Racial Equity Action Institute

Erwin is Director of Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion at Tides in San Francisco.  He has more than 20 years of experience working with executive leaders to foster positive change in complex organizations.  Currently, Erwin is leading Tides' diversity, equity, and inclusion journey, advising organizational leaders through culture shifts that create positive employee experiences. His DEI practice is focused on identifying  the root causes of organizational inequities, and educating organizations on sustainable approaches to address them.  Erwin leans into approaches that help community members feel valued and respected, and where the organization can realize its full potential. His main focus is to foster more just, equitable, and human-centered organizations. A veteran of the United States Army, Erwin holds masters degrees in business administration and training and development, as well as a bachelor of arts degree in psychology, all from Roosevelt University in Chicago. He is a native of Chicago, who now lives in San Francisco with his wife and daughters.

A seasoned health services executive, Tanir Ami is the CEO of the CARESTAR Foundation, a newly established statewide funder working to ensure that all Californians experience an emergency response system that is equitable, unified, and compassionate. Prior to her current role, she was the CEO of OLE Health, an eight-site Federally Qualified Health Center that provides comprehensive primary health care to over 30,000 patients. Tanir has more than 20 years of experience providing leadership to non-profit healthcare organizations including community clinics, advocacy organizations, and the Blue Shield of California Foundation, where she initiated several successful collaborative programs to advance health and safety for vulnerable Californians. She holds an MBA with a certificate in Health Services Management from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley. Tanir is also a certified professional coach and is passionate about leadership development, particularly for people who are traditionally underrepresented in executive roles. In 2016, Tanir was recognized as the Outstanding Non-Profit Leader of the Year in Napa County by the Center for Volunteer and Non Profit Leadership.

Cristiana Baik is committed to a just transition within philanthropy that will lead to more responsible, regenerative ways of moving and allocating capital. Through her work, she envisions being a part of a powerful movement that catalyzes long-lasting, structural changes in the ways that capital is not only deployed but generated--changes that hold foundations, financial institutions and other capital-giving institutions accountable to our communities, which also means to discontinue engaging with investments that accumulate capital through extractive means. Currently, Cristiana works as the Deputy Director of Development at the Low Income Investment Fund

As a researcher, writer, strategist, expert facilitator, and storyteller, CJ brings over 20 years of diverse experience in the philanthropic and nonprofit sectors. CJ has expertise in the areas of foundation strategy and organizational effectiveness; nonprofit governance and administration;  public policy advocacy and community organizing; and leadership development and capacity building.  A student of change, she brings a spirit of curiosity and playfulness to her work and a commitment to unleashing more joy in the world. Her career reflects a longstanding and demonstrated commitment to racial equity and social justice.  CJ received her JD from Stanford University where she was one of the first participants in the Law School’s Public Interest Loan Program. She obtained a BA in political science and philosophy with honors from New York University. She is a proud new resident of Oakland California where she lives with her husband, the Ethnomusicologist, and their dog Pote.

Christina Bath Collosi is managing partner and co-founder of VIVA Social Impact Partners, a social impact firm serving nonprofits, public agencies, philanthropic organizations, and impact-forward companies. Christina’s work focuses on human-centered systems design, re-engineering public services and supports, and community planning. She has worked in different settings throughout the last 25 years with the common goal of social good including as a teacher, school counselor, non-profit manager, and public agency program and evaluation director. This work in the field served as a foundation for her consulting practice and the launch of VIVA in 2011. Throughout these experiences, Christina has seen how the lack of equitable opportunity due to systemic racism consistently derails progress in schools, neighborhoods, and organizations. Christina is committed to self-improvement, systems improvement, and partnership with others committed to social justice. Christina has a Master of Arts in Education from CSU Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and a Bachelor of Science in Biology from the University of California at Santa Barbara.

Jaimi has been committed to the nonprofit and philanthropic sector her entire career, amassing a wealth of knowledge in nonprofit development, grantmaking, organizational development and board leadership. Currently a Senior Philanthropic Advisor at the Marin Community Foundation, Jaimi partners with individuals to help achieve meaningful, strategic and impactful giving opportunities that align with their values and interests. Prior to MCF, Jaimi consulted for a $130M startup foundation, developing grantmaking systems and supporting program evaluation, outcomes measurement and financial analysis. She was also a senior-level program manager at the Women’s Foundation of California engaging nonprofits, donors, private funders, and community members to strengthen efforts addressing gender justice and economic wellbeing. Originally from Los Angeles, she has previously worked for First 5 LA and PHFE Management Solutions, which focused on education equity and youth development. Jaimi was the first in her family to graduate from college and received her BA in women’s studies and political science at UCLA and MBA from Pepperdine University. She is an active member of the UCLA Alumni Scholarship Committee and serves on the board for her local library. In response to the devastating 2017 California fires, Jaimi became an on-call disaster responder for the Marin chapter of the American Red Cross. The mother of a dynamic 7-year old, Jaimi is focused on raising her as a strong, independent and joyful human being.

