2018 Annual Conference: "Our Common Humanity"

Fred Ali has more than 40 years of senior management experience with philanthropy, nonprofit organizations, educational institutions and government. He began his career in 1972 as a volunteer teacher and counselor in a small western Alaska village. Over the next 19 years, Fred held a number of leadership positions in Alaska with nonprofit organizations, state government and higher education. In 1991, he became the Executive Director of Covenant House in Los Angeles. Under Fred’s leadership, Covenant House California developed into a large, multi-service program working with homeless and at-risk youth in Los Angeles and Oakland. 

Fred was appointed President and CEO of the Weingart Foundation in 1999. He serves on the boards of Covenant House California, the MLK Health and Wellness Community Development Corporation and the Mayor’s Fund for Los Angeles. Fred also chairs the board of advisors for the University of Southern California's Center on Philanthropy and Public Policy and co-chairs the Center’s national advisory committee for the Irene Hirano Inouye’s Philanthropic Leadership Fund.

James Alva serves as Senior Vice President and as the Southern California Market Manager for Citi Community Development. In his role, he oversees the bank's strategic efforts to progress financial inclusion in underserved communities by focusing on youth economic empowerment and urban transformation. Prior to joining Citi, Alva worked for six years with the Small Business Development Centers in which he managed innovative programs in both Los Angeles and San Francisco targeting the underserved.

Amanda Andere has spent over fifteen years working in the nonprofit and public sector as a leader committed to addressing social justice, economic opportunity and security through advocacy for systemic change. Prior to joining Funders Together to End Homelessness, she served as the CEO of Wider Opportunities for Women, a national advocacy organization. Currently, she serves as a Board Member of the United Philanthropy Forum and the James Madison Political Science Alumni Board, as well as on the steering committing for The Campaign for Housing and Community Development Funding. Previously she served as an Adjunct Professor at George Mason University teaching Nonprofit Management, Executive Director of FACETS and Vice President of Cornerstones; who have similar missions of preventing and ending homelessness as well as breaking the cycle of poverty. 

She is a graduate of the 2008 Leadership Fairfax Class and 2009 Nonprofit Roundtable Future Executive Director Fellowship.

Daniel Beaty is an award-winning actor, singer, writer and community activist. He is the co-writer and lead actor of the upcoming feature film Chapter & Verse with Loretta Devine and Omari Hardwick about a man who re-integrates into society after eight years in prison. His critically acclaimed plays THROUGH THE NIGHT, EMERGENCY, MR. JOY, BREATH & IMAGINATION and THE TALLEST TREE IN THE FOREST – PAUL ROBESON, have been produced at leading theaters across the nation and venues ranging from Lincoln Center to the White House.

In 2012, Daniel created I Dream, a nationally recognized social justice initiative that uses the tools of the arts, immersive group exercises and trauma recovery to support young people to rewrite the story of race and class inequity in America, and create social justice projects to make that new story reality. I Dream has reached over 2000 young people in three cities across the nation: Watts, CA; Omaha, NE and Boston, MA. 

A graduate of Yale University and American Conservatory Theatre, Daniel has developed original TV shows for Showtime and Fox/Imagine, and recently completed a documentary about the impact of mass incarceration on children and families called BEHIND THE GLASS. A child of an incarcerated parent himself, Daniel’s poem KNOCK KNOCK is an Internet sensation receiving millions of views and has been made into a children's book, also titled KNOCK KNOCK, published by Little Brown Books. Penguin-Random House published his empowerment book TRANSFORMING PAIN TO POWER in 2014.

Judy Belk is a frequent writer and speaker on organizational ethics, race, family, community and social change, and her work has been recognized with several state and national awards. Her pieces have aired on National Public Radio and appeared in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post. Her day job is President and CEO of The California Wellness Foundation (Cal Wellness) where she leads the Foundation in pursuing its mission to improve the health of the people of California. Belk uses her vision and voice to help Cal Wellness “level the playing field” so that everyone has access to good-paying jobs, safe neighborhoods and quality health care services. She is a seasoned leader with more than 25 years of senior management experience in the philanthropic, government, nonprofit and corporate sectors. Before joining Cal Wellness in April of 2014, she served as Senior Vice President of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, a position she held since 2002. She has been inspired and humbled with two Hedgebrook residences in 2000 and 2013. See her most recent piece on the human right to water on Cal Wellness’ website.

Alex Briscoe previously served as the Director of the Alameda County Health Care Services Agency where he lead one of state's largest public health systems, overseeing health and hospital systems, public health, behavioral health and environmental health departments with an annual budget of 700 million dollars and 6,200 full time employees, contracted and civil service staff.

