Known primarily as a physical and digital zine writer in the beginning of publishing in their social sciences career, a selection of j. nyla’s collaboratively or self-published works are available among the world’s largest BlPOC-focussed open submission zine distributor. Brown Recluse continues to table select zines across the country, giving 100% of its proceeds back to Black writers and creators.

The BIZ Stoop serves BIPOC cultural workers and community serving youth who are creating youth-centered services. It supports arts, intergenerational programming, urban planning, empowerment work, and more. j. nyla got involved with The BIZ Stoop enterprise as a 2022 California Youth Rising Seed Grant winner to fund a garden space for a generous community member. They ended their yearlong term as a Grantee Liaison in 2025, and continue to engage with the network.

j. nyla has trained to facilitate Conscious Classrooms and Building Bridges Racial Justice Camp with Confluence Rising, who believes that everyone has a role to play in transforming our schools, workplaces and communities to be more just and equitable. They became a lead training facilitator for Racial Justice Camp in Summer 2024, and a Youth Leadership Institute lead staff in 2026.

In 2022, j. nyla became an At-Large member of the inaugural Long Beach Youth Advisory Council. Following this, they completed both a post-graduate to post-doctoral internship with the City’s Office of Youth Development, where they helped administer the Council and managed the distribution of youth-centered Measure US funds. They continue to support the Office as a consultant with the Youth Power Participatory Budgeting (YPPB) team, playing a key role in bringing YPPB to City Hall in 2025. j. nyla served as a City Council-appointed Commissioner on the Equity and Human Relations Commission (2024–2025).

j. is a researcher and designer in parent advocacy work. j. nyla has joined the first cohorts (2024-2026) of community-based consultants who interface with systems leaders and decision makers across LA County; help shape policies and practices that impact families; and give/receive in-depth learning and development through community-oriented, healing-centered lens to help strengthen the ability to serve as effective advocates for children and families. The work continues to be shaped through holding healing spaces for parents toward becoming lived experts. j. serves as a lived expert on the Community Pathways Subcommittee, anchored by the Child & Family Policy Institute of California.

j. nyla serves on the Board of Directors for Long Beach Forward, a community-led organization advancing racial, economic, and environmental justice in the City of Long Beach. In this role, they look to support strategy, community, and aligned initiatives in LGBTQ2SPIA+ health. In addition, they’re drawn to Long Beach Forward as an organization because we are—most importantly—creative, lively, and fun while moving toward meaningful change in our local efforts.

Ecocene School offers an online platform and programs for connecting to self, community, and planet. Beyond earning their DIY PhD in community (2019-2025), j. nyla mcneill’s services played a pivotal role in the transition toward co-op worker-ownership. They joined the Stewardship Council of dedicated, owner-members of self-directed, community-held, outdoor and online education as a Steward and worker-owner from 2023-2026.

j. nyla holds an accountability partnership in conversation with facilitators of a seasonally offered “… month-long series designed for white and white-passing people committed to dismantling the systems of oppression in ourselves and in the world around us, as well as in our communities of practice and in the bodies of work we carry.”

Made up of academics and members of the community, the Trans Counseling Advocacy Research and Education (CARE) Collaborative conducts research to affirm transgender, gender non-conforming, nonbinary, and Two-Spirit folks, in which they have been supporting and assisting since 2017. From research training and design, zines, apparel, to the design of a logo, j. nyla offers an array of skills to the laboratory-turned collaborative effort.

Watershed is an outdoor education K-12 focussed on returning to interconnection via four literacies: academic literacy, ecological literacy, communal literacy, and inner literacy. j. nyla is one of the advisors of this school who helped to shape its vision and core goals alongside four fellow community and education-focussed colleagues of founder Brendan Sloan Clarke, M.A.T.