Yesenia Garcia-Fortuna is Executive Director at Summer Search, New York. She has devoted her career to helping underrepresented students discover and realize their potential. In this installment of my interview series on purpose-driven leadership, Yesenia shares how her personal journey shaped her approach to helping young people discover their power and agency, how more can be done to help nonprofit workers thrive, and stressed the need for transparency during the hiring pro

Celestine Maddy is an executive marketer, who has held leadership positions at Pinterest, Reddit, Foursquare, the Wing, and Emerson Collective. She is the founder of Wilder Quarterly, a publication for a growing world, and co-author of Wilder Life. Celestine and Zocalo’s founder Kimberly Aguilera have a beautifully long history and we are delighted to have her as our first interviewee.

Tameka Vasquez is the Founder of Future Quo, an incubation and strategy partner for organizations seeking to break free from the status quo, activate a greater purpose, and forge radically better futures for humanity. Tameka is part of the Zocalo community through our climate tech work. Kimberly interviewed Tameka in March 2025.