Our Team
Who We Are
We are a team of people who are passionate about empowering young people to change the world.
Humanity Rising Leadership Team
Debbie Ferruzzi
Debbie has dedicated her career to entrepreneurism and social impact, spending 25 years working alongside real estate legend Sam Zell. As Executive Vice President of Corporate Strategy, she pioneered the company’s first social impact programs. Passionate about the power of storytelling, Debbie led the BeCause Foundation, producing five independent documentaries, including Bully, which raised national awareness about bullying. She founded Humanity Rising as a youth-led call to action, empowering young people to see their light within and foster greater unity in the world. A Chicago native, Debbie holds an MBA from the University of Chicago and a BS from Eastern Illinois University.
Mia B. Jackson
Mia leads the design and scaling of mission-driven programs that amplify young voices and spark a cultural shift in the influencer space. Her work makes uplifting, values-based storytelling both aspirational and trend-worthy online, inspiring creators to share content that builds community and drives positive change. Drawing on her experience driving growth in both the business and nonprofit sectors, Mia designs initiatives that bridge strategic vision with measurable impact. Her work integrates innovative program design, values-driven storytelling, and strategic partnerships to create platforms where youth can lead, create, and transform their communities.
Mianna Ada
Mianna Ada holds a master’s in Industrial-Organizational Psychology and is in the early stages of building a purpose-driven career. She supports the Founder and CEO of Humanity Rising, where she’s found a deep sense of alignment with the organization’s mission to uplift youth through storytelling, mental health advocacy, and anti-bullying efforts. Mianna is passionate about using creativity and strategy to help young changemakers thrive, and she’s committed to growing with and contributing meaningfully to the legacy of Humanity Rising.
At the age of 14, Devin Moore became the Founder of Race To Speak Up, an anti-bullying organization, where he educates youth about bullying prevention and empowers them to be upstanders. Through the “Race To Speak Up Against Bullying Workshops”, Devin gives the tools, resources, and anti-bullying knowledge to students about creating effective solutions to this bullying epidemic and helps them create a Call To Action that can be implemented in classrooms.
Devin is a first time Author of the Devin Speaks Up! children’s anti-bullying book. Devin Speaks Up! is about the importance of being okay with being different and loving who you are, speaking up to someone you trust about being bullied, kindness matters, and encourages kids to be upstanders for each other.
Devin is also a Psychology major at the University of Maryland.
Kairi Harness
Elliot Carr
Beginning as a student intern for Humanity Rising, Elliot is a grant writer and event coordinator for Humanity Rising’s film festival. A recent graduate of Columbia College Chicago, he has a passion for storytelling, earning his BFA in Screenwriting. Born and raised in Illinois, Elliot believes through the mediums of film and literature, we can cultivate empathy to create a more compassionate and understanding world. The mission of Humanity Rising is very personal to him and he believes empowering youth voices is necessary in today’s world.
Rebecca Reitz
Rebecca Reitz is highly thankful to be a member of the Humanity Rising team. She serves as one of the Film Festival Coordinators in a volunteer capacity and has the opportunity to help student filmmakers bring their meaningful concepts to fruition on screen. Rebecca has an MA in Social Service Administration and assists a number of causes as a volunteer, advocate and writer. Her three children are the main source of inspiration for her work, as she welcomes the opportunity to share in the joy of helping others thrive.
“I am grateful for the opportunity to bring people together through Humanity Rising. Young people truly have the power to change the world and I’m inspired every day by the passion and acts of service performed by students in the Humanity Rising Movement.”
– Debbie
Board Members
Debbie Ferruzzi
Debbie has dedicated her career to entrepreneurism and social impact, spending 25 years working alongside real estate legend Sam Zell. As Executive Vice President of Corporate Strategy, she pioneered the company’s first social impact programs. Passionate about the power of storytelling, Debbie led the BeCause Foundation, producing five independent documentaries, including Bully, which raised national awareness about bullying. She founded Humanity Rising as a youth-led call to action, empowering young people to see their light within and foster greater unity in the world. A Chicago native, Debbie holds an MBA from the University of Chicago and a BS from Eastern Illinois University.
