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< Back Nicole Lillie Executive Director Nicole (she/her/hers) is a recent graduate of University of California, San Diego where she received her BA in Political Science - Public Law. Before joining Our Time To Act, Nicole was heavily involved in community service work as well as voter registration and education efforts. She led her high school's Rotary Interact Club, establishing lasting bylaws and garnering over 70 regular volunteers over 3 years. In 2019 and 2020 she led [pre-]voter registration drives, [pre-]registering over 300 high school students. In July 2022, she joined Our Time To Act as our Youth Voter Engagement Director, and in January 2023 became the Director of Housing Justice. Nicole now serves as Our Time To Act's Executive Director. In 2023, Nicole was honored by the OTTA team as Staff of the Year. She was also previously awarded 2022 Passionate Leader of the Year. Nicole believes the current state of housing in San Diego is unacceptable and that youth have the power to change it. She is passionate about organizing her peers to have transformative conversations about housing justice. The housing crisis is an intersectional issue and solutions must be informed by those disproportionately impacted by it. Housing may be a complicated topic, but youth have an unmatched capacity for learning. In order for youth to play this critical role in shaping the future of their communities, they must have access to the institutional knowledge, resources, and skills to claim and wield their power together. Nicole is eager to see what the Civic Youth Action Network (CYAN) will do to change the game of youth organizing and collective action in San Diego. nicole.lillie@ourtimetoact.org

< Back Nicholas Tappin Policy & Coalition Representative Nicholas (Nic) Tappin (he/him) is a Political Science student at the University of California San Diego. He has been a San Diego native his entire life, where in his free time he serves as the Legislative Director for the University of California San Diego Associated Students Office of External Affairs. He also serves as a dedicated Board Member of the UC Student Association and as the Vice President of External Relations of the Pre-Law Coalition of UC San Diego. Nicholas has lobbied members of Congress and California state legislators on bills directly impacting students' housing, higher education accessibility, and food insecurity. Nicholas officially joined Our Time To Act in January of 2024 as the Policy and Coalition Representative. Outside of Our Time To Act, academics, and student government, Nicholas enjoys trying new restaurants and hanging out with friends. nicholas.tappin@ourtimetoact.org

< Back Ria Maheshwari Vice President Ria Maheshwari is a high school senior. Before becoming the Vice President of Our Time To Act, she served as the Outreach Specialist and within the Department of External Operations. As an aspiring lawyer, Ria combines her ambitions of argumentation and social justice as the Lincoln-Douglas Debate Captain and Board Member for the Speech and Debate Club at her high school and by being part of several community service clubs, such as the National Honor Society. Sports being a key passion of her life, you can always find Ria being active. For example, she travels across the United States to play competitive volleyball with her teammates at Mountain View Volleyball Club. ria.maheshwari@ourtimetoact.org

< Back Aathmika Radhachandran Marketing & Event Specialist Aathmika Radhachandran (she/her) is a marketing intern at Our Time To Act and a rising senior at Scripps Ranch High School. Her interests lie in the fields of business, marketing, and graphic design. Current events and activism intrigue her, and she is excited to explore how her passions can intersect in this position. She also enjoys spending her time coaching middle schoolers for Science Olympiad, learning piano, and playing tennis. aathmika.radhachandran@ourtimetoact.org

< Back Muskaan Gupta Administration Intern Muskaan (she/her) is a sophomore at the University of California, Berkeley, intending on studying Business Administration and Molecular and Cell Biology. She is passionate about health equity and hopes to pursue a career in which she may work to address it. She has a strong public health background and has been involved in Partners in Health Engage, through which she met with legislators to educate and convince them to support global health equity legislation. She also served as a Youth Advisory Council Alumni Member at FACES for the Future Coalition where she fought for representation of marginalized communities in healthcare professions and general accessibility to healthcare. In her free time, she loves to check out new coffee shops where she always gets her regular (an iced dirty chai latte and an almond croissant). She also enjoys doing calligraphy and paint-by-numbers but has recently been getting back into reading. Feel free to contact her and send her some coffee shop and/or book recommendations! muskaan.gupta@ourtimetoact.org