Anh Thang Dao-Shah is the Director of Equity and Wellness at ZSFG, where she manages the hospital’s strategies to reduce disparities in health outcomes, patient care and workforce development. She also oversees the community wellness center that stewards programs on food insecurity, multilingual support for cancer patients and wellness for all staff. Before joining ZSFG Anh was the Senior Racial Equity and Policy Analyst at the San Francisco Arts Commission where she led the agency to pass the first racial equity action plan and statement in the City and County of San Francisco. Anh received a Ph.D. in American Studies and Ethnicity from the University of Southern California with a focus on critical race studies and Asian American literature and culture. She currently serves on the Anti-racism Initiative Advisory Group for the American Council for Learned Societies and the Board of the Vietnamese Diasporic Artists Network.

As Director of Programs at the May and Stanley Smith Charitable Trust, Amy works with the CEO, the Program Officers, and the Grants Management team to ensure that the Trust is achieving its strategic mission. She has three decades of experience in philanthropy, and non-profit program and administration. She is adept at understanding the connection between program and policy. Amy’s career has included grantmaking focused on improving outcomes for foster youth and college students, by working with the systems that serve them, seeding innovative practice, and promoting better policies. Her experience extends to public-private partnerships, initiative work, and funder collaborations. Amy is skilled at bringing diverse individuals and stakeholders together to address complex problems, to facilitate solutions across a range of issues, and to advocate for effective programs and policies to achieve those solutions.

Tajuana Gray is a Workforce Contract Compliance Officer with the City and County of San Francisco’s Office of Economic & Workforce Development (OEWD).Her work includes developing and directing economic, workforce, and racial equity policy efforts in San Francisco’s Bayview/Hunter’s Point, Visitation Valley and Excelsior Districts, as well as the greater Bay Area. Tajuana also has extensive experience working with and advocating for vulnerable and disadvantaged populations. She holds a juris doctorate degree in Law from the University of California Hastings College of the Law. She has utilized her legal knowledge to serve and advocate for impacted communities in areas of employment, criminal, and civil rights law and has had the opportunity to assist in creating racially conscious state and local policies that impact black and brown people. Tajuana has a strong foundation in racial equity work--having both academic knowledge of and lived experience with the history of institutional racism--and works to battle it by integrating equitable racial, workforce and economic policies, programs, and initiatives at all levels of government.  Since 2017. Tajuana has led the racial equity efforts for the Office of Economic and Workforce Development (OEWD) where she works with internal and external stakeholders, community leaders, and the OEWD team to build capacity for the work and to integrate racial equity in key policies in OEWD and City and County of San Francisco.

Asa King is the Manager of the City and County San Francisco Human Services Agency (HSA) Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging. Asa has over 15 years of experience as a social justice advocate and change agent.  Prior to their current role, Asa worked as a Senior Human Resources Analyst in the HSA Office of Civil Rights and an EEO investigator for the United States Postal Service where they mediated and investigated complaints of discrimination and harassment.  Asa also previously worked as a public interest lawyer both providing holistic representation to indigent clients as a public defender and advancing the rights of transgender and gender non-conforming individuals as a Staff Attorney with the Transgender Law Center. Asa holds a law degree from American University and a Bachelor’s degree from Cornell University.

Ali Knight is the President and CEO at Fresh Lifelines for Youth, a San Francisco Bay Area-based organization that supports at-risk and justice system-involved youth to remain crime-free and safe in their communities while becoming catalysts for systems change. Ali has 20 years of public service as a champion for change and a crusader for justice reforms. Earlier experiences include senior leadership roles at the Prisoner Reentry Institute (PRI) at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, and at the Vera Institute of Justice in NYC. Ali also taught courses in criminal and juvenile justice at the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service at NYU. Ali has a Masters of Public Administration from NYU, and a Bachelor of Arts in Forensic Psychology from John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Ali and his wife Van live in the city of Alameda with their daughter, Iris, and son, Robin Maxwell.

