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.

Gilbert Deans Jr. is the Chief Operating Officer at Color Of Change, where he manages organizational systems including administration, risk management, compliance, legal operations, governance, and security. He is in charge of the  implementation of COC’s core business functions and internal operations, in line with the organization’s strategy,  values, and in compliance with donor standards and requirements.

Before joining Color of Change, Gilbert served as Director of Finance and Operations at Let’s Get Ready, a non-profit that mentors and tutors high school students through their junior year of college.  Prior to that, he served as the Senior Director of Financial Operations at Safe Horizon, the largest non-profit agency that works to prevent violence and advance justice for victims of crime and abuse. Gilbert began his career as an auditor at Deans, Archer & Co., working with a wide array of organizations in education and human services. He has a deep passion for social justice building support systems and services for the underserved.

Gilbert is a graduate of Temple University in Philadelphia. He has a degree in accounting and is a proud member of Phi Beta Sigma. He currently lives in Virginia with his wife.

Uchenna Moka-Solana is the Chief Technology Officer at Color Of Change. She is responsible for building the technology department and developing a clear, strategic vision for the organization’s technology landscape. She leads a team of cross-functional technologists while driving change processes in conjunction with other leaders at the organization. She joins Color Of Change with a dozen years’ experience in technology and management consulting, and organizational transformation — and is passionate about leveraging her experience to catalyze change.

Before joining Color Of Change, she worked with federal, state, and local government agencies to build products, fix technical problems, and improve how the US government serves the public through technology. She was the first African-American woman to serve as acting Executive Director of 18F, a civic digital services consultancy. Prior to that, she worked for global software company ThoughtWorks, helping to launch their Pan Africa operations in South Africa and Uganda. While living in South Africa, she also started the first BlackGirlsCODE chapter in Africa along with a free software development initiative.

Uchenna is a graduate in the field of Biomedical Engineering from Northwestern University. She has also done extensive diabetes research at the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Medicine as she aimed to fight first-world diseases that affected Black and African communities. She currently lives in Chicago, and in her spare time likes to play piano and curate music.

Kelle Rozell is the Chief Marketing & Storytelling Officer at Color Of Change. She leads the team in building narrative power for the racial justice movement, creating tools to hold corporations accountable, and elevating Black voices and communities. She comes to the organization with nearly 20 years’ experience in media and entertainment – working with major record labels and creating award-winning campaigns and content for ABC News, A&E TV, Turner Broadcasting, and Vice Media.

While navigating corporate America, Kelle championed diverse narratives and used her power to advocate for underrepresented voices, pushing for multicultural intern classes and content that reflects America’s true demographics. In 2021, Kelle teamed up with other Black professionals to launch the Black Dollar Index, a consumer advocacy platform that holds corporations accountable for their racial justice pledges to Black America.

Kelle is a Cleveland native turned New Yorker, who lives in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn with her miniature pinscher Darby. When Kelle is not working, she enjoys connecting with her family and friends, listening to a good R&B playlist, and attempting to play golf.

Jade Magnus Ogunnaike is the Vice President of Corporate Power at Color of Change. Jade initially joined Color Of Change as a campaign manager — creating winning initiatives like the Black women’s brunches which brought thousands of women across the country to organize for racial justice, and our three-year campaign to get R. Kelly dropped from RCA Records for his abuse of women and girls. Jade also led #QuitTheCouncil, convincing so many corporate executives to refuse to sit on Trump’s business council that he had to disband it, and our campaign persuading wedding planning sites to stop romanticizing and promoting plantations as wedding sites.

In 2020, in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, Jade created #BeyondTheStatement, a set of steps corporations can take to translate their verbal and symbolic support for Black people into real action. Before coming to Color of Change, Jade worked for SEIU organizing nursing home workers, home healthcare aides, and adjunct professors. She is a Los Angeles native, Howard University graduate, and founding member of the Black Youth Project 100. In her spare time, she enjoys design, cooking, and spending time with her husband and daughter Sloane.

Sakira Cook is the Vice President of Campaigns, 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.