The Class of 2025-26

Each year the Fund selects a grantee who honors the legacy of commitment to peace and justice modeled by Jessie Lloyd O’Connor, a labor journalist, organizer and an early and beloved member of our Board, who with her husband Harvey, opened heart and home to activists seeking respite. Our Jessie Lloyd O’Connor Scholar this year is Bella Week. Bella is studying to become an investigative reporter at CUNY’s Graduate School of Journalism. For over fifteen years, they have been active in movements for prison abolition, queer and trans liberation, immigrant justice, and youth power. Since 2019, Bella has organized with public school educators, students, and families to dismantle policing and build restorative justice in NYC schools. Their own experience of school pushout as a teenager informs their commitment to challenging systems that criminalize and exclude Black, Brown, queer, and disabled young people. Bella has also organized alongside people seeking asylum in Australia to resist government policies of detention and family separation. More recently, they helped build a coalition of 30 organizations that coordinated three citywide school walkouts against US support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Bella aims to use investigative reporting to expose injustice, hold power accountable, and equip communities with information that strengthens collective resistance.

Marilyn Buck was a political prisoner and poet who worked in solidarity with Black Liberation struggles to end white supremacy. She received grants from the Fund in 2003 and 2004, and continued connection through supportive notes from her jail cell, and with a generous bequest following her death. To honor her memory and legacy, The Marilyn Buck Award is given to an incarcerated or formerly incarcerated activist working for justice. This year, our awardee is Kinzie Noordman. Kinzie is a daughter, author, software engineer and sci-fi connoisseur. Incarcerated at 20, Kinzie lives in a place of accountability and remorse for the harm she caused by helping others and showing the world true change is possible. Kinzie earned a B.A. in Business and is currently pursuing a M.A. from CSU Dominguez Hills in Humanities minoring in Punishment and Abolition. Her advocacy work started as a teen fighting for LGBTQ rights and environmentalism. Today, she works as a Research Advocate for the UC Sentencing Project and alongside advocacy groups focusing on social justice reform. She serves as an editor for the prison newsletter, The Razor Wire, and uses her lived experience and education to fight for a future without violence, hate and inequality. Kinzie is passionate about advocating for incarcerated women, restorative justice and using the power of narratives to change individuals and systems of oppression.

The Brock/Ransby Award was created to honor the international solidarity and racial justice work of Dr Lisa Brock and Dr. Barbara Ransby both Chicago-based historian/scholar-activists who organized against South-African Apartheid. This award recognizes a graduate student activist with an international solidarity focus and is rooted in racial justice - this year our awardee is AJ Kurdi. AJ is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Ethnic Studies with a Designated Emphasis in Gender, Women, and Sexuality at the University of California, Berkeley. His research focuses on transnational social movements, immigration and diaspora studies, policy diffusion, and queer of color critique. AJ's dissertation examines the circulation of ethnicity and race within intersectional queer organizing, and its impact on mainstream movements and public policies across Europe and North America. A significant aspect of his work involves studying Palestinian activist circles in Europe, where he has been actively involved for years as a student. AJ's research is deeply informed by themes of immigration policies, imperialism, and Islamophobia from a relational framework across various Global North contexts, aligning with his commitment to advocating for interconnected struggles on a global scale. .

Loan Tran is a U.S. southern based organizer with over 15 years of movement building experience across a number of struggles, namely immigrant, racial, youth, and student justice and organizing. They currently serve as the National Co-Director of Rising Majority, a national formation aligning social movements around a shared vision and power building strategy. Loan also serves on the board of directors of Highlander Center and is a member of Viet Left Power. Loan is interested in the question of faith and spirit as it relates to movement building and the restoration of the social fabric in the U.S. and around the world.

