Our Year-Round Team
from left to right: Cherine, Teresa, Devin, Barbara (bookkeeper), Lara, Katiana (intern), Mollie and Amani
Full-Time Staff
Executive Director:
Lara Mendel
Lara Mendel co-founded The Mosaic Project with Board President, Gogi Hodder, in late 2000. Lara traces the idea for Mosaic back to her participation at the age of 15 in a 4-night/5-day summer camp that addressed issues of difference. She stayed involved with the program throughout her teenage years. This experience convinced her that waiting until people are in high school to address issues of difference is waiting far too long. She noted that prejudice, fear, and anger had already become so entrenched in some of her peers that violence easily erupted. She became determined to someday reach out to younger students to address diversity issues in a positive way and prevent prejudice, fear and anger from taking hold.
This determination was strengthened during a college program which brought Jewish students to Germany. Meetings with former Nazis, as well as visits to concentration camps where members of her extended family were killed, solidified her commitment to fight all forms of hatred.
After graduating from Stanford in 1990 with a B.A. and M.A. in Anthropology, Lara worked in violence prevention and environmental education. She then worked for seven years as Program and In-Country Director for Global Routes, a nonprofit promoting cross-cultural and self-understanding through community service programs for youth. During that time, she ran programs in rural Ecuador, Costa Rica, Kenya, and India as well as directed the programs from the Berkeley-based office. In addition to being an avid traveler, Lara is an experienced backpacker and martial artist. She is a black belt in Kajukenbo Kung Fu.
The Mosaic Project is the culmination of her experience, personal and professional, and represents her vision for social change.
Administrator:
Teresa Reiko Perales
Teresa Reiko Perales joined the Mosaic family in the summer of 2006. Growing up in a multicultural family instilled in her a passion for celebrating diversity and a commitment to social justice advocacy. Given this, and her affinity for organizations named “Mosaic,” she came to the perfect place.
Prior to joining us, Teresa served as the Diversity Advocate Intern at San Jose State University’s MOSAIC Cross Cultural Center for four years. In addition to providing administrative support at the Center, she developed and facilitated workshops on a variety of topics pertaining to diversity issues and built bridges between various campus cultural organizations.
Teresa graduated from San Jose State University (SJSU) with a B.S. in Communication Studies and a minor in Business in May, 2006.
During her time at SJSU, in addition to working at MOSAIC, she gained administrative and public relations experience working at the East Bay Express. She also had the privilege of being a Delegate at Leadership Today, a leadership development program designed to train student leaders to positively and effectively build community around diversity issues, and returned as an Assistant Facilitator the following year.
Teresa loves to dance. She has been a Ballet Folklorico dancer since the age of four and enjoys Hula, Tahitian, and Salsa as well. Her enthusiasm for multiculturalism radiates through her love of sharing her cultural traditions as well as learning about the traditions of others.
Youth Leadership Project Director:
Devin Berry
Devin Berry began as a Program Instructor for the fall ’08 sessions and after witnessing frequent outbreaks of peace and the playful spirits of The Mosaic Project, is excited and honored to join the year-round staff as the Youth Leadership Project Director.
Prior to joining us, Devin had been peacing it together for years. Most recently he has taught mindfulness in K-12 classrooms and served as a facilitator for Bay Area teen meditation retreats. He’s worked as a boy’s rites of passage mentor and spent many years as camp manager and program director at youth camps as local as Berkeley’s Tilden Park and as remote as Desolation Wilderness.
He is the father of two beautiful girls. He enjoys basketball, hiking, backpacking and researching family history and genealogy. Devin has been practicing meditation for over 10 years. He is committed to serving the community and has made it a priority in life to hold space for truth to unfold.
Curriculum and Training Director:
Cherine Badawi
Citizen to both Egypt and the United States of America, Cherine had the privilege of growing up on two sides of the planet. Her area of expertise lies in the development and facilitation of experiential social justice and conflict resolution programs for young people around the world. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Cultural Studies from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and her Master’s degree in Peace and Conflict Studies from International Christian University in Tokyo, Japan. Prior to joining The Mosaic Project, Cherine worked as a journalist for several years in the Middle East and the US. She also wrote the Footprint Handbook to Egypt. Following her stint as a writer, Cherine worked with several non-profit organizations including the American Friends Service Committee, A Safe Place, Challenge Day and as a staff facilitator for The Mosaic Project. In the non-profit realm, her responsibilities primarily consisted of developing and facilitating experiential programs about nonviolence, intercultural communication, diversity, social oppression and conflict resolution to thousands of young people around North America and Japan. In 2005, Cherine was awarded the prestigious Rotary World Peace Fellowship, which provided her with the opportunity to support the International Bureau of Education-UNESCO in developing a handbook to support member states’ peace education initiatives. Following graduate school and her work with UNESCO, Cherine served as an intrinsic member of the inaugural voyage of The Scholar Ship, a transnational floating university, working as an experiential education specialist and community builder. Cherine is delighted and honored to be returning to The Mosaic Project to support this amazing initiative in its continued growth and expansion. She believes in earnest that this extraordinary program will continue to motivate young people to, in the words of Gandhi, "be the change they wish to see."
Program Manager:
Mollie Wolf
Mollie first joined The Mosaic Project as a high school Youth Leader many years ago. Living and learning in a truly integrated, diverse community was a breath of fresh air in comparison to her very diverse, yet very segregated Bay Area high school. Since then, she has been completely hooked.
