Our small but mighty team is dedicated to youth empowerment.

  • diana@changeist.org

    Diana has been with Changeist for a couple of years now, she started off as a youth her senior year of high school in 2020. Right after high school she became a Changeist Fellow leading the immigration team, then most recently a Senior Fellow, and now the Community Engagement Manager. After two years of attending San Joaquin Delta College, she just recently transferred to the University of the Pacific where she will be majoring in health and exercise sciences. Before Changeist Diana was part of a mentoring program where she was a mentor to youth for two years. In her free time, Diana enjoys spending time with family.

  • mario@changeist.org

    Mario spent over a decade in the national service movement with City Year. There he developed and oversaw civic leadership programs for youth in three different cities (San Jose, Philadelphia & LA). In 2014 he conceived of, designed, and launched Changeist.

    Mario is currently a Board Member and Advisor to multiple community organizations in Los Angeles, a graduate of SCLN’s Leadership LA, recognized by the LA Empowerment Congress as a top 40 under 40 Civic Leaders, and a Senior Fellow for USC Marshal School of Business, Brittingham Social Enterprise Lab. In 2019, he was chosen out of 40 thousand applicants from over 160 countries to be an Obama Foundation Fellow. The Obama Fellowship supports outstanding civic innovators from around the world to amplify the impact of their work and inspire a wave of civic innovation.

    Mario lives with his partner and daughter in Signal Hill, and spends his free time organizing parents in his community around education issues and enjoys a good Disneyland outing with the family.

  • beth@changeist.org

    In her role as Chief Operating Officer, Beth oversees the fundraising, operations, systems, and strategic planning for the organization. Prior to her work with Changeist, Beth received a MBA from Boston University with a focus on social impact. She then moved to Los Angeles to take on Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) at Los Angeles Unified School District, helping to create new ways for teachers, staff, and stakeholders to better understand the complicated financial policies affecting LAUSD students and communities. Beth is committed to strengthening communities and empowering young people. She is a proud AmeriCorps alumna of City Year Chicago and in July 2017 was honored with City Year’s highest alumni recognition, the Comcast NBCUniversal Leadership Award.

  • dulce@changeist.org

    Dulce Lopez is a proud daughter of Mexican immigrants and South Central native. She graduated from California State University, Dominguez Hills in 2018 where she earned a B.A. in Chicana/o Studies and a minor in Women’s Studies and in 2021, she earned her M.A. in Education from California State University, Long Beach. Prior to joining Changeist, Dulce was a student and community organizer. For four years, Dulce mobilized students and community members around issues like tuition increase, immigration reform, lack of access to resources for BIPOC, womxn, LGBTQIA+ folks and undocumented students/community. Dulce has been a part of the Changeist community since 2019 and hopes to continue to drive Changeist’s mission forward and empower young people across California. In her free time, Dulce enjoys rewatching The Office and cuddling with her pugs, Coqui and Galaxy.

  • niah@changeist.org

    Niah has proudly been with Changeist for over five years, where she currently serves as the Operations Manager. In this role, she handles essential functions such as volunteer recruitment, communications, budget management, and overseeing office operations, among other things.

    A devoted mother to the coolest little boy, Niah finds joy in balancing the adventures of motherhood with a fulfilling career. She is also a caffeine enthusiast, with a particular love for coffee and boba milk tea.

    Originally from Stockton, Niah now resides in Los Angeles, where she is passionate about contributing to a team that is dedicated to creating a fun and safe space for young people to grow and thrive.

  • megan@changeist.org

    Megan Mayekawa is originally from the Bay Area, San Jose, where she was born and raised. She graduated from the University of California, Irvine in 2020 where she earned a B.A. in Sociology and started her work with City Year San Jose as a peer mentor, serving students of the highest need during the online pandemic year. After an inspiring year, she moved out to Los Angeles to continue serving with City Year Los Angeles as a Second-Year Americorps member at Santee Education Complex in South Central, and then Program Manager for the next 2 years working with schools, teachers, and Americorps members. Megan is deeply committed to youth development and advocacy, believing that with the right opportunities, every young person can achieve anything they set their mind to. In her free time, she loves to spend time with friends, cooking a delicious meal, or snuggled up to watch some of her favorite shows on the multiple streaming sites available.

  • davina@changeist.org

    Davina grew up in South LA and loves being part of spaces that center young people who want to make change in their communities and the world. She received a B.A. in Anthropology and a minor in Ethnic Studies from Saint Mary’s College of California in 2018. During undergrad Davina was a Peer Mentor for First Gen College Students, an Orientation Leader, a Weekend of Welcome Leader, and was part of a student-led team that put together Cultural Nights which gave underrepresented and marginalized students space to express themselves through spoken word, music, food, dance, and other creative media. After graduation, she joined the Lasallian Volunteer Program and moved to Philadelphia, PA where she was an Assistant Art Teacher, Tutor, and Girls Basketball Coach for two years before joining Changeist. In her free time, you can definitely catch Davina eating, planning her next food adventure or running. She also loves creating music playlists and taking herself out on self-care dates.

