CHANGE MAKERS: A Photographic Portrait Series by Jena Cumbo

Yassmin Abdel-Magied is a mechanical engineer, social activist, author and broadcaster. After graduating with a degree in Mechanical Engineering, Abdel-Magied worked at both Schlumberger and Shell. She is a long-time social activist; at the age of 16, she co-founded Youth Without Borders, and she has been a board member of Child Fund Australia and OurWatch, as well as a member of the Council for Australian-Arab Relations. Her TED Talk, What Does My Headscarf Mean to You, has attracted over 1.8 million views, and her defense of Sharia law and Islam on The Drum, an Australian television show, prompted a heated national conversation. Abdel-Magied has written for The Guardian, Teen Vogue and Financial Review, and has published a memoir, Yassmin’s Story.

Brenda Bufalino is an innovator in the tap dance world, with a career that spans decades. In 1986, she co-founded, directed and choreographed for The American Tap Dance Orchestra, a group that performed on television and stage, including several seasons at the Joyce Theater, as well as performing internationally under the auspices of the U.S. State Department. In 1989, Bufalino created the Woodpeckers Tap Dance Center in New York City, which held classes, workshops and performances. Bufalino has had a robust performing career, including performing and choreographing with “Honi” Coles, performing off-Broadway in several one-woman shows, and appearing in The Courtroom, directed by Bill Irwin. She has been awarded numerous National Endowment Fellowships and is the recipient of the 2016 Bessie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Dance.

Judaline Cassidy is a plumber and member of Local Union 1. Born in Trinidad and Tobago, she was one of the first three women accepted into the plumbing program at John Donaldson Technical Institute. Cassidy was one of the first women accepted into Plumbers Local Union 371 Staten Island New York, and the first woman elected to the Examining Board of Plumbers Local Union 1. She co-founded the Croton Sisters of Plumbers Local 1 NYC, the woman’s committee of her union, and she is also the founder of Tools & Tiaras, a non-profit that exposes young girls to careers in the construction industry.

Roberta Colindrez is an actor and writer, known for her gender bending roles. After receiving her BFA from Texas State University, Colindrez moved to New York where she became an ensemble member of New York Neo-Futurists, a group for which she has served as co-artistic director. Her big break came when she was cast as Joan in the Tony-award winning musical Fun Home. Colindrez appeared in the Oscar-winning movie Birdman and in a highly praised recurring performance as Tako on the HBO series Girls. Recent roles including starring as the sexually fluid artist Devon on Amazon’s series I Love Dick and performing as Rosencrantz in the Public Theater’s version of Hamlet with Oscar Isaacs. Colindrez has just finished shooting the indie film Ms. White Light in which she has a starring role.

Lauren Duca is an award-winning journalist who is currently a columnist/editor at Teen Vogue. After graduating from Fordham University in 2013 and stints at New York Magazine and Vulture, Duca went to work for Huffington Post, where she was known for Middlebrow, her column exploring the intersection of pop culture, feminism and politics. One of her features, “The Rise of the Woman-Child,” won a National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Award from the L.A. Press Club. At Teen Vogue, Duca gained national attention for her 2016 piece “Donald Trump is Gaslighting America,” which led to her controversial appearance on Tucker Carlson Tonight. Duca currently writes a Thigh-High Politics column for Teen Vogue and appears regularly on television.

DeNora Getachew is the New York City Executive Director of Generation Citizen. Since graduating from Fordham University School of Law, Getachew has had a long history of civic engagement; prior to her current job, she was a Campaign Manager and Legislative Counsel for the Brennan Center for Justice, Policy Director of NYC’s Office of the Public Advocate, Director of Public Policy and Advocacy for Citizens Union and Legislative Attorney for the New York City Council. Getachew’s passion is grassroots activism and strengthening our democracy, and she has worked on issues ranging from modernizing campaign finance laws to increasing government transparency. Her current project, Generation Citizen, brings a semester long active educational program into the classroom, focusing on schools in underserved communities.

Brynn Gingras is a National Correspondent for CNN. Gingras studied American Studies and Sociology at Yale (where she was also captain of the women’s basketball team), and then took a job as a CBS News Production Assistant, where she was part of teams covering events such as Hurricane Katrina and the Iraq War. After deciding to pursue on camera work, Gingras spent 4 years as an anchor/reporter at JW Broadcasting in Missouri. She then moved to NBC Universal as a reporter, and in 2016, assumed her current job as a CNN National Correspondent. While Gingras covers a wide range of stories, she has spent significant time at CNN on the law enforcement beat.

