Early in 2021, Rise was excited to welcome several new board members–Elliot Williams, Felicia Alleyne-Davis and Joan M. Williams. Later in the year, we also welcomed Kelly Castagnaro and Jeffrey Chang as board members.
Kelly Castagnaro
Kelly brings over 20 years of international, national and local strategic communications experience for nonprofits and local government. She currently consults for a range of clients on strategic communications. Previously, she was with the International Planned Parenthood Federation/Western Hemisphere Region (dba Fòs Feminista), where she worked on communications, including social media, and donor relations in Spanish and English in coordination with local partners throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. She also served as Director of Communications for the International Women’s Health Coalition and as the Deputy Press Secretary for former Mayor of San Francisco, Willie L. Brown, Jr. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from St. Joseph’s College and studied magazine journalism as an undergraduate at University of Oregon. Her writing has been published in The New York Times, Gotham Gazette, The Lancet, and The Guardian (UK).
Jeffrey Chang
With over a decade of experience in the legal, government and nonprofit sectors, Jeffrey currently serves as the Director of Communications at Lawyers For Children, a longtime partner of Rise. He is passionate about Rise’s mission and excited to help build on its storytelling and policy advocacy to incite transformational change. He is a graduate of Rutgers Law School where he served as Managing Articles Editor of the Rutgers Race & the Law Review.