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.
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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 focus on community-based work in South Africa and Kenya. Diana currently works as Coordinator and Field Instructor with a small nonprofit youth mentoring organization in the Bronx.
Diane Cornman-Levy Diane Cornman-Levy brings more than 30 years of nonprofit leadership, coalition building, community organizing and fundraising experience to WOMEN’S WAY, a Philadelphia-based organization dedicated to the advancement of women and girls. A tireless advocate for gender equity, Diane joined WOMEN’S WAY in January 2017after running for State Representative of the 168th District, where she secured the highest percentage of votes on the Democratic ticket. Diane was also co-founder and executive director of two non-profits, both of which work to improve education and economic equity for families. In each of these positions, Diane challenged the status quo through forging cross-sector partnerships and designing new programs that increased economic and education opportunities for families, teens, self-taught artists with mental health challenges and returning citizens. During her tenure at WOMEN’S WAY, she led the transformation of the organization including designing a new brand, creating new grantmaking programs and building a citywide, collaborative initiative to advance the economic security of women. Diane served as the Co-Chair of the City of Philadelphia’s Food Policy Advisory Council (FPAC), and a member of Thomas Jefferson University’s School of Population Health’s Advisory Board. She currently is a member of the Closing the Women’s Wealth Gap National Coalition and a board member of the nonprofit organization, She Is Us.
Dominique Derbigny Dominique Derbigny is Deputy Director of the Closing the Women’s Wealth Gap initiative where she works to identify and uplift policy and programmatic strategies to address the intersecting gender and racial wealth gaps. As a macro social worker, writer, facilitator, and advocate for racial and economic justice, she aims to disrupt systems of oppression and generate a future where Black and brown people are valued and thriving. Currently based in Atlanta, GA, Dominique has spent the past decade working with nonprofit organizations to create a more equitable and inclusive economy.
Dominique first came into the economic justice space by advocating for the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), and directing a coalition of 14 Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) programs across Richmond, Virginia. Through this work, Dominique became eager to support other programs and policies that promote economic advancement, particularly for Black, Indigenous and People of Color. She most recently served as Associate Director of the Savings & Financial Capability team at Prosperity Now, where she spent more than 5 years providing capacity building and technical assistance to dozens of nonprofits across the country to design and implement financial capability and asset-building programs and services for low-income families and communities. In that role, she also spearheaded the development of her team’s race equity strategy and facilitated internal discussions on what it means to become an anti-racist organization.
In 2018, Dominique was selected to participate in the Rockwood Leadership Institute’s Art of Leadership for Black Women in Georgia. She has an MSW from the University of Maryland, Baltimore, and a BA in Human Services from Elon University. She also writes about political and economic issues facing Black women for the news media website BlackHer.
Dr. C. Nicole Mason Dr. C. Nicole Mason is the president and chief executive officer of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR), a leading voice on pay equity, economic policies, and research impacting women.
As one of the nation’s foremost intersectional researchers and scholars, Dr. C. Nicole Mason brings a fresh perspective and a wealth of experience to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research. For the past two decades, Dr. Mason has spearheaded research on issues relating to economic security, poverty, women’s issues, and
GALVANIZING ACTION FOR GENDER EQUITY | CWWG NATIONAL MEETING 2021 | 3 entitlement reforms; policy formation and political participation among women, communities of color, and youth; and racial equity. Prior to IWPR, Dr. Mason was the executive director of the Women of Color Policy Network at New York University’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, the nation’s only research and policy center focused on women of color at a nationally ranked school of public administration. She is also an inaugural Ascend Fellow at the Aspen Institute in Washington, D.C.
Dr. Mason is the author of Born Bright: A Young Girl’s Journey from Nothing to Something in America (St. Martin’s Press) and has written hundreds of articles on community development, women, poverty, and economic security. Her writing and commentary have been featured in the New York Times, MSNBC, CNN, NBC, CBS, Real Clear Politics, the Nation, the Washington Post, Marie Claire Magazine, the Progressive, ESSENCE Magazine, Bustle, BIG THINK, the Miami Herald, Democracy Now, and numerous NPR affiliates, among others.
Elena Chávez Quezada Elena Chávez Quezada is Vice President of Programs at the San Francisco Foundation (SFF). In this role, Elena works to ensure that the Program Division advances SFF’s equity agenda through centering grantees, engaging key community partners, and internal collaboration. Prior to this role, Elena oversaw the economic security portfolio at the Walter and Elise Haas Fund, and was a senior program officer at Tipping Point Community. Elena is also Head of Investments at the Chavez Family Foundation (CFF), where she supports her brother in the launch and grantmaking of a new foundation focused on the intersection of immigration, education, and entrepreneurship. Prior to her roles in philanthropy, she managed the California expansion of Single Stop USA and worked on research and policy at the Aspen Institute’s Financial Security Program.
