People

Ahilan T. Arulanantham is Professor from Practice and Co-Director of the Center for Immigration Law and Policy at UCLA School of Law.  He has successfully litigated a number of cases involving immigrants’ rights, including Franco-Gonzalez v. Holder, the first case to establish a federal right to appointed counsel for any group of immigrants; Jennings v. Rodriguez, which secured the due process rights of immigrants jailed for years while litigating their deportation cases; and, most recently, Ramos v. Nielsen, a challenge to the Trump Administration's plan to end the TPS program for immigrants who have lived here lawfully for decades. Ahilan has argued twice before the United States Supreme Court, and will argue again this fall on behalf of Americans of the Muslim faith who were targeted by the federal government for surveillance because of their religion, in FBI v. Fazaga. He has also testified before the United States Congress on three occasions, and served as a Lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School and at the University of Irvine School of Law, where he taught on Preventive Detention.

Ahilan’s parents are Sri Lankan Tamil immigrants who left Sri Lanka to escape race discrimination and sporadic violence. Several years after they came to this country, the Sri Lankan civil war began, causing much of his extended family to flee Sri Lanka. Ahilan has remained interested in promoting human rights in Sri Lanka, and has also represented several Sri Lankan Tamil refugees during the course of his work with the ACLU.

Prior to joining UCLA, Ahilan was Senior Counsel at the ACLU in Los Angeles, where he worked for nearly twenty years. Ahilan has also worked as an Assistant Federal Public Defender in El Paso, Texas, and as a law clerk on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. In 2007 and 2013 he was named one of California Lawyer Magazine’s Lawyers of the Year for immigrants’ rights, and has repeatedly been named one of the Daily Journal’s Top 100 Lawyers in California over the last decade. In 2010 he received the Arthur C. Helton Human Rights Award from the American Immigration Lawyers’ Association, and in 2014 received the Jack Wasserman Memorial Award for litigation to protect the rights of vulnerable immigrants, also from the American Immigration Lawyers’ Association.

In 2016 Ahilan was named a MacArthur Foundation Fellow.

Alvin Lee (he/him) is a current Freshman at Claremont Mckenna College studying public policy and government and the Founder and Executive Director of GENup. A proud graduate of California public schools and a Bay Area native, he has been deeply involved in California education policy since 9th grade and envisions an interconnected education system where student voice and leadership help drive policy creation. Prior to becoming engaged in ed policy, Alvin interned for then-candidate Gavin Newsom and State Assemblymember Kansen Chu. In both capacities, he helped with policy and legislative research. These opportunities combined with him seeing education inequity first-hand compelled him to speak at his first ever school board meeting.

Since then, he’s developed a spark and deep passion for public policy and community organizing. In the fall of 2019, he organized youth-led marches for education in three cities (Oakland, SF, San Jose) for the Schools and Communities First Ballot Initiative. After getting involved in local school district issues and noticing the lack of youth participation in education, he founded GENup: a national, youth-led advocacy organization that strives to advocate for education reform through the power of youth voices.

GENup is now California’s largest youth-led education advocacy organization, operating more than 100+ chapters across CA with more than 4,500 + bright student organizers and student leaders from across the State. GENup’s successes include working with the State Board of Education to create the State Seal for Civic Engagement, championing the historic ethnic studies bill (AB101) through the legislature & into law, fighting for equitable education funding during COVID, advocating for statewide mental health reform through legislation, successfully authoring/advocating/passing a bill into law on student board member rights (AB 824), campaigning for the U.S Department of Education’s first youth-advisory council, and passing (Los Angeles Unified, San Diego Unified, and Fresno Unified) first student bill of rights, collectively representing over 1.2 million students. Most recently,19 education bills in GENup’s 2020-2021 policy slate were signed into law by Governor Newsom, including legislation requiring a mental health curriculum in all high school health education courses.

He is also a founding member of the California Department of Education’s first Youth Advisory council, where students utilize youth voice to shape education-policy affecting all of California’s 6.3 million public school students. Alvin is also a co-founder of the California Student Board Member Association.

Andrea Vidaurre (she/her) grew up in the unceeded lands of the Tongva people, also known as the “Inland Empire” of Southern California. She graduated with a BA in Global Studies from the University of California, Riverside. Over the past couple of years, she has worked on campaigns for sustainable economic development, worker’s rights and environmental justice throughout the Inland Empire. She is a co-founder, member and policy lead at the Peoples Collective for Environmental Justice, a community based organization focused on fighting environmental racism and finding solutions through community work.

