Our Team
Jessica Bylo Chacon | Founder
Jessica is responsible for determining the vision, mission and strategy of the foundation. She is a veteran high school teacher with a passion for quality history teaching that is about, through and for the acceptance of human rights. While still in the classroom, Jessica traveled to Poland and Rwanda to study the legacy of genocide and investigate development practices in recovery. These experiences led to opportunities for her to work with organizations around the world that use human rights education and community-driven development as tools against mass violence. She has a bachelor's degree in history from the University of California at Santa Barbara, and a master’s degree in modern world history from San Jose State University. She was a director at the Educators’ Institute for Human Rights, the founder of Woven Teaching, and is a teacher fellow at both the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the National World War I Museum. Jessica believes that we need to start all policy debates from the premise that all people are deserving of human rights, and focus our energies as a society on securing rights for every person.
Veronica Ensign Ksiazek | Executive Director
Veronica is responsible for advancing the overall work of the Bylo Chacon Foundation and ensuring that grant partners have a great experience. Veronica previously led the Bay Area region of Defy Ventures, a nonprofit that provides entrepreneurship training and fair chances at success for currently and formerly incarcerated individuals. Prior to Defy, Veronica served as Chief Development Officer at Oakland-based Pivot Learning, an organization that works with educators to ensure that all students, and especially those who face the greatest systemic barriers, receive an outstanding education. Many years ago, she founded a nonprofit that partners with rural communities in East Africa to kick start development projects that are identified, designed, and owned by the communities they serve. Having spent her entire career on the nonprofit side of social change, Veronica is honored to now work each day with grant partners that create a better, more just world by fighting for racial, economic, and social equity.
Catherine Leys | Systems & Policy Change
Catherine is the lead on furthering the Bylo Chacon Foundation’s impact through systems and policy change. Catherine has spent her career working in communications spanning technology, consumer products, subsidized renewable energy, and nonprofit organizations. In her own community, Catherine founded and ran a community organization dedicated to increasing oil refinery safety and reducing community exposure. In her role, she worked directly with state legislators which led to the passage of three California laws requiring greater protection to communities located near oil refineries. Catherine has served on several Air Quality Management District working groups, which collaboratively formulate air quality regulation for LA, Orange, Riverside, and San Bernardino counties - home to 17 million people. Catherine earned her bachelor's degree in political science from CSU Chico, and her master’s degree in public administration from CSU Long Beach. Catherine is passionate that democracy should be inclusive, representative, and that change and momentum should always start from communities.
Martin Boyden | Justice
As Justice Programs Director, Martin leads the Bylo Chacon Foundation’s efforts to identify and support organizations and programs contributing to a more just and empathy-led society. Before joining the foundation, Martin worked for the United States Marshals Service from 2010 to 2019, an experience that provides him a perspective on the American criminal justice system, and the consequences of that system, uncommon to philanthropy. Prior to his work with the Marshals, Martin spent several years teaching college level writing and literature. In coming to the foundation Martin is excited by the opportunity to support dialogue and action among a broad range of community and institutional stakeholders in addressing systemic inequities.
Aimable Mpayimana | East Africa
As manager of the Bylo Chacon Foundation’s key relationships in East Africa, Aimable embraces the foundation’s philosophies and values while supporting and collaborating with different grant partners on strategic orientation and knowledge sharing. He also collaborates with the Woven Teaching team on human rights education projects, including the development of lesson plans around the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Aimable is convinced that holistic community empowerment from the grassroots level is one the best ways to ensure generational change. Previous to joining the foundation, he worked for two USAID-funded education projects in Rwanda. Additionally, on the top of his teaching experience at the University of Rwanda and Akilah Institute for Women, Aimable co-published “Teaching Holocaust and Genocide education in Rwanda’’ in the Contemporary Review of Middle East. He has also attended several programs of renowned institutions promoting Holocaust and human rights education. He is the Founder and former Executive Director of Hope of Family and his conviction is that to enact culture change, all people, and especially young people, need to be heard and empowered in order to shape decisions that can impact their lives.
Nina S. Grotch | Woven Teaching
Nina Simone Grotch is the Director of Human Rights Education at the Bylo Chacon Foundation. She is the lead staff person working on human rights education and its applications through Woven Teaching, the human rights education arm of the Foundation. Nina is a longtime educator and advocate for social justice. She is a recognized and sought-after public speaker with over 20 years of experience teaching children, youth, and educators. Her experience includes working with diverse audiences locally, nationally, and internationally on examining and interrupting prejudice and discrimination. Ms. Grotch served as the Education Director for the Anti-Defamation League in Northern California where she ran anti-bias programs for students, educators, and community members. Additionally, Nina has created and presented workshops about teaching the Holocaust. Ms. Grotch has a bachelor’s degree in Literature from the University of California, Santa Cruz and master’s degree in English Literature from San Francisco State University. Nina is very excited to be part of the team at BCF and to continue teaching about human rights and the patterns of genocide as well as supporting partner organizations committed to human rights education.
Nikki Bambauer | Woven Teaching
Nikki furthers the Bylo Chacon Foundation’s vision in the field of human rights education through her work with Woven Teaching, the human rights education arm of the Foundation. As the primary author and designer of curricula for Woven Teaching, she develops resources and materials for teaching about history, social justice, and human rights both in and out of the classroom. An experienced genocide educator, Nikki spent several years at the JFCS Holocaust Center, where she wrote curricula and coordinated speaking engagements for survivors of genocide, as well as educational programming. Nikki is a passionate advocate for social justice; when she is not promoting human rights through her work with the Foundation, she organizes against white supremacy and police violence in her community.
Sahar Momand | Grants Manager
Sahar Momand is the foundation’s grants manager by way of Pacific Foundation Services, a private foundation management firm based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Sahar provides grantmaking support for the foundation through processing grants, grant letters, tracking payments, and maintaining the database for the foundation. Her background includes non-profit work experience and she holds a master’s degree in public policy and administration.