**Sarah Jakle, MSW, MPP**
Executive Director & Founder

Sarah Jakle founded DemocraShe in 2020 and serves as the Executive Director. Previously she served as the Get Out The Vote Director for the California National Organization for Women and National Outreach Director for Field Team 6, leading the innovative effort to register voters using effective issue-based voter registration techniques. Empowering women to hold political office has been a focus since Sarah first interned at the Women’s Council of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in college.
Sarah earned a Bachelor’s (Phi Beta Kappa) from Yale, a Master’s in Social Work from USC and a Master’s in Public Policy from UCLA. Sarah has dedicated her life’s work to lifting up communities - spending the first decade of her career working on behalf of people coping with mental illness and homelessness and bringing compassion-based resiliency skills into her current work with women. She was a Fellow with Obama‘s Organizing For Action and currently serves on the Board of Directors for Urban Partners Los Angeles.

Kolieka-Seigle-SQ (2) (1) (1).png — **Kolieka Seigle** Inauguaral Board Chair &
Co-Founder

As an intersectional feminist committed to political action, advocacy, and civic engagement, Kolieka has spent the bulk of her career seeking to promote democratic participation in underrepresented minorities and improve conditions in communities of color. She currently serves as the President of the California National Organization for Women (NOW) (the first African American), Executive Director of the California NOW Foundation, and the Chair of the California NOW Political Action Committee. Additionally Kolieka co-chairs the NOW Global Feminist Committee and serves on the NOW Racial Justice task force.
She joined DemocraShe in 2020 as a Co-Founder and the Inaugural Board Chair, bringing over a decade of experience and leadership in Sacramento/ Bay Area in legislative advocacy, social activism, community organizing and political consulting at the local, city and state level.
Locally, she is the former president of Black Women United (BWU) a non-profit community-based organization dedicated to the education, protection, and advancement of ALL Black womxn.
Kolieka recently returned from Cuba as she was accepted to the Advancing Women’s Health and Human Rights Women’s Delegation expanding her global feminist advocacy. The Mission of the US Women and Cuba Collaboration is to build a strong US women’s movement dedicated to ending the US govt. blockade of Cuba. Their work is rooted in the concept of universal human rights, racial and economic justice and women’s human rights.
Kolieka is a former Commissioner for the City of Berkeley - Commission on the Status of Women; Berkeley National Organization for Women, Vice President, and other Non Profit Boards and Anti -Domestic Violence Coalitions.

**Jessica Stamen**
Program Director & Co-Founder

Jessica Stamen joined DemocraShe in 2021 as a Co-Founder and the Program Director, bringing her expertise in advocacy, education and the arts. She is also the co-founder of Momtivist, a grassroots organization dedicated to family-friendly activism, and is a founding member of Feminists in Action, a Los Angeles based group dedicated to fighting for gender and racial equity. She previously served as the Southern CA Education Lead for Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America.
Jessica earned a Bachelor’s degree (Phi Beta Kappa) in English from Vassar College, and a Master’s degree in Education from University of Southern California. As a film executive, most recently Vice-President of Echo Lake Productions, she developed and produced numerous acclaimed feature films. As an independent producer and writer, she has created advocacy videos for outlets such as Netflix, Fellow Americans, Swing Left, ACRONYM, Red Wine and Blue, and the ACLU. Her videos have received Webby, Poli and Reed awards, and have garnered a total of over 45 million views.
She is the proud (and very exhausted) mother of three children, aged 13, 9, and 7.

**Dom Jones**
Strategic Consultant & Co-Founder

Dom joined DemocraShe in 2022 as a Co-Founder, and serves as DemocraShe’s Strategic Consultant. Dom also serves with Planned Parenthood on the Electoral and Advocacy Committee and seeks to continually create more provisions nationally for women's reproductive rights and opportunities for women to run for elected office.
Dom also supports her community through charitable giving and aims to uplift the wellbeing and health of Huntington Beach residents through her involvement in programs with Huntington Beach Youth Shelter (Waymakers OC). Dom mentors young women in developing lifeskills and educates thousands of youth in middle and high schools across America as Co-Founder and Program Director of The You Matter Global Movement (YMGM) on the importance of overcoming adversity, self-love, resiliency, and authenticity.
With experience as an educator with special needs youth, Dom understands the needs of all members of society, especially those in disenfranchised circumstances. Being a product of the foster care system, and being an unhoused youth herself as a child, Dom seeks to create a holistic environment of compassion and care within the communities she serves.
To build community harmony and unity, Dom Jones has sought appointment to the Huntington Beach City Council Seat and built support that galvanized the city to appoint the first African-American person to represent Huntington Beach, CA on the dais. Dom is the CEO and owner in Huntington Beach, CA of a Premier Indoor Cycling Studio, Propel Cycle Inc.
Dom has masterful experience in helping others through: life coaching, personal development, and interpersonal counseling.

