We can’t wait for you to meet our newest JBAY teammates, Chris, Christina, and Zach. This group boasts a wealth of experience and expertise, and has such true, deep dedication to service. We are honored to welcome, learn from, and collaborate with them to improve the lives of youth across California.
Chris Jenne, Senior Project Manager, Higher Education (LA)
Chris grew up believing in public service. After college, he joined AmeriCorps and spent two years in the program, providing disaster relief and recovery support after Hurricane Sandy and housing services to youth experiencing homelessness in LA County.
JBAY first crossed Chris’s radar through his work with LA Homeless Services Authority, where he spent nine years working in different programs including youth coordinated entry, a higher education homeless workgroup, the Campus Peer Navigator program, and positive youth development programs like Connect LA.
“I really appreciated JBAYs collaborative approach that values the expertise of partners in the community,” Chris says. At JBAY, Chris will be supporting efforts to address postsecondary educational attainment and student homelessness in higher education.
As a first-generation college grad himself, Chris has a unique perspective on the expansiveness afforded by higher education. “Education, at times, is underappreciated in how it also launches a journey of personal growth that shows up in other aspects of our lives,” he says. “Telling youth, ‘Hey, you CAN do this, and this opportunity is for you’ is powerful. And if we scale it up, we can divert many from homelessness and poverty.”
Chris has a master’s in community psychology from Marymount California University and a BS in political science from SUNY Potsdam. He credits his success to the support he received in the Education Opportunity Program (EOP).
Originally from the Adirondacks and the Thousand Islands (a real place, not just a salad dressing!) in Upstate New York, Chris loves to hike, white water raft, and compete in Spartan races. He is a certified scuba diver and hopes to one day dive in warm waters.
Chris is inspired by moments of compassion and shared belonging throughout history, like the unexpected alliance between miners and the LGBTQ+ movement that emerged during the Welsh miner’s strike in the mid- ‘80s.
Christina Lomeli, Senior Project Manager, Higher Education
Christina first heard about JBAY in her work as a college advisor to current and former foster youth. When students heard she was transitioning out of her advisor role to work at JBAY, their disappointment turned to understanding. “One of my former students, Chandler, said to me, ‘I am so happy that you will now be in a position to help all the Chandlers across the state,’” Christina shared.
In her two decades of work across California’s community college and child welfare systems, Christina expanded student access and improved outcomes through data-driven, trauma-informed approaches. At JBAY, she will lead statewide initiatives to increase postsecondary educational attainment for students who have been in foster care or experienced homelessness.
She will work both at a structural level and continue to have impact on the ground. “JBAY is not only passionate about doing much-needed work at the policy level,” Christina says. “The team does an amazing job of following through with ground-level support, through collaboration and technical assistance—and this is what ultimately helps uplift youth themselves.”
Christina holds a master’s in social work from San Diego State University and a BA in psychology from UC San Diego. As a first-generation college graduate and lifelong advocate for marginalized youth, Christina views education not only as a pathway to opportunity but also as a vehicle for justice and belonging. She is often described as a “gentle warrior”—someone who blends fierce advocacy for social justice and youth empowerment together with a thoughtful, relational leadership style.
Whether she is dancing to live music, baking her signature cheesecake, or hiking alpine trails in Mammoth, Christina draws on these joys to stay grounded and centered, bringing that same spirit of balance and renewal into her work as she does to her life outside of JBAY.
Zach Taylor, Director of Research and Strategic Initiatives
Zach is JBAY’s first-ever Director of Research and Strategic Initiatives. With a PhD in Educational Leadership and Policy from UT Austin, Zach has serious research chops. He has authored over 170 peer-reviewed publications, which have been cited over 1,300 times.
But Zach isn’t stuck in the stacks. “I am a people person,” he says. “I was put on the earth to help people. And over the course of my career, I have developed a nerdy set of skills I get to deploy to help the young people in our world who need it most. I get to nerd out with a purpose.”
Zach’s entire career reflects this orientation. He has worked in community-based programs and at all levels of the educational system—from youth development at the YMCA and Boys and Girls Clubs, to teaching English and Special Ed, to working in higher ed enrollment management and as a contract agent for the U.S. Dept. of Education, supporting Minority Serving Institutions across the South.
Four years ago, Zach began working with JBAY as a consultant on several projects related to student financial aid. He has seen firsthand the often intricate and multidimensional relationship-based approach JBAY takes in its systems change work. “It felt different than working in enrollment management or as a professor,” Zach says of the collaboration. “I felt like I was doing what I am good at to help people.”
In his time off, Zach nerds out in other ways. He’s on his third playthrough of The Legend of Zelda “Breath of the Wild”; recently picked up a new e-sport called GeoGuessr; is reading the biography Phillip Burton, A Rage for Justice; and never stops seeing live music.
Bob Dylan is one of Zach’s heroes. When he attended opening weekend of Bob Dylan Center in Tulsa a few years ago, Zach selected a few lines of Dylan’s song “When the Ship Comes In” to add to a wall of messages. The song is about the Civil Rights Movement, a cause Dylan championed as an activist in places like Greenwood, Mississippi in the early ‘60s.
“I have always wanted to be that ‘ship that comes in’ for those who need direct assistance, advocacy, or just someone to talk to,” says Zach.