Bre Dóvez (née Donnelly), LCSW-AAT-CYT
Founder, Executive Director
& Clinician
Bre (all pronouns) is a dreamer, innovator, and disruptor, drawing inspiration from adrienne maree brown’s idea that we must “make the revolution irresistible.” Bre grew up in the greater Denver area, experiencing the trials and triumphs of being queer in Colorado. Coupled with their three years as a middle school social worker before founding Joy as Resistance, Bre has been reminded in too many situations that mental health resources are severely lacking, especially for LGBTQIA2+ youth. Despite this, Bre knows that joy is essential to resistance, and they center celebration of self, community, and equity in all that they do.
Raven Brown, LSW-CYT
Client Services Manager
& Clinician
Raven (they/she) is excited to bring their diverse background in art, yoga, and clinical therapy to serve their clients and community at Joy as Resistance. She affirms identity, lifestyle, spirituality, and autonomy in the therapeutic relationship, and centers relational, trauma-focused, liberation, and restorative justice approaches in their work. When not working, you can find Raven moving their body in any way possible, including dancing, biking, backpacking, hiking, and doing yoga and fitness classes. They love traveling lightly, hosting friends, thrifting, and watching their dogs play in a big open field.
Hannah Light, MSW
Communications & Events Manager
Hannah (she/her) brings a background in clinical mental health and community organizing to her role at Joy. She prioritizes crafting and telling stories, addressing structural barriers to basic needs and resources, and making those around her laugh. Hannah grew up in Vermont and has lived in New Orleans, Boston, Dublin, and Jerusalem. Having needed to navigate her own queer identity without any resource like Joy as Resistance, she is ecstatic about inspiring support for more inclusive and affirming healing spaces for queer youth. In her free time, you’ll find Hannah finding any way to move her body in the sunshine, reading psychological thrillers, seeing live music, and trying new plant-based recipes.
Doen Lee
Mentorship Program Manager
Doen (she/her) is from Fremont, California, and spent her childhood living in both Taiwan and California. She graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and has worked in community college, residential high school, and non-profit settings since then. She is passionate about community-based learning, student development, and educational equity. Doen believes that no matter who you are, we are all an interconnected web of knowledge, relationships, and resources. Having experienced the importance of caring adults and a community that surrounds you with care and love, Doen hopes to inspire intergenerational connections that uplift queer youth and are transformational for all. In her free time, she enjoys bouldering, cooking and baking, visiting local cafes, and spending time with friends.
Fiona Cochran, LMFT
Clinician & Clinical Supervisor
Fiona (she/they) brings over a decade of experience working in community mental health and nonprofit organizations to her role at Joy. She enjoys working with clients of diverse backgrounds and identities, and she priorities building relationships and providing support to the clients and supervisees she works with. She strives to develop relationships that are collaborative and secure functioning. Fiona welcomes and celebrates diversity in sexual orientation, gender, and sexual expression. Personally, Fiona enjoys traveling, cooking, and spending time with her life partner, three children, and three dogs. Fiona believes in engaging in activities that bring her joy.
Erica Castro, MSW
Joyful Spaces Manager
Erica (they/them) brings 10 years of youth service to this work including 5 years of teaching high school students in the Denver area and 2 years in research centering LGBTQIA2+ youth. Erica came to us as an MSW intern and stayed with us upon graduation to support our Joyful Spaces program where they bring their passion for implementing their favorite author, Adrienne Marie Brown's, framework into practice. Erica is intentional about taking an intersectional approach to equipping youth-serving professionals with the tools to best equitably serve the students of our community, and prioritizes anti-oppressive practices and liberation in all they do. Erica experiences joy through bouldering, harry styles, podcasts on ghosts, jungle animals, and caves, their new machete, and is going through their dead insect collecting era.
Nick/Nicole Castro, MA
Development Manager
Nick/Nicole (they/she) is a liberation-focused community leader who delights in making the revolution sustainable and joyful–from the largest strategy down to the smallest details. As a genderqueer, bisexual, biracial trans-queerling, Nick brings a lens of embodiment and mindfulness to development, emphasizing the dignity of participation in queer, co-created communities.
Nick grew up in Texas and followed their passion for liberatory communication through various modalities and nonprofit settings as they sought to help others align their intention and their impact in the world. Their work is inspired daily by Black & afrofeminisms, nondualist spiritual paths, and Audre Lorde’s liberatory eroticism. When not amplifying the good work of Joy, Nick is an artist of written word and various media, who loves spending time with her cat, Comrade, practicing Tai Chi, and riding motorcycles–all in pursuit of the next playful adventure.
