Our Fellows
The Opportunity Agenda’s Communications Institute Fellows are media-ready experts on some of the country’s most urgent challenges, coming largely from communities most affected by those challenges. For journalists seeking voices with a grassroots perspective that links economic opportunity, criminal justice, immigrant opportunity, and racial justice issues to the lived experiences of Americans, Communications Fellows are ideal spokespeople.
Melva Steps
Program Director, Fair CountMelva Steps, Program Director at Fair Count, has been organizing in Georgia for over 30 years with a focus on civic engagement, elections and voting, family violence, substance abuse, and mental wellness.
Get To know MelvaAli Sultan
Ali Sultan is a Yemeni-Ethiopian comedian seen on Comedy Central, Donttell, and "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert."
Get To know AliNailah Summers
Co-Founder and Communications Director, Dream DefendersNailah is a co-founder and the new Communications Director for the Dream Defenders. She attended the University of Florida, where she majored in African American Studies with a minor in Philosophy. She lives in her native Miami with her pit bull and two cats.
Get To know NailahIvy O. Suriyopas
Director, Anti-Trafficking Initiative, Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF)Ivy O. Suriyopas is the Anti-Trafficking Initiative Director at the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF). She provides legal representation, conducts community education, and engages in policy advocacy on human trafficking issues. This legal representation includes immigration assistance, criminal justice advocacy, and civil litigation for claims involving the...
Get To know Ivy O.Caitlin Swain
Executive Director, Forward JusticeCaitlin Swain is the Executive Director of Forward Justice, a law, policy, and strategy center dedicated to civil rights, racial justice, and social and economic change in the South. She previously worked for the Advancement Project as a Skadden Fellow, where she supported grassroots efforts to end the over-criminalization of...
Get To know CaitlinCatherine Tactaquin
Executive Director, National Network for Immigrant and Refugee RightsCatherine Tactaquin is Executive Director and a co-founder of the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (NNIRR). Since 1986, NNIRR has worked to promote the rights for all immigrants, regardless of immigration status, through national advocacy campaigns, coalition-building, and support for immigrant community organizing and empowerment. In 1994, Catherine...
Get To know CatherineStephanie Teatro
Director of Climate Justice & Migration, The Climate Justice Collaborative at the National Partnership for New AmericansStephanie is the Director of Climate Justice and Migration at the National Partnership for New Americans. In this role, Stephanie helps lead the Climate Justice Collaborative, an initiative to build the capacity of immigrant justice organizations to powerfully join the fight for climate justice.
Get To know StephanieAlice Tianyi Liu
Co-Director of Communications, West Street Recovery; Gulf South for Green New DealAlice Tianyi Liu is a Houston-based writer and organizer working in disaster recovery and climate justice. She is a queer, 24-year- old Chinese-American who is fueled by hope and rage that we must reshape our economy and political system to be oriented towards life and care instead of extraction and...
Get To know AliceIxchel Tonāntzin Xōchitlzihuatl
Ixchel is a co-founder of the socially engaged art collective, Las Imaginistas, and is the Cosmic Weaver for the immigrant rights network, Voces Unidas. Both organizations advance the earth’s desire to remember and recognize freedom of movement for all beings.
Get To know IxchelQiana Torregano
Spokesperson/Advocate, RESULTSQiana Marie Torregano is a New Orleans native, Master Teacher, and RESULTS Spokesperson. She is humbled to represent her eclectic city and great state as an educator and advocate. Her vision is "A quality lifestyle for every citizen. As lifelong learners we are charged to use our knowledge and voices...
Get To know Qiana