Nataly is a formerly incarcerated student pursuing her Masters Degree in Chicano/a/x Studies at California State University Northridge. She has been involved in organizing on campus since 2018 with Revolutionary Scholars and is a student assistant with Project Rebound, advocating for formerly incarcerated students on campus. Through adopting an abolitionist framework, Nataly’s scholarship analyzes the injustices in the criminal system, the systematic factors that directly impact experiences with the police and the carceral system, and the barriers present post-incarceration. Nataly understands that community care is essential as a real means to liberation; therefore, she works with oppressed populations in solidarity to reach self-sufficiency. Nataly is a grassroots organizer with People in Action for Community Solidarity in Pacoima organizing mutual aid, direct action, movement building, and restorative justice. Her research focuses on the criminalization of vulnerable populations, their survival tactics, and the community care needed to persevere through injustice.

Abaki Beck is an organizer, writer, and public health PhD student whose passions lie at the intersections of Indigenous resistance, prison/police abolition, and community driven action for health equity. She currently serves as president of the Graduate Labor Union at the University of Minnesota. Her dissertation research is focused on mental health and substance use among Native youth who have experienced arrest and engages eight community research councils from tribal nations in the U.S. and Canada. As a writer, her work has appeared in numerous feminist and leftist magazines, the 2022 anthology Aftermath: Life In Post-Roe America and the 2023 anthology Artists Remaking Medicine. She earned a Master’s in Public Health from Washington University in St. Louis in 2020 and a Bachelor’s in American Studies from Macalester College in 2015. She enrolled in the Little Shell Chippewa Tribe and is a descendant of the Blackfeet Nation.

Emily Bosworth is a fifth-year Counseling Psychology PhD student whose work involves community organizing and local action in Florida. She is currently serving in a leadership position in the graduate student workers' unionization efforts, where she is involved in organizing, strategizing, and advocating for fair labor conditions and equitable treatment for graduate workers. Prior to this, she was actively involved in community organizing initiatives focused on youth empowerment. In particular, she worked with high school students campaigning for transformative changes within their schools, including the implementation of restorative justice practices and the replacement of school policing with increased access to mental health resources. She centers healing within historically marginalized communities as a foundation for collective restoration and political action. Drawing on Buddhist and nature-based practices, she fosters individual and communal healing as both a method and motivation for sustainable organizing.

Teja Davis is a senior double-majoring in Environmental Studies and Human Geography while pursuing certificates in African American Studies, Gender and Women Studies, Theater, and Teaching in the Arts at the University of Wisconsin Madison with hopes of completing an American Indian Studies certificate as well. In the future she hopes to do ethnographic environmental work exploring the relationship between people, their culture, and the planet (and do a bit of acting too).She’s a member of the 15th Cohort of First Wave - a program focused on Arts, Academics, and Activism at UW and Co-Editor-in-Chief for The Black Voice, a student publication devoted to uplifting black students stories on campus. She also received an Honorable mention as an Inaugural recipient of the André De Shields fund for her original screenplay adaptation of The Ohio State Murders by Adrienne Kennedy and had the honor of attending and notetaking for the 2025 Black Abundance Conference. She has had a passion for creating since she was a small child and strives to create and take part in work people can learn from as much as they enjoy; she hopes to show others it's possible to pursue their creative dreams in the scientific and artistic worlds!

Cameron Driggers is a 20-year organizational leader pursuing a Masters in Nonprofit Management at the University of Central Florida. Cameron has been driven by a passion for community service and advocacy from a very young age. In high school, Cameron helped lead a state-wide walkout of thousands of students in protest of Florida's infamous "Don't Say Gay Bill". That experience of powerful youth organizing impassioned Cameron to found the Florida Youth Action Fund, a state-wide resource center led entirely by students, which aims to bridge the opportunity gap between civic engagement and disenfranchised communities by providing financial resources as well as strategic guidance to groups of youth leading issue-based campaigns in their communities.

Dulce Garcia is an incoming graduate student at The New School pursuing a Master of Science in Media Management. Her broader work leverages storytelling to improve perceptions around and within immigrant communities. Throughout her undergraduate career and beyond, Dulce has deeply involved herself within her community by spearheading fundraising campaigns, accessibility initiatives, and inclusion efforts focused for immigrant communities and beyond. Understanding humane legal and legislative immigration reform may never come, Dulce prioritizes finding solutions and creating small, tangible change through action. She aims to not only help lead narrative change surrounding immigration but also lead in collective healing in how her community sees and values themselves.

