Advancing Equity Through Organizational Culture and Operations | 2024 Foundation of Racial Equity: Session 4

Trina Olson is a two-time executive director with a track record of building and retaining teams across race, gender, and sexual orientation to achieve shared goals. Trina has built an impressive portfolio of national and regional policy and advocacy experience, centering a multitude of progressive issues, including: healthcare, hunger, living wage, immigration reform, transgender inclusive non-discrimination, and more.

Trina has made her home in eighteen U.S. cities, including Seattle, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, New York, Minneapolis and Los Angeles. A queer, white, cis-gender woman, Trina is motivated by the ways job creators could be addressing the intersection of identity and workplace more creatively and consistently to address the pervasive inequities still at play across race and gender, in particular. specializes in all things staff management and organizational strategy. Trina’s past executive experience includes time leading a regional community foundation, as well as leading Immigration Equality, the national organization committed to providing free legal services to LGBTQ+ asylum seekers, binational couples, and detainees.

Trina is the author of Fairness in Philanthropy, Leveling the Playing Field for Our LGBTQ Neighbors, as well as, Seeking Safe Haven: LGBTQ People and the American Immigration Experience.

Alfonso Wenker is a seasoned executive leader and facilitator of transformational organizational culture and strategy campaigns. Serving in major leadership roles within the field of philanthropy, Alfonso has been responsible for driving sector and systems wide change to diversify both perspective and personnel in order to better steward resources responsible for underwriting major movements.

A Latinx, gay, cis-gender man, Alfonso was born and raised on the west side of Saint Paul, MN, to a Mexican mother and white father. Consequently, Alfonso has often been the ‘first’ or ‘only’ person on a team who is a Person of Color, gay person, or both throughout his career. He has experienced, first hand, how the attempted diversification in the U.S. workplace has both made strides and done accidental harm.

Before Team Dynamics, Alfonso was Vice President for the Minnesota Council on Foundations, where he grew the organizations racial equity strategy.

Alfonso is a highly sought after speaker and executive coach. Alfonso’s leadership has been recognized as a 40 Under 40 Awardee, Facing Race Anti-Racism Award and as a Policy Fellow at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs