Aldita Gallardo (she/they/ella) is an organizer, facilitator, and resource mobilizer based in Oakland, California, on unceded Ohlone Land. Currently, she serves as Program Officer for the Fund for Trans Generations, a donor collaborative at Borealis Philanthropy that resources emerging trans-led organizations in the United States. She also dedicates her time to the boards of El/La Para TransLatinas, New Seneca Village, and recently joined the Board of Directors at Funders for LGBTQ Issues. Her work is informed by her lived experiences, organizing at the intersections of racial, gender, and economic justice for over a decade, and her studies at Northwestern University.

Asha Rao is the Senior Director of Investments at the Bay Area office of Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), a national nonprofit that serves as the connector between communities and the capital and relationships they need to access opportunity and generate wealth. The opportunity to be closer to the community building work and more embedded within it has broadened her understanding of what communities, particularly the Bay Area, need to prosper. Her hope is to lend her professional experience and voice as a woman of color together to the affordable housing and mission based lending community at large.  

Autumn Looijen co-led the school board recall, with no political experience and succeeded by relying on her amazing grassroots community and a campaign that was unifying rather than divisive.

In the past, she worked at Netscape and various startups.

She’s also run a campus newspaper, edited a book on Caltech pranks, and learned to cook fantastic Thai food.

Brandi Campbell Wood has more than 14 years of professional planning and project management experience across the private, public, and non-profit sectors. She currently works at Baird + Driskell Community Planning, managing and contributing to numerous public sector affordable housing and community engagement projects. 

Brandi has a diversity of skills across disciplines with a background that includes environmental and community-based work. Her path to planning grew out of a passion to help others improve their access and outcomes, largely inspired by the experiences of her family. Her grandparents were migrant farm workers in the San Joaquín Valley, where much of her family still lives today. She enjoys working on all facets of a project, from working closely with clients and analysis to graphic design and communicating technical information so that it is accessible to everyone.

Prior to joining the firm, Brandi worked as the Chief of Staff for the Office of Mayor Arreguín in Berkeley, where she led all housing and sustainability efforts including the Mayor’s Housing Task Force, Housing Action Plan, Small Sites Program, Tenant Opportunity to Purchase legislation and Vision 2050, a long-range green infrastructure implementation plan informed by the Climate Action Plan. She also worked as the Program and Development Manager for Roots of Success, an environmental literacy and work-readiness curriculum for the hardest to employ.

Celina Chan is a transportation planner with a background in public health, economic development, and urban planning. She is currently a Transportation Planner at the Oakland Department of Transportation (OakDOT) where she works on corridor projects and long-range transportation planning. Prior to joining OakDOT, Celina worked as an urban planner, as a project manager at a federally qualified health center, and as an active transportation consultant. Her interests lie at the nexus of public health and the built environment. She’s passionate about improving the quality of life and health outcomes for low-income communities, communities of color, and immigrants.

Dyana Delfin Polk is a third-generation Mexican-American community college graduate, public education advocate, and political organizer. She received her Associate’s degree from Merced College, her Bachelor’s Degree in American History and Chicano Studies from UC Berkeley, and her Master’s degree in Public Policy from Mills College. Dyana recently worked as Associate Executive Director at HOMEY, a violence prevention nonprofit serving Latinx and African American youth in San Francisco’s Mission District, addressing systemic violence in communities of color and providing a pathway for at-risk youth to pursue education. Currently, she works as a legislative aide in the Office of Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguín, working on education, labor and health policy as well as constituent services. As the elected Vice President of the Peralta Community College District Board of Trustees, Dyana represents the North Berkeley Hills, parts of Elmwood, Claremont, and parts of North Oakland and Montclair. She is a longtime resident of Berkeley’s Northside neighborhood and is active in local politics.