< Back OP-ED: The San Diego redistricting process protected the status quo. We need change Monday, December 13, 2021 Aidan Lin, Executive Director For the past few months, students of UC San Diego have made a historic push to move council districts in the City of San Diego's 2020-21 redistricting process. They have shared their perspective, in actions ranging from digital submissions of maps to vocal public comments in hour-long meetings. Throughout the process as a student and leader myself, I've witnessed and experienced firsthand the disregard, apathy, and sometimes malice directed toward my peers for sharing their perspectives. For some, it emboldens them to speak up louder. But for others, it disincentivizes them from participating in the first place. Many groups of diverse individuals share this experience in the city. Often, the voices of wealthy, single-family homeowners prevail in systems designed to cater to their participation; not to mention the fact that many youths are BIPOC and from underrepresented communities. This is the status quo in San Diego, and it requires an enormous amount of momentum to overcome. As I highlight in my opinion piece for the Voice of San Diego , this came into play in very tangible ways: Instead of a new persons of color majority district consisting of Clairemont, Linda Vista, and Serra Mesa, the commission voted to maintain the status quo by giving the coastal region two districts. By splitting our campus, they diluted student voting power and reduced the likelihood of our needs being taken seriously. Their adopted map also lowered Asian American and Pacific Islander percentages in District 6 and Latino/a percentages in District 9, relative to the collaboration map they rejected. We must take action to dismantle the system that prevent real, important change from occurring. Three reform ideas that we proposed included: Detach the appointments from specific City Council seats. Many independent redistricting commissions do not tie commissioners to existing seats, including the county and state. Rather than ensuring geographic representation, this pushed commissioners to defend their personal districts as if they were elected politicians and resist any changes to the status quo. Change the Appointing Authority. Retired judges may sound like a good idea, but a system with selection bias toward older people and attorneys has generated major negative repercussions for communities of color. We need an appointment authority that is both independent and representative of the community and its values. Require representation on the commission. We will never achieve districts that reflect local communities unless the commissioners drawing them also reflect the community. New requirements should be added to ensure renters, students, and Black, indigenous and people of color are adequately represented on the commission itself. As we call for reform, we ask for your support. Join our newsletter to stay in the loop and reach out if you are inspired to get involved. voiceofsandiego.org The Redistricting Process Favored the Status Quo, Again. That Needs to Change. These commissioners simply do not reflect the diversity of San Diego, nor the experiences of most residents, and repeatedly proved themselves incapable of putting aside their own biases for the good of the city. Next Previous

< Back Sparky Mitra Senior Director of Special Projects Aishwarya (Sparky) Mitra (she/her) is a Bioengineering student at the University of California San Diego. Hailing from Texas, she currently resides in California, where in her free time she serves as the University of California San Diego College Democrats’ President and the California College Democrats’ Vice President. Sparky has organized public comments and rallies in San Diego with the help of unexpected allies in unexpected places, gathering 200+ students and community members at each rally. Additionally, she has worked in many capacities with organizations such as March for Our Lives Texas as a translator, Our Time To Act as their API Voter Empowerment Project Director, her university newspaper, the UCSD Guardian, as their Opinion Editor/Section Lead with articles garnering upwards of 40,000 interactions, her student government, and various professional bioengineering societies such as the International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering serving as an Executive Board member. Her primary focuses include advocating for housing justice, common-sense gun reform, reproductive rights, voting rights and access to education through equity-centered direct actions, and legislation. sparky.mitra@ourtimetoact.org

