2019 Annual Conference: Foresight Philanthropy

Ivette Alé has years of experience as a grassroots organizer, LGBTQ community leader, and artist. She is the co-founder of Azucar, an incubator for QTPOC artists and fundraising platform for LGBTQ and immigrant rights organizations. She currently serves on the board of Voices Neighborhood Council as a Budget Advocate representing South Los Angeles’ District 9, and is part of the 2017 Justice Policy Network Fellowship program. Alé is a graduate of the UC Berkeley with a BA in Political Science, a graduate of the UCLA Law Fellows Program, and Justice Now’s Summer Internship Program.

Christina Altmayer has served as Vice President of Programs at First 5 Los Angeles since May of 2016. In this capacity, she oversees First 5 LA’s annual programmatic investments of approximately $85 million in family supports, community engagement, early care and education, and health systems with a focus on policy and systems change. First 5 LA is committed to ensuring that every child in Los Angeles enters kindergarten ready to succeed in school and life. Through partnership, funding, and systems building the Program Division is working to improve outcomes for young children and improve access to the services that can support their families and their own healthy development. Strategic investments and advocacy have prioritized home visiting, access to quality early care and education, early intervention services and strengthening communities. The systems building efforts that First 5 LA is leading with multiple county and community partners was recently captured in the Spring 2019 issue of The Future of Children focused on “Universal Approaches to Promoting Healthy Development”, entitled “Strengthening Home Visiting: Partnership and Innovation in Los Angeles County”, co-authored by Altmayer.

Christina previously served as the Executive Director of First 5 Orange County where she successfully led the organization through a comprehensive strategic planning and implementation process and oversaw a program funding portfolio of $35 million. In this capacity, Christina has helped lead several high impact efforts, including initiatives related to developmental screening and early intervention, kindergarten readiness, and oral health. Prior to this role, she was the President of Altmayer Consulting, Inc. and specialized in management consulting to public and nonprofit agencies. In her consulting practice, she worked with numerous First 5 Commissions throughout California, as well as the County of Los Angeles, on long-term financial planning, strategy development, program design and implementation, performance management and evaluation.

Christina is the author of multiple articles on performance-based management and a frequent instructor and presenter on this topic. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Government and Politics and a Master of Arts in Public Administration from St. John’s University in New York.

Megan Bartlett established We Coach to support organizations committed to using sports to promote youth development and give coaches the tools they need to help kids succeed. At We Coach, she has co-created innovative coaching initiatives for with Nike, built capacity for community-based organizations, and has partnered with the Child Trauma Academy to make coaches more brain-aware. Prior to creating We Coach, she worked for 10 years at Up2Us Sports, where she created the first national coach training program to integrate trauma-informed practices into a sport context. Bartlett is the co-author of the book Re-Designing Youth Sports: Change the Game.

José Bravo is a long-time leader on just transition, climate justice and chemicals policy as they relate to communities fighting for Environmental Justice and Labor Justice (Organized and Unorganized). Born in México and brought to the U.S. as a child, Bravo's work in social justice issues is rooted in his upbringing in the Southern California avocado fields alongside both his parents. Since 1991, Bravo has gained recognition as a national and international leader in both the Environmental Justice and Climate Justice movements. Over the past 30 years as a community organizer, Bravo has worked on numerous campaigns in the U.S., Puerto Rico and in México.

J. Mijin Cha is an Assistant Professor at Occidental College, Urban and Environmental Policy Department. Her research interests lie at the intersection of inequality and climate change with particular focus on just transition- equitably transitioning fossil fuel workers and communities into a low-carbon future- and bridging the labor movement and environmental movement. Prior to coming to Occidental College, Dr. Cha spent over a decade working with think tanks and policy advocacy organizations on local, state, and national policy campaigns. As a Fellow with the Worker Institute at Cornell University, she co-led the Labor Leading on Climate initiative, a 1.5 year process that engaged labor unions in the climate crisis to create a proactive climate policy agenda. The resulting report led to the creation of Climate Jobs NY, an advocacy organization working to implement the policy recommendations. As a result of this work, Governor Cuomo announced the Clean Climate Career Initiative, a $1.5 billion investment to create 40,000 climate jobs and substantially reduce the state's greenhouse gas emissions. 

Dr. Cha is a graduate of Cornell University, holds a J.D. from the Univ. of California, Hastings College of the Law, and LLM and PhD degrees from the Univ. of London, SOAS. She is on the board of the Center on Race, Poverty, and the Environment and is a member of the California Bar Association, a Fellow at Cornell University’s Worker Institute, and a Senior Fellow at Data for Progress.

Wendy Chang is the Director of the Dwight Stuart Youth Fund, a private family foundation that supports educational enrichment programs for children and youth of Los Angeles. Chang's community contributions include serving as chair of the Los Angeles Partnership for Early Childhood Investment; co-chair of the Arts Education Collective Funders Council; board member and nominating committee chair of Lambda Legal; co-chair of OUT Fund and Circle of Change (giving circles); current advisory council chair and former executive board member and chair of the Investment Committee and Audit Committee of the Liberty Hill Foundation; president and founding board treasurer of the National Charity League, Inc., Westside Chapter; member and past chair of Asian American Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy, Los Angeles; project lead and advisory member of the Trustee Initiative: Effectiveness through Diversity; co-founder and president of the Long Beach Nonprofit Partnership; president of Leadership Long Beach; membership vice president and training chair of Junior League of Long Beach; president of Asian Heritage Council; chair of Financial Literacy of Women’s Leadership Circle; advisory board member of Foundation Boys; as well as honorary council member of Koreatown Youth and Community Center. 

Chang is the recipient of the Founders Award from Liberty Hill Foundation, Jim Ackerman Alumnus of the Year Award from Leadership Long Beach, Distinguished Leadership Award from California Association of Leadership Programs, Distinguished Leadership Award from Community Leadership Association; Community Pride Award from Children’s Nature Institute, Business Associate of the Year from American Women’s Business Association, Philanthropist Award from Southeast Asian Community Alliance, Philanthropy Award from Hand4Hope, Conversity Award from Asian Pacific American Dispute Resolution Center, Visionary Award from East West Players, and Ultreya Award from LA Urban Foundation. 

Chang is an alumni member of National Urban Fellow’s America’s Leaders of Change and the Amherst H. Wilder Foundation’s James

Sonya Childress serves as Trustee of the Whitman Institute and the Director of Partnerships and Engagement for Firelight Media. Sonya has positioned film as a tool to shift narratives and support social justice movement building for over 15 years. Prior to her tenure at Firelight, she held staff and consulting positions with California Newsreel, Active Voice, Kartemquin Films, Working Films and the Independent Television Service.

She led the impact campaigns for The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution, Freedom Summer, Freedom Riders, and Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes; and contributed to numerous others, including The Interrupters, Favela Rising, Farmingville and The New Americans.
A graduate of the University of California-Berkeley, she is a frequent speaker, funding panelist, and was an inaugural 2015 Rockwood JustFilms fellow. Sonya serves on the boards of Million Hoodies Movement for Justice and The Whitman Institute. Of Puerto Rican and African American descent, Sonya resides in Los Angeles, California.

