Meet the Board
We are grateful to be supported by seasoned organizers and movement workers.
-
President
Khafre Jay, rooted in San Francisco's economically unequal Hunters Point, is an unyielding force for change—a community organizer, business consultant, artist, keynote speaker, and devoted father. Drawing from his lived experience in a city plagued by severe income disparity, Khafre has devoted his life to battling systemic injustice, aiming to amplify marginalized voices primarily through the power of Hip Hop.
In 2013, Khafre founded Hip Hop For Change, transforming a simple clipboard into the world's largest Hip Hop education organization. The initiative has employed over 1000 community members, educated 35,000+ K-12 youth, and raised $7 million via grassroots activism. Now, he leads Hip Hop For The People, expanding the community's access to authentic Hip Hop culture.
His tireless efforts have garnered substantial recognition. In 2022, Khafre received the Arts and Innovation Award from The East Bay Economic Development Association. He also secured accolades from the Zellerbach Family Foundation and the San Francisco Symphony in 2020. His influence reaches far beyond awards; his work and commentary have been featured across multiple media platforms, including CBS News, The SF Chronicle, KRON4, and The Black News Network.
An esteemed speaker and educator, Khafre lectures nationwide at institutions like Stanford, Tulane, and The Cambridge School for Social Justice and has delivered impactful talks on TEDx stages. As a performer, his repertoire is equally impressive; he's shared stages with Hip Hop luminaries like Rakim, Method Man, Dead Prez, and Talib Kweli.
Khafre's unique blend of Pro-Black, anti-white supremacist, and community-centered Hip Hop electrifies audiences everywhere. His unwavering objective remains: to reclaim Hip Hop as a potent tool for community empowerment, social justice, and transformational change. For Khafre Jay, the mission never pauses; it only intensifies.
-
Nik (they/them) is a climate organizer with deep experience in climate induced migration, youth empowerment and resistance as a means for liberation and decolonization. They are currently focused on bringing narratives from queer, trans and gender-expansive activists and organizers in the climate and environmental spaces to the foreground as we discuss oppression and justice within and outside of our movement.
-
Lizbeth is a 19-year old climate justice activist and organizer who was raised in Richmond, California and became involved with Youth Vs Apocalypse early in high school. She was once YVA's Social Media Coordinator, a part of Lead Circle, a part of the Organizational Management Team, and a coordinator for YVA's involvement in California Youth Vs Big Oil, a statewide coalition. Lizbeth is now a sophomore at Harvard College and since transitioned out of these roles, but has continued to support Youth Vs Apocalypse because she feels that it is important to uplift the voices of youth and communities who are on the frontlines of the climate crisis. It was through Youth Vs Apocalypse that Lizbeth learned about how the Climate Justice Movement is an intersectional movement that is not just about environmental issues, but also about public health, environmental justice, economic justice, racial justice, etc. She now continues to support Youth Vs Apocalypse as a Board Member.
-
Matt Leonard is the Director of the Oil and Gas Action Network, known to many YVA members as DJ Matt for providing sound systems for hundreds of protests, rallies, and events across California. , has supported YVA with sound at most of our actions over the years. OGAN supports grassroots and frontline movements taking action to build a world beyond fossil fuels. Matt has been an activist and organizer for over 25 years, previously working at 350.org from 2011-2021 as the Director of Special Projects. This included leading high-impact projects such as the Tar Sands Action against the Keystone XL Pipeline, the 2014 Peoples’ Climate March in New York, and the Do The Math Tour to launch the global fossil fuel divestment movement. Additionally he coordinates Aid & Abet Logistics - supporting social movement, labor unions, and community arts with event production and audio-visual support. In his spare time he serves as a Rigger and Production Manager with international aerial dance companies including Bandaloop, Flyaway Productions, and Zaccho Dance Theatre. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Ecological Economics, misses playing drums in punk bands, and loves vegan comfort food.
-
Many know Mx. Cory as a longtime pillar of the YVA community. Mx. Cory has been a great organizer, educator and friend to many of us.
Cory Jong has 26 years of experience with grassroots organizing, including mass-line and direct action organizing training. They helped build anti-imperialist organizations in solidarity with the Philippines in the youth sector, API student organizations, community groups organizing to free political prisoners and prisoners of conscience, transnational feminist organizations, anti-war and anti-globalization coalitions.
Their family has lived in Oakland (Huichin territory, unceded Ohlone land) for over a century. They are proud to be living and working in the Town where they were born and raised.
They currently sponsor one of the longest-running social justice clubs at the middle school level in OUSD, Warriors for Justice, who were some of the youngest founding members of Youth Vs. Apocalypse. In 2022, Cory published an anthology with youth organizers: “Warriors for Justice: Our Future Has Its Eyes on You.”
They teach the first 8th grade core Ethnic Studies class at the middle school level in Oakland Unified School District at Urban Promise Academy in the Fruitvale district of Oakland. This is their 18th year teaching, with a background in non-profit youth development work beginning in the late 90s.
They are a CTA State Council Representative, a member of Oakland Education Association’s Common Good Bargaining Team, and a member of the OEA Community Schools Steering Committee.
They have been recognized by Oakland Unified School District for Teaching Excellence, and the 49er Foundation, with the Dr. Harry Edwards “Follow Your Bliss” leadership award, as Middle School Teacher of the Year in 2021.
One of Cory’s mentors, Yuri Kochiyama, shared a quote by Frantz Fanon that continues to guide them: "Each generation must, out of relative obscurity, discover its mission, fulfill it, or betray it.” Cory’s mission is to support frontline youth in discovering their passions and sense of purpose, and to organize to find their voice and be agents of change.
-
Treasurer
David Foecke is a retired social entrepreneur, community organizer, and meditation teacher.
During his career, David co-founded three social justice non-profit organizations, including the East Bay Meditation Center, in Oakland, and a for-profit restaurant, Cafe Flora, in Seattle.
He is currently the volunteer organizer of the Youth Vs. Apocalypse Club at his son's school, the Melrose Leadership Academy, which won a campaign in December 2023, featured in the Oaklandside, to force the Oakland Unified School District to shut down the gas-fired boiler at their campus during upcoming renovations, and replace it with an all-electric heat pump, thereby eliminating 74 metric tons of annual CO2 emissions.
David also serves on the OUSD Sustainability Advisory Council and the Steering Committee of the Stop OAK Expansion Coalition, working to stop the Port of Oakland's plans to expand the Oakland airport.
He would be happy to talk your ear off about heat pump, induction, and EV technologies, since he has converted his family's home, where he lives with his wife and son, into a fossil-fuel-free space. He has made a personal vow that, on his deathbed, he will be able to tell his son that he did everything in his power to leave him a livable world.
David is famous, amongst friends, for his homemade fig bars, made from the bounty of afig tree in the back yard.