Andrea Harris is a mason and a member of Union Local 237/780. Harris followed her parents into the trades; her mother is a retired laborer and both parents were carpenters. Harris, who began working as a mason with the NYC Department of Homeless Services in 2005, transferred to the NY Fire Department in 2010, where she works on firehouses and other FDNY properties. She is a recipient of the Fire Department’s Trailblazer Award, and remains close to her family; in 2005 she donated a kidney to her mother.

Remy Holwick is an activist, photographer, model and the founder of xIST. On moving to New York four years ago, Holwick spearheaded xIST, a New York City-based intersectional feminist society that brainstorms solutions to everyday problems and has been the impetus behind events including Prom, a dream high school prom for adults. One of the most important initiatives coming out of xIST was a letter writing campaign to recall Aaron Persky, the judge in the Brock Turner rape trial—Holwick was co-chair of the campaign, which generated thousands of letters asking California’s Commission of Judicial Performance to unseat Persky. Ultimately, the voters of California recalled Persky.

Ariel Lopez is the founder of 2020Shift. Throughout a career as a tech recruiter and career coach, with companies ranging from Marcus Evans to General Assembly, Lopez recognized the disparity in diversity in the tech field. In 2014, she created 2020Shift, a company that aims to make tech more inclusive by helping tech and digital media companies diversify their recruitment process and offering classes, workshops and other programming. 2020Shift has partnered with many well-known companies, including Yelp, Spotify and Buffer. Lopez is also a member of Forbes Coaches Council, an invitation-only organization created by Forbes and Young Entrepreneur Council to provide leadership opportunities to top business and career coaches, and has spoken at numerous events including Tech Inclusion, Greenhouse Open, Hispanicize, Black Tech Week and Social Media Week.

Donna Lieberman is the Executive Director of the New York Civil Liberties Union. Lieberman began her public interest legal career as a criminal defense lawyer in the South Bronx Legal Aid Office, and has been in her current job since 2001. Some of her most important cases and initiatives include helping to reform the Rockefeller Drug Laws, prevailing in a lawsuit requiring New York State to recognize the marriages of gay and lesbian couples lawfully married in other states or countries, protecting students’ rights against military recruitment in high schools, challenging racial profiling and advocating for universal legal representation for indigent immigrants.

Briauna Mariah is a model and the founder of We Speak. After recognizing many of the problems plaguing the model industry, including the unhealthy emphasis on unrealistic body image, Mariah founded We Speak in 2013. The agency currently represents a diverse group of more than 70 health-conscious and drug free models who range in size from 0-22 and are 4’9” to 6’2” tall. We Speak advocates for positive change within fashion and fosters a positive, healthy, family-like environment for its models. Models are paid promptly and protected and are never charged mysterious fees. Mariah’s future plans for the agency include representing actors, child models, and boosting the careers of her current roster, always keeping true to her vision of greater inclusivity in fashion.

Lane Moore is a comedian, writer, actress and the creator of Tinder Live. Moore, a multifaceted talent, has been called a “jack of all trades” by Vogue. She is the frontwoman for It Was Romance, a band for which she writes all the songs and plays a number of instruments; Bust Magazine called the band the Best Band of 2015. She also created Tinder Live, a comedy show based on Tinder messages; the show has been so successful that she is now touring the world with it. Moore is a prolific writer and her pieces have appeared in publications including The Onion, GQ and Glamour and she is currently writing a book, How To Be Alone. Moore has acted on HBO’s Girls and is a panelist on What Do You Know, a show on Rooster Teeth TV.

Daunnette Reyome is a Native American model and an activist against cultural appropriation. Reyome, who began modeling at age 12, is a member of the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska. Reyome achieved renown for a Teen Vogue feature in which she spoke out against cultural appropriation of Native American symbols, such as Caucasian swimsuit models wearing headdresses. She is currently working on a children’s book that will provide insight into Native American culture, and recently spoke at the International Day of the Girl Summit at United Nations Headquarters. She helped to organize a Day of the Girl celebration in Indian Country in October 2018.

Jessamyn Stanley is a yoga instructor and body positivity activist. Her inclusive, body-affirming approach to yoga champions the idea that yoga is not just for thin, white women, and her lifestyle blog and Instagram account have gained hundreds of thousands of followers. Stanley has written a book, Every Body Yoga, has recently recorded a podcast, “Jessamyn Explains It All,” has been profiled in numerous magazines including Glamour and Cosmopolitan, and was named one of Fast Company’s 100 Most Creative People in Business in 2017.