MEET OUR TEAM

Led by Black, Indigenous, and other people of color (BIPOC), we collectively bring 50+ years of organizing young people worldwide.

Grisanti Avendaño
(they/she)
Co-Director
grisanti@yocalifornia.org

Grisanti is the proud daughter of a zapotec matriarch (Belen) from Ayoquezco de Aldama, Oaxaca . She brings over a decade of youth and grassroots organizing experience at a regional and statewide level. Grisanti began her journey at the frontlines of immigrant youth organizing and expanded her wings from there. She has worked with California Immigrant Youth Justice Alliance, Oaxaqueño Youth Encuentro, Californians for Justice, Cultiva La Salud and co-founded the Central Valley Healing Collective and Central Valley Mutual Aid Network.

As YO! Cali’s Healing Justice Director, Grisanti has built our Healing Justice strategy, leading the development of healing justice principles, practices, and training for organizers. Grisanti brings a dynamic blend of holistic healing, a sharp analysis of the intersections between oppression, healing, and justice, and a commitment to the power of young people, especially from the Central Valley.

In her free time she enjoys nature walks and river visits across the Central Valley as a spiritual practice she follows . She enjoys time with her niblings Yaretzi & Sebastian and her fur babies Flicka and Roni.

Meet Grisanti

Hawi Desta
(she/her)
Northern CA Organizer
hawi@yocalifornia.org

Hawi Desta is currently a senior at UC Berkeley, majoring in Political Science with a minor in Public Policy. She immigrated to the United States in the late 2000s from the Oromia region of Ethiopia and currently resides in both Berkeley and San Jose. She is a Youth Power Fund fellow at YO! Cali working to support YO! Cali’s Capacity Building and Power Building strategies and efforts in Northern California.

Meet Hawi

Roxana Franco
(she/hers/ella)
Field Building Director
roxy@yocalifornia.org

Roxana "Roxy" was born in El Salvador (Nahua-Pipil land) and migrated to the US when she was a young child. In 2012 she laid roots in the Bay Area (Ohlone land) and pursued her passion to work in service of achieving racial, educational, and social justice for the highest impacted communities. Roxy has over 10 years of experience in grassroots youth leadership development, youth organizing, campaign strategy, and coalition building to transform material conditions that impact QTBIPOC youth and their communities. One of the highlights of her organizing career is having expanded voting rights for 16-and-17-year-olds in Oakland school board elections. One of her hopes in her role as the Northern CA Lead Organizer is to lend her expertise to strengthen the youth organizing field in California. In her free time Roxy enjoys hiking, cooking, writing poetry, and traveling.

Meet Roxana

Crisantema Gallardo
(she/hers/ella)
Power Building Director
crissy@yocalifornia.org

The proud daughter of Oaxacan and Guanajuato immigrant farm workers, Crissy understands the unique experiences of young people living in her hometown and throughout the Central Valley. Determined to make a difference for people impacted by violence, Crissy became a first-generation college graduate of UC Berkeley where she received a B.A. in Peace & Conflict Studies. While living in the Bay Area for college, she immersed herself in youth organizing and honed her passion for healing justice. She returned to Merced with a dream to revitalize the Central Valley by strengthening organizing and leadership opportunities for QTBIPOC youth, undocumented immigrants, and formerly incarcerated community members. She has since dedicated over 10 years to grassroots organizing, cultural strategy, and campaign development. Crissy weaves art, culture, and healing to advance social movements that center collective care and redistribute resources into life-affirming programs and policies. When not organizing fun community events in the Central Valley, she reads about birth charts, cooks new recipes for her friends and spends time with her 13 year old nephew.

Meet Crisantema

Ana Garcia
(they/she)
Admin & Operations Manager
ana@yocalifornia.org

As a queer, fat-femme, first-generation, eldest caretaker, and descendant of immigrants indigenous to K'iche' and Achi lands of Guatemala, Ana’s identities, lived experience, and values shape and challenge their work as a scholar, artist, community member, and professional. Informed by their praxis, and research interests, existing at the intersection of accessibility, decolonization, queer Black feminism, embodiment/somatics, and healing justice, they believe that the road to liberation requires various supporting roles. Ana applies over seven years of experience in operations, project management, communications, and business development to dismantling systems of oppression while centering joy, dignity, and connection. As an Administration and Operations Manager, she strives to infuse equitable liberatory practices into all work areas while examining and reimagining organizational structures and systems.

Meet Ana

Daulton Jones
(he/him/they/them)
Central Valley Lead Organizer
daulton@yocalifornia.org

Born and raised in Yokuts Territory (aka Bakersfield), Daulton proudly calls the Central Valley home. Their love for the beautiful place that held and raised them drives them to champion the Central Valley’s right to flourish! Their commitment to the Valley has led them to work on restorative justice with Black and brown youth and families, housing eviction protections, economic justice, and the fight for defunding policing and reinvesting in community revitalization. As an Afro-Indigenous person, Daulton recognizes that their ancestors' fight for freedom lives both in body and spirit, and they give thanks to them for their existence and purpose in this lifetime.

