Press Inquiries

Lorella Praeli is Co-President of Community Change/Action where she serves as a lead expert on a range of economic and social justice issues. For over a decade, she’s fought for justice for immigrants and people of color as a movement builder, a policy expert and advocate, and a seasoned political strategist.

Before joining Community Change/Action in 2019, she was a Deputy National Political Director at the ACLU, where she fought to defend and expand the rights of immigrants and refugees. Prior to joining the ACLU, Lorella mobilized the Latinx vote as Hillary Clinton’s National Latino Vote Director. 

Lorella understands first-hand the challenges of families, especially immigrant families, that struggle to get by. She moved to the U.S. from Peru when she was 10 years old and was undocumented. She co-founded Connecticut Students for a Dream, notching an early and significant victory around in-state tuition for undocumented students. 

Lorella currently serves as a member of the ACLU National Board, Edward W. Hazen Foundation Board of Trustees, FWD.us Board of Directors, Roosevelt Forward Board of Directors, and the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP) Board of Directors. She is also a member of the inaugural U.S. Treasury Advisory Committee on Racial Equity (TACRE).

Key Issues: Immigration, Child Care, Politics & Elections, Organizing, Income Support, Disability Rights, Spanish-language

Recent media appearances: USA Today, MSNBC, Politico

A progressive scholar, organizer and media personality, Dorian Warren has worked to advance racial, economic and social justice for more than two decades. Like the organizations he leads, Warren is driven by the innate conviction that only social movements – led by the people most affected by racial, economic, gender and social injustice – can change their communities and public policies for the better.

Dorian is co-president of Community Change – an organization founded in 1968 by civil rights, labor and community leaders to honor the memory of Robert F. Kennedy’s fight to end poverty in America – and Community Change Action, its political arm. He is also the co-founder of the Economic Security Project, an innovative social impact organization that has already shifted the national conversation around cash, economic power and economic security. 

 Warren taught for over a decade at the University of Chicago and Columbia University, where he was co-director of the Columbia University Program on Labor Law and Policy. He’s the co-author of The Hidden Rules of Race, co-editor of Race and American Political Development, and has penned numerous academic articles. He also worked at MSNBC, where he was a Contributor, fill-in host for “Melissa Harris-Perry” and “Now with Alex Wagner” as well as the Host and Co-Executive Producer of “Nerding Out” on MSNBC’s digital platform (now Peacock). Dorian also co-hosted the Deep Dive podcast on The Takeaway with Melissa Harris-Perry.  He was previously a Fellow at the Roosevelt Institute and serves on the boards of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights Education Fund, the National Employment Law Project, Working Partnerships USA, and The Nation Magazine Editorial Board, among others. He is also co-chair of the Ad Council’s Advisory Committee on Public Issues. 

As a commentator on public affairs, Warren has appeared regularly on television and radio including NBC Nightly News, ABC, MSNBC, CNN, CNBC, BET, BBC, NPR, Bloomberg, & NY1, among other outlets. He has also written for The Nation, Huffington Post, Newsweek, Salon, The Washington Post, The New York Times, Medium, Ebony.com, and Boston Review.

Afua Atta-Mensah is the Chief of Programs at Community Change/Action, working closely with leadership, directors and program leads to develop and drive a cohesive strategy between our organizing, policy advocacy and electoral work.

Afua is an organizer, strategist and movement lawyer who has worked on fair and equitable housing, women’s rights, programs benefiting low-income families, and dismantling systemic racism. Prior to joining Community Change, she served as the executive director of Community Voices Heard and Community Voices Heard Power in New York City and as the Urban Justice Center’s Director of Litigation and Policy for the Safety Net Policy. Her advocacy protected public housing playgrounds and community centers and spotlighted the lived experiences of residents.

Afua was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship in 2008 to support her work at the International Federation of Women Attorneys where she advocated on behalf of indigent women in Ghana. In Ghana, she helped draft proposed legislation to criminalize marital rape and taught a course on women’s rights in the context of Ashanti tribal law at the Kwama Nkurmah University of Science and Technology. 

She holds a law degree from Fordham Univ. School of Law and a BA in Sociology and African American History from Trinity College.  

Key Issues: Race and Gender Justice, Housing, Income Support, Organizing, Law

Recent Media Appearances: NPR’s Here and Now, Blavity, Still Paying the Price Podcast

Jennifer Wells is the Director of Economic Justice at Community Change/Action, where she leads our organization’s work to advance policies and practices that improve the material conditions of low-income communities.

Previously, she  served as Deputy Director of Black-led Organizing and as a Senior Organizer at Community Change/Action.

Jennifer has an extensive background working in child welfare, juvenile justice, community services, program development, and fundraising. In 2018, she was named Social Worker of the Year by the West Virginia Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers. She is also former Executive Director of Our Future West Virginia. 

Her background as a social worker and her lived experience of being permanently displaced from her home by Hurricane Katrina provides a multi-layered lens to her social justice work. 

She is an inspiring advocate for strengths-based inquiry and action and the catalyst for the Center for Resilient Communities’ co-created Stories of Resilience Listening Project and led a Ted Talk on the issue. 

Key Issues: Child Care, Guaranteed Income, Income Support, Housing, Rural and Urban Organizing

Recent Media Appearances: USA Today, Vox, Insider 

Grecia Lima is the National Political Director at Community Change/Action, where she uses her experience as a top political organizer and knowledge of local and national politics to lead our electoral program.

Grecia brings over a decade of experience working with immigrant communities and other communities of color around issue-specific campaigns, as well as elections at every level of government. She’s been with Community Change since 2011, where she previously served as Organizer, Senior Organizer, and Deputy Political Director.

Her experience as a former undocumented youth from Mexico sparked in her a passion for activism and led her to the University of California San Diego (UCSD) in support of the DREAM Act, where she was a leader in the movement.

Key Issues: Politics & Elections, Immigration, Organizing, Spanish-language

Recent Media Appearances: Associated Press, Politico, Univision