Team

Nwamaka Agbo

CEO of the Kataly Foundation and Managing Director of the Restorative Economies Fund

Nwamaka Agbo

CEO of the Kataly Foundation and Managing Director of the Restorative Economies Fund

Nwamaka is the CEO of the Kataly Foundation and Managing Director of the Restorative Economies Fund. In her roles, Nwamaka collaborates with the Kataly team to lead the foundation’s day to day operations, while holding the community-centered strategy and vision for the Fund.

With a background in community organizing, electoral campaigns, policy and advocacy work on racial, social and environmental justice issues, Nwamaka is deeply committed to supporting projects that build resilient, healthy and self-determined communities rooted in shared prosperity.

Prior to joining the Kataly Team, Nwamaka built an independent consulting practice guided by her framework on Restorative Economics. As a consultant, she provided technical assistance and strategic guidance to community owned and governed community wealth building initiatives like Restore Oakland, Black Land & Power and others. Her work with these community driven projects led her to providing trainings and advisory services to donors, foundations and impact investment firms including institutions like The San Francisco Foundation and RSF Social Finance. Nwamaka has served as a fellow for the Center for Economic Democracy and the Movement Strategy Center. She proudly serves on the board of Thousand Currents, Restore Oakland, Inc. and Resource Generation.

To relax and unwind, Nwamaka enjoys spending quiet time in her backyard savoring sips of bourbon.

Photo by Bethanie Hines

Donna Bransford

Senior Program Officer, Mindfulness and Healing Justice Program

Donna Bransford

Senior Program Officer, Mindfulness and Healing Justice Program

Donna is the Director of Culture and Learning for the Kataly Foundation and Senior Program Officer for the Mindfulness & Healing Justice Program. In these roles, Donna supports the internal culture building of the foundation, facilitating practices for integration and mutual learning across teams, as well as providing leadership for grantmaking supporting mindfulness and transformative practices in communities most impacted by systemic racism and oppression, to build individual and collective resilience and power to transform those same systems of oppression.

Donna brings 25 years of experience in community organizations and social justice philanthropy to her work at Kataly. For the past decade, Donna has led a consulting practice partnering with progressive foundations and donors in the areas of grantmaking, grantee network engagement, program strategy and executive leadership support.

Donna has held several leadership positions in the field, including Executive Director of Changemakers, a public foundation and donor education provider; Director of ACORN International, the international program of the former national membership organization of low-income families; Director of Outreach at Tides Foundation, managing donor engagement for a national community of progressive donors; and Director of Development and Marketing at Project Open Hand, a service-provider for people living with HIV/AIDS.

Donna is Chair of the Board of Directors of the Black Organizing Project. She received her B.A. from Wesleyan University. Donna is a proud Mama to a tree-climbing, drum-playing young child and lives with her family in Oakland, where she enjoys a regular yoga practice, eating veggies from her garden and chatting with her neighbors on walks around her neighborhood.

Photo by Bethanie Hines

Iris Garcia

Program Officer, Mindfulness and Healing Justice

Iris Garcia

Program Officer, Mindfulness and Healing Justice

As the Program Officer for Kataly Foundation’s Mindfulness and Healing Justice program, Iris supports Black, Indigenous and other communities of color-led efforts to heal from intergenerational trauma and build collective resilience, power and liberation.

Iris brings 15 years of experience in philanthropic support for racial and gender justice movements and movements to end the criminalization of young people. Born and raised in the Bay Area, Iris’ work has focused on mobilizing resources for collective activism that advances social change and addresses systemic injustice. She remains committed to a vision of liberation and community safety based in healing and love.

Before joining Kataly, Iris served as a Program Officer at Akonadi Foundation, where she co-managed the All in for Oakland Initiative to end the criminalization of Black youth and youth of color in Oakland, CA. She also managed Akonadi’s So Love Can Win community response fund, which supports BIPOC organizers, culture bearers, healers and storytellers working to advance racial justice in Oakland. Prior to Akonadi, Iris worked at the Global Fund for Women, supporting international efforts to end violence against women and advance women’s rights globally.

Iris is the Co-Chair of the California Criminal Justice Funders Group, Board Chair for San Francisco Women Against Rape, and a certified Healing-Centered Community Coach.

Outside of work, you can find Iris studying at a local dance studio; she believes deeply in the transformative power of dance and derives much joy from her dance community.

Photo by Bethanie Hines

Lynne Hoey

Chief Investment Officer

Lynne Hoey

Chief Investment Officer

As the Kataly Foundation’s Chief Investment Officer, Lynne leads the Foundation’s community investment strategy under the Restorative Economics framework. Lynne also incorporates her deep experience in the integrated capital approach to work with Kataly’s grantee and investee partners to ensure the needs of their organization are at the center of the work.

