The Team
Meet Beyond Bernie's brilliant group of organizers
Akshay Gokul, Field Director
(he/him/his)
Akshay, a student at Duke University, has a great passion for performing arts for 10+ years and enjoys making people laugh. In his free time, Akshay loves binging comedy movies and talking to friends. Akshay is extremely excited and energized to show the power that young people hold and ensure we are building an equitable society.
Alijah James, Legislative Director
(she/her/hers)
Alijah is a 2022 graduate from the University of Texas at Austin. Her studies focused on the intersection of medicine and political & social infrastructures, within the context of mental health. She is also a researcher of political sociology. For fun, she enjoys riding her bike and going on hikes.
Amaya Wangeshi, Executive Director
(she/her/hers)
Amaya is a student at Yale University. She is the proud daughter to Kenyan immigrants who fully support and push her to be the very best she can be. Amaya wishes to be a vessel for the Lord’s work in hopes of helping as many people as she possibly can. Amaya hopes to extend her helping capacity by specializing in an interdisciplinary field of both medicine and government with the hopes of ultimately eliminating global health inequity. Despite being a workaholic, Amaya makes time to enjoy fine arts, creating, and learning.
Ella Morton, Organizing Director
(she/her/hers)
Ella is a student at Reed College. Ella is based in Corvallis, Oregon, which is on the ancestral land of the Kalapuya and Chepenefa. She has been playing the cello for eight years, has two cats, and is a giant nerd for math and physics. She enjoys reading Russian literature and going on hikes.
Jack Chrismon, Finance Director
(he/him/his)
Jack is a high school senior from Dallas. His interest in politics originally rose from Beto O’Rourke’s 2018 US Senate run. Soon after, he became interested in progressive politics and leftist policy and philosophy. He’s been involved in national, state, and local races since.
Jackie Cheng, Social Media Director
(she/her/hers)
Jackie goes by she/her pronouns and is a student at UT Austin, majoring in international relations and sociology. She first got into political activism while helping out with Bernie Sanders’ campaign and joined onto Beyond Bernie after Sanders announced the suspension of his campaign. The current director of social media, Jackie can’t wait to get started and see all the things we can accomplish together. The status quo has been too stable and establishment politicians are getting away with too much; it’s about time we the people shook things up.
Kayla Morrison, Student Program Director
(she/her/hers)
A student at Brown University, Kayla believes in the power of young people and is dedicated to helping create tangible change for our current and future generations. She serves as the Director of Chapters for Beyond Bernie, where she supports student chapters all over the nation become part of the Beyond Bernie family. She also currently serves as a Chair of Student Voice Student Vote and works with Colorado Youth Congress to uplift student voices in a world dominated by adults. In her free time, Kayla enjoys cuddling with her cats and pretending she knows how to paint.