Before joining the County, he was the Director of the Chappell Hayes Health Center at McClymonds High School in West Oakland. He has served on the Alameda County First Five Commission, The Alameda Alliance,  The Community Corrections Partnership and The Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and The Uninsured, as well as a number of other public and private boards and commissions.

Alex earned a B.A. from Vassar College in Urban Studies and a Master's in Marriage and Family Counseling from the University of San Francisco. He is a mental health practitioner specializing in adolescent services and youth development. He has worked in school reform and the charter school movement, including work with YouthBuild USA, the Corporation For National and Community Service. He has advised or collaborated with a number of local and national foundations including The Atlantic Philanthropies, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, The Annie E Casey Foundation, The California Endowment and most recently with The Tipping Point Community. He has specialized in Medicaid policy and administration, emergency medical services, youth voice and crisis counseling and safety net design and administration.

Tina Castro is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Avivar Capital, bringing over 15 years of experience in the fields of finance and investment management. Tina co-leads the firm’s overall business activities and serves as an impact investment advisor to Avivar’s clients providing guidance on the development and execution of impact investing portfolios and funds. Prior to founding Avivar, Tina spent more than five years as the Director of Impact Investing for The California Endowment (TCE) and prior to that, six years in the Investment Management Division at Goldman, Sachs & Co. At TCE, a health-focused private foundation with over $3 billion in assets, Tina developed financing vehicles and strategies that delivered solid financial returns, leveraged significant additional investment capital and supported TCE’s Building Healthy Communities goals. This included the California FreshWorks Fund, a $272 million public-private partnership loan fund to finance supermarkets and other forms of healthy food retail in underserved communities throughout the state as well as TCE’s $101 million Program-Related Investment portfolio focused on healthy food retail, community health centers, affordable housing and community lending. Tina has designed and built impact investing portfolios and funds on behalf of clients ranging from large national and regional private foundations to local community foundations including authoring Impact Investing Policy Statements, Impact Investing Procedures Manuals and designing social and financial tracking systems using customized dashboards as well as conventional portfolio management systems. Tina is a CFA Charterholder, has an MBA in Finance from the UCLA Anderson School of Management and an MA in International Affairs with a focus in International Business from the University of Miami. She earned a BA Cum Laude in International Relations with a focus in Latin America from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Tina currently sits on the board of Aeris Insight and is an Adjunct Instructor co-teaching a graduate course on impact investing at the University of Southern California.

Maisie Chin is the Executive Director and Co-Founder of CADRE. Maisie has been in the social justice movement for 25 years, dedicated to fighting structural racism and oppression through early activism in the mid-1990s and being mentored by numerous Black and Brown activists. Before launching CADRE full-time in August 2001, Maisie was one of three inaugural program managers at Public Allies Los Angeles (PA LA) when it launched in 1999. At PA-LA, she trained and coached young adults to serve in their communities with the practices of personal and collective development, an asset-based approach to building and strengthening community leaders and continuous learning. Prior, Maisie spent over six years as the Associate Director of Los Angeles Partners Advocating Student Success (LA PASS), the local site of a ten-year national Ford Foundation initiative to foster systemic K-16 collaboration and increase college graduation in underserved communities. She earned a B.A. in History with a specialization in Asian American Studies and a Masters of Arts in Urban Planning from UCLA.

Maisie currently serves as the Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect of the Board of Directors of the Schott Foundation for Public Education, a national public foundation bridging philanthropy and grassroots advocacy for healthy living and learning climates that support the opportunity to learn in public schools. As a recent graduate of the Pahara-Aspen Fellowship, she is a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Institute network.

Kym Eisner is the Executive Director of the Craig H. Neilsen Foundation, an organization dedicated to supporting both programs and scientific research to improve the quality of life for those affected by and living with spinal cord injury. Kym joined the Foundation in 2014 with more than 20 years of experience in philanthropy and the non-profit sector. Prior to her work in the scientific and disability communities, she worked with both emerging and established non-profits as well as serving on numerous boards focusing on social services, education and the arts.

Christine Essel is the President and CEO of Southern California Grantmakers, a regional association of philanthropic leaders whose mission is to support and advance effective, responsible philanthropy for the public good. Prior, she held leadership roles in the government, corporate, philanthropic and nonprofit sectors. She served as Vice-Chair of the California Workforce Investment Board and FilmLA, and was a member of the Grand Avenue Project Joint Powers Authority and Los Angeles Development Fund. In 2016 she was named to the Non‐Profit Times “Power and Influence Top 50” and received the Leader of the Year Award from the Southern California Leadership Network.

