Opal Tometi, Executive Director
Opal Tometi is a New York based Nigerian-American writer, strategist and community organizer. Ms. Tometi is a Co-founder of #BlackLivesMatter. The historic political project was launched in the wake of the murder of Trayvon Martin in order to explicitly combat implicit bias and anti-black racism and to protect and affirm the beauty and dignity of all Black lives. Ms. Tometi is credited with creating the online platforms and initiating the social media strategy during the project’s early days. The campaign has grown into a national network of approximately 50 chapters. Tometi has presented before the United Nations General Assembly and, was #10 on the 2015 Root 100 list and was named a “New Civil Rights Leader” by the Los Angeles Times in and ESSENCE magazine for her cutting edge work building bridges between immigrant rights and the ever-growing Black liberation movement. In 2016, in recognition of their contribution human rights, Opal Tometi and the #BlackLivesMatter co-founders received an honorary doctorate degree, BET’s Black Girls Rock Community Change Agent Award , recognition among the world’s fifty greatest leaders by Fortune and POLITICO magazines.
Ms. Tometi is currently at the helm of the country’s leading Black organization for immigrant rights, the Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI) founded in 2006, is a national organization that educates and advocates to further immigrant rights and racial justice together with African-American, Afro-Latino, African and Caribbean immigrant communities. As the Executive Director at BAJI, Opal collaborates with staff and communities in Los Angeles, Phoenix, New York, Oakland, Washington, DC and communities throughout the Southern states. The organization’s most recent campaign helped win family reunification visas for Haitians displaced by the 2010 earthquake. BAJI is an award winning institution with recognition by leading intuitions across the country.
Tia Oso, National Organizer
Anshantia “Tia” Oso is a member of BAJI’s senior leadership team, serving as the National Organizer. Tia is responsible for developing and implementing strategy for BAJI’s national campaigns, coalitions and program initiatives such as public education and trainings. Tia manages BAJI’s flagship project, the Black Immigration Network (BIN), a national network of over 40 organizations in communities serving African-Americans and immigrants of African descent to build relationships, develop skills and advance an agenda for immigrant rights and racial justice.
Mobilizing thousands of advocates for various issues in the public interest, Ms. Oso is a dynamic social justice champion, organizing campaigns such as “PHX For Trayvon” and leading the historic “Say Her Name” action at the Netroots Nation 2016 Presidential Candidate Townhall. A community engagement specialist experienced in social change initiatives, Ms. Oso is a firm believer in the ability of everyday people to become change-makers in their communities.
Carl Lipscombe, Programs Manager
Carl Lipscombe is a member of BAJI’s senior leadership team as Programs Manager and a Bronx-bred policy advocate, organizer, and attorney. Throughout his career, Carl has organized poor Black and immigrant communities; litigated on behalf of indigent criminal defendants and undocumented immigrants; and worked with grassroots organizations, worker centers, and unions to affect policy change on the local, state, and national levels.
Most recently, Carl worked with the National Guestworker Alliance where he provided research, policy development, and capacity building assistance to worker associations nationwide seeking to expand labor protections low-wage immigrant workers. Previously, at Right To The City, Carl coordinated policy working groups focused on affordable housing, environmental justice, and urban development. Carl began his career at Jobs with Justice, where, as organizing director, he mobilized poor black and immigrant community residents, low-wage workers, and students to support labor and economic policy campaigns. While at JWJ, he also led NY VOTE, a five year initiative that built the capacity of local grassroots organizations to engage voters in their communities.
In addition, Carl has worked as a trial attorney at The Bronx Defenders, where he represented over 400 indigent defendants in criminal and related proceedings and as a legal advocate at the Cardozo Immigration Justice Clinic, Carl won a successful challenge to an illegal ICE home raid, helped an undocumented immigrant obtain administrative relief, and wrote a guide for groups seeking to fight immigration detention centers in their communities, while working at Cardozo’s Immigration Justice Clinic.
Carl received a B.A. in philosophy from Brooklyn College, studied public policy at New York University, and received a law degree from Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, where his coursework focused on criminal and immigration law.
Juwaher Yusuf, Operations Coordinator
Juwaher Yusuf is the New York City based Operations Coordinator with the Black Alliance for Just Immigration. Juwaher has a strong passion for operations, and community development. A graduate from the University of Western Ontario, she holds a degree in Global Culture and Development Studies. Ms.Yusuf is also a CITY Leaders graduate from United Way Toronto and the University of Toronto.
Devonté Jackson, Bay Area Organizer
Devonté Jackson is the Bay Area Organizer for the Black Alliance for Just Immigration. Having grown up in Oakland, San Leandro, and San Lorenzo, he has grown passionate in addressing social and economic inequality in the Bay Area Community. Devonté received his education at UC Berkeley where he served as Party Chair of Cal Students for Equal Rights and a Valid Education (CalSERVE), Cal’s longest standing progressive multicultural coalition and intern for Cal’s Multicultural Community Center (MCC) where he gained experience in coalition building and cross-community organizing.
Recently, Devonté has organized with AFSCME Local 3299 and students across California on labor issues within the University of California System and he played an important role within the Students of Color Solidarity Coalition at UC Berkeley who organized for a more democratic University. Devonté believes that we can collectively make change through coalition building and practicing cross-cultural solidarity.
Benjamin Ndugga-Kubaye, Research and Policy Associate
Benjamin Ndugga-Kabuye, is BAJI’s Research and Policy Associate where he analyzes, investigates, and interprets policies, programs, and issues that impact Black families and communities across the diaspora. Previously, Ben served as BAJI’s NYC Organizer where he led base-building and leadership development initiatives, coordinated the NYC Black Immigration Network, and conducted Know Your Rights and other trainings in Black immigrant communities. A writer and researcher, Ben draws inspiration from his background as a Ugandan immigrant and his experience working on a range of policy areas impacting black communities in California, Washington, D.C. and New York. Ben received a bachelor’s degree in Criminology, a Master’s in Public Policy at The New School, and has held several public policy fellowships.
Rocio Silverio, Kinship Coordinator
Rocio Silverio joins BAJI as the Kinship Coordinator and brings over a decade of experience in community outreach, grassroots organizing, public health and youth development. She is a co-founder of and a core organizer with We Are All Dominican (WAAD), a New York City collective that works in solidarity with movements led by Dominicans of Haitian descent fighting for inclusion and nationality rights, and works to educate and activate the Dominican diaspora in order to challenge anti-Haitian and anti-black discourses. Rocio has worked as a youth organizer for BronxWorks, was a community health worker for the Institute for Family Health in the South Bronx and has cultivated collaborative, working relationships with a strong network of New York City based social justice organizations
Rocio is the daughter of hard-working Dominican immigrants who have now lived longer in New York City then their native Dominican Republic. Many of the social and economic barriers that led to her family’s migration from the Caribbean continued to be a reality in the marginalized neighborhoods where Rocio grew up.
Rocio graduated with a Bachelors in Africana Studies from the City University of New York, Hunter College.
Albert Saint Jean, New York City Organizing Fellow
Albert Saint Jean, having been reared by a community oriented, politically aware Haitian-American family, developed a passion for social justice and black awareness. This worldview is compounded by his exposure to diverse black communities in New Jersey, Florida, and New York. Albert’s Pan-African perspective led him to pursue a bachelor’s in Political Science with a focus on International Affairs from the University of Central Florida. Albert further prepared himself to serve his community by getting his Masters in Urban Policy from the New School, with a focus on community development. During that time he worked on community development projects in black and brown communities such as West Harlem and Orange, New Jersey.