Kristell Caballero Saucedo

Kristell Caballero Saucedo is committed to liberation work that puts racial justice with an intersectional analysis at its nexus. As the founder and principal at Living Change, she provides leadership and personal development support to leaders in the social sector committed to practicing antiracism. Prior to her selection, Kristell served as the program officer for the Racial Equity Initiatives at Borealis Philanthropy where she led a $17.1 million dollar grantmaking portfolio focused on investing in philanthropic serving organizations advancing racial equity in philanthropy. She also co-founded the Racial Justice Stances workshop, which offers tools and space for practice to individuals interested in having more effective, genuine and humanizing racial justice conversations. 

During her Ron McKinley Philanthropy fellowship at the Bush Foundation, Kristell held a $3 million grantmaking portfolio focused on supporting innovative community-led solutions to community challenges. First as a New Sector Alliance fellow and later hired as the racial equity project manager at Northside Funders Group, Kristell led and curated a racial equity toolkit and learning curriculum to support philanthropic institutions integrate racial equity values into their policies and practices. During her Fulbright Scholar grant in Mexico, she studied activists’ strategies for the advancement of Afro-Mexican rights. Kristell curated leadership development and anti-racism learning curricula for emerging Roma community leaders and allies while working at Phiren Amenca, an international human rights network based in Budapest, Hungary.

Kristell received a Change Management certification from Cornell University. She is an alumna of the Hispanics in Philanthropy Lideres Fellowship where she expanded her analysis of the intersections of the kyriarchy and philanthropy. While pursuing her B.A. in Political Science and Spanish at St. Olaf College, Kristell interned at the U.S Senator Amy Klobuchar’s state office, where she served as constituent advocate. She also worked as a research assistant to St. Olaf political science faculty and co-authored a research paper which explores the application of a collective identity framework to the autonomous and independence activism of the raizal people of Colombia. She later presented this paper at the 2012 International Society of Political Psychology annual meeting. 

In 2018, Kristell ended her three-year term as a board member of the Minnesota Freedom Fund after supporting the organization’s development of a mission and set of values, as well as early fundraising efforts. That same year, she also ended a three-year term as a co-leader of LOCUS, a volunteer-run initiative of Minnesota Rising, where she organized racial equity learning and networking opportunities for Black, Indigenous, and people of color in the Twin Cities.

“I believe that at the heart of racial justice work are relationships. This is why I am thrilled at the opportunity to build community and memories with the NUF family and the Georgetown community.”