Our Year-Round Team
from left to right: Cherine, Teresa, Devin, Barbara (bookkeeper), Lara, Katiana (intern), Mollie and Amani
Full-Time Staff
Executive Director:
Lara Mendel
Lara Mendel co-founded The Mosaic Project with Board President, Gogi Hodder, in late 2000. Lara traces the idea for Mosaic back to her participation at the age of 15 in a 4-night/5-day summer camp that addressed issues of difference. She stayed involved with the program throughout her teenage years. This experience convinced her that waiting until people are in high school to address issues of difference is waiting far too long. She noted that prejudice, fear, and anger had already become so entrenched in some of her peers that violence easily erupted. She became determined to someday reach out to younger students to address diversity issues in a positive way and prevent prejudice, fear and anger from taking hold.
This determination was strengthened during a college program which brought Jewish students to Germany. Meetings with former Nazis, as well as visits to concentration camps where members of her extended family were killed, solidified her commitment to fight all forms of hatred.
After graduating from Stanford in 1990 with a B.A. and M.A. in Anthropology, Lara worked in violence prevention and environmental education. She then worked for seven years as Program and In-Country Director for Global Routes, a nonprofit promoting cross-cultural and self-understanding through community service programs for youth. During that time, she ran programs in rural Ecuador, Costa Rica, Kenya, and India as well as directed the programs from the Berkeley-based office. In addition to being an avid traveler, Lara is an experienced backpacker and martial artist. She is a black belt in Kajukenbo Kung Fu.
The Mosaic Project is the culmination of her experience, personal and professional, and represents her vision for social change.
Administrator:
Eden Chan
Eden is the Administrator for The Mosaic Project and holds down the fort in the Oakland office. Prior to joining Mosaic, Eden was a Program Coordinator for the San Francisco Food Bank, managing city contracts and developing programs and partnerships with SF non-profits to "feed the programs that feed the people." Before that, Eden discovered her love for social work and Bay Area non-profits with the Glide Foundation/Glide Memorial Church in SF’s Tenderloin district. There, she truly experienced Glide’s commitment to "miracles through action" while overseeing administration and daily operations for the Janice Mirikitani Family, Youth and Childcare Center. Throughout all this, Eden has remained involved with the East Bay Asian Youth Outreach Ministry, which provides community programs for newly immigrated families in Oakland Chinatown. Eden’s diversity of experiences and personal passion for cultural competency work has brought her to The Mosaic Project, where she is excited to wear various hats (rather stylishly) to support Mosaic’s vision of "peacing it together."
Eden received her BA in Classics from New York University and loves her dog, Bikram yoga, and 90’s hip hop.
Youth Leadership Project Director:
Gyasi Parker-Ross
Gyasi Kofi Parker-Ross has studied social justice, alternative learning, and peace since he was young. Gyasi's elementary and middle school, Omowale Ujamaa (literally translated 'children coming home'), taught him individuality within a community framework at a young age. In high school, he was highly motivated by the adults around him and has always shared that 'follow your dreams' attitude with others. Gyasi's goals are fostering community empowerment through peaceful methods and being a catalyst for positive youth development.
Gyasi has a deep love for music and a BA in Performance Jazz Guitar and World Music from San Francisco State University. He is not only Mosaic's Youth Leadership Project Director, but also the current Resident Rock Star for the Outdoor School. Gyasi is a singer/songwriter and member of "Dirty Boots", a hip-hop, rock, R&B, and soul band. Dirty Boots helps to run an open mic for high school students in San Francisco's Mission District, empowering them to express themselves through music.
Gyasi served as a Programs Coordinator for AmeriCorps VISTA at HandsOn Bay Area (HOBA), a volunteer recruitment and event management organization. During his service, he organized an internship program centered around youth in media, coordinated large events for Project Homeless Connect, and was the lead coordinator for HOBA's Be the Change Day 2010.
Gyasi is dedicated to spreading peace, love, and joy through his work with The Mosaic Project, his music, and his life.
Curriculum and Training Director:
Cherine Badawi
Citizen to both Egypt and the United States of America, Cherine had the privilege of growing up on two sides of the planet. Her area of expertise lies in the development and facilitation of experiential social justice and conflict resolution programs for young people around the world. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Cultural Studies from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and her Master’s degree in Peace and Conflict Studies from International Christian University in Tokyo, Japan. Prior to joining The Mosaic Project, Cherine worked as a journalist for several years in the Middle East and the US. She also wrote the Footprint Handbook to Egypt. Following her stint as a writer, Cherine worked with several non-profit organizations including the American Friends Service Committee, A Safe Place, Challenge Day and as a staff facilitator for The Mosaic Project. In the non-profit realm, her responsibilities primarily consisted of developing and facilitating experiential programs about nonviolence, intercultural communication, diversity, social oppression and conflict resolution to thousands of young people around North America and Japan. In 2005, Cherine was awarded the prestigious Rotary World Peace Fellowship, which provided her with the opportunity to support the International Bureau of Education-UNESCO in developing a handbook to support member states’ peace education initiatives. Following graduate school and her work with UNESCO, Cherine served as an intrinsic member of the inaugural voyage of The Scholar Ship, a transnational floating university, working as an experiential education specialist and community builder. Cherine is delighted and honored to have returned to The Mosaic Project to support this amazing initiative in its continued growth and expansion. She believes in earnest that this extraordinary program will continue to motivate young people to, in the words of Gandhi, "be the change they wish to see."