Rosen Turquoise Gordon ( zhe / he ) is a Black trans feminist public historian and autistic cultural worker. For zhir graduate thesis in Africana Women’s Studies, Rosen conducts oral histories with Black Jamaican trans people to find out how they disrupt the violence of colonization and enslavement. In 2025, Rosen presented the session Black Autistic in College at the Autism in Black Conference. Since 2024, zhe has co-facilitated the Autistic Queer Advocacy workshop at the GSA Summit, hosted by the Georgia Safe Schools Coalition. In 2024, zhe co-facilitated the Autistic QTBIPoC Folks: A Discussion & Meetup for Southern Fried Queer Pride. Since 2023, he has co-facilitated the Autistic Caucus at the Creating Change Conference, hosted by the National LGBTQ Task Force. In 2023, Rosen hosted Black Trans Trivia for Circa: Queer Histories Festival, held by the One Institute, and We are Unstoppable: Trans History Workshop for the Sam & Devorah Foundation for Transgender Youth.

Ingrid is a Native American House student ambassador at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, studying history. I grew up in Las Vegas, which, aside from tourism, is also home to one of the largest populations of Native Americans outside of tribally owned land. have been privileged to work very closely with the Urban Native community of Las Vegas and was a part of a youth group, the Indigenous Student Association, which has now transformed into a nonprofit, which I am the development director for. We sent letters to lawmakers in our state to designate the sacred mountain of Avi Kwa Ame as a national monument, hosted events, and built a healthy environment for Native youth in southern Nevada. My experience with ISA, as well as my intersectional identity, is what encouraged me to become more involved with activism in Vegas, and I began to attend/lead protests and raise funds for deeply important causes such as Palestinian Liberation and Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women. I also frequently volunteered and got the opportunity to blend my passion for education and mutual aid while in Mexico! My short-term goal is to be a history teacher. Educating our youth and ensuring that our youth is knowledgeable on the history is so important, and because of its importance, history and education are constantly under attack, especially in our current day. My long-term goal is to be a history professor, establishing a platform as an activist in the process because I believe that holding a title as an educator is one of the most revolutionary roles one can have.

Jose Herrera is a student at Contra Costa College and a committed advocate for youth justice. After being system-impacted, he connected with CURYJ in 2022 and has since focused on grassroots organizing, healing, and policy change for justice-involved youth. As a Homies 4 Justice and Dream Beyond Bars alum, Jose supported Prop 6 outreach, led cultural and political education efforts, and spoke with lawmakers at Quest for Democracy. Now lead coordinator for youth engagement events, he works directly with transitional age youth (TAY), using his lived experience to empower others.

Me Me is a first generation Burmese immigrant, displaced by the 2021 military coup in Burma. A feminist, a poet and a homebody who loves to love/ be loved. Me Me is studying Sociology with a minor in Gender and Women’s Studies at UC Berkeley. With a strong belief in the role of education in the fight for liberation and its potential to help all grow as individuals, she strives to be a lifelong learner, educator, and writer. As part of the “Sexuality and Gender Alliance”, she organized the San Mateo Community College district’s “Queer Students of Color Conferences”. Her work is dedicated to queer liberation, and particularly stimulated by questions that explore the intersection of being Burmese (immigrant) and being queer. She organized, with the Myanmar Student Union, to fight deep-rooted military fascism in her homeland. Convinced that the struggle for change is constant, Me Me will answer the call of revolutionary movements wherever they are.

My name is Ash (any pronouns) and I'm currently studying Architecture and Environmental Studies with the objective of making dignified housing more accessible and sustainable. As part of the Environmental Action Group at my college, we have raised awareness on topics such as food insecurity, climate and disability justice, water conservation and more. As co-president of Slater International Student Organization, we aim to create a safe and welcoming space for international students in the face of such an anti-immigrant government. Last semester, I participated in the Advocacy and Community-Based Training Semester (ACTS) offered by the University Network for Human Rights. These opportunities have allowed me to meet incredible people, learn from them and enrich my activism.

