NCG's Virtual 2021 Annual Conference

Ayanna Albertson is a writer and spoken word poet from North Carolina. From early childhood, Ayanna has enjoyed the art of storytelling through poetry, singing and performing arts theatre. In 2015, Ayanna received her BA in broadcast journalism from Oakwood University in Huntsville, AL, further investing into her passion for creative writing. Ayanna is a part of the Bull City Slam team and has participated in various national poetry competitions using her gift of words in order to impact, empower and inspire others. She’s been crowned the Bull City Grand Slam Champion for three consecutive years, and after competing against 93 poets at the 2020 Women of the World Poetry slam, Ayanna was ranked 2nd best woman slam poet in the world. Dedicated to her work and development, and knowing there was only one higher rank she could achience, Ayanna competed again in the Women of the World Poetry Slam in April 2021. After 3 days of competing against some of the world’s best women poets, she was crowned the #1 woman slam poet in the world.

Ayanna is very passionate about “a(rt)dvocacy”, with an emphasis on women’s rights, social justice, and black liberation. In her spare time, she enjoys singing and dancing, and in the last year has found a new joy in TikTok, where she’s garnered over 320,000 followers. Ayanna's ultimate motto for her life’s work is "I don't wish to be famous, I just want to be heard".

Steve has a long history with NCG including stints on various committees as well as the NCG and Forum of Regional Associations of Grantmakers boards. Over the last several years he’s been a consultant on special projects, corporate philanthropy and social responsibility and briefings. As Vice President of Strategic Initiatives, he’s focused on programs, initiatives and projects that address the issues affecting our region from displacement and gentrification to income inequality to the arts, climate change and disaster resiliency. 

In addition to his consulting practice, Steve has been the Director for Foundation and Corporate Giving at Gap Inc., a program officer at the Marin Community Foundation, and served in Mayoral administrations in both San Francisco and Oakland. When he’s not working you can often find him at Amoeba Music, traveling abroad, binge watching an amazing series, exploring the Bay Area or at some wine bar.

Judith brings extensive experience in strategic planning and policy development, with a focus on economic and social equity to the Foundation. Previous to joining the Foundation, Judith was the President of PolicyLink where she had been since its inception, becoming President in 2004. Her leadership helped ignite a new national narrative around access and opportunity for all people with a focus on improving health and infrastructure, including increasing access to healthy foods.

Fred Blackwell is the CEO of the San Francisco Foundation, one of the largest community foundations in the country. The San Francisco Foundation works hand-in-hand with donors, community leaders, and both public and private partners to create thriving communities throughout the Bay Area. Since joining the foundation in 2014, Blackwell has led it in a renewed commitment to social justice through an equity agenda focused on racial and economic inclusion.

Blackwell, an Oakland native, is a nationally recognized community leader with a longstanding career in the Bay Area. Prior to joining the foundation, he served as interim city administrator for the city of Oakland, where he previously served as the assistant city administrator. He was the executive director of the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency and director of the Mayor’s Office of Community Development in San Francisco; he served as the director of the Making Connections Initiative for the Annie E. Casey Foundation in the Lower San Antonio neighborhood of Oakland; he was a Multicultural Fellow in Neighborhood and Community Development at The San Francisco Foundation; and he subsequently managed a multiyear comprehensive community initiative for the San Francisco Foundation in West Oakland.

Blackwell serves on the board of the Independent Sector, Northern California Grantmakers, the Bridgespan Group, the dean’s advisory council for UC Berkeley’s College of Environmental Design, and the community advisory council of the San Francisco Federal Reserve. He previously served on the boards of the California Redevelopment Association, Urban Habitat Program, LeaderSpring and Leadership Excellence. He is a visiting professor in the department of City and Regional Planning at UC Berkeley and the Co-Chair of CASA — The Committee to House the Bay Area. He holds a master’s degree in city planning from UC Berkeley and a bachelor’s degree in urban studies from Morehouse College.