Program Manager:
Mollie Wolf
Mollie first joined The Mosaic Project as a high school Youth Leader many years ago. Living and learning in a truly integrated, diverse community was a breath of fresh air in comparison to her very diverse, yet very segregated Bay Area high school. Since then, she has been completely hooked.
Mollie’s social justice experience spans a diversity of issues (and the globe). She has developed and facilitated programs on antiracist education with Jewish youth groups in St. Paul, Minnesota, supported inspiring HIV/AIDS education in South Africa’s queer community, worked with powerful peace activists at a radio station that reaches across the imaginary line between East and West Jerusalem, conducted in-depth research on implicit racial bias in education and media in San Francisco, and dug in the dirt on organic farms in the UK.
Between and during her various journeys, she managed to stay deeply connected with The Mosaic Project, working as a Program Instructor, managing the Outdoor School’s behind-the-scenes logistics, and doing an absurd amount of data entry. After graduating from UC Berkeley with a B.A. in Comparative Ethnic Studies, she returns to The Mosaic Project as its year-round Program Manager.
Mollie firmly believes in building a deeply interconnected, powerful global community of people looking out for each other, and creating spaces where folks having each others’ backs is the norm, not the exception. She also is a passionate believer in the wisdom of The Phantom Tollbooth, mango black tea with honey, and not-quite-ripe fruit. She brings all of these convictions and more to her work with The Mosaic Project, and is excited to continue learning and growing with the organization through its powerful work.
Business Manager:
Brian Lowe
Brian provides the strategic vision for the Mosaic Consulting Project and manages the day to day operations. Brian brings with him a combination of consulting, corporate finance, and nonprofit experience. The highlight of his nonprofit career thus far has been facilitating The Mosaic Project's diversity curriculum at the Outdoor School. Brian has worked with several other nonprofits as well, including the Golden Gate Opera, where he managed student outreach, and the Silicon Valley Triathlon Club where he developed programs and coached the athletes.
Prior to that, Brian was a corporate finance manager at Hewlett-Packard and Sitesmith Inc., performing various financial planning and analysis functions. He was also a management consultant for Price Waterhouse working in the South and Mid-Atlantic domestic US regions.
Brian received a BS in Electrical Engineering from Duke University and an MBA from the Johnson School of Management at Cornell University.
Part-Time Staff
Development Director:
Rachel Katz
Rachel Katz is a Jane-of-all-trades, who has a diversity of experiences and skills to share with The Mosaic Project. She met Lara and Gogi when they were all members of a collective that taught women's self defense called Women Defending Ourselves in the early 90's. They used many of the same experiential learning techniques that Mosaic uses today.
In 1996 Rachel co-founded and continues to live at Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage, in northeastern Missouri. The goal is to build a small town where residents live ecologically sustainable and socially rewarding lives, and share the skills and ideas behind that lifestyle.
Rachel has always been passionate about social justice and the environment, and she has brought that to bear on her many different pursuits. She has been a web designer, a booking agent for musicians that sing about social issues, a bookkeeper, and has worked in land management and conservation.
Rachel brings many of the skills she has gathered to her role as Development Director. Whether it's working on the web site or writing grant applications, Rachel gets the job done from her off-the-grid, strawbale cabin in Missouri.
Resident Rock Star:
Brett Dennen
Brett Dennen is a singer/songwriter, creator of The Mosaic Project's musical curriculum, our Resident Rock Star, and our original "Chill Out Dude" (positive disciplinarian).
He grew up in Oakdale, Califonia where he was home-schooled until the age of twelve. He graduated from UC Santa Cruz with a B.A. Community Studies and Social Change. He became involved in The Mosaic Project while still in college, worked at our original pilot sessions in 2001, and has been with us ever since.
Brett has been instrumental in creating our programs. Up until his music career took off in 2006, Brett worked at every one of our outdoor school sessions. He now joins us whenever he is able and serves on our Board of Directors. He has released three CDs (in addition to the Mosaic CD, which we are proud to say was the very first CD he recorded) and spends most of his time touring these days. Check out www.brettdennen.net, his Facebook, or his myspace page for his schedule and a lot more information.