"Annie Fryman is the Director of Cities at Abodu, a Bay Area based company that builds affordable and high-quality accessory dwelling units in California and Washington. In this role, Annie manages long-term strategy and operations for Abodu’s city relationships and permitting program, advises the executive team on public policy, provides expert technical assistance to local and state agencies on successful state law implementation, and manages Abodu’s response to complex building permit issues.

Prior to joining Abodu in February 2021, Annie led housing, land use, and transportation policy for California Senator Scott Wiener, one of the most prolific, creative, and successful legislators on housing affordability in the United States. Among other landmark housing and transportation policies, Annie was the singular policy staffer designing, writing, and negotiating Senate Bills 35 and 828, and continues to advise public, non-profit, and private sector partners on their use and implementation. Within three years of adoption, these unprecedented laws directly enabled tens of thousands of new housing units to start construction in California (SB 35), and forced bustling coastal metros and exclusionary suburbs to rezone for >500,000 more homes at all income levels during the next decade (SB 828).

Annie has also worked as an academic researcher at Stanford University focusing on the social and economic fabric of vibrant Black neighborhoods during Jim Crow, an architectural designer in San Francisco focused on infill development and modern building safety, a community organizer in the Bay Area, and in several policy/political roles in San Francisco local government, including campaigns.

In addition, Annie is frequently called in as a guest lecturer for undergraduate and graduate level courses in law, design, and public policy. To date, she has taught students at Stanford University, Harvard Kennedy School, University of California Berkeley (Haas, Goldman), University of California Davis, University of California Los Angeles (Luskin), City College of San Francisco, and San Francisco State University.

Annie studied Architectural Design in the Civil Engineering program as an undergraduate at Stanford University."

Cecilia V. Estolano is CEO and Founder of Estolano Advisors, and is a leading voice on contemporary urban planning issues with expertise in equitable economic and workforce development, climate resilient infrastructure, land use, and urban revitalization. An urban planner and land use and environmental lawyer, Cecilia has worked at all levels of government, settled major Clean Water Act litigation, led the largest redevelopment agency in the nation, founded an award winning urban and public policy firm, and acquired and repositioned an environmental advocacy consultancy.

Cecilia sits on the boards of Urban Manufacturing Alliance and the National Employment Law Project. She previously served on the California Coastal Commission, the Regents of the University of California, and on the boards of Manufacturing Renaissance, the California League of Conservation Voters, Lambda Legal, and California YMCA Youth and Government.

Prior to founding Estolano Advisors in 2011, Cecilia served as Chief Executive Officer of the Community Redevelopment Agency of the City of Los Angeles (CRA/LA); practiced land use and environmental law while Of Counsel at Gibson Dunn & Crutcher; and served as Senior Policy Advisor at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) during the Clinton Administration, and as Environmental Policy Advisor to Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley.

Cecilia received an A.B. with honors from Harvard-Radcliffe Colleges, an M.A. in Urban Planning from UCLA, and a J.D. from UC Berkeley School of Law.

Cinny Kennard, Executive Director at The Annenberg Foundation, has decades of award-winning leadership and Executive Management in the non-profit sector with established national brands including National Public Radio, Smithsonian Institution, Pew Charitable Trusts and The Federal Communications Commission. Cinny is also is an award-winning broadcast journalist who currently serves on several boards including the Los Angeles Homeland Security Advisory Council (HSAC) at Pepperdine School of Public Policy, The Carole Kneeland Project for Responsible Television Journalism and is a longtime member of the Trusteeship of the International Women’s Forum.

At the Annenberg Foundation, Cinny has worked with the chairman Wallis Annenberg and the board on local, national and global grantmaking in education, in arts and culture, health care and underserved communities. She has also launched several impactful projects including, AnnenbergTech, the Wallis Annenberg GenSpace scheduled to open in 2021 in Los Angeles, the Wallis Annenberg PetSpace, has a key board governance seat on the Wallis Annenberg Center for Performing Arts and has worked to craft a public/private partnership to construct permanent supportive housing for the homeless in South Los Angeles. Kennard has bolstered the Foundation management team and presided over an organization which has now given away over 5 billion dollars across Los Angeles, the nation and the globe over 30-years.

Before joining the Annenberg Foundation in January 2015, she was the Senior Vice President of Programming at the Smithsonian Institution and served as a Senior Advisor to the Annenberg Retreat at Sunnylands creating and driving the outreach plan to bring top Washington D.C. elected officials to Sunnylands, including President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi JinPing for the Sunnylands Summit.

Prior to that, she served as managing director/managing editor of NPR West from 2003 to 2009. During her tenure, NPR West expanded from 20 to nearly 90 full-time employees. Previously, she served as an executive project director and journalism professor at the USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism. Before that, she was a CBS News correspondent based at various times in Los Angeles, London and Moscow covering battlefield front lines, and before that a local television news reporter at WFAA-TV in Dallas, KHOU-TV in Houston and WANE TV.

