My name is Piper Hendricks and I appreciate your interest in Stories Change Power. Over the curious course of my career, two critical truths have emerged:

1. To create a just, equitable, and peaceful world, we need laws, policies, and systems that work for everyone.

2. We will never achieve those laws, policies, and systems without effective advocacy.

I’ve worked with people and organizations around the world with huge hearts but small budgets and infinite enthusiasm but finite time. I’ve seen what happens when internal effort isn't translated into external impact: opportunities are missed and needed change doesn’t happen. 

Good ideas and smart research don't effortlessly become good laws and smart policies. This headline about a World Bank report says it all: "The solutions to all our problems may be buried in PDFs that nobody reads." 

If we want solutions, we need to persuade those with the power to implement them to do so. Our advocacy efforts will only be as effective as the advocates involved.

That's why I created Stories Change Power to empower people to be effective advocates.

Along my professional journey, I’ve been called “audacious” many times – and each time I took it as a compliment. The audacious goal of Stories Change Power is equip people to advocate for a just, equitable, and peaceful world for everyone. We promote trust across the country, collaboration across organizations, community across cohorts, and meaning across individual lives.

With hope for our shared future,

Piper Hendricks

Founder & CEO

Jule Hall is a Bard Prison Initiative (BPI) Alumni and is featured in Lynn Novik’s College Behind Bars. While advocating for the reinstatement of Pell Grants for incarcerated students in 2017, Jule worked as campaign coordinator for documentary films at Picture Motion, LLC. 

In 2019, Jule was the first formerly-incarcerated person to work full-time at the Ford Foundation, where he analyzed data and developed strategies for its work on gender, racial and ethnic justice. In 2021, Jule worked at the Ascendium Education Group, where he recommended grants for educational programs operating in jails and prisons. With Horace Mann High School in 2023, Jule taught a virtual, college-credit bearing writing class for women incarcerated in the state of Maine. 

Currently, Jule is the Assistant Director of Ambassadors and External Programs at Innocence Project where he engages celebrity influencers on campaigns to exonerate people who are wrongly convicted. His favorite pastimes are gardening and bike riding.

Alexis Matsui is a digital strategist currently working in public communications for the San Francisco Bay Ferry. She is an award-winning and mission-driven multimedia storyteller and producer who creates content strategically designed to inform and engage specific audiences. Alexis' expertise spans multiple media forms, including video, photography, audio, and motion graphics. She is skilled in developing content strategies that incorporate an organization’s overarching goals, consider implications for multiple departments and stakeholders, and optimize each multimedia tool for success.

With her roots in journalism, Alexis has spent her career telling stories to inform and engage public and leadership audiences across several advocacy sectors, including documenting p.h. balanced films’ inaugural Reel Women Real Change workshop in Nepal in 2017.

Jaime Werner recently served as the strategic and operational leader overseeing the Congressional Management Foundation's (CMF’s) Partnership for a More Perfect Union (PMPU), to inspire and support meaningful engagement between citizens and Congress. 

Jaime led CMF’s membership management since 2015, liaising regularly with PMPU partner organizations to ensure that their citizen advocates have ready access to the most up-to-date guidance and best practices. She managed CMF’s advanced advocacy training program since its inception, using proven techniques to significantly enhance effective advocacy by constituents. She is a contributor to the Communicating with Congress series, the Democracy Awards program, the RepDemocracy coalition, and is a founding member of the Diversity in Government Relations Coalition. 

Jaime joined CMF with more than 10 years of campaign and member management experience. Previously, she served as the Director of Strategic Partner Relations at the American Retirement Association, where she focused on outreach to financial institutions working in the 403(b)/457 retirement market. In addition, she has experience working in PAC fundraising for advocacy organizations and Members of Congress. She also has expertise in field organizing and event management for ballot initiatives, issue campaigns, and Congressional races.

Originally from Ukiah, CA, Jaime made her way to Washington, DC by way of Union College in Schenectady, NY, where she earned her BA in Political Science and Philosophy with a focus on Political Ethics. She is a proud resident of Capitol Hill where she enjoys the historic neighborhood and morning strolls on the Mall with her ever-rotating Canine Companions puppy in training.