Samuel M. Chu is the National Synagogue Organizer for MAZON, guiding synagogue partners in leading local and regional advocacy campaigns around issues of food insecurity. In addition to his work at MAZON, Chu serves as the Chair and President of OneLA-Industrial Areas Foundation, and Board Chair of 1010 Development Corporation. He advises a variety of nationally recognized groups, including IKAR and Consumer Watchdog. Chu is a fellow at the Center for Religion and Civic Culture at University of Southern California and teaches at the Episcopal School at Claremont School of Theology. He is a frequent speaker and presenter at conferences and training institutes hosted at the Hebrew Union College, American Jewish University, the American Muslim Civic Leadership Institute, and the United States Student Association, among others. Prior to joining MAZON in 2011, Chu was the Executive Director of California Faith for Equality and California Faith For Equality Action Fund. He holds a M.Div. in Ethics from Fuller Theological Seminary and a B.A. in political science from UC San Diego.

Celine has been an educator for more than two decades, with a track record as an innovator, leader and connector.  Coggins began her career as a middle school teacher in Worcester, MA and went on to serve in a number of education policy leadership roles, including assistant to the Massachusetts Commissioner of Education. 

Coggins' work has always been deeply connected to teachers and disadvantaged schools. In 2007, she founded Teach Plus, a nationwide network of top-performing teachers, where she spent the next decade as CEO. Under Coggins' leadership, Teach Plus grew to over 30,000 participating teachers and offered groundbreaking programs in leadership development and advocacy. Celine was recognized by President Obama at the White House for her organization’s impact on public education.

Coggins earned her Ph.D. in education policy analysis at Stanford University and holds an appointment as a Lecturer at the Harvard Graduate school of Education. She is the author of dozens of articles and three books, including her most recent, How to Be Heard: Ten Lessons Teachers Need to Advocate for Their Students and Profession. Coggins has been published in The 74 Million, Center for Effective Philanthropy's blog, The Fordham Institute's Flypaper and The Education Gadfly Show, and Giving Compass.

Elizabeth Cohen is Associate Director for the Center for Strategic Partnerships, a joint venture between Los Angeles County and philanthropy that works to help partners in both sectors achieve their shared goal of improving outcomes for vulnerable children, youth and families. Cohen leads the Center’s transition-age youth and youth justice and diversion work, as well as the Center’s faith-based recruitment efforts, working with partners to identify, build, and advance joint initiatives to better serve youth throughout the County. Cohen has both private sector and political experience, formerly serving in the Office of Scheduling and Advance for President Barack Obama and working at Facing History and Ourselves, a major educational nonprofit organization. She is a graduate of Georgetown University Law Center and Bates College.

As one of our distinguished community leaders, Jamil Dada wears many hats. He is an officer of Provident Bank, Riverside County’s largest community bank. His two biggest priorities are our nation's workforce and its military, which frequently takes him to Sacramento and Washington D.C. where he is routinely at the table with key congressional leaders and also with the Department of Labor and administration officials.

He is a long-time member and chairman of the Riverside County Workforce Development Board (WDB). Appointed first by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and then by Governor Jerry Brown, Dada has been a member of the California Workforce Development Board (CWDB) since 2004 where he served as chairman for two years. He is also a board member of the National Association of Workforce Boards (NAWB) in Washington D.C, where he also served as chairman for two years.

Amy Dominguez-Arms is a philanthropic consultant who supports foundations on program strategy, design and implementation, grantmaking, and assessment on a range of social issues. She currently is working with Philanthropy California on its Fair Representation Fund. Other current and past clients include: Barr Foundation, College Futures Foundation, Democracy Fund, Ford Foundation, Hewlett Foundation and Packard Foundation.

Previously, Dominguez-Arms served as Vice President for Programs for The James Irvine Foundation, where she oversaw a $75 million grantmaking portfolio focused primarily on youth and democracy issues. Earlier she served as the foundation’s California Democracy Program Director, where she led grantmaking on the 2010 census, redistricting reform, election system reforms, immigrant integration, and voter and civic engagement. Prior to joining the foundation, Dominguez-Arms served as Vice President of Children Now, a nonprofit research and advocacy organization. Amy serves on the boards of the National Immigration Forum and NOLS (National Outdoor Leadership School). Dominguez-Arms earned her Master in Public Administration at Harvard University’s Kennedy School and her bachelor’s degree at Stanford University.

Efrain Escobedo is vice president in charge of education and immigration programs at California Community Foundation. Escobedo has had an extensive career, dedicated to increasing civic engagement and ensuring public policies and institutions not just serve but also empower our communities.  He has worked nationally and locally on efforts to increase citizenship, voter participation and the Census and is recognized nationally and locally as an active leader and expert in Latino civic engagement and elections policy.

Before joining CCF, Escobedo was the manager of governmental and legislative affairs for the Registrar of Voters in Los Angeles County, the largest election jurisdiction in the nation with more than 4.5 million registered voters. There, he worked with elected officials to enact numerous initiatives aimed at making the voting process easier for Angelenos, including the authorization of online voter registration. His work also included launching a partnership with the design firm IDEO to modernize LA County’s voting systems using a participatory human-centered design approach—a first of its kind project in elections.

Escobedo also served as senior director of civic engagement for the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) Educational Fund, where he helped develop and lead several national efforts in the areas of Citizenship, voter participation, and the 2010 Census.  He was instrumental in the development of innovative voter contact strategies and technologies that helped to engage more than one million young, newly registered and infrequent Latino voters across the country.

Escobedo earned his bachelor’s degree in American studies and ethnicity from the University of Southern California and is a recent graduate of the Los Angeles County Executive Leadership Program.

Lorelle L. Espinosa is the vice president for research at the American Council on Education (ACE). In this role, she is responsible for developing the organization’s thought leadership and research agenda and for ensuring a consistent evidence base across ACE’s array of programs and services. With more than 20 years of experience in higher education practice, policy, and research, Espinosa is a national voice on issues pertaining to college access and success for diverse populations and on the role of equity-minded leadership in postsecondary settings. 

Espinosa is co-chair of the National Academies study committee, "Closing the Equity Gap: Revitalizing STEM Education and Workforce Readiness Programs in the Nation’s Minority-Serving Institutions." Her current research includes a three-year grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to examine race and ethnicity in higher education, and multiple collaborations with scholars from around the country to translate important academic research for policy and practitioner audiences. 

Espinosa earned her Ph.D. in higher education and organizational change from the University of California, Los Angeles; her bachelor of arts from the University of California, Davis; and her associate of arts from Santa Barbara City College.

Noreen Farrell’s entire legal career has been dedicated to the pursuit of social justice. She has been named one of the 2012 Top Women Leaders in Law by The Recorder, one of the 2013 Top 100 Women Lawyers in California by the Daily Journal, and one of the Top Legal Innovators of 2014 by The Recorder.

Farrell is a nationally recognized leader on a variety of gender justice issues. She chairs the Equal Pay Today! Campaign, a national campaign led by ERA and 20 other organizational partners closing the gender wage gap in states across the country. She also founded and now chairs A Stronger California Advocates Network, a collaboration of 30 organizations advancing a comprehensive women’s economic security policy agenda. A key victory of the Stronger California Campaign in 2015 was passage of the California Fair Pay Act, a bill co-sponsored by ERA that is the strongest equal pay law in the country. Farrell also leads national impact efforts to address gender discrimination in schools, sexual harassment, workplace leave and accommodation, and the protection of caregivers from discrimination at work.