Elizabeth Orozco is a San Francisco native. She currently lives with her girlfriend and loves to be outdoors. She’s dedicated her career in helping mission based organizations develop sustainable and simple operational processes that have effectively improved employee engagement and collaboration throughout a variety of People Operational roles. She loves tackling difficult problems and has a key eye for details! She looks forward to creating a strong network of women whom she can learn from.

Jenna Casey is a nonprofit communications professional with a decade of experience in amplifying causes she believes in. Currently serving as the Associate Director of Communications at the San Francisco General Hospital Foundation, Jenna supports San Francisco’s public hospital through fundraising and public health communications. She also serves on the Board of Directors for Girls on the Run of the Bay Area. Jenna received her MSW in Community Organizing from the University of Michigan, where she also completed her undergraduate studies.

Julia Sills is passionate about the power of volunteering and connection to create empathy, and challenge our assumptions and biases about our own communities.  She serves as Director of Volunteer Services for St Anthony Foundation and has great respect and love for the residents of the Tenderloin in San Francisco. She grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts but moved to California when she was 18, discovered the outdoors and never returned. Outside of work, she enjoys spending time in any body of water, but especially the ocean. 

Kathryn Inglin leads the Marketing Department for the Presidio Trust responsible for advancing the reputation of the Presidio and inspiring the public to visit and support the park. She is responsible for the brand strategy, marketing, audience research, corporate partnerships, public relations, and advertising for the park and its core businesses of commercial and residential real estate, lodging, golf and event venue and open space rentals. This work delivers on the agency’s mission to provide national park experiences to urban people without government funding. Prior to joining the Trust in 2013, Kathryn had an extensive career leading and executing marketing communications and business development strategies for organizations including San Francisco State, the Park’s Conservancy, Stanford Hospital & Clinics, Dignity Health, PG&E, the City and County of San Francisco, as well as consumer brands including SoBe, Galceau Smartwater and Vitaminwater, Nantucket Nectars, Mona Loa Macadamia Nuts, P:4 Wines, and many technology start-ups. 

A fourth-generation San Franciscan, Kathryn has strong corporate, community, media and investor relationships throughout the Bay Area. She is active in her community and serves in volunteer leadership roles with the San Francisco Symphony, SF TRAVEL, and the Salesian Boys’ and Girls’ Club. She holds a BA from the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School of Journalism and completed the Leadership San Francisco program. 

Kelly Malinowski is a climate resilience and environmental health professional with over 13 years experience in leading strategic projects and programs to further climate adaptation, reduce emissions and exposure, and protect public health, while centering equity and community. She is the co-founder of the Women’s Alliance for Climate Justice in the San Francisco Bay Area. Kelly is skilled in systems thinking, strategic partnerships and coalition building, policy analysis, visioning, and organizational change, and is deeply passionate about environmental justice, and social change. In her free time, she loves to dance, garden, practice herbalism, make art, and build community. Currently, she is a Senior Environmental Planner at the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, leading an environmental justice planning project. 

Kerri Steenwerth (she/her) has served as a Research Soil Scientist with the USDA Agricultural Research Service since 2004. Her research program focuses on development of sustainable viticulture practices and understanding  their benefits and tradeoffs for wine grape production systems and the surrounding environment. She also values the nexus among science, policy and practice to support agricultural production. As such, she has been engaged as a technical advisor for organizations like the North Coast Soil Health Hub, California Climate and Agriculture Network, and the USDA Southwest Climate Hub. Kerri looks forward to meeting and learning from other Coro fellows this Fall.

Kristen McGuire has spent the past 12 years working in the public and nonprofit sectors. Most recently, she has been provided the positivity to step away from the workforce to reevaluate priorities and determine where she wants to have an impact and spend her time and energy. Many factors have led Kristen to focus on climate change, improving the state of our democracy and the need to restore reproductive rights.

Laura Copado is a Bay Area native with a passion for public service, community development, and equity.  She is a nonprofit professional with nearly twenty years experience in administration, operations, and finance. She received her masters degree in Public Administration with an emphasis in nonprofit administration from San Francisco State University.

