Our Team

Director

Amado Uno serves as the MVP Director and works closely with the Executive Committee and MVP staff to set the strategic direction of MVP’s work and to lead cutting-edge power-building programs. He has over two decades of experience building multiracial, multi-sector coalitions and waging campaigns that improve the lives of low-income communities of color. Before leading the MVP team, Amado was a Senior Advisor and Political Director at the Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN), Special Assistant to the Secretary of Labor in the Obama Administration, and Executive Director of the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA). Amado is the recipient of the Public Policy and International Affairs Fellowship and the Coro Fellowship and received his graduate degree in Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon University.

Deputy Director

Karla Zombro serves as MVP Deputy Director and leads MVP’s Strategic Campaigns, Power Building Programs, and Coalition Building. She previously led MVP’s large-scale voter engagement programs, which have contributed the largest Get Out the Vote programs in California in every election cycle since its founding in 2015. Karla is a longtime community and labor organizer and the former Field Director for California Calls, where she partnered with local community organizations across the state to build Integrated Voter Engagement capacity. Before CA Calls, Karla was a Lead Organizer at SEIU 1877 (Justice for Janitors, Si Senor!) from 1994 to 1999 and in the early 2000s, Karla held a variety of Organizing roles at SCOPE/AGENDA in Los Angeles. A first-generation college student, Karla earned her BA in Women’s Studies at UCLA.

Field Director

Mynor Godoy serves as the Field Director for the Million Voters Project, where he equips coalition partners with the field strategy and training to shift California’s electorate. Mynor is the son of Guatemalan immigrants, born into the diaspora that has made Los Angeles home. Prior to joining the Million Voters Project, Mynor served as the Field Director for Power California for 6 years and is recognized for leading innovative programs to engage, recruit and activate young activists to improve conditions in their schools and communities. Mynor graduated from the University of California, Irvine with a BA in Political Science and International Studies and received his graduate degree in International Affairs from Columbia University in New York.

Data Director

Bill Schwulst serves as the Data Director leading data and technology strategy as well as working with MVP organizations to implement cutting-edge organizing and communications programs efficiently and effectively. With two decades of national, statewide, and local experience with political campaigns and nonprofit organizations, Bill is recognized for managing winning and imaginative programs and pushing the envelope on what’s possible when we organize, organize, and organize! Bill is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh and is pursuing a Masters in Public Leadership at the University of San Francisco.

LisaMarie serves as the Communications Manager at the Million Voters Project, working with members of the MVP Strategic Communications Committee to shift the Narrative in California and assert our communities’ stories. LisaMarie was born and raised in the Inland Valley to an inter-generational household in a small unincorporated community in Riverside County. She has spent the past 8 years refining a participatory advocacy approach to organizing and community development statewide, and in her local region. LisaMarie is a first-generation college graduate having earned a Bachelors of Arts in Environmental Justice and Sustainability from San Francisco State University.

Director, AAPIs for Civic Empowerment

Timmy Lu is co-founder and director of AAPIs for Civic Empowerment. Prior to this role, he was the State Organizing Director for the Asian Pacific Environmental Network. In his 11 years there he built APEN’s multilingual, multiethnic civic engagement programs, growing it from hundreds of voter conversations to tens of thousands. Raised in the San Gabriel Valley, Timmy is the child of ethnic Chinese refugees from Vietnam.

Deputy Director, AAPIs for Civic Empowerment

Cha Vang works on issues ranging from education to food justice to civic engagement, to ensure communities get the resources they deserve to thrive and that they are at decision making tables. She is a co-founder of Hmong Innovating Politics (HIP) and serves as a board member on the CA Racial and Identity Profiling Advisory Board for the Office of Attorney General. Cha was born in the refugee camps of Thailand and raised in South Sacramento.

Executive Director, ACCE

Christina Livingston is the Executive Director of ACCE and the ACCE Institute. She began her organizing career in 2004 as a field organizer for Los Angeles ACORN. There she worked with community members in South LA, developing leaders and organizing campaigns to improve community conditions and later became the Field Director for California ACORN. In 2010 Christina, along with former ACORN staff and leaders, started ACCE and later the ACCE Institute where she worked for 2 years as Deputy Director before becoming Executive Director.

Executive Director and Co-Founder, California Black Power Network

Before CBPN, James served as the Policy Director of the CA Black Census and Redistricting Hub and as Policy and Strategic Projects Manager at CA Calls, leading their work on the 2020 Census, Redistricting, and the Voters Choice Act. Before moving to California, James was Director of Programs for the Boys and Girls Club of Newark, NJ and served in a variety of roles in the DNC, the NJ Democratic State Committee, Obama for America, and NJ Health Care for America Now campaign. James is a licensed attorney and Alum of Rutgers Law School.

