Design Teams
At Purpose Commons, we often say that purpose isn’t something you simply find — it’s something you cultivate.
And cultivation doesn't happen in isolation. It happens in community, in conversation, and in the space between lived experience and research.
Design Teams are intergenerational, multi-disciplinary groups of Community Fellows — youth, practitioners, and systems leaders who come together not to talk past one another, but to build with one another. Organized around core questions about how purpose is cultivated, each team surfaces patterns from lived experience and co-develops questions that are both community-rooted and research-ready.
From Listening to Building
In 2025, we engaged more than 130 young people and youth-serving leaders to understand how purpose shows up in real life and what helps it grow. Done in partnership with PSiX at Cornell University and In Tandem, this design research process surfaced four interdependent conditions that shape purpose cultivation — emotional safety, exploration, identity, and action — surrounded by the systemic forces of language, framing, and structural barriers that influence how young people experience and sustain purpose.
These findings aren't the end of the conversation — they're the beginning. Design Teams are our response: community-led, research-informed spaces designed to carry these insights forward by turning them into questions worth pursuing together.
What We’re Exploring First
Our first two Design Teams are organized around two themes that consistently shaped how young people in our design research described experiencing purpose. These themes reflect where young people consistently locate the roots of purpose in their own lives.
Exploration & Exposure
Purpose is cultivated through trying, failing, and discovering new contexts. Youth and practitioners described purpose emerging through action — not from predetermined plans. Yet access to exploration remains unequal, and systems rarely create space for safe trial and error.
This Design Team asks: What conditions allow exploration to become the engine through which purpose takes shape?
Identity & Lived Experience
Purpose doesn't live outside who we are — it grows from it. Faith, family, culture, and adversity shape how young people make meaning and chart direction. Across our conversations, youth described transforming struggle into strength and linking purpose to agency — the ability to define it for themselves.
This Design Team asks: How do systems honor identity as the soil from which purpose grows?
Meet the Community Fellows
Community Fellows are the heart of our Design Teams — young people, youth-serving professionals, organizational leaders, systems thinkers, and researchers who bring lived experience, professional insight, and a shared commitment to asking better questions about how purpose is cultivated. Our inaugural cohort reflects diverse perspectives from across the youth development ecosystem.
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Team: Identity & Lived Experience
Abbie Wyatt-McGill is the Director of Business Development and a co-founder at In Tandem. Her work at In Tandem sits at the intersection of partnership strategy, organizational growth, and youth-centered design, helping translate values into sustainable, real-world impact. Previous to In Tandem, Abbie worked at Character Lab, where she led the youth-voice program, helping researchers integrate student perspectives into their work, and in the KIPP Colorado network, where she taught Fifth Grade Science. Abbie is a proud alumna of Saint Mary's College of California and Relay Graduate School of Education. She lives in Denver with her wife and daughter.
Why were you interested in joining a Design Team?
I am interested in joining the Design Team because I truly believe in the power of purpose and its potential to change the trajectory of a generation. It is the antidote to the hopelessness we see in the world today. I am excited to bring my experience in youth co-design and my lived experiences to the conversation, and to engage with like-minded experts to advance this meaningful work.
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Team: Identity & Lived Experience
Andy is a software dev specializing in Extended Reality development and frontier wearables. He is a graduate from the University of Michigan, and is currently working with Mira, a smart glasses startup. In his free time, he reads sci-fi and fantasy, takes long walks, and talks philosophy with friends. By creating experiences that both inspire wonder and solve problems, Andy hopes to change all words — virtual and physical — for the better. goes here
Why were you interested in joining a Design Team?
I was interested in joining the Design Team because the pursuit of purpose is something that deeply fascinates me. I've observed people who were fulfilled and excited in the worst of circumstances, and others who found something lacking in a seemingly perfect environment. I believe understanding more about purpose will help us all live better lives.
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Team: Identity & Lived Experience
Dr. Breonte Guy is Professor and Interim Chair in the Department of Psychological Sciences at Winston-Salem State University, where he conducts research at the intersection of minoritized youth wellness, gaming, and translational science. As a Hopelab HBCU Translational Science Fellow, he directs the G.A.M.E. (Gamified Activities for Mental Empowerment) Lab, a youth co-creation initiative that develops culturally responsive digital tools to strengthen belonging, identity, and emotional regulation among Black and Brown adolescents.
Why were you interested in joining a Design Team?
I was interested in joining the Purpose Commons Design Team because I care deeply about building research with youth - not just about them. This is an opportunity to center culture, lived experience, and co-creation in ways that can truly shift how we think about purpose and well-being.
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Team: Exploration & Exposure
Chenay McConnell’s work is fueled by a deep passion for the transformative power of storytelling. Whether she is standing center-stage or analyzing qualitative data, her mission remains the same: to cultivate genuine human connection and spark systemic change through lived experience.