Lena Brook is the Acting Director of the Food and Agriculture Program at the NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council). She is deeply committed to forging a sustainable and just food system in the United States and uses her expertise in advocacy and communications to influence decision makers of all types, from elected officials to CEOs. Lena is a natural facilitator, building and leading coalition partnerships, campaign strategy, and policy advocacy. She has been featured in CNN, Mashable, Reuters, Civil Eats, The Guardian, Fortune, and more. Prior to joining NRDC, Lena was a strategic communications consultant and co-directed Health Care Without Harm’s Healthy Food in Health Care initiative in California. She earned a bachelor’s degree in anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley and a master’s in environmental studies from the Yale School of the Environment.

Magali Limeta is a proud first generation Mexican-American from Novato, California. She was the first in her family to graduate university, and received a degree in Anthropology from the University of California, Los Angeles. She’s the Senior Revenue Cycle Analyst for UCSF, an advocate for social change, and an active member of the San Rafael Evening Rotary Club. She was selected for 4 fellowships including Front Line Leaders Academy, New American Leaders, Emerge California, and New Leaders Council. 

As the former President of the Marin County Young Democrats and current AD-10 Delegate to the California Democratic Party she has dedicated time and been recognized for her contributions to Marin County. Her passion is rooted in her struggles navigating the education system, on her own, as a first generation Mexican-American. She believes that together we can reform systems to break down the barriers to access housing, healthcare and education.

May Leong is the Senior Institutional Partnerships Officer at the East Bay Community Foundation. A passionate community builder, she has 30+ years’ work experience in a variety of positions from Wall Street to Tokyo, Seattle, and San Francisco. May was formerly Executive Director at the Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco, Cameron House, and DigitalEve. As a development director, she directed nonprofit fundraising teams focused on K-12 kids of color, homeless youth, and vulnerable seniors in the areas of education, housing and social services. She’s regularly invited to provide workshops for senior leaders in the areas of sustainability/fundraising and leadership development.

Morgan Matthews brings more than 12 years of experience in public education, a pragmatic and action-oriented leadership style, and a deep commitment to ally with our community’s least-well-served students. She is a determined, creative, and relentless champion of using data to understand our students, assess how our system is functioning, and learn our way into improvement. As the Director of Research and Reporting at West Contra Costa Unified School District, Morgan aims to build an organizational culture of using data and evidence for improvement.

Rachel Boyce is a transactional attorney focusing her practice on real estate, finance and PropTech. As part of her practice, Rachel also provides pro bono assistance to minority owned/founded tech startups and defends underrepresented minorities facing eviction. She has also received several pro bono awards including the Lawyer’s Committee for Civil Rights 2020 James L Caleshu award. 

Rachel currently sits on multiple non profit boards including the Child Care Law Center, where she is currently the chair and the BayGanda Foundation.

In her free time, Rachel travels the world, seeks out new hiking trails, engages in philanthropic activities and indulges in everything Caribbean!

Rachel Strominger brings commitments to equity, community control, and public health to her environmental justice work at the Earth Island Institute, a fiscal sponsor nonprofit, where she is the Associate Director of Project Support. Her work focuses on supporting and advancing food justice, Indigenous sovereignty, and habitat restoration across the United States. She also brings previous experience in sustainable development, as well as an earlier career in traditional Thai body work in Portland, Oregon.

Sarah Cardona is passionate about connecting people and nature in powerful, new ways to benefit the health of communities, ecosystems, and our planet. Over the last decade, she has worked in planning and implementing climate mitigation and adaptation solutions at international, regional, and local levels for groups like the World Bank and the Metropolitan Planning Council. Currently, Sarah serves as the Deputy Director for Greenbelt Alliance, an environmental advocacy nonprofit protecting lands and promoting climate-smart growth across the Bay Area. Sarah has her Masters in Public Policy from the University of Maryland and her BA from Colgate University. In her free time, she enjoys hiking, experimenting with vegetarian recipes, and serving on the City of Pacifica Open Space and Parkland Advisory Committee.