Cinthia N. Flores is a Board Member of the California Agricultural Labor Relations Board. Governor Gavin Newsom appointed her to this position in 2020. Cinthia was previously a Staff Attorney with the Coalition for Humane Immigration (CHIRLA), the largest immigrant rights organization in California, where she practiced immigration law with a focus on removal defense representing individuals against deportation. Cinthia has a background in labor law having previously represented public and private sector unions.

Currently, Cinthia serves as Vice President of the Latina Lawyers Bar Association, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting Latinas in the legal profession. Cinthia also serves as Treasurer of Latinas Lead California, a political action committee dedicated to electing Latinas to local, state, and federal office. Lastly, Cinthia serves on the UCLA Alumni Association.

Cinthia is a graduate of the University of California, Irvine School of Law. During law school, Cinthia served as a Student Regent on the University of California Board of Regent. In recognition of her academic record and public service, Cinthia was awarded numerous scholarships, including: the California Bar Foundation Diversity Scholarship, the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund’s Earl Warren Scholarship, and the Mexican American Bar Foundation Law School Scholarship. Cinthia is a graduate of UCLA, where she served as the first Latina Student Body President in UCLA history.

Cynthia Buiza is the Executive Director of the California Immigrant Policy Center (CIPC) where she provides the vision for the mission of California’s premiere immigrant rights organization. CIPC is thriving under her leadership, with a marked expansion in its issue area expertise and a broadening of its coalition networks working to build power for immigrants in this country. Cynthia came to this role after successfully managing a statewide capacity building project, involving nine regional coalitions in California, which strengthened their viability through a combination of highly customized training, grant-making and leadership coaching.

Cynthia brings over two decades of experience in nonprofit management and human rights advocacy to CIPC. She worked on international refugee, migration, human rights and civil rights issues in Southeast Asia before working with ACLU as Policy Director for its San Diego regional affiliate. She was also Policy and Advocacy Director at CHIRLA in Los Angeles from 2007-2010. More recently, she worked as a consultant with various immigrant rights and civil rights institutions and social justice organizations in California and the U.S., helping shape their strategic direction and plans for sustainability.
Before moving to the United States, she worked in senior positions with various international organizations, including the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the Open Society Institute-Burma Education Project in Thailand, and the Jesuit Refugee Service. In June, 2003, she co-authored the book Anywhere But War, about the armed conflict and internal displacement in the Indonesian Province of Aceh.

Cynthia earned a Masters in International Affairs from the Fletcher School at Tufts University, with a concentration on human security studies. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Social Work from the Philippines, and a Certificate in Refugee and Migration Studies from the Oxford University Refugee Studies Centre in England. She also holds certificates from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Cynthia currently serves as a State Commissioner with the Milton Marks Little Hoover Commission for State Government Organization and the Economy. She is a member of the California Community Foundation’s Immigration Advisory Council and the Committee for Greater Los Angeles. She also serves on the Board of Directors of the Pilipino Worker’s Center and Health Access California.
In her spare time Cynthia enjoys movies, visits to art museums, poetry, and decadent meals.

Damon has more than 18 years of experience in the youth development and education fields, with positions at Juma Ventures, Hack the Hood, and Upward Bound. He has experience in several multimedia and tech industries including radio, mobile, video game journalism and the film industry.

A native San Franciscan, Damon was motivated to pursue tech education when he watched the city’s working-class community disappear with the rise of the Bay Area tech industry while his early students couldn’t get jobs after graduating college.

His passion for education, interactive media, and multiculturalism led him to a master’s in multimedia tech with an emphasis on interactive design. For his thesis, he spent a year in the San Francisco Mission District studying the effect of technology on low-income communities. Damon is an Echoing Green Fellow (2016), GSBI Fellow (2019), Stanford University Entrepreneur in Residence (2019) and a Facebook Gaming/VGA Global Gaming Citizen and a recipient of the AfroDev Jerry Lawson Award for Social Impact in Gaming.

He believes that using video games to teach game design and development to “cultural alchemists” can help create the future tech zealots, digital rebels, and multimedia mavericks.

Dan Schnur is a Professor at the University of California – Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies, Pepperdine University’s Graduate School of Public Policy, and the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School of Communications, where he teaches courses in politics, communications and leadership. Dan has also taught at Harvard’s Institute of Politics at Harvard University and George Washington University’s Graduate School of Political Management.

He is the founder of the USC/LA Times statewide political poll and currently hosts a weekly webinar for the LA World Affairs Council Town Hall called “Politics in the Time of Coronavirus.” (www.lawac.org).