Cynthia Dickson

Outreach Director

Cynthia Dickson is the Outreach Director for DemocraShe, dedicated to widening the pipeline of female changemakers from underrepresented and underserved populations. She infuses her passion for the arts, social justice, and sustainable living, combined with her business acumen and 25+ years of marketing and media strategy for Fortune 500 companies, into her career pivot into the civic and education sectors. Motivated to be the change, she volunteers with advocacy organizations including Search to Include Pilipino Americans (SIPA), Highlands Council of PTAs, The National PTA Diversity Inclusion and Outreach Committee (2023-26) and Girl Scouts of Greater Los Angeles. To further her DEI and mental health training, she earned the "Diversity, Equity & Inclusion in the Workplace" certificate from Muma College of Business, University of South Florida and became a certified Mental Health First Aider for Youth to facilitate SIPA’s “Walang Hiya, Without Shame” pilot mental wellness program at Olga Mohan High School. She has written and won numerous grants to support access to arts and mental health programs, to increase in family engagement from the underrepresented, and to diversify school curriculums and libraries.

Cynthia’s dynamic background offers a multidisciplined approach to outreach. She served with the California Climate Action Corps at Council District 1 (CD1) where she recruited 210+ new volunteers, an increase of 415% and engaged 17,650+ Angelenos. She facilitated art workshops for “Summer Night Lights” with the Los Angeles Mayor’s Office across 42 recreation centers. As she aspires to facilitate more public arts programs, her curiosity allows her to explore human behavior as a way of developing effective communications and cultivating positive relationships. An honors alumna of California State University, Northridge’s Nazarian College of Business and Economics, Cynthia is a proud first-gen Filipino-American and enjoys planning outdoor adventures with her husband, daughter, and two dogs, Putty and Cookie.

**Chelsey Goodan** Mentorship Director

Chelsey Goodan is the author of the USA Today national bestseller, *UNDERESTIMATED: The Wisdom and Power of Teenage Girls*, which was endorsed by Oprah Daily, saying: “If you have a teenage girl in your life, you need to read this” and was chosen by Amazon’s Editorial Director as an “Editor’s Pick, Best Nonfiction.” Chelsey has been a mentor and empowerment coach to teenage girls for 16 years. She speaks regularly to audiences about gender justice, conducts workshops, and serves as a board member for A Call to Men, a gender-based violence prevention nonprofit that educates men and boys about healthy masculinity.. As a keynote speaker, Chelsey teaches communication strategies that make everyone feel seen, heard, understood, valued, and celebrated, creating psychological safety for everyone from teenage girls to CEOs. Featured on The Today Show with Hoda & Jenna, NBC News, Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine, and in TIME Magazine, Chelsey’s thought leadership explores humanity’s potential for authenticity, liberation, and empowerment. A graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, Chelsey lives in Los Angeles.

Workshop Facilitators

Cassie Chou

Cassie recently graduated from UCLA with her Bachelor’s and is a current student in the ScM Biostatistics program at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She hopes to pursue a career in public health focused on health disparities and the health implications of climate change. She’s been a part of DemocraShe since 2021, and she’s passionate about empowering and supporting young women as a mentor and a friend.
Janvi Subramanyan

Janvi is a Senior at UCLA completing a Neuroscience major and an Anthropology minor. She has worked with DemocraShe for 3 years. At UCLA, she conducts learning/memory research and is President of Women’s Club Soccer. She is starting a Psychology Ph.D. at Northwestern University in the Fall of 2024.
Amanda Valenzuela

Amanda is a rising second year international affairs student at George Washington University. She is passionate about human rights work, Latin American studies, as well as community organizing. She is involved with Reading Partners, an organization working to raise the literacy rate in DC public schools and she is the undergraduate liaison for Latam@gw, a student-led organization that brings Latin American political discourse to campus.

Leadership Team Members

Makaela Brown

Makaela attends Chadwick School in Los Angeles and has been part of the Democrashe community for 2 years. She also works with her communities coalition to organize campaigns and gather data to support larger causes in her area. She leads her school Black students union and student diversity council spaces. She believes it is crucial to give back and support the communities that have transformed her into who she is today.
Selah Johnson

Selah currently attend The Archer School for Girls in Los Angeles, California. She serves as president of the Private School Village High School Advisory Board, and organization that aims to connect Black students at private schools across Los Angeles. Outside of her service work, she enjoys singing, dancing, and reciting poetry, most recently in the Poetry Out Loud 2024 State Finals.
Celeste Molina

Celeste will be a freshman at The University of Texas at Austin in Fall 2024 where she will learn Mandarin Chinese and major in International Relations and Global Studies under their International Security Track, which is concerned with questions of international conflict. She values her principles, family, novel writing, true crime, dramas, and, last certainly not least, DemocraShe!
Aiden Arrington

