This post was updated at 3:50 p.m.

Joseph Kitchen, the president of the Young Democrats of Maryland and a champion for youth in underserved communities, was found dead in D.C. on Sunday.

The Prince George’s County resident, 34, was last seen Aug. 8 in Annapolis. Over the weekend, the Prince George’s County Police Department asked the public for help in their search for Kitchen. Now, the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department is conducting an investigation into Kitchen’s death.

“In my experience, he’s been YDM. He’s been the voice of YDM,” says Bobby Audley, communications director for the Young Democrats of Maryland. “Even in my role as communications director, it really has been leaning on Joseph to say, ‘What are our priorities? What are we focusing on?'”

Kitchen has been at the helm of the organization since 2012, and served with the Young Democrats of Prince George’s County in years prior, Audley says. He and Audley recently developed a new podcast, We Vote Too, that delves into politics and civic engagement among young people.

“He was a really fierce advocate for young people and people that typically don’t have a seat at the table,” Audley says. “As of late, he was very passionate about getting more young people to the Democratic National Convention.” The convention runs Monday through Thursday of this week.

Keenen Geter, vice president of the Young Democrats of Maryland, says one of Kitchen’s top priorities was ensuring that the Maryland Democratic Party “lived up to its obligations” of having young Democrats in leadership roles.

“He was never scared to push back and require that young people have a seat at the table when it involved decisions of our state party,” Geter wrote in an email to DCist.

Kitchen also was an educator and volunteer services director for the Washington School for Girls, a Catholic day school in Southeast where Kitchen began working in 2011. The school had posted messages on social media about Kitchen as the police department conducted its search. In the coming school year, Kitchen was slated to teach social studies and social justice.

“Our school community is devastated by the loss of Joseph Kitchen,” school president Beth Reaves wrote in a statement. “In each of his roles and in everything he did at WSG, Joseph’s commitment to uplifting and supporting our students [was] evident. … We know that his legacy lives on at WSG through the many ways he contributed to our school and all of the many students whose lives he positively impacted.”

Lawrence Ramirez, Kitchen’s brother, told The Washington Post that Kitchen told the school on Tuesday that he felt ill.

“Joseph was a big advocate for youth of color and that were in environments they could not control,” Ramirez said. “He worked his life fighting for a change when it came to youth in underserved areas. We want people to remember him for that.”

Kitchen, an ordained minister and California native, publicly shared that he is gay several years ago. He told The Washington Blade in 2013 that he grew up in a “very religious African-American family” and long knew he was gay.

“I’ve always felt like that was my personal life and I would leave it at that and I would continue to be an African-American young man who is a minister in the Baptist Church — in the Southern Baptist Church,” he told the publication. “Being in the Democratic Party and meeting so many people — I view them as being very inspirational to me by telling their stories and affirming their truth and being very proud of who they are. That has given me the courage to do this as well.”

Ben Jealous, president of progressive advocacy group People for the American Way and former head of the NAACP, tweeted late Sunday night that he was “stunned” by the news of Kitchen’s passing. From 2012 to 2016, Kitchen also served in roles with the Prince George’s County chapter of the NAACP.

“He was such a good public servant and so young. Keeping all his friends and family in prayer,” Jealous said in a tweet.

Maryland Del. Jazz Lewis (D-Prince George’s County) tweeted that Kitchen took him “under his wing” about 10 years ago when Lewis was just getting his political career going.

“He was the type of friend who would tell you about yourself, in both a good and bad way, love on you, and then send you on your merry way,” Lewis wrote. “In everything Joseph did, he advocated for young people. He never had to be in the front but was always toiling in the background, thinking about what more we could do to give the next generation a real voice at the table.”

The organization has been in touch with Kitchen’s family and is discussing arrangements for a potential public memorial service, as well as possibly collecting donations for a cause to be specified.

Young Democrat chapters throughout the country have reached out to the Young Democrats of Maryland in the past 24 hours to praise Kitchen, Audley says. He notes that Kitchen has recently been active on social media regarding social justice.

“Maybe they only met him once or twice at a meeting, but they remember him being vocal and passionate, and not unafraid to share what his truth was,” Audley says.

This post has been updated with additional biographical information about Kitchen, as well as comments from the Washington School for Girls.