Previously, Dan worked on four presidential and three gubernatorial campaigns, and served as the national Director of Communications for the 2000 presidential campaign of U.S. Senator John McCain and was the chief media spokesman for California Governor Pete Wilson.

In 2010, Dan was appointed Chairman of the California Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC), where he implemented groundbreaking campaign finance disclosure requirements. Dan also was a founder and cochairman of the Voices of Reform project, the bipartisan statewide effort whose work laid the foundation for California’s landmark redistricting reform. After completing his FPPC term, Dan registered as a No Party Preference voter and in 2014, ran for statewide office as a non-partisan candidate for California Secretary of State.

Dan has been an advisor to the William & Melinda Gates Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Broad Education Foundation, the Pew Charitable Trusts, the James Irvine Foundation, and the Public Policy Institute of California on a variety of political reform, K-12 education and college and workforce preparedness efforts.

Dan serves as a board member of the Los Angeles Holocaust Museum, the Pacific Council on International Policy, the Center for Asians United for Self Empowerment (CAUSE) and as a senior advisor to the Hispanas Organized for Political Equality (HOPE) leadership training programs. He is the former Los Angeles director for the American Jewish Committee and is an advisor to the Los Angeles Jewish Federation. He is a member of the UCLA Luskin School Fellows program, where he mentors UCLA graduate students and advises them on their academic and professional goals.

Dan’s commentaries have appeared in several newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Sacramento Bee, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and the New York Times. He has been a political analyst for CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, and National Public Radio.

For nearly 40 years as an activist and public servant, Daniel Zingale worked to amplify the voices of people outside of the traditional power structure. He was an early national voice for queer equality and for people living with HIV, as political director of the Human Rights Campaign and Executive Director of AIDS Action. He pioneered the rights of patients to preventive health as founding director of California’s Department of Managed Health Care. He championed the rights of farm workers as a member of California’s historic Agricultural Labor Relations Board. He helped to advance the rights of undocumented and incarcerated Californians by launching The California Endowment’s successful ‘Health for All’ and ‘Schools Not Prisons’ campaigns. As a trusted adviser and cabinet secretary to California governors of both parties, Zingale consistently strived to open the doors of influence to those who have been shut out. He continues to prioritize vulnerable communities as a current member of the state’s Delta Stewardship Council.


Daniel Zingale lives in Northern California with his partner of 40 years Chuck Supple. They have two sons, five chickens and two donkeys.

Danny Kennedy is the CEO of New Energy Nexus, connecting entrepreneurs everywhere to capital to build an abundant clean energy economy that benefits all. New Energy Nexus is a global platform organization for funds and incubators, with chapters in the USA, China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, Uganda and India. He acts as Managing Director of the California Clean Energy Fund that runs the CEC’s CalSEED.fund of $33m for very early-stage companies driving innovation and building equity in the California economy and the $12m CalTestBed initiative with the UCOP. He also serves as the President of CalCharge, a public-private partnership with DoE National Labs, universities in California, unions and companies, working to advance energy storage.

Kennedy co-founded Sungevity in 2007, the company that created remote solar design, and Powerhouse, an incubator and fund in Oakland, CA. He was the first backer of California-headquartered Mosaic in 2011, the $2B solar loan provider, and remains on the Board of Powerhive, a solar mini-utility in Kenya that started in Berkeley. He is also a Director of the non-profits Power for All and the Epic Institute. Kennedy authored Rooftop Revolution: How Solar Power Can Save Our Economy – and Our Planet – from Dirty Energy in 2012. Prior to being an entrepreneur and investor, he worked at Greenpeace and other NGOs on climate & energy issues since 1989. He was born in the smog-strewn suburbs of Los Angeles in the 1970s though his family settled in the Bay Area in the 21st century.

Edgar Ernesto Ibarra Gutierrez is a Chicano Indigenous young man raised in the city of Watsonville by his mom and his three siblings. He is currently a 4th-year student at UC Davis majoring in Communications, with aspirations to pursue a master’s degree in the future. He is the Leadership and Program Coordinator at MILPA. He facilitates culturally-rooted leadership development, rites of passage, and movement-building approaches that encourage young people to get involved in their community while they work towards a future where the next generations’ can thrive with cultural pride, traditions, and dignity. Edgar has strategically supported efforts at MILPA that are working to dismantle, disrupt, and change the carceral system by challenging and undoing laws that disproportionately impact Black and Indigenous people.

