr has over a decade of experience as an attorney, educator, organizer, and creator in civil rights and social justice policy. He has been an ardent cannabis legalization advocate – during his time at the New York Civil Liberties working on early municipal decriminalization and police reform efforts and, later, working inside of government as a senior advisor in the Cuomo administration. Regardless of his vantage point, Jason’s fight to end mass criminalization and incarceration centers the individuals and communities targeted by the racist war on drugs and poverty. With experience across the nonprofit advocacy, government, and private sectors, Jason’s career is animated by a single guidepost – servant leadership. A native of South Carolina, Jason calls Brooklyn home.

Jason Salmon is a life-long resident of Fort Greene-Clinton Hill, Brooklyn and an experienced community organizer and activist. Currently he is employed at Citizen Action of New York where he is the New York City Regional Director working on criminal legal system, housing and environmental issues. While we all watched the death of Eric Garner with anger and frustration, Jason was living his own personal trauma. That summer, Jason’s childhood friend was killed by the police. These tragedies drove Jason to serve as a community organizer and activist, and eventually as a member leader for Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, serving as their liaison to Communities United for Police Reform. As an activist and community organizer, Jason organized in support of legislation that strengthened transparency and accountability for law enforcement including the Right to Know Act and the New York Safer Act.

Dana is a two-time Democratic nominee (Working Families Party endorsed) for Congress in NY-24 who built a record breaking grassroots campaign with over 1,900 volunteers. She began her career in disability services in the nonprofit sector where she served as an educator. She has a masters degree in Public Administration and has taught at the university level, most recently teaching Citizenship and Policy and Administration and Policy at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.

Nicole is a Citizen Action member who has been working with the Political Education committee since last summer, and the NYC chapter since early this year. Though her career has mostly been in digital ad sales, she recently began an account management role helping advocacy organizations and unions to recruit and grow their supporters. She is especially passionate about housing justice and reparative planning, and will start a master’s program in urban planning in the fall.

Sharon Cromwell is helping build the power of WFP as a mass-based, multi-racial and multi-generational political party and the electoral arm of social movements in New York. She has ten years of experience in labor unions and advocacy organizations on housing, worker rights, immigration justice and community safety beyond policing. Before joining the WFP, she was a policy analyst and stragic campaigns at the Service Employees International Union Local 32BJ and Everytown for Gun Safety. Sharon was born in Zimbabwe, raised in Canada and has lived in New York for a decade. She is an avid traveler.

After a lifetime of watching politics from the sidelines, Celeste ran for Utica Common Council in 2019. She won and took office on January 1, 2021. She took to politics like a duck to water. One of her main goals in office is to convince people that local politics matter, that we can trust each other enough to govern ourselves together, and to collectively create a better Utica For All Of Us.

Gabriella Romero is a trial attorney and local court advocate in the Albany County Public Defender Office. Her campaign focused on revamping our definition of public safety in Albany by (among other initiatives) providing more transparency in police disciplinary record disclosure and increased accountability through disciplinary teeth in the civilian oversight board. By focusing on a people-first model, Gabriella’s vision of a more walkable, equitable, and honest Albany resonated with 6th Ward voters. By running as an unapologetic, extremely transparent, and community-centered leader, Gabriella won over her district by wide margins. Gabriella is the first public defender and first democratic socialist to be elected to Albany’s Common Council, and the first Latina to represent Albany’s 6th Ward.

Svante L. Myrick was sworn into office in January 2012 and became, at 24, the City of Ithaca’s youngest Mayor and first Mayor of color. Svante was first elected to the Common Council at the age of 20 while still a junior at Cornell University. He has provided both local and national leadership in critical areas such as public health, housing, poverty and access to education. Svante is currently serving a third term as Mayor of the City of Ithaca and of late has done a lot of work in collaboration with community stakeholders to develop recommendations to reform the Ithaca Police Department in an effort to improve police and community relations.

Sheilah Davidson, Statewide Director of Mobilization, Sheilah has been lucky enough to make social change into a decades-long career. Beginning, like many others, as a field canvasser, she’s held positions in organizations working on issues including the environment, health care, child care, parental involvement in schools, sustainable agriculture and bringing healthful school food into big city cafeterias. Her greatest strength is relationship building and her greatest passion is leadership development. She is proud of the role she’s played in helping to build networks of motivated, committed professionals and volunteers.