Jeanne Fekade-Sellassie has over two decades of experience working in the affordable housing and community development sector. She most recently served as Senior Vice President of NeighborWorks America’s national initiatives division, guiding programming and grantmaking in the areas of real estate development, asset management, green and healthy housing, homeownership, mortgage and commercial lending, foreclosure mitigation, community stabilization and resident engagement. Previously, Jeanne worked at the Catholic Campaign for Human Development and managed the Make It Your Own National Women’s Homeownership Campaign at McAuley Institute. Jeanne completed her undergraduate work at Seattle University, was an Applied Community and Economic Development fellow at Illinois State University’s Stevenson Center and served in the Jesuit Volunteer Corps in Boston, MA and Washington, DC.

Sara Goldrick-Rab is Professor of Higher Education Policy and Sociology at Temple University and Founder of the Wisconsin HOPE Lab, the nation’s only translational research laboratory seeking ways to make college more affordable. She provides extensive service to local, state and national communities, working directly with governors and state legislators to craft policies to make college more affordable, collaborating with non-profit organizations seeking to examine the effects of their practices and providing technical assistance to Congressional staff, think tanks and membership organizations throughout Washington, DC. In 2013, she was invited to testify before the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. In 2014, she received the Early Career Award from the American Educational Research Association and in 2015 she graduated from the William T. Grant Foundation’s Faculty Scholars program. In 2016, POLITICO Magazine named her one of the top 50 people shaping American politics. The American Educational Research Association bestowed its 2017 award for best research article on her study of financial aid and college employment. 

As Founder and Executive Director of Impact Finance Center (IFC), Stephanie Gripne is the creative force behind three educational initiatives to accelerate the impact investing movement, and move $1T in investment capital into quality nonprofits and social ventures: CO Impact Days and Initiative, CO Impact Investing Education Institute and Rocky Mountain Who’s Who & Impact Investing. Lauded by Forbes as “the Steve Jobs of impact investing”, Stephanie is continuously innovating IFC’s model, which serves as an accelerator for asset owners by identifying, educating and activating early adopter philanthropists and investors who want to become impact investors. In just five years, Stephanie has positioned the State of Colorado as the leader in impact investing and the successful pilot for a National Impact Investing Marketplace. Early evaluation efforts of IFC’s work indicate that 244 direct impact investments of $189M have been completed. A successful entrepreneur, academic, investment advisor and impact investor, Stephanie’s vision is driven by 20 years of combined experience at the EcoProducts Fund $100 Ecosystem Service private equity fund, the Nature Conservancy, the USDA Forest Service, DOE Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the Journal of Wildlife Management and several universities. She received her Ph.D. from the Boone and Crockett Wildlife Conservation Program at the University of Montana and has a B.S. in Biology & Wildlife Management from the University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point and a M.S. in Ecology from Utah State University. Stephanie is an Aspen Institute Environment Forum Scholar, Environmental Leadership Senior Fellow, Property Environment Research Center Fellow, Ford Foundation Community Forestry Fellow and Boone and Crockett Professional Member.

Tyrone C. Howard is a professor of education at UCLA in the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies’ Urban Schooling Division. He is also the Associate Dean for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in the Department of Education and Information Studies and the Director and Founder of the Black Male Institute at UCLA. Tyrone’s work has centered on the achievement gap facing African American and other culturally diverse students and the importance of providing teachers the skills and knowledge to assist them in reversing persistent underachievement. He is the author of the Teachers College Press best-sellers “Race, Culture, and the Achievement Gap” and “Black Male(d).” He has contributed to NPR, the Los Angeles Times, Education Week, The Atlantic, The Huffington Post and The New York Times Educational Issues Forum. He has published over 75 peer review journal articles, book chapters, encyclopedia entrees and technical reports and is the recipient of the 2015 UCLA Distinguished Teaching Award, the highest honor provided to teaching excellence at the university.

Nike Irvin most recently served as Vice President of Programs at the California Community Foundation (CCF), where she provided strategic leadership in priority program areas and managed special initiatives. Before joining CCF, she served as President of the Riordan Foundation for seven years and as a consultant and coach for nonprofits and foundations. She also has more than 20 years of experience in both nonprofit leadership and consulting to numerous nonprofit organizations, foundations and charitable arms of for-profit companies and organizations. A native of Los Angeles, Nike serves on several boards and is a trustee for regional and national organizations and is a Henry Crown Fellow of The Aspen Institute.

Saru Jayaraman is the Co-Founder and President of the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United (ROC United) and Director of the Food Labor Research Center at University of California, Berkeley.

