Pronouns: Her
Executive Director

Contact: jaclyn@youngleaders-network.org

Jaclyn Cirinna is a leader in the Juvenile Justice Reform space Nationally and is passionate about creating opportunities for young people, especially those who are system impacted. Jaclyn serves to develop and ensure the organization's vision and mission statement are met. She ensures the future of the organization and executes administrative responsibilities for Young Leaders Network.

Key Responsibilities:

Organizational Building/ Sustainability: Works alongside Grant Writer to ensure sustainability. Works closely with consultants to ensure scope of work and organizational trajectory are aligned. Oversees consultants and contracts. 

Finance: Manages funder relationships. Oversees the organization’s budget per funder and budget per project. Meets with YLN’s fiscal sponsor to continue partnership in developing YLN. 

Communication & Engagement: Develops partnerships and outreach strategies that effectively communicate the organization's initiatives, ensuring meaningful engagement with the community. Manages communications with YLN network to share opportunities for young people. 

Jaclyn’s ability to lead with clarity and logic as well as emotional intelligence allows her work to be authentic and clear. She shows up well organized and holds the vision and mission of YLN to heart.

Connect with Jaclyn to work with Young Leaders Network or to become a Young Leader yourself!

Pronouns: She/her

Operations Manager

Contact: info@youngleaders-network.org

Chloe Williams is a Jill of all trades and operations associate for Young Leaders Network. Chloe’s background includes, but is not limited to grassroots organizing and activism, event coordinating, qualitative research and data analysis, as well as local, state and federal advocacy.

Key Responsibilities:

Chloe’s key responsibilities include invoice processing, social media communications, and website maintenance.

Pronouns: He/His

Advisor

Contact: benito@youngleaders-network.org

Benito Lopez-Sanchez is a mission-driven leader dedicated to fostering connections, empowering young leaders, and driving impactful outreach initiatives. With a strong background in youth advocacy and leadership development, he ensures programs align with the organization’s values and serve the community effectively.

Key Responsibilities:

Strategic Outreach: Builds and maintains relationships with stakeholders, partners, and community members to expand the organization's reach and impact.

Benito’s ability to balance strategic thinking with emotional intelligence allows him to lead with purpose and intention. Whether strengthening mentorship networks or expanding outreach efforts, he is committed to creating opportunities for lasting impact.

Pronouns: He/Him
Advisor

Contact: jaleel@youngleaders-network.org

Jaleel Terrell is a dedicated and results driven leader with dependable experience in public administration, program coordination, budget analysis committed to cultivating connections to make effective changes and enhance youth lives. Proven success in forming strategic partnerships, while leading organizational development and juvenile social justice initiatives he ensures that programs align with community values to make effective changes within respective jurisdictions he works in. 

Key Responsibilities:

Jaleel’s ability to balance his personal experiences with the juvenile justice system with his education allows him to lead with passion and intention. Whether it’s securing funding for Y.L.N or connecting with youth he is committed to  opportunities for the next generation.

Youth Mentor

Shimaine Holley is a dedicated advocate for child welfare, systemic reform, and military family support, . In this role, she ensures military families have access to essential resources that promote stability, resilience, and well-being. Having aged out of Georgia’s foster care system at 21, Shimaine transformed her lived experiences into a career focused on improving policies and practices for vulnerable populations. Her leadership has been recognized through roles such as the Regional Impact Liaison for the Multi-Agency Alliance for Children (MAAC), as well as a Texas CPS Investigations, and a seat on The Children Bureau board for vulnerable populations. She has also collaborated with national organizations, including the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Foster Club and ICF, where she has traveled the country advocating for data-driven system improvements.

Beyond her work in direct service, Shimaine is the Founder and CEO of Change Is Inevitable LLC, an organization providing training on adolescent brain development, education-to-workforce transitions, authentic youth engagement, prevention over intervention, and juvenile justice etc. Her contributions have earned her multiple awards, including the Nancy Cannon-O’Connell Outstanding Youth Leadership Award and the Foster Club Outstanding Youth Award. A two-time sociology graduate of Albany State University, she will complete her master’s degree in 2025 and plans to pursue a Ph.D. in 2026, furthering her mission to bridge policy and practice for systemic change. With a lifelong commitment to advocacy, Shimaine continues to influence child welfare, non-foster care systems, and military communities creating environments where families can thrive.