  • stephanie@changeist.org

Join Our Team

TITLE: Community Engagement Manager
LOCATION: Stockton, CA

START DATE: August 1, 2023

SUMMARY: Reporting to the State Director, the Community Engagement Manager has a multi-functional role rooted in youth empowerment, with specific responsibilities that focus on increasing Changeist’s presence in the local community through mutually beneficial partnerships and coalitions with community based organizations, middle and high schools, and college/universities. Throughout the year, the Community Engagement Manager supports all Saturday programming.

All Changeist staff work toward organizational high-priority and operational goals, with a specific emphasis on building relationships with all members of the community, centering youth and their families, as well as community and service partners. In addition to building relationships that support Saturday leadership development programming, the Community Engagement Manager will lead the site in AmeriCorps member outreach, recruitment, and onboarding.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

  • Community engagement: Develop strong partnerships with local community based organizations, ensuring an ongoing pipeline of meaningful learning, service, and change-making opportunities for Changeist participants. Participate in mutually beneficial events and coalitions.

  • School engagement: Develop strong partnerships with local middle and high schools to ensure program team hits all youth recruitment and retention goals. Design and lead on strategy to recruit youth from a portfolio of feeder schools, as well as strategy to maintain strong relationships with schools. Report weekly to leadership team on progress toward goals.

  • College/University engagement: Develop strong partnerships with local colleges and universities to support volunteer engagement and recruitment, as well as AmeriCorps member recruitment.

  • Support AmeriCorps members: Support members with professional relationship building with partner organizations, successful youth recruitment, and volunteer recruitment and management. With all staff, support members with post-service plans.

  • AmeriCorps member recruitment: Lead Stockton site in recruitment of AmeriCorps members year over year. Collaborate with the Los Angeles Program Director to align communications, processes, and best practices across sites.

  • Evaluation: Work with Chief Operating Officer and programs team to implement partner evaluation tools: 1. Collaborate in analyzing and interpreting data and creating program adjustments 2. Track progress toward partnership goals and report to leadership team weekly

  • Office management support: Serve as a local point of contact for Huddle staff, ensure our team utilizes the office space in a professional manner, and maintain cleanliness and organization of office spaces.

  • Professional development: Commit to professional development opportunities that support the effectiveness of the Community Engagement Manager role, including continuous understanding and growth within the field of youth development and empowerment and external relationship building.

QUALIFICATIONS:

  • Three to five years of experience working with youth, social justice organizations, or organizing in communities of color; familiarity of Stockton strongly preferred. Demonstrated commitment to centering people who face multiple axes of marginalization.

  • Strong interpersonal skills, with experience leading and collaborating with diverse, intergenerational teams. Experience building relationships with external stakeholders highly desired. Experience with youth-centered organizations a plus.

  • Excellent communication and presentation skills, including experience sharing information with external audiences

  • Self-directed, strategic thinker with ability to manage short-term and long-term plans and goals, with a record of achieving results. Project management and organizational skills, including ability to handle multiple tasks and think critically.

  • Strong and efficient use of GSuite, Word, Excel and PowerPoint required, knowledge of databases and relationship management systems a plus.

  • Experience with data collection and analysis.

  • AmeriCorps experience is a plus.

ABOUT CHANGEIST:
Changeist is a little league for civic action; a place for young people to transform into social changemakers. We mobilize young people (ages 11-26) from all different walks of life, place them on diverse teams and take them through a 6-month civic action experience, exploring the issues they care most about. Youth learn sociopolitical problem-solving skills, engage in dialogue, and build community as they investigate local and global challenges.

Our mission is to build a community of diverse young people that utilize their personal agency to create a more just society. We do this by fostering young people’s sociopolitical empowerment and growing their social capital, so that they may have the tools they need to make the world a better place.

Changeist brings together young people, outside of school, to engage in dialogue and build community to investigate local and global challenges ranging from housing to race relations. Through partnerships with local agencies, we give youth the skills and opportunity to develop and lead service projects, allowing them to see that they can have a positive impact on the community, setting the stage for future action. We launched our first program cycle in January 2015 with 75 middle school youth in Los Angeles. Now in our ninth year, Changeist activates over 400 young people, ages 11-26, in Los Angeles and Stockton, CA.