Lynne brings more than fifteen years of experience working in the fields of accounting, banking and impact investing. In her previous role as the Managing Director of the Olamina Fund and Head of Lending at Candide Group, she launched, with community feedback, the Olamina Fund, which focuses on funding organizations that have faced systemic racism and intentional extraction of resources. Olamina is also a place to train BIPOC fund managers to lead impact investing.

Prior to her work at Olamina, Lynne was the Senior Director of Credit at RSF Social Finance, one of the oldest impact funds in the country. In her role at RSF Social Finance, she helped launch the Women’s Capital Collaborative a $2M integrated capital fund committed to funding women of color-led enterprises. She double the size of the loan portfolio and co-managed a team of 13 people. She was part of the DEI committee and made specific recommendations on how to address internalized white supremacist structures to match its external funding commitments.

Lynne is a Chartered Accountant and has an MBA in Corporate Finance. She lives in San Francisco with her cat Penny, who is regularly mortified by Lynne’s attempts to shuffle dance and speak Italian. When she isn’t dancing to house music, she is off on an adventure, whether it’s backpacking, a road trip, or an international flight to bring the work to the colonizers in Europe. She is committed to her anti-racism work and is grateful to Myisha Hill of Check Your Privilege for creating space to learn and grow.

Photo by Bethanie Hines

Ray Holgado

Director of Knowledge and Grants

Ray Holgado

Director of Knowledge and Grants

As the Kataly Foundation’s Director of Knowledge and Grants, Ray is responsible for designing and implementing the Foundation’s grants and data management solutions, grantmaking processes, and information systems, all with the express aim of delivering a grantee experience that centers equity and transparency.

Ray is a leader in the social impact sector with a track record of excellence in philanthropic operations, grantmaking, program management, and strategy development. Prior to entering philanthropy, Ray worked extensively in the field of education, expanding college access and career pathways for marginalized and underrepresented populations. A social worker by training, over the course of his career he has counseled court-involved youth, mentored children from low-income communities, and served as an employment specialist for young adults with developmental disabilities.

Ray‘s commitment to the liberation and empowerment of marginalized communities is rooted in his experience navigating urban poverty while growing up in his native borough of Queens, New York. As a former high school dropout and systems-impacted youth, Ray marries lived experience with philanthropic expertise in the service of transforming philanthropy and amplifying the voices of impacted communities.

On his days off, Ray can be found listening to 90’s hip-hop, arguing the merits of platonic philosophy, and enjoying time with his family.
Photo by Bethanie Hines

Dana Mason

Operations and Projects Manager

Dana Mason

Operations and Projects Manager

As Operations and Projects Manager for Kataly, Dana is responsible for managing operational projects that develop, document and improve Kataly’s internal structures and systems so they align with the foundation’s overall mission and goals. She manages consultant and vendor relationships, and adapts inclusive procurement practices. She also supports the HR advisor on human resources related projects and processes.

Dana has spent more than 25 years as a dynamic systems builder with a wealth of knowledge in project management, operations, strategic sourcing and human resources. Just prior to joining Kataly, Dana provided consulting services in project management and strategic sourcing to a national Healthcare provider. In her leadership capacity with several start-ups, she developed company processes and operations roadmaps to support the strategic mission of the organizations. She also oversaw the management of HR, technical, administrative, accounting and legal teams. She thrives in the dynamic start-up environment.

Dana is a graduate of Hampton University and Marymount University. She is a native of Washington, DC and now lives in the East Bay with her teenage son. She enjoys daily 5-mile walks, live theater and spending time with family and friends.

Photo by Bethanie Hines

Zaineb Mohammed

Director of Communications

Zaineb Mohammed

Director of Communications

As the Kataly Foundation’s Director of Communications, Zaineb leads the Foundation’s communications strategy, messaging and storytelling, and communications capacity building efforts.

Zaineb brings more than ten years of experience working in the fields of media and communications within news outlets, social justice organizations, and philanthropy to her role with Kataly. She has a deep commitment to developing narratives and strategies that center the voices and experiences of those most impacted by racial injustice.

Before joining Kataly, Zaineb served as the Communications Officer for Borealis Philanthropy, where she built and implemented the organization’s communications strategy, crafted organizational messaging, and executed storytelling projects to fundraise for the organization’s donor collaboratives. Prior to Borealis, Zaineb served as the Communications Director at the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights where she led the organization’s communications strategy to change the narrative around public safety by advocating for shifting resources away from prisons and punishment, and towards opportunities that make communities safe, healthy, and strong. Before beginning her work in the communications sector, Zaineb was a journalist, working for publications including Mother Jones, the East Bay Express, San Francisco magazine, and New America Media.

