Our office reached capacity this winter by welcoming two new members to the team: JC Sanchez and Willow Brugh. We are fortunate to have them on board to expand our program work in California and abroad.
JC, our new Technology Capacity Builder, interned with Aspiration in 2013 as a student of the Everett Program at UC Santa Cruz. His serendipitous return will allow him to continue the work he started two years ago. Conversing over coffee in downtown Oakland, he explains:
- When I was first at Aspiration as an intern, I was made the unofficial translator. For example, I was given the job of translating the Publishing Matrix. So hopefully, that is going to carry over. Now, part of my job will be translating and holding down Spanish sessions and trainings, and expanding our network with Spanish-speaking organizations.
JC will be working with bilingual grassroots organizations across California to help them use technology in sustainable ways, introduce core concepts in digital security, learn more about their needs, and understand their own practices.
Willow, our first Community Leadership Strategist, has a knack for visually capturing ideas and conveying complex systems through the scientific application of stick figures. She's excited to bring her previous work in humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HA/DR) into the organizational home of Aspiration. Chatting remotely from Rhode Island, she writes:
- Working on teams is dynamic, scales well, and keeps you humble but also supported. I'm excited to be a part of this team, because Aspiration has figured out some pretty rockin' facilitation models, which are highly applicable in other spaces that I've worked in. I don't know about all of those things, but I'm eager to learn and pass them outwards.
With the support of Aspiration, Willow is continuing her work with digital response in HA/DR. By incorporating social justice principles into the work she does, she hopes to support the resiliency of self-directed communities before crises happen. In addition, she'll help document Aspiration's processes and facilitation methodologies so that they can be transferred over to new spaces beyond digital response. Check out her initial thoughts on being our first remote worker in Tales of Telecommuting.