Team Members

Simran Noor (she/her) is an interdependent consultant and coach specializing in strategy, organizational development, and movement building. Her work centers on achieving values alignment, particularly around racial and social justice. Simran has over fifteen years of experience working directly with impacted communities, leading organizational change, developing policy and strategy, and working within the philanthropic sector. As a survivor, Simran comes to the work with a deep commitment to healing and transformation informed by her study and practice of embodied leadership.

Simran holds a dual bachelor’s degree in American Studies and Political Science from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and a dual master’s degree in Public Administration and Social Policy from the University of Pennsylvania. She currently serves as a board member for Building Movement Project and Borealis Philanthropy and is a proud member of Universal Partnership’s Warriors for Embodied Liberation. In her spare time, she loves to read, create music, travel, and spend time with family.Based in Philadelphia, PA, Simran was born into a Punjabi Sikh, Hindu, and Parsi family in New Delhi and raised outside Baltimore, MD.

Wanda Salaman, Mothers on the Move, Bronx, NY

Wanda is an Afro-Boricua powerhouse for the grassroots of the South Bronx. Determined to build
people power into economic power for black and brown women, Wanda is on the cutting edge of the social equity reparations cannabis initiative in New York State. Rooted in decades of organizing low-income tenants, marginalized youth and immigrant women, Wanda aims to build worker-owned cooperative businesses that keep wealth in the community.

Wanda has been Executive Director of MOM since 2002, developing leadership among people of color at the intersection of education, environment, housing and economic justice.
Wanda’s vision for empowering Bronx residents was born at the age of ten when she arrived to the South Bronx from Carolina, Puerto Rico in 1975. The Bronx was “burning” as building owners set their run-down buildings on fire for insurance, leaving tenant families out in the cold, devastated by demolition and abandonment. Wanda organized the girls on her block to clean up and reclaim an abandoned lot and form a baseball diamond and the first girls’ baseball team in the neighborhood.

She is the recipient of the Diario La Prensa Latina of the Year Award, 2000; A City Council Proclamation of Recognition 2001; and the Uptown Girl Power Majora Carter Award in 2009 and the Comité Noviembre “Lo Mejor de Nuestra Comunidad” Award in 2020.

Rusia N. Mohiuddin, based in New York, is a master trainer, facilitator, coach, and strategist who pioneered the integration of somatics into an organizing framework. Her current mission, through Universal Partnership, has been developing a holistic model for social justice change work that places in its center the necessary transformation of social change agents. Rusia brings a unique style to creating pathways for individuals to bring their best selves forward when enacting social change in their organizations & communities.

Rusia is authoring several books, one based on over 2 decades of organizing, that introduces a new model for social change in the 21st century. Drawing from experiences as a master trainer and facilitator, an executive director, and a frontline organizer, Rusia has piloted this new community organizing model, Embodied Organizing™, for the past four years and officially launched the program in 2018 with five organizations. To date, 400 organizers from over 47
organizations, across 25 states have been training to be Embodied Organizers.

Rusia has also developed a model for coaching social change agents, called Embodied Coaching™, that is based on her developed model of embodied leadership.

Over the last 25 years, Rusia has primarily worked in non-profit, community-based organizations and foundations across the U.S. Her organizing career started with 9 years as a street-level community organizer, & grew to leading organizations, notably helping to establish Families United for Racial & Economic Equality, co-founding the national intermediary, Social Justice Leadership, and as the Founder of Ma Mukti. More recently, Rusia is currently the founder and principal of UP and the CO-Director of Ma Mukti. Through this experience & her many years as a trainer, coach & consultant, Rusia
brings a well-grounded expertise of basic to advanced organizing training as well as
organizational & leadership development.

Maria is the Co-Director of Ma Mukti, a progressive non profit organization created to honor and uphold the memory and continue the great work of her beloved mother. Additionally, Maria is a freelance artist working predominantly in wax works.

From 2000 to 2016, she was employed with the NYC Administration for Children’s Services. Maria also taught Pre-Kindergarten and volunteered as an art teacher with the Mary Mitchell & Family Center.

Marcia Olivo is a visionary bilingual strategist, human rights advocate, and thought leader dedicated to improving conditions for women, girls, and femmes worldwide. Born and raised in the Dominican Republic, Olivo has more than two decades of experience in public policy, grassroots organizing, strategic development, and fundraising to support social justice movements in the United States and the global South.

