The student-led movement to end mass atrocities.

Meet Our Team

STAND’s leadership team consists of a Managing Committee, State Advocacy Leads, and chapter leaders across the country. The Managing Committee, made up of 12 students, is STAND’s central decision-making body, and works to ensure that students have the resources to effectively organize their campuses and communities.

Get to know us and feel free to friend us, send us an email, or tweet at us. We’d love to hear from you!

Meet our State Advocacy Leads | Meet our full-time Staff | Meet our Advisory Board members

Student Director

Caroline Mendoza

Student Director

Columbia University

Caroline is a second year at Columbia University majoring in Human Rights. This will be Caroline's fourth year with STAND and, prior to serving as Student Director, Caroline has assumed roles in Education, Outreach, and as the co-Burma AC Lead. In the past, Caroline has interned with non-profit ACESWorld, Search for Common Ground, and Congresswoman Sanchez, as well as served on the Global Fragility Act Campaign Team between STAND and Mercy Corps. Caroline is currently covering IDP and refugee issues as a research associate with the US Campaign for Burma and has completed fieldwork with the Oxford Initiative for Global Ethics on the intersections of women and conflict.

cmendoza@standnow.org

Programmatic

Allison Weiner

co-East Turkistan Action Committee Lead

DePauw University

Allison is a freshman at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana, where she is majoring in global health and minoring in peace and conflict studies. Before graduating, she worked with the STAND chapter at her local high school in Terre Haute, Indiana for her sophomore, junior, and senior years and eventually became one of five chapter leaders her senior year. She also works closely with Together We Remember (TWR), a global, nonprofit organization aimed at making “never again” a reality. She helped found the Youth Action Network, a part of TWR aimed at giving young people a voice to end mass atrocities. In addition, she is a member of the TWR Fellowship where she is working with young people from all over the world to end genocide and hatred. Allison will be working with the East Turkistan Action Committee as a co-lead with the goal of educating people and spreading awareness in order to inspire people all over the world to take action and end identity-based violence.

aweiner@standnow.org

Claire Sarnowski

co-Fundraising and State-Level Education Lead

Lakeridge High School, Oregon

Claire is a senior at Lakeridge High School in Lake Oswego, Oregon. As a freshman, her efforts led to the passage of a statewide policy to require public schools teach about the Holocaust and other genocides. Claire will be working with STAND over the 2021-2022 academic year to boost STAND's grassroots fundraising efforts and to work with communities to launch their own genocide education initiatives. In addition to working with STAND, Claire is the Lieutenant Governor of her Key Club Division, a board member of ILLO Clothing Closet, and is a proud member of National Honors Society and French National Honors Society.

csarnowski@standnow.org

Hser Nay Christ

co-Burma Action Committee Lead

Academy at Palumbo High School

Hser Nay is a sophomore at Academy at Palumbo High School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This is her first year as co-Burma Action Committee where she will be working will STAND over the 2021-2022 academic year. She is excited to raise awareness and help end wars and genocides in Burma as well as other countries around the world. Ethnically Karen herself, she volunteers as a Karen language teacher and teaches Karen-American children their native language. She also serves as the social media designer and manager for the youth group of Philadelphia Burmese Baptist Church.

hchrist@standnow.org

Ishreet Lehal

co-Education and co-United States Action Committee Lead

University of Southern California

Ishreet is currently a freshman at the University of Southern California planning to study International Business. In her first year on the MC, she led the new Kashmir Action Committee in efforts to raise awareness of the conflicts in the region. In her last four years working with STAND, she has helped educate women through Women For Women International and has worked to educate her community on various social issues such as Islamaphobia by hosting workshops through the local CANDLES Holocaust Museum. In addition to working with STAND, she has also helped to organize events with Together We Remember to memorialize victims of identity-based violence in her community. Ishreet will be working with STAND in the 2021-2022 school year as the co-Education and co-US Action Committee lead, where she hopes to continue STAND’s mission of educating our networks and taking action by leading the US AC in an effort to give a voice to marginalized communities.