For over two decades, the stage has been Chenay’s second home. Since the age of five, she has used performance art to reflect powerful stories, eventually earning her BFA in Theatre Arts. However, her path hasn’t been without its challenges; having navigated the personal struggle of being accepted as an artist and defending her creative calling as a valid "purpose," Chenay understands the weight of having one’s truth questioned. This experience ignited a parallel calling in qualitative research—a field where she could turn that struggle into a tool for advocacy. It was during her work on diverse research projects—ranging from community advocacy for unhoused populations to gun violence prevention at CU Anschutz—that she discovered a passion for using data-driven narratives to amplify the voices of those who are too often ignored. She believes that creativity and empathy are absolute necessities for human connection.
Chenay is currently in a season of incredible momentum. Having just completed her Master’s in Global Cultures at King’s College London—where she also earned a certification in Climate and Sustainability—she is determined to mesh her creative roots with her research expertise to inspire real-world change.
She has recently channeled this energy into a new professional chapter, accepting the role of Development and Communications Director for Groundwork Denver. Environmental justice is a cause that lives close to Chenay’s heart, and she is thrilled to be on the ground in urban areas, bridging the intersection of social equity and environmental health. By amplifying the lived experiences of marginalized groups, Chenay aims to drive organizational support and deliver the advocacy and solutions that empower Denver urban communities to thrive.
Chenay is especially inspired by our youth and is committed to empowering them to follow their passions and live out their own version of "purpose" as their truth. She is beyond excited to contribute to Purpose Common’s mission, exploring the depths of what purpose entails and how to better support our communities through these findings.
Why were you interested in joining a Design Team?
I believe the most impactful solutions live at the intersection of creative storytelling and strong qualitative research. My mission is to design spaces grounded in empathy and deep listening, where we celebrate our differences and allow individuals to define their own version of purpose. I am driven to ensure marginalized voices aren't just heard, but are the primary architects of a world where everyone’s truth is recognized and valued.
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Team: Identity & Lived Experience
Denver Humphrey is a 17-year-old multidisciplinary storyteller, filmmaker, musician, and advocate whose work centers on young people, creativity, and social impact. She co-founded Fourddo (four-dee-do), a youth-led nonprofit producing community-driven campaigns and media that has reached over 30,000 young people through collaborations with organizations including Macy’s, Kia, UNESCO, Seventeen, Headstream, and PBS Student Reporting Labs. In 2025, Fourddo launched a national mindfulness tour that inspired the upcoming documentary Dreamers (2026).
Denver’s creative journey spans directing films such as Find Me in the Void through Black Girls Film Camp, acting in projects for Disney, and performing at the US Open. She serves on advisory councils for organizations including Roblox, Sesame Street’s Joan Ganz Cooney Center, Harvard’s Center for Digital Thriving, and UCLA’s Center for Scholars and Storytellers, and has been platformed by institutions such as the Sundance Institute, Creative Artists Agency, and the California Film Institute. Across film, music, research, and advocacy, Denver uses storytelling to challenge representation, build empathy, and imagine more connected and equitable futures.
Why were you interested in joining a Design Team?
I'm passionate about this opportunity because purpose has the power to change how young people see themselves. I want to contribute to research that doesn’t just tell young people who they are but encourages them to discover their potential and gives them the tools to pursue it.
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Team: Identity & Lived Experience
Julia Hughes grew up in Colorado and has worked in the nonprofit sector for over 20 years, beginning with her service as an AmeriCorps member in Commerce City, Colorado. After her year of service, Julia oversaw two AmeriCorps programs in both Dallas and Denver. Her experience spans from program development and volunteer management to fundraising at the YMCA, Urban Peak, and Mile High United Way.
Julia is the Senior Director of Strategic Initiatives at Colorado Youth for a Change. The organization provides individualized support for 5,000+ Colorado students each year through tutoring, mentoring, and high school reengagement. In her current role, she leads the backbone efforts of the Denver Opportunity Youth Initiative. Together with nonprofits, K-12 leaders, higher education, and city government, this initiative boosts access to education and employment for young people ages 16-24 and creates the belonging, meaning-making, wellbeing, and purpose conditions where all young people can thrive.
She’s the proud mother of two teenagers and spends free time reading, cooking, cheering on her kids at swim meets, and walking her miniature dachshund.
Why were you interested in joining a Design Team?
Through the Denver Opportunity Youth Initiative, we’ve talked with so many young people about purpose and have heard how culture, relationships, identity, and experiences help to cultivate it. I’m excited to bring this perspective to the Design Team and learn from others about how we can support local partners in centering these conversations and opportunities to explore.
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Team: Exploration & Exposure
Jayden Diggins is a real estate professional and emerging voice focused on personal growth, motivation, and building meaningful connections with others. He is driven by a strong desire to continually develop himself while contributing to environments centered on learning, collaboration, and impact.
He brings a charismatic and grounded presence to group settings, with a natural ability to connect with people from different backgrounds and perspectives. Jayden values shared growth and believes in learning through both experience and intentional reflection.