For the past 20 years, she has worked with a diverse group of global and local stakeholders to challenge the policies that limit communities, especially Black and Brown women, girls, and femmes, from reaching their full potential. Her perspectives are rooted in an experience that includes being a law student in her native Dominican Republic, an immigrant grassroots Bronx organizer and pioneering co-founder of Sisterhood of Survivors, a Florida-based group led by survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault, Executive Director at the Miami Workers Center, a workers rights community-based organization. Through it all, Olivo remains committed to bringing a gender lens to social and economic justice and unapologetically centering solutions on the leadership of black and brown femmes.

Ambitious leader with experience administering and enhancing operations for multiple retail-stores throughout the North East. Talented marketer, team builder and strategic leader with excellent relationship-building and problem-solving abilities. Solid history of success in Business Operations, Business Management, Business Revenue, and Business Development.

angel6g@gmail.com

I am a compassionate and dedicated physician with specialized training in family medicine. Presently, I thrive in an internal medicine practice with a focus on geriatric care and telehealth. As a devoted mother, I deeply value the importance of family and also bring that nurturing spirit to my medical practice. Witnessing the disparities in healthcare access on a daily basis, I am driven by an unwavering determination to champion equity in medical care and make a positive impact on my patients' lives.

stephbhess@gmail.com

Nasimul Ghani, a distinguished physician and board member of Ma Mukti, carries forward a legacy rooted in compassion and empowerment. Inspired by his eldest sister, the revered Monsura Mukti Mohiuddin, Nasimul holds dear the principles of charity and women's empowerment. His profound commitment to these ideals aligns seamlessly with Ma Mukti's mission to ignite the leadership of women of color, guiding them towards a collective embodiment of liberation.

mithuf@yahoo.com

I am Maliha. The profound insights imparted by my esteemed aunt have served as a wellspring of inspiration, propelling me to channel my utmost endeavors towards the pursuit of justice, equality, and empowerment. Through the establishment of this foundation, I aim to pay homage to the enduring legacy of Monsura Mukti Mohiuddin. With a shared aspiration, I eagerly anticipate the collaboration of exceptional souls, uniting our collective brilliance to effect positive change in our world, even if it be incremental.
Through this foundation, I eagerly anticipate acquiring the knowledge to spark and empower leadership among women of color, leading them towards a shared and tangible sense of liberation.

maliha.86321@gmail.com

I love helping the community.

zaida@northwestbronx.org

Cristina Jiménez Moreta is an award-winning community organizer, political strategist, and a leading voice in movements for social justice. She is Co-Founder and former Executive Director of United We Dream (UWD), the largest immigrant youth-led organization in the country. She and her family came to the U.S from Ecuador seeking a better life in 1998, growing up undocumented in Queens, New York. She is currently a Distinguished Lecturer with the City College of New York’s Colin Powell School a co-instructor with Leadership for Democracy and Social Justice (LDSJ).

Under Cristina’s leadership, UWD grew into a powerful network of one million members that shifted the politics and narrative about immigrants and immigration, ultimately delivering policy changes at the local and national levels. Cristina was instrumental in United We Dream’s successful campaign for President Obama to sign Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) into law.

In recognition of her work as a community organizer and movement strategist, Cristina received a 2017 MacArthur Fellowship, the Four Freedoms Award, and a spot on the 2018 TIME 100 Most Influential People List. Cristina has appeared in hundreds of national and local media outlets including USA Today, CNN, MSNBC, HBO, The New York Times, the LA Times, ABC, NPR, The Huffington Post, Univision, Telemundo, and La Opinion. Her writing has been published in The New York Times, CNN, USA Today, Huffington Post, and El Diario. She currently serves on the board of the Hazen Foundation, Rockwood, Equis Labs, Make the Road New York Action, and the Dream.US.

cjimenez28@gmail.com

As I was growing up, two things played a very important role in my life- people and creativity.

Born in a political family, people were an everyday part of my life. From sunrise to midnight, our house was filled with people waiting to meet my father to resolve issues of their life. At a very early stage of my life, my father instilled in me an influence to help people in any way I can, even if it was just giving away a favorite toy or sharing chocolates. “Always put people above your own interest” my father would tell me. Putting a smile on someone’s face was like an eternal feeling that gave a sense of great satisfaction to my father which he passed onto his children.

As a child, beautiful creations always inspired me. I was privileged to grow up in a landmark mansion, all the intricate details of the house left a lasting impression on me. Entering the house was sequential, first a dark room then a lighted room, then a low ceiling, and then finally high ceilings then moments of light coming in passing through the wide verandas wrapped around the house. Such alternation of spaces used to mesmerize me. My favorite game was to follow the rays of sunlight filtering through the high clerestory windows of our house as if it was playing hide and seek through the colored stained glass windows creating a kaleidoscopic pattern on the floor. I used to dance along with the shifting rays of the sun, choreographing the experience.

