- team@genzforchange.org
About Us
We are young activists who use online platforms to effect positive social change.
Our Background
We are dedicated to empowering our generation through education and civic engagement, using the power of social media to drive progressive change and hold those in power accountable. We collaborate with content creators and organizations to create impactful campaigns, promote responsible use of technology, and advance our vision for a better future. With a strong following and proven track record, we aim to continue our leadership in the digital progressive movement and work towards a more just and equitable world.
We're the place where the creator economy and progressive politics intersect on social media.
63%
The percentage of Gen-Z voters who supported progressive House candidates in the 2022 midterms.
70%
The percentage of young voters in Arizona, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin that supported progressive candidates.
+28
The amount that Gen-Z voters preferred progressive lawmakers to conservative lawmakers in the 2022 midterms.
40%
The percentage of Gen-Z voters whose primary news source is TikTok or Instagram.
Who We Are
Whether it’s grassroots community organizing, social media content development, computer programming, or graphic design, we bring it all to bear on our objective. We’re not scared to stand out for what we believe in and care about a wide range of causes.
100%
Youth-Led
Digital + Community Organizing
We mobilize a network of influential users across TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube, who together have access to over 500 million people. This innovative approach to community organizing strengthens the footwork of our activists.
Meet the team
Yes, we're all Gen-Z!
Aidan Kohn-Murphy
Founder
About Aidan
Aidan Kohn-Murphy is a 19-year-old political organizer, born and raised in Washington DC, and now a freshman at Harvard University. He is the Founder of Gen-Z for Change and served as Executive Director for almost two years before transitioning to his current role as Senior Advisor. Aidan has nearly 300,000 followers on TikTok and was selected as a member of the Forbes under 30 Class of 2023. In his spare time, Aidan can be found reading about random gubernatorial elections that took place 40 years ago or spending time with his boyfriend.
Elise Joshi
Acting Executive Director
About Elise
Elise Joshi is a 20-year-old organizer and student at UC Berkeley. During her time as Strategy Director, she facilitated and led Gen-Z for Change’s labor actions by working with coders, content creators, and labor unions. Elise also has her own platform of over 115,000 followers on TikTok where she mobilizes her followers to vote and take action in labor, climate, and health. Elise is part of the firewall against both climate nihilism and climate denial, generating millions of views monthly towards combating both narratives and amplifying digital and on-the-ground climate actions.
Victoria Hammett
Deputy Executive Director & Director of Programming
About Victoria
Victoria Hammett is a 24-year-old USC graduate from Dallas, Texas who got her start in digital organizing through her TikTok account where she discusses reproductive rights, labor rights, and social justice. As the Deputy Executive Director, she assists the Acting Executive Director in fundraising and partnerships. As the Programming Director, she works closely with the creator network, manages creator campaigns, and coordinates content initiatives.
Olivia Julianna
Director of Politics & Government Affairs
About Olivia
Olivia Julianna is a 20-year-old abortion rights activist from Houston, Texas. She is most known for initiating the takedown of a whistleblower website targeting Texans who aided in abortion access, and for raising $2.3 million for abortion funds after she was bullied online by Republican Congressman Matt Gatez. She is currently a student at the University of Houston- Victoria working on securing a Bachelor's Degree in Political Science.
Nandi Perry
Director of Diversity, Equity, Belonging, and Inclusion
About Nandi
Nandi Perry is a 21-year-old college student with a passion for racial justice, sustainable fashion, and leadership. She is dedicated to reflecting and enforcing the values we preach to our audience in the workplace. As Director of Diversity, Equity, Belonging, and Inclusion, she advocates for the proper representation and treatment for all of our team and coalition members. She is responsible for maintaining a vibrant, inclusive culture that everyone is proud to be a part of.
Sam Schmir
Director of Marketing & Communications
About Sam
Sam Schmir is a young organizer and graduate of Southern New Hampshire University. He possesses a unique set of skills that he has honed through his experience in digital organizing, which he discovered through TikTok. He is a dedicated professional who is committed to using his knowledge of the digital landscape to help nonprofits and NGOs achieve their goals. Sam has been working with Gen-Z for Change for two years now, where he manages their marketing and communications efforts, helping them to grow their online presence and make a greater impact in the community.
Sam Shlafstein
Director of Strategy
About Sam
Sam Shlafstein is a 20-year-old activist, researcher, and college student with a long-standing commitment to civic engagement. As Gen-Z for Change’s Director of Strategy, he oversees the planning and execution of digital and on-the-ground actions. Outside of Gen-Z for Change, Sam advocates for and works with formerly incarcerated students pursuing post-secondary education.
Jack Petocz
Mobilization Coordinator
About Jack
Jack Petocz is an 18-year-old organizer, activist, and full-time high school senior currently working towards earning his IB diploma. Identifying as gay, Petocz is well-known for consistently fighting against LGBTQ+ sentiment in both his home state of Florida and beyond. In just the past year, Jack has challenged discriminatory book banning, organized Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” walkout, and stood up to Gov. Ron DeSantis directly. In the coming months, he plans to enter college and pursue a degree in Political Science.