After 9/11, together with displaced World Trade Center workers, she co-founded ROC, which now has more than 30,000 worker members, 500 employer partners and 23,000 consumer members in a dozen states nationwide. Saru is a graduate of Yale Law School and the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. She was listed in CNN’s “Top 10 Visionary Women” and recognized as a Champion of Change by the White House in 2014, and a James Beard Foundation Leadership Award in 2015.

In January 2018, she attended the Golden Globes as the guest of actor Amy Poehler, where she brought widespread attention to the issue of sexual harassment in the restaurant industry. Saru was one of eight women activists who attended the Globes as part of the #TimesUp initiative. Saru authored Behind the Kitchen Door (Cornell University Press, 2013), a national bestseller, and Forked: A New Standard for American Dining (Oxford University Press, 2016). She has appeared on CNN with Soledad O’Brien, Bill Moyers Journal on PBS, Melissa Harris Perry and UP with Chris Hayes on MSNBC, Real Time with Bill Maher on HBO, the Today Show, and NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams.

Cinny Kennard serves as the Executive Director of the Annenberg Foundation. She has held executive leadership positions in the nonprofit sector for almost two decades, in organizations ranging from start-ups to established national brands including Pew Research Center, Smithsonian Institution and National Public Radio. Her experience includes strategic planning, organizational development, creating and building partnerships, fundraising, managing budgets and creating and launching nonprofits. Prior to joining the Annenberg Foundation in January 2015, Cinny was the Senior Vice President in charge of Programming at the Smithsonian Institution. In that role, she created partnerships with the Smithsonian involving national and international partners for educational and media initiatives; managed the programming relationships in the joint venture between the Smithsonian and Showtime/CBS known as the Smithsonian Networks; and brought President Obama for a first-ever interview on Smithsonian Channel. Before the Smithsonian, Cinny was the first Managing Director of National Public Radio's West Coast Production Center (NPR West) in Culver City, with executive responsibility for operational and editorial oversight.

She is a Senior Fellow at the Center on Communication Leadership and Policy at the USC Annenberg School for Communications and Journalism, serves on the editorial advisory board of Global Post and on the DuPont Columbia University Jury and is a longtime member of the Trusteeship of the International Women’s Forum.

Surina Khan is the CEO of The Women’s Foundation of California where she leads the Foundation’s work to advance the health, safety and economic security of women, girls and transgender people in California. The Foundation’s program strategy is focused on building community-based power through investing in community organizations, training community leaders in policy advocacy, convening key partners and mobilizing significant financial resources. For more than two decades, Surina has been a leader in the philanthropic and non-profit social justice sector starting with local community-based publishing in New England and then shifting to national and global work on an array of social justice issues including women’s rights, LGBT rights, human rights and more. She is a recognized advocate for gender, racial and economic justice and a frequent commentator on the power of women’s philanthropy.

Amir Kirkwood has more than 20 years of banking and economic development finance experience. He joined Amalgamated Bank as a First Vice President for Commercial Banking covering Community Development Finance and Growth Markets. His current customer coverage includes Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) and other financial intermediaries, benefit corporations and impact investors. Amir is also responsible for originations supporting Amalgamated Bank’s goals under the Community Reinvestment Act.

Since joining Amalgamated, Amir has worked to expand the Bank’s development finance strategy and grow its portfolio. Under his leadership, Amalgamated Bank entered into the New York City Acquisition Fund, a public-private partnerships with CDFIs to finance affordable housing acquisition. He was lead banker on a loan to the $500MM Community Preservation Corporation affordable housing warehouse facility, which eventually led the Bank to restart direct construction lending. Amir worked with the City of New York’s Economic Development Corporation and other partners to form the Emerging Developer Loan Fund, a $40MM commitment to finance minority and women developers seeking access to critical predevelopment financing. Internally, Amir worked across departments to develop Amalgamated Banks first Board approved credit policy for mission lending.

Prior to Amalgamated Bank, Amir was most recently a Partner at Next Street, playing various roles in support of business development and client management, with a focus on financial services and financial intermediaries. Prior to Next Street, Amir was a Director in Citigroup’s Municipal Securities Division working as a relationship banker for Citi Community Capital. In partnership with Opportunity Finance Network (OFN) and the Calvert Social Impact, Amir helped create the Communities at Work Fund, LP, a national $200 million commitment to finance the general operating needs of CDFIs

Amir is a board member of the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone, Hot Bread Kitchen and the Community Fund board for Habitat for Humanity New York. He is currently a member of the Investment Committee for Opportunity Finance Network and on the Advisory Board to for the Center for Community Development Finance at the Carsey Institute. Amir holds a B.A. in Political Science from Aurora University and completed the Program in Economic Policy Management from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.