Currently the Diversity Equity and Inclusion Program Manager for the Employee Services Agency and member of the County of Santa Clara Government Alliance on Racial Equity (GARE) Steering Committee. The founding Director of the Santa Clara County Office of Immigrant Relations. I was appointed in September 2015 as the Director of this new office authorized by the Board of Supervisors in June 2015. Prior to joining Santa Clara County, Love worked for both the County of Santa Cruz Human Services Department and the Health Services Agency for the previous 13 years.  At the Human Services Department, Love provided guidance to county staff as to changes in agency work operations related to Medi-Cal, Foster Care, and CalFRESH programs based on changes to state and federal policies. At the Health Services Agency, Love managed the Santa Cruz County Healthcare Outreach Coalition, where she coordinated the work of county staff and staff from community-based organizations to maximize outreach and insurance enrollment strategies. Love was instrumental in the Newborn Enrollment Project, Healthy Kids Steering Committee, Statewide Covering Kids and Families Coalition, and Santa Cruz County Safety Net Coalition, among other efforts. She also served as the County’s lead for the planning and implementation of the County’s Low-Income Health Program.   Love earned her Master of Public Policy degree at the Leon Panetta Institute for Public Policy at California State University Monterey Bay in 2012. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Community Studies from University of California Santa Cruz in 1999. During fall 2013, Love also taught about health policy and public health insurance programs for a semester at the California State University Monterey Bay. Love grew up in El Salvador and immigrated to the United States at the age of 14.

Combining lived experience in political organizing, education, nonprofit management, and philanthropy, Jon is deeply interested in the systems and stories which influence our daily lives.  Serving as a Senior Program Officer at the Jim Joseph Foundation, much of Jon’s portfolio focuses on investments and partnerships which develop exceptional leaders and educators, the likes of whom can unlock connection, meaning, and purpose for learners across the Jewish community.  Recognizing the ways in which dominant culture constrains every person’s ability to see the intersectional and ancient narratives and wisdom of our communities, Jon is eager to learn from, and with, a cross sector cohort about the ways in which we can access the personal stories, history, and memory of our communities in order to unlock our collective power.  Father to Caroline and Cole, eight year old puppy, Kit, and partner to Jess, together, they work on their garden, hike, camp, kayak, garden, and grow.

Savitha Moorthy is a fierce advocate for equity, especially  in early childhood education. Her first job was as a preschool teacher, and the early learning classroom will always be her happy place. As a researcher, she has collaborated with educators and families to develop programs and practices to improve early learning experiences and ensure that all children arrive in kindergarten ready to learn. Savitha is currently the Executive Director of Tandem, Partners in Early Learning -- a job that offers her the opportunity and privilege to work with a diverse, talented team on the systemic challenges facing families with young children. Savitha’s work is shaped by her training as a teacher and researcher and by her experiences as an immigrant, woman of color, member of a multi-racial family, and the mother of a four-year-old son.

Sarah Hadassah Negrón is the Finance & Grants Coordinator for the Levi Strauss Foundation, the corporate foundation for Levi Strauss & Co. (LS&Co.). An actress and dancer, Sarah believes that art is within us and around us at all times. She channels this creative energy into her work managing the Foundation’s day to day finance and operations systems and supporting the Foundation’s Pioneers in Justice initiative, which offers leadership capacity building opportunities to Bay Area social justice leaders. She is also a leader within LS&Co.’s Black employee resource group, liaising regularly with company leadership, community organizations, and fellow employees to elevate the Black employee voice at LS&Co. and connect her peers with social causes they are most passionate about. Sarah holds a B.A. in Biology and Dance from Washington University in St. Louis and is a new(ish) Bay Area resident as of 2018. When she is not working, she is performing regularly in the Bay Area’s theatre scene, acting in a wildly diverse array of Zoom sketch comedy shows and short films. Sarah is also a self-proclaimed science nerd and a huge fan of the horror genre.

