Shaunna Thomas

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Shaunna Thomas is co-founder and Executive Director of UltraViolet. Shaunna has had a fifteen year career in progressive organizing, building progressive infrastructure projects and winning critical policy fights at the national level. Shaunna has appeared numerous times on network and cable TV including NBC, MSNBC, CNN, and CNBC as a political commentator. Before founding UltraViolet, Shaunna was the Executive Director of the P Street Project, a 501c4 nonprofit dedicated to organizing progressive members of Congress and connecting federal legislative strategy with online grassroots mobilization efforts. Prior to that, Shaunna was the COO of Progressive Congress, a nonprofit supporting the policy and organizing work of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. Shaunna was introduced to organizing and advocacy through the 2004 presidential election, which inspired the next five years of her work at Young People For, a Project of People For the American Way Foundation dedicated to identifying, engaging and empowering the next generation of progressive leaders. Shaunna–originally from Los Angeles–is a resident of Washington, D.C.

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Nicole Regalado

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Nicole is a first-generation immigrant from the Philippines and a long-time reproductive and migrant justice activist.

Her nearly fifteen years of experience as a campaign strategist includes senior leadership roles at RAICES, ACLU, and CREDO Action, where she led strategic communications and advocacy teams to advance racial justice, immigrant rights, and corporate accountability campaigns.

Nicole lives in Southern California and enjoys hiking with her pup, taking care of her 20+ indoor plants, and going to flea markets on the weekend.

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Melody Varjavand

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Melody has over 13 years of progressive experience in finance and accounting, including over 6 years in the non-profit sector. She has worked as an auditor in public accounting and has worked on the accounting teams of Planned Parenthood of Illinois and the Adler Planetarium in Chicago. She has successfully led initiatives to develop financial processes and improve financial reporting to end users. Melody is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign and is a CPA. In her free time, she enjoys seeking out great restaurants, biking, crafting, and travel, with a goal of visiting all the national parks someday.

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Luna Ly

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Luna is the Social Media Manager for Ultraviolet and is passionate about revolutionizing the way we engage online, reclaiming digital autonomy, and considering the impact of digital communications. They are on a lifelong journey of learning and reflecting on how they show up in their work and with communities in the fight for justice and liberation while volunteering with the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum (NAPAWF) DC Chapter. Luna has a Masters of Public Health in Public Health Policy and Management from George Washington University, is an Alexander Hamilton Scholar, and avid reader. She enjoys being weird on social media, writing long sentences, and learning how to jam on the bass guitar. Luna uses any and all pronouns.

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Lindsay Budzynski

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Lindsay is the Managing Director of People and Organizational Development at UltraViolet, where her focus is on organizational culture, staff and leadership support, training, and advisement, people-centered human resources, and sustainable and equitable internal operations. She believes living organizational values through internal practices is critical to serving liberatory movements, and is passionate about ensuring back-end practices support UV’s team.

Prior to joining UltraViolet Lindsay spent over eight years in the alternative investment industry. She has long been involved in Chicago’s reproductive justice community as a clinic escort and former chair of Chicago Abortion Fund, and in the arts community as a resident artist, instructor, and freelancer. Outside of work Lindsay enjoys adding to her record collection, thrifting, snuggling everyone’s pets, and looking at the details of things.

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Kimberly Williams

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Kimberly is a CPA and began her career with a BBA in Accounting from Prairie View A&M University.  Upon graduating she worked in the audit division with a Big 4 firm servicing multiple clients in various industries.  After transitioning from public accounting, she began to focus her efforts on accounting and financial reporting for not for profit organizations including:  The Adler Planetarium, The American Thoracic Society and The Colorado Non Profit Development Center.

She has more than a decade of experience and has assisted clients in various areas including: streamlining & improving financial reporting, identifying & improving inefficiencies and accounting & reporting setup for startup companies.

Finally, she loves: travel (anywhere), eating (almost anything), dancing (salsa), jazz (singing & listening) and meditation (vipassana) and can usually be seen doing one of the above during her spare time.  She is elated to be a part of the Ultraviolet team and honored to use her knowledge and skills to be of service to the mission.