Meet Daulton

Jeremy Gaspar-Lahoud
(he/him)
Senior Strategy Director
jeremy@yocalifornia.org

Jeremy has worked for and with grassroots organizations focused on youth organizing for racial and social justice since 1994. In 2004, he joined Californians for Justice as Long Beach Lead Organizer and subsequently served as Organizing Co-Director in 2007-2008 and Executive Director from 2009-2012. Prior to moving to California, he spent a decade organizing for racial and educational justice with African American, Latinx, and Arab American youth at the Southwest Youth Collaborative in Chicago. Jeremy helped to launch YO! Cali as a Senior Fellow with Movement Strategy Center and has served as YO! Cali’s Co-Director since 2017. Jeremy lives on Tongva land in South Central Los Angeles with his partner, Maria, a high school social studies teacher, and their three children, Adila, Tecún, and Amar. He enjoys cooking the traditional Lebanese food he grew up with, playing capoeira with the Omulu Capoeira group, playing soccer at Evolve Soccer, and learning from his Rinzai Zen teachers, Norma Wong and Rosie Abriam.

Meet Jeremy

Jennifer Rojas
(she/her/ella)
Fellowship Manager
jenn@yocalifornia.org

As the eldest of five siblings, the daughter of immigrants, and growing up in the Central Valley, Jenn's lived experiences influence and drive her work and her fight for liberation. Her love and longing for community, have guided her work in various roles and areas of work, from immigrant’s rights to youth organizing. She believes in transforming the conditions of all people and strives to cultivate abundance and safety for her community. Jenn weaves years of committed movement work, Emerging Organizer Fellowship alumni experience, and collective healing to support and develop programming as the Yo! Cali Fellowship Manager.

Meet Jennifer

Citlali Ruiz Martinez
(she/her/ella)
Statewide Youth Organizer
citlali@yocalifornia.org

Citlali is an Oaxaquena and Zaptoeca who migrated from Mexica and grew up in Santa Ana, or “San-tana,” as the locals call it. Devoted to her radiant community and chosen family, she proudly represents her hometown. As an undocumented student and eldest sibling, her love and care for her community drew her to youth organizing. In high school, she volunteered at various organizations focusing on youth empowerment, reproductive rights, and civic engagement. Her belief that all people deserve dignity and justice led her to Yo! Cali. Citlali’s unwavering commitment to young people is felt as the Statewide Youth Organizer, supporting the next generation of leaders to develop their leadership skills, engage in collective healing, and participate in political education. You can find her venturing Santa Ana with an iced coffee, spending time with friends and family at the swapmeet, or listening to BTS's latest songs.

Meet Citlali

Linda Sanchez
(she/her)
Co-Director
linda@yocalifornia.org

Linda is a seasoned leader with over a decade of dedicated experience in youth organizing and nonprofit leadership. Her journey in community advocacy began in 2008 as a youth organizer engaged in the DREAM ACT movement. Upon graduating from UC Berkeley in 2015, Linda continued her commitment to social justice in the vibrant streets of Oakland and San Francisco, where she passionately organized, fundraised, and crafted transformative programs for organizations like 67 Sueños and CURYJ.

In her role as Field Building Director at YO! Cali, Linda stands at the forefront of our mission, spearheading initiatives like the Northern Cali Youth Power Fund and driving our field-building efforts across Northern California. Her approach is characterized by a powerful engagement style that centers relationship building and authentic connections with youth, program staff, and funders. In addition to her role at Yo! Cali, Linda is a devoted mom and entrepreneur leading the Casa de Chocolate team to bring Latin American treats to the U.S.

Meet Linda

Ashley Uyeda
(she/they)
Capacity Building Director
ashley@yocalifornia.org

Ashley is a 4th generation mixed-race Japanese American born and raised in Northern California who claims LA/Tongva Territory as home. She has been involved in the field of youth organizing for racial, economic, and gender justice since 2006. Her foundation in youth organizing comes from working with SoCal for Youth, a multi-racial network of youth organizations in Los Angeles that built the capacity and power of youth organizing regionally across communities and issues. In 2007, Ashley joined Khmer Girls in Action as an organizer with Cambodian-American young women and eventually served as their Organizing Director. he developed the strategic vision and direction of local and regional campaigns, led GOTV efforts, and focused campaign work on School-Based Wellness Center, Anti-Deportation efforts, educational justice, young women’s health access, and reproductive justice. In 2008 she joined YO! Cali to launch and build out the Emerging Organizers Fellowship and strengthen the pathway for youth organizers in the field, and now provides strategic direction for capacity building efforts that support BIPOC youth and organizations across California. In her spare time, Ashley enjoys hanging out with her niece, baking, playing Taiko drums with her troupe in Los Angeles, and being a plant and fur parent.

Meet Ashley

Sabaa Zareena
(they/them)
Program Manager
sabaa@yocalifornia.org

Inspired by historical and current social justice theories and praxis, Sabaa’s dedication to social justice is palpable in their artistic and creative expression. Since 2010, their passion for liberatory art and social justice has led them to work with various projects to catalyze change and build sustainable and long-lasting support foundations for intergenerational Black, POC, migrant, and LGBTQ communities. Organizations they’ve worked with include Just Be a black women-owned collective that promotes and supports black women entrepreneurs, Qulture Collective a formerly bay area based queer POC women-owned artist collective, and CultureStrike. They proudly bring their experience of cultivating intentional spaces to support the mental and emotional health of Trans and Gender Non Conforming communities to their role as Program Manager for the Praxis Learning Community. As a lifelong artist, they study filmmaking, photography, and interactive performance art.

Meet Sabaa

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