Speakers Bios
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2021 CWWG National Meeting SPEAKERS BIOS Adeline Azrack Adeline Azrack is the Managing Director of US, Mexico, and Caribbean Programs at the FondationCHANEL, an international corporate foundation dedicated to improving the economic and social conditions of women and girls. Prior to joining the Foundation, she spent over 10 years working with the UN, governments and NGOs in the Caribbean, South Asia, East and West Africa and the United States as a specialist in social justice and health justice movements, global maternal and child health, public health policy, and research and evaluation. In addition to her role at the FondationCHANEL, she serves on the Board of the Hôpital Albert Schweitzer Haiti. Adeline has an M.A. in Public Health from the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health and a B.A. in Cultural and Social Anthropology with a minor in Feminist Studies from Stanford University. She currently lives in Brooklyn, NY and Nairobi, Kenya with her family. Aimee Allison Aimee Allison is the founder and president of She the People, a national network of women of color. She hosted the nation’s first presidential forum for women of color in 2019 and leads national efforts to build inclusive, multiracial coalitions led by women of color. She has appeared in hundreds of media outlets including Politico, New York Times and PBS. Aimee Allison holds a B.A. and M.A. from Stanford University. Aisha Nyandoro Aisha Nyandoro is on a mission to holistically and compassionately support families as they work to exit poverty. As the Founding Chief Executive Officer of Springboard To Opportunities, she uses a “radically resident-driven” approach to end generational poverty. She’s both deeply practical, strategic and very impatient; launching the very first of its kind guaranteed income program for single Black mothers in the history of the United States – The Magnolia Mother’s Trust. Nyandoro has more than two decades of experience developing, implementing, and evaluating programs aimed at improving the quality of life for individuals with limited resources. She has worked in various capacities-- as an academic, evaluator, philanthropist, and nonprofit executive. These varied experiences have allowed her to better understand systems and policies that impact vulnerable communities. Prior to serving with Springboard, Aisha served as a Program Officer with the Foundation for the Mid-South. During her tenure, she strengthened the Foundation’s community development portfolio by executing a plan focused on five specific strategies aimed at transforming communities. Additionally, she led the Foundation’s place-based initiative – Community of Opportunities. Under her leadership, community leaders were able to leverage more than $20 million in federal and private funding. In addition, she established statewide, regional, and national public-private partnerships to create resources and assist the Foundation in achieving its mission and goals. She holds a B.A. in Psychology from Tennessee State University, a M.A. in Community Psychology and Urban Affairs and a Ph.D. in Ecological Community Psychology from Michigan State University. Aisha’s commitment to community and passion for social change is demonstrated through her varied volunteer work including Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., and the various boards of directors and advisory councils to which she lends her expertise and service. Aisha has received multiple honors, including recognition as a fellow of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation Community Leadership Network and Ascend at the Aspen Institute. She is a TEDx speaker and her work has been featured in both print and news media outlets including: The Washington Post, Amanpour & Company, Essence Magazine, NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt, CNN, MSNBC, Fast Company and The Nation to name a few. The varied recognitions for her work distinguish her as a trailblazer in the larger national conversation about economic and racial inequity. When not working to transform the world, she is a wife and mommy to the best two little boys in the world. GALVANIZING ACTION FOR GENDER EQUITY | CWWG NATIONAL MEETING 2021 | 1 Alexandra Bastien Co-Founder Alexandra Bastien – For her entire career, Alexandra has worked toward gender, racial and economic justice. She led the Financial Stability grantmaking strategy at the Silicon Valley Community Foundation (SVCF) which included a focus on benefits access, EITC expansion, free tax preparation, cash assistance and basic income. Prior to joining SVCF, Alexandra was Senior Associate at PolicyLink, where she led a variety of projects related to advancing economic opportunity including federal tax policy, workforce/employment policy, addressing