Emmallyea is excited to have a paid position doing what she’s done her whole life. Her first action was gathering signatures for a petition against Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant at the age of 11. She’s been volunteering with free communal kitchens, as a phone canvasser and going to protests and marches as much as possible ever since. She has made it a point to bring her own two children along whenever possible, and her oldest daughter is now an active volunteer with Citizen Action and other progressive organizations.

Libero Della Piana is the Senior Strategist at Alliance for a Just Society. Libero has thirty years of experience as a writer, organizer, and educator for social movement organizations. He lives in East Harlem, New York and is a Boardmember of the Public Policy and Education Fund of New York.

Ivette is a native of Puerto Rico who was raised in the Bronx, Ivette has been involved for over fifty years in movements including the struggle for Puerto Rican independence, organizing against the Vietnam War, the freeing of political prisoners (both in the US and abroad), and access to quality education for communities of color. Coming of age during the nascent gay and lesbian rights movement of the late sixties/early seventies, Ivette was able to merge the personal with the political when she came out. Ivette has worked in education at all levels including as an Assistant Dean of Students at Hostos Community College and directing a child development center for Unity House of Troy. Ivette lives in Albany with her wife, Valerie and has two daughters, Anna and Keisha.

Minnie (she/her) is a Korean American intersectional feminist work-in-progress and community educator based in Buffalo, NY in Haudenosaunee territory, and is also a dues-paying member and volunteer from the WNY chapter of Citizen Action of New York. From January 2021 through June 2021, she served the WNY chapter’s Eco/Climate Justice Committee as a volunteer-basis project manager and coordinator, focusing her efforts upon advocating for the Climate and Community Investment Act (CCIA). During the 2021 NY State legislative session, she coordinated: 1) a pro-CCIA art contest; 2) a pro-CCIA social media toolkit; and 3) an online discussion panel on art, activism, and the CCIA hosted by the Burchfield Penney Art Center. She is looking forward to expanding pro-CCIA popular education outreach through additional creative media. In addition to doing volunteer work for Citizen Action, she has also done volunteer work for Planned Parenthood and for several progressive or relatively progressive political candidates.

Divya is an organizer rethinking issues of race, housing, and economic justice. With the NY WFP, Divya is working to build a multiracial, working class coalition that wins electoral and legislative campaigns. Since joining the WFP in 2020, she’s helped launch WFP chapters in NYC and the Hudson Valley, and organized with folks in Buffalo to help pull off India Walton’s historic upset in the Democratic Primary for Mayor. Before joining the WFP Divya was the Policy Coordinator at Community Voices Heard, organizing for housing and economic justice in NYC and the Hudson Valley. While at CVH, she served as a coordinating committee member for the Housing Justice for All coalition, providing strategic advice and support, and she helped launch the national campaign for a Homes Guarantee with People’s Action. Divya created the Homes Guarantee Candidate Pledge — organizing candidates across the country to reject all real estate money and to commit to co-governing with a base of tenants in their district. Divya was also Deputy Campaign Manager for Tiffany Cabán’s Queens District Attorney campaign, and regularly tricks people into thinking she is from Queens when she was actually born and raised in New Mexico.

Kumar previously served as Director of Justice Transformation at the Center for Popular Democracy, supporting partner organizations and elected officials in the fight for racial equity and criminal legal system transformation at the local, state, and federal levels. Kumar is also a Scholar with the Institute for Social Policy & Understanding, for whom he led a major study into the disparate legal and media treatment that suspects of ideological violence receive based on their perceived racial and religious identity. A former litigator and public defender, he has represented thousands of clients in state and federal court, in both criminal and civil matters, and has counseled offices on the delivery of legal services and effective client representation practices. Kumar holds a J.D. cum laude from New York University School of Law and a B.B.A with honors from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Over the past 15 years, Nikki R. Jones has strengthened her communication skills in the nonprofit & advocacy, government, and small business sectors. She is a firm believer that every person has a story to tell that is impactful, unforgettable, and uniquely yours. These days, Nikki works serves small business owners by writing sales copy that shifts readers from curious to connected to client.

Chelsea started as a volunteer with Citizen Action and for the last year and a half,has been a staff member working on educational, housing and childcare injustices on both the state and local levels. Chelsea has been organizing in her community for years. From starting monthly phone banks for Planned Parenthood in 2016 to helping organize Rome, NY’s first ever Pride Rally in 2019, Chelsea has been mobilizing, organizing and developing people in her community for years.