Speakers

Jay Banfield, All Home

Jay Banfield is a social entrepreneur with experience in the private, public, nonprofit, and educational sectors. The Chief Economic Mobility Officer role was created in recognition of the fact that homelessness is not solely a housing issue – it is also one of poverty. In this role, Jay leads the development of regional policies and initiatives designed to provide economic stability, drive economic mobility and ultimately create wealth for those with extremely low incomes and those with multiple barriers to employment in the Bay Area. Prior to joining All Home, Jay spent 12 years at Year Up, leading its expansion to the San Francisco Bay Area and ultimately serving as its Chief Officer of Innovation & Scale and Managing Director, California.

Judith Bell, San Francisco Foundation

As San Francisco Foundation’s Chief Impact Officer, Judith brings extensive experience in policy and systems change, working in partnership with movement and power-building efforts, to achieve greater racial equity and economic inclusion. She leads the Foundation’s community impact efforts across the Bay Area focusing on the people, places, and power that can advance the Foundation’s equity agenda. Prior to joining San Francisco Foundation, Judith was the President of PolicyLink, where she had been since its inception, becoming President in 2004. Her leadership helped ignite a new national narrative and action around racial equity, inclusion, and opportunity for communities of color with a focus on creating more equitable economies in communities, cities, regions, states, and across the nation. She was instrumental in advancing several efforts with the Obama administration including Promise Neighborhoods, to improve the lives of children from cradle to career, and the national Healthy Food Financing Initiative which unlocked billions of dollars to improve access to healthy food in communities across the country.

Nikki Brown-Booker, Hand in Hand

Nikki Brown-Booker is a member leader of Hand in Hand the Domestic Employers Network and believes that all workers deserve a dignified workplace including workers that work in the home. As a person with a disability she has been employing personal care attendants since age 18 years, when she moved away from home to attend UC Davis. She has a Masters in clinical psychology and is a licensed marriage and family therapist. She is currently a Program Officer at the Disability Inclusion Fund at Borealis Philanthropy. She is strongly connected to disability justice, labor and immigrant rights movements. Her mother is a Filipino immigrant and former domestic worker and her father was an active member of the SEIU union.

Amy Chung, The California Endowment

Amy Chung manages The California Endowment’s $250MM commitment to Impact Investing. TCE’s Impact Investing program provides strategic capital that lifts up vulnerable and disinvested communities in California and supports a world where capital is aligned with mission and values. The Impact Investing toolkit includes Program-Related Investments and Mission-Related Investments. Prior to joining The California Endowment, Amy held positions in impact investing across the private and nonprofit sector. She was previously the Associate Director of Capital Innovation at Living Cities and a Vice-President in Citi’s Community Capital division. Amy holds a B.A. from Northwestern University and an M.B.A. from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management. Amy also holds an M.P.A. from the Harvard Kennedy School.

Tina Eshaghpour, The California Wellness Foundation

Tina Eshaghpour is the director of learning and innovation at The California Wellness Foundation. In this role, Eshaghpour is responsible for fostering a culture of continual learning, improvement and innovation. She works with fellow staff members to enhance grantmaking practices and strengthen Cal Wellness’ impact in communities across California. Prior to joining Cal Wellness in April 2016, Eshaghpour directed her own philanthropic and nonprofit consulting practice for nearly six years, specializing in helping foundations bridge the gap between philanthropy and underserved populations. From 2002 to 2010, Eshaghpour led the Women’s Foundation of California’s environmental health and justice program and spearheaded its grantmaking and capacity-building work. She also pioneered efforts to increase awareness and funding to support the health of low-income families and agricultural workers in California’s Central Valley.  Currently, Eshaghpour is board chair of the Center for Environmental Health, a board member of the Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment and founder of Green Argonne. She has lived in California since emigrating to the U.S. from Iran in 1979 and is based in Cal Wellness’ Oakland office.