Sofia Ongele
Digital Strategist
About Sofia
Sofia is a 22-year-old developer, creator, and activist from Greater Los Angeles who now attends Columbia University. At 17, she created her first award-winning app — ReDawn — to support survivors of sexual violence, thereby sparking her passion for using technology to serve marginalized communities. As the Digital Strategist, she creates tools to streamline digital civic engagement, tackling issues from the climate crisis to inclusive education. Most recently, she was a subject on the Disney+ docuseries, “Growing Up”, wherein she details our imperative ability to break free of internalized stereotypes and imposter syndrome.
Karim Kaylani
Software Strategist
About Karim
Karim Kaylani is a 21-year-old software developer who is passionate about human rights, income inequality, and climate action. As a Software Strategist for Gen-Z for Change, he uses these skills to build software applications with the intention of highlighting political and human rights issues. Outside of this, Karim is a student and teaching assistant at UC Berkeley studying computer science.
Jaeden Clark
Programming Strategist
About Jaeden
Jaeden Clark is an 18-year-old organizer and student at Stanford University. His organizing journey started on TikTok, where he shares theories concerning race, gender, and leftist economics – particularly gaining traction among Black American youth. As the Programming Strategist for Gen-Z for Change, he works to create and oversee media content that supplements the on-the-ground work that Gen-Z for Change does, highlighting the theory and historical context that is connected to the praxis.
Claire Simon
Communications Coordinator
About Claire
Claire Simon is a 17-year-old organizer passionate about voting rights, reproductive justice, and climate action. As Gen-Z for Change’s Communications Coordinator, she oversees the organization’s internal partnership management and communication strategy. In her spare time, Claire leads a voter mobilization initiative at her school dedicated to increasing voter engagement.
Connor Hesse
TikTok Content Coordinator
About Connor
Connor Hesse is a 19-year-old student and social media influencer who is passionate about using his platform of almost 3 million followers to spread awareness on voting, climate justice, union rights, and more. Connor is the Creator Content Coordinator, where he helps with creator outreach and is in charge of serial content. In addition, Connor is studying Social Media Marketing at Southern New Hampshire University.
Zoe Shipley
Research & Writing Coordinator
About Zoe
Zoe Shipley is a 20-year-old organizer passionate about reproductive justice, healthcare reform, and climate action. She is currently studying health policy at the Gillings School of Global Public Health. Zoe does groundwork on the organization’s initiatives and creates resources for general dissemination. Outside of this work, Zoe helps run a branch of a nonprofit that engages in global health discussions to promote environmental, reproductive, and systemic public health reform.
Chandler Quaile
State Government Organizing Coordinator
About Chandler
Chandler Quaile is a 21-year-old student and activist at Vanderbilt University who is passionate about climate justice and immigrant justice. Chandler works in the Politics & Government Affairs department, where he works on state and local political issues and voter activation. Outside of Gen-Z for Change, he enjoys exploring Nashville and engaging in organizing for justice in his wider Tennessee community, especially for trans and unhoused LGBTQ+ people.
Dominique Demetz
Graphic Design Specialist
About Dominique
Dominique is a 22-year-old multimedia designer and developer from Los Angeles, California. With experience that includes degrees in Web Design, English, and Psychology/Behavioral Sciences, Dominique uses her skills of using rhetorical design to convey messages to different audiences, no matter their beliefs, opinions, or values. Her goal is to make difficult topics accessible and understandable to people from all backgrounds.
in the news
What they say about us
Gen-Z for Change has already mobilized its followers to carry out a handful of unorthodox online actions — including crashing an anti-abortion whistleblower line in Texas with raunchy memes.
Since it formed in 2020, Gen-Z for Change has been among a host of activist groups and movements led by young people to combat what they perceive as the stripping of their rights and protections.
Gen Z for Change is aiming to change the experience pregnant people have of looking for reproductive healthcare and ending up in a crisis pregnancy center.
Common Questions
Most Popular Questions.
We get a lot of questions. Hopefully, our FAQs can answer most of them, but if not, contact us and we’ll do our best to get back to you!
At Gen-Z for Change, we strive to create as many involvement opportunities as possible, for as many types of people as possible. Specifically, for activists and organizers, we encourage you to share your work with us via our Organizing on Display project, a series that we launched to amplify the incredible work that you are doing all across the country! Please submit your work here if you are interested!
If you are just getting started in activism or organizing, we encourage you to visit the Our Work page to find easy-to-do yet impactful actions that make a change. Additionally, beyond our own calls to action, we strongly recommend looking into ways to organize locally around issues that matter to you.
Gen-Z for Change was formerly known as TikTok for Biden, a coalition of creators dedicated to getting Trump out of office and getting Joe Biden into office. Since then, we've grown into a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization whose main goals are to educate, organize, and help Gen-Z. You can learn more about our goals and what we do on our About page.
We strive to leverage the power of social media to educate our generation, encourage and mobilize civic participation, shift the political debate, and enact change. Every donation we receive goes directly towards funding these goals through our content creation, educational campaigns, community building, and operations. We sometimes run shared or pooled funds in which we donate all proceeds directly to a specific cause.
As a team, we’re based across three different time zones, and most of us are students, so we primarily work from home. However, we are frequently presented with opportunities to travel and work together in-person. This includes traveling for elections, rallies, marches and protests, and for collaboration purposes.
Yes! Our core team of 16 ranges in age from 17 years old to 25 years old.
