Board President
Feliciana Ligerose
Feliciana is a Colorado native and resides in the Far Northeast community and is a mother of two children, ages 17 and 10. Feliciana has been a youth mentor, coach, board member and served on various volunteer committees in school and private organizations over the last 10 years and has always had a passion to empower our youth. After her son became involved in the Juvenile Justice system, Feliciana made it a personal mission to work with at-risk youth and also to strive to bridge the gap of the many social injustices our youth and families face. She began volunteering with VORP in early 2013 and was elected to the VORP BOD in April 2013. Feliciana is also currently serving on a Legislative Committee which is examining the rights of juvenile defendants.
Board Member
VALERIE GONZALES
Board Member
Melissa Puss
Melissa Pluss is passionate about closing the school to prison pipeline, and investing in restorative and
healing justice for youth and young adults. She has proudly served on the board of CCFC since
November 2018. Melissa’s professional background is in fighting injustice and in building up grass-roots
leadership through community organizing. In the beginning of her career she spent three years with
CLOUT (Citizens of Louisville Organized and United Together) where she was instrumental in building
grassroots campaigns to shut off the school to prison pipeline. Through direct action they won Restorative
Justice in the Louisville juvenile justice system and Restorative Practices in Louisville Public schools.
She also led grass-roots campaigns to fight school bullying and helped win a system wide anti-bullying
policy in the Louisville Public Schools. Following this work, Melissa moved to Kansas City to work
directly with nonprofits fighting recidivism in the Kansas State Prisons. As Mentoring Coordinator with
Mount Carmel Redevelopment Corporation she built a mentoring program to help the incarcerated and
previously incarcerated find employment, housing, healthcare, and meaningful community engagement.
In 2015 Melissa joined United for A New Economy in Denver as their Organizing Director. During her
time at UNE she helped build a multi-lingual, multi-generational, multi-racial organizing committee that
fought for renters rights, affordable housing, and language justice at the city and state level. Melissa is
currently pursuing a Masters in Divinity at Iliff School of Theology, where she hopes to bring faith and
justice work together as a leader in the faith community.
Board Member
Tory Doerksen
Tory joined the Board for Colorado Circles for Change in 2017. He brings over 13 years of experience in Youth Ministry and working with various church (nonprofit) boards. After a few years in Kansas and Oregon for college and seminary, he moved to Denver with his wife in 2008. Currently Tory is the Directory of Children and Youth Ministries at Park Hill United Methodist Church and the Middle School Chaplain for St. Elizabeth’s Epsicopal School. He values the diversity present in both of these organizations, and is honored to support CCFC’s continued role in direct social justice work in Denver and Colorado.