Zaineb lives in Oak Park, Illinois with her family where she spends her spare time baking, crafting, and writing.

Photo by Bethanie Hines

Danielle Royston-Lopez

Grants and Program Associate

Danielle Royston-Lopez

Grants and Program Associate

As the Grants and Program Associate, Danielle supports the Kataly Foundation’s grant making process. Danielle nurtures the strong, pre-existing roots of alignment within the Foundation’s programs and operations to develop solutions that provide an optimal experience for grantees grounded in clarity, ease and equity.

Danielle brings ten years of dynamic experience in small business operations, nonprofit administration and resource development grounded in an asset-based approach for the purpose of centering lived experience and community knowledge to drive impactful change. Her career spans multiple industries including fine dining, early childhood education, and community-based organizing.

Born in Sacramento, CA, Danielle lived in many states and countries before arriving in the Bay Area to complete a Bachelor’s Degree in Japanese Language and Literature, as well as Associates Degrees in Comparative Literature and the Geography of Bay Area Food Systems at San Francisco State University. Throughout her study and career, Danielle’s work has always been defined by a commitment to foster trusting relationships between individuals and communities that promote beauty, dialogue and liberation. Danielle comes to her work aspiring to weave artistry and organizational expertise to achieve results with heart.

In her spare time, Danielle enjoys convening book clubs, supper clubs and writers’ circles. Her heart is full when she is writing fiction, gardening, cooking and curating meaningful gatherings for friends old and new. Danielle lives on Chochenyo Ohlone land with her partner, dog and cat.

Photo by Bethanie Hines

Joleen Ruffin

Chief Financial Officer

Joleen Ruffin

Chief Financial Officer

In her role as Chief Financial Officer, Joleen oversees and supports a full range of administrative and operational functions for the foundation, including human resources, financial systems, grants management, and information technology.

Joleen brings her extensive business development, operations, and financial management background to her role. Her experience includes working with several nonprofit organizations, private foundations, and higher education institutions, including the University of California, Berkeley, the Community Development Institute, the Stuart Foundation, and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation.

Prior to joining Kataly, she was Executive Director for the Berkeley Community Fund (now Berkeley Community Scholars, BCS), an organization providing scholarships to students traditionally underrepresented in higher education. She was responsible for the organization’s consistent achievement of its mission; and its fundraising, programmatic, operational, administrative, and financial objectives.

Joleen lives in the San Francisco East Bay and is the proud (and busy) mom to three teens. She enjoys warm days soaking up the beautiful California weather on her porch, reading a good book, going wine tasting with friends, or taking long walks on the Bay Trail.

Photo by Bethanie Hines

Lina Shalabi

Executive Assistant to CEO

Lina Shalabi

Executive Assistant to CEO

As the Executive Assistant to Nwamaka Agbo, CEO and Managing Director of the Restorative Economies Fund, Lina supports Nwamaka and steps into and out of workflows across the foundation as needed.

Lina Shalabi has over 15 years of experience in a wide range of roles, for both nonprofits and for-profits. Her background ranges from accounting for a major hotel chain to supporting refugees with their entrepreneurial goals as a Microenterprise Coordinator. Although diverse, Lina’s past experiences across finance, operations and support, has helped her excel at working behind the scenes, and helping her team manage key projects from conception to completion. Lina has a Masters of Social Entrepreneurship and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics. Her primary areas of interest are immigration, entrepreneurship, and supporting local economies.

Born in Puerto Rico, to Palestinian immigrants, Lina moved to San Diego as a toddler, where she stayed, until moving to the Bay area in 2012. Currently residing in Coastal Miwok land, when not at work Lina can be found at her local sit spot, dancing, eating pastries or playing mahjongg.

Jocelyn Wong

Director of Capacity Building and Analyst of the Restorative Economies Fund

Jocelyn Wong

Director of Capacity Building and Analyst of the Restorative Economies Fund

As the Director of Capacity Building and an Analyst with the Kataly Foundation’s Restorative Economies Fund, Jocelyn develops systems and tools to support the Fund’s integrated capital approach and helps to maintain inclusive and transparent relations with its grantees and borrowers.

Based in Oakland, CA, Jocelyn brings 15 years of organizing, fundraising, and management experience to her work with Kataly. Informed by prior experience in community organizing and direct service, Jocelyn believes that transforming how we mobilize resources within social movements can facilitate a just transition of our economy away from extraction and exploitation and towards cooperation and regeneration. She supports and coaches resource mobilizers to step into their full capacity and power and partners with social justice groups to design and execute values-aligned fundraising campaigns.

