Directors Team
Elyssa Feder
Executive Director
(She/her)
Elyssa has over a decade of experience as an organizer and trainer, including in roles as the Training Director for EMILY’s List and Deputy Training Director at Priorities USA. While at EMILY’s List, she created multiple new training programs, including the Ignite Change Fellowship, which trains women from underrepresented communities to increase their presence in political office and grow the pipeline of candidates of color. She co-founded Rising Organizers in 2016 and has overseen the organization's growth from an all-volunteer startup to a staffed organization that has trained nearly 3,000 activists and held nine intensive fellowship cohorts on community organizing skills. As a result of her work, Elyssa was selected for Washingtonian Magazine’s 40 Women Under 40 issue in 2020.
AiSHA WHITE
Deputy Director
(sHe/They)
Aisha White is a cultural organizer, artist, and researcher with a passion for community building and social impact. A majority of her work centers supporting her community of artists to build and grow their projects, while her personal practices focuses on public health and fellowship. Her background in social enterprise, community engagement and sustainable development has informed her passion for socially engaged art. Her research in ethics and project development leads her to take a trauma informed approach to all of her work. She is an alum of Rising Organizers’ Fall 2019 Fellowship.
Aisha holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration from the University of Pittsburgh and a MA Cultural Policy Degree in Arts, Enterprise and Development from the University of Warwick in Coventry UK. In addition, she hold a certificate in Mixed Reality Design from Oxford University.
Michelle Loo
Alumni Engagement co-Director
(they/them)
Michelle was an Rising Organizer fellow in Spring 2019, returned to co-lead the Fall 2019 Fellowship, and is now joining Josh to co-direct the fellowship.
Raised by Chinese Malaysian immigrants in New York City and Philadelphia, Michelle is passionate about building the capacity of communities most impacted by systemic oppression. They currently work at the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA) managing the team's communications and supporting the development of chapters and members. Out and about in DC, you can find Michelle volunteering as an abortion doula, tending to too many plants, and eating good food.
Billy Cerullo
Fellowship co- Director
(He/Him)
Billy is originally from Boston, MA and moved to DC the day after he graduated from Suffolk University in 2014 to be an AmeriCorps member with DC Public Schools. Billy has been organizing since 2016, and cut his teeth organizing parents with PAVE (Parents Amplifying Voices in Education). He organized parents to lead a campaign that culminated in $21 million being invested in after-school and summer programming for children around the District. While at PAVE, Billy was trained in grassroots organizing through PICO and IAF affiliates, and most recently organized immigrant families at Briya Charter School to ensure DC lives up to its status as a Sanctuary City. Stepping into his first role as a union organizer, Billy has just joined the Laborers’ International Union of North America staff.
Vivian Chang
Alumni Engagement co-Director
(She/her)
Vivian Chang was an inaugural Rising Organizers Fellow and before coming full circle as a Co-lead of the Spring 2019 Fellowship.
She currently works as the Civic Engagement Manager of APALA, a labor alliance where she directs campaigns on elections, the 2020 Census, and political work. During the 2018 midterms, she led a successful campaign to turn out Asian American and Pacific Islander voters in Nevada. She is an AmeriCorps VISTA alumna dedicated to advancing social and economic justice, grounded in the collective power of communities.
Emily Collinson
Communications Co-Director
(She/her)
Emily is a Spring 2018 Fellowship Alumna who began organizing as a student at American University around Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention issues, working with organizations such as: the Enough Project, Jewish World Watch, and STAND. In 2020, she began organizing the establishment of one of the fitness industry's first unions. She is currently a union organizer with SEIU Local 2015, working with long-term care workers in Northern California.
CJ Jackson
Community engagement co-Director
(He/Him)
Calvin Jackson is a native Washingtonian, committed to organizing around social justice principles within the DMV area. After graduating from Georgetown University in 2015 with a degree in sociology and media studies, he started organizing with Rescue Agency around ending youth tobacco use and healthy food alternative policies. He has been an organizer with Vote16DC and was most recently Program Coordinator and Organizer with Critical Exposure, a program designed to tackle DC urban issues through policy campaign and digital media/photography. He currently sits on the junior board for the Campaign for Youth Justice. He was an inaugural Rising Organizers fellow in Fall 2017.
