Jennie Encalada-Malinwoski

Jennie Encalada-Malinowski is a Brooklyn-based activist and community organizer. She is Latina with family roots in Colombia and Ecuador. Because of her family’s own immigration story, Jennie comes to her work with a passion for uplifting the lives of immigrants and newly immigrated community members. She currently works at the New York State Laborers’ Organizing Fund (NYSLOF), which represents over 40,000 members around the state employed in the construction industry and other fields. Jennie has taken an active role on campaigns with a focus on the NYS construction workforce and advocating for family-sustaining wages, and safe and dignified jobsites for all. Prior to working with the Laborers’, Jennie served as the Senior Advocacy Coordinator at the New Immigrant Community Empowerment (NICE), a community-based non-profit organization and worker center supporting and organizing new immigrants. Jennie received her MSW at the Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College, where she focused on Community Organizing, Planning, and Development. 

Shannon Finnegan

Shannon Finnegan is a multidisciplinary artist making work about accessibility and disability culture. They have done projects with Banff Centre, Friends of the High Line, Tallinn Art Hall, Nook Gallery, and the Wassaic Project. They have spoken about their work at the Brooklyn Museum, School for Poetic Computation, The 8th Floor, and The Andrew Heiskell Braille and Talking Book Library. In 2018, they received a Wynn Newhouse Award and participated in Art Beyond Sight’s Art + Disability Residency. In 2019, they were an artist-in-residence at Eyebeam. Their work has been written about in Art in America, C Magazine, Hyperallergic, and the New York Times. They live and work in Brooklyn, NY.

Zoë Adel

Zoë is the Special Projects Manager at the Brooklyn Community Bail Fund (BCBF), an organization dedicated to challenging the criminalization of race, poverty and immigration status. In her capacity at BCBF, she manages the organization’s advocacy projects, strategic communications and visual content. Her most recent work includes developing an updated know-your-rights booklet with CUP to help New Yorkers navigate the bail payment system in New York State to avoid further harm. Zoë’s work is driven by a vision of a society where the carceral system is no longer used as a response to structural racial and socioeconomic inequity. She holds a B.S. in Psychology from Tulane University and is currently earning her MPA in Nonprofit Management and Public Policy, with a focus on quantitative methods and evaluation, at NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. 

Hrudaya Veena Yanamandala

Hrudaya Veena Yanamandala is a Design Strategist currently working at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. Her work focuses on using human centered design methodologies to communicate complex social problems. Currently at MSK, she uses service design in solving for patients’, caregivers’, and clinicians’ needs to improve programs and services within MSK. She is an engineer turned designer from India. She holds a Master’s degree in Design for Social Innovation from the School of Visual Arts and a Bachelor’s degree in Electronics and Communications engineering from Osmania University, India. She has also worked with clients like the United Nations Foundation, Going to School, India, Visit.org, and West Chelsea Energy Alliance. While not at work, Hrudaya enjoys illustrating, reading and hiking.