He has also worked closely with colleagues, the community, and other organizations to push for racially equitable, participatory budgeting both at the city and county levels. His focus is on expanding and strengthening the movement to end mass incarceration while building communications infrastructure that promotes people power. Edgar enjoys reading books, participating in barrio scholarship with his friends, and spending his time outdoors hiking, swimming, and exploring the beauty that nature has to offer. He is on the path to relearning his sacred indigenous traditions of songs, drums, and storytelling by staying close to the fire, honoring the water, and listening to the elders.

Ernestine Fu is a technology investor based in San Francisco, California.

She has scaled emerging technology companies for over a decade in sectors ranging from robotics and artificial intelligence to defense technology. As a venture capitalist at Brave Capital, she leads investments in emerging technology startups and supports companies from inception to late-stage scaling. As a global leader, she has worked with international organizations like Hyundai to lead technology development on novel transformer-class vehicles and DBS Bank to advise on innovation and venture debt financing. As an advisor, board director and executive
chairman, she has guided companies on product development, partnerships, growth strategy and M&A.

Participating as active citizens in our democracy is a core belief that Ernestine advocates. After starting a nonprofit to serve the community through music and art, she co-authored “Civic Work, Civic Lessons” with former Stanford Law School Dean Thomas Ehrlich to encourage community engagement with informed moral and civic judgments. She also co-authored “Renewed Energy: Insights for Clean Energy’s Future” with Nobel Prize energy economist John Weyant to guide future government policy and investment strategies for a sustainable energy future. She has served as a board director for nonprofits such as Ad Council and Silicon Valley Leadership
Group Foundation.

She completed her B.S., M.S., MBA, Ph.D. and postdoc at Stanford University. Her doctoral thesis focused on human operator and autonomous vehicle interactions with system bias and transitions of control. Her work has been published in top-ranked academic conferences hosted by ACM and IEEE. She is an inventor on numerous granted or in-process technology patents.

She is a proud part of a military family.

Geneva Wiki is a member of the Yurok Tribe of northern California and brings extensive leadership experience in Tribal government, education and philanthropy in rural and Tribal communities. Geneva serves as a Senior Program Manager at The California Endowment, supporting community organizing efforts advancing health and racial equity throughout the State, and with a specific focus on community power building within California’s indigenous communities.


Previously, Geneva was the Executive Director of the Wild Rivers Community Foundation and served as the local Initiative Manager of the Del Norte and Tribal land’s Building Healthy Communities initiative. Wiki was also the Deputy Executive Director of the Yurok Tribe and Founding Director of a community-driven, non-profit charter high school on the reservation. Named one of America’s 37 Innovators under the age of 36 by the Smithsonian Magazine, Geneva was also recognized as a National Innovator by the US Department of State, High Country News, and a 40 Under 40 Native leader by Native Americans in Business and Enterprise.


Geneva is married to a Maori, an indigenous New Zealander, and previously lived in New Zealand, working as an Executive Designer with a human-centered design consultancy aimed at improving systems and policies to work better for people and the public good. While there, she was also appointed to the Board of Directors of the national Centre for Social Impact.
Wiki earned a Master’s degree in Public Administration from the University of Washington, and a degree in planning, public policy and management from the University of Oregon. She currently lives on the ancestral land of the Nisenan people outside of Sacramento with her spouse and three daughters.

Considered one of the preeminent transportation planning experts in the nation, Hasan Ikhrata is the Chief Executive Officer of the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG). SANDAG is the leading research, planning, and transportation agency for the San Diego region. The agency builds consensus; makes strategic plans; obtains and allocates resources; plans, engineers, and builds public transportation, and provides information on a broad range of topics pertinent to the region’s quality of life. Agency policymakers are elected officials from each of the area’s 18 cities and the county. Mr. Ikhrata leads a staff of over 350 professionals who develop public policy initiatives for elected officials on numerous issues encompassing population growth, transportation, environmental management, economic development, municipal finance, binational coordination, and public safety.

Mr. Ikhrata has more than 35 years of public and private sector transportation planning experience. As Chief Executive Officer of SANDAG, he directs day‐to‐day operations of the agency and implements policies set by its Board of Directors. In addition, Mr. Ikhrata is the Chief Executive Officer of the SANDAG Service Bureau, the nonprofit public benefit corporation chartered by SANDAG.

Mr. Ikhrata has received several awards and honors from various organizations and agencies including the American Society of Public Administration, Southern California Leadership Council, Orange County Transportation Authority, Orange County Business Council, League of California Cities, City of Los Angeles, State of California, Association of the San Bernardino County Special Districts, the Building Industry Association, regional chapters of the Women’s Transportation Seminar, and numerous others.

Mr. Ikhrata holds a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree in Civil and Industrial Engineering from Zaporozhye University in the former Soviet Union, a Master’s degree in Civil Engineering from UCLA, and a PhD Candidacy in Urban Planning and Transportation from the University of Southern California.

