Please welcome our 2 new RYH staff members!
We are overjoyed to share that Raise Your Hand has grown! Thanks to supporters like yourself, we have been able to add two new full time positions to our team: Rousemary Vega as our parent organizer and Naoma Nagahawatte as our advocacy director.
April 5, 2021, is their first day! They can be reached at rousemary@ilraiseyourhand.org and naoma@ilraiseyourhand.org.
As a CPS parent and Chicago resident, Naoma Nagahawatte is committed to shifting the needle on education equity while working for racial and economic justice in her community. She comes to RYH with more than a decade of experience as a human rights advocate and organizer. As a former Director of the National Campaign to Restore Civil Rights, Naoma has worked with legal communities to address the rollback of civil rights in the federal courts. She has worked to ratify the Convention for Elimination of Discrimination Against Women and to repeal the Rockefeller Drug Laws in New York City. She also helped to create the New York City Office of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, where she instituted advocacy and media campaigns to combat post-911 backlash against Muslim Americans while creating initiatives to further facilitate Muslim American participation in US civic life. In addition, Naoma has worked for Amnesty International and the International Rescue Committee on gender based violence issues in Darfur and Ethiopia.
In a post-COVID environment, Naoma looks forward to spending her free time exploring the world with her family, experiencing live music and riding her bicycle mask-free once again. In the meantime, she will continue to read science fiction, make snacks and constantly remind her family to wash their hands.
Hello, my fellow education warriors! My name is Rousemary Vega, and I’m a parent to two current CPS students and two CPS graduates. I’m a Chicago-raised Latina from Humboldt Park, and a nightmare to the unelected school board.
I am honored to introduce myself as a parent organizer to a community of passionate parents, neighbors, teachers, and students. I've always been an involved parent in my children's education, so, in 2013, when Lafayette Elementary School became a target of CPS during the mayor’s mass closing, I realized that I needed to be involved in a broader fight for education justice in our city. Since then, I’ve continued to push for an elected school board and help parents around the city amplify their voices to advocate for their children and rights.
