Staff + Board

Staff
Civic Engagement Program Manager Aly smiles in front of roses and a brick building

Aly Belknap (she/her)

Field Director
Alainna@NewEraColorado.org

Aly is a firm believer in the power of organizing. She traces her passion for organizing back to her high school days in Rochester, NY, working on issues like anti-bullying eradicating disposable foam lunch trays. She graduated from The George Washington University in 2019, and immediately set her sights on Colorado as a haven for youth power, where young people are driving forward a shared vision for a just, equitable future. When she’s not organizing, you can find her binging “The Office” for the thousandth time, improving her cooking skills (while refusing to improve her baking skills) and skateboarding around Denver.

Arianna Morales (she/her)

Policy Manager
Arianna@NewEraColorado.org

As a devout believer in astrology, Arianna attributes all of her success to being born at 4:23 PM in Ventura County on a beautiful January day. In truth, her success is a combination of her passion to give back to her community and a deep commitment to make her Mama proud. While attending Metropolitan State University, she joined the 2018 Colorado Latino Leadership Advocacy and Research Organization (CLLARO) fellowship and researched the impacts of health and education policies on Latinx lives in Colorado. After graduating magna cum laude as a first generation student with a degree in Chicano Studies, she joined New Era Colorado in 2019.

When she first joined the team, Arianna supported the leadership development of abortion advocates into activists in the reproductive freedom movement through The Brazen Project. Now as policy manager, she supports organizers on the ground by holding leaders accountable to the Youth Agenda and drives New Era’s issue campaigns and legislative work with the policy team. Outside of work, she spends her time reluctantly going on walks with her girlfriend and giving her cat the silent treatment.

Camila Navarrette

Camila Navarrette (she/ella)

Communications Director
Camila@NewEraColorado.org

Born and raised in mid-city Los Angeles, Camila came to Colorado in 2013 to attend the University of Denver. Many jobs — including a preschool teacher and food writer — later, she became New Era Colorado’s communications director in 2022. With experience in conservation, fiscal reform, health equity, and local political spaces, Camila brings a multidimensional perspective to progressive communications and advocacy.

Influenced by her Mexican-American family’s commitment to creating change and connecting through food, you can often find her making a mess in the kitchen, reading, ranting, and dreaming of days at the beach or starry nights in the Sonoran desert.

Dylan Robb

Dylan Robb (he/him)

Data Manager
Dylan@NewEraColorado.org

Dylan is a proud Coloradan and enjoys everything that the state offers. After receiving his bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Kansas, Dylan jumped into the world of environmental activism. He ran a grassroots organizing operation which spanned the southwest for The Public Interest Network, working on issues ranging from plastic pollution to electric vehicles. The role taught him about the importance of using data to inform political activism and inspired him to participate in a Data Analysis certification program at the University of Denver. At New Era Colorado, Dylan manages our campaign data systems and works to improve how the organization uses data. Outside of work, you can find him snowboarding the slopes in the winter and hiking trails all over the state in the summer.

Kate Kelly (she/they)

Regional Lead Organizer
Kate@NewEraColorado.org

As a strong supporter of the power of people and communities, Kate is driven to invest herself in the work necessary for social change. Graduating from CU Boulder in 2021, with a bachelor’s degree in political science and women & gender studies, she is very thankful for the opportunities she’s had and the relationships she built along the way. With previous experience in student groups and nonprofits, Kate found her passion for advocacy and organizing with people and community members. She gives credit to those environments she got to be a part of as a large motivator for her passions today.

Marcel McClinton

Marcel McClinton

Development Director
Marcel@NewEraColorado.org

At New Era, Marcel leads our fundraising efforts by building lasting relationships with donors and connecting the goals and successes of our programs to our donor community. He aims to continue building a base of financial supporters who prioritize equity in their giving.

Before joining New Era, Marcel worked to strengthen Texas’ progressive infrastructure at the Texas Future Project. In typical Texan-to-Coloradan fashion, Marcel loves to remind everyone of his roots. A very short list of Houston legends includes: Beyonce & Solange, Lizzo, Chandra Wilson, and Jalen Hurts. In his free time, you can find Marcel browsing Zillow for industrial/eclectic design ideas, listening to Black artists (old and new), and maintaining the Clash of Clans base he has kept for 8 years. He’s a big fan of kolaches and believes HEB is the elite grocery store.