Prior to joining SANDAG in 2018, Mr. Ikhrata worked for Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG), Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), and South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD).

Mr. Ikhrata is an adjunct professor in the business school at California State University, Northridge.

Jake Segal is Social Finance’s vice president for advisory services, and leads the organization’s California office.

Social Finance is a national impact finance and advisory nonprofit. Its Public Sector Advisory Practice works within government funding and procurement structures to implement innovative, data-driven practices that deliver better results. In the past decade, Social Finance has worked with more than 65 governments at the state, county, and city level to create partnerships that mobilized over $225 million to help more than 35,000 individuals realize improved outcomes in education, economic mobility, health, and housing.

Jake’s work is focused on building outcomes-focused partnerships—designing Pay for Success projects; creating public-sector Career Impact Bond funds; and building government systems of continuous improvement—between elected officials, policymakers, civic leaders, community members, philanthropies, and service providers. His work at Social Finance focuses on the social determinants of health, behavioral health, criminal justice, and economic mobility. He’s particularly passionate about the potential of integrated data, the importance of more careful and longer-term accounting in the valuation of policy goals, and the promise of multi-jurisdictional partnerships to effectively invest in prevention.

In addition to his work in communities, Jake also leads many of Social Finance’s field building efforts, including leadership development trainings, opinion pieces, and a recent book and podcast series (Workforce Realigned) with the Federal Reserve Banks of Atlanta and Philadelphia.

Prior to joining Social Finance in 2014, Jake worked for The Bridgespan Group and the Boston Consulting Group.

Dr. Jeffrey Reynoso is the Executive Director of the Latino Coalition for a Healthy California (LCHC)—the State’s leading health policy organization advocating for health equity of California’s Latinx community. In his role, he is responsible for strategic leadership and external relations, fundraising and financial management, organizational development, and delivering on policy advocacy and programmatic initiatives. For over a decade, he has worked on health equity and social justice issues spanning academia, government, and non-profit sectors at local, state, and national levels. Most recently, he was a Doctoral Fellow at Kaiser Permanente designing innovative programs to address food insecurity in the Southern California region. Dr. Reynoso holds a Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) from Harvard University, a Master of Public Health (MPH) from UC Berkeley, and a BA from UCLA.

Dr. Reynoso currently serves as a Board Member for the Insure the Uninsured Project (ITUP). He has also been tapped to serve on multiple advisory boards, including Advisory Member to the CA Department of Public Health (CDPH) Community Vaccine Advisory Committee, Governor Gavin Newsom’s Master Plan for Aging (MPA) Equity Workgroup and Task Force on Alzheimer’s Prevention and Preparedness Brain Trust, CA Health Interview Survey (CHIS) at the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, and CA Initiative for Health Equity & Action (Cal-IHEA) at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health. Dr. Reynoso has been quoted on issues ranging from health policy, public health, and Latinx health in CalMatters, Los Angeles Times, Politico, Sacramento Bee, and the Wall Street Journal.

He is a son of immigrants from Mexico and grew up in California’s Central Valley and North San Diego County. Growing up in a working-class immigrant family, he experienced firsthand the systemic barriers to equal opportunity for all and he believes that the future health and economic success of California is tied to achieving health equity for the Latinx community.

A civil rights attorney and long-time democracy reform advocate, Jonathan Mehta Stein is the Executive Director of the nonprofit organization California Common Cause. He became Executive Director in 2020 after 10 years of service on the Board of Directors. Previously, Jonathan served as the head of the Voting Rights & Census Program at Asian Law Caucus and as a voting rights staff attorney for the ACLU of California; in both roles, he worked to increase access to California’s democracy for historically disenfranchised communities. Jonathan also previously served as Chair of the Oakland Public Ethics Commission and as a board member of the Cal Alumni Association.

Lisa Hershey is a dynamic nonprofit and public sector leader with a proven record of advancing statewide transformational change resulting in big policy wins while driving vision, executing mission, designing strategy, guiding operations, cultivating high-performing teams, navigating dynamic environments, raising billions to advance socially just causes, and garnering millions of dollars of diverse financial investments to support non-profit organizational growth. 

Lisa currently serves as the Executive Director for Housing California, a statewide non-profit advocacy organization dedicated to improving life within our golden state. Housing CA opens minds and organizes people most impacted by housing injustice and their allies to effectively advance equitable, systems change and structural reform policy solutions grounded in the lived expertise of affordable housing residents and social and economic policy research. Housing CA envisions a CA with homes, health, and wealth for all in thriving, sustainable communities. Lisa also sits on Ruby’s Place Board of Directors and recently served on the Governor’s Community Vaccine Advisory Committee, Governor’s California Complete Count Committee for 2020 Census and as a 2019 California Influencer for the Sacramento Bee.

