Charlies Fields is the Executive Vice President for Operations and Impact at Color Of Change, where he oversees the organization’s goal-setting, fundraising, evaluation, and helps build a culture in line with our values. He comes to Color Of Change with a wealth of experience in organizational change, project management, and strategy execution.

Charles served as Lambda Legal’s first ever Chief Operating Officer. While there, he transformed operations strategy, processes, and controls, greatly improving the organization’s financial standing. He managed the organization’s first collective bargaining agreement and helped revamp Lambda’s technology infrastructure. He also led Lambda’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and expanded employee health benefits to bring the organization’s healthcare policy in line with its mission. Prior to working at Lambda Legal, Charles served as the Deputy Secretary of State in New York as part of a task force on worker exploitation, which recovered $2M in stolen wages for thousands of people working in the nail salon industry. Before joining the government, Charles oversaw large technology projects as a management consultant for Fortune 500 companies including Goldman Sachs, Hess Corporation, Prudential, and biopharmaceutical giant Bristol Myers Squibb.

Charles is a champion of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace. He holds an MBA from Columbia University’s Business School and a Bachelor of Arts with a major in economics from Boston University. He has lived and worked abroad in Africa, Europe, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. On his time off, Charles is a certified ski instructor, race coach, avid golfer and enjoys hiking with his Rhodesian Ridgeback.

Nicole Taylor is the Chief Operating Officer at Color Of Change where she manages organizational systems including administration, risk management, compliance, legal operations, governance, and security. She is in charge of implementing many of COC’s core business functions and internal operations in a way that is in line with the organization’s strategy and values.

Before joining Color Of Change, Nicole was an Associate Vice President at The Posse Foundation, which provides high-achieving students from diverse backgrounds the opportunity to attend college and become leaders on campus and in the workforce. Nicole led operations and was responsible for the the Career, Alumni, Graduate & Fellowship, and Veterans Programs there. Before her time at Posse, Nicole was the Managing Director of the International Legal Foundation. In that role, she expanded the organization’s global footprint by opening two additional offices in Tunisia and Myanmar and laid the foundation for advice and assistance programs in Indonesia, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Republic of Georgia. She grew the foundation’s global presence and reputation through coalition-building, rights campaigns, data-centered strategies and research. She also oversaw program performance, operations, and administration at ILF. Prior to that, she practiced in the Philadelphia area at the law firm of El-Shabazz & Harris, LLC, and as a staff attorney at the Public Defender Association of Philadelphia.

Nicole is a graduate of Howard University School of Law and Spelman College. She currently lives in Queens, NY with her family and her fancy parakeet named Howard.

Cedric Lang is the Chief Information Officer at Color of Change. He is responsible for continuously maturing the Technology Department and developing a clear, strategic vision for the organization’s technology landscape.  He leads a team of cross-functional technologists while driving business process modernization and cost efficiency in collaboration with other leaders at the organization.

He joins Color of Change with over twenty-five (25) years’ of technology and leadership experience, along with organizational transformation expertise. He is passionate about leveraging emerging technologies and agile frameworks to solve business problems; while emphasizing the importance of healthy work cultures for staff. 

Before joining Color of Change, he worked in higher education, healthcare, federal, state, and local government agencies to build technology infrastructures, teams, and strategies to transform the services provided. He was the founding strategist for the University of South Florida’s cloud-first initiative, where cloud-based solutions and a dedicated cloud services team were created and leveraged to modernize the university’s capabilities to serve over 50,000 students. 

Cedric is a graduate of Florida A&M University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology and a Master of Arts degree in Organizational Leadership from Williamson Christian College. He is a veteran of the U.S. Air Force and currently lives in Tampa Florida.  In his spare time, Cedric enjoys writing and mentoring aspiring black technologists, leaders, and entrepreneurs.

Sakira Cook is the Vice President of Policy and Government Affairs at Color Of Change. She helps lead the organization’s policy and government affairs team,  its work to overhaul the criminal justice system and safeguard democracy. She is in charge of advocacy strategies aimed at government officials – leveraging the power of Color Of Change members to win real-world change for Black people.

Throughout her career, Sakira has fought for transformative policy solutions to advance civil rights in the United States, working to eliminate inequity and injustice in policing, pre-trial detention, sentencing and reentry. Before joining Color Of Change, Sakira was the Senior Director of the Justice Program at The Leadership Conference on Civil & Human Rights and The Leadership Conference Education Fund. There, she oversaw the justice reform agenda and conducted advocacy at the United Nations, promoting U.S. ratification of important human rights treaties and helped establish the Permanent Forum on People of African Descent. She also led several public education campaigns such as Vision for Justice and Vote for Justice, and work that led to the passage of The First Step Act and The Fair Chance Act to name a few. Prior to that, she served as a legal and research fellow at the Open Society Policy Center, focusing on criminal, civil, and racial justice reform.

Sakira attended Howard University where she earned a B.A. in International Business and Management, and then Wayne State University Law School where she earned her J.D.  She currently lives in Washington D.C. and likes to travel with family and friends in her free time.

Amity Paye is the Chief Communications Officer at Color Of Change. She oversees the organization’s media strategy, social media, design, production and partnerships to make Color Of Change a household name. Her team uses media coverage, social media, design and video production to add pressure during campaigns and publicize some of the organization’s most important victories on tech accountability, transforming entertainment industries, and criminal justice reform.

Before joining Color Of Change in early 2020, Amity led strategic communications at the labor union 32BJ SEIU, supported media relations for the Black Youth Project 100, and spent a decade as a journalist reporting on Black youth and social justice for The Nation, NBC, The Root, Jet Magazine and the Amsterdam News. Amity serves on the board of Samara Collective, a women-led communications coop. She is a graduate of Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. She currently lives in upstate New York on land she and her husband are turning into a communal gardening and artist space.

Portia Allen-Kyle is the Chief Advisor at Color Of Change where she is a thought partner to the president, working to advance Color Of Change’s vision, impact, and efficiency.

Portia is a trusted advisor with a track record of advancing equity in nonprofit, government, and academic settings. Portia comes to Color Of Change with impressive experience as Senior Advisor for Equity, Policy and Stakeholder Engagement in the Office of Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Transportation. There, she advised leaders on how to incorporate equity into agency policy and led the Justice40 initiative, electrifying transportation, instituting diversity equity and inclusion practices, and spearheading funding pools to move towards more inclusive decision-making. She also helped oversee funding for Title VI recipients and managed agency events and outreach with the relaunch of the federal Advisory Committee on Transportation Equity. Prior to that, she worked at the Council of State Governments Justice Center as Deputy Division Director and at the Voting Rights Lab as Director of Innovation and Police.

Other professional experiences include teaching, research, and consulting on policy, equity and inclusion, and organizational development for nonprofits and educational entities. In 2021 Portia was recognized as a Top 40 Attorney by the American Bar Association’s Young Lawyer’s Division. She is also the author of Advice to Thrive By: How to Use Your Resume and Cover Letter to Build Your Brand and Launch A Dynamic Public Interest Career. When she is not pursuing justice, she enjoys spending time with family, traveling, going to see concerts and live theater.