Meet the Team

Li is a first generation immigrant from Colombia who moved to the United States in 2003. After graduating from college with a BA in languages and education, and after doing a short stint as a teacher, Li discovered her passion was languages. For the past 17 years, Li has worked and volunteered with a variety of nonprofits whose work revolves around justice issues (immigration, domestic violence, workers rights, economic inequality, health access, LGBTQIA+ issues, and others.) in Western North Carolina. Li currently works for a local county government, is a contract translator and interpreter for a language justice cooperative based in NC, and will be furthering her education as a translator with UMass Boston in the fall.

As a new member of STW, Li is focusing on providing interpretation and translation, with the long-term aim of developing a language justice approach inside the organization, to support STW’s goal of building an inclusive global community that empowers change-makers from all walks of life. Li is looking forward to becoming more familiar with the organization to provide support in other areas.

In her spare time, Li enjoys hiking in the Blue Ridge Mountains, sharing meals with friends along with quite a lot of dancing, reading, and learning to play the ukulele.

With over ten years of administrative work under her belt, Chan brings a wealth of experience in growing and supporting strong nonprofit organizations by bolstering their operations. They have a breadth of training working with and supporting various sized organizations to develop robust internal systems. Like with the pronunciation of her name, pinning down their pronouns is sometimes a challenge.

Ever since she was seven years old, singing along to Rhythm Nation 1814 and reading every Black history book she could find at the library, social justice and service have been at the forefront of their work and their life. Chan’s wish is to continue that life’s calling at Start the Wave.

When she’s not dreaming of ways to streamline operations, Chan can be found hiking around town searching for the best vegan soul food, browsing the aisles of their local comic book shop, or imploring movement leaders to truly rest. Chan lives in Northern California, where she tends to her goats and cats that they lovingly call her dummies.

Charlotte is a senior web developer & a WordPress specialist. She is jumping on anything that is tech-based and her goal is to make the life of her fellow wavemarkers easier so they can keep saving the world making waves.

Born and raised in France, Charlotte loves spending time outside with her girlfriend Justine and their pets. She is learning the ukulele and is passionate about animals and finding ways to communicate with them, especially through positive reinforcement.

Portia is a bubbly and smiley bean who loves to make people smile and laugh. Her biggest wish is to make people happy and her one gift would be to make just one person smile a day.

At Start the Wave, Portia's primary role is researching and vetting resources for the community. She also loves getting involved with all the projects the team have going, and helping out wherever she can. Her big passion is making neurodivergent voices heard, especially fellow autistic voices, and making sure everyone feels like they are valid and important. She loves the community aspect of Start the Wave and the learning, understanding and connection it brings to the world. Portia hopes by being part of Start the Wave she is helping create positive change, one smile at a time. She is extremely proud to be part of Start the Wave and holds every community member in her heart.

Dom is a queer, non binary, gender fluid, light-worker, activist and artist.

They are best known for their role in Syfy’s TV show – Wynonna Earp, where they played a bisexual young woman coming into her sexuality and personal power.

With a huge passion for growth and healing as well as dance and music, they are exploring the intersection of these practices, using creativity as a vehicle for transformation.

They profoundly believe that we all have magic inside of us and when we listen deeply to our hearts calling, let go of our systematic conditioning, and find the courage to follow our purpose, amazing things can transpire.

One of their greatest joys is to support wavemakers in their important work of bringing in a brighter tomorrow.

The individuals and projects that Start the Wave has collaborated with are a huge source of inspiration for Dom and they feel honoured to continue growing this movement alongside such an amazing community.

Hayley is a multi-passionate-always-curious graphic artist and upcycling designer based in the north of England.

She loves the outdoors, and having worked in the environmental sector for 15 years, she made the leap over to embrace life as a full-time artist and creative in 2022.
Passionate about creative expression and using art as a tool to inspire positive social change, her mission is to raise awareness on important issues by creating art that connects people on an emotional level, encouraging curiosity, conversation and collective action.

Hayley thrives on collaboration and is super excited to continue her creative adventure as part of the Start the Wave team.