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Team: Identity & Lived Experience
Dr. Marlene Brito (she/her/ella) is a First-Generation Student Scholar and Workforce Development Practitioner with an 18-year track record designing, implementing and executing inclusion and belonging programs across a variety of sectors. Dr. Brito leads the Work-based Learning Innovation Lab at NYU SPS, The Lab is focused on providing access pathways and work-based learning opportunities for students. Prior to joining NYU SPS, Marlene led the Career Exploration and Belonging work at the Wasserman Center for Career Development at New York University. In her role, she oversaw all identity-based programming and initiatives as well as the center’s first-generation student programming.
Prior to joining NYU, Dr. Brito served as the Director of Programs at National Urban Fellows, in this capacity she was responsible for the complete administration of the cornerstone Executive MPA Leadership Development Program from recruitment to graduation. National Urban Fellows develops accomplished and courageous professionals of all ethnic and racial backgrounds, particularly people of color and women, to be leaders and change agents in the public and nonprofit sectors, with a strong commitment to social justice and equity. Marlene served as the inaugural Community Engagement Manager at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts where she was responsible for designing and implementing diversity inclusion strategies for the center’s education offerings and complete portfolio of artistic performances which included Broadway, classical, jazz and world music internationally acclaimed artists.
Dr. Brito earned her Bachelors in Economics and Metropolitan Studies from New York University in 2004, her Masters in Public Administration from the Baruch School of Public Affairs as a National Urban Fellow. In 2021, she earned a Masters in Philosophy in Education and in 2023 she earned her Ph.D in Educational Leadership and Policy
She completed her dissertation study on the College to Career Transition of Latinx FGCS. Dr. Brito is the founder and Chief Strategist of The Fractured Strategist, a transition strategy practice focused on helping individuals and organizations navigate change using an intersectional approach and evidence-based practices.
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Team: Exploration & Exposure
Michael Partis is Executive Director of the Red Hook Initiative: a Brooklyn organization facilitating social change through education, youth development, and local hiring.
He previously was Executive Director of Bronx Cooperative Development Initiative and Director of South Bronx Rising Together. Michael is also the co-founder of The Bronx Brotherhood Project.
Michael’s academic career includes serving as a professor at CUNY Borough of Manhattan Community College, CUNY Brooklyn College, and Long Island University. His courses included African American history, cultural anthropology, and urban studies.
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Team: Exploration & Exposure
Dr. Nisha A. Julien is the Founder of Collective Futures, LLC. She is a researcher, strategist, and practitioner dedicated to advancing equitable, community-centered solutions. Dr. Julien has spent over a decade leading research, programs, and teaching across K–12 schools, higher education, and nonprofits. Her work blends hands-on experience with research to drive real change. At the heart of her work is a guiding belief, inspired by an African proverb: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” She partners with organizations and communities to co-create questions, explore solutions, and transform ideas into actionable strategies that lead to sustainable impact.
Why were you interested in joining a Design Team?
This is a unique opportunity to engage with the complexity of purpose. Purpose looks different for each person in how it is defined, cultivated, and shows up in everyday moments and beyond. Grappling with these nuances in community is what draws me to the Design Team where I see it as an intentional space to contribute in thinking about purpose in an inclusive way. There’s a grey space here inherently that resists a one-size-fits-all approach on aspects like how to define purpose or how to cultivate it. Being part of disrupting dominant narratives of what purpose “should” be is an honor and what excites me.
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Team: Exploration & Exposure
A proud Denverite and graduate of John F. Kennedy High School in southwest Denver, Richard is the proud Executive Director of Ednium: The Alumni Collective. Ednium works to ensure that public school alumni across Denver have the knowledge, skills and agency to live a thriving life in the community they call home. He comes to this work with a belief that whether you were raised here or just joining our community, we need a Denver that allows for everyone to thrive, no matter their background or circumstances. A product of this city himself, Richard knows that we have the Homegrown Talent that will lead our city and state into the future, we just have to make sure we are empowering them and investing in them every step of the way.
Richard holds a bachelor's degree in History and Spanish and a masters degree in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Denver, and a certificate in Educational Leadership from Colorado State University Global. Richard resides in southwest Denver with his husband and two rambunctious doodles.
Why were you interested in joining a Design Team?
As an organization working to cultivate purpose within our community, I am excited to serve on the Purpose Commons Design Team to further research that is connected to the people we serve, and will allow us to shape systems in a more intentional and meaningful way.
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Team: Exploration & Exposure
Sokhnadiarra Ndiaye is an entrepreneur focused on bridging African and global markets. She is the Founder and CEO of Muneko, a media distribution company enabling filmmakers to deliver films and television content directly to streaming platforms. A Cornell University graduate, her work sits at the intersection of media, business, and market development, with a focus on expanding access and unlocking economic opportunity. She serves on the advisory board of Purpose Commons, where she helps shape initiatives at the intersection of community, purpose, and impact.
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