Teya Hisel - President & Policy Director

Teya Hisel is a senior at USC double majoring in Global Studies and Philosophy, Politics, and Law. She is from the Seattle, Washington area, where she started her public service journey working for multiple non-profits during a gap year fellowship before attending USC. More recently, she was a Fellow at United Way of Greater Los Angeles, where she worked on advocacy efforts in the areas of houselessness and housing policy. She has also served as a Research Intern for Downtown Women's Center, where her research focused on the intersections of incarceration, intimate partner violence, and houselessness. Teya founded advocaSC to give students a way to support unhoused folks in their neighborhood, through an equitable, intersectional, and multidisciplinary lens.

T.J. Martynowicz - Education & Outreach Director

Thomas Martynowicz is majoring in International Relations with a minor in Consumer Behavior, and concurrently pursuing progressive degree in Master in Studies of Law. At USC, Thomas has a number of different professional positions on campus including a student language consultant, admissions ambassador, and research assistant. Thomas has been in advocaSC since its first semester and is currently the educational outreach director, where he helps to share statistics and stories about LA's unhoused population with the greater USC community.

Atharva Tewari - Service Director

Atharva Tewari is a senior double majoring in Global Studies and Journalism. Before coming to USC, Atharva was involved in queer activism and media spaces across South Asia, where he helped formalise networks of care and solidarity within corporate workspaces to make up for the absence of legal protections. He has been working at the USC Shoah Foundation for two years as a Visual History and Production Intern while also serving as a volunteer archivist at ONE Archives. His ethnographic research has led him to volunteer at a plethora of refugee camps throughout the years, and his current focus has been on the Rohingya refugees. Recently as a research intern for DWC, he delved into ways ethnocentric understandings and implementation of direct service efforts result in underutilisation and eventual failure of programmes. Atharva serves as the Director for Service Projects where he brings his anthropological understanding of cultural difference, and a passion for bringing about incremental change through direct service efforts.

Rayan Moosa - Assistant Policy Director

Coming soon!

Hans Yang - Assistant Education & Outreach Director

Hans Yang is a junior from Buford, Georgia studying International Relations (Global Business) and East Asian Languages & Cultures. He spent this past summer as an intern at the Department of State's Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs. While most of his academic interests are centered on East Asian politics and energy security, he is also invested in learning more about domestic housing policy. In advocaSC, Hans is the Assistant Education and Outreach Director and works with TJ to spread awareness within the USC community. Outside of advocaSC, Hans is primarily involved in the Delta Phi Epsilon Foreign Service Society.

Will Ortell - Assistant Service Director

Will Ortell is a junior studying International Relations and Spanish. His research interests include violence and institution building in developing countries with an specific interest in Latin American politics. Will has worked as a research assistant for the Resource Curse Team within the USC Security and Political Economy Lab and taught both international relations concepts and English for various organizations. Will is very passionate about supporting those affected by the housing crisis in Los Angeles. Within advocaSC, he works with Atharva to plan support events with local organizations. Outside of advocaSC, Will's interests include cooking, Buddhism, and hip hop music.

Kale Le - Communications Chair

Kale Le is a sophomore double majoring in Cognitive Science and Data Science. Having been born and raised in the S.F. Bay Area, a housing crisis hotspot, she is determined to use her studies to help create human-centric digital infrastructure that makes housing and transportation easily accessible for all. As advocaSC's Communications Chair, Kale works to publicize information about both advocaSC and the housing crisis in Los Angeles in a way that inspires action and change to create an increasingly more equitable society in which housing is considered a human right.

Adam Bernabo - Finance Chair

Coming soon

Lauren Trujillo - Social Media Chair

Lauren Trujillo is a senior Design major from Oakland, CA. As the Social Media Chair of advocaSC, she uses her digital design skills to boost the organization's visibility, raise awareness about their activism, and increase engagement with their followers. Outside of advocaSC, Lauren spends her time traveling, rewatching Arrested Development, and feeding the local population of stray cats.