Elena is involved in various local and national organizations/efforts, including Closing the Women’s Wealth Gap Initiative, Immigrants Rising, and Campaign for College Opportunity. Elena received a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University and a master’s degree in public policy from the Harvard Kennedy School, and lives in San Francisco with her husband and two sons.
Heather McCulloch Heather is executive director of Closing the Women’s Wealth Gap, which she founded in early 2016. For the past two decades, she has worked as a speaker, educator, convener, writer and advocate for policies and strategies to close the wealth gap in America.
In 2000, as a senior associate at PolicyLink, she co-authored the national publication, Sharing the Wealth, which explored ways residents could gain an ownership stake in their communities. In 2002, she founded Asset Building Strategies, a national consulting firm focused on supporting institutions and leaders to develop policies and strategies that help individuals and families build financial assets to close the racial and gender wealth gaps. Clients have included the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Aspen Institute, Asset Funders Network, Greenlining, Levi Strauss Foundation, Mission Asset Funder, National Conference of State Legislatures, Neighborhood Funders Group, New America, PolicyLink, the Walter and Elise Haas Fund, and others. In the spring of 2016, she was a visiting professor at UC Berkeley’s College of Environmental Design, where she co-led a graduate-level course on tackling inequality through equitable development. She’s written about inequality for the Los Angeles Times, CNN Business, New York Times, Slate, Union Tribune and other state and local publications. She earned a master’s degree from the London School of Economics and a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley.
Hiba Haroon Hiba (she/her) is a racial and social justice advocate who works in solidarity with social service organizations and communities across the country in building and implementing financial empowerment programs. Hiba is a daughter, sister, and first-generation immigrant from Karachi, Pakistan. Hiba is also a yoga and meditation teacher and believes that healing should be centered in all justice movements. Her ancestors, parents, sisters, friends, fellow activists, and past and future selves are her sources of courage, wisdom, and grace. She lives in Houston, Texas.
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Jaime Gloshay Jaime is a Co-Founder of Native Women Lead and supports key efforts in partnership, advancement, program design, evaluation, and policy. She is also a Team Lead at Roanhorse Consulting, LLC and co-designs and develops initiatives on economic inclusion, entrepreneurship, and resource curation. Jaime is a Boston Impact Initiative Fellow, Opportunity Finance Network fellow, and an Equity & Transformation coach. Previously, she was a Loan Officer at Accion, developing their Native American lending program. She holds a BA in Native American Studies & Political Science and an MPA in Nonprofit Management. Jaime is a Matriarch of the Navajo, White Mountain Apache, and Kiowa Nations residing in Tiwa Territory.
Jennifer Siebel Newsom Jennifer Siebel Newsom is a filmmaker, advocate, thought leader, and the First Partner of California. After graduating with honors from Stanford University and Stanford’s GraduateSchool of Business, she wrote,directed, and produced the 2011 award-winning documentary Miss Representation. As a result of Miss Representation’s impact, she launched The Representation Project, a nonprofit organization that uses film and media as a catalyst for cultural transformation. Her second film as a director, The Mask You Live In, explores how America’s narrow definition of masculinity is harming boys, men, and society at large. And, her third film in the trilogy, The Great American Lie, unveils the underlying cultural causes of inequality in America. She also executive produced the Emmy Award-winning and AcademyAward-nominated documentary The Invisible War and was an executive producer on the Emmy Award-winning documentary The Hunting Ground.
Jennifer’s films have been seen by over 28 million people worldwide, and The Representation Project’s social action hashtag campaigns have reached more than 830 million people. The Representation Project is responsible for single-handedly shifting the norm of sexist Super Bowl Ads with the #NotBuyingIt campaign. Similarly, their #AskHerMore campaign transformed the sexist reporting on the red carpet, and empowered women in Hollywood to address inequalities in the industry, giving early momentum to the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements. Since becoming First Partner of California, Jennifer has championed various issues related to gender equity and raising healthy, whole children including the launch of her first initiative, #EqualPayCA. Jennifer lives in Sacramento, California with her husband, California Governor Gavin Newsom, and their four young children.
Joanna Smith-Ramani Joanna Smith-Ramani is Managing Director of the Aspen Institute Financial Security Program, a leading national voice on Americans’ financial health. She is responsible for conceptualizing, planning, and overseeing the program’s research, convenings, and programs, aimed at furthering FSP’s mission to illuminate and solve the most critical financial challenges facing American households and to make financial security for all a top national priority.
