ABOUT PAY OUR INTERNS:
Pay Our Interns was founded in 2016, by Guillermo Creamer Jr. and Carlos Mark Vera.
As unpaid interns themselves, Carlos and Guillermo worked across five different offices, including the House of Representatives, the White House, the office of the D.C. Mayor, and the European Parliament.
In September 2016, they compared experiences, and realized their previous challenges had been similar. Weeks after the 2016 presidential election, Guillermo and Carlos focused on creating Pay Our Interns (POI). By June 2017, POI released the first-of-its-kind Congressional Report: Experience Doesn’t Pay the Bills, which listed which members of Congress paid their interns, and those who did not.
The report was shared by various news outlets, who highlighted the limited number of members who offered paid internships.
Since then, Pay Our Interns has:
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- Worked with various offices, doubling the number of Senate Democrats who offer paid internships and increasing the number of Senate Republicans as well.
- Worked with candidates in the DNC chair race to ensure their support in offering a paid internship program if elected.
- In June 2018, Pay Our Interns successfully worked with the DNC, DCCC, and several Senate offices to help create their paid internship programs. Along with a group of bipartisan legislators, the team also worked to help create the first ever internship fund allocation for the Senate at a $5 million fund.
- A few weeks after a successful partnership with the Senate, the team worked with a group of bipartisan legislators on the House side and successfully secured $8.8 Million in intern funding.
- On October 3rd, 2018, the President of the United States signed a minibus budget that included $13.8 million in funding for an internship program in Congress
Meet Our Team
Carlos Mark Vera
Co-Founder, Executive Director
Carlos Mark Vera is the Co-Founder and current Executive Director of Pay Our Interns. Originally from Colombia, Carlos was raised in California, but moved to Washington, D.C. to attend American University. While at AU, Carlos was an unpaid intern at the White House, the European Parliament, and the House of Representatives. He knows firsthand the struggles of trying to survive while interning for free. Under his leadership, Pay Our Interns successfully convinced Congress to pass more than $31 million in funding for interns and has helped nonprofits, companies, and presidential campaigns create their internship programs.
Carlos’ efforts on Capitol Hill led him to be named a Forbes 30 Under 30 Honoree, Echoing Green Fellow, Camelback Ventures Fellow, a Top 20 Changemaker by NBC Latino, and an Aspen Ideas Fellow. He has been featured in The Washington Post, NPR’s All Things Considered, The New York Times, CNN and The Atlantic. He has also written for The Washington Post, Teen Vogue, USA Today, and NBC Latino. Carlos proudly served in the Army Reserves as a mechanic for 8 years.
HABIBA MOHAMED
Federal Affairs Manager
Habiba Mohamed is an advocate – always fighting to center those who have yet to see themselves in the halls of power. She’s the daughter of Somali refugees and a proud first-generation college student. She’s a 2016 graduate of D’Youville College in Buffalo, NY. Habiba knows the barriers unpaid labor reinforce and is working to expand access to paid and well-rounded internship experiences for people in our communities. Building on her experience with Journey’s End Refugee Services, the Office of Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, and most recently the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Habiba is excited to remind policymakers that we should all be afforded the opportunity to not only survive—but to thrive.
MICHELLE LIANG
Partnerships Fellow
Michelle is a partnerships fellow at Pay Our Interns. She grew up in California with her mother and siblings, and her work is guided by aspirations to make the future a kinder place for immigrants, families, and low-income and first-generation students. Through her internship experiences, including a position at the U.S. Development Finance Corporation (previously OPIC), Michelle understands how unpaid internships uphold inequities and disproportionately raise the barrier to entry for students who come from underrepresented communities. She recently worked on the investment selection team at New Profit and has spent several years across the nonprofit space. Michelle recently graduated from Yale University with a degree in economics and is excited to support Pay Our Interns’ community building efforts.
William A. Powers
Of Counsel
Kayla Cain
Scheduler