Cathy Cha is president of the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund. Under her leadership, the Fund is exploring innovative approaches to advancing equality and justice so every person has opportunities to thrive and to live life with dignity and hope. Cathy’s work is driven by a career-long commitment to improving the lives of aspiring communities facing discrimination and poverty. Her collaboration-focused approach with funders, movements, nonprofits, and the government has helped spark wide-ranging social impact, including California’s rise to the top among states in advancing pro-immigrant policies. Today, the Haas, Jr. Fund is broadening its commitment to helping people achieve their dreams by advancing immigrant rights and LGBT equality, promoting a fair and representative democracy, and ensuring that college is affordable for low-income students and families. Cathy was named one of the Most Influential Women in Bay Area Business by the San Francisco Business Times in 2019.

Vanessa Daniel is the founder and Executive Director of Groundswell Fund, the largest funder of the U.S. reproductive justice movement, and of Groundswell Action Fund, a leading funder of women of color-led 501c4 organizations. Under her leadership, Groundswell has moved over $70M to the field, centering intersectional grassroots organizing led by women of color (90% of its giving), particularly those who are Black, Indigenous, and Transgender.

Vanessa’s roots in labor and community organizing inspired a unique funding model at Groundswell: a program staff team of women of color and transgender people of color who come directly out of grassroots organizing. Groundswell received the National Committee of Responsible Philanthropy’s “Impact Award” for smashing issue silos and Vanessa has been featured in the Chronicle of Philanthropy as one of 15 “Influencers” who are changing the non-profit world. She is the recipient of a 2012 Gerbode Foundation Fellowship, and the 2017 National Network of Abortion Funds’ Abortion Action Vanguard Award.

Her writing has appeared in the New York Times and the San Francisco Bay Guardian, among other publications. Prior to Groundswell, Vanessa organized homecare workers with SEIU; helped win a landmark living wage law with the East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy; and conducted research to support the organizing efforts of welfare mothers with the Applied Research Center (now Race Forward).

Morning Star Gali is a member of the Pit River Tribe located in Northeastern California. Ms. Gali serves as Project Director for Restoring Justice for Indigenous Peoples (RJIP) and as the California Tribal and Community Liaison for the International Indian Treaty Council, working for the Sovereignty and Self Determination of Indigenous Peoples and the recognition and protection of Indigenous Rights, Treaties, Traditional Cultures and Sacred Lands. She's the Tribal water policy organizer for Save California Salmon and has worked as the CA Regional Network Weaver for Native Americans in Philanthropy.

She is a 2019 Open Society Institute Racial Equity fellow, Funders for Justice fellow 2018-2021 and a 2016-2018 Rosenberg Foundation Leading Edge Fellow, focusing on the disproportionate impact of the criminal and juvenile justice systems on Native Americans. Between 2012-2016, Ms.Gali previously worked as the Tribal Historic Preservation Officer for Pit River Tribe. She Continues to lead large-scale actions while helping organize Native cultural, spiritual, scholarly, and political gatherings throughout California. She is deeply committed to advocating for Indigenous sovereignty issues such as missing and murdered Indigenous women (MMIW), climate justice, gender justice, and sacred sites protection on behalf of the tribal and inter-tribal communities in which she was raised.

Morning Star serves as a board member for California Indian Heritage Center Foundation, American Indian Cultural District of San Francisco and Women's Health Specialists of California, along with serving on a number of advisory committees that advocate for the sovereignty and self-determination of California’s indigenous peoples and sacred landscapes.