Joanna has more than 15 years of experience across community, personal finance, and asset development. She joined Aspen FSP as the Director of its Expanding Prosperity Impact Collaborative (EPIC), where she built the program from the ground up and conceptualized and launched EPIC’s first two issues — income volatility and household debt — which FSP studies from causes to broader impact to market and policy solutions. Prior to joining FSP, Joanna served as Senior Innovation Director at Commonwealth, leading the unit that designs, tests, and evaluates promising financial service innovations. While at Commonwealth, Joanna developed innovations to improve savings and financial capability, including prize-linked savings, tax time savings, gamification, emergency savings, and youth savings. Additionally, Joanna led several federal grants, developed and sustained national coalitions, and built a network of industry partners.
Joanna has led national and state legislative campaigns resulting in the passage of a federal law and more than 10 state laws expanding savings innovation across the nation. She is a trusted expert on financial security and inclusion, having been quoted in numerous national and local media outlets such as the New York Times, National Public Radio, and Fox Cable News. Joanna holds a Master of Public Policy degree from the Harvard Kennedy School and a B.A. in Urban Studies from Barnard College, Columbia University. She serves on the Board of the CASH Campaign of Maryland, A Wider Circle, and the Lilabean Foundation, and was selected to the 2017- 2018 class of Leadership Montgomery.
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Kilolo Kijakazi Kilolo Kijakazi is an Institute fellow at the Urban Institute. She works with staff across Urban to develop collaborative partnerships with those most affected by economic and social issues, to expand and strengthen Urban’s agenda of rigorous research, to effectively communicate findings to diverse audiences, and to recruit and retain a diverse research staff at all levels. Kijakazi also conducts research on economic security, structural racism, and the racial wealth gap.
Previously, Kijakazi was a program officer at the Ford Foundation, focusing on building economic security and incorporating the expertise of people of color into all aspects of the work. She was a senior policy analyst for the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a program analyst for the US Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service, and a policy analyst for the National Urban League.
Kijakazi’s publications include African-American Economic Development and Small Business Ownership. She is a board member of the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation; the National Academy of Social Insurance, and its Study Panel on Economic Security; The Policy Academies; and Liberation in a Generation. She is a member of the Washington, DC Equitable Recovery Advisory Group, advises the Closing the Women’s Wealth Gap Initiative, is a co-chair of the National Advisory Council on Eliminating the Black-White Wealth Gap, and was a member of the Bipartisan Commission on Retirement Security and Personal Savings. Kijakazi holds a BS from SUNY Binghamton, an MSW from Howard University, and a PhD in public policy from the George Washington University.
Lorella Praeli Lorella is a freedom fighter, movement builder, and adaptive athlete. She currently serves as the President of Community Change Action and Vice President of Community Change. Lorella is passionate about building collective power to win transformative policy change at all levels of government so that people can thrive. Most recently, she was the ACLU’s Deputy National Political Director, where she fought to defend and expand the rights of immigrants and refugees. Prior to joining the ACLU, Lorella mobilized the Latinx vote as Hillary Clinton’s National Latino Vote Director and served as United We Dream’s Director of Advocacy and Policy, where she led the campaign to implement DACA and was part of the team that persuaded the Obama administration to protect four million undocumented Americans through DAPA.
Lucia Corral Peña Lucia Corral Peña is a senior program officer for Blue Shield of California Foundation, managing the Breaking the Cycle of Multigenerational Violence initiative in California. She leads the Foundation’s portfolio of grants to prevent domestic and family violence.
Prior to her role at the Foundation, Ms. Corral Peña was principal of Corral Peña Consulting, where her practice focused on creating opportunities for diverse and low-income communities, addressing the unmet needs of immigrants, agricultural workers, and women in California. With twenty years of programmatic and grantmaking experience, Ms. Corral Peña has contributed to national- and regional-level collaboratives on Latino leadership, reproductive justice, and civic engagement projects across Northern California and the Central Valley. She previously served as director of the Western Region for Hispanics in Philanthropy (HIP), where she managed the organization's award-winning Funders' Collaborative for Strong Latino Communities in five states. She has also served as program director at The California Wellness Foundation where she focused on state and local projects promoting the health of California's low-wage workforce.
Ms. Corral Peña received her bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Los Angeles and her law degree from the University of California, Hastings College of Law. She is a member of the California State Bar, and an alumnus of The San Francisco Foundation's Multicultural Fellowship and the Hastings Public Interest Law Fellowship. She has served as pro bono counsel, and on a variety of nonprofit boards, including Equal Rights Advocates and Centro Legal de La Raza, and currently leads an anti-bullying program at her children's school.
Lucy Arellano Baglieri Mrs. Arellano Baglieri has 15 years of community development management and strategy experience with a focus on social justice and racial equity. At LIIF, Lucy leads organizational strategy, racial equity, and external affairs. Prior to LIIF, she was Chief Strategy Officer for the Mission Economic Development Agency (MEDA),
GALVANIZING ACTION FOR GENDER EQUITY | CWWG NATIONAL MEETING 2021 | 6 where she led the organization’s national initiatives. Her work draws on communities’ strengths to respond to economic inequity and employ a holistic approach to wealth, place, and power building. This approach includes direct services, affordable real estate development and preservation, policy and advocacy, equitable CDFI lending, and collective impact networks. Mrs. Arellano Baglieri is nationally recognized for her leadership in community and organizational capacity building by a range of groups, including the Aspen Institute, Prosperity Now, UnidosUS, and NALCAB. She is an immigrant from Mexico and is natively bilingual in Spanish. Mrs. Arellano Baglieri holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Washington. She is based in San Francisco.