Jamie Billings
Masters of Social Work (MSW) Student
Jamie (she/they) was born and raised in Lakewood, CO, and lived in New York and London for a bit studying theater. She brings a background in community organizing for social and racial justice, as well as much experience working with youth to their social work journey. Jamie taught theater and podcasting to high schoolers in Denver and feels passionate about youth having the space, tools, and autonomy they deserve to tell their stories. She values anti-oppressive practices, emergence, empathy, humor, and curiosity. She believes in collective liberation, collaboration, healing, and changing systems. Jamie loves being with her dogs, listening to podcasts, supporting local queer artists, playing and writing music, and doing mundane and exceptional things with her friends. She is in her final year of the MSW program at Metropolitan State University of Denver.
A.J. De La Garza
Masters of Social Work (MSW) Student
AJ (he/they) dedicated over a decade to clinical healthcare as a lab scientist, focusing particularly on sex-related illnesses during the latter part of his career. In late 2020, he embarked on a transformative journey, transitioning into social services with a specialization in serving clients across diverse spectrums of sex, gender, and sexuality. In this role, he offers inclusive, comprehensive, and sex-positive sex education and counseling, fueled by a profound commitment to fostering affirming and welcoming spaces for LGBTQIA+ youth and young adults. Currently immersed in the concentration year of his MSW (Master of Social Work) program, A.J. is poised to commence a second Master's degree in Human Sexuality. This dual academic pursuit is driven by his aspiration to become a sex and gender affirmation counselor and sex therapist.
Jillian Abraham
Masters of Social Work (MSW) Student
Jillian (she/her) grew up outside of Philadelphia. She studied Psychology and LGBTQ+ Studies at the University of Maryland-College Park before graduating in 2021. She has traveled and volunteered at various LGBTQ+ nonprofit organizations since then. She is passionate about mental health advocacy, queer liberation, radical authenticity, and amplifying marginalized voices. She wants her career to center queer youth and their families and is so excited and grateful to be a part of the Joy as Resistance team.
Syah Taylor
Board Vice President
Born and raised in Little Rock, Syah (she/they) is a creative strategist, able to design and facilitate transformative experiences that expand one’s awareness of themselves, other cultures, and oppressive systems. Syah facilitated her first training for her high school faculty as a student in 2013 and has continued to change the culture in every setting she’s touched. From leading critical conversations with peers at University of Memphis, to training various departments at University of Denver, Syah has kept a long-lasting commitment to positive social change. As the manager of youth services at The Center on Colfax, Syah managed a youth program focused on connecting and empowering LGBTQ+ youth. In 2021, Syah founded Syah B. Consulting, a Diversity Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) consulting firm that transforms work environments so teams can bring their authentic selves to the table.
Eunice Kwon
Board Chair
Eunice (she/her) is an idealistic dreamer, poet, and storyteller. In the professional sphere, Eunice shows up as a trauma therapist, DEI practitioner, and nonprofit consultant, fueled by the fierce belief that we can all be and do better. Eunice has over a decade of experience in mental health and change management, supporting individual healing and growth while also transforming organizational culture. Eunice’s approach to her work is rooted in community-based healing and collective liberation and is informed by anti-oppressive frameworks and her own lived experience as a neurodivergent queer Asian femme. Outside of work, you can find Eunice writing in the park, roller skating with her pals, or snuggling on the couch with her cat, Kevin Milo.
Oliver Lewis
Board Treasurer
Oliver (he/they) is passionate about equitable access to quality mental healthcare and the responsibility we all have to give our youth the tools they need to thrive. As a queer, trans-masculine, gender expansive human, he celebrates the role mental healthcare has played in his survival, while also recognizing the huge difference an organization such as Joy would have made in his childhood. Oliver is usually found with their cat, MB, and enjoys coffee, dog-watching, tattoos, and most things word-related (reading, writing, crossword puzzles). He works in non-profit finance and continues to gather tools to actualize his vision of creating a non-profit hotel in the Denver area. Oliver was born and raised in western Colorado, where their parents still live.
Jaelyn Coates
Board Member
Jaelyn (she/her) originally began her career in education, where she spent her time both supporting first generation college students navigate the university, and holding universities accountable to becoming a more accessible, inclusive space for all students and staff. Overtime, she transitioned to doing organization culture and justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion work. Her passion for doing equity works comes from her own personal experiences navigating the world as a Queer, Black woman and a desire to do her part to create a better world for the next generation.
Shaleen Morales
Board Member
Shaleen (she/her/ella) is an immigration attorney, abolitionist and queer Latina serving incarcerated folks. Shaleen's commitment to serving the community is inspired by the wisdom and strength of past and future clients, and those working towards the dismantling of the racist U.S. criminal legal and immigration system. Free them all! In her spare time, Shaleen likes feeding her soul by hiking and paddle boarding, and spending time with her cat, Bella.
Kaye Taavialma
Tanya Greathouse
Darren Smith
Gabe Fischer
Sabrina Allie
Casey Bodine
Amy Skinner
Tania Chairez
Diane Santorico
Special thanks to our
founding and previous board members: