Staff
Max Kronstadt
Lead Neighborhood Organizer
Max grew up in Silver Spring, MD and moved to Colorado Springs in 2016 to attend Colorado College. He was first exposed to organizing as an intern with the Farm Labor Organizing Committee in 2015 and has dedicated his professional life to learning and growing as an organizer since then.
He founded the Pro-Housing Partnership with two friends in 2019, while still at Colorado College. He worked as a community organizer for the Colorado Trust for eighteen months after graduating, where he had the opportunity to participate in organizing training through the Midwest Academy and Berkeley Labor Center, as well as work under an experienced organizer. During this time, he developed the current vision for the PHP, and has been working full-time to turn that vision into reality since the Fall of 2022. In his spare time, he likes to run, bike, play tennis, hockey, cook, and chess.
Contact: max@cosphp.org
William Smith
Lead Tenant Organizer
Will moved to Colorado in 2010 and has lived here ever since. He graduated from UCCS with a B.A. in sociology in 2023, specializing in labor studies and social movements. As a long-term resident, Will has been concerned about rising housing costs and stagnating wages in Colorado Springs since his teenage years.
Will became an active labor organizer and political activist in 2020, being trained in an Organizing for Power approach. He has sat on the organizing and steering committees for his union, UCW, and has participated in several local political and labor campaigns in Colorado Springs.
In 2025, Will came on as Lead Tenant Organizer for COSPHP and now spends his time helping create the tenant movement Colorado Springs needs to address its housing crisis.
Contact: will@cosphp.org
Board
Elam Boockvar-Klein, Board Treasurer
Elam Boockvar-Klein is currently pursuing a Master’s in City Planning from the University of Pennsylvania, where he examines the transformative possibilities associated with creative, equitable development in historically under-resourced neighborhoods. During the summer of 2024, he interned for SHIFT Capital, an impact-oriented, place-based developer in Kensington. Before returning to school, he worked for Habitat for Humanity Philadelphia, expanding the impact of the organization’s affordable homeownership efforts through strategic partnerships with diverse businesses and mission-aligned institutions.
Elam holds a BA in Sociology from Colorado College. There, he helped co-found the Colorado Springs Pro-Housing Partnership, an organization working to build power amongst the city’s most marginalized residents to ensure housing stability and dignity for all. At every stage of his career, he has been grounded by a belief in the power of the intersection of community organizing, urban planning, and real estate development to work towards reparations for marginalized neighborhoods.
Liam Reynolds, Board Chair
Liam co-founded the PHP in 2019 with Max Kronstadt and Elam Bookvar Klein when the three were students at Colorado College. He has since moved away from Colorado Springs to work as an organizer for the United Steelworkers, but has remained active as a board member helping to develop the strategic direction of the organization and build out its staff.
Elina Rodriguez
Elina Rodriguez (she/her) is a proud tenant. As a researcher, strategist, mobilizer, and advocate with a focus on housing and popular movements, Elina works alongside communities building power for themselves to live in safety, security, and dignity. She is currently pursuing a Master in City Planning at MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning after her experiences in social services and housing advocacy, particularly in her work with tenants combating eviction, inhabitable living conditions, and economic predation. She is honored to support the incredible on-the-ground work being done to build tenant power on the Front Range as a member on COS PHP’s board and on the board of Denver Metro Tenants’ Union.
Catherine Duarte, Board Secretary
Catherine Duarte, AICP is an urban planner and founder of Conexiones Policy and Planning, a community development practice based in Colorado Springs. She is a justice-driven planner with over 15 years of experience in the public and private sectors. With particular expertise in grant management and community engagement, she has also been recognized for creating inclusive and award-winning strategic plans and neighborhood plans in Wisconsin and Colorado, as well as for her work using community-based research. She volunteers for the CSPHP because she believes that housing is a human right.
Jacqueline “Jax” Armendariz Unzueta
Jacqueline “Jax” Armendariz Unzueta is a passionate Chicana community activist, advocate & organizer living in Colorado Springs since 2016. She is the host of the podcast Justice with Jax, which tells the story of the 2023 U.S. Civil Rights case Armendariz & Chinook Center v. City of Colorado Springs, et al. She is also a local candidate running for office in the November 2026 election.
Born & raised in El Paso, Texas, she earned her BA from New Mexico State University in Journalism and Mass Communications. Her additional career experience includes reporting and content creation for corporate & public media, nonprofit sector work and political campaign roles. Her public service includes experience at the municipal level and three years as a Colorado U.S. Senate staffer. Jax is proud to serve the COS PHP mission because she knows firsthand that stable housing truly means health and safety, which are human rights.
Colorado Springs Pro-Housing Partnership 