Growing up in grassroots movements, as the son of labor union organizers, Flores inherited an undying accountability to community struggles. From land struggles with South Central farmers, immigration reform, supermarket workers union strike, and the indigenous Zapatista struggle, to the everyday community struggles in East Los Angeles, he has been active with music in hand. Since 1993, he has been working as the musical director for the East Los Angeles based rock group Quetzal. Since 2002, Flores has been a central figure in the transnational dialogue between Chicana/o musicians and artists from California and Mexicano musicians and dancers from Veracruz, Mexico, under the organizing auspices of “Fandango Sin Fronteras.” Flores co-founded Artivist Entertainment, a Los Angeles based organization dedicated to supporting and creating music and art that inspires positive social change, with Aloe Blacc, Maya Jupiter, Veronica Gonzalez and Alberto Lopez. He also serves as Director of Arts and Culture at the East Los Angeles Community Corporation.

Rodney Foxworth's career has focused on social entrepreneurship, philanthropy, impact investing, and economic development. Most recently, he founded Invested Impact, a consulting firm and intermediary, to help individuals and institutions better invest in promising ideas and social change leaders and enterprises. The firm has advised and partnered with numerous organizations, including the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Aspen Institute, Greater Washington Community Foundation, and T. Rowe Price. The firm’s most visible project has been Ours To Own Baltimore, in partnership with Calvert Foundation and Humanim, which has raised more than $5-million in social impact investment from Baltimore investors. Foxworth also cofounded Impact Hub Baltimore, a coworking space for social entrepreneurs. Previously, Foxworth worked at BMe, a national leadership network of African-American men developed by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation in partnership with Open Society Foundations, and at Job Opportunities Task Force, an advocacy organization and think tank focused on workforce development issues affecting low-wealth communities.

A 2016 BALLE Local Economy Fellow, Foxworth is an established thought leader on impact investing, philanthropy, equity, and entrepreneurship and has appeared on main-stages including SOCAP, TEDx, Council on Foundations, and Brookings Institution, and is widely published, including a chapter in the New York Times bestseller Reach: 40 Black Men Speak on Living, Leading, and Succeeding, edited by Ben Jealous.

As senior program officer for education, Dr. John Garcia III manages outreach, initiatives and grantmaking focused on improving educational outcomes and opportunities in Los Angeles County.

Previously, Garcia served as a consultant with Jobs for the Future, the Southern Regional Education Board and the National Governors Association. He spent four years as a school counselor in an urban school district and was the Westside Impact Teacher of the Year in 2010. Garcia also served as an adjunct professor at Phoenix Community College, teaching college success strategies, and was the founding director of the Arizona College Access Network. He has served as a policy analyst for the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics and was a doctoral resident with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Garcia holds a business degree in supply chain management and a Master of Counseling from Arizona State University. He earned his doctorate in education leadership from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Elizabeth González joined College Futures Foundation in 2019. As chief program & strategy officer, González works closely with the president to manage the development and implementation of the Foundation’s strategy. 

Previously, González was a portfolio director and senior program officer at The James Irvine Foundation, where she initially oversaw the Youth program and, more recently, the Better Careers initiative, postsecondary success grantmaking, and Linked Learning, Irvine’s effort to integrate academic and career-technical education for better student outcomes in high schools throughout California. Prior to her work at the Irvine Foundation, González was a postsecondary success program officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. At First 5 Los Angeles, González served as a senior program officer, developing and managing investments in developmental health and early learning while leading the organization’s strategic planning.

A first-generation college graduate, González earned a B.A. from Columbia University, and a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of California, Los Angeles. She currently serves on the board of Grantmakers for Education.

Vijay Gupta is a violinist and social justice advocate. An esteemed performer, communicator, educator and citizen-artist, Gupta is a leading advocate for the role of the arts and music to heal, inspire, provoke change, and foster social connection. Gupta is the founder and Artistic Director of Street Symphony, a non-profit organization providing musical engagement, dialogue and teaching artistry for homeless and incarcerated communities in Los Angeles. 

Vijay Gupta is a 2018 John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Fellow. A passionate and dedicated educator, Gupta serves on the faculty of the Colburn School and the Longy School of Music. Gupta also serves on the board of directors of the DC-based national arts advocacy organization Americans for the Arts, as well as Los Angeles’s beloved 24th Street Theatre. Vijay Gupta made his solo debut with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Zubin Mehta at age 11 and has been an acclaimed international performer since the age of 8. Gupta joined the Los Angeles Philharmonic at age 19 and served as member of the first violin section through 2018. He has appeared as a guest concertmaster with the Los Angeles Opera and the Philharmonia Orchestra of London, and is an active recitalist, soloist and chamber musician. Gupta also speaks and advocates nationally on the intersection of music, health, and social justice issues.

Aziza Hasan, named an influencer by the Chronicle of Philanthropy, is the Executive Director of NewGround: A Muslim Jewish Partnership For Change. She has extensive experience in program management and coalition building. An experienced mediator and conflict transformation practitioner, she has co-facilitated with multiple groups. Hasan's work has been featured on Ozy, Yahoo News, MSN, Public Radio’s “Speaking of Faith” with Krista Tippett, the United States Institute for Peace, Arabic Radio and Television, and the LA Times. 

Her two years of AmeriCorps service gave her hands-on experience in community organizing and group problem-solving. She earned the “President’s Volunteer Service Award” in 2006 under President George W. Bush. Hasan served on President Obama’s Advisory Council on Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships from 2015 to 2016, and the Executive Service Corps recognized her with the “Megan G. Cooper Leadership Award” in 2017. Hasan currently serves on Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti’s Interfaith Advisory Council and is a volunteer mediator with the Los Angeles City Attorney’s office.

Diane Helfrey is Vice President, Program Officer with JPMorgan Chase & Co., responsible for philanthropic strategy and grantmaking in Los Angeles County and Central California. The firm’s efforts drive inclusive economic growth through Jobs & Skills, Financial Health, Neighborhood Revitalization, and Small Business Expansion.  From 2005-2016, Helfrey served as Executive Director for Social Venture Partners Los Angeles, a philanthropic organization that pools the money, time and talent of individuals to build the capacity of local nonprofit organizations.  From 2006-2010, she was also VP, Client Services for EdTec Inc., a business services provider for charter schools. Helfrey previously spent 10 years with Bank of America and predecessor NationsBank, most recently as Quality & Productivity Executive for the Asset Management Group. Helfrey earned her MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a BA with honors in Management Science from the UC San Diego. She is active in the Stanford GSB Alumni Women’s Circles program, is a SheEO Activator, and recently served as the Board Treasurer of Social Venture Partners International.

A native of Los Angeles and daughter of Mexican immigrants, Eunisses Hernandez comes to JustLeadershipUSA (JLUSA) with experience in advocacy and providing direct services to people impacted by mass incarceration and criminalization. She has assisted people impacted by conviction records by helping them obtain employment, clear their record, and gain access supportive services. She has been an advocate for social justice and racial equity and a champion for civic engagement. She received her BA from California State University, Long Beach, where she majored in criminal justice. Prior to joining JLUSA, Hernandez was a policy coordinator with the Drug Policy Alliance where she worked on passing and implementing key California ballot measures, including the historic marijuana legalization initiative Proposition 64 and the felony reclassification initiative Proposition 47. She has advocated for millions in funding for pre-booking diversion programs in California that have led to the implementation of programs that keep people out of prison and jail, helping hundreds of people remove or reduce prior convictions. She has also advocated for California’s successful passage of civil asset forfeiture reform legislation in 2016. Most recently, she successfully led campaigns to eliminate highly used sentencing enhancements by passing the RISE Act in 2017 and The Fair and Just Sentencing Act in 2018.