Prior to starting her consulting practice, Jocelyn led an $18M fundraising campaign to support the success of Restore Oakland, a community advocacy and training center in Oakland’s Fruitvale neighborhood. Jocelyn’s other prior experience includes serving as the Director of Development at Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, as the Director of Foundation Support at the ACLU of Northern California, as well as developing partnerships and securing resources for organizations serving youth, families, and LGBTQ communities.

Jocelyn found her calling as an organizer while studying Political Science and LGBT Studies at the University of California, Riverside. In her spare time, Jocelyn enjoys backyard projects, discovering new music, and cheering on Bay Area sports teams.

Photo by Bethanie Hines

Barrie Gross

Human Resources Advisor

Barrie Gross

Human Resources Advisor

As Kataly Foundation’s human resources advisor, Barrie leads innovative talent management strategies that enable and invigorate the foundation’s pursuit of its mission, making trust-based investments in community.

Barrie’s approach to talent management is focused on organizational learning and development. She emphasizes effective communication as the heart of employee and organizational success because she knows from experience that strong employment relationships are essential in enabling both employees and organizations to thrive as they collaborate in pursuit of their goals.

Barrie’s work as a human resources leader is enriched by the nearly 20 years she spent as an employment attorney, first as an associate in a large employment law firm and later as first vice president & senior corporate counsel for employment law at a multinational Fortune 500 financial services company. In 2006, she founded Barrie Gross Consulting, a human resources consulting and training firm, and has built a robust clientele of for-profit and nonprofit companies and private foundations.

Barrie has been an enthusiastic volunteer at numerous community organizations, with a particular soft spot for animal welfare. For eight years, she worked hands-on to help rehabilitate sick and injured marine mammals at a world renowned rescue center in Sausalito, CA.

Originally from New York City, Barrie has lived in San Francisco for more than 30 years. She spends her spare time as a ceramist, camping in the great outdoors, and playing with any dogs who will play with her.

She was thrilled to be a part of the team helping the Kataly Foundation “open its doors” and is honored to continue with the foundation as its human resources advisor.

Crystal Hayling

Strategic Advisor

Crystal Hayling

Strategic Advisor

Crystal Hayling, Executive Director of the Libra Foundation, is a Strategic Advisor to Kataly Foundation in the areas of organizational development and program strategy.

Crystal (she/her) brings to The Libra Foundation a wealth of domestic and international experience across a broad spectrum of equity-focused issues. For six years, Crystal lived in Singapore where she built bridges between civil society and emerging donors in Southeast Asia to address income inequality and climate change. As managing director of the Aspen Institute’s Environmental Fellowship, Crystal designed a global leadership program focused on the food system’s impact on the environment.
Feeding her interest in equitable health care, Crystal was CEO of the Blue Shield of California Foundation where she spearheaded work to achieve universal health coverage. She was also part of the founding team at The California Wellness Foundation where she led a groundbreaking initiative to shift youth violence prevention from a criminal justice issue to a public health effort.

She has served on the boards of the Center for Effective Philanthropy, Northern California Grantmakers, Asian Venture Philanthropy Network, and Grantmakers in Health. Most recently Crystal was appointed by Governor Jerry Brown to serve on the California State Board of Food and Agriculture. She has also lived and worked in China and Mexico.

Born and raised in Florida, Crystal is a graduate of Yale University and Stanford’s Graduate School of Business. She and her husband live in the Bay Area with their two teenage sons.

Sayra Pinto

Strategic Advisor

Sayra Pinto

Strategic Advisor

Sayra Pinto is a Strategic Advisor for the Kataly Foundation and leads the organization’s Theory of Change design process.

Sayra brings a 30-year span of diverse social change experiences as an organizer, trainer, executive leader, educator, and scholar. She has worked with organizations in multiple sectors including government, nonprofits, hospitals, police departments, higher ed institutions, public schools, and churches.

In addition to Kataly, Sayra leads the Thousand Currents Academy and is on the Graduate Faculty at the University of Vermont’s Rubinstein School where she teaches at the Master’s in Leadership for Sustainability Program and is creating the curricular structure for a new PhD program in Transdisciplinary Leadership. Sayra also experiments with other organizational formations such as the Massachusetts Women of Color Coalition and Restore Circles, a cross-sector indigenous centered circles training program that is in partnership with the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office to decolonize the justice system. Sayra also actively holds circles processes with communities and organizations with which she is in deep, long-term relationships.

Sayra lives in Richmond, CA with her family where gardening, loving a cat, and making delicious food are daily habits.

Photo by Bethanie Hines.

Marni Rosen

Senior Advisor, Environmental Justice Program

Marni Rosen

Senior Advisor, Environmental Justice Program

Marni supports the Kataly Foundation’s environmental justice movement leaders group, as they develop and lead the Environmental Justice program for the foundation.

