Dec
6
SCG's 2023 Annual Conference - REIMAGINE Our Economy
Fatima Angeles
Executive Director, Levi Strauss Foundation
Chris Benner
Professor and Director, UC Santa Cruz Institute for Social Transformation
Sarah Bowles Carter SCG Member
Vice President, Global Philanthropy, JPMorgan Chase & Co
Sarah received her BA in Sociology from Occidental College and her MS in Urban Policy Analysis and Management from the New School University. Sarah serves on the Advisory Board for the San Diego affiliate of the Local Initiatives Support Coalition (LISC San Diego). In addition, she is JPMorgan Chase’s representative on the Orange County Grantmakers and the Inland Empire’s Funders Alliance.
Originally from San Diego, Sarah still lives in the area with her husband, six-month old daughter, Charlotte, and their rambunctious English bulldog puppy, Tater Tot.
Nikki Brown-Booker
Program Officer Disability Inclusion Fund, Borealis Philanthropy
Stephen Cheung
President & CEO, Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation
Jacqueline Chun SCG Member
Associate Director, Center for Strategic Partnerships
Mike de la Rocha
CEO & Co-Founder, Revolve Impact
Anne Ellegood
Good Works Executive Director, Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
Shawn Escoffery SCG Member
Chief Executive Officer, Roy and Patricia Disney Family Foundation
Prior to joining RPDFF Shawn Escoffery directed the Strong Local Economics program at the Surdna Foundation – a nationally focused family foundation with over $1 billion dollars in assets. In this role, Shawn worked to support the development of robust and sustainable economies that include a wide range of businesses, equitable economic policy and access to quality jobs. With an annual budget of $9.2 million, the program aims to create opportunities for upward economic mobility among communities that have experienced historical barriers to opportunity, including low-income people, communities of color, women, and immigrants.
Shawn holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and English Literature from Rutgers University and a Master’s of City Planning from MIT. He also holds certificates from Carenegie Mellon, UPENN and Duke University.
Charles Fields SCG Member
Vice President of Program Implementation, The James Irvine Foundation
He previously served as a Senior Program Manager for The California Endowment. There he was responsible for strategy development, grantmaking, and leadership activities in Southern California. He also co-developed and managed Sons & Brothers, the Endowment’s $50 million grantmaking and leadership program focused on improving the health, wellness, and opportunity of boys and young men of color. During his tenure there, he co-developed a $260 million public-private loan fund, the FreshWorks Fund, to increase access to healthy foods and spur economic development in underserved communities in California.
Prior to the Endowment, Charles was a grantmaker at the Marguerite Casey Foundation, managing an $8 million portfolio of grants focused on community economic development, civic engagement, educational equity, violence prevention, and family support.
Charles was also an Initiative Coordinator and Neighborhood and Community Development Fellow at the San Francisco Foundation, where he provided day-to-day management of the West Oakland Initiative. Other positions of note include Social Action and Policy Coordinator for The National Community Building Network in Oakland; Empowerment Zone Coordinator for the Transportation Resource Information Project in Cincinnati, Ohio; and Organizer and Economic Development Specialist for Welcome House (Northern Kentucky Welfare Reform Task Force) in Covington, Kentucky.
Charles currently serves as a board member of the Edward W. Hazen Foundation and was awarded a German Marshall Memorial Fellowship to Europe.
See Full Bio: https://www.irvine.org/person/charles-fields/
Natalie Foster
President, Economic Security Project
Rodney Foxworth
Co-Founder, Worthmore
Most recently, Rodney served as CEO of Common Future, a nonprofit social enterprise with a bold vision: Building a future where all people—no matter their race and class—have power, choice, and ownership over the economy. Under his leadership, Common Future developed a new brand identity, grew its net assets from $1.5M to nearly $25M, quadrupled the size of its staff and budget, acquired two organizations, and launched an impact investment vehicle.
Rodney’s writing has appeared in publications such as Boston Review, Chronicle of Philanthropy, Impact Alpha, Nonprofit Quarterly, and Stanford Social Innovation Review. He authored the essays “The Need for Black Rage in Philanthropy” and “Wealth Inequality and the Fallacies of Impact Investing.”
