Iowa CCI Staff
Ava Auen-Ryan
(she/her)
Farming & Environment Director
ava@iowacci.org
Ava’s role at CCI is to oversee all of the organizing around farming and environmental issues including: pipelines, clean water, factory farms and more.
Katie Biechler
(she/her)
Strategic Initiatives Manager
kbiechler@iowacci.org
Katie’s role at CCI focuses on marrying CCI’s movement politics and issue work by building our base in rural communities and building coalitions on our campaigns to win on our issues.
Katie grew up in rural Story County on an acreage with about 20 cows - half beef, half dairy. She was interested at an early age in the civil rights and anti-war movements of the ‘60s, and started attending anti-war rallies with her brother after the US’s invasion of Iraq. In 2014, she was waiting tables and found out her employers were stealing tips, so she organized her coworkers to fight for their wages back, and has been involved in community and worker organizing ever since.
Katie Bryan
(she/her)
Membership Development Director
katie@iowacci.org
Katie works to advance our mission and strategic plans by organizing money and building a strong, engaged, dues-paying membership base.. She geeks databases, directs our membership and individual giving program, and manages our membership and database staff. She grew up in a union family with small town roots on the Des Moines' south side. Katie joined the staff in 2002.
Kim Callahan
(she/her)
Membership & Database Coordinator
kim@iowacci.org
Kim is a Des Moines native and graduate of the University of Iowa. After finishing her degree, she moved to Chicago with her husband. They loved the city and stayed for 11 years. In 2005, her family moved to Vancouver, BC, Canada, and enjoyed an incredible experience living abroad. Ask her about the healthcare! Kim and her family returned to the States in 2011 and settled in Des Moines. Kim is a proud public-school parent who believes in the organizing work that benefits people. She believes in equity, empathy, and compassion. She knows we all do better when we all do better.
Matthew Covington
(he/him)
Strategic Operations Director
matthew@iowacci.org
After completing a year in Americorps doing lead-abatement in Minneapolis and receiving his degree in Public Policy, Matthew knew he wanted to work with everyday people to push for bold policies that put people before profits and communities before corporations. He joined CCI in 2007 as a neighborhood organizer, and since then has worked on issues related to predatory lending and banking reform, protecting and expanding Social Security and Medicare, and most recently our work to get profits out of healthcare.
Hugh Espey
(he/him)
Strategic Adviser
hugh@iowacci.org
Hugh has been an Iowa CCI organizer since 1979. He’s worked on lots of issues over the years, and has seen the organization grow and change in big ways. Hugh grew up in Quincy, Illinois – still has family there – and came to Iowa in 1972 to go to college. He’s been here ever since.
Tim Glaza
(he/him)
Special Projects Director
timg@iowacci.org
Tim launched CCI’s membership canvass in February 2017 and has several years of grassroots organizing and fundraising experience in North Dakota and across the Mountain West. Tim returned to CCI in July 2023 to work on public education and cattle farming issues. Born and raised in Waterloo, Tim is a graduate of Iowa State University and Illinois State University. He served three years as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Zambia.
Caitlin Golle
(she/her)
Farming & Environment Community Organizer
caitlin@iowacci.org
Caitlin is a community organizer, located near Mason City, Iowa. She works with members from all across the state to defend our rural communities, land, air, and water. The Farming and Environment team highlights issues caused by the factory farm industry, and aim to stop new factory farms from being built, ensure that current environmental laws are being enforced, and work for better policies at the federal, state, and local levels. While advocating for a food and farm system that works for all, in her free time, Caitlin also leads monthly workdays on a remnant prairie in North Central Iowa.
Amanda Gran
(she/her)
Membership and Database Assistant
amanda@iowacci.org
Amanda has been working part-time at CCI since 2018. She keeps the database working, processes your donations, and sends you lots of mail. She loves working at CCI because everyone deserves clean water, healthcare, to earn a true living wage, and to feel safe in their community. She hopes that her behind-the-scenes work helps the organizers in their work of changing the world.
When not playing in the database, Amanda can be found dancing, drumming, knitting, sewing, cooking, reading, or playing video games with her two children. She graduated from Carleton College in 2000 and made Des Moines her home in 2005.
Sharon Zanders-Ackiss
(she/her)
Racial Justice and Equity Director sharon@iowacci.org
Sharon has been an organizer with Iowa CCI for 26 years. She supervises the Immigrant Rights and Racial Justice Campaigns. She has always fought for and with the underdog.
Working for CCI allowed her the opportunity to continue standing up and fighting for justice. She is proud of all the good things that were accomplished over her years of doing community organizing, fighting for justice and developing leaders to pass the baton to.
Jaime Izaguirre
(he/him)
Community Organizer
jaime@iowacci.org
Jaime’s role at CCI focuses on getting profits out of healthcare. He’s from Muscatine, Iowa and found CCI when he went to college at Drake University in Des Moines. The thing that most inspires Jaime in this work is the thought of millions of people like his family standing up for what they deserve.
Taylor Nelson
(she/her)
Movement Politics Organizer
taylor@iowacci.org
Taylor is a Movement Politics Organizer who builds CCI Action’s people and political power through issue-driven candidates and campaigns that put people before profits and communities before corporations.
Taylor grew up in Des Moines, graduated from Carlisle High School in 2015, graduated from Coe College with a bachelor’s degree in communication studies/public relations in 2019, and has done a mixture of field organizing, advocacy, and communications work at the local, state, and federal levels in Iowa and Arizona. Taylor lives in Des Moines with her cats Ripley, Ebby, and Simba. She enjoys reading, watching TV, seeing the theater, listening to music, and getting to know Des Moines better.
Iris Olivares
(she/her)
Bookkeeper/Office Manager
iris@iowacci.org
Iris manages our finances, processes benefits & payroll, coordinates our IT, and takes care of daily office matters.
Iris is an empathetic, loving and compassionate person. She is proud to work for an organization that fights for justice for ALL people. Outside of work, Iris loves spending time with her family, listening to music, reading, and being outdoors.
Toby Raine
(he/him)
Membership & Database Coordinator
toby@iowacci.org
Toby is one of CCI’s Membership and Database Coordinators. He is involved in cleaning up our member data, creating strategies for member growth and retention, and coordinating fundraising efforts.
He came to CCI after several years of working for the Polk County District Court. Frustrated by the lack of in public resources within the Justice System, Toby realized he wanted to be part of an organization dedicated to positive change rather than one that maintains the status quo. He is originally from a tiny town in southwest Iowa and went to a high school surrounded by corn and soybean fields. In his spare time, he likes to crochet, sew, read, and travel the Midwest with his partner.
Lisa Whelan
(she/her)
Executive Director
lisa@iowacci.org
Lisa works closely with CCI’s key leadership to guide the overall direction of the organization, manage institutional fundraising strategies, coordinate training opportunities and ensure a unified approach to our organizing across issue campaigns. She supports CCI’s Healthcare Justice campaigns and manages our healthcare organizing staff.
She joined the CCI staff in 2002 as a Farming & Environment organizer after spending two years at People’s Action (then National People’s Action) as a research analyst. She became the Rural Project Director in 2006 and the Operations Director in 2010. She returned to CCI in 2019 after working as medical social worker for a central Iowa Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) for four years.