Community Economic Mobilization Initiative: Doubling Down on Community Capacity in 2025

Chris Benner is the Dorothy E. Everett Chair in Global Information and Social Entrepreneurship, and a Professor of Environmental Studies and Sociology at the University of California, Santa Cruz.  He currently directs the Everett Program for Technology and Social Change and the Institute for Social Transformation.  His research examines the relationships between technological change, regional development, and the structure of economic opportunity, focusing on regional labor markets and the transformation of work and employment. His applied policy work centers on social and economic dimensions of technological change, workforce development policy, the structure, dynamics and evaluation of workforce intermediaries, and strategies for promoting regional equity. He has authored or co-authored over 100 academic papers and reports and eight books, including most recently Charging Forward: Lithium Valley, Electric Vehicles and a Just Future (2024), and Solidarity Economics: Why Mutuality and Movements Matter (2021), both with Manuel Pastor.  He received his Ph.D. in City and Regional Planning from UC Berkeley.

Peter has been involved with Friendship House for over 25 years, as a Board member, advisor, and advocate. In 2020, he formally joined the Friendship House staff to lead the organization’s innovative The Urban Indian Village SF initiative. As Project Lead for The Village SF, he is a powerful advocate and an authentic voice, respected locally and globally through relationships cultivated over the course of his career. Mr. Bratt is also a Rockefeller Fellow, a Peabody Award winner, an Emmy-nominated film producer, writer, director, and the recipient of the University of California Santa Cruz 2023 Alumni of the Year Award. He and his family have deep roots in the Native community in San Francisco. Raised by a strong, indigenous, single mother, his family was part of the American Indian occupation of Alcatraz, the Wounded Knee stand-off, the Pacific Northwest fishing rights struggle, and the Farm Workers Movement. His long-standing commitment to community and advocacy is now channeled through his leadership at Friendship House.

As the new CEO of EBALDC, Janelle Chan brings over two decades of housing and community development experience, with deep expertise in affordable housing finance, equitable transit- oriented development, and government and nonprofit management. Her background includes pivotal roles as the Undersecretary of the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development, where she oversaw a $1.3 billion budget and significant funding for affordable housing and community assistance, and as the Chief of Real Estate for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA), where she spearheaded the first transit- oriented development policy and negotiated complex, large-scale, mixed-use development projects for the second largest land owner in the state. Prior to her public service roles, Chan was the Executive Director of the non-profit Asian Community Development Corporation and expanded the organization’s impact beyond Boston’s Chinatown neighborhood to serve the greater Boston region.

Kaying Hang serves on the executive team for Sierra Health Foundation and The Center as the Senior Vice President of Programs and Partnerships. In this role, Kaying is responsible for strategic program and partnership development, and oversees management of the foundation’s and The Center’s programs and initiatives. She joined the foundation in 2013. 

Before coming to Sierra Health Foundation, Kaying served as associate director for Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees, where she worked with foundations, affinity groups, public policy groups and immigrant rights organizations. Previously, she served as senior program officer at the Otto Bremer Foundation in Minnesota, and a program officer and senior consultant with the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota Foundation. 

In addition to institutional philanthropy, Kaying worked in state government as the state coordinator of the Refugee Health Program for the Minnesota Department of Health, and as assistant regional coordinator for the Refugee and Immigrant Health Program for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. 

A native Hmong speaker, Kaying received a Bachelor of Arts from Brandeis University and a Master’s in Public Health from Boston University. Originally from Minnesota’s Twin Cities, she is the oldest of seven children and comes from a refugee family dedicated to social justice and racial equity. She and her family are proud to call Sacramento home.

Kirin Kumar joins Northern California Grantmakers as Director for Climate and Disaster Resilience. Since 2019, Kirin has served as the Deputy Director of Equity and Government Transformation at the California Strategic Growth Council, within the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research. In that role, Kirin oversaw a portfolio of capacity building, racial justice, and climate change research initiatives that support community resilience and transform government to enable an intersectional and community-first approach to tackling the climate crisis. As a state grantmaker, Kirin oversaw a $25 million upstream portfolio, funding movement building organizations, tribes, local governments, and coalitions of multi-sector partners to shift power and increase regional capacity to advance climate justice. Translating lessons learned from partnering with communities on the ground, Kirin has led several statewide efforts to shift policy and practice to remove barriers to access, including California’s first ever advanced pay pilot policy and formal cabinet-level commitments to capacity building investments as central to the state’s climate change agenda.

Prior to his role with the Strategic Growth Council, Kirin was the Executive Director of WALKSacramento (now CivicThread) a regional transportation and health equity nonprofit. In that role, Kirin worked to weave health and racial equity into local land use planning policy, facilitate community-led planning, and increase the region’s competitiveness for critical infrastructure funding.

Kirin received a degree in Environmental Policy and Planning from UC Davis. He lives in Sacramento and when not working, can be found exploring California’s parks and wildlife, overcommitting to ambitious recipes, and honing his pandemic inspired woodworking hobby. 

Mark Toney has served as executive director of TURN–The Utility Reform Network since 2008, saving billions of dollars in utility bills, and winning clean energy, phone and broadband protections for millions of diverses California residents, through legal advocacy, grassroots organizing, and policy campaigns.  His leadership has transformed TURN from a public interest law firm into a social movement organization with a talented staff of two-thirds women and two-thirds people of color.

Mark has served for four years as executive director for Center for Third World Organizing in Oakland, and eight years as Founding Executive Director of Direct Action for Rights & Equality in Providence.  He earned his B.A. from Brown University, Ph.D. in sociology from UC Berkeley, and has been recognized as a Kellogg National Leadership Fellow, National Science Foundation Fellow, and Echoing Green Fellow.

Mark serves as a Board Trustee of the California State Bar, appointed by Governor Newsom in 2020, and reappointed in 2024.  Mark has also served on over a dozen nonprofit boards, including ACLU NorCal, National Whistleblower Center and California Shakespeare Theatre.