Mikva Challenge today announced that CEO Verneé Green has been selected as a 2026 Luminary for The 1954 Project, The CAFE Group’s national initiative investing in leaders and organizations advancing education for Black students and communities.

As a Luminary, Mikva will receive $1 million in unrestricted funding, along with strategic support, relationships, and lifelong connection to The 1954 Project Network.

Founded in Chicago in 1998 and rooted in the belief that young people are experts in their own lived experience, Mikva’s work is built on a simple premise: students learn democracy by doing democracy. The organization works alongside students and teachers in public schools to build civic skills through real democratic experience, reaching more than 300,000 students and 4,000 teachers a year across ten states.

“Many of our students begin their Project Soapbox speech with the words ‘imagine a world,” said Verneé Green, CEO of Mikva Challenge. “We’ve spent the last several years building a national organization capable of reaching young people in the communities that need us most, and this investment gives us room to deepen that work and accelerate what comes next. I’m imagining a world where Mikva alumni are embedded in public offices, classrooms, and civic institutions across this country. This award is an investment in our collective future. We are incredibly proud and grateful for this recognition and are committed to ensuring young people have the opportunity to develop their voice and power to shape their schools, communities, and our democracy.”

The Luminary Award is designed to meet leaders and organizations at an inflection point, when meaningful work is already underway, and deeper investment can create room for what comes next.

Mikva is also building a national educator network to support teachers using its curriculum outside partner districts, and launching alumni programming designed to connect graduates to civic leadership pathways. The unrestricted investment will create room to strengthen the infrastructure behind that growth while deepening the organization’s work in the districts it already serves.

2026 Luminary Cohort

Green joins four other leaders selected as 2026 Luminaries: Taylor Toynes, Co-Founder and CEO of For Oak Cliff; Lecester Johnson, CEO of Academy of Hope Foundation; Choquette Peterson, Founder and CEO of The RISE Center for Liberation in Early Childhood Education; and Jenn Charlot, Co-Founder of RevX.

Together, the 2026 Luminaries span early childhood, K–12 learning and school design, place-based community infrastructure, civic education, and adult education and economic mobility.

About Mikva Challenge: Mikva Challenge is a national, nonpartisan organization that equips young people with the knowledge, skills, and hands-on experiences they need to become informed and engaged leaders in our democracy. Through real-world civic learning opportunities, we empower students to research and address the issues that matter most to them and amplify their voices in shaping their communities and the nation. We provide educators with training, resources, and support to create classroom experiences that inspire and prepare students for lifelong civic participation. By 2034, we aim to reach 2 million young people annually, fostering a generation of empowered, informed, and active citizens. To learn more about Mikva Challenge, visit www.mikvachallenge.org. 

About The CAFE Group: The CAFE Group drives resources to the leaders and organizations building thriving Black communities by resourcing visionary education leaders doing transformative work today, growing the relationships that carry people into rooms where decisions get made, and developing the next multiracial generation to use their time, talent, and treasure toward that future. Through The 1954 Project, its national education initiative, The CAFE Group invests in leaders and organizations advancing education for Black students and communities. The Luminary Award provides $1 million in unrestricted funding, strategic support, relationships, and lifelong connection to The 1954 Project Network. To learn more about The 1954 Project and the 2026 Luminaries, visit thecafegroup.org. 

Meet the 2026 Luminaries: five leaders and organizations building across the educational continuum, from early childhood through adulthood.