Originally founded as a coalition of returned study abroad students in Khon Kaen, Thailand, ENGAGE is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that has grown into a network of individuals and affiliated organizations linked through their involvement in local community-based and social justice organizing. Founded in 2001, much of ENGAGE's past work has focused on international solidarity efforts and economic, social, and cultural rights aimed at strengthening relationships between transnational social movements. Due to our belief that effective solidarity work begins at home, our network has since diversified it’s work. We now emphasize connecting returned students to existing members' community-organizing efforts in the US as a basis for building bridges with international movements and inspiring new and veteran activists in our network. We share a common framework for our work through intentional, goal-oriented communication and group process. This framework informs our organizing and social justice efforts.

Many of our members are non-profit workers, organizers, farmers, students, and alumni of the Thailand study-abroad programs, dedicated to staying connected and continuing to work in solidarity with communities in Northeast Thailand.

Our values.

Collective Action – We support local, grassroots solutions for global challenges.

Education for Solidarity – We use experiential, community-based education tools that encourage learners to become change agents within larger social movements.

Reciprocity – We nurture diverse and mutually-beneficial relationships to support a just and sustainable world.

Anti-Oppression – We work to illuminate and challenge unjust systems of power and oppression on personal, institutional, and societal levels, striving to recognize assets within our network and to leverage these in support of our allies.

Equity of Power – We build collective responsibility through shared leadership, equal participation, and consensus.

Reflective Practice – We highly value our collective process and therefore continually evaluate and refine our goals, projects, communication, and decision-making systems.

Network Coordinators.

Katie Mathieson (Asheville, NC) was born and raised in the city of champions, Pittsburgh, PA, but has recently moved to Los Angeles, CA to work with Michael on all the big ideas they have for ENGAGE. Katie was a student on the Development and Globalization program in Fall 2013 and after her student semester she couldn't wait to return to Khon Kaen as an intern in 2015-2016. She graduated from Davidson College with a BS in Environmental Studies in 2015. While at Davidson she worked with chemistry professors, geography professors, and community activists in the Charlotte, NC in order to raise awareness about poor air quality in marginalized Charlotte communities. In 2014 she received a journalism grant from the The Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting to spend 6 weeks in Patagonia, Chile writing and producing a video about environmental issues and social movements. You can see some of her interviews from Patagonia on an upcoming episode of the CNN Original Series “The Wonder List with Bill Weir.” It was in Khon Kaen that Katie first experience the power of listening and finding powerful ways to share the stories of marginalized individuals. During her time in Khon Kaen, Katie enjoyed shooting and collecting footage for the soon to be released Yes to Life! No to Mining! ENGAGE Documentary. She was also part of the team that started the Radical Grandma Collective and is currently designing and managing the website and overseeing the warehouse in Los Angeles. 
Michael Aguilar (Los Angeles, CA) received his bachelor’s degree in Political Science with a minor in Law from the University of San Francisco, California. It was during his undergraduate studies that he first experienced the world of study abroad, living and learning in Khon Kaen, Thailand on the Development and Globalization Program for a semester. Immediately following his undergraduate studies, Michael returned to work for the Khon Kaen study abroad program where he spent two years working with American students and Thai communities on community based initiatives focused on researching human rights violations in Northeastern Thailand. In Thailand Michael was also involved in creating a student mentorship training program, and was invited to advise the CIEE Service Learning Program based in Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic where he would spend the next year and a half designing and implementing the mentorship program. The mentorship program trains alumni of the program to return as mentors supporting and challenging students throughout their study abroad experience. In 2014 Michael was a traveling fellow on the International Honors Program mentoring a group of university students on Climate Change research and investigations through the countries of Vietnam, Morocco and Bolivia. He has now returned to his hometown in Los Angeles where he is an activist working with the Los Angeles Community Action Network and Advisor to the ENGAGE Network.

Board of Peers.

The Board of Peers is a body of ENGAGE members responsible for advising larger-scale ENGAGE campaigns and funding projects, as well as for helping to steer other major organizational decisions. The Board of Peers oversees organizational milestones and progress, and ensures organizational continuity and the integrity of institutional and organizational relationships.
Brighid O’Keane (Rochester, NY) has been involved with ENGAGE since studying in the fall of 2003, after which she was a community intern for the program in the potash-mine community of Non Somboon.  She returned to the University of Colorado to graduate with a degree in Environmental Policy. In 2006, she was a coordinator for ENGAGE’s Access to Medicine Trade Justice Tour. She returned to Khon Kaen in 2008 and 2009 as the International Program Coordinator for the Khon Kaen Education Initiative, an alternative, community-based co-teaching program. Brighid was the Director of the Berkeley Student Food Collective, a student-run cooperative market and most recently she was the Deputy Director for the Alliance for Biking & Walking, North America's coalition of state and local active transportation advocacy organizations. She is a co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of the Open Heart Tea Company.
Phil Mangis (Boston, MA) has been affiliated with ENGAGE since Fall 2003, when he was a student on the Development and Globalization program in NE Thailand.  After graduating from Beloit College in 2005, Phil returned to Thailand where he assisted students and interns in developing facilitation, group process, and social action research skills.  Phil completed his M.Ed. in International Education at the University of Massachusetts Center for International Education, and then worked as the Operations Manager for the International Honors Program at SIT Study Abroad.  Phil is currently the International Operations Manager for The School for Field Studies, a leading environmental education organization in the US.
Rachel Karpelowitz (Portland, OR) has been involved with ENGAGE since being a student on the Public Health program in Fall 2012, where she helped to implement the Mentorship Program for students on her semester. A Seattle native, Rachel graduated from the University of Oregon in 2013 and immediately returned to Thailand as a Program Facilitator for the 2013-2014 year. After being heavily involved with ENGAGE's Support Community Rights: Mining Resistance campaign, planning Convergences, and wanting to continue working with ENGAGE, she worked as the Network Coordinator from 2014-2015. Rachel is currently getting her doctoral degree in Physical Therapy.
Chris Westcott (New York, NY) Chris is an educator and change-maker with extensive experience working with grassroots human rights NGOs and social change–oriented study abroad programs. Chris’s human rights work has focused predominately on the provision of economic, social, and cultural rights. Chris has worked on housing and workers’ rights campaigns with the Urban Justice Center and the Freelancers Union in New York City. Additionally, Chris was a founding staff member of ENGAGE, where he worked in Thailand and the San Francisco Bay area on trade justice campaigns affecting the economic rights of farmers and access to affordable medicines for people living with HIV/AIDS. Chris has worked as a traveling faculty member, then as a program manager with IHP since 2012. Earlier, Chris worked for two years on Thailand’s study abroad program focusing on globalization and development. Chris has a BA in environmental studies from Bates College and an MA in international educational development from Columbia University. Chris has conducted ethnographic research on the land reform process in post-apartheid South Africa and has done participatory action research on housing rights and educational equity in New York City. Chris currently serves on the solidarity board of Community Voices Heard, a social, economic, and racial justice organization based in New York.