Prior to moving into the ED role in November 2016, Lisa served as Associate Director and Sustainable Communities Coordinator at Housing CA. Before joining Housing CA, Lisa held leadership positions as the Public Health Institute (PHI) program director for California Convergence, a network of resident leaders and partners creating healthy, safe, and equitable communities where every person can participate and thrive. During her 21 years in state and local public sector roles, Lisa managed department-wide equity and place-based initiatives. She also served as an advisor to the director and deputy director on Policy and Programs in the California Department Public Health (CDPH) to inform SB 375 and AB 32 initial implementation and development of the Strategic Growth Council. She represented CDPH as a liaison for the department’s executive team with other state departments, agencies, and diverse external partners.

Lisa received a B.A. in Psychology from San Diego State University and a Master’s in Public Health from Loma Linda University School of Public Health. She is also a yoga teacher and certified peace ambassador. Lisa loves to run, practice yoga, and hang out with her family. 

Louise Bedsworth is Director of the Land Use Program at the Center for Law, Energy, and the Environment where she also serves as a Senior Advisor to the California-China Climate Institute. Before joining CLEE, Louise spent nearly a decade working for the State of California, most recently as the Executive Director of the Strategic Growth Council, a Cabinet-level State institution that brings together multiple agencies and departments to support sustainable communities emphasizing strong economies, social equity, and environmental stewardship. Prior to joining SGC, Louise was the Deputy Director of the Office of Planning and Research in Governor Jerry Brown’s office. At OPR, she led work on a number of collaborative research initiatives and climate change adaptation and resilience, including development of the Integrated Climate Adaptation and Resiliency Program and implementation of the State’s $70 million grant awarded under the National Disaster Resilience Competition. Before joining OPR, Louise was a research fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California, where her work focused on climate change adaptation, local government action on climate change, and transportation. She has also held positions at the Union of Concerned Scientists, Redefining Progress, and the International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis.

Louise received a B.S. in Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an M.S. in Environmental Engineering and Ph.D. in Energy and Resources, both from the University of California at Berkeley.

Michael Tubbs is the Special Advisor to California Governor Gavin Newsom for Economic Mobility and the Founder and Chair of Mayors for a Guaranteed Income. He
was elected Mayor of Stockton in 2016 at 26 years old. He was Stockton’s first African-American Mayor, and the youngest Mayor of any major city in American history.


As Mayor, Tubbs was lauded for his leadership and innovation. He raised over $20 million dollars to create the Stockton Scholars, a universal scholarship and mentorship program for Stockton students. Additionally, he piloted the first mayor-led guaranteed income pilot in the country.

Under his leadership, Stockton was named an “All-America City” in 2017 and 2018, saw a 40% drop in homicides in 2018 and 2019, led the state of California in the decline of officer involved shootings in 2019, was named the second most fiscally healthy city in
California and one of the top most fiscally healthy cities in the nation and was featured in an HBO documentary film “Stockton on My Mind.”

Tubbs has been named a fellow at the Harvard Institute of Politics and The MIT Media Lab, a member of Fortune’s Top 40 under 40, a Forbes 30 under 30 All star Alumni, the “Most Valuable Mayor” by The Nation, the 2021 Civic Leadership Award winner from The King Center, and 2019 New Frontier Award Winner from the JFK Library. Previous to serving as Mayor, Tubbs served as a Councilmember for the City of Stockton District 6, a high school educator, and a fellow for the Stanford Design School and the Emerson Collective.

Nidhi Kalra (she/her) is a senior information scientist at the RAND Corporation. She has previously served as director of RAND’s San Francisco Bay Area office and codirector of RAND’s Center for Decision Making Under Uncertainty. Her research focuses on autonomous vehicle policy, climate change adaptation, and tools and methods that help people and organizations make better decisions amid deep uncertainty. She spearheads RAND’s autonomous vehicle policy work. Kalra is the lead author of the study “Driving to Safety: How Many Miles of Driving Would It Take to Demonstrate Autonomous Vehicle Reliability? (2016)” and coauthor of the flagship report “Autonomous Vehicle Technology: A Guide for Policymakers (2016).” She has over ten years of experience in autonomous vehicle policy and is committed to using her expertise to further evidence-based policy making. She has testified on autonomous vehicle policy at three congressional hearings. Kalra also helps organizations improve how they make robust decisions, particularly in the face of climate change.