Molly Stawinoga (she/her)

Communications Coordinator
Molly@NewEraColorado.org

Molly likes to imagine a country in which every single election has 100% voter turnout and voting is as accessible as filling out a Google Form (and ballot language as understandable as “The Very Hungry Caterpillar”). Born and raised in DeKalb, Illinois, Molly worked in the cornfields for her first job before working at a local news station while attending the University of Missouri. After nearly five years in broadcast news, Molly pitched an investigative story about the lack of reproductive healthcare access in Missouri and what would happen if Roe v. Wade was overturned. When her story was deemed irrelevant, Molly took the eventual Supreme Court’s ruling as a signal that it was time to turn back to her activist roots.

Once she spent time as a legislative aide in the Colorado Senate, she got her next signal seeing New Era hustle at the legislature. She is excited and proud to drive digital communications for an organization that prioritizes equitable, anti-racist policies that will reshape America’s failing democracy.

Nicole Hensel (she/her)

Executive Director
Nicole@NewEraColorado.org

For as long as she can remember, Nicole has been driven to create a more just and fair world (she’s a quintessential Cancer). After spending over a decade in the education field, she found that many of the problems she was seeking to solve in education were symptoms of larger socioeconomic issues that could best be solved through democracy. Nicole decided to bring her expertise in youth empowerment and deep commitment to social justice to New Era in 2019 as our Executive Director.

Nicole earned her bachelor’s degree in public policy and Spanish at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Go Tar Heels! Duke fans beware) and also received her Master’s in public policy and Master’s in education leadership at Stanford University in 2017.

Nicole likes to geek out over social psychology, political philosophy, and systems-change research. She strongly identifies as a Gryffindor, has a dog named Tonks, and owns a staple Hermione costume for whenever the moment is right. She is happiest when she is making Lebanese food (ask for her family hummus recipe) and adventuring outdoors with her husband and son.

Tash Berwick

Tash Berwick (she/her)

Political Director
natasha@neweracolorado.org

Tash believes that truly anti-racist policies are grounded in people’s needs. Her work as the political director is deeply rooted in coalition building, collaboration, and listening. A lot of the time that means getting out of the office and talking to people! Additionally, she is responsible for overseeing our issue campaigns and accountability work — including New Era’s legislative session program, issue campaigns, and c4 electoral targeting.

Backed by a degree in history from CU-Boulder and a master’s in public policy from the University of Denver, Tash came to New Era from Denver Councilwoman Candi CdeBaca’s office. In her previous roles, she’s worked on environmental justice, criminal justice, fiscal, and regulatory policies. 

Tash is re-learning what it means to have spare time after finishing graduate school and is most exited to catch up on living. 

Trish Hyde

Trish Hyde (she/her)

Regional Lead Organizer
Trish@NewEraColorado.org

Born and raised in Boulder (go Knights!),Trish has had a passion for reproductive rights since high school. While completing her bachelor’s degree at San Diego State University in international business, Trish was active in student organizing around reproductive rights and voter registration. She is particularly proud of her involvement in the passage of California Senate Bill 24, which will ensure all California public university students have access to abortion pills in their campus medical centers.

Trish is currently working on her master’s in American political history at CU Denver. She is a passionate believer in the power of radical imagination and community. When she’s not reading for school, she enjoys cooking, reading (not for school), running, and taking pictures of her cats.

Board

Alvina Vasquez

President, PowerMap Ltd.

Amanda Gonzalez

CEO, PBT Management, Inc.; Executive Director of Common Cause

Carmen Medrano

Executive Director, United for a New Economy
Cody Ostenson

Cody E. Ostenson

Manager of Field & Data, Denver Families for Public Schools

Feven Netsanet, Chair

Super Mom

Joanne Schwartz

Advocacy Consultant

Leah Pryor-Lease, Vice Chair

Program Director of the Proteus Fund
Melissa Bosworth

Melissa Bosworth

Founder and Principal, Vertical Strategies; Executive Director, Eastern Plains Healthcare Consortium;

PJ Hoberman, Treasurer

Senior Software Engineer at Pocket Outdoor Media