Vanessa Carter Fahnestock, USC Equity Research Institute

Vanessa Carter Fahnestock is a Project Manager at the USC Equity Research Institute, since 2008. She focuses on economic inclusion, climate justice, racial justice with particular interests in California, financial equity, and faith-based organizations. She has co-authored several reports, journal articles, and a book chapter with Equity Research Institute staff and affiliated faculty, including: “Rent Matters: What are the Impacts of Rent Stabilization Measures?” (2018) and “Measures Matter: Ensuring Equitable Implementation of Los Angeles County Measures M & A” (2018) as well as working closely with Manuel Pastor and Benner on Solidarity Economics: Why Mutuality and Movements Matter (2022) and with Pastor, State of Resistance: What California’s Dizzying Descent and Remarkable Resurgence Mean for America’s Future (2018). She is currently co-managing an equity analysis of the California Climate Investments. She sits on the board of the California Reinvestment Coalition. She holds a Master’s in Urban Planning from UCLA and a certificate in Christian Studies from Fuller Theological Seminary. She enjoys hiking with her spouse and is the servant of two rabbits, Hops and Barley.

Christina Garcia, Christina Garcia Consulting

Guided by her passion for social justice, equity, and inclusion, Christina Garcia has dedicated her career to operationalizing the connection between mission, values, and practice to increase social impact. Drawing on her experience in inclusive facilitation, strategy and program development, and evaluation, Christina partners with her clients to develop and integrate actionable practices that improve strategy and culture with a learning mindset. Christina is a 2018 Coro Women in Leadership alumni, 2015 Presidio Institute Cross Sector Leadership Fellow, serves on the Board of Directors of Mercy Housing California and Spring Impact, and is a member of Nonprofit Quarterly’s inaugural Race + Power Advisory Committee.

Alfredo Gonzalez, Resources Legacy Fund

Alfredo Gonzalez is a Director at Resources Legacy Fund where he leads programs that broaden the constituency for environmental conservation. In addition to development, program management, and grantmaking, he also provides government relations support to myriad organizations, grounded in his more than two decades of experience in natural resources and public infrastructure policy and funding. Prior to his current position, Alfredo served as a Regional Director for The Nature Conservancy, where he managed various programs including large scale land protection and habitat restoration projects. Alfredo has also served in senior government affairs positions for the Southern California Association of Governments and the County of Santa Clara.

Paulina Gonzalez-Brito, Rise Economy (Formerly California Reinvestment Coalition)

Paulina Gonzalez-Brito (They/Them/Elle) is the CEO of Rise Economy (formerly the California Reinvestment Coalition). Paulina identifies as Xicane, Purepecha, Mestize. Paulina has dedicated more than 20 years of their life to leading economic justice organizing campaigns to expand worker rights, immigrant rights, and the rights of low-income and underrepresented communities of color. Under their leadership, CRC has expanded its work to directly challenge systemic and structural racism within the U.S. financial system and to focus CRC’s work on building collective political and organizing power amongst and with frontline communities to close the racial wealth gap. Paulina currently serves on the Board of Directors for the National Association for Latino Community Asset Builders and has previously served on the Community Advisory Council of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, the San Francisco Municipal Bank Feasibility Task Force, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Consumer Advisory Board.  Learn more.

Amana Harris, Attitudinal Healing Connection/Center for ArtEsteem

Amana Harris is a leader in the field of community arts and a well respected advocate for arts in k-12 education. She serves as the Executive Director of The Center for ArtEsteem, a division of Attitudinal Healing Connection, Inc. (AHC Oakland). Under her leadership the organization has received numerous awards for excellence in the arts through education, community engagement and public art. She has dedicated 28 years of her professional life to help build and sustain the organization and now leads the charge for Building the Center for ArtEsteem, a capital project that will renovate and develop land and property in West Oakland. Her book, Self as Super Hero: Handbook on the Creation of the Life-Size Self-Portrait is a testament to her years of experience in arts education and her belief in the power of art to heal, empower and inspire children, youth, adults and communities. Amana is a professor at The California College of the Arts since 2008 and a trained Attitudinal Healing facilitator with over 20 years of leading healing circles as method for self reflection, inner healing and personal development. As an artist she acts as a conduit to make the arts accessible to the voiceless, the marginalized and the forgotten.

