STAFF

Ben joined CPA in November of 2009.  He received his undergraduate degree in Political Science from Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 2003.  Prior to joining CPA, Ben spent 6 years doing community and political organizing work with the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN).  In his free time, Ben enjoys mountain biking, snowboarding, camping in Colorado's mountains.

Carlos joined CPA and CPC in 2008 and works with the Campaign for Economic Justice, Southern Colorado, and the Racial Justice & Civil Rights programs. Prior to CPA and CPC, Carlos served as the Senior Education Policy Specialist for the National Conference of State Legislatures where he focused on public policy to address education disparities and increase college access for low-income and students of color. He has also served as a Regional Program Manager for the Daniels Fund where he helped to design and implement the Daniels Scholarship, which provides comprehensive financial assistance to hundreds of low-income students every year. Carlos is a Denver native, and received a Bachelor of Arts from Colorado College and a Master of Nonprofit Management from Regis University.

Hillary joined CPA in August of 2009. She received her undergraduate degree in English Literature from the University of Colorado and her J.D. from Seattle University School of law. Hillary is passionate about pursuing social justice through an anti oppression framework. Prior to joining CPA, she worked for Disability Rights Washington.

For more than twelve years, Jason McKain has been developing outreach tools, processes, communications and organizing actions for a variety of social, environmental, and independent media initiatives. He has organized more than 500 activist-based, community-focused (urban and rural) projects involving more than 10,000 people. In doing so, it has been and will always be his ultimate goal to connect people with critical community work that needs to be done and to make this connection stronger. Jason has spent an equal amount of time creating and implementing fundraising strategies to fund countless projects. Along the way, Jason has developed a comprehensive and effective knowledge base around grassroots organizing, fundraising, logistics, and publicity. In his free time Jason can be found scaling the sides of mountains, wetting a fly line in any number of Colorado streams, or reading newspapers from around the world.

Leah Bry joined Colorado Progressive Action in 2008 after a year and a half working on the Colorado Progressive Coalition's Health Justice Organizing Program where she made a documentary about Colorado's broken health care system called Sick and Tired. She is now CPA's lead organizer, coordinating coalition and direct action work on the Health Care for America Now! campaign. Prior to joining CPC and CPA Leah worked as an organizer with SEIU Local 105, working with Janitors in the metro area. Leah is a graduate of Grinnell College with a degree in Anthropology and Art. She is currently working toward a Master's degree in Socially Responsible Business and Sustainable Communities at Goddard College, while working to launch GreenLeaf, an organization committed to making social change through urban agriculture and sustainable infrastructure.

Theresa is a Pueblo native who returned to Colorado in 2001 after living in Mexico where she worked as Program Director for the Cuernavaca Center for Intercultural Dialogue on Development (CCIDD).  There she did "global community-organizing" - building solidarity and inspiring action around the political, social, cultural, and economic realities of Mexico with folks from the U.S. and Canada.  She has also been very involved with the Women's Ordination Conference, helped to found the Young Feminist Network, and worked as a freelance English/Spanish translator. Theresa is thrilled to be working in her home community - helping to shape its progressive future - and considers this work her life's vocation.