Meet the Team

Lily Conable (Co-Lead Organizer, Alameda Chapter)

Lily is a junior at Encinal High School and is a passionate social justice and women's rights advocate and activist. Her past actions include a school-wide Women's Rights Rally and a feminine hygiene products drive to raise support for CA Assemblymember Cristina Garcia's legislation, AB9 (to remove the tax on period products) and AB10 (to provide free period products to low-income schools and women's shelters). AB10 has been signed by the California Governor.

Lily has worked in her school's Restorative Justice Program for 2 years and is an intern with CARE USA, an international humanitarian aid organization that is fighting poverty by empowering women and girls in developing countries. With CARE, Lily works on youth engagement in advocacy and beyond.

Lily truly believes in the importance of empathy and diversity. She believes feminism is about equality for all women regardless of race, religion, class, or creed and believes that young people have the power to change the world. She won the Alameda Youth Community Service Award in Fall 2017 for her work promoting justice and peace in her community and world.

Anisya Lustig-Ellison (Co-Lead Organizer Alameda Chapter)

Anisya is a current Junior and Encinal High School who has a huge passion for social justice. She was a past member of the Encinal Restorative Justice Center and took on a leadership role among her peers. Anisya has a drive to empower young people to make changes in their communities and stand up for themselves. For the past 5 summers, Anisya has been an assistant teacher for Go Girls! Camp where she helped inspire young girls to stand up for themselves and stand up for others in need.

Her past projects involving social justice include co-organizing the Encinal High School Women's Rally in 2017 which proved to be a major success. She also helped to organize a feminine hygiene products drive on her school campus. She is currently the debate director of the Encinal JSA and helped to lead her chapter in winning two best speaker awards at the NorCal Fall Conference.

Sarah Skaff (Co-Lead Organizer Alameda Chapter)

Sarah Skaff is an outspoken advocate for women's rights. Also a member of the Encinal Restorative Justice Center, Sarah has been spreading the peace and working with students of many ages throughout her high school years. Sarah has been known to spark important dialogues regarding women's issues among her peers and what it truly means to be a feminist.

Sarah also has experience as a youth leader at the Mosaic Project in Oakland. Additionally, she was one of the brains behind the Women's Rights Rally at Encinal in March 2017. She hosted a Social Supper and invited peers to speak about global crises involving women. Sarah is the Vice President on Encinal's Junior State of America club and has led her chapter to be the largest constituency from the East Bay region at the JSA Fall Conference 2017.

Anna Szekeres (Founder)

Anna Szekeres is a high school student in Connecticut. She has been politically active since November 9th, 2016. Since then, she has worked on multiple grassroots campaigns and is currently gearing up for the 2018 election. She was never motivated to be politically active until recent events made her realize the vast extent of sexism that still remains in our society.

Anna founded Political Proud in the summer of 2017 because a culmination of events — from the 2016 election to the Women’s March — showed her that we need more women to be politically active. She believes that equal representation begins with women’s engagement in politics. We need women to feel comfortable to speak and act on their beliefs across party lines. She started Political and Proud with a small event in her town and soon enough other girls across the country felt motivated to start their own group. Now Political and Proud exists in both Connecticut and California.

Collaboration is key to ensuring that the message of this movement spreads. That is why she am so thankful to have a team of supporters, both in California and in Connecticut, who continue to work towards furthering this movement. Anna's dream is that the message of Political and Proud's message will help empower teenage girls to be the future leaders of America.

Empowered women are the past, the present, and the future. They can do anything.

Christina Craig-Chardon (Faculty Advisor)

Christina Craig-Chardon works with Encinal Jr/Sr High as the Educational Equity and Family Engagement Coordinator which involves developing cultural spaces and leadership opportunities for students. She serves as the Advisor to the Black Student Union, the Muslim Student Association, and the newly formed Women’s Advocacy Club.

Additionally, she facilitates school-wide PBIS Tier 3 academic and behavior interventions, serves as the Site Coordinator for Tobacco Use Prevention Education, and coordinates the Novice student internship program. She is grateful to serve such an inspiring, talented, and diverse student body, and looks forward to continuing the work of the “Political and Proud” forum.

Cassie Ferguson (Faculty Advisor)

Born and raised in Indiana, Cassie earned her undergraduate degree at Indiana University and her master's degree at Dominican University. She has been teaching at Encinal for ten years in the English Department. In addition to teaching in the English department, she is also the Coordination of Services Team (COST) lead facilitator.

Cassie's works on the Coordination of Services Team (COST) whose goal is to streamline the various intervention processes used at Encinal and strengthen the lines of communication between students, their families, and staff members. This dual role as teacher and intervention coordinator combine by two passions: rigorous educational equity and student advocacy.

Cassie works hard to challenge her students to think beyond their initial opinions and views. She was also a major supporter in organizing the Encinal Women's Rights Rally in 2017 and participated in the large strike of female teachers on International Women's Day.