Please join us in welcoming to the mohuman family of Digital Rebels, Krista Cantrell, mohuman’s new Chief of Staff. Being mo’re human starts with our team and Krista embodies our mission, ideals, and strong drive to work with communities for an all-inclusive approach to digital resilience.

The word that comes to mind when you meet Krista is Spark.

When I founded mohuman in 2018, I was excited to build a multi-talented team of doers who work smart and play hard, are brave, with lived experience, and the drive to change the world for the better one person at a time. The Covid-19 pandemic made our mission even more critical and urgent. I’m excited that we are maturing into a sustainable organization with a moonshot mentality with real impact on digitally underserved communities. We are looking forward to having Krista join the team so that we can move faster, smarter, and at scale.

More about Krista

Krista graduated from the University of Vermont in 2016 with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Global Studies and is currently completing her Master of Arts at Villanova University in Liberal Studies with a focus on Peace and Justice Studies. She worked in Higher Education for five years and was the Assistant Director of Admission at Villanova University where she served underrepresented students and helped facilitate diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives across campus. She has lived in Philadelphia, PA for the last two years but grew up in the Washington, D.C. area. As a first-generation American, Krista credits her Nicaraguan mother for raising her with a community-first mentality.

“Growing up with my Nicaraguan family, I was surrounded by loved ones who faced war, loss, and displacement. Their experience immigrating to America colored their worldview and the stories they passed on to me left an indelible mark. Their resiliency inspired me to value community and fight to preserve the dignity that every human possesses.” 

Krista spent much of her childhood in Nicaragua during summer breaks, where she witnessed first-hand the lack of basic resources available to most people and how problems were only addressed on a micro scale, “like applying a bandage to a wound that requires surgery,” she said. These experiences have shaped Krista’s life and will inform her work at mohuman as she strives to put people at the center of everything she does. When asked what drew her to this role as Chief of Staff, Krista points to mohuman’s 10-step model that puts community before technology to create pathways for digital resilience and community ownership. This is the kind of organization Krista has always dreamed of working for.

“I try to look at the injustices people endure both globally and nationally from a holistic point of view, which is why I’m so excited to work for a nonprofit like mohuman. Their methods focus on tackling systemic inequities through a scalable, adaptable model, not some one-size fits all approach. I truly believe mohuman has what it takes to change the world.”

Krista’s background in admissions managing large geographic territories and overseeing recruitment, application review, and yield events in national and international regions gives her the transferrable skills to be the fast-moving generalist mohuman needs in their Chief of Staff. Krista is also dedicated to interdisciplinary academic studies, which gives her a range of knowledge to apply on the job in several areas such as public policy, community engagement, communications, and social justice advocacy. She promotes a theory of change that considers the whole person and believes in building a forward-thinking workplace culture where people can show up to work as their authentic selves.

Outside of work, Krista loves cooking, traveling (peep the picture of her above from her backpacking trip in Spain!), going to concerts, watching movies, and spending time with loved ones (particularly her adorable nephews).

You’ll be seeing a lot more of Krista. To connect with her, send an email to krista@mohuman.org.

Krista, welcome from the Digital Rebels at mohuman – we chose your mohuman theme song as “The Spark” from GZA.