James E. Herr (Jim) has nearly 20 years of experience in the philanthropic sector. First in the corporate sector at Sony Pictures Entertainment as manager of Corporate Social Responsibility and then as the Western Region manager for The Boeing Company’s Global Corporate Citizenship outreach. Herr was then a program officer at California Community Foundation and is now a program officer Annenberg Foundation. Herr has also been a consultant for a number of local and national foundations and nonprofit organizations focusing on strategy and leadership. He participated in Leadership Southern California, was an America’s Leaders of Change Fellow at National Urban Fellows and was part of the GCS Leadership Exchange and Visitation Program in Seoul Korea. He has served in leadership positions with nearly a dozen nonprofit organizations and served as Human Relations Commissioner for the City of Los Angeles. Herr received multiple degrees from Temple University and an MBA from Loyola Marymount University. Herr has had a long and active interest in various forms of music and filmmaking and is passionate that the Arts play a pivotal role in our human development and holds the key to advancing our society. A resident of Southern California for 23 years, Herr recently moved back to the Westside where he enjoys his mother’s Filipino cooking and the company of his two dogs.

Nichole Hoeflich is a director at Grantmakers for Effective Organizations. GEO is a diverse community of more than 450 grantmakers working to reshape the way philanthropy operates. The community is committed to advancing smarter grantmaking practices that enable nonprofits to grow stronger and achieve better results. As part of GEO’s program team, Hoeflich supports content planning and development for GEO conferences, remote learning opportunities, publications and other programming.

Before joining GEO she worked at the Center for American Progress as a Graduate Student Fellow on their K-12 Education Policy team. Prior to this, she taught high school social studies at Ivy Collegiate Academy, an international boarding school in Taichung City, Taiwan, where she also served as the dean of students and the social studies department chair.

Hoeflich earned her masters of science in public policy and management from Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz College and her bachelor of arts in history and education from Clarke University.

Amber-Rose Howard is a poet, public speaker and organizer from Pomona, California. Experiencing a felony conviction as a young adult propelled Howard into a lifetime commitment of organizing against the Prison Industrial Complex and building up the power of Black people and all others impacted by state violence. Howard holds a BA in Communication Studies concentrated in Public Argumentation & Rhetoric from California State University, San Bernardino. She is a graduate of the Women’s Foundation of California, Women’s Policy Institute fellowship program and a proud member of All of Us Or None. Howard currently directs Policy and Budget Advocacy as a Statewide Coordinator for Californians United for a Responsible Budget (CURB), a statewide coalition of over 80 grassroots organizations working to reduce the amount of people incarcerated, stop prison and jail construction and expansion, and shift state and local spending from policing and corrections to supportive human services, bridging movements for racial, economic and environmental justice in CA and across the Nation.

Adrian H. Huerta, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of education in the Pullias Center for Higher Education situated in the Rossier School of Education at the University of Southern California. His research focuses on boys and men of color, college access and equity, and gang-associated youth. Dr. Huerta’s research has been funded by the ECMC Foundation, Center for Research on College to Workforce Transitions, Volunteers for America, and others. His scholarship appears in the Boyhood Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, Teachers College Record, The Urban Review, Urban Education, and other practitioner and scholarly journals.

Chris Hubbard manages all permanent, affordable housing projects in CCF’s Health & Housing portfolio.

Before joining CCF in November 2007, Hubbard worked for J.D. Power and Associates and as a real estate agent, loan officer and foreclosure avoidance specialist.  His life experience includes living in Greece and Sri Lanka.

Hubbard has a bachelor’s in finance from California State University, Northridge and a master’s from California State University, Fullerton, and is a graduate of Leadership Southern California and the Riordan Volunteer Leadership Development Program of the Los Angeles Junior Chamber of Commerce. Hubbard dedicates much of his free time to volunteer community service in Los Angeles. 

As a licensed acupuncturist and an experienced organizer, Mark-Anthony Johnson served as the Director of Health and Wellness at Dignity and Power Now. In this capacity, he provided strategic support for DPN’s two member-led campaigns for a legally empowered and independent civilian oversight commission of the sheriff’s department and to stop Los Angeles’ proposed $4 billion jail construction plan. He also led the Building Resilience project of DPN, a collaboration of formerly incarcerated people, organizers, health care providers and academics whose goal is to decarcerate the county jails via the diversion of incarcerated people into community-based treatment and the creation of community-based spaces to address the trauma of state violence. As a 2017 Soros Justice Fellow, Johnson founded the Frontline Wellness Network, a network of health care providers working to end the public health crisis of incarceration through action-oriented political education and bridging relationships between providers and grassroots campaigns against state violence. The FWN is a member of the executive team of the JusticeLA, a Los Angeles based coalition that has successfully stopped the County from spending billions on mental health jails while reallocating those funds to community based treatment.

Piper Kamins is a Program Officer at The Ralph M. Parsons Foundation. Her previous nonprofit experience includes several years in program management at Chrysalis and the YMCA of Metropolitan Los Angeles. Kamins has also consulted for the Vera Institute of Justice and the Cambridge Police Department. She holds a bachelor’s degree in sociology from UC Berkeley and a master’s degree in public policy from the Harvard Kennedy School, where she was a Fellow with the Program in Criminal Justice Policy. Kamins was born and raised in Los Angeles.

Stewart Kwoh is the Founder of Asian Americans Advancing Justice | Los Angeles (formerly known as the Asian Pacific American Legal Center). Kwoh is a nationally recognized leader and expert in race relations, Asian American studies, nonprofit organizations and philanthropies, civil rights, and legal services. He was named a MacArthur Foundation Fellow in 1998, becoming the first Asian American attorney and human rights activist to receive this highly prestigious recognition, often referred to as the “genius grant.”

In 1983, Kwoh co-founded Asian Americans Advancing Justice | Los Angeles, the nation’s largest Asian American legal and civil rights organization that serves more than 15,000 individuals and organizations every year. Advancing Justice | Los Angeles’s mission is to advocate for civil rights, provide legal services and education, and build coalitions to positively influence and impact Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders (NHPI) and to create a more equitable and harmonious society. The organization provides direct services to individual clients; engages in policy advocacy, research and analysis; litigates impact lawsuits; and provides social change-based leadership training. Advancing Justice | Los Angeles has successfully challenged garment sweatshops, English-only workplace policies, racially discriminatory employment practices and unfair immigration laws as well as advocated for stronger protections for low-wage workers, limited-English-speaking immigrants, and hate crime victims.

Under Kwoh’s leadership, Advancing Justice | Los Angeles has become a leading advocate for Asian American and NHPI communities while working to build bridges with African American, Latino, and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities. 
Kwoh earned his bachelor’s degree from University of California, Los Angeles and his J.D. from the UCLA School of Law.

Chauncy Lennon joined Lumina Foundation in the newly created role of vice president for the future of learning and work in 2018, helping build out new ideas to advance the foundation's attainment agenda.

Lennon came to Lumina after nearly five years as a managing director and head of workforce strategy at JPMorgan Chase & Co., where he drove the firm’s $350 million investment in philanthropic initiatives. He previously led grant portfolios at Ford Foundation related to economic advancement and workforce development. Since 2015, Lennon has served on the national advisory board of the College Promise Campaign, and the New York City Workforce Development Board.