ilehal@standnow.org

Jordyn Galvan

co-Policy and Communications

Texas State University

Jordyn Galvan is a Senior at Texas State University, where she is studying Political Science and International Relations. Jordyn comes from a diverse and strong activist background. During the 2020-2021 academic school year, Jordyn worked on the STAND Managing Committee as the Communications and Co-Policy lead. Before working on STAND’s Managing Committee, Jordyn worked under the World Affairs Council in Dallas Ft. Worth, The Refugee Services of Texas, and The SMU Embrey Human Rights Program. Jordyn was named as a 20 under 20 scholar through the Junior World Affairs Council. Jordyn is also a prominent activist in the Indigenous Community through her representation of the Mescalero Apache tribe. She is a Student Leader for the Society of American Indian Government Employees and was also a co-host of the Indigenous Freedom Radio. Jordyn also served on a Superintendent Advisory Council. She will be serving as STAND’s Communications and Co-Policy lead on the Managing Committee for the 2021-2022 academic year.

jgalvan@standnow.org

Mira Mehta

co-Policy and co-Yemen Action Committee Lead

Brown University

Mira is a freshman at Brown University studying economics and international and public affairs. She is excited to be returning as the co-lead of the Yemen Action Committee and to be starting as the co-Policy lead. Outside of STAND, she is working to make history curricular more honest about America's own history of racism and genocide. She has worked as a research assistant to reveal more about local histories of both segregation and cultural diversity. Mira looks forward to continuing working with STAND's grassroots network to promote positive change.

mmehta@standnow.org

Rachel Hobbs

co-Policy Lead and State Advocacy Manager

George Mason University

Rachel is a second year Master in Public Policy student at George Mason University’s Schar School where she focuses on science and technology policy. She organized with STAND as an undergraduate and started on the Managing Committee this year. In addition to her work with STAND, Rachel worked at the international peacebuilding non-profit Search for Common Ground and interned for several summers at one of the US Navy’s engineering labs, Naval Information Warfare Center Pacific, that develops technology to meet national security objectives. She holds a BA in Applied Math from UC Berkeley and jointly filed for a patent in 2019.

rhobbs@standnow.org

Shreya Satagopan

co-Education and co-Burma Action Committee Lead

George Washington University

Shreya is a junior at the George Washington University studying political science and international relations. She joined STAND her sophomore undergraduate year as a State Advocacy Leader and is now serving her first year on the Managing Committee as the co-lead of the Burma Action Committee and co-lead of Education. As a State Advocacy Lead, she was able to delve into global human rights issues and lobbied U.S. Senators and Congress members to vote on international human rights legislation. Along with her work for STAND, Shreya works in D.C. with the Capital Area Immigrants' Rights Coalition to provide legal and emotional aid to detained immigrants and refugees and focuses on bringing education to university students about systemic oppression seen in the criminal and juvenile justice system in the U.S. while advocating for policies that fight to end this.

ssatagopan@standnow.org

Simmy Ghosh

co-East Turkistan Action Committee Lead

College Station High School

Simmy is a rising senior at College Station High School, in College Station Texas. She has been part of STAND since her sophomore year, and this will be her first year as part of the MC. Aside from STAND, Simmy is the national schools coordinator for Climate Science and is her school's NHS Vice President and is the debate team secretary. Simmy is passionate about creating change in the world and is excited and ready to serve on the Managing Committee this year!

sghosh@standnow.org

Outreach

Aisha Saleem

co-Outreach (University) and co-Yemen Action Committee Lead

Barnard College

Aisha Saleem is a senior at Barnard College and is studying biochemistry. She first joined her STAND chapter when she was a senior in high school and joined the Managing Committee (MC) for the first time as a sophomore in college. This will be her third year on the MC! Although her major is very different from topics discussed in STAND, she is always excited to learn about international issues and foreign policy. Outside of STAND, she is involved in scientific research about the branching of neurons in Drosophila Melanogaster. She enjoys movies filmed by Christopher Nolan and listening to all types of music.

asaleem@standnow.org

Grace Harris

co-Fundraising and co-Outreach (High School)

University of California, Los Angeles

Grace is a college freshman at UCLA in Los Angeles originally from Tampa, Florida. She was a member of her high school’s STAND chapter all throughout high school, serving as its president. Since getting involved with STAND at the national level as an Action Committee member three years ago and as a State Advocacy Lead two years ago, she has been involved with advocacy at both the local and national levels. This will be her second year on the Managing Committee. In addition to her work with STAND, Grace has also worked with March For Our Lives, a gun violence prevention organization, Sunrise Movement, an environmental justice organization, and Dream Defenders, a local police and prison abolition organization. She is passionate about issues of injustice and is ready to continue her work as a member of the Managing Committee this year!

gharris@standnow.org