Mission: Citizen was founded by six Lincoln High School Constitution Team members in 2009. It continues today as a student-run nonprofit based in Portland, Oregon. Our passion for teaching manifests itself in a series of free, ten-week classes designed to provide a basis in American history, citizenship and current events. Classes are open to anyone, but we cater to green card holders trying to pass the citizenship test. However, as we emphasize, it's more than the test: we prepare for citizenship.
History
On June 11, 2009, a group of six motivated Lincoln High School Constitution Team alumni decided to use their knowledge of civics to benefit their community. They established Mission: Citizen, a citizenship education program that emphasizes the importance of being an active and engaged citizen.
The legacy the Founders began has been continued and expanded by new faces from Lincoln High’s Constitution Team. Today, the Executive Committee consists of a condensed four official positions (Executive Director, Director of Education, Director of Finance, and Director of Communications) from the original six. A system of committees and a dedicated body of instructors round out the staff. Combined, the instructors are able to speak Spanish, French, German, Korean, Russian, and Mandarin. They use their foreign language skills to ensure students fully understand concepts while keeping in mind that competence in English is essential to passing the exam.
Our goal is to guide students through the naturalization process and prepare students to pass the citizenship test. Ultimately, we hope to encourage civic engagement in America’s future citizens, including educated voting, participation in community forums and voluntary associations, and understanding the rights and responsibilities that accompany US Citizenship.
Cabinet
Dayanna Ku-Avila
Executive Director
Roosevelt High School ‘25
Hsiang-Fei (Sophie) Liu
Executive Director
Lincoln High School ‘25
Dorothy Cui
Director of Communications
Lincoln High School ‘25
Clara Finkelstein
Director of Communications
Lincoln High School ‘25
William Sanchez
Director of Education
Lincoln High School ‘25
Katherine Warner-Frey
Director of Education
Lincoln High School ‘26
Claire Corcoran
Director of Finance
Lincoln High School ‘26
Ava Rathi
Director of Finance
Lincoln High School ‘25
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Callie King-Guffey
Callie King-Guffey is a co-founder of Mission: Citizen and continues to support the program as a dedicated board member. Alongside six high school classmates, she launched Mission: Citizen in 2009. She fondly recalls the first classes they taught, which have since expanded throughout the Portland area. Teaching these classes provided Callie with lifelong lessons about the meaning of American and global citizenship, shaping her career in policy advocacy.
Passionate about civic education and community empowerment, Callie values Mission: Citizen’s unique ability to foster intergenerational learning, connecting young people with aspiring citizens through meaningful engagement. She currently lives in New York City with her partner, Ben (also a Lincoln High School graduate), and their dog, Jazzy.
Theodora Mautz
Theodora is a board member of Mission: Citizen and was the Executive Director from 2014-2015 and a teacher from 2013-2014. As the daughter of an immigrant from China (and having attended her mother's swearing in ceremony to become a U.S. citizen), Theodora finds the work of Mission: Citizen work incredibly meaningful. She is particularly excited by 1) the organization as a conduit for multilingual and multicultural high school students to apply their linguistic and civics knowledge to help community members, and 2) its ability to provide scholarships to offset naturalization fees. She has really enjoyed her involvement with the organization, both as a former teacher and ED, and now as a board member working with each year's talented and thoughtful high school student leadership.
Deanna Delgado
Deanna has been a part of Mission: Citizen since 2018, and what she loves about our organization is its unwavering support of our immigrant community. In addition to being on the board and serving as an advisor at our Roosevelt High School location, she is a teacher and Instructional Coach with Portland Public Schools. In her spare time, she enjoys traveling, cooking, working out, pet sitting, and spending time with her dog.
Louis Wheatley
Louis co-founded Mission: Citizen while a student at Lincoln High School in 2009, and has served as a board member since 2010. As a second-generation American in the Czechoslovak diaspora, his personal and professional passions fall at the intersection of democratic culture, social cohesion, and civic life. In his day job, he is the Strategic Communications Director at Foundations for a Better Oregon. He was also previously a board member at the City Club of Portland.
Angela Gonzalez
Angela was part of the first Mission: Citizen cohort brought to Roosevelt High School. She was a teacher in 2018 and class leader from 2018-2019. Angela initiated the translation of class content and material from English to Spanish to best fit the needs at Roosevelt. She is excited about the way students leading the organization continue to leverage their language skills to meet different language needs, cater to different literacy levels, and strengthen relationships with community members. In 2022, Angela joined as a board member and has enjoyed the privilege of continuing to see the organization's impact, working alongside wonderful high school students and other board members.
Jason Trombley
Jason Trombley is a Policy & Budget Analyst in the office of the Oregon State Chief Financial Officer where he works on developing, implementing and monitoring the performance of agency budgets. From 2020-2024, he served as Legislative Director for the House Democratic Caucus under three majority leaders. In that role, he helped support the development and passage of policy and funding priorities for members and the caucus. From 2019-2020, he served as Policy Advisor and later Legislative Director for Rep. Alissa Keny-Guyer. Prior to working in the Legislature, he worked with community-based organizations on education and housing issues, and worked at a PR firm advising technology companies and start-up companies.
Outside of work, he also serves on the board of Civics Learning Project – an organization supporting efforts to teach civics to students across Oregon. He coached a high school We the People civics program for 14 years.
Founders
Eugene Chung
Naomi Dann
Max Dickinson
Callie King-Guffey
Emilie Segura
Louis Wheatley
Teachers
Anika Rigby
Audrey Finkelstein
Ava Rathi
Carter Wong
Claire Corcoran
Clara Finkelstein
Devin Moore
Dorothy Cui
Halle Sowders
Katherine Warner-Frey
Maddie Obadiah
Oliver Terret
Peyton Springer
Rangan Krishna
Sitara Soman
Sophie Liu
Tess Wiseman
Tyler George
Ulyana Fastenko
Will Sanchez