Ssimple things like doing a drawing or organizing a space in my home or even cooking a meal for someone used to give me lots of pleasure and soon I realized my passion for creativity and serving people. Inspired by such rich memories from childhood defined my passion to create meaningful spaces that make a difference in people’s lives.

Even though the journey to become an Architectural Designer was not an easy path but at the end of the day the profession gives a great sense of satisfaction to see the fruit of our labor and the smile on our client’s face, makes it all worthwhile.

marcia99@gmail.com

kycnit@gmail.com

Rusia N. Mohiuddin, based in New York, is a master trainer, facilitator, coach, and strategist who pioneered the integration of somatics into an organizing framework. Her current mission, through Universal Partnership, has been developing a holistic model for social justice change work that places in its center the necessary transformation of social change agents. Rusia brings a unique style to creating pathways for individuals to bring their best selves forward when enacting social change in their organizations & communities.

Rusia is authoring several books, one based on over 2 decades of organizing, that introduces a new model for social change in the 21st century. Drawing from experiences as a master trainer and facilitator, an executive director, and a frontline organizer, Rusia has piloted this new community organizing model, Embodied Organizing™, for the past four years and officially launched the program in 2018 with five organizations. To date, 400 organizers from over 47
organizations, across 25 states have been training to be Embodied Organizers.

Rusia has also developed a model for coaching social change agents, called Embodied Coaching™, that is based on her developed model of embodied leadership.

Over the last 25 years, Rusia has primarily worked in non-profit, community-based organizations and foundations across the U.S. Her organizing career started with 9 years as a street-level community organizer, & grew to leading organizations, notably helping to establish Families United for Racial & Economic Equality, co-founding the national intermediary, Social Justice Leadership, and as the Founder of Ma Mukti. More recently, Rusia is currently the founder and principal of UP and the CO-Director of Ma Mukti. Through this experience & her many years as a trainer, coach & consultant, Rusia
brings a well-grounded expertise of basic to advanced organizing training as well as
organizational & leadership development.

Maria is the Co-Director of Ma Mukti, a progressive non profit organization created to honor and uphold the memory and continue the great work of her beloved mother. Additionally, Maria is a freelance artist working predominantly in wax works.

From 2000 to 2016, she was employed with the NYC Administration for Children’s Services. Maria also taught Pre-Kindergarten and volunteered as an art teacher with the Mary Mitchell & Family Center.

maria@mamukti.org

Mili Bonilla is a veteran of the community organizing movement. She was a founding committee member and Lead Organizer of South Bronx People for Change- organizing faith communities to build a power base for social change during the devastating years of the burning of the South Bronx. She was also the co-founder of Mothers on the Move (MOM), a multi-issue social justice organization. After MOM, she went on to organize a movement to end inequities in NYC’s public school system with the Coalition for Educational Justice. She continues her political activism in actions for self-determination for Puerto Rico and justice for marginalized communities.

meelee2@yahoo.com

Chhaya Chhoum co-founded Mekong NYC in the Bronx, seeking to empower Southeast Asians through arts & culture, community organizing, and advocacy. Its work in the Bronx honors the history of the Bronx and all its people. As one of the earliest anti-deportation activists, Chhaya’s award-winning, strategic, and innovative leadership has been critical to the movement by laying the foundation for stopping numerous deportations of Cambodian refugees and ushering in the Right to Return campaign. Her achievements were recognized by the Ford Foundation and the Petra Foundation. Her work was featured in the documentary “Eating Welfare” and in the NBC Asian American “Deported” series. She is currently the executive director of Mekong NYC and serves on the board of National CAPACD.

chhaya@seafn.org

Cristina Jiménez Moreta is an award-winning community organizer, political strategist, and a leading voice in movements for social justice. She is Co-Founder and former Executive Director of United We Dream (UWD), the largest immigrant youth-led organization in the country. She and her family came to the U.S from Ecuador seeking a better life in 1998, growing up undocumented in Queens, New York. She is currently a Distinguished Lecturer with the City College of New York’s Colin Powell School a co-instructor with Leadership for Democracy and Social Justice (LDSJ).

Under Cristina’s leadership, UWD grew into a powerful network of one million members that shifted the politics and narrative about immigrants and immigration, ultimately delivering policy changes at the local and national levels. Cristina was instrumental in United We Dream’s successful campaign for President Obama to sign Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) into law.