TO APPLY:
Qualified candidates should send a resume and cover letter by email to COO, Beth Bayouth, at beth@changeist.org. Applicants may be asked to complete a relevant assignment as well as provide professional references during the application process. Priority Deadline to apply is June 24, 2023.

Changeist, a project of Community Partners, is an equal opportunity employer committed to a diverse and inclusive workforce. In addition, the organization will consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with the Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring.

Meet our Advisory Board +

Fred Grinstein
In 2018 Fred Grinstein joined Anonymous Content to spearhead the Non Fiction programming division working with the company’s extensive talent management roster to establish a prestige unscripted content brand. Previously in 2015, Grinstein joined Vice Media as Vice President of TV Development, collaborating with Filmmaker and Creative Director Spike Jonze to start up and launch Viceland, playing a key role in navigating the media company’s transition into television; and serving as a development exec for series including Weediquette, Flophouse, Hamilton’s Pharmacopeia, and Randomizer. After the network launch in 2016, Grinstein stepped up for a new role within the Vice Media organization, heading up newly formed LA-based Unscripted TV division of recently acquired Pulse Films, co-developing with the company’s award-winning music video/ digital/ branded/ commercial/ and feature film divisions. While at Pulse, he served as Executive Producer on The New Age of Terror (History) and Twiz and Tuck (Viceland) meanwhile developing for clients at A&E, CNN, E!, Esquire, Vice, and Nat Geo. Prior to his time at Vice, Grinstein spent time with A&E, Tiger Aspect Productions, Travel Channel, MTV, and PBS. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan, and lives in Los Angeles, CA.

Josh Holt, Co-Chair
Josh is a partner in the Los Angeles office of Latham & Watkins and a member of the Finance Department. Mr. Holt’s practice focuses on the representation of banks, commercial finance companies, business development companies, and other financial institutions, as well as equity sponsors and other borrowers, in a wide range of transactional matters. Josh has been recognized as an “Associate to Watch” by Chambers USA 2016 and 2017, and selected as a Southern California Rising Star by Super Lawyers in 2017. He holds a J.D./M.B.A. from the University of Washington and anM.A. from the University of Chicago. Josh is an avid outdoor enthusiast with his wife and two sons.

Morgan Keller
Morgan is a co-owner of Indie Brewing Company. Sporting an MBA from Loyola Marymount University and an undergraduate degree from the University of Southern California, Morgan is an advertising industry veteran, having worked his way up the ranks of Los Angeles’ top agencies (Chiat Day and Saatchi & Saatchi). As a producer and technical lead for clients such as Gatorade, Pepsi, Disney, Toyota,Nissan and Infiniti, Morgan has led large cross-functional teams to execute advertising campaigns on-time and on-budget. In addition to the management aspect of his work, he has technical expertise in both traditional and interactive methods of advertising and strategy including email marketing, viral campaigns, and social media. His responsibilities with Indie Brewing Company include development and implementation of marketing activities, company operations, and growth strategy.

Denise Lopez, Strategic Advisor & Engagement Specialist
Denise is a 10-year veteran of bi-cultural community engagement, public affairs and political campaigns, experienced in recruiting and building coalitions comprised of influential political figures, media outlets and opinionleaders in key states and congressional districts. Denise understands grassroots organizing and how media, marketing, and other strategies fit into an advocacy campaign.Most recently Denise served as a strategic communications consultant in Washington, D.C., at one of the largest public affairs firms of its kind, where she was responsible for multiple public engagement campaigns for Fortune 500 companies, issue advocacy groups, and national non-profits. She is fluent in Spanish, a seasoned cultural interpreter, and a digital marketing expert. Her passion is connecting people and ideas to drive growth and social impact for her clients.

Corneil Montgomery
Corneil is a corporate social responsibility and community affairs professional and a lifelong advocatefor social change. He brings that passion to his role with Bank of the West, where he is a VP, Sr. Regional Corporate Social Responsibility Officer. He manages the Bank’s regional CSR program including social impact strategies, philanthropic investments, community engagement and volunteerism for the Southern California Division. Previously, Corneil served as a Senior Mobility Analyst and Program Lead for Social Innovation for Toyota Motors North America, implementing mobility programs to help improve quality of life for vulnerable populations. Earlier in his career, he was an Associate Director at Habitat for Humanity International, where he developed programs for neighborhood revitalization and aging in place, as well as various other community initiatives. He also has managed various community development-focused nonprofits and government entities. Montgomery earned a Doctor of Philosophy in Public Policy and Administration with a specialization in Local Government Management for Sustainable Communities from Walden University. He has his Master in Education and Bachelor of Science in Management from North Carolina A&T State University.