In 2018, Kalra served as senior technology policy adviser to U.S. Senator Kamala D. Harris. In 2013, she served as a senior decision scientist in the Office of the Chief Economist of Sustainable Development at the World Bank, where she helped launch the World Bank’s portfolio in robust decisionmaking.

Kalra developed educational technology tools to promote literacy among blind children in India, a project that went on to receive the Louis Braille Touch of Genius Prize for Innovation. She received her Ph.D. in robotics from Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute.

From 2014 to 2017, Ambassador Hachigian served as U.S. Ambassador to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). During her tenure, the United States established a strategic partnership with ASEAN, held the first Leaders’ Summit in the United States, and grew the youth program to over 100,000 members. She was awarded the State Department’s Superior Honor Award for her service. She is also a founder of WASA, Women Ambassadors Serving America.

Earlier, Ambassador Hachigian was a Senior Fellow and a Senior Vice President at the Center for American Progress and the director of the RAND Center for Asia Pacific Policy for four years. Ambassador Hachigian served on the staff of the National Security Council in the Clinton White House. She is the editor of Debating China: The U.S. – China Relationship in Ten Conversations (Oxford University Press, 2014) and co-author of The Next American Century: How the U.S. Can Thrive as Other Powers Rise (Simon & Schuster, 2008).

Ambassador Hachigian was a founding Board member of the State Department’s International Security Advisory Board. Hachigian received her B.S. from Yale University, magna cum laude, and her J.D. from Stanford Law School, with distinction.

Sal Rodriguez is the opinion editor for the Southern California News Group, a group of 11 newspapers in Los Angeles County, Orange County, Riverside County and San Bernardino County.

He first joined the newspaper business in 2014 as an editorial writer and columnist for the Orange County Register and the Riverside Press-Enterprise. From 2014 to 2016, he wrote editorials under Freedom Communications. During that time, he wrote a weekly column on local government issues in the Inland Empire.

Prior to joining the newspaper business, he received a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Reed College, worked with Solitary Watch, investigating the use and abuse of solitary confinement, and wrote about issues ranging from criminal justice reform to pension reform for the Reason Foundation.

He currently serves on the Board of Advisors of Young Voices, a nonprofit talent agency for pro-liberty students and young professionals.

Sasha Renée Pérez is the Senior Public Affairs Manager for the Campaign for College Opportunity, a non-profit broad-based research, policy, and advocacy organization focused on ensuring all Californians have an equal opportunity to attend and succeed in college. She leads the Campaign’s statewide coalitions of students, civil rights organizations, and higher education leaders to fights for policies that improve college access, success and affordability.

Sasha’s passion for community organizing began in college. She served as the Vice President of External Affairs and Advancement for Associated Students Inc. and represented Cal State Los Angeles on the Cal State Student Association (CSSA) board. During her time with CSSA, she led a statewide campaign that successfully secured $97 million dollars to increase college access and college affordability for California students. During the same time, she was elected to her local neighborhood council and became the youngest woman in Los Angeles history to serve in that role.

After graduating, Sasha served as the Youth Leadership Senior Program Coordinator for the Pat Brown Institute (PBI) for Public Affairs where she ran the Youth Enrichment Policy Project, a policy education program for Roosevelt High School students. During her time at PBI, she coordinated the 2016 U.S. Senate Debate, 2018 LAUSD School Board Debates and the Pat Brown Institute’s Annual Policy Conference.

Outside of her work at the Campaign, Sasha is a Councilwoman at the City of Alhambra. After she was elected in November 2020, she was immediately sworn-in as Mayor, making her the youngest Latina Mayor to represent a medium sized city in California history and the first openly-Bi Mayor in U.S. history. She has been recognized as Active San Gabriel Valley’s Outstanding Elected Official of the Year and Los Angeles County Democratic Party’s Democrat of the Year. Sasha also serves as an executive board member to the California Democratic Party and a board member to Asian Youth Center, a 501(C)3 non-profit dedicated to empowering low-income, immigrant, and at-risk youth.

In her free time, Sasha enjoys hiking, traveling, and reading with her cats.

Tavae Samuelu is the daughter of a pastor from Leulumoega and a nurse from Saleimoa. As the Executive Director of Empowering Pacific Islander Communities (EPIC), she’s a passionate advocate for her people and is committed to liberation for all. Tavae was born and raised on Tongva land and credits her time on unceded Ohlone territory for her political identity and consciousness. Before joining EPIC, she served as the Development Director for the RYSE Youth Center in Richmond and has since become a member of RYSE’s Board of Directors. Tavae is the Vice President of the Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council (A3PCON) board as well as a member of the National Council of Asian Pacific Americans (NCAPA) Executive Committee. The pandemic has taught her that her most important title is Aunty Vae.