Mariko Chang Dr. Mariko Chang, founder of Mariko Chang Consulting, Inc., is a researcher and independent consultant specializing in external evaluation of grants that seek to increase faculty diversity and bring under-represented groups into STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics). Dr. Chang is a national expert on the wealth gap, especially the gender and racial dimensions of wealth inequality, and is the author of Shortchanged: Why Women Have Less Wealth and What Can Be Done About It.
Other key publications on the wealth gap include: Women and Wealth: Insights for Grantmakers, The Color of Wealth in Boston, and Lifting as We Climb: Women of Color, Wealth, and America’s Future.
Dr. Chang has a PhD in Sociology from Stanford University and was an Associate Professor of Sociology at Harvard University from 1998 to 2007 where she published work on occupational sex segregation across countries, the use of social networks for gathering financial information, and began her work on the gender wealth gap. She is also a founding member of The Closing the Women’s Wealth Gap Initiative and member of the Insight Center’s Experts of Color Network.
Melany De La Cruz-Viesca Melany De La Cruz-Viesca is the Deputy Director of the UCLA Asian American Studies Center (AASC) and the Managing Editor of AAPI Nexus, a nationwide journal focusing on Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) policy, practice, and community issues. She also directs the AAPI Community Development Census Information Center, a joint partnership between AASC and the U.S. Census Bureau. She is the lead author of "The Color of Wealth in Los Angeles," which is the first report examining the racial wealth gap in Los Angeles (Download report at: http://www.aasc.ucla.edu/besol/).
Her research focuses on racial stratification, demographics, and public policy issues in the United States. She specializes in examining the experiences of Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islanders in relation to wealth inequities, housing, community economic development, and education.
She is the Chair of the Closing the Women's Wealth Gap Research Working Group. She was appointed by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and re-appointed by Mayor Eric Garcetti to the City's Human Relations Commission. She holds a master's degree in urban planning from UCLA and a bachelor's degree in ethnic studies and urban studies and planning from UC San Diego.
Mona Masri Mona Masri is a 20-year veteran community development professional focused on delivering solutions through a client centered and collaborative approach. Her background in corporate social responsibility and community economic development includes leadership roles in the public, private and nonprofit sectors.
With each previous role, Mona built organizational bench strength by developing and executing strategies to ensure key stakeholder interests aligned with the need to achieve organizational goals. She has both led and participated in teams which built internal infrastructures and systems from the ground up, including reporting and compliance, fund development and fundraising, and board development.
As a consultant Mona works with the philanthropic, non-profit, and social enterprise sectors where she conducts organizational assessments and provides capacity building support based on those identified needs. Her work with philanthropy has included spearheading national initiatives to educate funders, policy advocates, and practitioners about the issues, opportunities, and investment strategies needed to address growing gender and racial wealth gaps, especially those with intersectional and intergenerational issues such as the care
GALVANIZING ACTION FOR GENDER EQUITY | CWWG NATIONAL MEETING 2021 | 7 economy. She led the development of a series of briefs focused on closing the gender wealth gap, especially for lower-income women of color.
Mona sits on the board of Inner City Advisors and serves as the Chair of the Promising Practices Working Group for CWWG. She holds both a BA in Finance and an MA in Urban & Regional Planning from the University of Southern California. She is a former Peace Corps volunteer who served in Bulgaria.
Noreen Farrell Noreen Farrell is one of the nation’s top gender equity leaders and lawyers. She is the Executive Director of Equal Rights Advocates (ERA), a national non-profit which has led groundbreaking efforts to protect the civil rights and improve the economic security of women and girls for 40 years. Noreen has been named one of the Top Women Leaders in Law and a 2014 Legal Innovator by The Recorder. She’s also been recognized by The Daily Journal as one of the Top Employment Lawyers and Top 100 Women Lawyers in California.
Noreen has led seminal cases across the country and before the United States Supreme Court to ensure that girls thrive in safe and fair schools and that woman succeed in workplaces free of discrimination. She has worked in dozens of industries – from tech to restaurants to law to mining – to promote equal pay for equal work, family leave and the fair treatment of pregnant workers and caregivers, workplaces that are free from sexual harassment, and hiring and promotion based on merit. Noreen also leads trailblazing gender equity campaigns at the state and national levels. She is Chair of the Equal Pay Today Campaign, leading 18 of the country’s top women’s advocacy organizations working in six states and at the national level to close the gender wage gap. She also founded and chairs a state women’s economic security campaign called Stronger California: Securing Economic Opportunities for Women. She leads over 30 organizations across the state in promoting policy reform to address poverty, childcare, fair pay, and other workplace fairness issues. As part of this campaign, ERA has partnered with Academy Award winner Patricia Arquette to promote passage of the California Fair Pay Act, which would be the strongest state equal pay law in the country.