Lennon is a graduate of Williams College. He was awarded a master’s from the University of Chicago and a doctorate in anthropology from Columbia University.

Brie Loskota is the executive director of the Center for Religion and Civic Culture at the University of Southern California. Her research explores how religions change and make change in the world. She is a leading voice working to enhance religious pluralism and community resilience in the US and around the globe. Loskota advises foundations and government agencies on strategies for effective partnership and engagement. She is co-founder and senior advisor to the American Muslim Civic Leadership Institute and implementing partner for the United State Institute of Peace’s Generation Change program where she trains emerging leaders committed to peace-building from the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Colombia. 

Her writings have been published by the Los Angeles Times, USA Today, Religion Dispatches, Los Angeles Magazine, Zocalo, Brookings Institute, Aspen Institute, Chicago Council on Global Affairs, German Marshall Fund, Huffington Post, and Trans-Missions. Her commentary has been featured in the Economist, National Public Radio, Washington Post, Public Broadcasting, Voice of America, the Norwegian Broadcast Corporation and Take Part Live.

 
She is a member of the Pacific Council on International Policy, a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a member of the CFR Religion Advisory Committee, a Truman National Security Fellow, a German Marshall Memorial Foundation Fellow, and fellow at the Safe Communities Institute at USC. She was awarded the inaugural Fearless Ally award in 2016 by the El-Hibri Foundation for her work with the American Muslim Community. In 2017, the World Economic Forum named Loskota a Young Global Leader. She is on the boards of several non-profit organizations and government bodies working at the intersections of religion and public life and was appointed by Mayor Eric Garcetti to two terms on his interfaith collaborative advisory group.

Valerie Lundy-Wagner is a Senior Research Analyst at California Competes: Higher Education for a Strong Economy. She has nearly 20 years of experience with higher education research, technical assistance, and advocacy. In her current role, Lundy-Wagner is primarily responsible for developing a research agenda that ensures a data-driven approach to advocacy. During the last year, she co-led the California Higher Education Equity Coalition work related to a statewide longitudinal data system and provided testimony to the Legislature on that topic. 

Prior to this, she worked in Jobs for the Future’s Oakland, CA office providing leadership on multiple initiatives related primarily to postsecondary education (e.g., statewide guided pathways implementation, the Student Success Center Network, and the Postsecondary State Policy Network) and regional cross-sector engagement by K-12, higher education, and workforce partners (e.g., Career Pathways Trust, California Rural Partnerships Alliance, Linked Learning Regional Hubs of Excellence). That work was a direct extension of her time at the Community College Research Center where she examined two-year colleges within collective impact strategies, career pathways, STEM labor market outcomes, and minority-serving institutions. 

A California native, Dr. Lundy-Wagner earned her bachelor’s degree in civil and environmental engineering from the UCLA, a master’s degree in education from Stanford, and a PhD in higher education from the University of Pennsylvania. She was also a post-doctoral scholar in engineering education at Purdue University and faculty fellow in higher education at New York University.

Since 2006, Maguire has studied the intersecting and interacting forces shaping the future of how we learn, work, play and take care of one another. While her research efforts stem from her deep understanding of health care policy, her foresight work situates the future of health and health care within the context of external forces that are shaping the next decade. Maguire combines the linear trends affecting health and healthcare with larger technological, demographic and economic influences to better anticipate directional change in the future of self-care and clinical care.

Maguire believes that this is an exciting time for health care systems across the globe to think about transformation. Social and technological forces are uprooting long-standing practices, processes, and paradigms in health care, opening the door to new approaches to extending ‘healthspans’ and supporting well-being. Amid the uncertainty and volatility in health care today, futures thinking and forecasting are essential tools for enabling health care delivery systems to better prepare for a constantly evolving health and well-being landscape.

William F. L. Moses serves as managing director for The Kresge Foundation’s Education Program, which supports postsecondary access and success for low-income, first-generation and underrepresented students. The key architect of Kresge’s education programming, Moses leads the team’s continuum of domestic and international grant activities from developing program strategy, reviewing preliminary ideas, and helping grantees develop proposals or initiatives, to awarding funding and monitoring existing grants. Since his arrival at Kresge, Moses has served as a program officer and senior program officer, was instrumental in developing Kresge’s Green Building Initiative and has spearheaded the foundation’s grantmaking in South Africa.

Before joining Kresge, Moses served as executive director of The Thomas J. Watson Foundation in Rhode Island and as a senior analyst at the Investor Responsibility Research Center in Washington, D.C. He also worked as a research officer at TechnoServe and held various administrative positions in Alaska’s state legislature and the federal government, including the U.S. Embassy in Cape Town, South Africa.

A graduate of Claremont McKenna College, Moses holds a master’s degree in international relations from Yale University. He is the author of “A Guide to American State and Local Laws on South Africa” and co-author of “Corporate Responsibility in a Changing South Africa.” He was the co-chair of the seven-foundation Partnership for Higher Education in Africa and serves on the steering committee of the Africa Grantmakers’ Affinity Group, an organization he co-founded. He also is a member of the National Advisory Board of The College Promise Campaign.

Sally Munemitsu, Co-Founder, COO and Chief Collaborator, builds and manages Algorhythm’s internal and external relationships to ensure that our work together is meaningful and efficient. Munemitsu has specialized in program and grants management and capacity building for more than 20 years and has particular expertise in developing and implementing capacity building initiatives, the utilization of evaluation data to improve program design and implementation, and in corporate community involvement. Her strengths lie in taking overarching strategy and learnings and making them practical and feasible on the ground – working closely with individuals and teams to make things work. She has worked with clients such as the YMCA of the USA, Youth INC, the Youth Development Institute, Annie E. Casey Foundation, Laureus Sport for Good Foundation, the LA Dodgers Foundation, A Place Called Home, OneOC, Elma Philanthropies, the New York Community Trust, the Chicago Cubs and the IKEA Foundation. Prior to founding Algorhythm, Munemitsu was the Director of Program/Grants Management and Capacity Building at TCC Group (social impact consulting firm). Munemitsu is a graduate of the Wharton Lauder MBA-MA program at the University of Pennsylvania and began her career as an ESL (English as a Second Language) teacher in Japan.

Tracie Neuhaus works with mission-minded leaders to help them develop compelling strategies for tackling some of society’s biggest problems. As a Senior Manager with Monitor Institute by Deloitte, she draws upon almost 20 years of experience across the non-profit and for-profit sectors advising social entrepreneurs, foundation leaders, and public sector organizations on issues of strategy, growth planning, social impact measurement, and organizational effectiveness, with particular expertise in the fields of workforce development and education. Her latest report, Supporting worker success in the age of automation, was published in June 2019.

Neuhaus has an undergraduate degree from Georgetown University and an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to joining the Institute, Neuhaus worked in Monitor Group’s commercial practice in Europe. She began her career as a financial analyst, contributing to her deep interest in organizations operating at the intersection of the business and social sectors.

Tim Ortez, CPA, joined the Weingart Foundation in 2016 as Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Prior to coming to the Foundation, Tim served in similar roles for the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, bringing with him over 30 years of experience in the finance and nonprofit sectors. Tim has served on the boards of several nonprofit organizations, including Sierra Nevada Journeys, a nonprofit serving middle-school aged children, and the University of Nevada, Reno Foundation. He was also an outside advisor to the investment committee of the Loma Linda Health Sciences University Foundation. Tim earned his B.S. in business administration at the University of Southern California and completed post-graduate work in finance and economics at the University of Nevada, Reno. Tim is a Certified Public Accountant.