Maja Muric
Maja is a is a former professional tennis player and Olympian from Croatia, a war torn country that has inspired her to drive positive change around the world. When the war broke out in Croatia in 1991 Maja was 17 years old. She was one of the top juniors in the world and at the beginning of her professional tennis career on the WTA (Women’s Professional Tour). Experiencing war has had a huge impact on her tennis career, but more so, on her ambitions to have a positive lasting impact on others. Maja represented Croatia around the world by winning many international junior events and then as a professional tennis player for over a decade. Some of those events include all the Grand Slams, 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics and Federation Cups. Winning two medals at the 1993 Mediterranean Games was one of the most memorable moments of her career as it was the first time Croatia competed as an independent country. Maja continued to play on the WTA Tour until the end of her career in 2000 when she dedicated the next 12 years to helping improve the quality of life for children with cancer. These experiences inspired her to expand her work and start her own not for profit organization in 2005 called Humanitarian Wave that works towards creating lasting positive effect in the quality of life of people and communities in need. In 2012 Maja took on her current role as the lead of Galactic Unite, a Virgin Galactic initiative that is harnessing the power of space to inspire and support the next generation to help solve many of our greatest global challenges. Maja is passionate about Galactic Unite and its unique opportunity to help change the perception of our place on this planet and in the cosmos through removing the barriers which have historically kept all but the elite few firmly on this side of the final frontier.
Therese Rowley, Ph.D.
Dr. Rowley is CEO of Accelerated Alignment, a trusted advisor to business leaders and executives. She partners with them through complex challenges of personal and organizational strategy and transformation, using innovative approaches and intuitive intelligence. As a skilled intuitive, she supports strategic decisions with intuitive data and supports leaders to deepen their access to intuition. In addition, her work with Fortune 500 as well as small company leaders in facilitating large scale change in industries such as telecommunications, manufacturing, market research, marketing/communications, real estate development, and financial services spans three decades. In 2008 Dr. Rowley founded The Conscious Business Network™ to highlight new business models and facilitate professional connections that are shaping the new marketplace of integrity, transparency and inclusion. She consults with YWCA-Chicago on Transformation and Social Innovation and is an 1871 Mentor. She believes conscious business and social enterprise are marketplace foundations for our future sustainability and is passionate about influencing youth to consider this mindset and have/co-create the tools to engage and co-design the future economy. Dr. Rowley has been adjunct faculty at the University of San Francisco, the University of Chicago Graham School and Booth School’s LEAD Institute, as well as Northwestern University’s School of Continuing Studies where she teaches on topics of leadership, strategy, intuition and transformation. Her book Mapping a New Reality: Discovering Intuitive Intelligence offers a conceptual foundation and developmental opportunities for clients who want to accelerate access to their innate wisdom.
Cheryl Romanowski
Cheryl Romanowski has dedicated both her personal and professional life to empowering and motivating others. After playing Division I Volleyball in college, she began her career as a coach which led her on an international journey heading up clubs and teams in Europe. For over 20 years she lived in the Netherlands, where in addition to coaching and teaching, she worked with various organizations in Business Development with a focus on motivating sales teams to reach their highest potential. Cheryl’s passion is unwavering in her commitment to helping the next generation live an authentic and inspired life through service.
Cheryl holds an M.A. in Kinesiology from University of Illinois at Chicago, as well as a B.S. in Psychology from Loyola University.
Brad Schnitzer
Associate at Techstars Chicago
Managing Director of More Than Me Foundation 501(c)(3)
Formerly the Director of Business Development and Partnerships for Built In, the largest online community for startups and tech companies in 7 U.S Cities.
Founding member of Mhub Chicago and the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of Chicago. Mentored undergraduate students while providing internship opportunities.
Humanity Rising Ambassadors
Alisha Gupta
Alisha Gupta is the host of the What Cause Inspires You? podcast! She launched WCIY as a way for students to share the service they are doing in their communities and inspire a community-wide call to action. She hopes you join her and Humanity Rising in improving our society by transforming passion into progress. Alisha is a junior at UT Austin, double majoring in Business Honors and Marketing, minoring in Business Analytics, and with a Certificate in Entrepreneurship and Innovation.
Faith Wang
Faith is a high school student in the Chicagoland area. She is passionate about anti-bullying and positivity, since she believes that as long as everyone puts in a little effort to care about one other, we can easily make the world a better place.
Evelyn Jiang
Evelyn Jiang is an incoming freshman at the University of California San Diego. Her work at Humanity Rising focuses largely on peacebuilding and social justice –Positive Peace Curriculum in partnership with the Institute of Economics & Peace (IEP) in Australia, Spiritual Empowerment Circles, #StopAsianHate podcast, and more. She truly believes that the youth can change not only the future, but also the present. Evelyn loves engaging in meaningful conversations and expanding her perspective, feel free to reach out to her to share any thoughts or ideas.
Carys Mullins
Carys Mullins (She/They) is the founder of The Community Advocates for LGBTQ+ Mental Health, otherwise known as CALM. They are passionate about advocating for sexual and gender minorities.