Malcolm Harris, Caring Across Generations

Malcolm Harris, Associate Director of State Campaigns, manages our California-based organizing. Born and raised in Oakland, Malcolm has been a community & labor organizer moving campaigns around the country. Most recently, at the Los Angeles Black Worker Center, Malcolm led a team of organizers moving a statewide coalition and campaign called “Black Workers United” to create stronger workplace protections for all California workers. This coalition won victory in 2019 with the creation of a Civil and Human Rights Office in the City of Los Angeles to address workplace discrimination, particularly for Black workers. Malcolm, a funk music junkie, currently lives in South Central LA, and believes that when Black families win justice, the world wins!

Rob Hope, ReWork the Bay

Rob Hope is Director of ReWork the Bay at the San Francisco Foundation. Previously, Rob served as Chief Program Officer at Rubicon Programs in Richmond, CA, and managed re-entry and workforce development programs serving formerly incarcerated people at Goodwill/Easter Seals Minnesota. Additional experience includes program evaluation at the Vera Institute of Justice in New York, NY and community-building around prisoner re-entry issues at Urban Strategies Council in Oakland, CA. Rob has a BA in Sociology from Vassar College and a Master’s of Public Policy from UC Berkeley. He loves to cook and build things, and lives with his wife and two children in Oakland, California.

Alexandra Horton, Genentech Foundation

Alex Horton has spent nearly 15 years in the philanthropic ecosystem, working both as a fundraiser for nonprofits and now as a funder with Genentech. Currently, Alex leads key components of Genentech’s Diversity in STEM giving portfolio, aimed at creating a more diverse and inclusive STEM workforce through investments in educational interventions to both support students from historically excluded backgrounds to succeed in the current system as well as to change the system itself. Specifically, Alex is responsible for Genentech’s K-12 Diversity in STEM giving portfolio as well as leading the strategy for the Genentech Foundation, which focuses on Diversity in STEM at the undergraduate level.

Outside of work, Alex is also the Chair of the city of Brisbane’s Inclusion, Equity, Diversity, and Accountability (IDEA) committee. She has a BA in Ethics, History, & Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon University and an MS in Philosophy & Public Policy from the London School of Economics.

Brandi Howard, East Bay Community Foundation

Brandi Howard is the president and CEO of East Bay Community Foundation (EBCF), one of the oldest community foundations in the country. Before EBCF, Howard led strategic planning and the development of the equity learning infrastructure as chief of staff and interim vice president of programs at San Francisco Foundation. Prior to that, Howard worked for the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene where she oversaw two city-wide initiatives to reduce infant mortality and chronic disease and led the development of a division-wide framework to streamline implementation, staffing, and quality improvement processes for Neighborhood Health Action Centers.

Howard started her career transition journey at Merritt College after ten years in the workforce as a mother of three children. She transferred to the University of California, Berkeley where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in African American Studies and a Master of Social Work.  Learn more about Brandi Howard.

Melissa Jones, Bay Area Regional Health Inequities Initiative (BARHII)

Melissa Jones is the Executive Director of the Bay Area Regional Health Inequities Initiative. For the last eight years, Melissa has led BARHII’s transformation from a regional coalition of governmental public health departments to include broad based community partnerships. Together, the BARHII staff team, the public health departments and community partners have advanced groundbreaking legislation to improve community conditions for health–including serving as the public health voice for paid sick leave, COVID-19 eviction moratoriums, and now a Black housing campaign. Today, she is leading the launch of a National Racial Health Justice Center, committed to making COVID-19 the turning point that accelerates health equity and racial justice.

A lifelong learner who finds inspiration across the Globe, Melissa is honored to have been selected to serve as an Atlantic Fellow for Racial Equity, a Fulcrum Fellow with the Center for Community Investment, and a doctoral candidate with the United Nation’s Executive Doctorate Program in Governance at the University of Masschirat in the Netherlands. Read more

Kshama Kanakoor, Community Vision

Kshama joins Community Vision as a Financial Consultant. In her role, she supports Community Vision’s clients with financial management, organizational capacity building, and strategy. Born and raised in India, she started her career as an Accountant and has worked for two of the Big 4 Accounting firms. Kshama’s passion for social causes led her to pursue a Master’s in Social Entrepreneurship & Change from Pepperdine University. In 2016, she founded an enterprise with a dual mission to provide employment to low-income women in India and to teach children human values through the use of dolls and story books. Kshama strongly believes that a person’s access to quality education, healthcare, and employment opportunities should not be determined by their zip code, and is passionate about addressing these inequities through her work.