< Back Announcing a new chapter of leadership at Our Time To Act! Wednesday, July 17, 2024 Our Time To Act As a youth-led nonprofit, Our Time To Act grows as its people grow. We’ve accomplished more than we could have imagined since starting in 2018. We have met and organized thousands of youth, shaped policies and solutions, raised over $300,000, and been honored with recognition from our community. Now it’s time for even more powerful, youth-driven change. We are proud to announce that Our Time To Act has hired its first full-time employee and new Executive Director, Nicole Lillie ! In 2022, Nicole played a pivotal role in engaging thousands of youth to vote. She then served as Director of Housing Justice and worked at the forefront of our exponential growth in housing organizing. Nicole has been recognized by our organization with the 2022 Passionate Leader Award and 2023 Staff of the Year. She has the full confidence of our staff and board teams as we forge forward in this exciting chapter of service and impact. As a co-founder, Executive Director, and trailblazer, we are grateful for Aidan Lin-Tostado's thousands of hours of service to this cause. We are proud of Aidan as he embarks on a new journey working full-time with the international nonprofit, Nonviolent Peaceforce. We are also grateful to have his continued support as OTTA’s new President of the Board of Directors. He looks forward to supporting Nicole’s capable leadership. From Nicole Lillie: It is an honor to re-introduce myself to you as Our Time To Act’s new Executive Director and first full-time employee. When I first joined OTTA two years ago, I was hired as the Logistics Coordinator of the Youth Voter Engagement Project. I have long been known to tell anyone who will listen about the importance of civic engagement, especially in our local communities. It was OTTA that saw my passion, uplifted me to the role of Project Director, and invited me to find belonging in San Diego’s change-making community. I learned quickly that the issues that most drove my peers to the polls were their concerns around housing and transportation. These issues are key to our ability to survive and thrive in this place we call home. When I became Director of Housing Justice, I began a journey of engagement and learning that will never be complete. Housing justice intersects with every social justice movement we seek to progress, and, without housing solutions, we cannot forge a better future. As we enter into this new chapter at OTTA, our team will continue to organize powerful youth to achieve an inclusive, equitable, and sustainable future in housing. We will continue to shape our future through collaborative and intergenerational action. The two years I have served Our Time To Act have allowed me to find, claim, and grow my power. I have learned to wield this power collectively to create the future I have always dreamed of. That future is not far away; it is Our Time To Act. I hope you will continue to join us. From Aidan Lin-Tostado: I was 15 when I co-founded OTTA. I’ve grown up alongside this organization for nearly six years, and I am so proud of what we have become. I had a recent conversation with Nicole reminiscing on our high school days. We shared stories about how we craved spaces and peers who cared about change-making in our community. We are so lucky to have such a wide range of ages and life experiences on the team at OTTA. By interacting with our high school-aged staff, I realized that OTTA has grown into exactly what I yearned for in high school. In high school, I wanted a physical space where our team could meet, plan, and make memories. Today, the OTTA office is filled with signs from our protests, pictures from our meetups, and a whiteboard where countless ideas were born. Today, we have youth leaders who are supported by you: an incredible network of community organizations and activists and donors. You are some of the fiercest advocates for our youth-led cause. Thank you for your true allyship. I promise we will work hard to earn your ongoing support. And we have visionary and trailblazing youth, like Nicole, who are eager to step up and organize for a better future. I have every confidence in Nicole’s ability to excel in the difficult role of Executive Director. A co-founder’s step back from day-to-day operations is always a challenging, important, and rewarding step to the organization’s continued success. I am so happy that we have reached this point so soon because I know it is not about me. It is about our mission. As we step into the next chapter, I will continue to support OTTA, its people, and its work. I believe that together we will transform San Diego and the world. My friends know that I carry a special card with me wherever I go. It lives in my computer sleeve. Whenever I pull out my computer to work, my hands brush against its pages. This card was given to me after our first gala and it is filled with heartfelt messages from each of our team members. It holds such personal significance because it is a reminder of the close friendships that OTTA has brought into my life. I truly believe these relationships are the key to our deep impact. As I transition from Executive Director to my first full-time job at Nonviolent Peaceforce, I will continue to carry this card in my computer sleeve and my heart. To the past, present, and future team members of OTTA, thank you for trusting me to build something together. You will always have a special place in my life story, and I hope I’ve made you proud. Next Previous

< Back Jasmine Truong CYAN Advisor Jasmine Truong is a San Diego native and is currently pursuing a Bachelor's Degree in Political Science from UC San Diego. She is a field organizer for Congressman Scott Peters' re-election campaign and volunteers her time as a board member of the AAPI Democrats of San Diego. As CYAN Community Building chair, she's excited to help youth and youth allies build connections through their collective work and organizing. jasmine.troung@ourtimetoact.org

< Back Ellie Wang CYAN Advisor Ellie (she/her/hers) is the CYAN Lead Organizer at Our Time To Act. As CYAN Lead Organizer, Ellie works to build people power by building relationships with youth, including individuals, youth-led organizations, and youth-serving organizations and institutions. With a background in psychology from the University of California, San Diego, she is an incoming doctoral candidate in Clinical Psychology at the PGSP-Stanford PsyD Consortium. Ellie is driven to create positive alterations in mental health accessibility through systemic changes. Outside of work, Ellie loves to spend quality time with people she loves, cooking, painting, being out in nature, and playing basketball. ellie.wang@ourtimetoact.org

< Back Ray Lin Board Director Ray brings more than 20 years of leadership experience in Finance, Operations, and HR. He possesses a broad business background having worked for startups, Fortune 500 companies, as well as non-profits. Mr. Lin is currently a sr. executive at an early-stage AI startup leading strategic and operational efforts. He is passionate about serving, mentoring, and empowering youth through Our Time To Act. ray.lin@ourtimetoact.org

< Back Abbey Reuter Vice President Abbey currently works for Supervisor Nathan Fletcher at the County of San Diego Board of Supervisors as a Policy Associate for land use and environment as well as youth issues. She previously served for a year and a half as a Community Representative for Supervisor Fletcher. Her other experiences include working with the San Diego City Council as a Management Intern in District 7 and serving as the Associate Vice President of Local Affairs in student government at UC San Diego. Abbey had also previously served as the Advocacy Director for Our Time to Act United and was thrilled to continue working with this amazing team as a board member. She is passionate about creating positive change for our society, especially for youth. In her free time, she lives to do sewing projects and read. abbey.reuter@ourtimetoact.org