Maximize Your 2025 NCG Membership

Sarah is passionate about connecting people, exploring new ideas and figuring out how to make things work. She brings these skills, along with a background in program design, network development and learning communities to her work at NCG. As the Manager of Collaborative Philanthropy, Sarah will focus on the work of the Nonprofit Displacement Project and will work with NCG’s collaborative philanthropy groups. Before joining NCG, Sarah provided strategic leadership for an organization that built innovative leadership in the reproductive health, rights and justice sector. Prior to that, Sarah designed and implemented multiple grant programs and learning networks focused on the social determinants of health and safety net healthcare innovation for the Center for Care Innovations.

Sarah received a bachelor’s degree in literary studies with a minor in Latin from the University of Minnesota –Twin Cities. She loves to sew fun clothes and is a bookworm who is very proud to have passed that trait on to her two children.

Arron is NCG’s Director for Member Engagement where he oversees emergent partnerships and key programming to engage NCG’s diverse membership.  Before joining NCG, Arron was a social entrepreneur and strategic advisor who worked with labor, philanthropy, education, and nonprofit leaders to build the capacity of, and sometimes transform, public systems to better serve and support low-income communities.  He previously served as the associate director of education at the now sunset S. D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation, where he worked on policy and system improvement in California public schools, with a focus on STEM education, whole child development strategies, and educator preparation. 

Arron started his career in anti-poverty work with low-income communities in Nebraska before moving to the Bay Area in 2001.  In California, he continued working on family issues including preschool, child care and youth development programs first at a state intermediary and then at the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. Arron proudly serves as a Trustee of the National Equity Project and as a board member of Oakland-based, Partnership for Children & Youth, and San Francisco-based, Safe & Sound. 

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. 

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 Forward Race 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 the U.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.

Liana joins NCG as our Director for Policy and Movement, where she’ll focus on growing our capacity to transform philanthropic practice and investments and building power in communities most impacted by racial inequities. She brings a wealth of experience as a social change advocate and strategist advancing social, racial, and economic justice campaigns. 

In her role with Build Affordable Faster - TODCO over the last few years, she’s provided core support for the emergent Oakland Progressive Alliance (OPA), a partnership between labor, community-based organizations and progressive elected leaders to harness political power to further progressive policy changes centering Oakland’s most vulnerable residents. Prior to this, she worked with the California Reinvestment Coalition (CRC) - now known as Rise Economy - as the Director of Community Engagement and statewide organizer where she led a multi-year campaign to reform predatory payday lending at the federal, state and local level and strengthened the statewide movement for financial justice and consumer protections. In her work throughout the years with the East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy (EBASE), she organized faith leaders, workers, residents and built coalition support for campaigns to lift low-wage workers out of poverty and win community benefits from large-scale development projects. 

Liana’s passion for social change work is rooted in her experience growing up in El Paso, Texas on the US - Mexico border, her family history, formative years in college, living in deep east Oakland, her spiritual beliefs and a strong desire to serve a greater purpose in life. Liana holds a B.A. in Sociology from Santa Clara University and a certificate in nonprofit management from Georgetown University. In her free time, you can catch her chasing sunsets and waterfalls, hiking in the redwoods, going to concerts and other shows, traveling to beautiful destinations and enjoying time with friends and family.

Huong Nguyen-Yap joins NCG as its Vice President for Equity and Justice, where she will be leading the organization’s internal and external efforts towards racial equity. This includes leading initiatives to bring NCG into closer alignment with its vision for racial equity and collaborating with the team to drive transformative change within the philanthropic sector.

She most recently served as senior program director at Women’s Foundation California, leading the foundation's grantmaking and convening strategy to advance racial, gender, and economic justice. Her work in philanthropy also includes time at Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy (AAPIP) and Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees (GCIR). Before working in philanthropy, she spent a decade working in community, with a specific focus on working with and building power for young people. After transferring from De Anza College, Huong earned her BA in Asian American Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles and Master of Social Work from San Jose State University.

When she’s not working, Huong enjoys spending time with friends and family often sharing a meal, traveling, and watching sports. Huong currently calls Oakland home where she lives with her husband and two young kids. Huong also spends her time as an active member of the Hella Heart Oakland Giving Circle and an advisor to the Yuri Kochiyama Solidarity Project.