WHO WE ARE

CARE - Coalition for Anti-racism and Equity is a state member-driven 501(c)(3) nonprofit in the state of Massachusetts. We are committed to fostering social justice and equity in education. We work to empower students, educators, and communities by advocating for systemic change, promoting diversity, and creating opportunities for underrepresented voices to lead and thrive.

Our Team.

Thu Nguyen

Executive Director

Thu is a queer, Vietnamese refugee who made history as the first nonbinary person to ever be elected in Massachusetts and the first Southeast Asian elected to Worcester City Council on a platform of creating political reimagination of Worcester and nationally, where our government uplifts and holistically serves everyone. They bring in over a decade of intersectional movement building with young people and underserved communities. With a deep understanding of nonprofit, community care and legislative work, they commit their time and efforts towards investigating and navigating the intersectionality of identity and systems to center and advocate for equity, collective care, and social justice. After serving two terms, they are excited to join CARE to build intergenerational power and ensure our youth have the access and resources to create a more just world.

Tarik Bartel

Program Director

Tarik (they/them) is an educator, artist, and community organizer whose work is rooted in creating spaces for collective joy and liberation. Tarik is passionate about youth-led organizing at the intersections of climate, racial, and disability justice— building on the lineages of their elders in movement work and the ancestors that guide them to visioning more sustainable futures. They bring over a decade of youth work experience to their role as Program Director at CARE, and are excited to engage in collective dreaming with young people committed to anti-racism and equity.

Tarik's lifework is informed by the belief that building youth leadership in communities historically targeted by systemic oppression can leverage social change and move us closer to collective liberation. They hope to pour into future generations all of the care, resourcing, and devotion that has been poured into them.

Amanda Torres

Program and Learning Design Lead

Amanda Torres, also known as AT, is a second-generation Mexican American writer, educator, doula, and speculative designer from Chicago, now living in New England. Their work lives at the intersection of youth leadership, cultural organizing, liberatory pedagogy, and collective imagination.

For nearly two decades, AT has designed justice-oriented learning spaces, curricula, programs, and convenings for young people, artists, educators, and community-rooted organizations. They are the co-founder and former Executive Director of MassLEAP, a statewide youth spoken word and social justice organization, and have led national and local programs centering community-engaged poetry, arts-based learning, civic engagement, and culturally sustaining pedagogy. AT’s writing and organizing are rooted in youth voice, queer and trans kinship, latine futurity, community care, and the belief that imagination is a political resource. They hold an M.Ed. from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and an MFA in Poetry from Randolph College. AT is excited to join CARE in building intergenerational spaces where young people and the adults who support them can study power, practice leadership, imagine otherwise, and step together toward the bright doorways where another world is already being rehearsed.