A Ford Global Fellow and Skoll Awardee for Social Innovation, Rodney serves on the boards of Nonprofit Finance Fund, Race Forward, Rhia Ventures, RockHealth.org, and SOCAP Global.
Eder Gaona-Macedo SCG Member
Executive Director, The Fund for Santa Barbara
In 2018, Eder co-founded the 805undocufund alongside CAUSE, MICOP, the McCune Foundation, and the Ventura County Community Foundation. The 805undocufund offers disaster relief to undocumented immigrants in Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties during natural disasters, climate-related events, and pandemics. In 2020, under his leadership, the 805undocufund distributed more than $6.1M dollars to 4,500 undocumented families impacted by the COVID19 pandemic.
Eder resides in Santa Maria with his wife Gloria, daughter Yatzil, and two puppies Pequitas and Chickis.
Henry Gascon SCG Member
Director, Program & Policy Development, United Ways of California
Previously, Mr. Gascon was a Policy Analyst at Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority and the Director of NPower Los Angeles, a social service organization that provided technology education services for the Southern California nonprofit sector. He holds Bachelor degrees in History and International Relations from Holy Names University in Oakland, California and a Master’s in Public Administration specializing in policy analysis from the Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service at New York University.
Ana Luz Gonzalez-Vasquez
Project Director, UCLA Labor Center
Bulbul Gupta
President & CEO, Pacific Community Ventures
She recently served as an outside policy advisor to the Biden-Harris campaign on small business, racial equity, and good job creation; and was an Entrepreneurship Policy Advisor to the Clinton Campaign in 2016. She also formerly led Entrepreneurship & Impact Investing at the Clinton Global Initiative, where she led their revised impact metrics effort, and alignment with the launch of the SDGs, including on building out indicators and targets for Decent Work and Jobs – a top priority for President Clinton. She served on the Board of Upaya Social Ventures,an impact fund investing in bottom-of-the-pyramid entrepreneurs in India, to create dignified good jobs for the ultra-poor. She led private sector partnerships at The Asia Foundation, coordinated strategy and budget for fragile states economic recovery, and public-private partnerships at USAID. Bulbul has served on MacArthur Foundation’s Place-Based Investing and the Global Social Good/G8 Impact Investing task forces, advised the Open Road Alliance family office,and helped launch the White House National Advisory Board on Impact Investing in 2013.
Gaby Hernandez
Executive Director, ORALE: Organizing Rooted in Abolition Liberation and Empowerment
Rachel Hernandez
Artist, Bloco Obini
Bloco Obini represents the enpowerment of not only women, but an entire generation. By using the drum as a spiritual weapon, to heal, educate, uplift, and serve the community, and abroad. “In a fractured world, we need culture to survive, and thrive. Bloco Obini understands the power of the spirit of the drum "Ayan Agalu”, and its healing affects on communities and people, especially kids dealing with trauma in under privilege and under served schools. Bloco Obini sets to serve the people by providing the drum medicine, and raising awareness, to the many issue plaguing our societies. Children are the beginnings of all things, therefore have infinite possibilities, choices, and hope. We are a drum ensemble made up of, educators, nurses, dance instructors, political activist, students, mothers, and healers. All whom dedicate their lives to defend culture. Using art to speak on the times. Bloco Obini performs, Afro Brazilian bloco style drumming, with uplifting songs affirming that we are all royalty, and come from Kings, and Queens. Bloco Obini is a family. We are civilization’s anchor. We are the compass for humanity’s conscience.
Chet Hewitt
President and CEO, Sierra Health Foundation
Prior to joining Sierra Health Foundation, Chet held several senior positions including Director of Alameda County’s Social Services Agency, Associate Director for the Rockefeller Foundation in New York, and Director of the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice in San Francisco.
Chet has received numerous awards for his service to children and families, including the 2017 Terrance Keenan Leadership in Health Philanthropy Award, the Grantland Johnson Intergovernmental Leadership Award, Congressman Robert T. Matsui Community Service Award, and the Sylvia Siegel Consumer Champion Award. Chet is an Annie E. Casey Children and Families Leadership Fellow, and serves on several boards including Roberts Enterprise Development Fund, Public Policy Institute of California, Advance Peace and CalNonprofits.
Sandy Ho
Program Director of the Disability Inclusion Fund, Borealis Philanthropy
Lisa Holder
President, Equal Justice Society
Lisa has been part of EJS’s legal team in 2016 as Of Counsel. She served as Interim Legal Director from November 2018 through April 2019. In these various roles, she has been an invaluable part of our litigation and advocacy to dismantle the school-to-prison pipeline and to bring race equity in the workplace and workforce.
In May 2021, California Governor Gavin Newsom appointed Lisa to serve on the first-of-its-kind Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans, formed by the Governor’s signing of AB 3121, authored by then-Assemblymember Shirley Weber. The bill established the nine-member task force to educate the public about slavery and its history and pernicious aftereffects in California and make recommendations on how the state could provide reparations. This Summer, the Task Force released a stunning 500-page interim report that surveys the history of anti-black discrimination in America and serves as the scholarly underpinning for the reparations legislation.
Lisa has been a nationally recognized, award-winning trial attorney since 2000, and has developed expertise in cases involving employment discrimination, police misconduct, and international human rights violations. She was named by Super Lawyers as a Rising Star from 2005-2008.
Lisa is also a recognized racial justice scholar and equity consultant. She is a UCLA Law Lecturer and previously taught their Civil Rights Clinic. As an adjunct professor at Occidental College, she created the curriculum for a class on the prison industrial complex. Lisa also serves as a legislative consultant on institutional bias elimination.
William Ing SCG Member
Program Manager, The California Endowment
Maya Jupiter
Artist, Artivist Entertainment
Maya co-founded Artivist Entertainment to support artists whose works promote positive social transformation and facilitates song writing workshops for underserved youth and community.
Maya produced and presented for national TV and Radio on Australia’s triple j network and Channel [V].
Now raising a family in Los Angeles, she is currently working on an EP produced by Georgia Ann Muldrow and a collaboration with Tongva/Chumash artist Jessa Calderon as well as mentoring young artists through Music Forward’s Open Mic program.
Liana Krupp SCG Member
President, Krupp Family Foundation
Outside of her work, Krupp is deeply engaged in the arts, serving as a supporter, steward and advocate for socially engaged visual and performative work across North America. Krupp lives between Los Angeles and the Berkshire Mountains of Massachusetts with her husband and daughter. She serves on the boards of Keshet, Philanthropy MA, Bend the Arc, and Ballroom Marfa, and actively supports several arts organizations in the Los Angeles area.
Andraéa LaVant
Founder and President, LaVant Consulting Inc
Vivienne Lee
Senior Advisor, Common Future
Vivienne joins Common Future from REDF where she built partnerships and created pilot programs that served as models as REDF scaled a social enterprise ecosystem nationwide. Vivienne was the lead architect of LA:RISE, a nationally recognized collaborative model that integrated the traditional workforce system and social enterprises to systematically address the overwhelming needs of homeless and re-entry populations. Prior to joining REDF, Vivienne led Citi Community Development’s efforts managing a philanthropic portfolio of grantees in Los Angeles focused on affordable housing, homeownership, small business, and financial inclusion in low-income communities.
Vivienne started her career as an Americorps VISTA volunteer, with the Hawaii Alliance for Community Based Economic Development, helping low-income families in Hawaii build wealth and assets through matched savings accounts. She earned a Master’s Degree in City Planning from MIT and attended Occidental College.
Marina Lopez
Artist and Cultural Organizer, Art.coop
Jan Masaoka
CEO, California Association of Nonprofits (CalNonprofits)
Through active policy, educational, and research work, California works with legislators and regulators to strengthen the economic and regulatory climate for nonprofits. CalNonprofits has offices in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Sacramento, and through our social enterprise, we are also a full-service insurance broker and provide health insurance to more than 25,000 nonprofit staff.
