Our Team

Araceli holds dual roles at LIFT. As the Deputy Director of LIFT-Los Angeles, she manages all program activities and member services. She supervises a diverse team of program staff and Social Work student interns while developing and strengthening partnerships in the community. In her role as the Race, Equity and Inclusion (REI) National Advisor, she helps develop, guide, monitor and implement program activities that will meet the organization’s REI goals. For over two years, Araceli has lead the organization’s REI Advisory Committee who’s members represent each region and department in the organization.

Araceli earned a bachelor’s degree in Social Work from San Jose State University and a master’s degree from University of Southern California. As a Social Worker, she has dedicated her career to working with vulnerable communities. Before coming to LIFT, Araceli managed a home visiting program for pregnant women, and infants. Araceli managed a child abuse prevention home visitation program, which focused on strengthening families and reducing risk of child abuse and neglect.

Araceli grew up in South Los Angeles and currently resides in East Los Angeles with her husband and two daughters. Araceli loves her work at LIFT because she knows firsthand what living in poverty feels like. She is committed to doing her part to ensure that her daughters’ children do not experience poverty, or live in fear simply because of their gender, last name and color of their skin.

Allie leads the team at LIFT-Los Angeles. In her role, she is responsible for developing the organization’s vision, and achieving its goals for continued financial stability, community engagement and enhancing the impact of its program.

Equity and access have always been at the heart of Allie’s work. She lifts because she has the same hopes for the families of LIFT that she has for her own family—that they too will get to live the life that they dream of and reach their full potential. Allie firmly believes that one’s zip code, the language that one speaks, one’s educational level, the color of one’s skin or the amount of money in one’s bank account should not determine the opportunities that one is afforded. She is inspired by how LIFT approaches its work—through relationships based in respect, human dignity, authenticity and trust. She believes that LIFT has the power to equalize the future for children and families—helping to be the support system that families need to provide bright futures for their children.

Allie brings more than a decade of nonprofit experience to her new role. She began her career working in NYC public schools developing academic, enrichment, after school & mentoring programs for middle and high school youth.

Most recently, Allie served as the National Director of Corporate Partnerships at Reading Partners. She played a key leadership role across all 14 regions in elevating the organization’s strategy and engagement with corporate partners. Prior to joining Reading Partners, Allie spent eight years at City Year. She last served as the National Director of Business Development for the organization. In this role, she raised millions of dollars for the organization’s local and national programs and engaged thousands of corporate volunteers in the schools and communities in which the organization served.

Allie attended Vassar College and majored in Latin American Studies, Spanish, and Education and received her New York State Teacher’s Certification in Adolescent Education, Spanish. She is the proud mama of two small children who inspire her daily, keep her on her toes and push her to dream a little bigger. She resides in Los Angeles with her husband, two children and their crazy terrier.

Michelle’s career has been defined by standing up for equity and access for disenfranchised individuals and communities. Prior to joining LIFT, Michelle spent nearly 20 years leading youth and community development efforts in New York and Los Angeles. Michelle joined LIFT in 2012 as the Founding LIFT-Los Angeles Executive Director where she seeded many of the program innovations that are now core to LIFT’s nationwide program model, including the focus on an intergenerational approach to breaking the cycle of poverty, the integration of financial coaching into traditional supports, and giving cash directly to members. After serving as LIFT’s Chief Cities Officer overseeing all of LIFT’s regional operations, in 2019, Michelle was promoted to and now serves as LIFT’s Chief Executive Officer.

Michelle LIFTs because she believes in the transformative power of “hope, money and love” – her signature take on LIFT’s special sauce. Her own parents loved her fiercely and instilled in her the notion that she could do and be anything she wanted. She fully understands that this firm belief and investment in her possibility provided a buffer against socioeconomic inequity. It is an honor for her to pass on this transformative power of love, backed by rigor and dedication, to populations historically marginalized and unjustly overburdened by stigma, isolation, and disregard.

Michelle is a sought-after public speaker and thought leader whose has been featured in SSIR, Variety magazine, LA Magazine, NPR’s Marketplace, and the 2018 United State of Women Summit, amongst others. She is a Senior Fellow at both the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs and the Brittingham Social Enterprise Lab at the USC Marshall School of Business, a Promise Venture Fellow, and part of the inaugural class of ProInspire’s Catalyst Collective of BIPOC nonprofit executives across the country,

Michelle resides in Los Angeles and is the proud mother of two beautiful children who are her ultimate source of motivation and inspiration. She loves them fiercely!