Claire Lau, Chinese Progressive Association

Claire brings 12 years of experience in education, community organizing and campaign work. Claire joined CPA staff in 2021, and co-led the development of the Bay Area Essential Workers Agenda with a coalition of worker centers. She leads and develops partnerships with community organizations, labor unions, researchers, and government actors to advocate for working-class communities in the city budget and legislative process, including workers rights outreach and equitable workforce developments. She represents CPA on the Equity at Work council of ReWork the Bay.

Kimi Lee, Bay Rising

Kimi Lee brings three decades of experience organizing and working with social justice organizations to her role as the Executive Director of Bay Rising. Kimi has organized students with the University of California Student Association and served as field director for the ACLU of Southern California, executive director of the Garment Worker Center, lead organizer of the United Workers Congress, among many other leadership roles. Her first-generation family immigrated to the U.S. from Burma in 1971.

Lolly Lim, Greenlining Institute

Lolly Lim (she/they) is the Program Manager of Climate Investment Research at Greenlining, where she researches the impact of legislative initiatives that promote equitable climate investments. Lolly’s previous work has been rooted in understanding the impacts of climate change on under-resourced communities, and helping to identify solutions in the realm of project-level interventions, planning, and policy change. She has worked at the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation where she managed research on the impacts of extreme heat on vulnerable populations and identified regulatory gaps to address extreme heat in California. She has supported the development of climate change adaptation plans at the local and regional scales in Los Angeles. She also has experience evaluating energy efficiency and renewable energy programs across North America. Lolly is based in Tongva / Gabrielino / Kizh land (Los Angeles). Outside of work at Greenlining, she enjoys learning and writing about Korean environmental history, mythology, and folktales; providing translation and interpretation support to Korean communities in Los Angeles; and spending time outside. Lolly holds a master’s degree in Urban and Regional Planning from UCLA and an Sc.B. in Geology-Biology from Brown University.

Shaw San Liu, Chinese Progressive Association

Shaw San Liu is the Executive Director at the Chinese Progressive Association. In her 14 years at CPA, Shaw San led the development of grassroots organizing and leadership development programs with the Tenant Worker Center, which includes services for low-wage Chinese immigrant workers and tenants living in San Francisco’s Chinatown. She also spearheaded campaign and alliance building to advance policy on labor and economic issues in the Bay Area. She co-founded the Progressive Worker Alliance, an alliance of low-wage worker centers in San Francisco and has extensive experience with labor and community organizing.

Enrique Lopezlira, UC Berkeley Labor Center

Enrique Lopezlira is the director of the Low-Wage Work program at the UC Berkeley Labor Center. He is a labor economist, directing and conducting research on how policies affect working families, with a particular focus on how these policies impact racial and gender equity. Dr. Lopezlira previously served as senior policy advisor for economic and employment policy at UnidosUS (formerly the National Council of La Raza), one of the largest Latinx civil rights organizations in the nation. He also served as deputy director for policy and research at Western Progress, a think tank advancing progressive policies and change in the eight states of the Rocky Mountain West.

Nallely Martinez, Latino Community Foundation

In her role as the Grants and Philanthropy Manager, Nallely supports the management and operations of LCF’s growing grantmaking and philanthropic initiatives. Before joining LCF, Nallely served as the Grants Program Manager for Arts Council Santa Cruz County. The most critical components of her role were building relationships within communities that have been historically underinvested in and uncovering opportunities to shift organizational culture and policies towards equity and justice. Prior to her work in the arts, she served as both the Operations Manager and Grants Officer with the Community Foundation Santa Cruz County. Nallely earned her B.A. in Phycology and Studio Art from the University of Santa Cruz, California. In her free time, Nallely practices Olympic weightlifting, engages with her creative interests, and enjoys agenda free Saturdays at home with her husband and two cats.

David Mancera, Kitchen Table Advisors

David Mancera, KTA’s Director of Ecosystem Building, is a native Spanish speaker who grew up in a farmworker family in the Salinas Valley in Monterey County, California. He studied Agriculture Business at Cal Poly and holds an MA in Agriculture and Resource Economics from UC Davis. He has worked in sales, marketing, and business development with companies such as Driscoll’s and FoodSource, Inc; was a financial analyst and business consultant; and has taught Agriculture Business & Technology at Hartnell College. David oversees KTA’s systems-change work and serves on the California State Board of Food & Agriculture where he elevates the voices and needs of KTA’s constituents.

