The Power and Promise of Youth Organizing

Born and raised in Oakland, Joshua Lee has been leading grassroots organizations in the Bay Area for over ten years. A focal point of Josh’s work has been with youth organizing groups in the east bay such as Youth Together and AYPAL: Building Asian Pacific Islander Community Power, centering the voices and leadership of some of the most powerful yet vulnerable populations in the region in BIPOC young people. Josh recently completed his role as a Multicultural Fellow at the San Francisco Foundation (SFF), where he led their Rapid Response Fund for Movement Building and COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund grantmaking. Prior to his role at SFF, he was the Director of AYPAL: Building API Community Power for 5 years. He has a MA from the University of Michigan in Higher Education with a focus on Social Justice, and a BA from UC Santa Cruz in American Studies. After being in the field for many years, harnessing his perspective as both grantee and funder, he is driven by a commitment to building collective strategies towards racial equity, led by those most impacted, towards a Just East Bay. 

The daughter of Mexican immigrants and born and raised in Los Angeles County, Dr. Veronica Terriquez is a sociologist whose research focuses on social inequality, civic engagement, health, and youth transitions to adulthood among Latinx and other diverse populations. As CSRC director, Terriquez seeks to build on the center’s existing projects and develop new initiatives on Latinx communities that align with the University’s mission to serve the state and maintain a community presence. She brings to the position extensive experience working with a broad range of community stakeholders, having partnered with youth, labor, arts, education, health and local government institutions. Her research agenda seeks to respond to contemporary political, economic, immigration, environmental and social crises affecting Latinx and similarly situated populations. An expert in participatory action research (PAR), Terriquez has co-authored with colleagues and students over forty widely disseminated research reports on labor, community, and youth organizing.