Clarise is Co-Executive Director at The Organizing Center where she strengthens organizations’ ability to bring a balance of rigor and resilience to the craft of base building. She is proud Philadelphia native who has been in a commitment to radical movement building for over 12 years, with experience in rapid-response campaigns, narrative strategy, org building, and facilitation. She’s a loving mama to a teenager and her best days involve walking through the woods and standing in awe of life.

Fae (they/them) is a non-binary Black femme direct action practitioner, emergent strategist, facilitator, and frontline protestor. A South Florida native at heart, they currently reside and organize in the Washington, D.C. area. Energized by people power, cultures of care, and building a revolutionary Black left in the West – they are committed to total abolition within our lifetimes. Their organizing foundation is in transformative justice, sex worker and survivor advocacy, community and tenant organizing, afro-futurist praxis, and the history of empire, colonialism, and white supremacy.

Jasmin (they/them/theirs) brings 15 years of experience facilitating group healing directly with LGBTQ+ peoples, youth, organizers, incarcerated peoples, asylum seekers, and workers.

Weaving together somatic modalities, conflict transformation practices, and their counselor education (M.Ed. Counseling Psychology) for their offerings, they carefully craft impactful program strategy toward building relational culture and capacity. Jasmin is always thinking about / feeling out / practicing-to-embody what it means to live with integrity, invite spirituality, build community, and cultivate relational culture to skill-up movement builders with the hope of another world.

Mak (Mason Andrew Kilpatrick, they/him) is a community organizer and trainer currently based in Kansas City, KS. Born in Hutchinson, KS as the oldest of five children, Mak’s work stems from a deep sense of care, love, and responsibility for the community and land they call home.

Mak has worked to build grassroots power with the community on issues related to housing and tenants rights and power, as well as environmental and climate justice. They are currently the Training and Engagement Director at Campus Climate Network, where they have built a base of over 45 student member orgs and trained over 2500 student organizers since joining the network. Mak also serves as a Coach with the Climate Resistance Incubator, organizing with local EJ and climate organizations across the country as they fight for better material conditions amidst the climate crisis. Mak was previously a Tenant Union Organizer with KC Tenants and KC Tenants Power from 2020 through 2023, fighting slumlords, shutting down evictions during the COVID-19 pandemic, winning Tenants’ Right to Counsel in KCMO, and campaigning and electing council members for KCMO City Council. Mak also facilitates and trains local Climate Grief sessions, based on the work of Joanna Macy, in the Kansas City area. They have also provided strategic consultation for several regional and national grassroots movement orgs.

Mak graduated with a Film and Media degree and a Communication Studies degree from the University of Kansas in 2017. They were previously a college radio DJ and Station Manager for KJHK 90.7 FM. When not organizing, Mak loves to read, cook, and watch artsy films. They are currently raising ducks on their 1-acre garden and they still love playing music from their vinyl and CD collection.

Contact Mak.

This Fellowship was named in honor of Training for Change elder, Judith C. Jones, Ph.D, a.k.a “Diva Bear,” by program founder, Nico Amador. Judith trained with TFC for over a decade, where she led the Training for Social Action Trainers (TSAT) and Advanced Training of Trainer (ADTOT) workshops, facilitated diversity and conflict workshops, and mentored many of our Core Trainers. Judith grew up and currently lives in Philadelphia. She received her doctorate in Political Science from Atlanta University, and is co-author of “Two Voices from the Front Line: A Conversation about Race in the Classroom,” included in the award winning anthology “Race in the College Classroom,” published by Rutgers University Press.