Jan Masaoka, California Association of Nonprofits (CalNonprofits)

Jan Masaoka is CEO of the California Association of Nonprofits (CalNonprofits), a statewide policy alliance of more than 10,000 nonprofits speaking to government, philanthropy, and the public at large. Jan is a leading writer and thinker on nonprofit organizations with particular emphasis on boards of directors, business planning, and the role of nonprofits in society. Her books include Best of the Board Café (Fieldstone), Nonprofit Sustainability: Making Strategic Decisions for Financial Viability, co-author (Jossey Bass) and The Nonprofit’s Guide to HR (Nolo Press). Jan founded and wrote Blue Avocado magazine, growing it to 64,000 subscribers, before leaving in late 2015.

Prior to CalNonprofits, she served 14 years as executive director of CompassPoint Nonprofit Services in which position she was named Nonprofit Executive of the Year by Nonprofit Times. She is an eight-time designee as one of the “Fifty Most Influential” people in the nonprofit sector nationwide and was named California Community Leader of the Year by Leadership California. Her volunteer work includes having served as chair of Asian Pacific Islander Wellness Center and founding chair of Community Initiatives; she currently serves on the National Public Policy Committee of Independent Sector.

Maria Nakae, Justice Funders

Maria is the Senior Director of Just Transition Investing at Justice Funders, where she works with foundations to align their investment practices with the values and principles of Just Transition. She leads the Just Transition Investment Community, a new peer learning and action community for staff and trustees of philanthropic institutions who are committed to divesting from the extractive economy and redirecting investment capital to BIPOC-led, movement-aligned Just Transition projects and loan funds that build local, regenerative solidarity economies. She brings 20 years of experience in expansive roles as movement builder, organizer, trainer, fundraiser, communicator, capacity builder, community educator, researcher and direct service provider.

Maria serves on the Investment Committee of Just Futures, a new platform that harnesses the power of nonprofit retirement savings for transformative social change. She is a 2006 New Voices Fellow and holds a Master’s degree in Public Health from the University of California, Berkeley with an emphasis in maternal and child health. She loves reading food blogs, but can’t find time to cook most of the recipes she wants to try. Instead, you’ll find her at the nearest playground, farmers market or whatever natural bodies of water she can get to, frolicking about with her three spunky girls.

Tash Nguyen, Restore Oakland

Tash (she/they) serves as Interim Executive Director of Restore Oakland and is a queer, gender-nonconforming, community organizer and circlekeeper working to build racial and economic justice. For over 10 years, they’ve been organizing to reduce jail populations, stop jail expansions, and redirect resources out of carceral budgets and into life-affirming community solutions.

Tash is trained in restorative justice, mediation, and various conflict resolution techniques. They believe that we must build a culture, the skills, and practice that move beyond punishment if we are to meaningfully break cycles of violence and create a world rooted in shared prosperity.

Tash was born and raised in the Bay as a child of Vietnamese refugees. Their dedication to resisting systems of domination is fueled by the deep ties she has in her community and her broader vision of liberation. They love noodles, their dog Yoda, backpacking, and nerding out over music and poetry.

Keisha Nzewi, Black Californians United for Early Childcare & Education

Keisha Nzewi started with the Network in May 2016. She has many years of experience as a community organizer and policy advocate in the Bay Area. For 6 years, Keisha was the Advocacy Manager at the Alameda County Community Food Bank in Oakland. Prior to that she was the Advocacy Director at the American Heart Association, and a Health Educator at Berkeley Youth Alternatives. Keisha’s background in food policy advocacy and health add much value to The Network’s advocacy and membership work. Her past work offered her many opportunities to work with federal, state, and local level elected officials. She has one 8 year old daughter, marched in the Cal Band, and runs half marathons as long as there is a big sparkly medal at the finish line.