government issued fines and fees and the development of policy agendas to advance financial security. An avid messenger on the consequences of a growing racial wealth gap, Alexandra was invited to present at TEDx on what key policies are needed to address it. Prior to joining PolicyLink, Alexandra was a 2012-2013 cohort member of the Proteus Fund Fellowship for Diversity in Philanthropy and served as the Co-Executive Director of the Young Black Women’s Society, Inc. Alexandra holds a Master of Public Policy degree from the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University and a B.A. in Communication from Boston College. Alexandra was also a Connecting Leaders Fellow with the Association of Black Foundation Executives (ABFE). Angela Glover Blackwell Angela Glover Blackwell founded PolicyLink in 1999 with a mission of advancing racial and economic equity for all. Through her writing, speaking, and leadership, Angela has helped to grow and define a national equity movement focused on innovating and improving public policy with a wide range of partners to ensure access and opportunity for all low-income people and communities of color – particularly in the areas of building an equitable economy, health, housing, transportation, infrastructure, and arts and culture. Prior to founding PolicyLink, Angela served as Senior Vice President at the Rockefeller Foundation, where she oversaw the foundation’s Domestic and Cultural programs. A lawyer by training, she gained national recognition as founder of the Oakland (CA) Urban Strategies Council, where she pioneered new approaches to neighborhood revitalization. From 1977 to 1987, she was a partner at Public Advocates, a nationally known public interest law firm. She is also the host of the recently launched podcast, Radical Imagination. Dana Kawaoka-Chen As co-director of Justice Funders, Dana Kawaoka-Chen partners and guides philanthropy in reimagining practices that advance a thriving and just world. Dana leads with vision and is guided by relationships. As a practitioner, Dana co-authored the “The Choir Book: A Framework for Social Justice Philanthropy,” and was a primary contributor to “Resonance: A Framework for Philanthropic Transformation.” You can find her writing on a Just Transition for Philanthropy in Medium. As founding Executive Director of Justice Funders, Dana grew the organization by aligning its strategy to the visions of movements working for racial, economic and social justice. Dana’s leadership in facilitating a Just Transition for philanthropy by redistributing wealth, democratizing power and shifting economic control to communities has resulted in millions of philanthropic dollars being mobilized and aligned to build infrastructure for frontline communities to govern themselves. For her work advocating for deeper investments in social movements, Dana was recognized by Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy (AAPIP) in 2015 as one of twenty-five national “Leaders in Action.” Dana has previously served in executive functions for two other non-profit organizations. She has an M.S. in Organization Development from the University of San Francisco, a B.A. in American Studies and Visual Art from the University of California at Santa Cruz, and Non-Profit Management Certification from San Jose State University. Born and raised in the Bay Area, Dana currently lives in San Jose with her family. Diana Melendez Diana Melendez (she/hers), MSW, LCSW, PhD Candidate in Social Welfare. Diana was born in Mexico and moved to NJ with her family as a young adolescent in 1998. She is an institutional infiltrator as social worker, educator and, currently, as a doctoral student at the Social Welfare program at the Graduate Center (CUNY). During her time there, she has completed a Certificate in Interactive Technology and Pedagogy and has taught at various schools of social work in New York City, currently serving as an adjunct at Hunter’s Silberman School of Social Work. Her research and practice interests are focused on the integration of liberation-based theory into social GALVANIZING ACTION FOR GENDER EQUITY | CWWG NATIONAL MEETING 2021 | 2 work pedagogy and praxis, as well as interrogating the role of helping professions and higher education in movements for justice. Diana earned her MSW from NYU’s Silver School of Social Work in 2009 and has since worked providing direct clinical services to youth and families through in-home therapy, school-based services, family therapy and hospital-based psychiatric and crisis services. Diana completed post-graduate training in Liberation-Based Healing at the Institute for Family Services and has worked as anti-racist trainer and organizer with the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond. Most recently, Diana served as a fellow with the Social Change Agents Institute with a