Delilah Jabbour is an Arab-American artist, curator, and scholar based in Baltimore, Maryland. Her work exists at the intersections of multimedia art, spatial design, and historical archives, focusing on intertwining community building and the preservation of diasporic memories. Through this framework, she curates immersive spaces designed to foster authentic dialogue beyond regional and territorial boundaries. Utilizing her creative practice as a tool, she is involved in organizing efforts in Baltimore City within and outside of the institution. She aims to continue the growth of working-class solidarity at the local community level in order to build a globalized network of new possibilities.

Kole Ko (he/they) is a student, organiser and artist whose determination for social change roots from Burma’s 2021 military coup and embodied queer oppression of his childhood. This drive is sustained through their consistent efforts to join revolutionary movements. From the Civil Disobedience Movements of his homeland, to mobilizing anti-imperial anti-captalist queer events here in the U.S, the fight for liberation to Ko is interconnected and transcends borders. He worked alongside Myanmar Student Union(MSU) and Sexuality and Gender Alliance (SAGA) in their effort against fascism, imperialism and uprooting cisheteropatriaarchy. Currently, in pursuit of BFA Animation at California College of the Arts, his artistic mission is to tell stories that reflect distinct lived-in experiences of being queer, immigrant and products of political warfare. He challenges societal norms and oppressive systems through his choice of mediums, subjects or concepts, to help build a future without state control, labor exploitation, militarized violence, and gender hierarchy.

Reggie has been incarcerated for almost 50 of his 71 years. He defended himself to get off death row and has been working as a jailhouse lawyer for many years. His passion is helping others navigate the appeals system. He is a prolific writer and uses his craft to highlight the brutal racism and abuse in the system. His work is distributed through Prison Journalism Project, Graterfriends Quarterly (a publication of the Pennsylvania Prison Society) and he is a correspondent for Prison Radio. He collaborates with the UDTJ Philly based social justice and community based program established following the George Floyd murder, is part of the NAACP chapter at the prison and works with the Amistad Law Group. He plans to begin an AA in Criminal Justice at Upper Iowa University to be better equipped to challenge the carceral state and the oppressive judicial system through his writing. He also hopes to one day be able to provide support and representation to the many revolutionaries on the frontlines who find themselves “in the snares of the web of the judiciary.” Additionally, he would like to create an app that would guide individuals and families through the judicial process - defense and appeals. His lifelong dream is to become a civil rights attorney.

Kahelelani is a Kanaka Maoli (Indigenous Hawaiian), māhū (trans/queer/non-binary) transdisciplinary artist, DJ, student, and grassroots community organizer whose creative practice, as well as their intellectual efforts, are anchored in a devotion to “carrying our worlds into the future.” Heavily engaging decolonial methodologies in their art-making and knowledge production, Kahelelani’s work aims to disrupt the pervasive colonial narratives that limit our experiences of pleasure and distort our sense of belonging.

Julia R. Montejo is a J.D. Candidate at the University of Miami School of Law. She earned her B.A. in Spanish from Cornell University and has extensive experience in community organizing, nonprofit development, and program management. Julia’s commitment to immigrant rights stems from her own journey as a formerly undocumented immigrant from Guatemala, a perspective that fuels her dedication to advocacy and justice. She lives in Palm Beach County, Florida with her husband and rescue dog.

Natalie Monzon (she/they) is a student leader based in CSU Long Beach, studying Graphic Design as a senior. Her organizing work primarily revolves around the CSULB Divest Coalition, and through her efforts in organizing and mobilizing students, she plays an important role in coalition building on campus, pushing for an accessible, pro-people education free from ties to war and militarism locally and abroad. Natalie connects to fellow students on the frustrations of everyday socio-economic issues ( rising cost of living, lack of quality resources for youth and students), and develops their agitation into tools that they can use to take action for genuine social change and against militarism and U.S. Imperialism! Natalie is also a part of La FUERZA Student Association, a Latine student organization on campus, and supports in providing political education, cultural programming, and a sense of community for students on campus.