Neils joined LIFT-DC as their Executive Director in 2023. Prior to LIFT, Neils worked at Stronger Consulting as an Associate Partner of their strategy consulting division. Prior to Stronger, Neils worked at DC Prep Public Charter School as the Chief of External Affairs supporting fundraising, communication, community engagement efforts, and college access and success during his tenure. Neils also previously worked for College Track as the launch director for the DC region.

Neils worked for City Year, Inc. for nearly a decade, serving as a regional managing director for recruitment and admissions and start-up executive director for City Year Tulsa. Neils also served as an impact director and impact manager for City Year Washington, DC, helping to start five new school partnerships and supporting City Year in the Congress Heights area. Neils is a member of the Fall 2018 Cohort of Pahara NextGen Fellowship, the 2014 LEAD class of City Year, and he served as an AmeriCorps member of the 2009 class of City Year Washington, DC.

The son of Ghanaian immigrants, Neils was born and raised in Alexandria, Virginia. He is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in management and society. He also received a master’s degree in nonprofit management, with a concentration in organizational leadership from Northeastern University. In 2017 Neils founded a nonprofit consulting business called Heroes for Hire which specializes in social entrepreneurship. He currently resides in Capitol Heights, Maryland with his wife, Shamelle, and their two sons.

At LIFT, Helah oversees new program design and implementation across the organization’s four regions. She works closely with the regional teams to use Member feedback, program evaluation data, and stakeholder input to improve LIFT’s services, design new program innovations, and maximize impact.

Helah LIFTs because she believes in every person’s potential to succeed when they are supported by their community and connected to the right opportunities and resources.

Before joining LIFT, Helah served as Program Manager-Africa at Vital Voices Global Partnership, a Washington, D.C.-based international development NGO that identifies and invests in emerging women leaders around the world. At Vital Voices, Helah designed and led a multi-million dollar, a multi-year international economic development program for women entrepreneurs across sub-Saharan Africa and served as the regional expert for Vital Voices’ human rights and political participation programs in the region. Helah also has experience in organizational capacity building, strategic planning, and stakeholder engagement, and research. Helah holds a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service and a Certificate in International Development from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and a Master of Public Policy from Harvard Kennedy School. While at the Kennedy School she received the Carr Center Prize for Human Rights and worked with a team of students to recommend improvements to Boston’s early education portfolio.

Xiomara is the proud Executive Director of LIFT-New York. Prior to joining LIFT, Xiomara served as the Director of Fund Development for Mentor New York, a local affiliate of MENTOR: The National Mentoring Partnership, an organization that recruits mentors for youth in high need communities. Xiomara led the organizations special event fundraising, board engagement strategies and individual and major gift programs. She worked as the Director of Resource Development at the Center for Community Alternatives, a nonprofit that serves people in trouble: youth at risk; families in crisis; and people struggling to address drug and alcohol problems and HIV and AIDS; and people who have been involved in the criminal justice system. In her role she oversaw all grant and fundraising functions.

Earlier in her career, she held senior leadership positions with the YMCA of Greater New York, The After-School Corporation, Children of Promise, NYC and worked for the Vera Institute of Justice where she developed new programs and conducted program evaluations for several juvenile justice reform demonstration projects after beginning her career as a New York City public school teacher in Brooklyn. Xiomara is also the founder of 4Impact, a change management, fundraising and leadership consulting collective that helps executives and boards raise more money.

Xiomara holds an MA from the CUNY Graduate Center at Brooklyn College, a BA from Morgan State University in Maryland and is all but dissertation towards her PhD in Organizational Leadership with a concentration in nonprofit management from the Chicago School.  Her dissertation is entitled “Intersectionality and Job Satisfaction of Women of Color in the Nonprofit Sector”.

Xiomara is an adjunct professor at Stony Brook in the Health and Sciences Department and a board member of Bridge Street Development Corporation. She is married and has two children.

As Chief Advancement Officer, Gabe leads our development and communications teams to build philanthropic support for LIFT. As a key member of the executive team, Gabe is also instrumental in contributing to strategy, management, and culture to move LIFT’s work forward.

Gabe LIFTs to ensure every parent can create a strong foundation for their children. He joins LIFT from New Leaders, where he served as Chief Development Officer. Gabe managed a team of regional and national fundraising professionals to raise more than $15M annually, collaborated closely with colleagues to ensure funding supported key priorities, and shaped organizational strategy as a member of New Leaders’ executive team.

