20 Young Leaders. One Council.
A Future Shaped by Youth.

The Youth Advisory Council (YAC) brings together 20 young leaders from across the country to help guide the Center for Rising Generations’ strategy, storytelling, and signature initiatives, ensuring youth insight is at the center of how solutions are built. 

Designed to move beyond symbolic youth engagement, the YAC empowers members to shape real decisions, advise on major efforts like the Rising Generations Summit and Aspen Ideas: Rising Gen, and help expand CRG’s reach into new and emerging communities.

Meet the inaugural Council below. Learn who they are, where they’re from, and how they’re helping power youth-led solutions. Follow along, stay connected, and help amplify their impact.

Jahnavi Rao

Washington DC; Berwyn, PA
President & Founder at New Voters

Meghan L. Curry

Indianola, MS
Legal Assistant & Community Organizer

Sophia Many Turning Robes

Spokane, WA
Miss Indian Northwest 25-26
Project Coordinator Sister Sky Inc.

Taylor Thigpen

Jacksonville, FL; Washington DC
(Spring 2026)
Student at University of Notre Dame
Founder of Local Hands, Global Heart
Project Director Kidskonnectukraine

Lauren Proby

College Park, MD
Disability Policy Professional;
Disability Justice Advocate

Cristian Rodriguez

Philadelphia, PA
University of Pennsylvania
Higher Education Master’s Student
& Undergraduate Office of Admissions
Graduate Assistant

Esther Bonney

La Plata, MD
Founder of Nurture Natives;
Student at the University of Maryland;
Do Good Accelerator Fellow

Ezra Snell

Ithaca, NY
Grad student at Cornell University
Brooks School of Public Policy

Adnan Daher Faraj

Detroit, MI
Staff Assistant,
Office of Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib

Josephine Portell

St.Louis, MO
Student at University of
Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Zamaan Qureshi

Chicago, IL
Co-Chair, Design It For Us

Noah Davis

Chicago, IL
Student at University of
Wisconsin-Madison

Taylor Rhinehart

Ocala, FL; Kingdom of Bahrain
Morehead-Cain Scholar
at The University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill

Keishjuan Owens

Chicago, IL
Ignite (Chicago) Founder,
Creative Director, and Strategic Planner Organization:
LumberJackPak (LJP) Co-Host & Producer Project: Kollective Gents Podcast

Kathryn (Katie) Collins

Knoxville, TN
Student at the University of
Tennessee Knoxville

Simon Nguyen

Berkeley, CA
Physics Student,
Avionics Engineer for Space Enterprises,
and Researcher for the Undergraduate Lab at Berkeley

Roxy Sprowl

Albuquerque, NM
Proud citizen of the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians;
Serves as an elected Board Member for the National Indian Child Welfare Association;
Employed at the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services in the Native American Affairs Division of
Children’s Services