The Indianapolis Liberation Center is a hub where member organizations, people’s struggles, affiliated projects, and progressive activists connect like spokes. We are a growing collective of revolutionary fighters and dreamers from various segments of the working and oppressed classes who sacrifice our time and resources to the Center and the struggle. Our leading organizers are teachers, librarians, social workers, artists, and cultural workers, and most importantly, revolutionaries who help the many volunteers they represent keep our city’s liberated territory—our online and physical space–running and expanding.
Destiny Glover
General Coordinator
As the General Coordinator of the Liberation Center, Destiny helps ensure things run smoothly, whether that be events, office hours, or outreach. She grew up in Avon, Indiana and moved to Indianapolis at 21, where her love for the city pushed her to get involved with organizing.
Destiny is committed to building working-class power and fighting for a better world. She loves to skateboard and enjoys live music.
Contact Destiny at info@indyliberationcenter.org.
Stephen Lane
Community Outreach Director
Stephen Lane is a third generation resident of Indianapolis with deep roots in the community. Stephen connects the Center to community and develops relationships with local leaders and businesses. He enjoys the work we do to ensure that the Center is not an isolated place but an integrated part of the community’s network of resources available to residents and visitors alike.
Stephen also serves as a lead organizer with our member-organization, ANSWER Indiana.
Contact Stephen at organizer@answerindiana.org.
Aubrey Whiteman
Liberation Store Manager
Aubrey Whiteman is the manager for the Liberation Store at the Indianapolis Liberation Center, where she maintains the day-to-day operations of the store, ensuring orders go out on time and responding to consumer inquiries.
Born and raised in Kokomo, IN, Aubrey attended IU Bloomington, earning her degree in Neuroscience and Psychology before moving to Indianapolis where she became involved in political organizing. Aubrey’s professional background is in education, youth programming, and urban farming, and she is currently studying to become a nurse. When she is not studying or organizing, Aubrey can be found taking long walks, drinking coffee, and catching up with old friends
Contact Aubrey at store@indyliberationcenter.org.
Derek Ford
Organizational Relations Director
Derek Ford, one of the Indianapolis Liberation Center’s founders, is an organizer, educational theorist, and teacher affiliated with the Hampton Institute, People’s Forum, Korea University (Tokyo), Liberation School, the International Manifesto Group, and other political-educational projects. Before moving to Indianapolis, Ford organized in D.C., Syracuse, Baltimore, and Philadelphia.
Ford brings their experience organizing at the national and international levels to their volunteer role as Organizational Relations Director, cultivating relationships with those willing to build the unity needed for achieving liberation. He is routinely energized by working at the Center, where each new day and relationship gives him more evidence that the people will win in the end. They serve as Coordinator of Free Shaka Shakur.
Contact Derek at info@indyliberationcenter.org.
Cecilia Gomez
Indianapolis Liberator Liaison
Cecilia Gomez is a social worker, organizer, and lifelong student of liberatory education. She is passionate about building community and fighting for material conditions that recognize the dignity and worth of all working-class people. In her role at the Indianapolis Liberator, she edits articles from local organizers and amplifies stories that connect the struggles of marginalized people in Indianapolis.
Cecilia approaches her work with the conviction that a better world is coming. Outside of the Center, she loves to spend her time in community, writing poetry, and taking long walks around the city.
Contact Cecilia at leads@indyliberationcenter.org.
Brooks Behr
Solidarity Projects Coordinator
Brooks’ deep-rooted passion for environmental justice, which expanded into a broader commitment to liberation, started with their experiences organizing with the Compton Center for Peace and Justice and Democratic Socialists of DePauw. They grew up in West Lafayette and attended university in Greencastle, where they organized around urbanization and ecology.
After moving to Indianapolis in 2020 and participating in the successful campaign to defeat Prop. 291, they found an organizing home at the ILC alongside the other Hope Packages volunteers. Having been Co-Coordinator of Hope Packages since Fall 2023, they are excited to expand the Center’s political aid projects in their role as Solidarity Projects Coordinator. When they’re not working on solidarity projects, they enjoy exploring the imaginative worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin and watching cheesy nature documentaries.
Contact Brooks at info@indyhopepackages.org.
Johnny Willems
Assistant Gallery Director
Johnny Willems (he/they) is an artist, social worker, and Buddhist practitioner based in Indianapolis. His work centers themes of grief, spirituality, and liberation through the mediums of printmaking, zinemaking, and community building. Johnny is a member of the Gluestick Zine Collective, a literary collective that provides educational resources to underserved communities in Indianapolis.
A Bachelor of Social Work graduate, Johnny works in the field of community mental health specializing in older adult populations. Johnny is a lay practitioner within the Kwan Um School of Zen and board member of the Empty Circle Zen Group.
Contact Johnny at leads@indyliberationcenter.org.