John Kobara was appointed Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the California Community Foundation in 2008. He currently serves on the boards of the MLK Community Hospital Foundation, Japanese American National Museum, LA Kitchen, Coro-Southern California, SCGA Foundation and Walden University. He was a Coro Fellow in LA and earned degrees from UCLA, USC and Occidental College.

Abbe Land is the Executive Director of the LA County Women and Girls Initiative (WGI). WGI was created to help improve the lives of women and girls through changes in policy, program development and strategic partnerships. Abbe brings over 30 years of experience. She is the former Executive Director and CEO of The Trevor Project, a nationally recognized nonprofit providing crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to LGBTQ youth. Prior to joining Trevor, Abbe served as Co‐CEO of The Saban Community Clinic in Los Angeles, a preeminent community clinic that provides comprehensive medical care to low income people in the Los Angeles area.

In addition, Abbe has a wealth of public policy knowledge as an elected Councilmember of the City of West Hollywood from 1986‐1997 and from 2003‐2015, Abbe served as Mayor five times.Through her political advocacy, she was instrumental in the development of the City’s Women’s and Disability Advisory Boards, domestic violence prevention program for same‐sex couples, green building ordinance and landmark gun control legislation. She currently serves on Women Against Gun Violence Advisory Board; the L.A. County Department of Health Services’ Women’s Health Policy Council; Planned Parenthood Advocacy Project Board of Directors; TransCanWork Advisory Board; the National Women’s Political Caucus, national Board of directors; MAZON’s Public Policy Committee and the AIDSCommunity Action Foundation Board of Directors. In March 2017, she co‐founded an Indivisible Los Angeles Chapter: ROAR Resistance.

She has been recognized by the West Hollywood Community Housing Corporation with a Lifetime Achievement Award for her commitment to affordable housing and by APLA Red Circle Project with a Spirit of CommUNITY Award for her work to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS. She also received the inaugural Legacy Award for Women in Leadership for her work on behalf of women in West Hollywood, the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles: Good Neighbor Voice Award 2016 for her work on behalf of the LGBTQ community, the 28^th Congressional District 2016 Woman of the Year award, the National LGBTQ Task Force: Leadership Excellence Award 2017, the I Love Me Foundation’s Ally of the Year and the 2017 Southern California Leadership Network Visionary 30 in 30 Award.

Dr. Bryant T. Marks, Sr. is a minister, researcher, trainer and award-winning educator. Dr. Marks is the Founder and Chief Training Officer of the National Training Institute on Race and Equity and he is a professor in the Department of Psychology at Morehouse College. He served on President Obama’s Board of Advisors with the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans and as Senior Advisor with the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Dr. Marks was a contributor/trainer with the Obama Administration’s My Brother’s Keeper (MBK) and 21^st Century Policing programs. Dr. Marks has provided implicit bias training to over 2,000 Police Chiefs and executives via a series of briefings at the White House in 2016, and several thousand patrol officers in local police departments including the entire Los Angeles Police Department. He has also provided training related to diversity and implicit bias to individuals in education (K-12 and higher education), corporations, philanthropy, non-profits, local and federal government and several other sectors. He holds a B.A. in Psychology and a minor in Economics from Morehouse College, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Social Psychology from the University of Michigan. Dr. Marks conducts research and professional development in the areas of diversity and implicit bias, Black male psychology and development, the academic achievement of minority college students, innovations in STEM education and personal passion and productivity. 

Evan L. Mizrachy, CFA, CAIA, is a Senior Client Relationship Manager at Aperio Group. In that role, he oversees the firm’s efforts with a variety of strategic clients across the country. Evan has more than 17 years of experience in the financial services industry, most recently as a Managing Director at BlackRock. As Global Head of Retail Alternatives, he was responsible for coordinating alternative product development initiatives and supporting distribution and education efforts with BlackRock’s Private Wealth clients. Prior to assuming that role, Evan was a Director within BlackRock’s Corporate Strategy team, where he guided a variety of the firm’s strategic initiatives. Before BlackRock, Evan was a Principal with Barclays Global Investors (BGI), with a focus on innovation, initiative incubation and strategic venture capital. He joined the firm from CRA International, a global economic and management consulting firm. Evan earned a BA in Economics from Colgate University in 1998 and an MBA from Columbia Business School in 2003. He holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation, as well as the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst designation.

Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi is the Co-Founder of the Mizrahi Family Charitable Fund. Dyslexic and a mother who knows what it means to raise a successful child with multiple disabilities, she is also the full-time volunteer CEO of RespectAbility. RespectAbility fights stigmas and advances opportunities for people with disabilities. It is also philanthropy and nonprofits’ partner to enable organizations and leaders to succeed at disability inclusion so they can have the maximum impact they desire, whether that is in education, training, employment, criminal justice, health, the arts access or other key issues.

She is an expert is strategic communications, public policy, advocacy, impact and accessibility. Since the founding of RespectAbility there has been a 400% improvement in new jobs for people with disabilities. RespectAbility is also active in Hollywood, supporting TV shows and films that want to advance positive and authentic role models and stories so that people with disabilities can be seen for what they CAN do instead of for what they cannot.

Edward Muna is a Data Analyst at the Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE) and the Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration (CSII) at USC. Edward holds dual Master’s degrees in Public Policy and Planning from the University of Southern California and a BA in Political Science with a minor in Asian American Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Edward’s research has focused on the nexus between the built environment and health/economic outcomes for communities of color. 

His projects currently center on infusing equity into programs, policies and organizations throughout Southern California. Some of his work includes examining equitable implementation of funding for parks and transportation, as well as guiding funding and grant making to advance equity for young children. Prior to joining PERE/CSII, Edward was a City Hall Fellow for the City and County of San Francisco and a Program Assistant for Prevention Institute. In those roles he worked in financial planning and training and technical assistance across issues of water infrastructure, urban agriculture, education and public health.

John Ott has designed and facilitated successful large-scale change efforts for over 30 years. He has consulted with foundations; state, county and local governments; small businesses and a multi-national corporation; local schools and schools districts; and myriad non-profit and community-based organizations.

Early in his career, John was a faculty member at Duke University’s Public Policy Department and helped launch the Hart Leadership Program there. He is co-author of The Power of Collective Wisdom and the Trap of Collective Folly, published by Berrett-Koehler in 2009, and Centered on the Edge, published by the Fetzer Institute in 2001.

John holds a BA in Public Policy Studies from Duke University and a JD from Stanford Law School.

Bill Pitkin oversees the planning, development, implementation and evaluation of the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation’s domestic priority areas. Prior to joining the Foundation, he was Director of Research and Planning at United Way of Greater Los Angeles, where he oversaw the publication of research reports and led a strategic planning process resulting in that organization’s 10-year action plan to fight poverty in Los Angeles. Other past positions include: Executive Director at the Los Angeles United Methodist Urban Foundation and Research Director at the Advanced Policy Institute in the University of California, Los Angeles School of Public Affairs. Bill has published research articles and reports on topics including community and nonprofit technology, middle school education, homelessness, housing affordability, mortgage lending discrimination, participatory planning in Latin America and urban planning history. He has taught in the UCLA Urban Planning Department and the Urban Studies and Planning Program at California State University, Northridge. He received his Doctorate and Master’s degree in Urban Planning from UCLA.

john a. powell is an internationally recognized expert in the areas of civil rights and civil liberties and a wide range of issues including race, structural racism, ethnicity, housing, poverty and democracy. He is the Executive Director of the Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society, which supports research to generate specific prescriptions for changes in policy and practice that address disparities related to race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, disability and socioeconomics in California and nationwide. In addition to being a Professor of Law and Professor of African American Studies and Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, john holds the Robert D. Haas Chancellor’s Chair in Equity and Inclusion. He was recently the Executive Director of the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at The Ohio State University and held the Gregory H. Williams Chair in Civil Rights and Civil Liberties at the Moritz College of Law. 

He is the author of several books, including his most recent work, Racing to Justice: Transforming our Concepts of Self and Other to Build an Inclusive Society. Previously, he founded and directed the Institute on Race and Poverty at the University of Minnesota. He also served as Director of Legal Services in Miami, Florida and was National Legal Director of the American Civil Liberties Union where he was instrumental in developing educational adequacy theory.

john has worked and lived in Africa, where he was a consultant to the governments of Mozambique and South Africa. He has also lived and worked in India and done work in South America and Europe. john is one of the co-founders of the Poverty and Race Research Action Council and serves on the board of several national organizations. He has taught at numerous law schools including Harvard and Columbia University.

Alberto Retana was introduced to organizing at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he graduated with a degree in Political Science. After UCLA, Alberto joined Community Coalition, a nonprofit organization based in South Los Angeles that engages and empowers residents to improve health, education and public safety. Alberto’s unwavering commitment to organizing began with South Central Youth Empowered Through Action (SCYEA). For the next eleven years, he continued organizing in different capacities, leading Community Coalition through major victories in advancing racial justice, economic justice, food justice and education equity.

