Natasha proudly serves as Raise Your Hand’s Executive Director, focused on grassroots democracy, building relationships with parents to lead via Local School Councils, Elected Representative School Boards, and seeking statewide equitable funding. She has worked previously as a campaigns trainer, community organizer, mass liberation advocate, veteran organizer, and project manager in the social justice movement in the U.S. and internationally.

Natasha is a proud South Side native of Chicago, born and raised in Englewood and later in the Morgan Park community. Natasha is a K-12 CPS alum, having attended O’Toole, Morgan Park, and Corliss. During her senior year, she enlisted on active duty in the U.S. Air Force and served 20 years honorably. She is a proud mother of her talented daughter, a CPS Class of 2021 Lindblom Alum, currently attending a historically Black university studying biology and chemistry.

Natasha believes empowered parent and youth-led leadership, and community is the lynchpin to quality and equitable education across Chicago and Illinois.

Jodi (she/her) was raised in Peoria and moved to Chicago to earn a master’s degree in public history at Loyola University. She had a previous career working in archives and museums, and has now lived in the Edgewater/Rogers Park area for more than 20 years. She is the parent of two CPS students and is proud to be active in her school community, at various points through PAC, LSC, and a friends group.

She first learned about Raise Your Hand as a young parent trying to figure out the ins-and-outs of CPS. RYH discussions led directly to their family’s decision to dismiss neighbors’ negative attitudes about nearby schools, and deepened her understanding of the inequities in CPS. In her first year as a CPS parent, Rahm Emanuel closed their school. She has since endured ten years of strikes, budget cuts, standardized tests, scandals, remote learning, and pandemic mis-management. The drama of each passing school year leaves her always more convinced about the need for parents to speak up and fight for what we value in public schools. Jodi loves using her skills at organizing information behind-the-scenes to support Raise Your Hand in empowering parents.

Hello everyone! My name is Erykah Nava (she/they), and I am excited to be the new Communications Strategy Organizer. I am a parent to one CPS student. I was born and raised in Chicago, but I was away for a couple years to finish college. I recently moved back and now live in Belmont Cragin with my daughter and partner. I am grateful to be back in my city, and I look forward to building a liberated future with Black and brown parents and youth.

I have mainly been involved in abolitionist and mutual aid organizing with Dissenters, Students Organized for Labor Rights, and NUCommunityNotCops. I believe education justice is part of a greater movement to build life-giving institutions rather than recreate cycles of violence in our communities. By centering parents and youth most impacted, we will create a future where public education is funded, well-resourced, and centered on the holistic existence of the people.

Nice to meet your acquaintance. I am Marian. Born and raised in the BEST hood-Englewood- I am a CPS alumni graduating from Simeon Career Academy. Currently, my one and only child is a CPS student.

I am excited to join RYH as the Development Associate to ensure that we have the resources to work towards the change that we want to see. The victory of war is impossible if we are unable to finance it. It costs money to fight! Freedom is not free, but it is freeing.

As RYH continues to grow, I am honored to contribute in dismantling racist and oppressive systems so that every child- regardless of socioeconomic status- has access to a high quality, free, public education.

Kendra is a mother of four CPS graduates and three current students. She is a CPS K-12 alum and graduate of Lindblom HS. As Raise Your Hand’s parent organizer, Kendra brings four years of Local School Council experience and over a decade of parent-mentor leadership.

Kendra is excited to support the community as a certified LSC trainer. She believes fully trained LSCs are the change agents our children and schools deserve.

Raised in the Englewood/Auburn Gresham area, Kendra takes great pride in serving her community. She is currently the community liaison for MASK (Mothers Against Senseless Killings). Her passion is to ensure that all children get the quality public education they deserve!

My name is Maddy Wheelock (she/her), and I am so excited to introduce myself as the new Educational Resource Equity Coalition Coordinator at Raise Your Hand! My journey began in Michigan, where I was raised by an incredible public school educator and advocate. From there, I ventured into the nonprofit sector, engaging in initiatives ranging from facilitating art classes at juvenile detention centers in Lansing to housing homeless veteran families in San Diego. Five years ago I followed my mother’s footsteps and transitioned into public education. Along this path, I earned a Master’s in Education from Harvard and taught as a public school English teacher in both the Boston area and in Chicago Public Schools.

I am committed to equitable and justice-centered public education, especially as it relates to elevating queer voices and in ending the school-to-prison pipeline. I am enthusiastic about bringing my diverse experiences to the RYH and Peer Illinois teams as we advocate for well-funded Illinois public schools. I believe in a future where every child has access to the quality education they deserve, and I am eager to collaborate with you all to transform this vision into reality!

Cohen Kraus is an educator,  activist, and abolitionist. This is their fourth Repair the World internship for No Shame on You, The Night Ministry, and 826CHI. Cohen is a rabbinical student at Hebrew Seminary School for the Deaf and Disabled. Cohen has worked as a contract trainer for Keshet, represented the organization at Pride 2022, and virtually spoke for a Boston synagogue for Trans Day of Remembrance. Cohen has worked with a variety of diverse stakeholders. Cohen's role as a 7th-grade Religious School teacher at Beth Emet involved developing an original curriculum and overseeing advertising and promotional campaigns. Cohen now works in the clinical world with preschoolers with autism and as a religious school teacher at the Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation, teaching a choice-making curriculum model.