Monica started as a volunteer with MRG Foundation’s Justice Within Reach annual event and found deep connection to Seeding Justices’ mission and value and supporting the great work of grantees across the state.

Monica’s experience includes social change communication, education and nonprofit management. Her work focuses on connecting people and organizations to mission driven causes and creating lasting community change. She cares for and works to implement change in education, healthcare and environmental justice issues and causes. When not volunteering or at work, you can find Monica hanging out with her family, running, laughing at good sitcoms and enjoying the local food and beverage scene.

Crystallee Crain Ph.D. is a public health scholar and human rights activist. She has academic roots in sociology, political science, and psychology. She specializes in exposing the layers of institutional inequality while supporting communities to shift ways of being and practice to improve life chances. By bridging the worlds of academia and activism, Crystallee’s body of work represents a collective need to strengthen our responses to violence through transformative means, the need for liberation, and a focus on healing as a revolutionary strategy for change.

Crystallee is the Founder & Director of Prevention at the Intersections, an organization that works to prevent violence through community-based research and people centers projects. At Prevention at the Intersections, she publishes two open access journals CATALYST and The Beauty of Black Creation. Dr Crain facilitates trainings with an emphasis on trauma-informed care, prevention science, and community capacity-building. Dr Crain is a Certified Neuro-linguistic Programming Practitioner & Coach and Hypnotherapist. She specializes in working with women of color and survivors of violence. You can learn more about her coaching and survivor work at www.crystalleecrain.org.

Tamia came to grassroots organizing after being diagnosed with breast cancer and post-traumatic stress. Her journey back to wellness without adequate resources taught her that the people most impacted by injustice must also be the ones who identify the problems and implement the solutions and inspired her to found a nonprofit in 2017, PDX Alliance for Self-Care, focused on improving access to care for her community. Her work during the pandemic, protests, and wildfire response of 2020 connected her with an invaluable mutual aid network and a vast community of first responders, healthcare providers, and activists. That experience continues to inform her consulting work at the intersection of health equity and climate justice.

Tamia finds joy in mentoring young people and helping BIPoC, LGBTQIA+, and neurodiverse students access educational and leadership opportunities. She is a passionate healthcare advocate in her role as a Community Health Center Board Chair and founding board member of BIPoC Paramedics of Portland.

Tamia is a die-hard fan of the one and only North London football team, Arsenal Gunners. She also enjoys dancing, gardening, hiking, doing yoga, and cooking for her loved ones in her hometown of Portland, Oregon.

Ricardo Luján-Valerio is Portland City Commissioner Carmen Rubio’s Transition Liaison and Policy Director. Ricardo’s background covers immigration, education, election, and criminal justice policy. He previously served as Director of Advocacy at Latino Network, Policy Associate for the ACLU of Oregon, and as Legislative Director for the Oregon Student Association. Ricardo has been a leader in the passage of various state legislative priorities, such as HB 2015 (Driver Licenses for All) and SB 1008 (Youth Sentencing Reform). Most recently, he was a co-architect of the Oregon Worker Relief Fund, a multi-million-dollar disaster relief program for Oregon’s immigrant community. He previously served as Vice Chair of the City of Portland’s Open and Accountable Elections Commission. He was born in Nezahualcoyotl, Mexico, and graduated from Southern Oregon University with a BS in Business and a certificate in nonprofit management.

Esperanza Tervalon-Garrett is a queer, Afro-Puerto Rican woman, and a native daughter of Oakland, California. She is the founder and CEO of Dancing Hearts Consulting, LLC, a progressive consulting firm that curates innovative ideas, programs, and campaigns to challenge the status quo and test emerging strategies that change the political game to win long-term change for the people most impacted by systemic oppression.

Esperanza was the first woman of color to lead a 501(c)(3), 501(c)(4) & PAC collaborative civic engagement formation focused on mobilizing progressive voters of color in the United States. Her ability to build grassroots power in neighborhoods, at the ballot box, and at City Hall has earned her a solid reputation as a savvy electoral strategist, a seasoned political organizer, and a power-building innovator among Social Justice activists and philanthropic leaders. Esperanza is the co-chair of the Funders Committee for Civic Participation, a network of civic engagement institutions that moves $170 million to the field each year. They also served as the Statewide Campaign Manager for the Oregon Hard to Count Census Campaign that aimed to engage one million people.

Esperanza is married to wife Christine and her proudest accomplishment is her brilliant and tenacious son, Santiago. They live in a ranch in Central Oregon.

Raised in Philadelphia PA, Laurie Trieger has lived in Oregon since 1984. She’s worked on numerous grassroots initiatives related to social and economic justice; with a focus on food security, public health, community improvement, child wellness, poverty reduction, and bold policies to create greater protections and security for mothers and other family caregivers.

Before her 20+ year career in social change nonprofits, she worked many low wage jobs including restaurant work and cleaning office buildings at night. Her political activism began in 1980, at the age of 18, volunteering at a feminist health center escorting women through hostile picket lines as they sought abortion services. First elected in 2020, Laurie now serves on the Lane County Board of Commissioners.

Laurie is the daughter of a Jewish immigrant/Holocaust refugee mother. She and her life partner of nearly 40 years have two adult children, twin grandsons, and are former foster parents. Her sweet orange tabby cat provides comic relief, excellent advice and companionship, and is her inspiration to dance, do yoga, and occasionally slow down and simply marvel at the world outside the window.

Jaylyn is a mother, educator, advocate for social justice and a member of the Confederated Tribe of Warm Springs (CTWS). She was raised in Simnasho, Oregon and is a traditional food gatherer for her Tribe. She is a mother of two beautiful children. Her Indian name is Alish (Ah-lish) which was given to her from her namesake; Margaret Suppah, her grandmother who raised her. Her passion is decolonizing education for herself, her children, her community, and always looks for ways to incorporate her culture into her home, classroom and programming. Jaylyn works for the CTWS as the Community Planner for the Health & Human Services branch advocating and advancing health equity practices and policies. She currently serves on the Oregon Indian Education Association board where she uses her voice to work towards equitable education for all students.

She developed the Papalaxsimisha program which incorporates historical trauma, healing, self-identity, cultural awareness, high school readiness, college and career readiness in a curriculum she and two other native teachers developed. Her background includes Cultural Awareness trainer, Traditional Health Worker, youth mentor, historical trauma facilitator, curriculum development and youth program development.