2018 Annual Conference: "Our Common Humanity"

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 (BA) and American Conservatory Theatre (MFA), 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.

Christine Essel is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Southern California Grantmakers (SCG), a regional association of philanthropic leaders whose mission is to support and advance effective, responsible philanthropy for the public good. Prior to joining SCG, she held leadership roles in the government, corporate, philanthropic and nonprofit sectors. Essel 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. She currently co-chairs the Vision Design Group of the Forum of Regional Associations of Grantmakers, which represents more than 5,500 grantmakers and is the country’s largest philanthropic network. In this role, she is working with national philanthropy leaders to expand the Forum network, build creative partnerships, and envision a shared strategy to increase the impact of philanthropy across the country.

Sara Goldrick-Rab is Professor of Higher Education Policy & 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, D.C. 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. 

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, Professor powell 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 & Civil Liberties at the Moritz College of Law. 

Professor powell has written extensively on a number of issues including structural racism, racial justice and regionalism, concentrated poverty and urban sprawl, opportunity based housing, voting rights, affirmative action in the United States, South Africa and Brazil, racial and ethnic identity, spirituality and social justice, and the needs of citizens in a democratic society. 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, Professor powell 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.

Professor powell 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. He is one of the co-founders of the Poverty & Race Research Action Council and serves on the board of several national organizations. Professor powell has taught at numerous law schools including Harvard and Columbia University.

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.

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. Villarosa 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, Villarosa 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 in the past with ABFE, AAPIP, COF’s Committee on Inclusiveness, and now on the steering committee of CHANGE Philanthropy, where PRE is a core partner.

For more information on PRE and its resources, see www.racialequity.org, and follow us on Twitter @RJGrantmakers or on Facebook.