Marni Rosen is a philanthropy advisor who brings over 25 years of experience in non-profits, philanthropy, and the inter-governmental arena, and strives for a heart-centered approach in her work. For more than 16 years, she served as the Executive Director of the Jenifer Altman Foundation (JAF), where she focused on environmental health and justice. First at JAF and now in her consulting practice, Marni has co-created funding projects at the intersection of racial and social justice, health, and environment, with a focus on movement-led grantmaking. Marni’s passion for shifting power and decision-making in philanthropy led her to partner with community leaders and global organizers to build multiple innovative funding models that take their lead from frontline communities and the coalitions and alliances of these communities.

Marni is a co-founder of the Health and Environmental Funders Network (and a past co-chair) and the Funders Network on Trade and Globalization (now EDGE Funders Alliance). She has served on the boards of numerous funder groups and NGOs, and currently serves on the Boards of Kitchen Table Advisors and the Center for Environmental Health. Marni cut her teeth organizing for community access and power in the early 1990’s, as part of the NGO Liaison teams for two United Nations global summits: The Earth Summit and The City Summit.

Marni is a proud twin mama who lives in the Castro district of San Francisco, CA with her family, and feels happiest with a full house and a busy kitchen.

Larry Yang

Senior Advisor, Mindfulness & Healing Justice Program

Larry Yang

Senior Advisor, Mindfulness & Healing Justice Program

Larry is a senior advisor in Mindfulness and Healing Justice for the Kataly Foundation, to provide grants to support community-based mindfulness and awareness practices for ethnically and racially diverse multicultural communities and organizations.

For 20 years, Larry has taught meditation retreats nationally and has a special interest in creating access to both Buddhist and secular mindfulness for non-dominant cultures. Larry has practiced meditation for 30 years, with extensive time in Burma and Thailand, and a six month period of ordination as a Buddhist monastic. Larry is on the Teachers Council of Spirit Rock Meditation Center, and is one of the founding teachers of both East Bay Meditation Center (Oakland) and Insight Community of the Desert (Palm Springs). He has trained teachers for spiritual leadership within communities of color and LGBTQI communities for 15 years. Larry was honored for his work in racial justice by being selected as the community’s choice for Grand Marshal in the 2016 San Francisco LGBTIQ Pride Parade, whose theme that year was “For Racial and Economic Justice.” His book, Awakening Together: the Spiritual Practice of Inclusivity and Community, is published by Wisdom Publications. His website is: www.larryyang.org

In previous lives, Larry has been a national park ranger, a corporate communications designer, psychotherapist, and public health social worker.

Photo by Bethanie Hines

This group of nine environmental justice and social justice leaders and a facilitator have come together to develop and lead Kataly’s strategy for the environmental justice program.

Ozawa Bineshi Albert

Co-Executive Director, Climate Justice Alliance

Ozawa Bineshi Albert

Co-Executive Director, Climate Justice Alliance

Ozawa Bineshi Albert is Yuchi and Annishnaabe. She grew up in the movement and her work over the last 30+ years has primarily been in environmental justice and Native/indigenous rights work.

She also has been part of many movement building and multicultural spaces along her career. She is most recently the Co-Director of Climate Justice Alliance.

Prior to that she was the Movement Building Coordinator and Co-Coordinator for the Indigenous Feminisms work of the Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN). She was also one the founders of Native American Voters Alliance, a Western Regional Director for the Center for Community Change, and served as a lobbyist for a number of initiatives including Strong Families in New Mexico.

She began her organizing work with the Native Lands Toxics Campaign of Greenpeace as a teen. She’s a graduate in Indigenous Liberal Studies at the Institute of American Indian Art.

She is the proud mother of three, a daughter and two sons, and is recently a grandmother. She makes her home in relocated Yuchi & Muscogee territory in Oklahoma, which is also known as Tulsa.

Enei Begaye

Executive Director, Native Movement

Enei Begaye

Executive Director, Native Movement

Enei is of the Diné & Tohono O’odham nations, she is Tachiinii and To’dichiinii clans. Her partner is of the Gwich’in nation from Arctic Village, Alaska; together they parent four children. Enei is a longtime community organizer, trainer, facilitator, and advocate around issues of environmental justice, economic justice, climate justice, and the rights of Indigenous peoples. Enei is a co-founder of and active member of the Fairbanks Climate Action Coalition (Alaska) and the Black Mesa Water Coalition (Arizona). As the executive director of Native Movement, Enei has been able to contribute to grassroots organizing efforts throughout Alaska. Native Movement provides critical administrative support for aligned community organizing groups while also guiding key statewide coalitions and leading numerous campaigns for the rights of Mother Earth and social justice. Enei was educated both on Dinétah –the land of her people– and the halls of Stanford University. She lives in Fairbanks, Alaska.

