Qian Dubay is a visual artist who’s passions lie in environmental justice and food access.

Currently, they are in their second year of service at Public Allies where they work as a teacher’s aide in the Edible SchoolYard at the Environmental Charter School. There they collaborate with staff to create reusable teaching materials, document lesson plans and incorporate art into the environmental curriculum.

Over the course of their placement, Qian has initiated several school wide creative projects. Their latest work, the Woodland Night Installation, spans 4 walls and includes a variety of tactile fabrics and mediums to create an interactive environment for students to utilize sensory stimulation. The room will serve as a cool down space for students as well as a space for the school psychologist to facilitate healing dialogue. In their first year of service, they orchestrated a 100 person mural project depicting a forest scene. Student’s were tasked to paint indigenous species native to Southwestern, Pennsylvania. In the future, Qian aspires to continue to teach and orchestrate healing spaces utilizing art.

Lucia Jacobs was born and raised in Lima, Peru. She studied translation and interpretation at Lima Institute of Technical Studies(LITS) and has been residing in the US since 2019. Her career journey eventually led Lucia to CORO/Public Allies where Lucia found a home from which to help others and their community.

Lucia currently serves as a Case Manager at the Latino Community Center, working with Latinx families. Her role is to support and empower families to achieve their goals while helping them in times of need and connecting them to appropriate services.

In her free time, Lucia enjoys dancing to Latin music and spending time with her husband.

Jorge Armando Alvarez is an Executive Ally at Public Allies Pittsburgh. He graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with a B.A. in Professional Writing, where he studied rhetoric, graphic design and communications. Before Public Allies, he was a Field Organizer in a successful campaign to elect two state representatives in Allegheny County. Before that, he registered hundreds of new voters in Orlando, Florida through a mass grassroots effort in 2019.

Currently, Jorge serves at the Women and Girls Foundation (WGF) as their Outreach Associate. There, he manages the social media accounts of WGF and amplifies social media posts of the Foundation’s policy, nonprofit and community partners. As the son of proud Mexican immigrant parents, Jorge aims his career to working with BIPOC and First-Gen communities for educational equity and justice.

malachiah koehler (she/they), most often referred to as kai, is a change facilitator. Their self-identified purpose is to empower themself and others to make change through advocating for critical thinking and sustainable action. She does this work in multiple capacities: as the owner of a business entity, cultivate with kai, LLC, within local nonprofits and organizations, and through deep, personal connections.

kai believes that understanding multiple systems (of oppression) is vital in social impact work, as they are connected and enable one another. She has studied criminology, focusing on the impact of incarceration; political science; psychology; refugee and immigrant rights; Spanish; trauma-informed care; workplace diversity, equity, and inclusion; and yoga.

When not working, kai prioritizes rest and rejuvenation.