César Mosquera Illustrator, graphic designer, web developer, and comic book artist. He is part of the Comando Creativo, the Utopix community Organization Commission, and an USSW illustrator. In Venezuela, he has published the comic books La Noche de Prometeo (2015), La Fiesta de los moribundos (2016), and El Pueblo donde Mataron a Dios (2019) with El Perro y la Rana Publishing House. He was recognized in 2018 and 2022 with the Venezuelan National Journalism Award, Graphic Mention. In 2020 he traveled to the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic with the Brigade of Solidarity with the Sahrawi People. He’s now in Savannah, Georgia, to complete his Master’s in Sequential Art at SCAD, while working and organizing against Capitalism and for the People.

Rosa is a first-generation college student and the proud daughter and granddaughter of Mexican Immigrant farmworkers from the Pacific Northwest. She was raised within the vineyards of the Willamette Valley in Oregon. She is a PhD candidate in Sociology at UC Santa Cruz with a designated emphasis in Latin American and Latinx Studies. Rosa’s dissertation project is a transnational community-engaged research project in collaboration with Familias Unidas Por La Justicia (FUJ), an independent Indigenous Farmworker Union in Washington. Her project tracks the rise of the H-2A guest worker Program in the state and its long-term implications for local farmworker communities as the temporary guest worker program displaces and replaces local farmworkers from the agricultural labor market. She is also shadowing a transnational labor recruiter who recruits mostly rural Mexican men to work as temporary guest workers in the US to understand the role of labor recruiters in the fast expansion of the H-2A guest worker program. Rosa was a community organizer in Portland and Chicago for over a decade before returning to academia. She has organized in Egypt and Palestine (West Bank and Gaza) in solidarity work alongside Palestinians. She has worked on Immigrant rights work, deportation defense campaigns, and organized alongside domestic workers in Chicago for several years. She has an MA in Sociology from the University of Albany, SUNY, an MA in Sociology from UC Santa Cruz, and an MA in International Human Rights Law from the American University in Cairo. She holds a BA in History from Portland State University. Her public work has been published in Open Democracy.

Michael Owens is an incarcerated citizen, activist, and social justice advocate serving Life Without the Possibility of Parole in California. He has served over 27 years and in that time he has contributed sweat equity to many campaigns for social justice in the carceral setting. He holds certifications as a Domestic Violence Specialist, Alcohol and Drug Specialist, and Peer Support Specialist. As an abolitionist and political educator, he mentors and teaches intercommunalism and Democratic Socialism among the prison population. He serves as an advisor for several prisoner led and community based organizations. Michael holds an AA degree in Social and Behavioral Science, a BA in Communication. and is currently working on his Master's in Humanities with an emphasis in Abolition and Liberation Studies. His educational goal is a doctorate in Educational Leadership and Administration. Michael gratefully accepts his first Davis-Putter award and invites all parties interested in general networking opportunities, or in supporting his campaign for a sentence reduction to contact him at owensmichaellamont@gmail.com.

I have been incarcerated for the last 23 years. For the last 11 years I have devoted most of my time to organizing inside to help others incarcerated as well as their families. My focus is mainly trans people. I’ve worked with others incarcerated to organize labor strikes in the prison, built inside support programs for those who are indigent, and built an inside-outside network of support for incarcerated individuals and their families. I have also set up a network to supply N95 masks to families of those incarcerated, built a trans support network within the prison and have started several political education initiatives inside. My plan for these funds is to attend Adams State University’s paralegal certificate program. My goal is to use this education to specialize in helping with civil litigation for those who are elderly, disabled or trans and continue helping myself and others fight their convictions.

Isaac (they/he) is a queer, Latine, first generation, working class cultural worker and organizer, who works at the intersection of the ending of worlds that fragment us, and towards the beginning of worlds that can hold us in our entirety. Raised in the Bay, Isaac is heavily influenced by the revolutionary history that flows through their home. Isaac plays music as a tool of resistance with their cumbia band, cultivates collective healing as an apprentice of curanderismo, and organizes for the collective liberation of the land and the people. Isaac spends their time organizing with the Rich City Rays, which brings working class BIPOC back into deep relation with the water and strategizes ways to combat extractive companies who exploit and destroy our environment. In addition, Isaac is also a member of the League of Filipino Students (LFS) at SFSU, uplifting the Filipino working class struggle against US imperialism, bureaucrat-capitalism, and feudalism. They attend SFSU as an Ethnic Studies major to deepen their knowledge in order to better understand our past, present, and future.

