Intersecting Equity, Health, Housing, and Workforce with Aging: New Philanthropic Opportunities

Richard Figueroa is a Deputy Cabinet Secretary in the Office of Governor Gavin Newsom where he works on health, human services, and veterans affairs issues. Richard was previously Director of Prevention for The California Endowment. He has served in several previous administrations, including Deputy Cabinet Secretary for Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Deputy Legislative Secretary for Governor Gray Davis. Richard was also Legislative Director for Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi and served as a Legislative Consultant for the California State Senate Insurance and Budget and Fiscal Review Committees.

 

Kathleen Kelly Janus is the Senior Advisor on Social Innovation for Governor Gavin Newsom. A social entrepreneur, author, and lecturer at Stanford University’s Program on Social Entrepreneurship, Kathleen is also an expert on philanthropy, millennial engagement, and scaling early-stage organizations. Her work has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, Fast Company, Huffington Post, Stanford Social Innovation Review, Tech Crunch, and the San Francisco Chronicle. Her book –Social Startup Success: How the Best Nonprofits Launch, Scale Up and Make a Difference–is a playbook for nonprofit organizations based on a five-year research project interviewing hundreds of top-performing social innovators. A native of Napa, California, Kathleen received a J.D. and a B.A. from U.C. Berkeley and lives in San Francisco with her husband and three young children.

 

Dwayne S. Marsh assumed the position of President and CEO of Northern California Grantmakers on September 9, 2020. He brings 27 years of experience in the public, nonprofit, and philanthropic sectors with a career commitment to advancing racial and economic equity. Dwayne recently completed a four-year turn as co-Director of the Government Alliance on Race and Equity (GARE) and Vice President of Institutional and Sectoral Change at Race ForwardRace Forward. During his tenure, the membership network of local, regional, and state entities committed to advancing racial equity through the policies, practices, and public investments grew from just over 20 to nearly 200 participating jurisdictions.

 

Prior to GARE, Marsh spent six years as a senior advisor in the Office of Economic Resilience (OER) at theU.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. There, he helped advance sustainable planning and development through interagency partnerships, departmental transformation, and funding initiatives managed through OER. He was OER’s principal coordinator for a $250 million grant program and led the development of capacity-building resources that reinforced the work of pioneering grantees in 48 states and the District of Columbia. Under his leadership, OER prioritized equity as a foundational principal for its planning and investment initiatives.

 

Marsh brings to the movement his expertise and considerable experience in coalition building for regional equity and leadership development for policy change. He provides technical assistance and capacity-building knowledge to equitable development initiatives that address continuing disparities in affordable housing, transportation investment, and environmental justice. Before HUD, Marsh spent a decade at PolicyLink, the national organization committed to economic and social equity. Before PolicyLink, he directed the FAITHS Initiative for eight years at The San Francisco Foundation, building a nationally renowned community development and capacity-building program that continues to this day. His career has been defined by supporting communities traditionally marginalized from full participation in our economy and society to build power and leverage lasting systems transformation.

 

Sarita A. Mohanty, MD, MPH, MBA, serves as the President and Chief Executive Officer of The SCAN Foundation. The SCAN Foundation is one of the largest foundations in the United States focused on improving the quality of health and life for older adults. Its mission is to advance a coordinated and easily navigated system of high-quality services for older adults that preserve dignity and independence. Previously, Sarita served as the Vice President of Care Coordination for Medicaid and Vulnerable Populations at Kaiser Permanente. Sarita was previously Assistant Professor of Medicine at USC; Chief Medical Officer of COPE Health Solutions, a health care management consulting company; and Senior Medical Director at L.A. Care, the largest U.S. public health plan.

 

Sarita completed her Internal Medicine residency at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and research fellowship at Harvard Medical School. She earned her MD from Boston University, MPH from Harvard University, and MBA from UCLA. She completed undergraduate work at UC Berkeley. She currently is an Associate Professor at the Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine and is a practicing internal medicine physician with Kaiser Permanente. Sarita enjoys international travel, tennis, and spending time with her husband and three children.