Rudy Ortega Jr., Fernandeño Tataviam Band of Mission Indians

Rudy Ortega, Jr. is the Tribal President of the Fernandeño Tataviam Band of Mission Indians, a native sovereign nation of northern Los Angeles County. As the elected leader of his Tribe, Ortega Jr. oversees the governmental body and manages affairs pertaining to the rights of all Fernandeño Tataviam tarahat (people). Ortega Jr. is a member of Siutcabit, the lineage of present-day Encino, CA. His ancestors come from the villages that originated in the geographical areas of Santa Clarita Valley, Simi Valley, and San Fernando Valley. His great-grandfather Antonio Maria Ortega, from whom he receives his traditional role as tomiar or leader, fought in Los Angeles Superior Court in the 19th century to preserve traditional lands and protect Native title to Mexican land grants from encroaching settlers. His father, the late Rudy Ortega Sr., served as the previous leader of the Tribe for over fifty years and was elected to the Los Angeles City/County Native American Indian Commission in 1977. Following his father’s leadership, Ortega Jr. was appointed to the Native American Indian Commission by Mayor James Hahn in 2004, where he serves today as Vice Chairperson.

From 2004 – 2018, Ortega Jr. invigorated the Tribe’s non-profit Pukúu Cultural Community Services as the Executive Director. Through this role, he served the greater Los Angeles County American Indian community and oversaw Haramokngna American Indian Cultural Center. Through his seat as Tribal President, Ortega Jr. helped establish the Tataviam Land Conservancy, Paséki Strategies Corporation, and a co-management agreement with the City of San Fernando for Rudy Ortega Sr. Park.

Leslie Payne, The James Irvine Foundation

Leslie leads the Better Careers Initiative at the James Irvine Foundation, a workforce development portfolio that focuses on job training and access as tools for community accountability and repair. She is passionate about shared ownership models as a way of advancing Irvine’s North Star of ensuring low-wage Californians have the power to advance economically. Prior to Irvine, Leslie held a variety of roles in mission-driven organizations in the private and independent sectors, specializing in strategy, innovation, and partnerships. She serves on the board of Innovate Work Labs and
Telescope. She has almost two decades of experience helping organizations learn, adapt, and grow to find effective ways of meeting complicated challenges. Leslie received her BA from the University of California, Berkeley and MBA from Georgetown University.

Elena Chávez Quezada, Office of Governor Gavin Newsom

Elena Chávez Quezada is Senior Advisor on Social Innovation for Governor Newsom, where she spearheads the State’s partnerships with philanthropy to advance shared priorities. Prior to her role in the Governor’s Office, Chávez Quezada was Chief Impact Officer of End Poverty in California (EPIC), and spent a decade in philanthropy, most recently as Vice President of Programs at the San Francisco Foundation. She also worked at the Walter and Elise Haas Fund and Tipping Point Community. Before her time in philanthropy, Chávez Quezada worked on policy and programs related to economic opportunity at various nonprofits, including Single Stop USA and the Aspen Institute. Chávez Quezada earned her Bachelor’s and Master of Public Policy degrees from Harvard University, and lives in San Francisco with her husband and two sons.

Melissa Riley, Ph.D., Native Community Development Associates, LLC

Melissa Riley (Mescalero Apache), Ph.D., is the owner/principal of Native Community Development Associates, LLC, of New Mexico. Ms. Riley is also a consultant to several national/state/tribal agencies and public/private organizations. Ms. Riley has managed federal projects within the Department of Justice (DOJ), Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) such as the national Counseling & Faith-Based Services for Crime Victims in Indian Country (CFBSCV-IC) Training and Technical Assistance Grant and the Children’s Justice Act (CJA) Partnership in Indian Country Training and Technical Assistance Grant. Ms. Riley has also been responsible for developing and implementing wrap-around services for tribal programs that serve community members impacted by alcohol/substance abuse, crime, and other social issues. She also serves as a direct service provider for a number of New Mexico Tribal communities, including providing counseling, social work, home evaluations, guardian ad litem services, and family conferencing facilitation.