Noreen lectures across the country and has published widely on civil rights matters, including most recently, Moving Women Forward on the 50th Anniversary of the Civil Rights Act: A Gender Wage Gap That Won’t Close. Noreen is a graduate of Yale University and the University of California Hastings College of the Law, where she was Editor-In-Chief of the Hastings Women’s Law Journal.
Pia Infante Pia believes we have the collective imagination and power to redesign philanthropy to center the people we serve. Philippine-born, California-grown, and queer, oldest daughter in an immigrant family, Pia navigates difference to broker connection. Pia brings her chops as a former high school teacher, organizational development consultant, and nonprofit manager to her work. Pia is a nationally recognized advocate for trust- based philanthropy and radically embodied leadership. She chairs the Trust-Based Philanthropy Project steering committee and serves on the board of MediaJustice.org. Pia is visiting faculty at the University of Vermont's Rubenstein School of Environment, and speaks and teaches in many settings. She holds an M.A. in Education from the New School for Social Research, and a B.A. in Rhetoric from The University of California at Berkeley. Pia is a proud long-time resident of Oakland, CA.
Rosazlia Grillier Rosazlia Grillier is the mother of two now-adult daughters, a longtime activist in her Southside Englewood community in Chicago, and President Emeritus of POWER-PAC Illinois (Parents Organized to Win, Educate and Renew – Policy Action Council), a parent-led cross-cultural organization of low-income parents across Illinois, which is supported by Community Organizing and Family Issues (COFI). POWER- PAC IL’s mission is to build a strong voice for low-income, immigrant and working families by uniting parents and grandparents across race and community around the issues of importance to families. Ms. Grillier is also co-chair of POWER-PAC’s Stepping Out of Poverty Campaign, which seeks to increase economic stability for low-income families. As a COFI Parent Peer Trainer, she has traveled the country, providing trainings in COFI’s leadership development and organizing model and inspiration to hundreds of other low-income parent leaders. Ms. Grillier is a visionary and survivor. She’s deeply rooted in the South and lives in Chicago, Illinois. When handed a death sentence, she was wheelchair bound, weighing
GALVANIZING ACTION FOR GENDER EQUITY | CWWG NATIONAL MEETING 2021 | 8 more than 480 pounds. She has battled cancer and multiple serious illnesses. With the help of Community Organizing and Family Issues (COFI)’s training and empowerment, Rosazlia has found her voice as an organizer/trainer, empowering other parents to be a part of positive change. A relentless 250 lbs. lighter, Rosazlia takes her “nevertheless” attitude, determination to empower, and vision to change things “worldwide” everywhere she goes. In 2011, Ms. Grillier was awarded Allstate’s Give Back Day Award, a national recognition honoring community volunteers. She currently serves on COFI’s Board of Trustees and on the national Governing Council of the United Parent Leaders Action Network (UPLAN).
Shira Albagli Shira is a social impact leader with a track record of building high-profile campaigns that mobilize millions, shift public narratives, and deliver legislative wins. She has led breakthrough public engagement strategies that leverage corporate and influencer partnerships and put power in the hands of people to deliver measurable impact at the UN, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Paid Leave for the US, with the First Partner of California Jennifer Siebel Newsom, and currently at Purpose as a Campaign Director.
As the Communications Chair of the Closing the Women’s Wealth Gap initiative, Co-Founder of a Bay Area Women’s Mastermind Group, and guest lecturer on equity advocacy at various universities and organizations, she is deeply invested in building political, social, and economic power for women. Shira graduated from Barnard College, Columbia University cum laude with a degree in politics and theatre, a discipline she created at the college.
Stephanie Tedy Stephanie Tedy serves as Vice President, CSR Strategy & Operations Manager for Bank of the West. In this capacity, she supports the philanthropic strategy for the bank, managing high level partnerships to advance the bank’s commitment to their ESG priorities as well as collaborating with key stakeholders to support and promote this work across all business channels. She also serves as VP of the board of directors for Community Resources Housing & Development Corporation, a Colorado non-profit organization who provides a wide range of services to support the rural housing needs of communities state wide.
She is an avid runner and enjoys spending time camping, hiking and enjoying all the amazing outdoor activities Colorado offers with her husband, Randy, and daughter Avery.