 

Janet Y. Spears is Chief Executive Officer of Metta Fund, a private foundation dedicated to advancing the health and wellness of San Francisco’s aging population. Established in 1998, the foundation has a current endowment of more than $80 million and grants out approximately $2.4 million per year. Under Janet’s leadership, Metta Fund has pursued an audacious vision of an inclusive, connected, multi-generational, healthy and thriving San Francisco. She has established new organizational priorities and spearheaded innovative opportunities for collaboration in service of the health and wellness of the community.

Before joining Metta Fund, Janet was Chief Operating Officer at the East Bay Community Foundation (EBCF), a community foundation located in Oakland, California with approximately $400 million in assets. During her tenure, she oversaw development, grantmaking, communications, and donor services, and guided EBCF to a programmatically strong and financially healthy position. Prior to EBCF, Janet enjoyed a 23-year career at AT&T, where she led complex sales solutions as Sales Vice President.

Janet was appointed to the San Francisco Disability and Aging Services Commission in 2019 and also serves on the boards of Northern California Grantmakers, the Giants Community Fund, and the University of the Pacific (UOP), her alma mater. There, she is Chair of the Academics and Student Affairs Committee, and previously served as Board Secretary. She was also formerly on the Board of UOP’s Pacific School Alumni Association.

Richard Tate is executive vice president of The California Wellness Foundation, where he leads strategy development, public affairs, learning and innovation. He serves as chief deputy to the president and CEO and plays a key role in aligning Cal Wellness’ board, management and staff on organization-wide efforts to advance the foundation’s mission and vision.

Tate joined Cal Wellness in 2016 as vice president of public affairs and built the foundation’s first integrated public affairs department, a multidisciplinary team responsible for communications, community relations and public policy activities. Since then, Tate has led the expansion of the foundation’s digital communications infrastructure; advocacy efforts to advance access to healthcare, immigrant rights, gun violence prevention and racial justice; and organization-wide learning and innovation capacity. He played a key role in launching the foundation’s inaugural Advancing Wellness Poll, developing the Advance and Defend integrated public affairs and grantmaking campaign, and hosting Cal Wellness 25th anniversary events across the state.

Prior to his time at Cal Wellness, Tate served for ten years as a senior leader at Hopelab, the health-focused nonprofit organization of the Omidyar Group and a pioneer in digital health research and development. He was Hopelab’s first director of communications and marketing and advanced to become a vice president and member of the executive leadership team. He oversaw all public relations, media outreach and product marketing, including Hopelab’s participation in the launch of the federal Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation at the White House, where President Barack Obama featured HopeLab and its products as exemplars of social innovation.

Before working in philanthropy, Tate was a director of corporate communications for the multinational biotechnology company Chiron Corporation, through its acquisition by Novartis AG. He managed communications and media relations related to Chiron’s biopharmaceuticals business, working closely with company executives, product marketing teams, investor and government relations personnel, research scientists and patient advocates. He began his career in communications as an editor and journalist and held editorial positions at the national newsmagazine The Advocate, Citysearch.com, and the Los Angeles lifestyle magazine Buzz. He also was an assistant director of undergraduate admissions at the University of Southern California.

Tate is board chair of OUTWORDS and board chair of Northern California Grantmakers. He is also a board member of the Bay Area Surgical Mission and participates in the organization’s trips providing free medical care in remote communities in the Philippines challenged by poverty and limited access to health services. Tate earned his bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Southern California, where he was a Deans Scholar and winner of USC’s Edward W. Moses Writing Competition. Tate has lived and worked in California since 1991 and is based in the Cal Wellness Oakland office.

Kim McCoy Wade is the Director of the California Department of Aging.  She most recently served at the California Department of Social Services as the CalFresh & Nutrition Branch Chief, where she led the expansion of CalFresh food benefits to older adults and people with disabilities, as well as several data and technology initiatives, including the GetCalFresh mobile application.  She previously served as a consultant to multiple health and human services non-profits and as Executive Director of the California Association of Food Banks.  Earlier in her career, she worked in Washington, DC for the Children’s Defense Fund, Bread for the World, and Alliance for Justice.  She is an alumna of NYU School of Law, Carleton College, and the Jesuit Volunteer Corps.