Meet Our Team

GEM (Girls Empowerment Movement) was founded by a group of junior and senior girls at Sage Hill School in Newport Coast, California. We are passionate about building independence and self-esteem in middle school girls. We will host GEMfest, an event at Sage Hill School with guest speakers and hands-on workshops for approximately 200 middle school girls on Saturday, March 2, 2019. GEMfest will provide inspiration and education about tools for success in middle school, high school and beyond. 

Eliza Feffer
Co-President

Eliza Feffer is a senior at Sage Hill and one of the co-founders of Girls Empowerment Movement. She is passionate about teaching girls to use their voices to stand up for themselves to make a change. Through GEM, she hopes girls will feel inspired to pursue their dreams, discover new interests, and feel confident about themselves and their abilities. Eliza hopes to learn skills that will help her as she enters the business world in the future and instill an interest in entrepreneurship, art, science, and leadership in other girls.

Karli Davis
Co-President

Karli Davis is a senior at Sage Hill School and a co-founder of the GEM group. She has always had a passion for women’s rights and female empowerment, so when the opportunity came about to start a service learning group dedicated to inspiring young girls to be confident in themselves, she knew this would be a great way to share her enthusiasm toward this subject with the community. She hopes that the middle school girls will leave GEMfest feeling empowered and more confident in themselves to take on middle school, high school, and the world!

Ishani Patel
Co-Executive Producer

Ishani Patel is a senior at Sage Hill School and a co-founder of GEM. She joined GEM to promote the idea that girls deserve and should be empowered to achieve whatever they aspire in life. She wants to teach young girls the importance of being unapologetically themselves and not being afraid to speak up. She has a special interest in the field of female entrepreneurship and hopes to spread and influence others to open their eyes to the idea of becoming future business owners themselves. Ishani hopes GEMfest can offer younger girls role models and mentors to look up to for advice and inspiring success stories!

Leslie Frankel
Co-Communications Director

Leslie Frankel is a junior at Sage Hill. This is her first year in the Girls Empowerment Movement, in which she hopes to make an impact in young girls’ lives. Specifically, Leslie is passionate about encouraging girls to be themselves. She hopes to give girls the courage to stand up for themselves in every circumstance, as well as gain confidence and self-esteem. It is important to her to influence others to follow their passions.

Brielle Janavs
Brand Manager 

Brielle Janavs is a junior at Sage Hill. At the 2018 GEMfest at Sage Hill, she spoke on the entrepreneurial panel about her shoe accessory company, PopPatches. After participating in this event, she decided to join the group and continue to encourage and inspire young women to follow their passions and not let anything stop them. Brielle is passionate about everything she is involved in and hopes to motivate other girls to feel the same.

Linda Hachim
Head of Marketing

Linda Hachim is a junior at Sage Hill school. Because of her strong belief in striving for high ambitions and defying the expectations of others, she joined GEM. She hopes to inspire other young girls in showing them that nothing is impossible, and to have a positive outlook on the dreams they hope to achieve. Along with this, Linda enjoys photography and co-runs Flare Magazine, which also showcases girl’s empowerment.

Nicole
​Motherway
Video producer

Nicole Motherway is a junior at Sage Hill School. While she volunteered at the 2018 GEMFest, this is her first year on the team. She hopes to empower young girls to become strong leaders in every aspect of their lives. She is a strong believer in equality for women and takes any opportunity to support such an important issue in today’s society. Outside of GEM, Nicole participates in soccer, mock trial, interns at KX 93.5, and loves spending time with her friends. ​

Hannah Romeo
Co-executive producer

Hannah Romeo is a senior at Sage Hill School in Newport Coast, California. She is one of the cofounders of GEM. She is passionate about STEM and public speaking. As a result of MUN, she has become a passionate public speaker in order to share her ideas on issues with the rest of her community. She decided to join GEM to share her interests to young girls in order to teach them about women’s rights and female empowerment. She hopes that girls will have a passion for math and science in order to into this field later in life.

Lily
​Humphrey
Head of Design

Lily Humphrey is a senior at Sage Hill School. She joined GEM so that she could help young girls feel like they have the skills and confidence to make their way in the world. Empowering young women to pursue their passions is extremely important to her, as she is currently in the process of pursuing her own passion to become a professional animator. She hopes that through GEM, girls will gain the courage to stand up for themselves and know that they can make their way in the world.

Karina Grover
Co-Communications Director
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 Ezugo 
​Ononye
Assistant Executive Manager
​ Web Development
​  Co-Financial Manager

Karina Grover is a junior at Sage Hill School. She hopes to instill in young girls everywhere the confidence that they need to fully be themselves, accomplish their goals, and pursue their dreams.  Along with being a member of the GEM team, Karina dances in the West Coast School of the Arts’ dance company and teaches dance to younger girls, in hopes of showcasing girl’s empowerment through performance as well.

Ezugo Ononye is a junior at Sage Hill School. Having an older sister as a strong feminist and role model in his life, he decided to join GEM. His goal is show young girls that guys support the empowerment of women. He is the founder of  Sage Hill's B.A.R.C (Boys against Rape Culture) club and is the vice president of his latin club. Aside from this, Ezugo enjoys water polo and spending time with his friends and family. 

Darcy 
​Chung
Head of Web Development
​Co-Financial Manager

 

​Darcy Chung is a junior at Sage Hill School. She expresses both her passion for fashion and for girls' empowerment through her lifestyle magazine Flare. She hopes to inspire a new generation of confident and successful young women through her work as a member of GEM. She is also the captain of her Varsity Sailing Team and gives tours as a Student Ambassador at Sage. When she's not busy with school, she enjoys sewing and playing the ukulele.

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Lizzy
​Chen
GEMbassador Executive Producer

​Lizzy Chen is currently a junior at Sage Hill School. She is passionate about inspiring younger students and especially empowering girls. She has volunteered for students in all levels from preschool to fifth grade. She believes that GEM would lead girls to become strong women who keep breaking stereotypes by being inspired to reach for any dream that they may have.

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