Jan is a leading writer and thinker on nonprofit organizations with particular emphasis on boards of directors, business planning, and the role of nonprofits in society. Her books include Best of the Board Café (Fieldstone), Nonprofit Sustainability: Making Strategic Decisions for Financial Viability, co-author (Jossey Bass) and The Nonprofit's Guide to HR (Nolo Press). Jan founded and wrote Blue Avocado magazine, growing it to 64,000 subscribers, before leaving in late 2015.
Prior to CalNonprofits, she served 14 years as executive director of CompassPoint Nonprofit Services in which position she was named Nonprofit Executive of the Year by Nonprofit Times. She is an eight-time designee as one of the "Fifty Most Influential" people in the nonprofit sector nationwide and was named California Community Leader of the Year by Leadership California. Her volunteer work includes having served as chair of Asian Pacific Islander Wellness Center and founding chair of Community Initiatives; she currently serves on the boards of the California Child Care Resource & Referral Network and the Japantown Garage. She will be leaving CalNonprofits after 12 years at the end of September, 2023
Autumn McDonald
Senior Fellow & Head of New America CA, New America
McDonald has more than two decades of experience working on strategy, advocacy, civic innovation, and social impact. Before joining New America, McDonald served as a senior advisor to San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee through the FUSE Corps executive fellowship.
During that time she led the women's economic empowerment agenda, shaping policies and public-private initiatives to improve economic opportunity for women and families throughout the Bay Area. Prior to that, McDonald worked with FSG, a social impact consulting firm focused on foundations.
McDonald serves on the board of Women’s Foundation of California and as Chair of the board for Lincoln Families. She has a bachelor’s degree from Stanford University, a master’s from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and a master’s from the Northwestern University School of Education and Social Policy.
Joseph Tomás Mckellar
Executive Director, PICO California
In his role, Joseph provides strategic leadership to 10 multi-faith, multi-racial community organizations representing 450,000 Californians, and accompanies a talented staff team running power building and leadership programs for 2,500 grassroots volunteers.
He also helps lead PICO’s Faith Votes campaign, dedicated to building a more robust democracy by significantly expanding the California electorate to include millions more young voters, low-income voters, and voters of color around a vision for an economy of belonging.
Joseph guides PICO’s statewide campaigns to transform the criminal justice system, protect and promote immigrant families, increase affordable and family-sustaining housing, advance structural tax reform, and care for our common home.
Joseph founded and directed Faith in New York and Faith in the Valley, which are members of the Faith in Action National Network. Joseph previously worked as a Community Organizer in San Diego and Orange County, as an Assistant Teacher with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps in Boston.
Joseph is a first-generation college graduate from the University of San Diego, and is a fellow of the Civil Society Fellowship, a partnership of The Anti-Defamation League and The Aspen Institute.
Sara Montrose SCG Member
Senior Program Officer, Weingart Foundation
Andre Oliver SCG Member
Initiative Director, The James Irvine Foundation
Initiative Director, The James Irvine Foundation
Andre Oliver joined the James Irvine Foundation in 2014. He played an instrumental role in developing – and now manages – the Foundation’s Fair Work initiative, which aims to expand the voice and influence of low-income workers on the issues that affect their lives and livelihoods. Irvine’s Board of Directors this year approved $186.5 million in additional grantmaking through 2030 for the initiative. Andre also led the Foundation’s Leadership Awards program from 2014 to 2018.
He brings more than two decades of experience in the public policy and advocacy arenas, holding senior positions within philanthropy, political consulting, and government. Prior to joining Irvine, Andre was a senior strategist for one of the nation’s leading political consulting firms, with a deep involvement in California’s ballot initiatives, statewide, and local elections.
Previously, he was Director of Communications for the Rockefeller Foundation, and served in various roles within the Clinton Administration, including Special Assistant to the President in the Office of Public Liaison, and Director of Communications and Strategic Planning at the U.S. Peace Corps.
In the mid-1990s, Andre took a hiatus from government to serve on the United Nations election team in South Africa’s historic presidential elections. He has also worked extensively in southern and western Africa, including development and electoral work in Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, and Zimbabwe.