Kaci Patterson is Owner & Principal of Social Good Solutions, a boutique consulting practice specializing in advancing community-driven social change. Her work includes issue areas such as equity-based grantmaking, Census 2020, Black infant mortality and early childhood development. Prior to consulting, Patterson held entry-to-executive-level roles within the nonprofit sector, leading capacity building, education advocacy and social justice initiatives; serving networks of organizations as well as over 1,000 civil society leaders and public officials worldwide.

In addition to managing multi-million-dollar grant-making portfolios in the United States and abroad, Patterson has created programs recognized as breakthrough contributions to the field: The School Boards and Community Engagement Initiative, highlighted in 2011 by Harder+ Co Community Research as a transformational strategy; B.L.A.C.C. (Building Leaders and Cultivating Change), a grassroots social activism fund for which she was named a 2016 California Community Foundation Unsung Hero of Los Angeles; and, in 2017, the Black Equity Initiative launched, a racial justice, systems change effort she designed and continues to manage. 

She is the recipient of the 2017 Liberty Hill Foundation Wally Marks Change Maker of the Year award. Patterson currently serves as a board member of Social Venture Partners--LA and is also a member of the Liberty Hill Foundation Advisory Council.

Michele Prichard is Director of the Common Agenda program, which guides collaborative efforts to change public policy through cutting-edge research, alliance-building and community organizing, including current efforts to establish Green Zones in toxic hotspot communities and end neighborhood oil drilling. Prichard was instrumental in designing and implementing a process to gather community input into the newly-adopted Los Angeles County Sustainability Plan.

In 2014, she led the UCLA Community Scholars, which engaged graduate students and community leaders to research strategies to address climate change in low-income neighborhoods of LA. Prichard was appointed by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa in 2011 to the Harbor Community Benefit Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to improving the Port communities of Wilmington and San Pedro. Prichard has served as Senior Advisor to California Calls since 2012, and as a Senior Fellow in the UCLA School of Public Affairs since 2007, where she earned her M.A. in Urban Planning in 1989. Prichard is co-author of Hidden Hazards and LA Rising, both accessible on the Liberty Hill website.

In April 2012, Prichard received the Distinguished Service Award from the Council on Foundations, the association’s highest honor and Liberty Hill’s Founders Award at the 2015 Upton Sinclair Award Dinner. In 2018, she received the “Green Leadership Award” from the LA County Board of Supervisors Chair.

Michelle Rhone-Collins joined LIFT in 2012 as the Founding LIFT-Los Angeles Executive Director. Under her leadership, LIFT-LA has become the organization’s largest and most financially successful operation. Rhone-Collins also seeded many of the program innovations that are now core to LIFT’s nationwide program model, most notably the focus on an intergenerational approach to breaking the cycle of poverty that targets parents and children in the formative early childhood years. In 2017, Rhone-Collins was promoted to Chief Cities Officer, overseeing all of LIFT’s regional operations and serving on the national Executive Team. In this capacity, Rhone-Collins was instrumental in developing LIFT’s current strategic plan, which offers a bold vision to extend LIFT’s direct services to 25,000 more parents and children and to launch a systems change strategy to reach the nearly 6 million families with young children living in poverty in the US. In January 2019, Rhone-Collins was promoted to the role of Chief Executive Officer.

Rhone-Collins's career has been defined by standing up for equity and access for disenfranchised individuals and communities. Prior to joining LIFT, Rhone-Collins spent nearly 20 years leading youth and community development efforts in New York and Los Angeles. She began her career working with homeless and runaway teens as part of the University Settlement House in NYC’s Lower East Side. From there, she served in senior leadership roles at the Citizens Committee for New York City and the Beacon Community Center. She then moved to Los Angeles and led the New Vision Partners Youth Institute and, later, The Children’s Nature Institute.

Ellah Ronen comes to CCF from The Annenberg Foundation, continuing her role as the program officer for LA n Sync- a public private partnership that has helped generate more than $190 million for the L.A. region, along with four designations, including two Promise Zones. She is responsible for coordinating the transition of LA n Sync from Annenberg to CCF as well its continued efforts to attract government investment to Los Angeles County.

Before coming to CCF, Ronen was an English teacher in Ecuador and Israel. She has a B.A. in comparative literature with a minor in women’s studies from University of California, Santa Barbara, and is currently pursuing her master’s degree.

Tiffany Rubin is the Director of Youth Programs for the Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation (LADF) where she is responsible for the oversight of all Youth Programs to include both Dodgers RBI (Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities) and Dodgers Dreamfields, ensuring consistency, efficient use of resources and refined messaging across both programs. She joined LADF as the Manager of Dodgers RBI in December 2015. During her time with LADF she has led the strategic expansion of Dodgers RBI, growing the number of youth served from 6,000 to 10,500 today, at 85 locations and developed the expansion of the Dodgers Dreamfields program. Rubin has a passion for sports based youth development and the outcomes and impact sports can have. She has successfully collaborated with corporations, foundations and non-profits to improve activity in underserved communities. Softball played an influential role in Rubin's life where she played at the collegiate level and earned her degree in Business Administration from Morgan State University. After graduating Rubin spent two years working in Community Outreach for the Philadelphia Phillies. She currently resides in Los Angeles.

Christine Ryan is the Sr. PRI Analyst at TCE where her work focuses on programmatically aligning capital investments to support the growth of healthy, sustainable communities. Her responsibilities include portfolio management, compliance, underwriting, due diligence, and supporting new business development. Ryan has financial and portfolio management experience in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. Prior to joining TCE, she was a portfolio manager with the Office of Development Credit at the US Agency for International Development. She holds a B.S. in Finance from Fordham University and a Master’s in International Relations and Economics from the University of California, San Diego.

Angela Sanchez is a program officer for College Success at ECMC Foundation, a national funder focused exclusively in postsecondary education. In her role, Sanchez oversees grants that increase college persistence, two-year transfer and bachelor degree completion for students from underrepresented backgrounds. Sanchez is also the co-chair for Grantmakers for Education’s Postsecondary Access and Attainment (PSA2) Group, which provides collaborative learning opportunities for funders in postsecondary education nationwide. Prior to ECMC Foundation, Sanchez worked in student affairs at the University of California, Los Angeles, where she leveraged her background in student program development and assessment to support Alumni Diversity Programs and the Graduate Student Resource Center. Outside of ECMC Foundation, Sanchez serves on the board of directors for the Los Angeles-based nonprofit School on Wheels, Inc., which provides academic support to K-12 students experiencing homelessness. On the subject of family homelessness, Sanchez has guest lectured at USC’s Price School of Public Policy and also written a children’s picture book series.

Sanchez earned her master's in education with a focus in student affairs and a bachelor's in history from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Adam Schickedanz, MD PhD, is a pediatrician and Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and a health services researcher at the UCLA Children's Discovery and Innovation Institute. For the last decade, he and his community partners (including LIFT-Los Angeles) have developed innovative health delivery models that address the social determinants of health by providing financial services directly to patients in safety net clinical settings. He coined the term Medical-Financial Partnership to describe these new models of care and has helped disseminate this approach and develop best practices with a national network of clinicians and financial capability services professionals.