Surina Khan A first- generation immigrant, Surina Khan came to the US with her parents and five older siblings in 1973, and has been dedicated to gender, racial, and economic justice issues ever since. As CEO of The Women’s Foundation California, Surina Khan 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.
In 2011 Surina was recruited by the Ford Foundation to design and launch Ford’s LGBT Rights Initiative and went on to become a Director in the Democracy Rights and Justice Program where she shaped more than $30 million in annual grantmaking around the world to expand rights for women, LGBT people, people living with HIV/AIDS, and in the areas of strengthening democratic participation and governance. She returned to WFC as CEO in 2014 and is dedicated to engaging more people to support those who are most impacted by the problems in their community to develop solutions to advance gender, racial, and economic justice. Earlier in her career Surina served as Executive Director of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (now OutRight Action International) where she worked to advance the human rights of LGBTQI people and people living with HIV/AIDS worldwide.
Prior to that she was a research analyst for Political Research Associates, conducting groundbreaking research on the Right’s attacks on women and LGBT people. Surina serves on several Boards and is currently co-chair of the Board of Directors of Funders for Reproductive Equity. She is also 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. She previously served on the Boards of numerous organizations including Funders for LGBTQ
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Issues, Connecticut Women’s Education and Legal Fund, Outright Action International, and the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice.
Tiffany Younger Tiffany is the Policy and Special Projects Manager at Closing the Women’s Wealth Gap (CWWG). She was born and raised in the South Bronx. Prior to working at CWWG, she served as the Founder of the Social Change Agents Institute (SCAI), a project that brings social workers, professionals, and educators to offer free mental health services and social change workshops in developing countries of the African Diaspora such as South Africa, Ghana, Kenya and Brazil.
Tiffany worked as a Policy Fellow for United States Senator Kirsten Gillibrand where she focused on issues of criminal justice, gender and race equity. She also served as a T32 Clinical Research Science Fellow at the National Institute of Health (NIH) where her research interests focused on heart disease and health disparities among Black women.
Tiffany obtained her Masters of Science degree in Social Policy at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Social Policy and Practice. She is a Lecturer at Columbia University School of Social Work and New York University where she teaches Social Welfare Policy and Decolonizing Social Work. Currently, she is obtaining a dual doctoral degree in Clinical Epidemiology at Weill Cornell Medical College and Social Welfare at the Silberman School of Social Work. She resides in Harlem, New York with her daughter.
Tishaura O. Jones, Treasurer of St. Louis Transparency, Integrity, and Service define who she is and how she did it. Since 2012, Tishaura O. Jones has helped the City of St. Louis earn and save over $30 million and counting. With a deep personal commitment, a wealth of experience, and a proven record of leadership Jones started her political career in 2002 when she was appointed as Democratic committeewoman of the 8th Ward in the City of St. Louis. A history-maker on a mission, she served two terms in the Missouri House of Representatives, and was selected as the first African American woman in Missouri history to hold the position of Assistant Minority Floor Leader. She also is the first African American woman to serve as Treasurer of St. Louis. Treasurer Jones has a Bachelor's degree in Finance from Hampton University and a Master’s degree in Health Administration from the Saint Louis University School of Public Health. A graduate of the Executives in State and Local Government program at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, she has served as Vice President of Public Finance for Blaylock Robert Van, LLC, an investment banking firm, as well as adjunct faculty at the Anheuser-Busch School of Business at Harris-Stowe State University.
In her tenure as Treasurer, she launched the Office of Financial Empowerment (OFE) to help St. Louisans make better financial choices, as OFE’s College Kids Program has helped over 16,000 public school students start saving through educational savings accounts. With over a million dollars saved to date, these college saving accounts will help more city children get a higher education, using parking revenue, family contributions and community support. Treasurer Jones volunteer service is as notable her robust career accomplishments. A member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. her dedication to public service has earned her numerous accolades including awards from the St. Louis Coalition for Human Rights, the RCGA, and the Lupus Foundation of America. From financial empowerment to the modernizing of services, Jones has helped make city government easier to navigate, easier to participate in, and easier to understand. She is also the proud mother of Aden.
Tamieka Mosley Tamieka Mosley serves as Director for Grantmakers for Southern Progress in Atlanta, GA. Prior, she served as the Deputy Director for Southern Partners Fund for four years and before that was program officer for the foundation. For the past 20 years, Tamieka has worked in the south serving grassroots and community-based organizations. She has committed her career to providing strategic management to institutions that have a mission focused on levering resources toward the development and sustainability of marginalized communities in the Southern United States.