Carys began CALM as a weekly blog and informational website. Now, CALM encompasses the original blog and website, plus a weekly podcast series that doubles as a youth program.
Carys has welcomed guests such as Dr. Gary Howell, Butterfly Project Founder and Curator Andrea Marie, and LMHC Kerri Timothy to highlight experienced allies and LGBTQ+ advocates. She has also features group such as The Queer Club and youth change makers like Equality Florida Youth Council member Shiloh Nikaj.
Through Humanity Rising and CALM, Carys hopes to expand mental health equality, representation, and awareness for the LGBTQ+ community. Carys also plans to continue her work as the founder and CEO of Volunteer Humanity.
Kayla Pilgrim
Kayla Pilgrim is a college student in the Chicagoland area and is serving as the Outreach and Engagement Manager at Humanity Rising. Her passions include economic justice, civil rights, and mental health. Kayla aims to utilize technology coupled with service to help negate the effects of inequality in her community and worldwide. She believes that youth must be at the forefront of progress and makes an effort to empower her peers to follow their passions and create an impact. Join her in making a change by becoming a part of the Humanity Rising Movement!
Connect on LinkedIn
Jason Mascarenhas
Jason has been involved extensively in Humanity Rising, specifically working on training members of the Institute of Economics & Peace (IEP) cohort and hosting several student outreach initiatives to share Humanity Rising’s opportunities with students across the US. Please reach out to him at jmascaren23@students.d125.org if you have any questions or connect with him online to stay updated on his work at Humanity Rising!
Yara Ayache
Yara Ayache is the founder, producer, and host of the podcast and interview program The Spirit of Success, the founder and director of the youth volunteer orchestra Youth of the World Orchestra, and the founder and host of the program Breaking Barriers. Yara’s programs focus largely on sharing the stories, experiences, and work of people from different backgrounds, engaging in meaningful conversations to encourage service-mindedness and purposefulness in our lives and actions. Yara is also very committed to promoting cultural awareness and human rights, and through her efforts aims to encourage fellow youth and others toward positive change that moves society from mere tolerance to a genuine appreciation of our diversity to become engaged global citizens. If you would like to share any ideas with Yara or would like to learn how you can get involved in her programs, feel free to reach out to her at thespiritofsuccessips@gmail.
Please contact us if you’re interested in being a part of our Humanity Rising Ambassador Leadership Team!
ambassadors@humanityrising.org
Advisors
Beth Coronelli
Beth is a former director of Humanity Rising now serving as an advisor to the organization. She previously was Senior Vice President and Chief of Staff at Apollo Education Group, one of the world’s largest private education providers. Her experience includes a mix of corporate and non-profit positions, including leading investor relations for publicly-traded companies across a range of industries, serving as the director of the University of Iowa Executive MBA Program, and developing communications and programming for Rotary International. Beth believes education is the cornerstone to building a brighter future and is committed to empowering our future leaders to take the initiative to serve. She has an MBA from the University of Iowa and a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Iowa State University.
Allison Davis
Allison is a former director of Humanity Rising and a vice president of Equity International, with her primary responsibilities in communications. Previously, Allison directed communications and philanthropic programs at Equity Office Properties Trust (EOP) for seven years. During that time she worked with EOP leaders in such major U.S. markets as New York, Washington DC, Boston, Chicago, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Denver to develop volunteer and giving programs that directly involved employees and benefited their local communities. During her time at EOP, the company was regularly recognized as a Best Place to Work in local markets, thanks to high levels of employee engagement fostered by internal communications. She holds an MS in integrated marketing communications from Northwestern University and a BA from Duke University.
Steve Sarowitz
Steve Sarowitz is a philanthropist, business leader, film producer, and changemaker dedicated to creating impactful, purpose-driven content that fosters social change. He is the Founder and Chairman of Paylocity (Nasdaq: PCTY), Director of Payescape, and a partner in Wayfarer Studios.
As a passionate advocate for the power of storytelling, Sarowitz co-founded Wayfarer Studios to produce multi-platform film and television projects that elevate the human spirit and inspire global progress. His mission is to use entertainment as a catalyst for meaningful social impact, reaching hearts and minds to drive positive change.
Thank you to all of our current and past interns
Beth Fischer
Quentin Griffin
Sam Heringhaus
Rebecca Huang
Palak Janjrukia
Samuel Junker
Aza Leal
Wei-Yun Lee
Kevin Man
Nadia Mohideen
Anthony Okocha
Kelly Phelan
Arin Pieramici
Charlotte Rapp
Hannah Thomas
Divitya Vakil
Hope Valls