Schott joined Accion in 2004, where she worked in operational roles for four years prior to taking the CEO role in early 2009. She is responsible for overall strategic and operational areas of the organization in Southern CA, in addition to board development, human resources, and major fundraising. She brings 20 years of project and organizational development, strategic marketing and PR experience working primarily in small business and nonprofit sectors.

In recent years she has been recognized with the SBA Financial Services Champion of the Year award and as a recipient of the San Diego Metro’s 40 under 40 Award, and she is a graduate of multiple leadership programs through Fieldstone. She loves to be active outdoors, volunteer and spend time with friends/family, her husband, 5-year old daughter and 2 year old twin boys (who keep her on her toes).

Ruth Shaber MD is the founder and president of the Tara Health Foundation, which promotes health, well-being and opportunity for women and girls through innovative evidence-informed programs.  She is also the co-founder and board chair of Rhia Ventures, a group of foundations and investors that collaborate to bring new types of capital and enterprise to the field of reproductive health in the United States.

Shaber started her career as an Obstetrician and Gynecology at the Kaiser Permanente South San Francisco Medical Center in 1990. In addition to her clinical responsibilities, she had many leadership positions at Kaiser Permanente including chief of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Director of Women’s Health and founder of the Women’s Health Research Institute. Shaber was the Medical Director at the Kaiser Permanente Care Management Institute from 2007 to 2012 where she worked with Kaiser Permanente's regional and national leaders to apply the best evidence and successful systems approaches to create reliable clinical performance.

Shaber received her B.A. from Yale University and her medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania. She served her residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of California in San Francisco

Renata Simril is President and CEO of the LA84 Foundation (www.LA84.org). Formed in 1985, originally as the Amateur Athletic Foundation, the LA84 Foundation (“LA84” or the “Foundation”) is a legacy of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Summer Games. The LA84 Foundation transforms lives through its investment in youth sport programs, infrastructure, research, and education across eight Counties of Southern California, and is a national leader in elevating the role that sports play in positive youth development.

Three primary activities support the Foundation’s mission (“Life Ready Through Sport”) of expanding youth sports in Southern California: grant-making investments in sports activities intended to create, expand and/or enhance structure youth sport participation across the region, with particular emphasis on under-served communities, including girls, ethnic minorities, and physically challenged and developmentally disabled; coaching education and training; and, research, youth sports related resources and public information. The Foundation has impacted the region through investments of $230 million in grants and programs to more than 2,200 organizations in support of over 3 million young people; support of the construction and/or renovation of over 100 sports facilities; educational/training clinics for more than 80,000 coaches; and, one of the nation’s largest sports libraries and an Olympic memorabilia collection. 

Ms. Simril 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. Ms. Simril began her career in the U.S. Army as a Military Police Officer in the U.S. and Germany. 

Ms. Simril is active in the community outside of LA84 Foundation, currently serving 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 formerly served as a Governor’s Appointee on the California Science Center Board, where she led successful negotiations of long-term lease agreements for USC to manage and operate the Coliseum and Sports Arena properties; as Chair of the Board of Regents for LMU, and as a member of the Lusk Center for Real Estate at USC. 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 Simril received the WISE LA (Women in Sports and Entertainment) Women of Inspiration award in 2016. Ms. Simril is a third-generation Angeleno. She earned a Bachelor’s degree in Urban Studies from Loyola Marymount University and a Master’s Degree in Real Estate Development from USC. Ms. Simril resides in Studio City with her husband and two sons. 

As program manager for the USC Cecil Murray Center for Community Engagement, the Rev. Najuma Smith-Pollard combines her experience as a pastor and expertise as a community leader to run programs that train pastors to take on civic engagement work.

Smith-Pollard also is a pastor, motivational speaker, author, life coach, radio personality and community activist.

She accepted her call to ministry in 1996, while serving under the phenomenal tutelage of the Rev. Cecil L. “Chip” Murray, her father in ministry. Smith-Pollard was ordained as a Deacon in 1996 and as an Itinerant Elder in 2000. Since that time, she has served as Assistant Pastor and Pastor of Family Ministries at Christ Our Redeemer AME Church in Irvine, California; Pastor of A.K. Quinn AME Church in Moreno Valley, California; and Pastor of St. James AME Church in Los Angeles, California. In 2014, Smith-Pollard launched Word of Encouragement Community Church (WOECC.ORG) in Los Angeles. She is a frequent speaker at churches and church conferences.

Pursuing her passion to serve others beyond the walls of the church, Smith-Pollard founded the company Living on Assignment, LLC, a personal development coaching and consulting firm that helps people live rich and meaningful lives. She is also the executive director for the Southern California School of Ministry. She founded a sexual violence awareness and training campaign called “It’s Not Okay” (www.itsnotokay.org). Combining her passion for social justice and entrepreneurship, Smith-Pollard established Chocolate Tee’s, an urban apparel company that uses a portion of its profits to support selected non-profit efforts and the “It’s Not Okay” campaign.  She also leads the “…And She Can Preach!” mastermind group, committed to supporting emerging women preachers.

Smith-Pollard holds a B.S. in management from Pepperdine University, a Bachelor of Theology degree from the Southern California School of Ministry, an M.B.A. from Woodbury University and a Doctorate in Ministry from United Theological Seminary. She is an alumna of the “Passing The Mantle” Civic Engagement and Community Development Institute at USC, the precursor to the USC Cecil Murray Center’s Faith Leaders Institute.

Vanessa Smith is a Community Investor for Boeing’s Global Corporate Citizenship in Southern California where she manages the company’s environmental and education (early learning & K-12) portfolio. In this position, Smith partners with non-profit, non-governmental organizations in the region to invest corporate and local resources, supporting sustainable, positive impact in communities where Boeing employees live and work. Prior to this position, Smith was responsible for engaging with employees to address community needs through traditional and skills-based volunteerism. 

Smith is a graduate of Leadership Los Angeles, a program devoted to key community issues and personal development. She also graduated from Hispanas Organized for Political Equality (HOPE) Leadership Institute, where she was an active participant in the dynamics of the local, state and national political process and advocated on issues impacting Latinas.

Before joining Boeing, Smith managed the International Trade Department for the LA Area Chamber of Commerce and was responsible for promoting international trade and advocating on behalf of international issues at both the state and federal level. 

Smith received her bachelor’s degree from the University of California, San Diego in Political Science and an MBA from Rady School of Management at University of California, San Diego.

Roxana Tynan joined LAANE in 2001 and served as Deputy Director for six years until assuming the position of Executive Director in February 2012.

Tynan has been instrumental in the expansion of LAANE’s work and impact over the past decade. She has also played a leading role in developing LAANE’s community organizing department, mentoring dozens of young organizers and creating one of the region’s most effective organizing and advocacy programs.

Prior to joining LAANE, Tynan served as economic development deputy to L.A. City Councilmember Jackie Goldberg. Tynan began her work life as an organizer for the Hotel and Restaurant Employees Union in Las Vegas and Los Angeles. A graduate of Yale, she is bilingual in English and Spanish. She lives with her husband and two children in Mt. Washington.

Katie Vlietstra Wonnenberg has 14 years of government relations and public affairs experience. She is a principal at Public Private Strategies, a boutique consulting firm that creates opportunities where the public and private sectors meet. The firm brings together diverse allies including foundations, associations, corporations, small businesses, and entrepreneurs to solve pressing societal challenges. 

