The Expertise I Bring

I have a deep understanding of what is needed to lead and manage thriving, adaptive, and impactful teams, organizations, and networks. As a senior leader in both social justice and philanthropic institutions, I have had management responsibility for an array of institutional capacities, including financial management, fund development, human resources, and governance. Coupled with my extensive training, coaching, and organizational consulting experience in the areas of leadership, talent development, strategy, change and transition management, team facilitation, and design thinking, I bring wide-ranging expertise to any challenge or opportunity.

I have given speeches, workshops, and served on panels across the globe. I have spoken at Princeton University, the Asian Venture Philanthropy Network, and Grantmakers for Effective Organizations. My work has been featured in Nonprofit Quarterly and the Chronicle of Philanthropy. I have served on the boards of a diverse set of organizations focusing on issues like immigrants’ rights, youth organizing, movement building, and civil rights.


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I have

  • designed, managed, and implemented innovative programming and grantmaking that developed network capacity, facilitated movement-level work, and centered communities of color

  • coached, trained, and consulted to external clients and colleagues to support their learning, impact, and performance and to establish empathetic, strategic, diverse, and adaptive teams

  • cultivated, catalyzed, and collaborated with an extensive national network of philanthropic and social justice leaders committed to prioritizing infrastructure-building investments that facilitate alignment around a shared vision and coordinate work across the social justice ecosystem

  • Key Achievements

    Lead nation’s only philanthropic mobilizing organization focused on immigrants, migrants, and refugees - Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees

    Managed a $225M portfolio of grants to social justice organizations around the world, in partnership with colleagues from the Ford Foundation’s Indonesia and China regional offices and Civic Engagement, Cities and States teams and Rural and Native American workgroups

    Led the Blue Shield of California Foundation’s programmatic, policy and grantmaking efforts to address, prevent, and ultimately end domestic violence and to promote health equity, directing the impact investments of more than $13M annually

    At CompassPoint, designed and led comprehensive, multi-year leadership initiatives which increased individual skills in leadership and management, facilitated measurable improvements in organizational effectiveness and supported systemic capacity to achieve large-scale impact

  • Signature Initiatives

    California Dignity for Families Fund: A public-private partnership between Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees and California Governor Gavin Newsom to move public and private philanthropic resources to support migrant children, families, and adults seeking humanitarian relief in California.

    BUILD: The Ford Foundation’s global, multi-year $1BN initiative designed to strengthen organizations and networks that are core to the social justice infrastructure. By providing grantees with five years of general operating support, combined with targeted organizational strengthening support, BUILD aims to equip these organizations with the strategic clarity, people, knowledge, and resources they need to achieve impact and advance systems change over the course of years and decades.

    Strong Field Project: Launched by Blue Shield of California Foundation in 2010, the Strong Field Project was a four-year effort to strengthen the California domestic violence field during a time in which statewide funding was waning and the needs of the field were increasingly complex.

    Move to End Violence: A 10-year initiative of the NoVo Foundation, which aims to build a movement for social change and create a future in which girls and women are free from violence, act as agents of change, and are leading the way to a better world.

  • Published Works (Partial List)

    Why Funders Should Pay for the True Costs of Nonprofits’ Work — Not Just the Direct Project Expenses, The Chronicle of Philanthropy (2019: Co-author)

    Working from Strengths to End Domestic Violence (2015: Co-author)

    The Pipeline Promise: A Study of Emerging Leaders in California Community Clinics (2009: Lead author)

    The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of 360 Evaluations, Nonprofit Quarterly (2011: Co-author)

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My practice is strengths-based, applies an analysis rooted in gender and racial justice, intersectionality, and anti-ableism, emphasizes emergence, iteration and strategic thinking, and builds individual and collective awareness around systems and opportunities