In recognition of her work as a community organizer and movement strategist, Cristina received a 2017 MacArthur Fellowship, the Four Freedoms Award, and a spot on the 2018 TIME 100 Most Influential People List. Cristina has appeared in hundreds of national and local media outlets including USA Today, CNN, MSNBC, HBO, The New York Times, the LA Times, ABC, NPR, The Huffington Post, Univision, Telemundo, and La Opinion. Her writing has been published in The New York Times, CNN, USA Today, Huffington Post, and El Diario. She currently serves on the board of the Hazen Foundation, Rockwood, Equis Labs, Make the Road New York Action, and the Dream.US.

cjimenez28@gmail.com

Lucia Gómez is the Political Director of the NYC Central Labor Council – AFL-CIO. Prior to joining the NYC CLC, Lucia was the Director of Organizing and Strategic Partnerships for LiUNA Local 78. In different capacities, her life’s work has been around empowering Latinos, immigrants and their communities to take action through grassroots organizing, leadership development and civic engagement. Lucia has held high responsibility positions in government and non-government sectors. She has extensive knowledge of voting and enfranchisement laws, as well as extensive experience in election administration, geographic information systems, Census operations and community organizing. Ms. Gómez has a BA from Rutgers University-New Brunswick and studied anthropology at the Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán, México. Lucia is a graduate of the Cornell University/NYS AFL-CIO Union Leadership Institute, the Hispanic Federation/Baruch College – Leadership Institute, the Coro Immigrant Civic Leadership Program, a past Policy Fellow of the National Institute for Latino Policy, Board member for the NYS Immigrant Action Fund, Make the Road Action and the Vice-President of Latinas United for Political Empowerment Political Action Committee (LUPE PAC). She currently resides with her daughter, Victoria Jimenez Gomez, where she works daily towards developing and modeling the values of community empowerment, respect for diversity and strategic trouble making.

mejicuba@gmail.com

Julissa Bisono, Co-Director of Organizing at Make the Road New York (MRNY), has more than 20 years of experience organizing immigrant and working-class communities. As Co-Director of Organizing, Ms. Bisono currently oversees MRNY’s Workplace Justice Project, Education Justice Project, and the TGNICQ Justice Project. She began her trajectory at MRNY by supporting community members searching for adult educational opportunities and often supported their kids as a social justice mentor and tutor. In subsequent roles, she helped register and activate thousands of first-generation immigrant voters in Queens and built a broad low-wage worker base committed to protecting workers’ rights. Bisono has also provided organizing and technical support to BASTA! and Padres en Accion–MRNY’s grassroots housing rights and education rights committees that focus on protecting people’s homes and creating equitable schools. Ms. Bisono also served as Co-Associate Director of the Organizing Department, supporting education justice, voter registration, and data and base-building work. Bisono is a graduate of Activate! A Community Organizing Fellowship and the recipient of the 2008 Mario Savio Activist Award. She has been serving in the Flushing Meadows Park Alliance Board since 2018. Bisono is very proud to have spent half her life working in Queens, the community and borough she calls home.

julissa.bisono@maketheroadny.org

A true Organizer Organizer!! Community organizer that has been blessed to move across union organizing to grassroots organizing around social issues especially those that effect marganilized communities. Mo has also done work ranging from organizing, development, program development, events production, volunteer coordination and enjoyed it all. Mo goals are to continue to change the world by assisting people to help find their voice!!

Specialties: Community organizing and Volunteer training, Development, Program development and event planning.

mogeorgew4@gmail.com

Laura Jiménez has served as the Executive Director at CLRJ since 2011 and brings to this work the passion and commitment of close to 30-years of activism in the Reproductive Justice movement. She was raised in Santa Barbara, California, and since then, has made her way across the country and back. Along the way, she worked with the National Latina Health Organization in Oakland, California where she led a girls mentorship program and initiated a collaboration between the organization and UC Berkeley to offer a class entitled, “Redefining Latina Health: Body, Mind and Spirit”, as well as the serving as the Development Officer with the Dominican Women’s Development Center in Washington Heights, New York. Laura was a part of the birth and growth of the SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective from 1998 to 2011, becoming the Deputy Coordinator in 2006 in Atlanta, Georgia. During her time with SisterSong, she co-coordinated two national conferences and established the Latina Encuentro – a gathering of Latina leaders in the Southeastern Region which had as a goal relationship building and leadership development of Latinas across the South. The birth of her two daughters brought home the issue of reproductive justice, encouraged her interest in the area of birthing work, and recommitted her to the healing of women of color. Laura is an innate healer, mother, seer. She is a daughter of the ocean and a holder of hands and hearts.

kycnit@gmail.com