In this session, organizers and researchers who focus on youth-led endeavors will share about how to best engage and support youth in community and nonprofit efforts. CommNS Team Member and PhD student Mallory VanMeeter will facilitate this discussion among the following panelists:
- Cendi Trujillo Tena, High School Organizing Director, Leaders Igniting Transformation (bio included below)
- Lamonté Moore, College Director at Leaders Igniting Transformation (bio included below)
- Vivien Ahrens, UW-Madison Civil Society and Community Research PhD student, community researcher, and former youth program coordinator
- Michael Davis, UW-Madison PhD candidate, founding member of the POWER Collective and community organizer
- Evelyn Cruz, Director of Program Planning & Evaluation at Centro Hispano
Cendi (Send-ee) Trujillo (Troo-hee-jo) Tena (Teh-nah) — High School Organizing Director, LIT
- Originally from Leon Guanajuato, Mexico, Cendi immigrated to Milwaukee with her parents and older brother at the age of two. She grew up in the south side of Milwaukee, where she currently resides. In early 2013, Cendi became a DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) recipient which she firmly believes isn’t the reason she attended college but instead the reason she stayed. During college, she interned at CORE El Centro, The Office of Congresswoman Gwen Moore, and Voces de la Frontera, an immigrant rights organization. In 2016, she graduated with a Bachelor’s in Sociology, Political Science, and Spanish. She currently works as the High School Organizing Director for Leaders Igniting Transformation, where she works to dismantle the School to Prison to Deportation Pipeline within Milwaukee Public Schools.
Lamonté Moore, College Director at Leaders Igniting Transformation.
- Lomonte has been engaging in community and youth advocacy organizing for the last seven out of eight years. In between advocacy work, he worked as a Mental Health Professional at Roger’s Behavioral Health Hospital. Born in Milwaukee, Lamonté is dedicated to uplifting and creating space for young melanated black and brown youth to be the architects of their realities and future. As College Director, he oversees the day to day operations and work at nine campuses across the state of Wisconsin