Brianna Rogers, ReWork the Bay

Brianna Rogers, a native to Berkeley, California is a proximate leader who brings incredible energy, insights, and experience to her systems change work. She’s able to connect with and engage people from all backgrounds. She grew up in Berkeley, attended Berkeley High School, Berkeley City College, UC Berkeley, and finished her academic career at Georgetown University having earned her master’s in public policy management. Brianna joined the Rework the Bay team in 2022, where she leads projects aimed at building worker power through workforce development and improving job quality for direct service providers and low wage workers of color. Brianna is a force who uses her personal lived experience as a tool to disrupt racist and inequitable systems. Building generational wealth and increasing access to sustainable jobs in the Bay Area is a growing opportunity; the dismantling of oppressive systems and structures remain a priority for her.

Alvaro Sanchez, Greenlining Institute

Alvaro S. Sanchez (he/him/his) is an urban planner with extensive experience crafting, implementing, and evaluating strategies that leverage private, public, and philanthropic investments to deliver benefits to priority communities. Alvaro is The Greenlining Institute’s Vice President of Policy. He leads a team that develops policies that create a future where communities of color can build wealth, live in healthy places filled with economic opportunity, and are ready to meet the challenges posed by climate change. Under his leadership, The Greenlining Institute has shaped over $5.2 billion in California Climate Investments targeted at priority communities, established the Transformative Climate Communities and Regional Climate Collaboratives state programs via legislation, and launched the Towards Equitable Electric Mobility Community of Practice, a multi-state effort to advance equitable electric mobility policies. Alvaro has over a decade of experience working on economic development and land use issues throughout California and nationally. Alvaro, who believes you can never be too wonky, lives in North Oakland, grew up in Los Angeles, and was born in Mexico City.

Alison Schmitt, Jobs for the Future (JFF)

Alison Schmitt is a director in Jobs for the Future’s (JFF’s) Solutions Design and Delivery Team and leads the High Road Training Fund initiative at JFF. Alison Schmitt helps drive JFF’s place-based approach to inclusive regional economic development. Her portfolio of work includes worker-led approaches to improving job quality, inclusive cluster development, and supporting the inclusion of community-based organizations in regional workforce and economic development initiatives. She has prior experience in nonprofit finance and strategic planning and earned a Master of Public Policy from UC Berkeley’s Goldman School and a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the Wharton School.

Anand Subramanian, The San Francisco Foundation

Anand Subramanian is the Senior Director of the People Pathway at the San Francisco Foundation, leading a grantmaking portfolio focused on decriminalizing poverty and advancing quality, empowered jobs. Prior to joining the foundation, Anand led PolicyLink’s work to advance community safety and justice, including directing work to dismantle fines and fees through the Cities & Counties for Fine and Fee Justice network and serving as the co-facilitator for the Oakland Reimagining Public Safety Task Force and the executive director of the San Francisco Blue Ribbon Panel on Transparency, Accountability, and Fairness in Law Enforcement. Previously, Anand worked at the Insight Center for Community Economic Development, the Law School Consortium Project, and as an associate attorney at Sheppard, Mullin, Richter, and Hampton after earning his JD from Northwestern University School of Law. He sits on the Steering Committee of the Asset Funders Network, Bay Area chapter, and has served on the boards of the Community Resource Hub for Safety and Accountability, South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT), Oakland Asian Cultural Center, and the Japanese Community Youth Council. He sings and plays guitar in the band Fair and Kind.

Pui Ling Tam, Walter & Elise Haas Fund

Pui Ling Tam’s main areas of work responsibility include Economic Well-being grantmaking and accountability to our grantees and nonprofit ecosystem. This includes leading the Endeavor Fund, Policy grants, and supporting our youth grantmaking team, the BAY Fellows, and their leadership of Possibility grants. Reach out to Pui Ling if you seek assistance on: the topic of nonprofit well-being (sometimes known as talent justice, wage equity, or quality, empowering jobs); or, the practice of youth- and community-led grantmaking. Pui Ling is a long-time school- and community-based educator, youth development practitioner, and former executive director of a fiscally sponsored nonprofit. She brings her experiences as a working mother and public school parent to her work; she is well-versed on youth voice on multiple awesome fronts. She is inspired to work at the Fund because it aims learn, to collaborate, and to shift power in meaningful ways.

