Staff

Saqib works on campaigns to win racial and economic justice by taking on the corporations responsible for extracting wealth and resources from communities of color and poor people. Coming from an immigrant Muslim family from Pakistan, Saqib’s first foray into organizing was with the student anti-war movement following 9/11. After college he spent 10 years working on corporate campaigns with the Culinary Workers Union (UNITE HERE) in Las Vegas and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). He was previously a fellow at the Nathan Cummings Foundation and the Roosevelt Institute, where he launched the ReFund America Project, a predecessor organization to ACRE. Saqib is a cofounder and Executive Committee member of the Bargaining for the Common Good Network and serves on the boards of the Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund, the Midwest Academy, and Political Research Associates. Saqib received his bachelor’s degree from Yale University and his master’s degree from the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy.

Bree spent the last ten years at People’s Action, first as the director of the structural racism program and then as its Deputy Director and Director of Organizing. Under Bree’s leadership, People’s Action undertook the creation of the Long-term Agenda for a New Economy, which inspired a slew of other organizations to develop years-long strategies for winning structural change rather than one-off campaigns.

Carrie works on campaigns to restore the balance of economic power from Wall Street to Main Street. Prior to that, she spent more than 10 years working in the labor movement as a strategic researcher for the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and a rank and file member of the United Auto Workers (UAW). She holds a master’s degree from the University of California at San Diego.

Bahar has more than 15 years experience working on campaigns to organize low-wage workers at Service Employees International Union (SEIU) on Justice for Janitors and Stand for Security campaigns, as well as working with labor / community coalition on revenue and budget, housing, and education justice campaigns. She has led teams to analyze budgets, tax systems, and municipal finance deals that have led to policy considerations in cities and states across the country. In all her work, she has worked on campaigns that hold the largest corporations and financial institutions accountable for their extractive practices in low-income and communities of color.

Allyson Andrews has deep experience in start-up, operations, and finance for non-profit and for-profit sectors with a specialization in Education and Mental Health.

Allyson has a strong passion for educational policy and reform, urban revitalization, corporate accountability and taxation, lowering unemployment, economic equity and social justice. A Detroit Native and Small Business Owner, Allyson is a firm believer in “being the change that you want to see”.

She holds an AS (Early Childhood Education), BS (Psychology & Human Development), MBA and is currently pursuing a PhD in Human Services with a concentration in Community & Social Services.

Before Maryam initially joined ACRE as its Fact-Checker and Copyeditor, she worked in a variety of roles across higher education and nonprofits, including lecturing in classrooms, curating programs for school-aged and college students, and working at scholarly presses. Maryam (or Mar) has done communications and design work to support movement organizations in Chicago, Karachi, Durham, and Philadelphia.

Mar loves immersing herself in text, and devours queer YA novels, feminist Islamic scholarship, and cheesy self-help books! In their free time, they also make art using embroidery and printmaking techniques influenced by their South Asian ancestry. The many Virgo placements in her astrological chart make Maryam well-suited for the meticulous and sometimes-persnickety work she does at ACRE. Maryam believes their role at ACRE is to help facilitate clarity and truth-telling, because the truth is on our side!

Bianca Cunningham is a former Verizon Wireless worker who led her coworkers in 7 stores across Brooklyn, NY to join CWA in 2014, making them the first unionized retail workers in the company. She later led her coworkers on a 49 day strike to secure their first contract. Verizon fired her for organizing, and during the Verizon strike, picketers across the country chanted “Bring Back Bianca!” Bianca was on the bargaining team to help secure their first contract for stores in Brooklyn as well as a store in Massachusetts.

Bianca co-founded the DSA’s AfroSocialists and Socialists of Color caucus, a caucus for Black Indigenous and people of color within the organization. She also served as co-chair of the NYC chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America for two terms.

She most recently was on staff at Labor Notes where she sometimes wrote and more often facilitated training on Race and Labor.

Kena collaborates across campaigns to amplify the work of fellow staff members and finds joy in bridging BIPOC led movements and funders. Prior to ACRE, Kena spent time in non-profit development and taught History and English at an independent high school. He holds a B.A. (Hamilton College ‘20) in Government and a minor in Women’s and Gender Studies, and was the sole recipient of The James Soper Merrill Prize, awarded to the member of the graduating class “who, in character and influence, has typified the highest ideals of the College.”

Outside of work, Kena presents at various universities and institutions as a DEIJ (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice) speaker and panelist, discussing the intersections of Blackness, Queerness, class, and athletics. In his free time, he enjoys painting, reading, writing, hiking, building community, and taking recreational Basketball leagues far too seriously.

Arielle works with the Philly Revenue Project to help support campaigns to win progressive revenue in Philadelphia and Pennsylvania. Arielle has nearly a decade of organizing experience around racial justice, climate justice and corporate accountability. She has worked predominately with basebuilding organizations in the Center for Popular Democracy-network, both in St. Louis and Philadelphia. Most recently, Arielle managed the campaign of Councilmember Kendra Brooks, the first Working Families Party councilmember in Philadelphia history, and previously led the Our City Our Schools’ campaign to end the 16-year state control of Philadelphia’s schools. She loves to eat, perfect laminated dough recipes and plan actions to disrupt the lives of billionaires.

Ramah Kudaimi was previously the Deputy Director at the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, where for nine years she led and supported BDS (boycott, divestment, sanctions) campaigns in solidarity with the Palestinian people’s struggle for freedom, justice, and equality. She has served on the board of the Washington Peace Center and has been a member of the National Committee of the War Resisters League. She also organizes with the Syrian Solidarity Collective and has been an activist with other organizations including the Arab American Action Network.

She holds an M.A. in Conflict Resolution from Georgetown University and a B.S. in Journalism from Northwestern University. She dreams of a world without war, militarism, and borders, and believes we can create that world through a commitment to collective liberation and transnational solidarity with all those fighting oppressive regimes and systems.

Gabriela immigrated to Miami from Cuba at the age of 6. She has grown up with a deep commitment to build solidarity among black and brown folks in the South to take on corporate greed. Prior to her role at ACRE, she spent 6 years as a Research Analyst with UNITE HERE Local 355, where she helped build worker power in South Florida through research, community coalition building, and member-led electoral campaigns. In her free time, she enjoys making pottery and longboarding near the beach.

Aly is also a Take Back Tech Fellow with Just Futures Law & Mijente, where he works against the surveillance machine which facilitates ICE’s policing, detention, and deportation. Additionally, Aly organizes religious and political education programming for Muslim youth. Prior to joining ACRE, he led advocacy to expose and abolish the NYPD’s surveillance infrastructure, coordinating an ongoing campaign to ban facial recognition in NYC. Aly also worked as a paralegal with the ACLU’s National Security Project.

He graduated from Georgetown University with a degree in Culture & Politics, conducting research on the role of theatre as a form of grassroots resistance in subverting nationalist state narratives in Palestine and India. Aly is a playwright, musician, and pun expert. He can be found at his favorite halal cart and Korean fried chicken spot in New York City or eating biryani with his family in Texas.