Akia Pacheco
Yungsuhn Park SCG Member
Senior Program Officer, The James Irvine Foundation
Manuel Pastor
Director, USC Equity Research Institute
Marc Philpart
Executive Director, California Black Freedom Fund, Silicon Valley Community Foundation
Prior to joining the California Black Freedom Fund, Marc led the Alliance for Boys and Men of Color. Under his leadership, the Alliance successfully advanced more than 100 state policies and established powerful partnerships with the California Senate and Assembly Select Committees on the Status of Boys and Men of Color and the California Funders for Boys and Men of Color. Through Marc’s leadership, the Alliance broadened its focus to include fighting for gender justice and ending intimate partner violence by addressing misogyny and patriarchy, as well as racial equity.
Through these experiences, Marc has gained deep campaign and policy expertise across a wide array of issues, including public health and violence prevention, community safety, education, youth justice, economic equity, and civic engagement. Marc serves on the board of directors for the California Immigrant Policy Center, Partners for Dignity and Rights, the Schott Foundation for Public Education, and is on the advisory committee for the University of Southern California’s Equity Research Institute.
Anne Price
President, The Maven Collaborative
Anne’s work has been featured in the New York Times, The Nation, The Washington Post, The Mercury News, Citylab, O Magazine, the Stanford Social Innovation Review and other publications.
Anne holds a B.A. in Economics from Hampton University and a M.A. in Urban Affairs and Public Policy from the Milano School of Management and Urban Policy at The New School in New York City.
Jon Rivera
Artistic Director, Playwrights' Arena
Flor Rodriguez
Executive Director, CLEAN Carwash Worker Center
Michael Russo
Vice President of Policy and Programs, Catalyst California
Kristin Sakoda SCG Member
Director, Department of Arts and Culture, LA County Department of Arts and Culture
Kimberly Starrs SCG Member
President & CEO, Inland SoCal United Way
Born and raised in the Inland Region of Southern California, she is proud of her mixed Latinx/Euro heritage and lives with her partner and two children. She recently attained a Master of Business Administration and holds a CFRE (Certified Fundraising Executive) Credential. She is the Board Chair for the Association of Fundraising Professionals, Inland Empire Chapter and has served as an AFP board member for 6 years.
Clara Takarabe
Co-Director and Researcher, Northwestern Music and Medicine
Clinically Designed Improvisatory Music, also known as CDIM for short, is being investigated for reductions in anxiety and agitation in Alzheimer’s disease at Northwestern's Mesulam Center for Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer's Disease and this research is funded through the National Endowment for the Arts Sound Health Initiative and the Osher Foundation for Integrative Medicine. Most recently, with the support of the Carle College of Medicine at University of Illinois Urbana Champaign and the MacArthur Foundation, Ms. Takarabe piloted a wrap-around program centered on CDIM at Wendell Phillips Academy High School in Bronzeville. On the community level, CDIM has become popular in the south side of Chicago among support groups grappling with traumatic grief and for medical professionals experiencing secondary traumatization or burnout. Ms. Takarabe presently plays viola in the Chicago Symphony and also played in the Los Angeles Philharmonic and is in an experimental cinematic band called Nireus with composer and synthesist Anton Riehl.
Nosakhere Thomas
Executive Director, Inland Empire Black Worker Center
With a diverse educational background, including degrees in higher education leadership (PhD), Pan African studies (DMin), divinity/family life (MDiv), business (MBA), and accounting/theology (BA), Dr. Thomas brings a unique skill set to his leadership role, spanning nonprofits, civic leadership, advocacy, community organizing, research, and policy work.
Dr. Thomas has been happily married to his wife Debbie for 37 years, with three adult children and two grandchildren. His leisure activities include travel, watersports, billiards, enjoying 60s-80s R&B music, playing board games, and attending Vegan food fairs.
Dr. Thomas is deeply committed to championing the principles of racial equity, worker advocacy, and meaningful workforce development while empowering workers. His overarching vision encompasses the centralization of worker voices and experiences, aiming to establish clear pathways toward family-sustaining wage opportunities in partnership with High Roads employers. Additionally, he is dedicated to fostering collaboration among community, public, private, and industry stakeholders who share aligned values.
Rosemary Veniegas SCG Member
Director of Health Programs, California Community Foundation