Strengthening Democracy and Building Black Futures

Aimee Allison is a writer, democratic innovator, and visionary champion of racial and gender justice. She is the Founder and President of She the People, the nation’s leading organization dedicated to an America redefined and inspired by women of color.

Renowned for her national efforts to build inclusive, multiracial coalitions, Allison organized and moderated the nation’s first presidential forum for women of color, attended by Presidential candidates and more than 1000 women from across the country, garnering major national press.

At She the People, Allison leverages media, research and analysis to show the power of the women of color electorate, increase voter engagement, and advocate for racial, economic and gender justice. In her writings in The New York Times, Newsweek, The Washington Post, and Essence Magazine, Allison has made the definitive case that women of color are the saving graces of our American democracy.

Her early experience growing up in a multiracial family and searching for belonging in mostly white communities honed her ability to build bridges with others often marginalized and dismissed. Her work is firmly grounded in finding shared history and a common vision to create new political and cultural pathways to change.

Allison holds a B.A. in History and M.A in Education from Stanford University. In the early 1990’s, Allison earned a rare honorable discharge from the U.S. Army as a conscientious objector, launching 30 years of efforts to build communities and launch campaigns grounded in love, justice, and belonging. She is at work on several groundbreaking media projects highlighting the legacy and history-making impact of women of color as the vanguards for multiracial solidarity and democracy.

And as she told Diablo Magazine recently, her belief in multiracial democracy [is] “my whole life’s work. … I have stepped into a very powerful legacy and will do my part to prepare the next generation.”

Angela Glover Blackwell is Founder in Residence at PolicyLink, the organization she started in 1999 to advance racial and economic equity for all. Under Angela’s leadership, PolicyLink gained national prominence in the movement to use public policy to improve access and opportunity for all low-income people and communities of color, particularly in the areas of health, housing, transportation, and infrastructure. Angela is also the host of the Reimagining Democracy for a Good Life podcast and the Radical Imagination podcast and Professor of Practice at the Goldman School of Public Policy, University of California, Berkeley.

A lawyer by training, Angela gained national recognition as founder of the Urban Strategies Council. From 1977 to 1987, Angela was a partner at Public Advocates. Angela is also the co-author of Uncommon Common Ground: Race and America’s Future, and the author of The Curb Cut Effect (2017) and How We Achieve a Multiracial Democracy (2023) published in the Stanford Social Innovation Review.

As a leading voice in the movement for equity in America, Angela serves on numerous boards. She advised the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve as one of 15 members of its inaugural Community Advisory Council, and in 2020 was appointed by California Governor Gavin Newsom to the state Task Force on Business and Jobs Recovery. She is the 2018 recipient of the John W. Gardner Leadership Award, presented by the Independent Sector, and in 2017, she received the Peter E. Haas Public Service Award from the University of California, Berkeley.

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.

Steve Phillips is a national political leader, bestselling author, and columnist. 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 newly released national bestselling 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. He is the founder of Democracy in Color, a political media organization dedicated to race, politics and the multicultural progressive New American Majority.

Phillips is a graduate of Stanford University and Hastings College of the Law and practiced civil rights and employment law for many years. Phillips has appeared on multiple national radio and television networks including NBC, CNN, MSNBC and C-SPAN.

Lateefah Simon is a nationally recognized advocate for civil rights and racial justice in Oakland and the Bay Area. She has served as President of Akonadi Foundation since 2016. That same year—driven by Oscar Grant's death—she was elected to the Bay Area Rapid Transit Board of Directors as President. She was elected to a second term in November 2020. Since 2015, Lateefah also has served as a member of the Board of Trustees for the California State University, the nation's largest public university system, and state officials often turn to her for strategic advice on policy matters related to racial justice. In 2022 Akonadi Foundation welcomed Lateefah Simon to the Board of Directors as she transitioned from President of Akonadi to lead Meadow Fund. Lateefah spearheaded San Francisco's first reentry anti-recidivism youth services division under the then-District Attorney Kamala Harris leadership. Lateefah received the MacArthur Foundation "Genius" Award in 2003, making her the youngest woman to receive the award —in recognition of her work as Executive Director of the Young Women's Freedom Center.