A natural systems thinker and equity leader, Brandi Howard provides leadership of San Francisco Foundation’s organizational culture and development work to center equity and results. Brandi started her career at the Foundation as Program Officer for the Koshland Program, a five-year program that elevates community and civic leadership and supports neighborhood transformation. Prior to joining the San Francisco Foundation, Brandi launched Neighborhood Health Action Centers and a city-wide birth equity strategy for the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. She served on the leadership team for the Center for Health Equity and provided strategic direction for equity integration in its programs and services. Brandi is an Oakland native with a deep commitment to the community. She has served her community as a doula (childbirth coach) for nearly 15 years, advocate for reproductive rights, and consultant to strengthen the nonprofit infrastructure through her company, Beyond the Curve Consulting. Brandi earned a Bachelor of Arts in African American Studies and a Master of Social Work, both from the University of California, Berkeley. She serves on the board of the Oakland Public Conservatory of Music, which centers African American artistic culture and provides classes for youth and adults throughout the Bay Area. Brandi is a lecturer at the UC Berkeley School of Social Welfare and an executive coach for new and transitioning executives and Women of Color.

Taj James is a father, poet, practitioner, strategist, designer, and philanthropic and capital advisor. He is the Founder and former Director of the Movement Strategy Center, Curator at Full Spectrum Labs and Principal at Full Spectrum Capital Partners. He is an official dance instructor at the intersection of wild possibility and urgent practicality, where play and unleashed potential find each other. 

Taj thrives building community around the shared questions that matter most in our lives: how can we build the relationships and express the love needed to transform our world?  How do we support leaders and communities to unlock potential and possibility, see the ecosystem and the whole, and design and act in ways that bend the long arc of history towards justice?

Working with transformational leaders, small teams, networks and anchor institutions, Taj enjoys exploring what it means to nurture the community we have and create the community we need. What are our sacred responsibilities as stewards of land, capital, energy and life to past generations and our children’s grandchildren? 

By living into these questions together, Taj works to create space and fertile ground for seeds to be planted and nurtured, for fruit to be harvested and for us to thrive in the web of our watersheds and relational ecosystems.

Taj lives with his family as a guest on unceded Ohlone land, known by many as Oakanda (Oakland) California. He is a proud trickster, undercover mystic, aspiring Ho-Tei, long time Zen practitioner, and a son of a Baptist minister and a keeper of the Sacred Feminine.

Surina first became involved with WFC as a volunteer in 2004. Now, as CEO Surina oversees the Foundation’s strategic direction which is focused on building community-based power through investing in effective community-based organizations, training community leaders in policy advocacy, connecting key partners, and mobilizing significant financial resources. Surina has worked at the Ford Foundation where she designed and launched Ford’s LGBT Rights Initiative. She is a member of the Board of Voices for Progress, CalNonprofits, the American LGBTQ Museum, La Cocina, a founding Advisor for the Closing the Women’s Wealth Gap Initiative, and a member of the Public Policy Committee for Northern California Grantmakers. Surina enjoys cooking, swimming, photography and resides in San Francisco, Irvine, and Sea Ranch with her partner.

Judi’s current role is to facilitate the development and execution of The Endowment’s Spread and Scale strategy that support the goals and vision of Building Healthy Communities by working to build and strengthen an ecosystem of leaders moving a health and racial equity framework in Kern, Monterey, San Diego and Sacramento counties. Judi also supports the implementation of The Endowment’s Impact Investing Grant Making which supports community development in various areas of healthy food, community clinics and other vital community infrastructure.  She is the Co-Lead on The Endowment’s Social Justice Bond and overseeing the resilient communities portion of the bond. She has helped lead the statewide team that includes Youth leadership, Narrative strategy, Boys and Men of Color, Health Care System, Inclusive Community Development, Education and Justice Reinvestment. Prior to joining The California Endowment, Mrs. Larsen worked on community health projects for the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine and Community Pediatrics in partnership with a range of community-based organizations and worked to develop coalitions to tackle health inequities with a broad range of stakeholders (community-based organizations, schools, system leaders). She has worked on a range of school-based health projects, including advancing youth and parent participation in school decision making and elevating the Local Control Funding Formula work as an element of The Endowment’s school strategy. She is committed to the role and leadership of community members to advance and advocate for solutions to improve their community.