KT Beckman-Götrich
Community Engagement Co-Director
(They/Them)
KT began political work around gender justice and anti-war movements in 2003. They became more involved in recent years as a housing organizer for the 2016 Women’s March and a core organizer for the 2017 March for Racial Justice. KT completed the inaugural fellowship of Rising Organizers in 2017 and has continued on its training team. Locally, KT has also organized with Girls Rock!DC, Stop Police Terror Project, DC Reinvest Coalition, and ONE DC. KT’s organizing home is now as Community Engagement Associate at the ACLU of DC. They hope they and their family models their values—to be loved unconditionally and inoculated early and often with the lesson that one’s stories and community are the source of each person’s power. Their child has already been sighted at teach-ins, community meetings, and protests. They hope you reach out for a 1:1 or to see you at a Rising Organizers event soon.
Joy Burwell
Communications co-Director
(sHe/her)
Joy joined Rising Organizers in the Spring of 2021. Always having an interest in social justice and equity (especially as it relates to healthcare) she has always been drawn to jobs and projects that examine and try to address these issues. As many can likely relate, the pandemic forced her to take a hard look at herself and what more she could do to make an impact. Enter a friend who has been with Rising Organizers for a couple years and recommended she get involved. Joy hopes to bring her over 12 years of experience in the communications space to expand the reach of the organization.
Soraya Vaezi
Fellowship co-Director
(She/HER)
Soraya moved to DC upon graduating from UW-Madison to join Bread for the City’s Legal Clinic, where she supported low-income individuals facing eviction & termination of public benefits. She is a proud Angeleno, an alum of the Spring 2019 Rising Organizers Fellowship, and previously worked as a Digital Advertising Strategist for the Democratic National Committee. She is currently an advertising strategist at Authentic Campaigns. When it’s not election season, you’ll find Soraya in the kitchen, reading, or doing an elaborate multi-step skincare routine.
Josh De Leon
california programs director
(He/Him)
Josh De Leon is a community organizer, California-based activist, equity & inclusion consultant, and board member for a Filipino/x nonprofit. Previously in his career, Josh managed projects at a DC-based NGO, taught courses and workshops in Japan and the Bay Area, and coordinated programs for a human rights film festival. An alum of the Rising Organizers Fellowship, Josh is spearheading Rising Organizers programs on the West Coast. Josh holds a BA in International Relations and an MA in Modern Thought and Literature from Stanford University. He was born and raised in Long Beach, California, and proudly reps SoCal and the LBC.
Chiquita Jackson
Training Co-Director
(SHE/Her)
Chiquita Jackson earned her undergraduate degree in Political Science and Sociology at the Columbia College of Missouri and is currently pursuing her graduate degree in Legal Studies at the University of Baltimore. She's the founder & CEO of CJE Career Consulting, where she provides affordable professional development services to disenfranchised communities to help individuals with generational wealth. Chiquita continued her advocacy mission by drafting public policy recommendations with well-known organizations such as The Aspen Institute and The Leadership Conference. Her dedication to fighting for social justice has been proved by serving as the inaugural IGNITE National Detroit Fellow. She curated safe spaces for young women to learn politics and increase their involvement. Since June 2021, Chiquita has served as a Board of Directors for Light of Africa, promoting economic access to communities in disenfranchised areas throughout Africa.
Lizzie Stein
Training Co-director
(She/her)
Lizzie grew up in Phoenix, Arizona and is a graduate of Occidental College. She first started organizing on her college campus. Lizzie then spent 4 years working at the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism where she ran fellowship programs for teens focusing on civic engagement, community organizing and leadership skills. During the 2020 election, Lizzie worked as a Field Organizer for Mission for Arizona, the Arizona Democratic Coordinated Campaign, successfully flipping Maricopa County. She has also worked with Marshall Ganz as a Teaching Fellow for his class on Organizing: People, Power and Change at the Harvard Kennedy School. Lizzie has been learning and training with Rising Organizers DC since its founding in 2017. She loves long bike rides, making sourdough pizza for friends and arriving places early.