Mollie’s social justice experience spans a diversity of issues (and the globe). She has developed and facilitated programs on antiracist education with Jewish youth groups in St. Paul, Minnesota, supported inspiring HIV/AIDS education in South Africa’s queer community, worked with powerful peace activists at a radio station that reaches across the imaginary line between East and West Jerusalem, conducted in-depth research on implicit racial bias in education and media in San Francisco, and dug in the dirt on organic farms in the UK.
Between and during her various journeys, she managed to stay deeply connected with The Mosaic Project, working as a Program Instructor, managing the Outdoor School’s behind-the-scenes logistics, and doing an absurd amount of data entry. After graduating from UC Berkeley with a B.A. in Comparative Ethnic Studies, she returns to The Mosaic Project as its year-round Program Manager.
Mollie firmly believes in building a deeply interconnected, powerful global community of people looking out for each other, and creating spaces where folks having each others’ backs is the norm, not the exception. She also is a passionate believer in the wisdom of The Phantom Tollbooth, mango black tea with honey, and not-quite-ripe fruit. She brings all of these convictions and more to her work with The Mosaic Project, and is excited to continue learning and growing with the organization through its powerful work.
Part-Time Staff
Development Director:
Rachel Katz
Rachel Katz is a Jane-of-all-trades, who has a diversity of experiences and skills to share with The Mosaic Project. She met Lara and Gogi when they were all members of a collective that taught women's self defense called Women Defending Ourselves in the early 90's. They used many of the same experiential learning techniques that Mosaic uses today.
In 1996 Rachel co-founded and continues to live at Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage, in northeastern Missouri. The goal is to build a small town where residents live ecologically sustainable and socially rewarding lives, and share the skills and ideas behind that lifestyle.
Rachel has always been passionate about social justice and the environment, and she has brought that to bear on her many different pursuits. She has been a web designer, a booking agent for musicians that sing about social issues, a bookkeeper, and has worked in land management and conservation.
Rachel brings many of the skills she has gathered to her role as Development Director. Whether it's working on the web site or writing grant applications, Rachel gets the job done from her off-the-grid, strawbale cabin in Missouri.
Resident Rock Star:
Brett Dennen
Brett Dennen is a singer/songwriter, creator of The Mosaic Project's musical curriculum, our Resident Rock Star, and our original "Chill Out Dude" (positive disciplinarian).
He grew up in Oakdale, Califonia where he was home-schooled until the age of twelve. He graduated from UC Santa Cruz with a B.A. Community Studies and Social Change. He became involved in The Mosaic Project while still in college, worked at our original pilot sessions in 2001, and has been with us ever since.
Brett has been instrumental in creating our programs. Up until his music career took off in 2006, Brett worked at every one of our outdoor school sessions. He now joins us whenever he is able and serves on our Board of Directors. He has released three CDs (in addition to the Mosaic CD, which we are proud to say was the very first CD he recorded) and spends most of his time touring these days. Check out www.brettdennen.net, his Facebook, or his myspace page for his schedule and a lot more information.
Resident Rock Star:
Amani Carey-Simms
Amani Carey-Simms comes from a family of passionate leaders who are committed to social justice. Community-oriented values and leadership skills were instilled in him at a young age. In high school, Amani was a Peer Health Educator for P.A.S.H.E.N (Peers Advocating Sexual Health Education Now) and returned as the Community Outreach Manager once he graduated. He served as the Student/Teacher/Parent Liaison for Youth Together and is a founding member of the arts-in-action groups, Freedom Academic Movement (F.A.M), and People Organizing with Each Other for Revolution (P.O.W.E.R). He worked as a consultant for Diversity Works for two years after completing their summer institute and co-facilitated diversity trainings for young people and adults alike.
Amani is a founding member (producer and emcee) of the well-known local Bay Area hip-hop group “The Attik,” in which the power of the hip-hop culture is harnessed to question, teach, and learn from one another. With The Attik, Amani has performed for audiences world wide and has led many workshops on hip-hop, media literacy, critical thinking, creative writing, and “beat” making. Currently, in addition to working with The Mosaic Project, Amani works as a Leader for Challenge Day, and runs day-long workshops in high schools and middle schools fostering connections and challenging oppression.
Amani has been with The Mosaic Project since 2004, working as a Program Instructor and Youth Leadership Project Director.
Amani’s history of social activism preceded him, and with his dedication to his community he hopes it will outlast him.
Visit Amani's website for more information about his music.
Volunteer Executive Assistant:
Chris Darby
Since coming to The Mosaic Project as a high-school student Cabin Leader in 2002, Chris Darby has worked with Mosaic in several capacities including Intern, Youth Leadership Project Director, and "Chill Out Dude" (see photo). Currently, Chris works as a satellite Executive Assistant from New York where he studies history, education, and the effects of New England winters on Northern California youth at Columbia University.
"The Mosaic Project has been a place where I've been able to combine my conviction for social change with my vision for what a changed society would look like. Being able to help build a community with so many folks- youth and staff alike- committed to their respective visions of a better world has helped expand my horizons greatly. At Mosaic, I've truly experienced the kind of collective spirit and pragmatic optimism which can make those worlds possible."
Along with visions of peace, Chris enjoys brook trout fishing in New Mexico, playing dominoes, the smell of his mom's banana bread, making t-shirts, warm smiles, Bay fog in the summer, Qui, Tower of Power, the beautiful game, Borges, and sitting on stoops.
from left to right: Teresa, Lara, Sarita (Outdoor School Staff) and Amani