At Black Futures Lab and Black to the Future, Alexsis leads legislative and electoral strategy to ensure that Black people have what all people deserve–dignity, safety, and power. Alexsis has a track record of working at the intersections of economic justice and led passage of the first Southern Domestic Workers Bill of Rights at Care in Action and the National Domestic Workers Alliance. Her work in Virginia contributed to historic elections for Virginia women including Congresswoman Jennifer McClellan and the most women of color elected to the Virginia legislature in 2023. In 2020, Alexsis made history as a candidate for mayor in the city of Richmond earning more votes than any other woman in the city’s history. She serves as a board member for Planned Parenthood Virginia PAC and is an avid VCU basketball fan.

Flor (she/her) is an immigrant community organizer at Legal Aid Justice Center (LAJC), working on campaigns to stop deportations and shut down the current private/for-profit detention centers we have in Virginia; she also works as a community interpreter with the VA Language Justice Collective. Previous to her role at LAJC, she spent some years doing volunteer work as a grassroots community organizer in Richmond, VA focused on ending collaborations of ICE and local authorities, and supporting communities impacted by, or at risk of deportation.

As a queer immigrant, her identities and lived experiences have shaped her values and intersectional approach to social justice. She was born and raised in Chihuahua, Mexico and migrated to the US after graduating college. Along with her commitment for immigrant rights work, she is passionate about queer liberation, racial justice, transformative justice, language justice, solidarity economy, and simply put: the collective liberation of our communities. Flor was the recipient of the Diversity Richmond Hispanic Heritage Award: “Viva RVA!” for her outstanding contributions to the Latinx and LGBTQ+ communities in 2019. Fun facts, Flor likes Spanglish more than either one of them, enjoys ketchup on many different food items, and has some fun/awkward coming out stories, ask her if you want the chisme!

Irene (she/her) serves as the Executive Director of the Virginia Civic Engagement Table (VCET), which promotes civic engagement in marginalized communities in Virginia. Prior to VCET, she served as the Senior Director at Crowdpac, a tech platform focused on combating the influence of big money in politics.

Recently, Irene was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates, becoming the first Korean American woman to serve in the General Assembly. She also serves on the Boards of NAKASEC, the Competitive Commonwealth Fund, and Sister District Project.

Hands down, the people of VAPLP is what makes it such an amazing program. Irene, her fiancé, and dog live in the Town of Herndon. In her free time, Irene enjoys… wait what? Free time? What’s that? Fun fact, Irene learned to play the ukulele and bake sourdough during the pandemic.

Jessica is the co-founder of Groundwork Co-Creative, a social impact consultancy focused on supporting progressive organizations in operationalizing liberation. With over a decade experience in the nonprofit sector, Jessica has supported social justice organizations through grant writing and prospecting, process facilitation, program design, culture change assessments and processes, and DEI efforts. Since Groundwork’s inception in the fall of 2021, Jessica has secured over $5 million in grant funding for Black-led organizations. Jessica also serves as the People, HR & Culture Manager at the Black Emotional and Mental Health Collective (BEAM) as well as on the board of Austin Justice Coalition. Jessica received her Juris Doctorate from University of Texas School of Law in Austin, Texas, and her bachelors degree from the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia.

Jessica’s love for facilitation comes from her fascination with deconstructing processes to decide what parts are needed and what parts are merely convention. Fun fact, Jessica used to play competitive roller derby internationally with Texas Rollergirls, but started her roller derby career with River City Roller Derby in Richmond, Virginia. Jessica grew up in Midlothian, Virginia and deeply misses Strawberry Street Cafe’s cream of crab soup (IYKYK).

Kalia Harris (she/ella) was born and raised in the Richmond area. During her academic career, Kalia has engaged in various youth organizing campaigns and organizations, including the Virginia Student Power Network (VSPN) as an undergraduate student at George Mason University working on educational and racial justice campaigns on her campus. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Community Health in 2016 and Master of Interdisciplinary Studies with a concentration in Social Justice and Human Rights in 2019. Her academic scholarship focuses on Black women and non-binary liberation activists’ experiences with burnout and strategies for sustainability and healing justice.

Kalia currently works as the Executive Director of Virginia Student Power Network, supporting student organizing throughout Virginia and is currently involved with various community survival efforts including Richmond Mutual Aid Disaster Relief (MADRVA). Kalia is dedicated to the struggle of oppressed peoples across the Global South, to disrupting the myth of white supremacy, fighting for total liberation and ending the police and carceral state. In her free time, you can find her with her adorable Pomeranian puppies, Justice and Angel.

Nico currently resides on occupied Nacotchatnk land (Washington, DC), and joined VCET in January of 2022. As the Leadership Development Manager, they primarily support the Virginia Progressive Leadership Program. Passionate about social justice, collective liberation, and community solutions, Nico finds home in collective and visionary spaces woven together by queer and trans people. 

Nico learned some of their most important political lessons outside the classroom and was first politicized in high school by learning about the ongoing genocide in Darfur and their own Filipino and Puerto Rican diaspora. They cut their teeth as a young organizer & facilitator through student organizing and service at James Madison University; they are currently pursuing a Next Economy MBA with LIFT Economy.

As a facilitator, Nico draws on the teachings of Paulo Freire and bell hooks with a lens of popular education and experiential learning. They are invested in co-creating loving spaces and considers relationships & community to be the basis of their work. Nico’s biggest role models are Gizmo the gremlin, HIM from Powerpuff Girls, and the nerds from nerds candy.

Kristin (she/her/We) resides on occupied Powhatan land in Richmond and graduated from The Great Pod 8 of VAPLP in 2022, followed by supporting as a contributing facilitator and mentor for the Divine Pod 9 in 2023. She is super excited to join the facilitation team again this summer.

Kristin serves as the Director of Engagement at Voices for Virginia’s Children – an advocacy organization that champions public policies and legislation that achieve positive and equitable outcomes for young people. At Voices, Kristin manages and supports Virginia’s Youth in Action, a yearly cohort of young advocates across the Commonwealth learning about Virginia state legislature, storytelling, and advocacy to evoke systems-level change at the Virginia General Assembly. Kristin is obsessed with youth power and radically imagining our liberated future. Prior to working around policy change, Kristin was a crisis and trauma therapist for 2–17-year-olds for almost 7 years and continues to provide therapy as a licensed clinical social worker.

As a facilitator, organizer, and community advocate, Kristin is inspired by abolitionist theories, Black feminist and Afrofuturist theories, the Womanist lens, Tricia Hersey’s nap ministry, and the Healing- Centered Engagement framework. In her free time, Kristin loves to read, craft and collage, practice mindfulness, take long meandering walks to nowhere, and indulge in cozy-gaming binges. Fun fact, Kristin once lived with elephants for a month in Sri Lanka and she tries to daydream about it as often as possible.