Mitxh Richards | Lynchburg Organizer
Mitxh joined Virginia Organizing as the Lynchburg Chapter organizer in July 2024. Mitxh brings a passion for and experience with helping young people to fight for criminal justice reform. Mitxh is originally from Fairfax County, VA and moved to North...
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Cassandra Waters | Norfolk Organizer
Cassandra joined Virginia Organizing as the Norfolk Chapter organizer in June 2024. Originally born in Portsmouth, she graduated from Woodrow Wilson High school and has also resided in Suffolk. At an early age, she began small volunteering projects a...
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Michelle Tabbanor | Director of Communications
Michelle joined Virginia Organizing as the Communications Director in April 2024. She is from Virginia Beach, where she has been involved with many community service projects and organizations, including partnering with Virginia Organizing campaigns....
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Nora Scott | Waynesboro Organizer
Nora grew up in Nelson County and is self-taught. They enjoy studying the intersections of relational dialectics, historical materialism, and gender. “A big part of my politics surrounding advocacy is rooted in the fact that I am an ordinary person....
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Paméla Frank Houndjo | Assistant Director of Finance and Administration
Paméla joined Virginia Organizing in the summer of 2023. She has a Bachelor of Science in Leadership Studies from Averett University and an Associate in Accounting from PVCC. She's currently working on an MBA in Economics and Certificate in...
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Liz Cunningham | Halifax Organizer
Liz was born in Boston and attended the University of Rhode Island, where she received a Bachelor of Science in Nursing. In 2006, she moved to Halifax, Virginia where she found her passion for health care community outreach in helping disabled client...
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Gayland Oliver | Southside Organizer
Gayland grew up in Greensboro, North Carolina where he learned community organizing from his mother at an early age, as he accompanied her throughout the community to register voters and encourage them to get out and vote. He earned his Bachelo...
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Clio Schurtz | Albemarle/Charlottesville Organizer
Clio is the Albemarle/Charlottesville Organizer as of June 2024. She joined Virginia Organizing in June of 2023 as the New River Valley Organizer, and after a year of working in the New River Valley, she has returned to her hometown of Charlottesvill...
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Justin Nick | Eastern Shore Organizer
Justin grew up in Southeast Maryland. He attended Albright College in Reading, PA for undergrad and Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, DC for his Masters in Divinity with a specialization in African American Church Studies. He came to th...
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Elisabeth Chaves | Climate Equity Policy Fellow
Before becoming Virginia Organizing’s first Climate Equity Policy Fellow in 2022, Elisabeth was a member of the New River Valley chapter for four years. She first moved to Blacksburg in 2002 to study urban planning. After getting her degree, she volu...
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Terran Young | Wise County Organizer
Terran became the Wise County Organizer in 2022. She spent her early childhood in Wise County, moved to Middletown, Ohio, and then returned home as a young adult after college. She took her first position at the Highlander Center as an Appalachian Tr...
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Rachel Hefner | Richmond Area Organizer
Rachel Hefner became the Richmond Organizer in 2022. She grew up in Greensboro, North Carolina and went to Meredith College where she studied social work and Spanish. While she was still an undergraduate, she started working in community organizing w...
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Sunny Hawkins | Development Director
Sunny discovered Virginia Organizing as a student when she was assigned to cover an event for a writing class where she heard Suffolk Organizer Tony Jones speak. She began volunteering with Virginia Organizing the next month, then interning in 2021....
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Glenda Crockett-Eans | Wythe County Organizer
Glenda grew up in Wytheville, where she and her family returned 17 years ago, and has worked as an elementary school teacher for 16 years. She went to college at North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro NC, where she obtained her BS degr...
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Sarah Miller | Newport News/Hampton Organizer
Sarah grew up in the Midwest and has a background in the military, which brought her to the Hampton Roads area of Virginia. In 2014 she got involved with the Norfolk Chapter. She worked on expansion of light rail in Virginia Beach, flooding in Norfol...
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Eric Olson-Getty | Director of Programs
Eric Olson-Getty grew up in Vermont and came to Virginia via North Carolina in 2014. He moved to Harrisonburg when his wife got a new job, but arrived looking for opportunities to get involved in grassroots organizing work. The local Virginia Organiz...
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Jorge Mendez | Organizing Co-Director
Jorge Mendez joined Virginia Organizing as the Fredericksburg Organizer in June of 2019, and became the Co-Director of Organizing in 2024. He grew up in El Salvador, where he began to work for human rights and political and social rights at the age o...
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Tony Jones | Suffolk Organizer
Tony Jones joined Virginia Organizing when the Portsmouth Chapter was just getting started. He became the Suffolk Organizer in April of 2018. A native of Portsmouth, Tony knows first-hand the kinds of discrimination that students of color face in are...
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Meghan McNamara | Organizing Co-Director
Meghan McNamara is a community and labor organizer who joined Virginia Organizing in January 2016 and became the Co-Director of Organizing in 2024. Prior to joining the organization, Meghan worked on various social justice campaigns in Washington, D....
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Ben Thacker-Gwaltney | Database Manager
Ben Thacker-Gwaltney is the Database Manager for Virginia Organizing. A native Virginian, Ben began working as an organizer in 1998 with the Lynchburg and Amherst County Virginia Organizing chapters before moving to Williamsburg in 2004. He the...
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Laura Ramirez | Director of Finance and Administration
Laura Ramirez began working at Virginia Organizing in 1998 and is responsible for the financial management of the organization; administration of benefits and insurance policies; developing, implementing and maintaining a technology strategy that inc...
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Brian Johns | Executive Director
Brian Johns currently serves as the executive director of Virginia Organizing. He first came to Virginia Organizing as an intern in 2000 and then worked as a community organizer from 2001-2005. He spent two years in Pennsylvania doing community organ...
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Sally Bastian | Grassroots Fundraising Coordinator
Sally Bastian began working with Virginia Organizing in 2006, as the Grassroots Fundraising Coordinator. In the past she has worked in education, housing, and in community development. She is also a Spanish speaker. Sally is excited about Virginia Or...
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