Before joining New Leaders, Gabe served in a variety of roles at Teach For America-New York. During his tenure, he doubled the incoming TFA corps from 200 to 400 members, negotiated a large district contract with increased general operating support, and launched an early childhood education program line. Prior to joining TFA staff, Gabe was an award winning middle school teacher in Harlem and Oakland, California. He received his B.A. in Political Science from Brown University, a Masters in Teaching from Teachers College, Columbia University and was a Coro Fellow in Public Affairs.

A resident of Brooklyn, NY, Gabe is the proud father of two young boys, Emory (7) and Andy (2).

Sarah Spunt is a licensed clinical social worker and the Executive Director at LIFT-Chicago, a national nonprofit that empowers families to break the cycle of poverty. At LIFT, she is responsible for cultivating new key partnerships; building and sustaining relationships with new and existing donors and supporters; and leading the development of LIFT-Chicago’s strategic plan in concert with the Program Staff and the LIFT-Chicago Regional Advisory Board. Sarah is currently the Family Economic Mobility Partner Project Director for the National Center for Parent, Family, and Community Engagement and a member Behavior and Trauma Informed Care Workgroup within the Office of Head Start National Centers for Training and Technical Assistance. Additionally, Sarah is the Co-Chair for the IL Cash Coalition, part of the IL Economic Security Project which focuses on expanding direct cash assistance programs in the City of Chicago and the State if Illinois.

Prior to being the Executive Director, Sarah was LIFT-Chicago’s program lead. In this role, she was tasked with designing LIFT’s two-generational program model in Chicago. She used the Lean Design method and behavioral science to implement and evolve programmatic pilots to align with the strategic shift of LIFT’s mission to work with families with young children. Sarah works closely with LIFT’s National Program Team to create a program and evaluation framework to track progress against regional and national goals, targets, and milestones. She has created trainings for direct service staff and volunteers on topics including motivational interviewing, de-escalation, suicidality and best practice protocol, working with victims of domestic violence, and self-care.

Sarah has over 15 years of experience working in the public sector. She holds a professional educator license – school social worker endorsement and a certification in yoga-informed psychotherapy. Sarah served on Star Early’s Policy Council for three years as a community representative and volunteers her time with a Between Friends, a Chicago non-profit focused on breaking the cycle of violence in families and communities, to assist with fundraising and event planning.

Prior to LIFT, Sarah worked for Hanover Township Youth and Family Services in Bartlett, Illinois as a clinical interventionist. While there, Sarah created and implemented a school-based substance abuse education and prevention program and conducted family therapy. Additionally, Sarah was an AmeriCorps*VISTA with the International Book Project, a Lexington, Kentucky nonprofit that promotes literacy, education and global friendships by sending books throughout the developing world.

Sarah holds a master’s degree in social work from Loyola University Chicago and a bachelor’s in secondary social studies education from the University of Kentucky. In her free time, Sarah enjoys spending time with her family and is often training for a triathlon, or planning her next travel adventure.

Cheryl Wadhwa joined LIFT in February 2021 as its Talent & Culture Director, overseeing the employee life cycle from recruiting, onboarding, talent management, policies and compliance, benefits, employee engagement, and diversity, inclusion, belonging, and equity. In her role as a Race Equity and Inclusion Advisory Committee Member, she works with the representatives from each team on bringing best practices to LIFT on race, equity, and inclusion matters, and provides consultation to the organization on ensuring there is a race, equity, and inclusion lens to new policies, procedures, and practices. Cheryl also leads LIFT’s Culture Committee, with its purpose to create social connection opportunities in a hybrid environment and provide consultation to the organization on culture initiatives. 

Prior to joining LIFT, Cheryl worked in talent management at professional services organizations and software companies. In her last role as Director of People, she created the organization’s first Diversity, Inclusion, Belonging and Equity Team and had nearly 50% of the organization participating at its inception. With 20 years of experience in managing talent and culture, Cheryl’s specialty is setting up organizations for growth, applying diversity, inclusion, belonging, and equity into talent and organizational practices, and she is passionate about creating an amazing candidate and employee experience.  

As an immigrant to the US, Cheryl understands first-hand how important it is to have structures and financial security in our country, and wholeheartedly believes in LIFT’s mission to end generational poverty. 

Cheryl has a Bachelor of Arts in French and Spanish from St. Mary’s College of Maryland and a Master of Arts in Public Communication from American University. She resides in the heart of Washington, DC being able to enjoy a walkable environment, takes every opportunity to incorporate adventurous travel into her life with her favorite trip so far being to Tanzania, and on weekends, you can often find her with her husband and child cheering on their favorite baseball team, the Washington Nationals.