Eleni Sefanit Retta is a life-long D.C. area native, labor advocate, and multidisciplinary creative (digital design, video production, media arts, expository writing, and more). Eleni is passionate about the intersection of economic justice and labor advocacy and the creative industries and its workers. Beginning in 2019 while in New York, Eleni became involved with multiple labor and urban policy organizations including the Alliance for a Greater New York, HeadCount, and the The People’s Forum. Eleni pursued organizing and research work in multiple capacities- including but not limited to the Justice Policy Institute and working to amend the Youth Rehabilitation Act (YRA) legislation for incarcerated youth in D.C., researching climate and labor for ALIGN NYC, and researching youth arts education policy with the Foundation of Contemporary Arts in Accra, Ghana during her time studying abroad at NYU Accra. Eleni has pursued multiple independent media projects including the Guide to 2030 Vice Media special project, two films under the New York University Accra (Ghana) Film Department, and contributed to social media campaigns for state agencies, national non-profits, political candidates, think tanks, and grassroots organizations at organizations/companies including GMMB, the Urban Future Lab, The Justice Policy Institute, and more. Eleni aspires for her work to show the impact of media to illuminate underrepresented social, political and labor issues. Eleni is also a freelance writer who has been featured in Naked Politics and other politically focused publications. Outside of media work, Eleni is part of the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression and Industrial Workers of the World’s Freelance Journalists Union, working to the support compensation and benefits of journalist and publishing workers.

Flaco is an abolitionist organizer, scholar, and PhD candidate in Criminology, Law and Society at the University of California, Irvine. He is the founder of West Coast Credible Messengers (WCCM)—a network of formerly incarcerated leaders building transformative systems of healing, accountability, and liberation across California. (www.westcoastcrediblemessengers.com) Flaco’s life and work are rooted in the struggle against labeling individuals gang members, mass incarceration, and systemic abandonment. After surviving the violence of the carceral state, he returned to his community not as a product of reform, but as a force for abolition. His work builds power at the margins through healing circles, political education, violence intervention, and credible messenger mentorship—centering the wisdom, leadership, and agency of those most impacted by punishment and control. At the heart of Flaco’s organizing and scholarship is a simple but radical commitment: we keep us safe. He develops alternatives to policing and incarceration grounded in transformative justice and community accountability—resisting all forms of state violence while cultivating infrastructures of collective care. A Davis-Putter scholar, Flaco exemplifies the Fund’s legacy of grassroots leadership, combining academic rigor with a deep commitment to movement work on the front lines of liberation.

Swan Pyae Sone Tun (Martin) is a Computer Science student at Skyline College and an executive committee member of Myanmar Student Union - Daly City, the first overseas chapter of All Burma Federation of Student Unions (ABFSU). ABFSU is an anti-imperialist organization fighting against dictatorships and fascism in Burma and abroad. Back home, in Burma, Martin participated in the struggles against anti-military dictatorship following the military coup in February 2021. He migrated to the United States in 2022 and continued organizing for students', workers' and migrants' issues, standing with all oppressed people and waging in the fight for national liberation of Burma.

Nakia Wallace is a co-founder of Detroit Will Breathe, an anti-capitalist organization addressing police violence, evictions and gentrification. Born-and-raised in Detroit she was part of organizing efforts to save schools as a child, learning it was connected to other forms of systemic inequality. Black liberation is the premise of her work, and she believes there is no such thing as Black liberation without global liberation requiring multi-prong, multi-issue, multi-generational organizing that’s inherently anti-capitalist. She organized an event with US Palestinian Community Network, Project 1948, and SJP looking at police repression of protesters. She has worked with Communities for Police Transparency and Accountability Coalition, a large Latine community coalition on police violence in community events. Seeking accountability for a recent police killing and police out of neighborhoods work, she successfully sued the police department for brutality of protesters. She saw the power of law as a tool and decided to go to Law School at Wayne State. Nakia seeks to be a people’s/movement lawyer connected to the lived experiences of the organizers/communities she represents.