We are the nation’s largest organization fighting for the rights of all young people. The National Youth Rights Association, or NYRA (NYE-ruh), was formed in 1998 by a group of young people who wanted to challenge the age discrimination and prejudice they were experiencing. Realizing that ageism is similar to other forms of oppression, they started NYRA as a youth-led civil rights organization in the hope of emulating other successful rights organizations that have pushed us to a more just world. Meet the team that continues that work today:

Campaign Leads

Kayla Múzquíz

Kayla is a resilient foster care survivor of institutional abuse. They hope to use their insight of the child welfare system to spread awareness of the civil rights violations happening day in and day out, especially within the Troubled Teen Industry (TTI). She has written articles for The Hill, Ms. Magazine, and Children’s Rights. They are currently attending Palo Alto College in San Antonio, Texas. They have been a certified dog trainer since 2016 and found healing through working with dogs of all breeds. They currently work with a pit bull service dog.

Lila Coval

With a focus on reducing voting ages and increased accountability for policymakers around the country, Lila hopes to see a decrease in (and the end of) gun violence, book banning, and anti-LGBTQIA+ legislation, and wants to see gender-affirming care internationally recognized as a basic human right. Lila uses their platform as an avid writer to bring awareness to underrepresented voices and tackle systemic discrimination one story at a time. Lila also loves reading, editing, and revising fiction works, memoirs, and poetry! Encouraged by the professor of their English course at the University of Minnesota, Lila is starting a campaign to bring awareness to the lack of representation the country’s youth have in government and politics, and aims to see their generation be the positive change society needs.

Neil Bhateja

As an adolescent, Neil began developing an interest in the way society treats its youngest members. He realized that young people aren’t afforded rights that others consider basic, such as property ownership, freedom of movement, freedom from violence, and political representation. He recently worked on a ballot measure to lower the voting age to sixteen in San Francisco, through organizing, recruiting volunteers, and canvassing.

Sarai Livesey

Sarai Livesey is a disabled child abuse survivor empassioned about highlighting and deconstructing systemic ageism in all its presentations, and how it intersects with disability rights, queer rights, environmental rights, and workers’ rights across all ages. Sarai holds the philosophy that all human rights are only as strong as those of the youngest among us.

Seth Hollier

Seth Hollier is a serial entrepreneur with love for music. He has been DJ’ing since 2006 and has been in Casper, Wyoming since 2021. Before that, he spent time as a traveling DJ while running multiple businesses. He is the co-owner of The Void, an event space that focuses on marginalized communities within the city of Casper. The Void runs its own events like Karaoke nights, open mic nights, video game tournaments, and non-alcoholic club nights. Ed3n, another company of Seth’s, is an AI-driven hydroponics company specializing in rare or endangered plants.

Communications Team

Catherine McCarthy

Catherine is a Double Duck at the University of Oregon in her third-year of law school at 21. Inspired by her father’s business, she pursued her B.S. in accounting. However, after observing political division in her hometown, she was driven to become an advocate. She became passionate about the intersection of civil rights and age throughout her educational journey as a younger scholar. Recently, she wrote about addressing reverse ageism by encouraging one to be viewed by merit and fitness, rather than age, using themes of intergenerational cooperation and individual professional development.

Katelyn Pioy

Katelyn is a high school student from New Jersey. She is a first-generation Filipino-American. She is an activist and has a passion for social justice, often spending her time volunteering for different advocacy organizations like NYRA. She hopes to create a tangible impact and bring awareness to youth rights. She wants to become a lawyer in the future. In her freetime she loves to read, write, and watch Netflix.

Katherine Farr

Katherine is a neurodivergent advocate for Self-Directed Education. Her interest in youth rights started in high school, where her neurodivergence caused many struggles. She discovered unschooling and convinced her parents to let her leave school to learn in her own way. She’s now attending a community college, majoring in environmental science. Her dream is to see a world where all people have the freedom to live their best life.

Nikos Mohammadi

Nikos is a high school student studying abroad in Switzerland. He is against the way we treat youth such as through discriminatory and punitive curfew laws, book bans, and store policies that bar unaccompanied minors, all of which are unique to at least some degree to the United States. His hobbies are reading existentialist and postmodern literature, engaging in political debates, and photography (pictured here with one of his favorite books, America by Jean Baudrillard).

Oliver Fox-Rubin

Oliver has been an unschooler since 6th grade, and he is very passionate about stopping the unjust treatment of young people in all fields, but especially education, politics, and general discrimination and prejudice. He is also very interested in the environmental movement, and he and his friends and family organized a climate change strike in 2019. In his free time, he likes being with his friends and family, playing with his sister (who is a dog), and learning the language Esperanto (with gender reforms.)

Human Resources

Brian Conner

Brian is a neuroqueer, nonbinary lesbian and a member of the autistic self-advocacy community. Brian’s interest in youth rights and self-directed education began their sophomore year of high school, when they participated in a student uprising against their school’s administration. Brian studies film, theatre, music, and creative writing at Sarah Lawrence College, where she is also a member of the Midnight Cabaret, a sketch comedy group which performs at midnight every Friday. After graduating she hopes to found an urban, income-sharing intentional community.

Research

Allison Jenkins

Both an autodidact and neurodivergent Allison’s interest in IT created a career that included a “very particular set of skills”. Spending three years within the Troubled Teen Industry with an isolated upbringing in the deep south her fierce tenacity was her strength. Allison applied her tech skill set not only to survive but to generate awareness creating resources for public use. This was further refined and utilized in litigious and legislative efforts addressing the TTI. Allison specializes in open source intelligence researching institutional abuse, cult based practices, and coercive persuasion with her work referenced on the investigative resource bellingcat.

Nathan Lee

Nathan is a determined high school student. Passionate about making a change and voicing his concerns. Influenced by recent events regarding the lack of transparency in the justice system. He is advocating for awareness for the rights of youth specifically within the justice system. In his spare time, Nathan enjoys to read, bike, play violin, and explore diverse foods of his community.

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