OUR TEAM
ELYSE MARTIN-SMITH (she/her) - SUMMER ORGANIZER - Elyse is passionate about African American Studies and Social Studies with a focus in Black Artivism — an exploration of the rich intersection between academia, art and activism. As the vocal Political Action Chair of the Harvard College Black Students Association during the fall of affirmative action, she embodies these values in practice through community organizing and artistry. Elyse is excited to continue this pursuit of educational equity at Class Action.
RYAN CIESLIKOWSKI - LEAD ORGANIZER, CO-FOUNDER - Ryan recently graduated from Stanford University with a B.A. in International Relations and an M.A. in Sociology. His master’s thesis, “Buying Into Selling Out: How Graduating Stanford Students Understand Corporate Career Funneling and Justify Their Decision to Participate,” won the Sociology department's award for best master's thesis. During COVID, Ryan organized volunteers to provide childcare for underserved medical workers, saving them hundreds of thousands of dollars in child care costs. Since then, he's trained in community organizing with Marshall Ganz who led the 2008 Obama campaign’s grassroots organizing efforts.
MOLLY MAGUIRE - POLICY AND DEVELOPMENT LEAD - With over 14 years of experience in higher education policy and budgeting, Molly is a seasoned expert across the federal, state, and local levels. Her expertise spans policy analysis, strategic planning, and stakeholder engagement. She has contributed to policy design in the New York Governor's Office, worked at the President’s Office at Hunter College, and served as the Director of State and Federal Policy for the Campaign for College Opportunity, where she helped design California's AB 1780, banning legacy admissions in the state's private institutions. Molly holds a Bachelor's Degree from St. Andrews University in Scotland, and a Masters in Public Policy from the University of Michigan.
BOARD
EVAN MANDERY, CO-FOUNDER - Evan Mandery is a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice at the City University of New York. A longtime critic of legacy preference and other inequities of access, Evan is the author most recently of Poison Ivy: How Elite Colleges Divide Us. A graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, Evan has written seven other books, including four novels, and won Emmy and Peabody Awards in 2019.
PETER SINGER - Peter is a renowned moral philosopher and the Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University. He is the author of Animal Liberation, in which he argues for vegetarianism, and the essay "Famine, Affluence, and Morality," which became one of the most influential philosophical texts of the twentieth century.
PAOLA SANTANA - Paola is an executive director at Glendale College Foundation. Before that, she served as a strategy officer at Lumina Foundation supporting states’ efforts to increase attainment and eliminate racial disparities. A first-generation and community college transfer student, Santana holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley, and a master’s in higher education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
HARDIN COLEMAN - Hardin is a professor and the dean emeritus of Boston University's Center for Character and Social Responsibility. He has co-edited several handbooks, including The Handbook of School Counseling and The Intersection of Race, Class, and Gender in Multicultural Counseling. He currently serves on the Boston Public School Committee.
NICHOLAS ZEPPOS - An esteemed legal scholar, teacher, and higher education leader, Nick served for more than a decade as Vanderbilt University’s eighth Chancellor. During his tenure, Nick championed a move toward more equitable admissions making him an expert in both higher education administration and equitable admissions.
AMY BINDER - Amy is the SNF-Agora Professor of Sociology at Johns Hopkins University. She earned her Ph.D. in Sociology from Northwestern University in 1998 and her BA in Anthropology from Stanford University in 1986. She was on the sociology faculty at the University of California San Diego from 2003 to 2023 and, before that, at the University of Southern California from 1998 to 2003. She wrote the two most cited articles on career funneling and is an expert in student activism.
LOFTON HOLDER - Lofton is the co-founder of Pine Street, an award-winning asset management firm with a particular focus on women and minority portfolio managers. Lofton is actively engaged in the community and is particularly focused on ideas to advance educational opportunity and student achievement for young people from low-income backgrounds as well as students of color. Lofton received a BA in Political Science from Columbia University and a MBA from the Yale School of Organization and Management.
NATASHA WARIKOO - Natasha is a Professor of Sociology at Tufts University. A former Guggenheim Fellow and high school teacher, Warikoo is an expert on racial and ethnic inequality in education. She released two books in 2022, Race at the Top: Asian Americans and Whites in Pursuit of the American Dream in Suburban Schools and Is Affirmative Action Fair? The Myth of Equity in College Admissions. In addition to her academic work, Warikoo is co-chair of the Scholars Strategy Network Boston Chapter, which aims to connect scholars, policymakers, civic leaders, and journalists.
HERNAN QUINTAS - Hernan Quintas, is an anchor and reporter for Telemundo 15 news, reporting to the residents of the Coachella Valley and surrounding areas. Before returning to the news, Hernan served as press secretary and later as district director and communications director for Congressman Raul Ruiz. During this period, he had the opportunity to work with community members, local, national and international leaders, as well as high-level political figures.
MASON QUINTERO - Mason recently graduated from Amherst College with a B.A in Physics. While at Amherst, he co-founded the Better Amherst Initiative, an organization that lobbies administrators, faculty, and the board of trustees to send more students into public interest jobs and have more classes that teach students how to solve real-world issues.
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