Lauren Padilla-Valverde is director of racial equity practice and culture for The California Endowment. In this role, she oversees organization wide development of an anti-racist practice to more fully operationalize the foundation’s core values. Prior to this appointment, Lauren served as senior program manager for the Salinas Valley and Monterey County, overseeing a grantmaking strategy that centered a healing informed, racial justice lens through an investment in the leadership of those most impacted by systemic inequities. Through her leadership, a racial justice approach expanded regionally and in 2018 East Salinas BHC launched Toward a Racially Equitable Monterey County, an ecosystem of stakeholders in government, philanthropic and resident leadership committed to deepening racially equity practices central to advancing systems transformation. Before entering the field of philanthropy, Lauren practiced family medicine and homeless health and served as director of the Joint Master of Science in Physician Assistant Studies, Master of Public Health Program at Touro University-California.  Lauren is a graduate of the UC San Diego, Stanford University and Pace University.  She grew up in rural Monterey County and is the proud daughter of Guatemalan immigrants who came the US in 1969 and who worked in the first winery ranches of the region.

Sandra Panopio brings over ten years of local and international policy analysis experience on issues of migration and racial, gender and linguistic equity. She is currently the Senior Racial Equity and Policy Analyst at the San Francisco Arts Commission (SFAC). Prior to SFAC, Sandra managed training and compliance for language access for the City & County of San Francisco.  Sandra is also an active member of the Filipino community in San Francisco and is the President of the Board of the Filipino American Development Foundation, where she focuses on developing culturally competent resources for leadership and organizational development.  Sandra was born and raised in California and lived in New York City, London, the Dominican Republic and the Philippines prior to returning to the Bay area. She is a graduate of UC Berkeley and the London School of Economics.

Joined the team of CEN in 2018 and brings a wealth of knowledge because of her experiences as a transformational nonprofit executive director, corporate trainer, and adjunct college professor.  Her experience as a real estate professional, with a multi-million-dollar portfolio, armed her with the ability to market effectively, negotiate contracts, and manage finances.  Illy is intrigued by partnering with leaders to create work spaces geared at fostering a sense of belonging.  She believes this is achieved by developing a more sophisticated understanding of intergroup relations and by demolishing the policies, processes, and hiring practices interfering with the values of inclusion, diversity, equity, access, and liberation. Illy earned a bachelor's degree from Western Michigan University in human resource management and her master's in business administration from Ashford University with a focus in global management.  She also earned a Diversity and Inclusion Certificate from Cornel University and a certification from BoardSource in nonprofit leadership.

Leah leads Corporate Citizenship (social impact) for the West Region of Deloitte’s offices. Prior to this role, she founded the San Jose office of SPUR (San Francisco Bay Area Planning and Urban Research Association). She led large real estate development projects in the South Bay and Northern California, worked as a financial analyst at Comerica Bank, and as a project associate with the Brazilian-American Chamber of Commerce. After graduating from the University of Notre Dame, Leah joined the United States Peace Corps and was posted to Bolivia, South America. Leah has served in community leadership roles for nearly twenty years, spanning investments in public health, open space, and youth education. She is a senior fellow of American Leadership Forum (ALF) Silicon Valley, Secretary of the Board of International Women’s Forum Northern California and a NationSwell council member.

Kinman Tong is currently a partner at Moss Adams LLP and has practiced public accounting since 2003. Kinman serves a diverse spectrum of not-for-profit and governmental entities, providing assurance and consulting services to educational institutions, research organizations, foundations, community health centers, international non-governmental organizations, social welfare organizations, and ancillary health care entities. His passion for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) has encouraged him to help launch several business resource groups (BRGs) at Moss Adams, including PRiDE, Latinx, and Asian BRGs. He currently serves on the firm's Inclusion & Diversity Advisory Board, with a mission is to foster an inclusive and diverse culture where everyone feels they belong.  Kinman is excited to be a part of the 2020-21 REAI. He hopes to continue on his learning journey and build on the intersectionality of his passions for not-for-profit and DEI. Kinman is a CPA and a proud alum of the University of California, Berkeley – where he continues to give back and serves on the Berkeley Haas Alumni Council and the Center for Financial Reporting and Management.

Steven Yang joined Housing Trust as Loan Officer in December 2017 and was named Senior Loan Officer & Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Lead in July 2019. Steven works with the Multifamily Lending Program team to originate and manage loans to housing developers and cultivate financing partnerships. He also leads Housing Trust’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion committee. Steven has over a decade of experience in commercial real estate lending, having led the underwriting and administration of a loan portfolio in excess of $300 million and served as a key contributor in the implementation of an affordable housing program at a for-profit bank. He has also served as Development Chair on a local nonprofit board and is a current member of Silicon Valley At Home (SV@Home) Coalition of Housers Working Group. He earned his BA in Political Science and Asian Studies with an emphasis in Developmental Economics from the University of California at Berkeley. Steven is passionate about advocating for those who can’t or won’t.