From 2009 to 2011, he worked for the Obama administration in the U.S. Department of Education as Director of Community Outreach. In 2011, Alberto returned to Community Coalition to lead its civic engagement strategy to organize 40,000 African American and Latino voters in various campaigns. Alberto also helped to build Community Coalition’s cultural arm by launching PowerFest, South Los Angeles’ premier political concert drawing thousands of South Los Angeles residents to a day of celebration and empowerment.

Robert K. Ross, M.D., is the President and CEO of The California Endowment, a private, statewide health foundation established in 1996 to address the health needs of Californians. Prior to his appointment in July 2000, Dr. Ross served as Director of the Health and Human Services Agency for the County of San Diego from 1993 to 2000.

Dr. Ross has an extensive background in health philanthropy, as a public health administrator and as a clinician. He has been actively involved in community and professional activities at both the local and national level. He is a member of the President’s Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for African Americans, Co-Chair, Diversity in Philanthropy Coalition and has served as a member of the California Health Benefit Exchange Board, the Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors Board, National Vaccine Advisory Committee and on the boards of Grantmakers in Health, the National Marrow Donor Program, San Diego United Way and Jackie Robinson YMCA. He is a Diplomate of the American Academy of Pediatrics, served on the President’s Summit for America’s Future and as Chairman of the national Boost for Kids Initiative and was honored by the Council on Foundations as the Distinguished Grantmaker of the Year for 2008. Dr. Ross received his undergraduate, masters in Public Administration and medical degrees from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

Maria S. Salinas is the President and CEO of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, the largest business association in Los Angeles County, representing more than 1,600 member companies and serving the interests of more than 235,000 businesses across the Los Angeles region. Maria founded Salinas Consulting, a finance and accounting consultancy firm. For more than 10 years, Salinas Consulting has worked with major corporations providing collaborative financial expertise to specific engagements. In 2010, Salinas Consulting was awarded the Professional Services Award from the National Latina Business Women’s Association of Los Angeles. Previously, Maria held financial leadership roles with The Walt Disney Company, where she led a team responsible for global financial reporting controls and compliance. There, she led the creation of the division’s Accounting Shared Services organization and implementation of Sarbanes-Oxley rules. Prior to her work at the division, she was a member of the management team at the Corporate Controllership level, responsible for technical accounting and financial reporting projects.

Maria is former Chairwoman of ProAmérica Bank, a community bank in Los Angeles. She was a Founding Organizer and Director serving on the Board since the bank’s inception in 2006 until its sale in 2016. She led the merger transaction with Pacific Commerce Bancorp, successfully closing in May 2016.

Prior to joining Grantmakers for Effective Organizations, Kristen worked for the U.S. Overseas Cooperative Development Council, a membership organization that promotes the use of cooperatives as a development paradigm. Previously, she was Managing Director at The Bhutan Canada Foundation, a Canadian charitable organization dedicated to improving education in the Kingdom of Bhutan. In this role, Kristen gained direct experience taking a nonprofit from “start up” mode to the early stages of growth. As Managing Director, she oversaw program development, strategic planning, board management, communications and fundraising.

Kristen began her career in communications and operations at The Unusual Suspects Theater Company in Los Angeles before working in fundraising at The Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health in Palo Alto, CA and Macmillan Cancer Support in London, UK. Kristen is an alumna of the University of Southern California and a recipient of the Nonprofit Executive Scholarship at the Richard Ivey School of Business. She received her Master of Public Administration from American University’s School of Public Affairs. 

Renata Simril is the President and CEO of the LA84 Foundation. She is an accomplished civic and private sector trailblazer with more than 25 years of diversified experience with a commitment to leadership and service. She most recently served as Senior Vice President and Chief of Staff to the Publisher of the Los Angeles Times, where she oversaw staff operations and special projects. Her earlier career included three seasons with the Los Angeles Dodgers, where she served as Senior Vice President of External Affairs overseeing the restoration of the Dodgers brand and the Dodgers Foundation; and over a decade in real estate development with Jones Lang LaSalle, Forest City Development and LCOR, Inc. Her public service included stints as Deputy Mayor for Economic Development and Housing in the Hahn Administration, where she worked to expand rental and affordable housing in Los Angeles, and as a Development Deputy to Los Angeles City Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas, where she worked to help rebuild communities in South Los Angeles after the 1992 civil unrest. Renata began her career in the U.S. Army as a Military Police Officer in the U.S. and Germany.

