Krystal Two Bulls, Director of the LANDBACK Campaign, is Oglala Lakota and Northern Cheyenne. She has extensive experience as an organizer and on the frontlines with campaign development and management on local, national and transnational campaigns for social, racial and environmental justice. Krystal’s identity as a Native American veteran is central to her organizing and storytelling. At the heart of Krystal’s work are the connections between collective wellness, environmental justice, Indigenous Peoples’ Rights, and anti-militarism. In healing from her experience as a soldier, Krystal has dedicated herself to embodying what she views as the essential quality of a warrior: a commitment to the well-being of not only her People and their relationship to the land, but that of all Peoples.

Betamia (Beh-tah-mia or Beta) Coronel is the Senior National Organizer for Climate Justice at CPD who works closely with CPD affiliates to develop climate justice base building programs, grassroots leadership and winning state and local climate justice policies. Betamia began her career as a housing organizer in North Brooklyn at the height of rezoning, organizing tenants and co-ops to protect affordable housing and prevent displacement due to rapid gentrification. She spent a few years working at Fordham University’s Center for Service and Justice training hundreds of young people to become anti-racist organizers working with local partners across NYC. Prior to CPD Beta was at 350.org where she worked with the divestment team eventually leading iconic divestment campaigns such as the Divest NY. In 2018, the DivestNY coalition successfully campaigned to divest $5 billion dollars of the NYC public pension system from the fossil fuel industry. She is also a co-founder and board member of the Sunrise Movement, a national organization organizing young people to fight for a just and livable future.

Betamia is also a mother, healer, and avid space nerd. She currently lives in Springfield Gardens, Queens with her Partner, Michael and toddler, Elio. She holds a BA in Middle Eastern Studies and MA in International Political Economy and Global Environmental Resource Economics from Fordham University.

Saqib Batti works on campaigns to win racial and economic justice by taking on the corporations responsible for extracting wealth and resources from communities of color and poor people. Coming from an immigrant Muslim family from Pakistan, Saqib’s first foray into organizing was with the student anti-war movement following 9/11. After college he spent 10 years working on corporate campaigns with the Culinary Workers Union (UNITE HERE) in Las Vegas and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). He was previously a fellow at the Nathan Cummings Foundation and the Roosevelt Institute, where he launched the ReFund America Project, a predecessor organization to ACRE. Saqib is a cofounder and Executive Committee member of the Bargaining for the Common Good Network and serves on the boards of the Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund, the Midwest Academy, and Political Research Associates. Saqib received his bachelor’s degree from Yale University and his master’s degree from the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy.

Jeff Ordower has been an organizer for 25 years and got his start as a queer activist in college. A graduate of the AFL-CIO Organizing Institute and an organizer with SEIU in Texas, he then went on to run ACORN offices in Houston, Pennsylvania, Missouri, and Connecticut and spent his last six years at ACORN as its Midwest Director. After the destruction of ACORN, Ordower helped start-up Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment (MORE), a community organization in Missouri that worked at the intersection of economic, climate and racial justice. MORE ran campaigns targeting the largest coal companies in the world, many of which were based in St. Louis while also playing a role in undergirding the Ferguson uprising. Ordower was privileged to also support the Occupy Homes and Home Defenders League movements. Recently, Ordower helped with organizing rideshare drivers in California and is also helping to launch a Green Worker Alliance. Ordower serves on the Leadership Team of Showing up for Racial Justice (SURJ) and in the Rising Tide North America Collective. He is trying to live his best life as an itinerant organizer and spends a lot of his time thinking about sustained mass action. He is currently serving as the North America director for 350.org.

Patrick Houston is a passionate organizer and activist originally from Philadelphia, PA. Previously with New York Communities for Change, he helped build grassroots political power in low-income Black and Latinx communities, focused on climate and inequality campaigns. Those included the successful fights to defeat fossil fuel projects like the proposed Williams fracked gas pipeline; pass NYC's landmark buildings pollution law, LL97; and move Wall Street's biggest fossil fuel financiers, like Blackrock, towards divestment. Patrick is a grateful alum of the Community College of Philadelphia. He holds a B.A. from Swarthmore College, and is currently an MA candidate at Tufts University studying urban and environmental planning.

Leroy Johnson has been the chair of the New York Communities for Change Flatbush Chapter since 2010. He is a member of the NYCC board of directors and has been a leader in dozens of campaigns across New York from the #FightFor15 to the fight to ban gas use in buildings. Leroy has helped to found dozens of tenant organizations across Brooklyn and has been a major leader in New York tenant movement. He was instrumental in the 2018 campaign to strengthen New York’s rent laws. Leroy began his activist career in New York as a member of NY-ACORN in 2002 but he has been a community leader since he was 14 years old when he led a youth club for the Social Development Commission in his native St. Mary, Jamaica. Leroy graduated from Carl Rattray Staff College. He immigrated to New York in 1997, where he worked as a security guard, before opening a store on Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn in 2004.