Dara Cooper

National Organizer, National Black Food and Justice Alliance

Dara Cooper

National Organizer, National Black Food and Justice Alliance

With roots in numerous cities including Philadelphia, Chicago, Atlanta and Jackson, MS, Dara Cooper is a national organizer with the National Black Food and Justice Alliance (NBFJA), an alliance of Black led organizations working towards national Black food sovereignty and land justice. She is also an anchor team member of the HEAL (Health Environment Agriculture and Labor) Food Alliance, a cross sector alliance of organizations working to deeply transform our unjust food system. She recently completed a project elevating racial justice and food systems infrastructure work (such as food hubs and co-ops), after completing a southern tour interviewing Black farmers, co-ops and food hubs throughout the south in partnership with the Center for Social Inclusion (now Race Forward).

Dara serves on the leadership team for the Movement for Black Lives policy table, working to link the struggle against mass police and state violence with environmental, health and nutritional violence against Black people. In August of 2016, the Movement for Black Lives’ policy table introduced a Vision for Black Lives policy document providing a comprehensive set of policy demands from over 50 contributing organizations.

Vanessa Daniel

Consultant

Vanessa Daniel

Consultant

Vanessa Daniel is the founder and Executive Director of Groundswell Fund, the largest funder of the U.S. reproductive justice movement and of Groundswell Action Fund, the largest fund in the country centering giving to women of color-led 501c4 organizations. Under her leadership, Groundswell has moved more than $50 million to the field, with a focus on grassroots organizing led by women of color, low income women and transgender people, and ninety percent of its total giving going to work led by women of color. Vanessa’s roots in labor and community organizing inspired a unique funding model at Groundswell: a program staff team of women of color who come directly out of grassroots organizing and who support grantees through grantmaking, capacity building, and funder organizing to raise the visibility of grantee work in the broader funder/donor community. Groundswell’s work includes the only fund in the country dedicated to supporting access to midwifery and doula care for women of color, low income women and transgender people, and a robust women of color-led Integrated Voter Engagement training program. In 2017, Groundswell received the National Committee of Responsible Philanthropy’s “Impact Award” for smashing issue silos and Vanessa was featured in the Chronicle of Philanthropy as one of 15 “Influencers” who are changing the non-profit world. She is also the recipient of a 2012 Gerbode Foundation Fellowship, and the 2017 National Network for Abortion Funds’ Abortion Action Vanguard Award. Prior to Groundswell, Vanessa supported LGBT rights, economic and environmental justice grantmaking at Tides Foundation; organized homecare workers with SEIU; helped win a landmark living wage law with the East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy (EBASE); and conducted research to support the organizing efforts of welfare mothers with the Applied Research Center (now Race Forward). Vanessa currently serves on the Board of Directors of Common Counsel Foundation. She has a B.A. in American Ethnic Studies from Smith College and is a graduate of the Center for Third World Organizing’s Movement Activist Apprenticeship Program.

Tania Rosario Mendez

Executive Director, Taller Salud

Tania Rosario Mendez

Executive Director, Taller Salud

Tania is an artist, educator, public health specialist and women and girls’ rights activist, born and raised in Puerto Rico. She holds a B.A. on Humanities with a double major in Drama and History from the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus and a Master in Public Health from the UPR’s Medical Sciences Campus. With over 15 years of experience in the nonprofit sector, she has a solid background integrating project management, cultural work, community organizing, popular education and human rights activism. She currently leads the work of historical feminist organization Taller Salud, focused in reducing health inequities, achieving gender equality and preventing violence in the communities that suffer from greater social exclusion. Her goal is to build a Puerto Rico where there is health, peace and economic development opportunities for all. Author of two books, several articles and conferences. Theatre director and teacher, community organizer and cultural worker. Trained full-spectrum doula and a certified childbirth educator. Proud mother of a boy and a girl. She is immensely and fiercely happy to be alive.

Andrea Cristina Mercado

Executive Director, New Florida Majority

Andrea Cristina Mercado

Executive Director, New Florida Majority

Andrea, Executive Director of New Florida Majority, leads scaled civic engagement programs, and strategic campaigns that center Black and brown communities. Under her leadership New Florida Majority has registered over 150,000 Floridians to vote. The daughter of immigrants from South America, who made South Florida home, Andrea has been organizing in communities of color and immigrant communities for over fifteen years. Andrea is a co-founder of the National Domestic Workers Alliance and led the California Domestic Worker Coalition, a statewide effort to include domestic workers in labor laws, which successfully passed Domestic Worker Bill of Rights Legislation in 2013, seven states have now passed similar legislation. She went on to lead nationally recognized campaigns for immigrant and worker rights such as We Belong Together to highlight the impact of immigration policy on women and girls, and led the 100 women 100 mile pilgrimage for migrant dignity. Previously, she lived and worked in Bahia, Brazil with Ipeterras, a sustainable agriculture project organizing against free trade agreements.
Andrea, a mother of two, resides in South Florida.