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Kathy Plate

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Kathy is the Growth and Member Experience Director at Ultraviolet. Prior to joining the team, she was Digital Strategies Director at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. While at the Task Force, Kathy grew and strengthened the organization’s online presence around issues including marriage equality, workplace discrimination, and access to healthcare. Kathy helped revolutionize online participation with the organization’s largest annual event, the National Conference on LGBT Equality: Creating Change by introducing livestreaming, developing a conference mobile app and facilitating more robust conversations on social media. Kathy previously managed online communications for Alliance for Justice, where she worked to engage progressives in the fight for a fair judiciary. She currently lives in Southern California where she loves to take advantage of the mountain biking, rock climbing, and hiking opportunities.

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KaeLyn Rich

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KaeLyn (she/her) is the Vice President of Organizational Advancement and oversees internal operations and strategic organizational growth at UltraViolet, where she leads the operations, human resources, and finance teams.

She is a lifelong community activist who cut her teeth stuffing folders for her parents’ union meetings around the dining room table. She comes to UltraViolet with over a decade of nonprofit leadership experience. Prior to joining UltraViolet, KaeLyn was the Executive Director of Bitch Media, best known for the iconic Bitch magazine. She spent eight years in advocacy and statewide leadership at the ACLU of NY and learned progressive campaigning at a Planned Parenthood affiliate in upstate NY.

KaeLyn is also a public speaker and writer; a nonprofit consultant; an occasional gender studies professor; and a direct action organizer. Her debut young adult book, Girls Resist!: A Guide to Activism, Leadership, and Starting a Revolution came out in 2018. She is the president and a founding board member of Connect and Breathe, an all-volunteer, taboo-breaking after-abortion talkline. KaeLyn is a queer bisexual Korean-American transracial adoptee, a devotee of savory comfort foods, and a big fan of the serial comma. She lives in New York with her spouse, child, and a menagerie of lovely animals.

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Isatou Bittaye-Jobe

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Isatou is a feminist leader, passionate fundraiser and human rights activist. She is the Institutional Giving Manager at UltraViolet. She comes to UltraViolet with a decade of experience in development and communication working in the gender justice movement, human rights, and international development sector, most recently at the Population Council where she led the growth of the Council’s revenue from small to mid-size private and family foundations in the US and internationally as Foundation Coordinator. Prior to that, she held roles with the National Network for Safe Communities and Women Deliver. Isatou started her career in human rights advocacy in The Gambia and served as Senior Program Officer at the National Council for Civic Education for five years, where she was the institution’s program lead and project Grant Writer and promoted civically engaged citizenry among Gambians. She was a founding member and Communication Manager of The Girls’ Agenda–a young women-led nonprofit promoting the respect, protection and fulfillment of human rights of girls and young women in The Gambia.

She has a BA in Political Science and double MA in International Studies and Women’s and Gender Studies from National Chengchi University in Taiwan and the CUNY-Graduate Center respectively. Isatou is a Women Deliver Young Leader in the class of 2016 and was recognized for her work in advancing gender equality and promoting the sexual and reproductive health and rights of girls and women across the world. When she is not at work, Isatou is cooking and trying out new recipes, reading and taking a walk to the park with her daughter. She lives in New Jersey with her Spouse and daughter.

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Elisa Batista

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Elisa Batista is the Content Director and a Campaign Director with UltraViolet. She conceives and implements campaigns to end violence against women, increase economic security for women and families, and ensure that all women have access to full and affordable healthcare services.

Prior to her position at UltraViolet, she was a Campaign Director for MomsRising.org, a million-volunteer grassroots organization advocating for policies related to family economic security and child health and well-being. She helped spearhead the organization’s immigration campaign and launch MamásConPoder.org, a community of civically engaged Spanish-speaking and bilingual mothers. She is also a bilingual journalist and award-winning digital influencer. She is the co-founder of the popular parenting community, MotherTalkers, which was named a “favorite mom blog” by Ms. Magazine, and recognized with an award by Latinos in Tech Innovation and Social Media (LATISM). In addition, her writing has appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, Huffington Post, Daily Kos, FOX News, La Opinión, and Wired News. When she is not at work, Batista is going to concerts with friends and training for races. She is an avid runner and cyclist who lives with her family in California.

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