Stephanie Coy is currently employed by the County of San Mateo as the program coordinator for the Big Lift, an early learning literacy initiative. She is also a San Mateo County native and obtained her bachelor’s degree in Liberal Arts from Saint Mary’s College of California. Stephanie is currently pursuing an Executive Master’s in Public Administration with a concentration in Urban Innovations to learn more about leadership in the public sector. She has a decade of experience in the human services field and has worked in a variety of sectors including education, wellness coaching and legal advocacy. She has a passion for equity in education and believes that all children should have access to quality education. Her north star has been the hope for all youth to have positive social outcomes. In her free-time, she enjoys spending time withher husband and two toddler boys.

Sylvia Aguilar is the Chief Operating Officer at California Community Builders where she has spent the last 8 years. CCB is a public policy think-and-do tank dedicated to closing the racial wealth gap through housing and homeownership. Taking a data-driven, outcomes-focused approach, CCB researches and advocates for policies that promote wealth-building and tear down barriers created by redlining, exclusionary zoning, and all forms of discrimination.

Prior to CCB, Sylvia held various leadership roles in operations and technology in the public and private sectors. She earned her B.A. in Mass Communications from UC Berkeley. In her free time, she enjoys trying new restaurants throughout the Bay Area and tending to her vegetable garden.

Tajuana Gray is a  Lawyer, Advocate, and Racial Equity Leader for the City and County of San Francisco’s Office of Economic & Workforce Development (OEWD). Tajuana has a strong foundation in racial equity work–having both academic knowledge of and lived experience with  history of racism–she works to dismantle it by integrating equitable and inclusive racial and economic policies, programs, and initiatives at all levels of government. Tajuana was a participant in the Government Alliance on Race and Equity (GARE) cohort, a national network of government working to achieve racial equity and advance opportunities for all. Tajuana subsequently participated in the Northern California Grantmakers Racial Equity Institute, a learning program that connects racial equity specialists from philanthropy, business, government, and nonprofits. Tajuana is also a member of the Re-Entry Council for the City and County of San Francisco that works to coordinate local efforts to support adults exiting San Francisco County Jail, San Francisco juvenile justice out-of-home placements, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation facilities, and the United States Federal Bureau of Prison facilities. 

She is a Bay Area native, she was born and raised in Oakland,California. She holds a B.A. in Law Studies from Saint Mary’s College in Moraga, California and a J.D. from UC Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco. Tajuana is honored and humbled by the opportunity to continue to serve others and contribute to improving the outcomes of black, brown, indigenous, and other marginalized communities.  

Veronica Isabel Leiva was born in El Salvador. She has ten years of experience in community health and social services. Most of her professional career has been empowering, connecting, and collaborating with children and their families in navigating the social and health care services field. Veronica’s current role is a Senior Intake Specialist for the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing. Prior to her current position, Veronica assisted the medical team in coordinating patient discharges, and insurance approvals and assisted families in accessing resources and services from  Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital and the community, Veronica worked at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland, where she was responsible for creating collaborations with governmental and community agencies. Veronica completed a Master of Public Administration (MPA) with a concentration in health care administration at the University of San Francisco in 2021.

Zavi Smith is an experiential educator and program manager who has facilitated groups for Lucas Films, Summer Search, the Radical Monarchs, and many more. She lives in Oakland and has camped and led hikes throughout California with the Girl Scouts, NatureBridge, The Mosaic Project and other outdoor schools. Zavi is from LA where she grew up reading (historical fiction, scifi/fantasy, & mysteries), rollerblading, and going to concerts. In her free time she enjoys making costumes, crossword puzzles, and throwing themed parties.