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Application due Friday, March 13

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Application due Friday, March 13 ❁

VAPLP Staff

Program Stewards

Our Program Stewards are VCET staff members who support the candidates and program participants from applications through graduation.

Nico Climaco (they/any)

Nico is a Program Steward and Facilitator with VAPLP. They currently reside on occupied Piscataway land (Washington, DC), and joined VCET in January of 2022. As the Director of Leadership Development, they primarily support VAPLP, the Staff of Color Roundtable, ongoing trainings and gatherings, and the organization’s network-wide VCET Summit. They also serve on the Board of Directors for Equality Virginia. Nico graduated from James Madison University (go Dukes~) and LIFT Economy’s Next Economy MBA program. 

Passionate about social justice, collective liberation, and community solutions, Nico finds home in collective and visionary spaces woven together by queer and trans people. Nico learned some of their most important political lessons outside the classroom and was first politicized by the work of the Louisville Project in policy debate, as well as through their own Filipinx and Puerto Rican diaspora. 

As a facilitator, Nico draws on the teachings of Paulo Freire and bell hooks with a lens of popular education and experiential learning. They are invested in co-creating loving spaces and considers relationships & community to be the basis of their work. Outside of the 9-5, Nico works with the Fairfax County NAACP and serves on the board of Rising Organizers. Nico’s favorite pop culture icons are Gizmo the gremlin, HIM from Powerpuff Girls, and the nerds from nerds candy.

Harmony Pierce (she/they)

Harmony is a Program Steward with VAPLP and Training Operations Associate with the Virginia Civic Engagement Table, and supports logistics and operations for our capacity building programs and trainings.

With their BA from The Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA, they have a focus on education as a liberating practice and transformative justice within our communities. Dedicated to the ways in which we can create webs of care that build on and strengthen our networks, their experience has been with multiple organizations finding community based solutions to addressing systemic injustices, particularly within communities most affected by the carceral system and food and housing insecurity. Inspired by Black abolition feminism and queer liberation theory, they are excited to continue expanding their ideas on what our roles as individuals are, within and outside of, a non-profit space.

Harmony now lives in Richmond, and is invested in the mutual aid work within the city. Outside of VCET, they also work as the Food Coordinator and Community Cook Day Organizer with RVA Community Fridges, a mutual aid organization fostering collaboration, support, and direct services to accessible food in the Greater Richmond area. As a human, Harmony believes joy can be revolutionary. They love being in nature, roller skating, biking around the city, reading memoirs, and watching reality TV (we all need balance in our lives). 

Facilitators

Our facilitators are seasoned practitioners in social justice work. Each retreat, you will meet and learn with two new facilitators specialized in that retreat’s topic. After each retreat, you’ll have access to coaching office hours with two coaches to dive deeper with questions you have about that retreat’s topic.

Facilitators for Pod 12 will be posted here in February 2026

Selections Committee

The Selections Committee is composed of VAPLP alumni and program staff. This team will be reviewing applications, interviewing candidates, and ultimately determining the participants of Pod 12. 

Ashley Elstad, Pod 10

Ashley Elstad (she/they) a VAPLP alum from POD 10!! Ashley is a social worker advocating for justice in the Asian American community as the Advocacy Manager with Hamkae Center. Currently resides in Woodbridge, VA. Fun fact: I have a pet turtle named Pig!

Cheyenne Nicholas, Pod 9

Cheyenne is a farming on Powhatan land outside of Richmond, Virginia. Kilunuk, meaning all of us in Lenape, is a mutual-aid focused cooperative where they are growing medicinal and culinary herbs with their partner. They love to read and are always working on a bunch of random projects, in and outside of the home!

Kashish Pillai, Pod 10

an organizer, storyteller, and collaborator passionate about building people power and turning big ideas into real change. Saw/met Obama and JB on the same day.

Nicole Adams, Pod 11

Nicole has worked for over a decade as a direct service provider and advocate with adults with intellectual/developmental disabilities. She has a passion for building community power with other marginalized people. Rubber duckies are her favorite animals.

Sameen Piracha

Sameen is a force to be reckoned with. She started getting into good trouble at age 4, advocating for justice, equality, and the occasional extra helping of desserts. With a heart filled with compassion and a mind buzzing with ideas, Sameen is determined to leave a world better than the one she inherited. Armed with a quick wit and boundless determination, her contagious smile can disarm even the most stubborn cynic. Professionally, she is a master at transforming leaders into fundraising powerhouses, equipping them to dismantle oppressive systems with finesse. She skillfully navigates her practice through a racial justice lens, recognizing that discussions about money can be incredibly complex and emotionally charged. After all, we all know that money talks and it's high time we make it speak the language of justice and equality.