CHRIS DELA CRUZ

Director of Youth Initiatives at Together Lab

Rev. Chris Dela Cruz is the Director of Youth Initiatives of Together Lab. He oversees the Caregiving Toward a Horizon of Wholeness Initiative, which makes possible the creation of new ecumenical youth collectives and parallel communities of practice for parents and caregivers around mental health support, as well as integrating this initiative into our broader work organizing for healing and justice in Oregon. As an ordained pastor with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Chris has led youth and family ministries in faith communities for over a decade, as well as carrying community organizing experience - and scars! - in both New York City and Portland, including work around Barbie's Village, land back of church land to the indigenous community for a tiny home village for unhoused families. Combined with his background as a newspaper journalist and his heart for teens and families, Chris feels compelled to dedicate this mix of passions and skill sets toward his work with Together Lab. 

Chris also organizes with multiple local coalitions including Leaven Community Land and Housing Coalition, the BIPOC Faith Leaders Council for Black Lives in PNW, and Portland Jobs with Justice. Chris is a proud son of Filipino immigrants who spends his free time breaking strings on his guitar, contemplating the theology of Kendrick Lamar and Taylor Swift, and rooting for the NY Liberty and NY Knicks.

ALAIDE VILCHIS IBARRA

Co-Director of Together Lab

Alaide Vilchis Ibarra (she/hers/ella) is the Campaign Director for Value our Families, an organization that exists to protect, preserve, and strengthen the family immigration system and promote an immigration system that is informed by love, empathy, and justice.

Before moving to Oregon, Alaide lived and worked in Washington, DC where she led U.S. immigration and foreign policy work in collaboration with Central American and Mexican organizations. In DC, she witnessed how the power of the people shifts systems and saw how divorced policy can be from the communities it affects. This experience shaped her commitment to movement building. 

Alaide found her voice as an advocate testifying in the Kansas legislature to protect access to higher education for undocumented immigrants like her. She continues to learn how being an immigrant (ni de aqui, ni de alla) roots her as a leader and a person in the world.

RON WERNER

Co-Director of Together Lab

Ron Werner, Jr (he/him) is the founding Director of Together Lab, where he weaves together people of faith and fierce love to cultivate leader-full movements and ministries. Rooted in Oregon since 2005, he loves the way curiosity can activate collaboration and has helped launch multiple initiatives including the Oregon Fellows, Spiritual & Theological Mutual Accompaniment, Ecumenical Youth Collectives, and Sacred Organizing cohorts throughout the state. Ron is an ordained pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and leans on a lineage of community organizing as he staffs Together Lab’s partnerships with the Interfaith Movement for Immigrant Justice and Common Table of Oregon. Alongside family and friends, he loves to cook, dance, and travel. During the pandemic, Ron rediscovered a love for drumming while giving his daughters drum lessons and is now on the lookout to join a 90’s cover band.

JANELLY CARRANZA

Organizer at Together Lab

Janelly was a student at Warner Pacific University where she studied Social Entrepreneurship when she first said yes to organizing. She loved accounting and all the logistics around a business, but also really wanted to see how business could help a community. She has had several years working in direct services, being a liaison between public health and direct services, and doing project management and policy work. From 2019-2021, she was an Oregon Fellow with Together Lab and is now working as Community Organizer at Together Lab and is a Lead Organizer with Land and House both of these contexts, she is committed to organizing in a way that carefully and intentionally centers action and movement around those directly impacted. Her hobbies include good food and anime.

REV. JESSICA PUTLAND 

Rev. Jessica Putland (she/her) is Pastor-Organizer under Together Lab's Youth Collective space, working with the Caregiving Toward a Horizon of Wholeness Initiative. Jessica is a Pastor by way of education and training, but got a taste of organizing through the Washington County Leaven Land and Housing Cohort in 2020 through 2022. Once she experienced sacred organizing, she couldn't get enough! Jessica has a soft spot for youth who have been othered by the church, folx who are struggling with their mental health, and for the LGBTQ community, who have also been historically marginalized by church institutions. When she is not working, you can find Jessica grappling on the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Mats, training for Strongman Competitions, taking a long hike or bike with her fiancé, or cuddling her French Bulldog rescue, Latte. Jessica hails from Wisconsin, but likes to say that Minnesota raised her, as she lived there for the first 8 years of adulthood.

JAKE BAILEY

Administrative Assistant at Together Lab

Jake Bailey currently serves as Organizer at Together Lab and Leaven Community Land and Housing Coalition, leading our emerging initiatives out of Washington County. He brings a breadth of experience of convening folx and leading with strategic initiative from his volunteer work with various community based organizations, including 연대 (Yeondae), Together Lab, and the Interfaith Movement for Immigrant Justice. While his background is in microbiology and genetics, Jake is excited to apply his systems thinking to the grassroots efforts of Together Lab towards a more collaborative and equitable movement. Outside of organizing, you can find Jake tending to his plants or filling his belly with the latest food trends.