Directors Team
Elyssa Feder
Executive Director
(She/her)
Elyssa has over a decade of experience as an organizer and trainer, including in roles as the Training Director for EMILY’s List and Deputy Training Director at Priorities USA. While at EMILY’s List, she created multiple new training programs, including the Ignite Change Fellowship, which trains women from underrepresented communities to increase their presence in political office and grow the pipeline of candidates of color. She co-founded Rising Organizers in 2016 and has overseen the organization's growth from an all-volunteer startup to a staffed organization that has trained nearly 3,000 activists and held nine intensive fellowship cohorts on community organizing skills. As a result of her work, Elyssa was selected for Washingtonian Magazine’s 40 Women Under 40 issue in 2020.
AiSHA WHITE
Deputy Director
(sHe/They)
Aisha White is a cultural organizer, artist, and researcher with a passion for community building and social impact. A majority of her work centers supporting her community of artists to build and grow their projects, while her personal practices focuses on public health and fellowship. Her background in social enterprise, community engagement and sustainable development has informed her passion for socially engaged art. Her research in ethics and project development leads her to take a trauma informed approach to all of her work. She is an alum of Rising Organizers’ Fall 2019 Fellowship.
Aisha holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration from the University of Pittsburgh and a MA Cultural Policy Degree in Arts, Enterprise and Development from the University of Warwick in Coventry UK. In addition, she hold a certificate in Mixed Reality Design from Oxford University.
Billy Cerullo
Alumni co- Director
(He/Him)
Billy is originally from Boston, MA and moved to DC the day after he graduated from Suffolk University in 2014 to be an AmeriCorps member with DC Public Schools. Billy has been organizing since 2016, and cut his teeth organizing parents with PAVE (Parents Amplifying Voices in Education). He organized parents to lead a campaign that culminated in $21 million being invested in after-school and summer programming for children around the District. While at PAVE, Billy was trained in grassroots organizing through PICO and IAF affiliates, and most recently organized immigrant families at Briya Charter School to ensure DC lives up to its status as a Sanctuary City. Stepping into his first role as a union organizer, Billy has just joined the Laborers’ International Union of North America staff.
KT Beckman-Götrich
Community Engagement Co-Director
(They/Them)
KT began political work around gender justice and anti-war movements in 2003. They became more involved in recent years as a housing organizer for the 2016 Women’s March and a core organizer for the 2017 March for Racial Justice. KT completed the inaugural fellowship of Rising Organizers in 2017 and has continued on its training team. Locally, KT has also organized with Girls Rock!DC, Stop Police Terror Project, DC Reinvest Coalition, and ONE DC. KT’s organizing home is now as Community Engagement Associate at the ACLU of DC. They hope they and their family models their values—to be loved unconditionally and inoculated early and often with the lesson that one’s stories and community are the source of each person’s power. Their child has already been sighted at teach-ins, community meetings, and protests. They hope you reach out for a 1:1 or to see you at a Rising Organizers event soon.
Soraya Vaezi
Fellowship co-Director
(She/HER)
Soraya moved to DC upon graduating from UW-Madison to join Bread for the City’s Legal Clinic, where she supported low-income individuals facing eviction & termination of public benefits. She is a proud Angeleno, an alum of the Spring 2019 Rising Organizers Fellowship, and previously worked as a Digital Advertising Strategist for the Democratic National Committee. She is currently an advertising strategist at Authentic Campaigns. When it’s not election season, you’ll find Soraya in the kitchen, reading, or doing an elaborate multi-step skincare routine.