She currently serves on the Boards of United Way of Greater Los Angeles; LA 2028 Olympic Bid Committee; Los Angeles Sports and Entertainment Commission and the Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation. She was named to the Orange County Register’s 50 Most Powerful in Southern California Sports list in 2017 and to the Los Angeles Business Journal’s list of The Los Angeles 500 Most Influential People in 2016, 2017 and 2018. CSQ magazine named her a Visionary in Sports and Entertainment, 2017, and she received the WISE LA (Women in Sports and Entertainment) Women of Inspiration award in 2016. She earned a Bachelor’s degree in Urban Studies from Loyola Marymount University and a Master’s Degree in Real Estate Development from USC.

Martine Singer is a veteran of Los Angeles’s nonprofit sector, with extensive nonprofit management experience and a passionate commitment to improving the lives of children in LA’s most underserved communities. As President and CEO of the Children’s Institute, she oversees one of the region’s oldest and largest child and family organizations, managing an annual operating budget of $75 million and more than 1,000 staff. She also guides the agency’s newest endeavor, a new campus— designed pro-bono by world-renowned architect Frank Gehry—in the historic community of Watts. Martine previously served as President and CEO of Para Los Niños, as well as held executive positions with several global media companies, serving as the Founder and Publisher of the first foreign-language edition of The New York Times, and launching the Los Angeles Times’ award-winning online service in 1993. She holds a BA from Sarah Lawrence College and an MBA from the Yale School of Management. She serves on the boards of Eisner Health, The Association of Community Human Services Agencies and Wise Readers to Leaders.

Dr. Beatriz María Solís is Director, Healthy Communities (South Region) at The California Endowment. Dr. Solís is responsible for advancing the vision and strategic direction of the foundation’s Building Healthy Communities: California Living 2.0 initiative, as well as helping achieve established goals and outcomes through The Endowment’s philanthropic efforts in Southern California. Her professional experience includes service as the Director of Cultural and Linguistic Services for L.A. Care Health Plan. She has co-authored numerous articles, books, technical reports and policy briefs and is a lecturer/trainer to health care providers.

Megan Thomas oversees San Diego Grantmakers' (SDG) facilitation of collaborative efforts among its funder members and other stakeholders. She spearheads SDG’s work related to catalyzing impact investing and championing equity and opportunity. Current focus areas include early education, STEAM education, homelessness, military/veterans issues, leadership development, foster youth, racial justice and impact investing, as well as support for the steering committees of pooled grant funds, including Women Give San Diego, which is fiscally sponsored by San Diego Grantmakers.

Edgar Villanueva currently serves as Vice President of Programs and Advocacy at the Schott Foundation for Public Education where he oversees grant investment and capacity building. He is also an instructor with The Grantmaking School at the Johnson Center at Grand Valley State University and serves as Chair of the Board of Directors of Native Americans in Philanthropy and Board Member of the Andrus Family Fund, a national foundation that works to improve outcomes for vulnerable youth.

Edgar is the author of Decolonizing Wealth, which offers hopeful and compelling alternatives to the dynamics of colonization in the philanthropic and social finance sectors. He holds two degrees from the Gillings Global School of Public Health at The University of North Carolina Chapel Hill and is an enrolled member of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina.

Lori Villarosa is the Founder and Executive Director of the Philanthropic Initiative for Racial Equity (PRE), which has had the mission of increasing the amount and effectiveness of resources aimed at combating institutional and structural racism since 2003. Lori has been working at the intersection of racial justice and philanthropy for more than 25 years, deeply engaging with hundreds of funders at the community level, regionally, nationally and internationally to advance the use of a structural racism lens in their grantmaking and effectively align their internal practices to sustain such a lens. PRE’s board of racial justice leaders and other movement partners strengthen the capacity of funders through PRE’s conference workshops, Racial Justice Funder Labs, direct consultations, coaching, research and through PRE publications, such as the Guide to Grantmaking with a Racial Equity Lens. Prior to launching PRE, she worked at C.S. Mott Foundation for 12 years, where she was instrumental in developing and managing the foundation’s portfolio naming institutional racism in its goals. She has been a racial justice change agent from multiple positions within the sector, including service on several foundation boards (currently including the Edward W. Hazen Foundation) and in leadership roles on the steering committee of CHANGE Philanthropy, where PRE is a core partner.

Ryan brings over 20 years of nonprofit experience to his role. Before joining Community Health and Benefit nine years ago, he spent six years with The California Endowment where he worked on improving access to care for all through regional, statewide and national grantmaking. He brings extensive experience in the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors acquiring skills in cross-sector collaboration, strategy development public affairs and leadership. Earlier, he held positions with the National Asian Pacific American Families Against Substance Abuse, the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, the American Cancer Society and the Arthritis Foundation. Ryan earned a degree in Health Science from California State University, Long Beach.