Michael Nadeau
Michael joined Oaktree Capital Management in 2018 as Global Chief Information Officer and Managing Director. Prior to Oaktree, he was Amundi’s Deputy Global Chief Technology Officer (CTO), as well as CTO of Amundi Pioneer. Before that, Michael was the Global CTO at Pioneer Investments leading up to the acquisition of the firm by Amundi. Earlier in his career, he spent 14 years with Wellington Management. Michael earned B.S. in computer information systems from Bentley University. Michael was born in Maine and spent all of his adult life in Boston until moving to Los Angeles in October 2018 to join Oaktree. Michael has been a season ticket holder of the New England Patriots for 25 years, loves hockey and soccer, and enjoys science and science fiction. In prior years, Michael was a mentor for Year-Up students in the Boston chapter.

Ellen Padnos
Ellen co-founded and was Editor-in-Chief of Women.com which she sold with her husband in 2013. Ellen spent her early career working in Sales and Operations at Yahoo in Silicon Valley and for USA Networks in New York. Ellen currently resides in Manhattan Beach with her young family. She loves what she does and with over 100 active members of her groups, Joyful Giving and Joyful Giving Kids, is changing how her community, young and old, finds out and supports local nonprofits, not only financially but through volunteering and activism too.

David G. Price
David has over 20 years of experience working in private equity, consulting and financial services. He currently serves as a Managing Director at Point B Capital where he focuses on the firm’s Private Equity business and in managing the deployment of operational assets to assist in portfolio company transformations.Prior, David was a Senior Vice President for the Gerson Lehrman Group (GLG). At GLG, David drove sales, and strategy for the Western Region across the firm’s Private Equity, Investment Management and Strategic Projects platforms. David began his career working in the banking sector at Banc of America Securities and Cantor Fitzgerald/BGC Partners. He has a BA from the University of Southern California and completed work in economics at the University of California at Berkeley. In addition to his work with Changeist, he volunteers with the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship. He currently lives in Marina Del Rey with his wife and daughter and is an avid skier, rock climber and triathlete.

Erin Ross
Erin Ross currently serves as the Interim Executive Director for City Year Los Angeles (CYLA). Previously, Erin served as the Senior Managing Director of External Affairs at CYLA, leading the site’s public and private funding strategies, government relations, community partnerships and marketing and communications work. Erin began her career at City Year on the Los Angeles start-up team in 2006, where she was instrumental in founding the site. From there, she ran the development department for more than a decade, building the strong base of donors and champions that have helped the site grow and sustain. More recently, she led the site in efforts to grow public revenue, including leading a strategy to access state dollars, expand into Inglewood Unified and renegotiate City Year’s contract with LA Unified. Prior to joining City Year, Erin was a member of the founding team of United Leaders, a national non-profit focused on training the next generation of political leaders. For her work at United Leaders, she was recognized with the Gleitsman Foundation Award of Achievement and featured in The Los Angeles Times, Boston Magazine, The Washington Post, “Taking Back the Vote” and more. Erin proudly serves on the Board of Changeist (formerly Big Citizen HUB) and the Board of Advisors for the Tisch College of Civic Life at Tufts University. She is also a member of the NationSwell Council. Erin graduated magna cum laude from Tufts University. She is also a graduate of Leadership L.A. Erin lives in Los Angeles with her husband, Mike Liotta, son Duncan and dog Rocket.

Howard Wang, Co-Chair
Howard joined Ares Management in 2000 and is currently a Managing Director and Senior Analyst in the Ares Credit Group, where he focuses on investment opportunities in non-investment grade U.S. corporate credit. Prior to joining Ares, Howard was a Senior Associate in the Assurance and Business Advisory Services unit at PricewaterhouseCoopers. He holds a B.S. in Business Administration from the University of California at Berkeley Haas School of Business and an M.B.A. from the University of California at Los Angeles Anderson School of Management, where he graduated as a Global Access Program Fellow. Howard is an ardent supporter of public education, a competitive endurance athlete, and a life-long Dodgers and Lakers fan. He resides in Cerritos with his wife and two daughters.

Michelle Wedberg
Michelle serves as the Vice President for Service Operations at City Year. In this role, Michelle is responsible for supporting achievement of site-level goals for impact at over 200 partner schools nationwide. Michelle comes to this role having gathered over fifteen years of experience in leading youth development and school-based service work. She spent eight years in the field with City Year Greater Philadelphia where she led school-based teams androse to become Director of the site’s Young and City Heroes programs. Michelle was promoted to Headquarters as the National Young Heroes Director in 2004, before moving on to help develop and lead City Year’s Whole School, Whole Child model. Michelle doesher work out of New Orleans, LA and is honored to serve as a board member for Changeist and Kids Rethink New Orleans Schools.