For the past 5 years, Mariah Gonzalez has been working with The Greenlining institute, an organization working to close the racial wealth gap, to produce our Annual Economic Summit and various events. Prior to joining Greenlining, Mariah helped to start-up the Insight Garden Program, a nonprofit that builds gardens and offers job training in prisons across California. After finishing an interdisciplinary degree from UC Berkeley that focused on ethnic studies, political economy, and sustainability, she worked with La Cocina on my first large scale project: the SF Street Food Festival, an event that attracts 60,000 attendees and shut down six city blocks. The through line of my work has been in contributing to projects and programs that provide increased economic opportunity to communities of color. When not in the virtual office, Mariah likes to incessantly listen to podcasts, experiment with taco recipes, and browse pinterest for my next DIY home-design project.