Mary “Ayotunde” Dixson has been advocating since she was a child and has continued as a youth and community advocate into adulthood. As a lifelong champion of social justice, she has understood for a long time that developing children requires patience and active teaching, and if we want our community to thrive, we have to teach them. 

Ayotunde’s community has given her confidence in her knowledge and the tools necessary to resource the community. She is seeking to get the community to invest in themselves and to recognize how much power they truly have, because she knows that while you can never empower anyone, you can show them the power they already have, and how to build it further. 

As a community organizer, Ayotunde understands that community building is knowledge of self and the system you live in – to fight an oppressive system, you must understand it first. She believes all people have a right to housing, education, and to support themselves. For Ayotunde, when women and Black people thrive, everyone will benefit; and when our community is accountable to each other, everyone wins.

Luca S. believes in the power of people connected in community to witness and guide one another through transformational periods of growth. His personal strength and faith in our collective capacity are rooted in his many experiences of deep generosity of resources and spirit of the people with whom he’s formed community. Luca is eager to support the momentum of ongoing work in the Asheville area and the integral leadership of his cohort members. 

Luca views organizing as an articulation of our innermost need to collectively strive and thrive together— by directly responding to threats to safety and freedom, and nurturing a sense of belonging and worth for all who need it. He is honored by the opportunity to learn new skills for bringing sustainability and accessibility to the forefront of his work with this cohort. Luca is committed to organizing in a way that reflects the healing potential inherent in a community, regardless of institutionalized strategies working to degrade the resilience of the collective.

Shuvonda Harper believes in the power of everyday people to create lasting change—not through grand speeches or one-time actions, but through deep engagement, daily effort, and mutual accountability. A devoted grassroots organizer and single mother, she lives her values at home and in the community, teaching her children the importance of civic engagement, advocacy, and showing up for others.

Her work centers on dismantling the systems that keep communities stuck in cycles of poverty, underpaid labor, and unaffordable housing. She is also deeply committed to food sovereignty and food preservation, growing fresh food, sharing it with neighbors, and advocating for healthier food access in communities that have long been denied it. For Shuvonda, health is wealth, and eating to live is both a personal and collective act of resistance and survival.

Guided by the values of kindness, peace, equality, love, inclusion, hope, diversity, and healing, Shuvonda sees organizing not just as a strategy—but as a lifestyle. She is always ready to learn, connect, and uplift others, ensuring that the work she does is rooted in justice, nourishment, and long-term community care.

Tiffany DeBellott has been organizing for many years, beginning at the grassroots level in high school in Brooklyn, New York, and later deepening her practice through cultural organizing and training at the Highlander Education and Research Institute. For Tiffany, community is not just one place; it is wherever she rests her head, wherever she can connect with people, and wherever we come together to thrive and create meaningful change.

What Tiffany values most about her community is the ability to have hard conversations without letting them stop the work from moving forward. She believes that, in community, we can heal one another, hold each other accountable, and still keep love at the center of the mission we set out to do. 

To her, community organizing is about knowing your own gifts, recognizing where others shine, and bringing those gifts together to build a collective force for lasting change. In this project, Tiffany sees her role as a bridge between youth and adult organizers, helping to weave our strengths into one powerful movement.