Leng Leng Chancey Leng Leng Chancey is an activist, an organizer, and champion of equity and liberation. Her long-standing passions revolve around social justice issues concerning communities of color with “equitable access for all” as
GALVANIZING ACTION FOR GENDER EQUITY | CWWG NATIONAL MEETING 2021 | 10 her motto. Currently, she is the executive director of 9to5, national association of working women. 9to5 is a national organization on the frontlines working for women’s rights through a gender and racial justice lens. The organization has a national network of grassroots advocates and offices in Colorado, Georgia and Wisconsin and members throughout the country. She has held numerous management positions in nonprofits such as the United Way of Greater Atlanta, Center for Pan Asian Community Services, and the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum (NAPAWF) prior to joining 9to5.
Leng Leng currently serves as Board Chair of Access Reproductive Care - Southeast, working at the intersection of reproductive justice issues, abortion access that impact women of color. She is also a Board member of the Southeast Immigrant Rights Network (SEIRN), helping elevate the voices of immigrant communities that are most impacted by our failing immigration system. In addition, she also serves as a board member for Mothering Justice Action Fund.
Born and raised in Singapore, Leng Leng came to the United States to attend college at Washington State University where she received her BA in History and Asian Studies. In her spare time, Leng Leng is an avid baker in search of the best bread for a perfect SPAM sandwich.
Tamieka Atkins Tamieka Atkins is the executive director of ProGeorgia, Georgia’s state-based non-partisan voter engagement advocacy organization, and a member of the State Voices National Network of Tables. ProGeorgia is a bold, trusted, and diverse collaborative that champions an equitable and inclusive democracy, for and with traditionally underrepresented communities. In her role as Executive Director Tamieka coordinates the voter registration and civic engagement plans of 38 partner organizations, and through the Table provides infrastructure and capacity building to support organizations’ ability to grow the scale of their voter registration and civic engagement programs. Tamieka is also the Convener of ProGeorgia's Women of Color Initiative, which strives to support the self-determination and leadership of women of color in their development of statewide policy agendas that strengthen all of Georgia by centering the policy-making and leadership of women of color across the state.
Prior to working at ProGeorgia, Tamieka was the Founding Director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance - Atlanta Chapter, where she developed a base of African American domestic workers advocating for respect, recognition, and inclusion in labor protections for all domestic workers. Over the course of four years, Tamieka organized domestic workers to fight for the expansion of Medicaid and used a gender and race lens to increase black women’s civic engagement and their participation in the Chapter. Before that, Tamieka worked at Amnesty International USA for six years serving as their Board Liaison and played an integral role in developing the organization’s 2011 Strategic Plan.
Tamieka previously served on the Board of the Highlander Research and Education Center, and on the Board of Atlanta Jobs with Justice. She is a former Board member of the Annie E Casey’s Community Investment Fund. She currently sits on the Board of State Voices and State Innovation Exchange (SIX). Tamieka served as a member of the Host Committee for the 2016 Facing Race Conference. She has a Bachelor's in Multicultural Literature from Hunter College and a certificate in Professional Fundraising from NYU. While at Hunter, Tamieka organized college and high school student walkouts against police brutality and the Iraq War as a member of the political organization SLAM (Student Liberation Action Movement) between 2000 and 2004. Tamieka is also a graduate of the BOLD program (Black Organizing for Leadership and Dignity). Tamieka lives in Atlanta, Georgia with her two daughters.
Annette O’Hanlon Annette O’Hanlon serves as Chief Corporate Responsibility & Diversity Officer for S&P Global and President of the S&P Global Foundation. In this role, Ms. O’Hanlon provides strategic leadership to a global team supporting S&P Global’s philanthropic and diversity initiatives, strategic engagement, employee programs and sustainability practices. Building on a strong foundation, this global team works across the S&P Global businesses to advance its CR and diversity strategy, engage employees and monitor and report on our Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) performance. In her tenure, Ms. O’Hanlon has held a number of enterprise and divisional roles focused on strategic programs, executive and employee engagement. Prior to S&P Global, she has held
GALVANIZING ACTION FOR GENDER EQUITY | CWWG NATIONAL MEETING 2021 | 11 management roles with Accenture and Reed Elsevier. Ms. O’Hanlon holds a bachelor’s degree from Ohio University and a master’s degree from New York University.
Jasmine Thomas Jasmine Thomas is the Senior Vice President for US Business Partnerships within Community Investing & Development at Citi. Jasmine leads the institution’s corporate engagements and national partnerships designed to close the racial wealth gap, including Citi’s Action for Racial Equity. She joined Citi in 2011 as an International Program Officer for Citi Foundation, managing grants to local nonprofits across nearly 100 countries. Prior to Citi, she was a program officer at Surdna Foundation and launched the Strong Local Economies program. Jasmine began her career in philanthropy at The New York Community Trust, where she helped administer a range of high-profile initiatives, including closing grants and reporting for The September 11th Fund, Hurricane Katrina Relief Fund, as well as the New York City AIDS Fund, a collaboration with Vogue magazine and the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA).