Aiden is a junior in high school from Philadelphia, PA and has been part of DemocraShe since Fall 2022. She is interested in DEIJ Initiatives (such as affinity groups, clubs, and service projects) and is a DEIJ Intern at her school. She enjoys Field Hockey, Speech and Debate, Mock Trial, and more. She is president and founder of her school’s Black Alliance Club.
Lucy Williams

Lucy currently attends The Archer School for Girls in Los Angeles and will graduate as class of 2025. She exercises her passions for free speech, civil discourse and Latine culture through her positions as Voices Editor on The Oracle, her school newspaper, and executive board of Hermanas Unidas, the Latine affinity club. Outside of school, she does Little Savvy - food and restaurant content creation on social media under @littlesavvy1.
Desi Molina

Desi is 17 years old and lives in Chicago. She’s passionate about dogs, Netflix, track and field, and of course Democracy! She loves being a member of the leadership team because she can talk about issues and come up with solutions to problems in our country and world with a groups of people just as passionate as she is.
Abby Silver

Abby is a proud Commodore of Vanderbilt’s class of 2028.In high school, Abby founded a sustainable period equity club that assembled over nine thousand sustainable period products to be sent to asylum seekers in New York City. She also founded a language immersion club for students. A passionate fitness junkie and meaningful discussion-seeker, Abby is thrilled to be a part of DemocraShe’s leadership team.
Hanna Corona

Hanna is a proud First-Generation Chicana and a rising senior at Wilson High School in Los Angeles. Hanna is committed to bridging gaps in education equity and ensuring the success of BIPOC youth everywhere. She is the President of her school's Women Empowerment in Politics Club, and is a leader in her schools SSC, LSLC, and Speech and Debate Team! She is beyond excited to serve women on their journies in politics and success!
Grace Edmonds

Grace lives in Florida and is a high school senior from the graduating class of 2024. She hopes to be a Civil Litigation attorney after attending Bowie State University in Bowie MD! She loves reading, writing poetry, and having fun with friends. Grace is the president of her schools H.Y.P.E club, a club for the education and preservation of African American history and culture. She is so proud to be a DemocraShero!

Leadership Team Alumnae

Catalina Carbajal

Catalina is a 19-year-old political organizer from Edoméx, México and Chicago, IL, and a student at Universidad de San Diego. Most of her work has consisted of community organizing at the intersections of environmental justice, menstrual equity, gender justice, immigrant/campesino rights, and collective liberation.
Zoe Klein

Zoe is a High School Junior in Austin Texas where she’s a lead editor for her school’s newspaper. She is Lieutenant Governor of Texas Youth and Government. She is passionate about graphic design, leftist politics, mock trial, writing, and spending time with people she loves (safely).
Imani Murdock

Imani is a Brooklyn native and recent graduate of the illustrious Clark Atlanta University where she received her Bachelors of Arts in History. She plans on using her passion for racial justice and intersectional politics to cultivate safe spaces for young women of color.
Ella Thompson

Ella is a born and bred Texan who currently attends UT Austin. She is a linguistics major and is obsessed with too many things to name, from urban planning to Anglo-Saxon runes to deep cuts from Taylor Swift’s discography.
Angel Gilbert

Angel is a freshman at Columbia University interested in becoming a lawyer due to her firsthand experience with the corruption present in the foster care system. Her passion for advocating for marginalized communities has cultivated in various intersectional political internships, mentorships, and volunteer experiences. She enjoys writing, sharing her story, spending time with her family, running, and weightlifting.
Lizette Gonzelez

Lizette currently attends The Archer School for Girls in Los Angeles and will graduate as class of 2023. She takes part of multiple diversity initiatives at her school, helps leads the Latinx affinity club, is a reporter for the school’s newspaper and overall is a strong advocate of various social justice issues in and out of school.
Riya Jain

Riya Jain is a junior at Francis W. Parker school in Chicago, IL. She is passionate about social justice, starting her own company: The Land of Can. Riya actively participates in numerous initiatives including Student Government, SASA (South Asian Student Alliance), DEI, and The Weekly newspaper. She also enjoys playing varsity tennis, basketball, and softball!
Sevi Silvia

Sevi lives in Arizona and currently attends community college as a communication studies major. She is interested in diplomacy, intercultural communication, and improving access to quality education in her home state, as well as across the country. She has taken on leadership positions in projects to address diversity in children’s books, food insecurity in her college and community, and mental health awareness for young adults.
Abby Tuufuli

Abby is a high school senior in Arizona with a love for learning and her community! As a member of Key Club International, she loves to volunteer and help those in her area. She also enjoys spending time with her friends, binge watching k-dramas with her mom, and, you guessed it, fighting for equal rights!