Strengthening California’s Democracy in an Era of Disruptive Technology and Deep Uncertainty

Dr. Paulette Brown-Hinds is the founder of Voice Media Ventures, publisher of Black Voice News, a two-time JSK Journalism Fellow at Stanford University, and an advocate for community media.

As past president of the California News Publishers Association and current board member of the California Press Foundation, she works to strengthen the state’s  information ecosystem as an essential part of its civic and community infrastructure. In 2019 she co-founded Media in Color, a philanthropically funded initiative designed to assist legacy media outlets serving communities of color with digital transformation. She also led an effort to create a guidebook for California-based community foundations, community media, and philanthropy to financially support local journalism.

Paulette has been awarded Google News Initiative Innovation Challenge funding, was a Knight Digital Media Fellow, Salzburg Seminar in American Studies Fellow, a 2022 JSK Community Impact Fellow, and a 2023 JSK Sr. Fellow at Stanford University. She is also a member of the Rebuild Local News, American Press Institute, James Irvine Foundation, and Inland Empire Community Foundation boards of directors. She has been identified as an Ecosystem Leader by Democracy Fund.

In 2022, she was awarded the Cal Press Justus F. Craemer Newspaper Executive of the Year, the University of California, Riverside Alumni Service Award, and an Honorary Doctorate from California State University, San Bernardino. In 2023, she was selected as the Athena of Riverside awardee for her civic and business accomplishments.

Priscilla Enriquez leads the team at the James B. McClatchy Foundation as Chief Executive Officer. With over 20 years in the philanthropic and nonprofit sector, she has curated investments across a wide range of issues that center communities and people seeking better lives for themselves and the next generation. As CEO she provides leadership in strategic philanthropic investments while supporting the bedrock tenets of democracy and advancing equity. Both a servant leader and advocate, Priscilla works to enhance and uphold the foundation’s promise to stand with the people of California’s Central Valley in partnership with her board, staff, and grantee partners.

As a first-generation college graduate, Priscilla holds an A.B. and an M.A. from UC Berkeley. Her sweet spot is leading for change — to transition systems that divide and separate into ones that build and unite. She leads by innovating with a start-up mindset for community and systemic change.

A civil rights attorney and long-time democracy reform advocate, Jonathan Mehta Stein is the Executive Director of California Common Cause. He started that role in 2020 after spending 10 years on the organization's Board of Directors. Prior to joining California Common Cause as ED, Jonathan was formerly the head of the Voting Rights & Census Program at Asian Law Caucus, a voting rights staff attorney for the ACLU of California, the Chair of the Oakland Public Ethics Commission, and a reporter for Mother Jones magazine.

Karthick Ramakrishnan has served in leadership roles that span academia, government, public policy, and philanthropy. He is currently a professor of public policy at UC Riverside and director of AAPI Data, a nationally recognized publisher of demographic data and policy research on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. He is also Strategy Lead for the Americas at School of International Futures, and Senior Advisor at States for the Future. He previously served as Executive Director of California 100, a transformative statewide initiative focused on building a shared vision and strategy for California’s next century. 

Ramakrishnan also serves as president of the Association of Princeton Graduate Alumni and serves on the Boards of The California Endowment, the U.S. Census Bureau’s National Advisory Committee (NAC), and the Asian American Alumni Association of Princeton (A4P). More information please kick here.