Staci Alexander Staci Alexander is the Director of Thought Leadership for AARP and works to amplify AARP’s voice in key conversations around longevity, aging and equity. In her role, Staci leads the AARP Thought Leadership agenda with external stakeholders and allies. In this capacity, Staci develops and executes external engagements with both traditional and nontraditional partners to expand the conversation on the future of aging. Staci has a rich history of cultivating partnerships and alliances in support of mission driven goals across the fields of policy development, philanthropy and communication. Staci has worked as a staffer in the United States Senate, as a lobbyist for urban and rural affordable housing development, and as a grant maker. Prior to joining AARP Staci expanded her communications and outreach skills to work with public media as an Assistant Director with MacNeil/Lehrer Productions and Senior Associate of the Community Strategies Group for the Aspen Institute.
Staci has an MPA from City University of New York, Baruch School of Public Affairs and a BA in political science from Vassar College. Staci is an advocate for children and adults with developmental disabilities and serves on the board of the Institute for Exceptional Care.
Manuel J. Santamaria As vice president, Manuel oversees the Community Action team which focuses on local grantmaking, scholarships and nonprofit support services to further SVCF’s role in addressing the region’s most challenging problems and improving communities and our quality of life. He also manages the division’s operations and is a member of SVCF’s leadership team.
Manuel joined SVCF in 1999 and has held a variety of roles, including grantmaking director, senior program officer in early learning and education, and immigrant integration. Prior to his work with SVCF, he led initiatives for a network of family resource centers, helped develop education programs for children and adults, and has worked with local organizations that advocate for the protection of immigrant rights.
Manuel is currently a member of the board of directors of Mission Asset Fund, past treasurer of Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants (GCIR) and co-chair of the California Immigrant Integration Initiative. He has a bachelor's degree in international relations and a master's degree in public administration.
Ai-jen Poo Ai-jen Poo is an award-winning organizer, social innovator, author, and a leading voice in the women’s movement. She is the Executive Director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance, Director of Caring Across Generations, Co-Founder of SuperMajority and Trustee of the Ford Foundation. Ai-jen is a nationally recognized expert on elder and family care, the future of work, gender equality, immigration, narrative change, and grassroots organizing. She is the author of the celebrated book, The Age of Dignity: Preparing for the Elder Boom in a Changing America. Follow her at @aijenpoo.
She has been recognized among Fortune’s 50 World’s Greatest Leaders and Time’s 100 Most Influential People in the World, and she has been the recipient of countless awards, including a 2014 MacArthur "Genius" Award. Ai-jen has been a featured speaker at TEDWomen, Aspen Ideas Festival, Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity, Skoll World Forum, and the Obama Foundation Inaugural Summit. She has made TV appearances on Nightline,
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MSNBC, and Morning Joe, and her writing has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, TIME, Maire Claire, Glamour, Cosmopolitan and CNN.com among others. Ai-jen has been an influential voice in the #MeToo movement and attended the 2018 Golden Globe Awards with Meryl Streep as part of the launch of #TimesUp.
In 12 short years, with the help of more than 70 local affiliate organizations and chapters and over 200,000 members, the National Domestic Workers Alliance has passed Domestic Worker Bills of Rights in 9 states and the city of Seattle, and brought over 2 million home care workers under minimum wage protections. In 2011, Ai- jen launched Caring Across Generations to unite American families in a campaign to achieve bold solutions to the nation’s crumbling care infrastructure. The campaign has catalyzed groundbreaking policy change in states including the nation’s first family caregiver benefit in Hawai’i, and the first long-term care social insurance fund in Washington State.
Tiffany Williams Tiffany (she/her) is the COO of Girls for Gender Equity, where she provides strategic leadership and management of many organizational functions. She is responsible for ensuring that GGE has the systems and infrastructure in place to support our local and national work.
Tiffany’s career starts with direct service in youth development and advocacy for those impacted by the legal system. Her leadership experience includes the Credible Message Justice Center, and Life Camp Inc. Tiffany is a native New Yorker, black feminist, and mother of two. Tiffany’s mission is to use her skills and experience, along with expertise in operations and non-profit finance, to create a more equitable world for girls of color, and a better future for her twin daughters.
Taifa Butler Taifa brings more than 20 years of experience in strategic communications, public policy research and data analysis in the public, nonprofit and private sectors. Prior to joining the GBPI team as deputy director in 2011, she served as the policy and communications director for Georgia Family Connection Partnership where she co- managed the Georgia KIDS COUNT project and monitored public policy and its impact on children, families and communities. Taifa has served on various local, state and national committees and boards. She is member of Leadership Georgia Class of 2016 and is a Rockwood Leadership Institute Leading from the Inside Out Fellow, Class of 2017.
Taifa graduated from Mount Holyoke College and holds a master’s in public management and policy from the Heinz School of Public Policy and Management at Carnegie Mellon University, with a concentration in economic development and financial management.
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