Inca A. Mohamed

Environmental Justice Resourcing Collective Facilitator

Inca A. Mohamed

Environmental Justice Resourcing Collective Facilitator

Internationally recognized for her group facilitation and training skills, Inca A. Mohamed has many years of experience managing and working with nonprofit organizations addressing youth development, sexual and reproductive health, rights and justice, gender equity, and, Equity, Diversity and inclusion (EDI). Inca has helped hundreds of organizations create effective and powerful management and strategies for change.

Inca’s previous experience includes her role as the Executive Director for Management Assistance Group (MAG) (Change Elemental) where she spearheaded the organization’s initiative to go beyond one-on-one consulting with single organizations to providing leadership coaching as a stand-alone service, facilitating high-stakes meetings, and working with coalitions and other multi-organization groups.

Inca’s approach to consulting is rooted in her experience as a Caribbean immigrant from a multi-ethnic family. Inca also works as a coach, supporting social justice leaders to fully express their leadership strengths and vision. She has held leadership positions at a diverse range of organizations including the YWCA of the USA, Hawaii Department of Health, The Door (comprehensive youth development center) and Northern California Planned Parenthood (formerly Alameda-San Francisco Planned Parenthood in San Francisco.) Inca has completed training through Visions, Inc., The Social Transformation Project (Robert Gass), the Interaction Institute for Social Change’s “Conversation about Racism” course and is certified in Community Coaching through Leadership That Works. She is also IDI qualified.

Colette Pichon Battle

Executive Director, Gulf Coast Center for Law & Policy

Colette Pichon Battle

Executive Director, Gulf Coast Center for Law & Policy

Colette is a generational native of Bayou Liberty, Louisiana. As founder and Executive Director of the Gulf Coast Center for Law & Policy, she develops programming focused on Equitable Disaster Recovery, Global Migration, Community Economic Development, Climate Justice and Energy Democracy. In addition to developing advocacy initiatives that intersect with race, systems of power and ecology, Colette manages GCCLP’s legal services in immigration and disaster law. Colette works with local communities, national funders and elected officials in the post-Katrina/post-BP disaster recovery. She was a lead coordinator for Gulf South Rising 2015- a regional initiative around climate justice and just transition in the South. And under Colette’s leadership, the Gulf Coast Center for Law & Policy co-chairs the national Water Equity and Climate Resilient Caucus with PolicyLink and anchors the five-state, multi issue initiative – Gulf South for a Green New Deal and facilitates the thirteen-state initiative- Southern Communities for a Green New Deal. In 2020, GCCLP was selected for the American Bar Association SEER Award for Environmental Justice. In 2019, Colette was named an Obama Fellow for her work with Black and Native communities on the frontline of climate change and selected to give a TED talk in climate migration. In 2018 Colette was awarded with an Honorary Doctorate from Kenyon College; in 2016 Colette was named a White House Champion of Change for Climate Equity; and in 2015 she was selected as an Echoing Green Climate Fellow.

Gloria Walton

CEO and President, The Solutions Project

Gloria Walton

CEO and President, The Solutions Project

Gloria Walton is committed to creating equitable climate solutions that center the people closest to the problem. Gloria is an award-winning organizer, writer, and the President and CEO of The Solutions Project, a nonprofit that promotes climate justice through grantmaking and amplifying the stories of frontline community leaders in media. The Solutions Project has accelerated the transition to 100 percent clean, renewable energy — wind, water, and solar — for all people and purposes. The organization invests 95 percent of its resources in frontline leadership of color, with a focus on women-led organizations. Previously, Gloria served as the President & CEO of SCOPE (Strategic Concepts in Organizing and Policy Education), a South LA community organization focused on building power in black, brown, poor and working-class communities. During her time at SCOPE, Gloria played a pivotal role in several significant ballot measures and policy campaigns that increased community decision-making and ensured equitable investment in green jobs, climate solutions, and critical public services. Ms. Walton also led the organizing effort for SCOPE’s green jobs programs that coupled entry-level positions with job training to create career pathways into good, green jobs targeted for workers in low-income neighborhoods. SCOPE was an inaugural grantee of The Solutions Project in 2015 and for a few years Gloria served on the board of The Solutions Project to help create a vision that is radically-inclusive and culture-led.