Associate Director and Co-Founder, California Black Power Network

Prior to CBPN, Kevin worked at CA Calls, partnering with grassroots organizations statewide to build multi-racial, multi-generational, and multi-issue coalitions. Since 2008, Kevin has been part of the abolitionist movement, as a founding member of Active Students Against Prisons and Policing at UCR and of Justice For Trayvon Martin Los Angeles, now Black Lives Matter LA. Prior to CA Calls, he worked in the Inland Valley as an Organizer, College Access Mentor, and Youth Program Coordinator. Kevin is a Graduate of UC Riverside.

CEO, California Calls

Sabrina Smith has over 25 years of organizing, campaigns, strategic communications, and training. Prior to California Calls, Sabrina worked at SCOPE in LA where she led regional alliance building, grassroots leadership development, voter engagement, and policy campaigns. Sabrina has trained hundreds of organizers across the country in campaign development, alliance building, and strategic communications.

Executive Director, CHIRLA

Since becoming CHIRLA’s executive director in 1999, Angelica Salas has spearheaded numerous ambitious campaigns locally, state-wide, and nationally and is a leading spokesperson on federal immigration policy. Under Angelica’s leadership, CHIRLA and its partners have built the foundation for the recent upsurge in immigrant rights activism. One of Angelica’s greatest accomplishments at CHIRLA has been the transformation of a coalition of social service providers into an organization that empowers immigrants to engage in advocacy on their own behalf.

Political Director, CHIRLA

Fatima Flores Lagunas is the Political Director of CHIRLA’s Civic Engagement Department, where she led programs to help defeat the 2021 Gubernatorial Recall, Yes Immigrants Forward campaign, and the 2022 Midterm Elections. Born in México City, Fatima grew up undocumented in Omaha, NE. Fatima’s experiences and struggles have motivated her to share her story and message of hope so that others can come out of the shadows and live a life without fear.

Executive Director, Inland Empire United Education Fund

Sky Allen is the Executive Director of Inland Empire United Education Fund, a civic engagement coalition serving San Bernardino and Riverside Counties. Born, raised, and educated in the Inland Empire, Sky is committed to challenging outdated institutions and chipping away at structural issues locally and regionally in order to make her home region better for future generations. She got her start in the field as a policy fellow with the Warehouse Worker Resource Center before working as IE United Ed Fund's Program Director from 2019-2022. Sky earned her B.S. in Business Admin at UC Riverside and her Masters of Public Policy at UCLA.

Executive Director, OCCET

Jonathan Paik (JP) strives to transform Orange County by steering the collective power of local communities through organizing and civic engagement. Before joining OCCET as Executive Director in 2019, he was Executive Director of the Korean Resource Center and KRC in Action, staffed numerous political campaigns, and worked as the Development and Operations Coordinator through the Bus Federation Civic Fund.

Deputy Director, OCCET

Jazzmin Mercado (she/her) is a free spirited Ecuadorian American mother whose purpose in life is to be in right and loving relationship with others. Through the last few years, Jazzmin has been working to transform Orange County into a home that provides a good quality of life for people of color. Currently, Jazzmin is supporting the organizing and civic engagement at OC Action as the Campaign Manager.

Executive Director, PICO California

Joseph Tomás McKellar is the Director of PICO California. Prior to this role, he served as Faith in the Valley’s founding Director, leading efforts in the San Joaquin Valley to launch a powerful regional organization. Prior to joining PICO California, Joseph was the Founding Director of Faith in New York where he grew its membership to 70,000 grassroots leaders in 54 congregations. From 2005 to 2011, Joseph worked as a Community Organizer for the San Diego Organizing Project and the Orange County Congregation Community Organization.

Director of Campaigns, PICO California

Eddie Carmona is the Campaigns Director for PICO California, leading the network's unified statewide issue and legislative agenda. Growing up in a low-income community and living in a mixed status family is what propelled Eddie to lead in the social justice movement. As the son of an immigrant farm worker from Jalisco, Mexico and originally from East LA, Eddie has been fighting for immigrant rights, restorative justice, access to healthcare, indigenous sovereignty, and affordable housing for the past 15 years.

Executive Director, Power California

Luis Sánchez is co-founder and Executive Director of Power California. Before Power California, Luis was a Senior Fellow at the Movement Strategy Center where he led the Boys and Men of Color and the Building Healthy Communities Statewide Youth Engagement Initiative. He was also the founding Executive Director of InnerCity Struggle in East LA.

Director of Power Building, California Calls

Lydia Avila leads California Calls’ Power Building Team in supporting Anchor organizations across California with all aspects of their statewide electoral, organizing, and digital programs. In 2022, she took a leave of absence from California Calls to serve as Field Director for the Karen Bass for Mayor Campaign, helping to elect LA’s First Black Woman Mayor. Before joining California Calls, she was the Director of Community Organizing at Innercity Struggle, an educational justice organization working with youth and parents to improve the quality of education in East Los Angeles schools.