Staff – Community Change Inc.

Staff

Shay Stewart Bouley

Executive Director

A Chicago native born on the crossroads of working-class, Black and female, Shay
Stewart-Bouley’s career since 1997 has focused on weaving these intersections into herdaily life and professional work. Since the mid-1990s, Shay has worked in the non-profit sector, during the earlier years working primarily with marginalized groups and in the later years focusing on non-profit administration working both as an executive director at a small faith-based non-profit in Southern Maine and as a non-profit consultant/grant-writer to other organizations. In the early-2000s, Shay moved from her native Chicago to Maine and, as a Black woman living in one of the least diverse spaces in the United States, found herself writing regularly about race relations, social justice, and white supremacy.

Shay is a prolific blogger at her award-winning blog Black Girl in Maine Media, where race is a major theme but also her daily life as a Black, middle-aged woman in a world where these traits frequently are not valued. Shay wrote for the now-defunct Portland Phoenix, crafting a monthly column titled “Diverse City” that ran for over 10 years. Shay’s work has been published in national publications and her work has appeared in several anthologies. In 2016, Shay did a TedX talk entitled “ Inequity, Injustice… Infection .” In 2021-22, Shay served as vice chair of the Portland Maine Charter Commission.

Shay holds an undergraduate degree from DePaul University, where she self-designed a program to focus on African-American Health and Wellness and health disparities; she also holds a master’s of education degree in Administration and Supervision from Antioch University New England. Shay is the mother of two and grandmother of four. In 2024, Shay celebrates her 10th year at the helm of CCI, where she is still as passionate about racial justice work and the necessity of CCI as when she started. While she is no longer as young as she was when she came onboard in 2014, she still decompresses with Ashtanga yoga, which remains one of her many passions, aside from work and family.

Jake Fahey

Regional Coordinator for Anti-Racist Organizing in Maine (AROM)

Jake is an interfaith chaplain and organizer living in Portland, ME (Abenaki/Wabanaki territory). He organizes with Community Change Inc, Showing Up for Racial Justice, Relational Uprising, and the Racial Equity Institute, in order to build more equitable communities across Northern New England. He provides his chaplain services to majority-white faith communities to bridge interfaith spirituality with racial justice, as well as providing one-on-one spiritual support through the Spiritual Care Services of Maine.

Although it has taken him a quarter of a century to get there, he dedicates his life to the movement for collective liberation, and to the seeking of Truth inside and outside himself. He continues to stumble along this path of awakening as a white cis-gendered straight man, and works faithfully to heed his call from Spirit. Jake also devotes time to dancing, singing, playing ukulele in community, and spending solitude with the Earth Mother.

Daniel DeAngelis

Regional Coordinator for Anti-Racist Organizing in the Suburbs (AROS)

Daniel DeAngelis' aspirations to be more involved in anti-racist activism became more firmly rooted once he found a home in SURJ Boston in 2015. During his time in the organization, he has helped with growing their membership, maintaining their website and weekly newsletter, filling logistical roles for several demonstrations over the years, as well as undergoing a journey of learning and personal growth among fellow members. Prior to joining SURJB, he had been active in suburban areas helping to facilitate a monthly reading & discussion group centered on addressing racism and confronting / unpacking whiteness. Understanding that it is crucial to both be doing more consciousness-raising, and providing clear paths to anti-racist action for people living outside Boston proper is what landed him in his role here at CCI.

Ren Pilinger

Bookkeeping Assistant

Oren "Ren" Pilinger grew up in South Florida and has lived in the greater Boston area since 2007. He brings over a decade of experience providing administrative, bookkeeping, and marketing support to small businesses and non-profit organizations. In 2016 Ren became a licensed acupuncturist and herbalist, currently offering affordable community acupuncture through Boston Acupuncture Project in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Boston. He is honored to support CCI's important work.

Board

Ashley Ray

Chair

Ashley Ray is an educator, currently working in the Chicago suburbs where she provides academic and behavioral support to public high school students. She has spent the last twenty years learning and educating others about Whiteness, anti-racism and social justice, including corporate DEI strategy, workplace organizing, peer group education and community-based activism. Ashley has worked as a professional social justice educator offering workshops, consultation, course lectures and student affairs leadership to universities, nonprofits and community groups in the Chicago area. She was formally introduced to organizing and activism through her work with Showing Up for Racial Justice Chicago, and it was at this point she recognized that she had been organizing for much of her life.

Family is the reason Ashley came to this work – she is in an interracial marriage and has biracial children – and her family continues to be a source of motivation and inspiration for her work. Understanding and unlearning Whiteness has been a core focus of Ashley’s life in adulthood and this endeavor influences her relationships, professional work and goals for the future. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Non-Profit Management and Diversity Education from DePaul University and has spent most of her professional life in the industries of mental health and education. Ashley is excited to join the board of Community Change, Inc. and to be a part of the legacy of urgent social change in the world.

Micha Kurz

Director

Micha goes by him/his+we/us pronouns, born and raised in Jerusalem- he has spent years in military uniform, and many more years protesting militarized policies, organizing to deconstruct colonial politics, practicing centering marginalized folx and taking leadership from impacted communities. He is a rabble-rouser, a founder of many organizations, and an operative behind political movements. He's been a youth counselor, a community organizer, he's worked with U.N. agencies, International NGOs, academia and social movements. He's advocated- sometimes even successfully- for policy change around the world, his projects have received funding from the likes of The EU Commission, World Vision, The Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Finnish and Danish Church Aid, The European Endowment for Democracy, and a number of other dubious parties. As a cis-straight presenting man active in solidarity, learning when to show up and when to get out of the way.