Lakota Vogel, Four Bands Community Fund Inc

Lakota Vogel is the Executive Director at Four Bands. In this role, Lakota provides leadership for Four Bands, establishes new and fosters existing partnerships, and leads and manages efforts to reach organizational goals. Prior to becoming the Executive Director, Lakota served as the Assistant Director at Four Bands for five years. She graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Sociology. Upon graduation, she joined Teach for America and taught on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation at Todd County High School. Lakota obtained her master’s in social work Degree from Washington University in St. Louis with the Kathryn M. Buder Center for American Indian Studies. Lakota individualized her course of study to concentrate in economic security and social development through the life course of American Indians.

In addition to her educational experience, Lakota completed a summer fellowship with National Congress of American Indians. She served on the Native American Alumni Board of Directors at the University of Notre Dame, and initiated program evaluations at the Consortium for Graduate Study in Management and Washington Internships for Native Students to develop program components for American Indian participants. In recognition of her leadership, initiative, and dedication, the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development named Lakota as part of its 2018 class of “Native American 40 under 40.” Currently, Lakota serves on USDA’s Equity Commission and sits on the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis’ board of directors. Lakota is an enrolled member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe.

Jeffery Wallace, LeadersUp

Named one of Fast Company’s 100 Most Creative People, Jeffery Wallace is a social impact entrepreneur engineering solutions to the social, economic, and racial disparities impacting America’s most vulnerable workers – young adults of color. As President and CEO of LeadersUp, Jeffery leads a movement to evolve Corporate America’s approach to at-risk talent and create an inclusive economic recovery post-COVID-19. Under his leadership, LeadersUp has impacted over 60,000 young adults for an estimated total economic impact of $956M.

A native of Richmond, California, Jeffery proudly attended the University of California, Los Angeles, where he earned both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in education before earning a master’s in organizational development from the University of California, Berkeley. Jeffery serves on the board of the Los Angeles Urban League, the Nate Parker Foundation, and California Forward. In 2022 he was appointed as commissioner to the Los Angeles County Workforce Development Board where he will provide an urgent voice that will ensure Los Angeles County has an equitable economic recovery from COVID 19. He was most recently appointed to the California Youth Apprenticeship Committee.

Rachel Wick, Blue Shield Of California Foundation

Rachel Wick (she/her) is a senior program officer at Blue Shield of California Foundation. She leads the Foundation’s work to strengthen economic security and mobility for Californians. Previously, she led the Foundation’s initiatives to design the future of health and advance the integration of primary care with mental health and substance use treatment, specialty care, and public health systems.

Regina Williams, Silicon Valley at Home (SV@Home)

Regina Williams is the Executive Director of Silicon Valley at Home. She has spent her entire career working towards housing and economic justice through affordable housing and community development. She has most recently served as Director of Housing Development at First Community Housing, a leading San José-based affordable housing developer. Previous to joining First Community Housing, Regina was a member of the National Development Council’s East Team providing housing and economic development consulting services to several East Coast municipalities, leading NDC’s green initiatives, and teaching several courses on community and housing development finance. She has also worked at the National Housing Trust, structuring financing for and overseeing the rehabilitation of occupied affordable housing properties while employing green construction features. Born and raised in Richmond, CA, after a significant stint on the East Coast Regina has called San José home for many years, having both of her daughters here in the heart of Silicon Valley.

Dr. Michelle Yanez, EVSGV a High Road to Electric Bus Manufacturing

Dr. Yanez is the Project Manager of EVSGV a High Road to Electric Bus Manufacturing in Los Angeles County. EVSGV (formerly the USW-Proterra Training & Apprenticeship Trust) is a job training program in the electrical vehicles sector dedicated to training priority populations in the San Gabriel Valley region. Dr. Yanez is the Principal of MY Workforce Solutions LLC, a WBE/MBE/SB certified consulting firm that aims to connect business to education to help create pathways to jobs. Before starting her own business during the pandemic, Dr. Yanez worked as the Workforce Development Manager at Citrus College and initiated the relationship between Citrus College Auto faculty and Proterra Electric Bus Manufacturer that fostered a signature training program in EV and later an HRTP. From 2014 to 2019, she had worked as the Director of Education Pathways for the San Gabriel Valley Economic Partnership and served as the intermediary between education and business members, where she developed a relationship with Proterra. Over her career, she has worked in both higher education and as an advocate for businesses, working to bridge these two natural partners in the supply and demand of workforce.