She is the proud daughter of immigrants from Honduras and El Salvador. Judi enjoys travel, being active outdoors, gardening and cooking. She is an alumnus of San José State University where she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Kinesiology and completed a Master of Public Health in Health Promotion at San Diego State University.  She has completed two certificate programs in Health Executive Leadership at University of California, San Diego and Nonprofit Management and Leadership at the University of San Diego.  The California Endowment is a private, statewide health foundation established in 1996 to address the health needs of Californians.

Charmaine is the Chief of Equity and Culture at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. She serves as an internal resource on racial equity in the foundation’s grantmaking, and helps champion and share diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts within the foundation. She also oversees external grantmaking related to racial equity, including a new 10-year, $150 million racial justice initiative.

Previously, Charmaine was a program officer in the Hewlett Foundation’s Education Program, where she helped refresh and implement a K-12 teaching and learning grantmaking strategy that centers equity.

Prior to joining the foundation, Charmaine held senior-level positions with the Learning Policy Institute and the Alliance for Excellent Education, grantees in the prior Education team’s Deeper Learning strategy. In both roles, she supported a team of dedicated researchers, policy advocates, and communication specialists. Charmaine also held various positions on Capitol Hill, including as a senior staffer for the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies, a senior staffer for the Education and Labor Committee, and a researcher for the Congressional Research Service. She is on the board of the Grantmakers for Education, serves as an advisory board member of the Black Female Project, and is a proud member of Delta Sigma Theta, Inc.

Charmaine received her Ph.D. in politics and education policy from Claremont Graduate University, as well as her master’s degree in political science. She received her bachelor’s degree in political science from San Diego State University. Charmaine is married and is the shamelessly proud mom of adorable twin boys.

Steve Phillips (he/him) is a national political leader, bestselling author, and long-time donor activist. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller Brown Is the New White: How the Demographic Revolution Has Created a New American Majority and the forthcoming book How We Win the Civil War: Securing a Multiracial Democracy and Ending White Supremacy for Good. He is a columnist for The Guardian and The Nation, and an opinion contributor to The New York Times. He is also the host of “Democracy in Color with Steve Phillips,” a color-conscious podcast on politics. 

Steve and his wife Susan Sandler have served in leadership roles in national progressive donor networks for decades. He is a founder of the California Donor Table, helped to create the Texas Future Project, and served on the board of the Democracy Alliance for six years. In 2007, Steve and Susan backed Barack Obama as the anchor donors of the country’s first SuperPAC, and they were also lead donors of the SuperPAC that supported Kamala Harris’s first run for statewide office in 2010. Starting in 2012, Steve and Susan were the first national donors to support Stacey Abrams’s work to turn Georgia Blue. In 2014, Steve co-authored the first-ever audit of Democratic Party spending and was named one of “America’s Top 50 Influencers” by Campaigns and Elections magazine. 

Steve has appeared on multiple national television, radio and podcast programs including on the networks NBC, CNN, and MSNBC. He and Susan live in San Francisco, California. 

In her 14th year, LadyRyan is a Bay area favorite — inspiring a sense of safety, joy, and belonging as a spiritual conductor and dedicated professional. Her music and voice have been riding the wave of partygoers from coast to coast.

In 2011, LadyRyan co-founded SOULOVELY, creating space for QTBIPOC community and packing in hundreds of people at one of the best seasonal outdoor monthly parties nine years strong.

A deep range of knowledge of multiple genres of music balanced with the right touch of nostalgia makes her ability to conduct high vibrations a sure shot! 

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.

Edgar Villanueva is an award-winning author, activist and expert on issues of race, wealth, and philanthropy. Villanueva is the Principal of Decolonizing Wealth Project and Liberated Capital and author of the bestselling book Decolonizing Wealth (2018, 2021). He advises a range of organizations including national and global philanthropies, Fortune 500 companies, and entertainment on social impact strategies to advance racial equity from within and through their investment strategies. Villanueva holds a BSPH and MHA from the Gillings Global School of Public Health at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is an enrolled member of the Lumbee Tribe and resides in New York City.