2019 Communications Cohort Faculty

Robert’s career spans more than two decades in the field of strategic communications and social justice. As Director of NEO Philanthropy’s Four Freedoms Fund^TM Strategic Communications Initiative, Robert helps create and fund strategies designed to shape the immigration debate locally and nationally. Prior to joining NEO Philanthropy, he was Director of Communications for the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund in San Francisco. In 1997, Robert founded the SPIN Project, a media training, coaching and strategizing non-profit for social change organizations. In the late 80s and 90s, he played a central role in increasing the media visibility of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people, serving as the first Director of Communications for the Human Rights Campaign Fund, and later as Director of Communications for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. Robert is the author of several publications on communications including “SPIN Works” and “Winning Wages: A Guide to Living Wage Communications Campaigns.” Prior to his social justice career, he was a public relations executive for the IBM Corporation. Robert graduated from the University of Florida with a degree in journalism and public relations.

Vanice hails from years of experience working directly with members of various non-profits, so she’s all about participation and collaboration. Vanice began to hone her skills in social justice advocacy in an organic way — as a young girl of color in a small southern town, her existence itself became a political statement.  Those experiences gave Vanice practice in being critical of assumptions, dissecting polarizing arguments, and ultimately standing strong in her convictions. Her passion led her to the Provoc team, where she strives to make an impact by building partnerships with visionary clients and serving as lead strategist for brand and communications projects. By rooting her work in a womanist lens, Vanice has a particular passion for projects that combat the ‘isms’ — including racism, classism, and sexism.

Emily directs communications which means finding the threads that bring foundations together with nonprofits, business, government, and each other for greater good. She’s a big believer in joining forces for greater good and getting to spend her days furthering this mission makes her job a pleasure.

Emily landed her first job out of college at a non-profit start-up where she began in telemarketing and through her impressive tenacity left six years later as a senior vice president with quintupled budget, national honors and a half million square feet of warehousing.

At the Women’s Funding Network, Emily developed and implemented a four-year multi-million dollar scope of work building the communications capacity of members across the US, Canada and on every continent. 

She is proud to serve on the boards of Equal Rights Advocates and the Arab Film Festival, where she chairs communications and governance committees. Emily is also the lucky mother of overly intelligent twin tweens, and enjoys the moments when she doffs her parenting hat and gets to be a real person with them.

Chris Marcell Murchison is a passionate advocate for positive workplace cultures. In his broad career spanning the higher education, for-profit and not-for-profit fields he has focused his energy on developing creative means to building community at work and practices that support an employee experience of deep respect, connection, joy, and generative learning.

As the Vice President for Staff Development and Culture at HopeLab, Chris guided HopeLab’s efforts to create an organizational culture that values learning and innovation. Since joining HopeLab in 2005, he led a strategic staff expansion to support a portfolio of work focused on the support of resilience in everyday life. He also led the development of principles and practices that embedded HopeLab’s values into the everyday operations of the organization.

In 2014, Chris was named the first Visiting Leader at the Center for Positive Organizations at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, where he advises, connects and convenes faculty and students to explore practical applications of Positive Organizational Scholarship. Chris originally connected to the Center through his research on resilience in organizations and has since become a friend and fellow traveler.

Christopher Punongbayan is the Executive Director of California ChangeLawyers, a statewide foundation that invests in bright, diverse legal changemakers to ensure they have the opportunity to become tomorrow’s legal changemakers.

Over the last twenty years, Chris has gained deep experience in social justice issues. He profoundly believes in giving voice to the unheard, breaking down barriers, and creating strategic alliances to advance equity. Prior to joining the California ChangeLawyers, Chris was the executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Asian Law Caucus and held positions at Northern California Grantmakers, Positive Resource Center, and Filipino Advocates for Justice.
 

Currently, Chris serves on the California Commission on Asian American and Pacific Islander Affairs, KQED's Community Advisory Panel, and is the Treasurer of the Mobilize the Immigrant Vote Action Fund. A native of Massachusetts and the son of immigrants from the Philippines, Chris graduated cum laude from Brown University with a degree in Asian American Studies and UCLA School of Law where he completed the Critical Race Studies concentration and the Epstein Program in Public Interest Law and Policy.

In 2003, Chris received a scholarship from California ChangeLawyers, which first set him on his social justice path in California. He has never looked back. Since then, Chris' accomplishments have earned him recognition from the New Voices Fellowship, the Gerbode Foundation, and the Levi Strauss Foundation, which named him a Pioneer in Justice.