Pronouns: She/they

Youth Mentor

Nikita Mason is a single mother, social entrepreneur, youth engagement/advanced youth development specialist, social justice poet/songwriter, domestic violence advocate, mindfulness coach, motivational speaker, and healer residing in Baltimore City. Currently, Ms. Mason is working on growing her Everything's Melanin Mindfuness Creation Brand. Focusing on teaching youth of melanin descent how to connect to their internal power through self-care and knowledge of true history and self. By emphasizing a healthy, conscious, and mindful lifestyle. Born and raised in Baltimore, MD, her long-standing history with multiple systems, communities, nonprofit organizations, and youth has enabled her to support social change initiatives in and around Maryland.

Nikita has dedicated her work to making impactful changes in the lives of children, families, and communities that have been intentionally and historically marginalized, targeted, and disenfranchised in and around Maryland. Nikita Mason works as a consultant with the Center for Child Trauma Assessment, services, and System Integration. Nikita and other change makers are working alongside CCTASSI, making an accessible toolkit for agencies, non-profits, and individuals working with transition-aged youth that will support lasting positive outcomes. She actively uses her youth and family engagement, mindfulness coaching, knowledge of trauma-informed resilience practices, and community partnerships to advocate for systemic change within government agencies that will create better outcomes for youth experiencing the system in Baltimore and beyond. Nikita advocates for many issues like domestic violence, police reform, urban youth decriminalization, drug policy, harm reduction strategies, positive youth development, trauma-informed practices, and other social issues, policies, and practices to govern Maryland. Her mission is to empower and equip urban communities, families, and children using mindfulness techniques, trauma-informed skills and concepts, social entrepreneurship, poetry for advocacy, and trauma-informed healing practices. She works with organizations such as the Annie E Casey Foundation, the Children's Center for Law and Policy, and Community Law in Action.

Working with agencies and communities on policy and legislation that uplifts underserved youth in Baltimore City. Nikita is dedicated to spreading her knowledge of how art, in conjunction with youth advocacy, mindfulness coaching, trauma-informed resilience practices, and awareness of self, can lead young people in the direction of success. For humanity overall to win, we have to positively impact societal injustices and create better outcomes for children, families, and communities of color and melanated descent.

Pronouns: He/him

Youth Mentor

My name is Da’Quon Beaver and in 2007 I was arrested, charged as an adult and sentenced to 48 years with 40 to hang over my head for the rest of my life. In 2014 I was released and beggin my advocacy journey by working at Legal Aid Justice Center as a community Organizer.

In  the beginning 2015 I launched a youth led campaign to reform Virginia’s Juvenile Justice system called R.I.S.E for youth. In November of 2015 I was invited to do  TEDXRVA. 

I was born and raised in Richmond Virginia and my incarceration at 14 years old changed my life gradually. I spent my teenage years incarcerated and when released I saw first hand how hard it is to get a job and apartment as a felon. So now my goal is to help young people who face similar issues and obstacles.

Pronouns: They/them

Youth Mentor

logan meza* (they/them) is a Black American, Colombian, trans/non-binary artist and cultural organizer born and raised in Miami, FL. Growing up in a tumultuous and abusive household with parents of marginalized identities is what set the stage for them to find themself in movement and social justice work. They co-founded S.O.U.L. Sisters Leadership Collective (SSLC) at 17 which housed the bulk of their organizing work such as co-organizing marches and mobilizations like The Florida March for Black Women, which mobilized the BIPOC community in South Florida to vote and exercise their civic power in local elections, and Black Girls Day at the Capitol, which mobilized Black women, girls, and TGNC (transgender & gender non-conforming/gender expansive) folks to ride the freedom bus from all over Florida to the state capitol to occupy space, meet with legislators, and practice Black joy as resistance, designing youth leadership development programs and fellowships, presenting workshops and trainings at various conferences across the United States about social justice, gender based violence, and queer and trans education, and more until its sunset in early 2023.

Outside of S.O.U.L. Sisters, they also co-founded South FL Mutual Aid which distributed over $40,000 to folks in need in Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach county at the height of the pandemic from 2020 - 2021, have been part of the Miami committee for Transgender Day of Remembrance & Resilience (TDORR) for the last 7 years, are part of the leadership team for Trans Florida Resources (TFR), and have also been part of multiple leadership development opportunities like being part of the final cohort of the Movement to End Violence fellowship through the NoVo Foundation. They are now at The Brown Boi Project (BBP) developing youth programming for TGNC young people in Florida and beyond centered around social justice, emotional wellness, healing, financial wellness, and self actualization.

They are dedicated to this work as they believe it is their duty to sow the seeds that will turn into fruit bearing trees to nourish future generations to get them closer to liberation in their lifetime while figuring out what joy and freedom looks like in our lifetime.