Vlietstra Wonnenberg has significant policy expertise and depth in understanding the complexities of the self-employed, on-demand and gig workforce. For seven years, she was vice president for government relations and public affairs for the National Association for the Self-Employed, Katie led the association’s federal advocacy and public affairs strategy in representing the 27 million self-employed. She used her vast network and public policy experience to build an advocacy strategy rooted in building collaborative, dynamic coalitions and partnerships to advance NASE’s legislative priorities. In several instances, Vlietstra Wonnenberg has skillfully used Administrative tools to fast track policy initiatives.

Vlietstra Wonnenberg has contributed to many news outlets, including the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Politico, Roll Call, The Hill, USA Today, and CQ Weekly, and she has appeared on FOX, C-SPAN and MSNBC.

Shamya Ullah is a social justice activist and pioneer in the field of impact investing, focusing on the use of private capital for social good.  From developing strategies for fossil fuel, firearms, and private prison divestment to the newly launched UN Sustainable Development Goals Investment Portfolio, Ullah has directed over US$500,000,00 in capital towards impact strategies.

Ullah began her career on Wall Street in 1997 at Goldman Sachs, as a fixed income institutional analyst.  After moving to Los Angeles and working in the entertainment industry at firms including Propaganda Films and William Morris Agency, Ullah returned to finance at UBS and subsequently Morgan Stanley.  In 2017, she joined RBC Capital Markets as Portfolio Manager, overseeing a quarter billion dollars in assets for non-profits, foundations, endowments and donor advised funds. Her impact investment strategies include fossil fuel divestment, criminal justice reform through private prison and supply chain divestment, gender and POC lens investing and UN SDG incorporation.

She is a frequent speaker on Impact Investing, having presented or lectured at the USSIF / Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investing, United Nations in Geneva / Forum for Business and Human Rights, Columbia University, USC, UCLA, UC San Diego and the Ebell Women’s Club.

Amir Whitaker is a policy attorney with the ACLU of Southern California. Prior to joining the ACLU, Whitaker represented students and incarcerated youth throughout Florida and Alabama for the Southern Poverty Law Center. Referred to as a "civil rights and education stalwart" by the Daytona Times, Whitaker has negotiated settlements and policy changes improving the lives of hundreds of thousands of children. He has worked as a researcher with the UCLA Civil Rights Project, and has written for TIME Magazine, Washington Post and other publications. 

Whitaker has taught across multiple educational settings for more than a decade, and has held teaching credentials in Florida, California, and New Jersey. He received his doctorate in Educational Psychology from the University of Southern California, juris doctorate from the University of Miami, and his bachelors from Rutgers University. Often referred to as "Dr. KnuckleHead," Whitaker was arrested at age 15 and eventually expelled from school. In 2014, Whitaker started Project KnuckleHead to inspire vulnerable youth and help them reach their potential through education, music, and art programs. Whitaker is also the board chair of the Arts for Incarcerated Youth Network, a collaborative of a dozen organizations providing art programming to youth throughout LA county.

With a relentless dedication to improving the lives of others, Nichol Whiteman is the Executive Director of the Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation (LADF) where she leads the team’s charitable arm. Under her leadership, LADF launched Dodgers RBI (Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities), a youth development program serving over 10,000 youth. Part of its commitment to Southern California, the Foundation completed its 50th Dodgers Dreamfield, created a benefit gala, and increased fundraising by 1,000% with Whiteman at the helm. 

With a degree in Economics from Spelman College, Whiteman advocates for education and diversity. Her unwavering dedication resulted in positions in investment management and publishing before beginning a philanthropic career as VP, Western Region of the Jackie Robinson Foundation. As a child of Jamaican immigrants, she highlights the power of diversity in pushing for resources for marginalized populations. 

The New York native has been recognized throughout the industry for her exceptional contributions having earned the Anti-Defamation League's 2018 Deborah Award, Ebony Magazine's 2017 Woman Up Award, and The Pink Tea Rose Foundation's 2017 Progressive Leadership Award to name a few. She was also honored by the National Urban League Young Professionals of Los Angeles and the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority for her philanthropic and professional endeavors. Whiteman holds positions on the advisory boards including Covington Capital Management, A Better Chance, Inc., and The Positive Results Corporation. Additionally, she sits on the board of Positive Coaching Alliance. 

As an African American woman in Major League Baseball, Whiteman understands the importance of access and inclusion. She uses her resources to create opportunities for youth regardless of their roots. In addition to her professional achievements, she mentors countless men and women who she meets in the community. She resides in Los Angeles with her husband Timothy and two sons, Timothy Jr. and Nicholas.

Travon Williams is the Founder of OneWay Outreach Inc., a nonprofit organization seeking to improve the quality of life for at-risk youth and their families through sports, mentoring and educational projects in Los Angeles.  

He is the eldest son of the nine-time Nobel Prize nominee Stanley “Tookie” Williams.  He is a devoted father with a relentless drive for family, peace and community success.  He is a familiar voice and recognizable face that has established relationships with state officials, clergy leaders, entertainers, gang leaders as well as business affiliates.  

He is a member of the National Covenant of Peace, and in March 2006 he attended the Table of Peace Summit in Trenton, New Jersey.  Williams has spoken to at-risk youth incarcerated in Santa Cruz Juvenile Hall as well as students and faculty at UC Santa Cruz, with an insightful message covering redemption. Williams was a co-facilitator at Los Angeles Southwest College’s 2013 & 2017 Annual Strategies for the Development of Men of Color and served as a guest speaker for Social Change in the Community, which targeted local high school and college students on ways to LIVE [Lead, Initiate, Value, Educate].  He has also partnered with UCLA (University of California Los Angeles) in order to provide at-risk youth with the necessary tools for higher educational attainment.

He continues to work with high risk youth that live in the most challenging neighborhoods in various communities.  Through his father’s protocol for peace, he has brought together original gang members during his father’s era as well as today’s well known gang leaders/members for dialogue, sharing thoughts and strategic planning to combat the epidemic of gang violence that is plaguing our community here in Los Angeles.  Williams has been featured in numerous radio and internet interviews as well as an exclusive interview on BET’s (Black Entertainment Television) American Gangster Series. He has spoken to the youth at Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall, several junior and high schools throughout Los Angeles, Town Hall meetings, churches, San Jose, Stockton, Seaside and other locations. He is a former instructor of N.O.W. (Neighborhood Outreach Workers), located in Pasadena, CA where he taught youth and young adults about gang awareness and ways to establish peace.

Marguerite Young is Assistant Director of SEIU's Climate and Environmental Justice program. She is a lifelong activist with more than three decades of accomplishment and leadership as an organizer, policy advocate and coalition builder on behalf of the environment and workers. Subject matter expert in water quality, climate equity, responsible investment and addressing ESG considerations. Nearly 40% of SEIU's members live in communities disproportionately impacted by pollution. More than half of SEIUs members work in industries that provide care to kids, the disabled, and the chronically ill -- those most at risk to environmental health hazards. Young's work at SEIU involves working with SEIU members and leadership to building programs and shape policies to empower SEIU's members to address climate justice and environmental equity in their workplaces and in their communities.  Young also is an elected member of the board of East Bay Municipal Utility District and is President of the Board. Young also serves on the Board of Clean Water Action where she formerly served as California Director.