Miya Yoshitani

Executive Director, Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN)

Miya Yoshitani

Executive Director, Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN)

Miya Yoshitani has been the Executive Director of the Asian Pacific Environmental Network since 2013. Starting at APEN as a youth organizer in the 1990’s, Miya has an extensive background in community organizing, and a long history of working in the environmental justice movement. She was a participant in the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit in 1991, and was on the drafting committee of the Principles of Environmental Justice, a defining document for the environmental justice movement. APEN has been fighting – and winning – environmental justice struggles for the past 27 years and remains one of the most unique organizations in the country explicitly developing the leadership and power of poor and working class Asian American immigrant and refugee communities at the intersection of racism, poverty and pollution. Through many years of leadership, Miya has supported APEN’s growth and expansion from a powerful local organization in the Bay Area, to having a statewide impact through an integrated voter engagement strategy and winning transformational state policy for equitable climate solutions for all Californians. A movement leader in many key local, state, and national alliances, APEN is helping to shift the center of gravity of what is possible when the health and economic well being of working families, immigrant and communities of color are put at the center of solutions to the economic and climate crises.

Chris Olin

Board Member

Chris Olin

Board Member

Chris is a co-founder of the Kataly Foundation and currently serves as a board member, as well as a collaborator with the Mindfulness and Healing Justice program area.

Chris grew up in Chicago, moved west for college where he studied economics, and spent a decade working in software startups. In partnership with family members, he coordinated the strategic planning, creation, and staffing of a new family business office, Tao Capital Partners. Chris served on the board of the Center for Environmental Health in Oakland for six years including two years as board chair.

Chris’ current focus is on creating governance and operational systems that shift wealth and power to members of the communities with whom Kataly seeks to partner.

Chris loves jogs in the park, hikes in the woods, yoga and meditation anywhere, and fixing anything that needs fixing.

Regan Pritzker

Board Member

Regan Pritzker

Board Member

Regan is the co-founder of the Kataly Foundation and is currently serving as a board member, as well as a collaborator with the Restorative Economies Fund.

Regan has a background in education and began working in philanthropy when she took a larger role at her family’s foundation, The Libra Foundation, in 2015, and where she is now board co-president and chair of the investment committee. She is active in the Just Transition movement, taking leadership in moving progressive wealth holders and philanthropists to rethink their ethical framework for private investment.

Regan works with her family and advisors to align the Libra Foundation’s and her personal assets with progressive and radical values through investment, philanthropy, and political giving.
She is energized by the momentum that is building to shift private investment and philanthropy towards a frame of economic justice, reparations, and transformation. The founding of the Kataly Foundation in 2018 was a manifestation of her effort to move along that continuum of alignment.
Regan also serves as co-chair of Global Greengrants Fund, a global network of donors and activists supporting communities to protect their ways of life and our planet.

Regan lives in San Francisco where her greatest joys are spending time with her family, cooking for friends, and hiking and swimming around the Bay.

Susan Pritzker

Board Member

Susan Pritzker

Board Member

Susan was honored to accept an invitation to serve on the board of directors of the Kataly Foundation. Watching this project come into being has been deeply rewarding, and she is excited to see it grow and flourish.

Susan has spent the better part of the last 45 years involved with a wide variety of community centered activities; volunteer work, philanthropy and politics both locally and globally. Her primary focus has been in the area of women’s issues, particularly reproductive rights, but she has also been involved with various educational institutions and other community organizations. More recently her focus has shifted to movement based political work with an emphasis on donor organizing.

With her husband and four children she helped establish the Libra Foundation, a family foundation whose mission is to support organizations which promote environmental justice, gender justice and reforming the criminal punishment bureaucracy.

Additionally, Susan manages the agricultural operation of her family’s ranch, Hicks Mountain Ranch, in West Marin, where she finds hope and inspiration.

Impact Assets

Kataly engages ImpactAssets Donor Advised Fund platform to host our grantmaking Kataly Fund DAF and integrated capital Kataly Investment Fund DAF.

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Impact Assets

Possibility Labs

Kataly partners with Possibility Labs as a platform to host our donor advised funds.

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Restorative Economies Fund

Environmental Justice Resourcing Collective

Mindfulness and Healing Justice

October 19, 2022

Why Trusting Grassroots Leaders to Allocate Rapid Response Dollars After Climate Disasters Is Smart Philanthropy

November 12, 2021

Transforming Investment to Build Community Wealth: A Conversation with the Restorative Economies Fund

October 27, 2022

Failure Stories from Philanthropy

June 1, 2022

Process, Power, and Pain: How Grantmaking Systems Build and Break Trust

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