Immigrants and Refugees

Menchu is a seasoned accounting and auditing professional with over 25 years of experience in private, government, and nonprofit sectors overseeing compliance, payroll, bookkeeping, audits, grants management, financial reporting, budgeting, implementing internal controls, and developing process efficiencies. Menchu joined MSC in June 2020 and has performed outsourced accounting and finance work for nonprofit organizations in health services, education, social services, arts, and culture. Menchu graduated cum laude with a Bachelor’s in Accounting from the University of Santo Tomas and holds a CPA license in California. She loves traveling, hiking, and cooking, and also picked up the hobby of DIY crafting during the pandemic.

Learn more about Noble Accounting, LLC.

Pandora Thomas is a passionate global citizen who works as a caregiver, teacher, writer, designer and speaker. Her work emphasizes the benefits of applying ecological principles to social design.

As a presenter both domestically and internationally, she has given keynotes and lectures on topics ranging from designing mutually beneficially diversity strategies, collaborative design, social justice, youth and women’s leadership, social entrepreneurship, permaculture and sustainability. She has designed curriculum for and taught groups all over the world as diverse as Iraqi and Indonesian youth to men serving in San Quentin and men and women returning home from incarceration.

Pandora’s most recent passions include being a carepartner for her mother who was diagnosed with Alzheimers, co-founding the Black Permaculture Network, working for 6 years with Toyota to design and serving as a coalition member of the Toyota Green Initiative, which supported African Americans in understanding the benefits of adopting sustainable lifestyles; co-designing, teaching with and directing Pathways to Resilience-a permaculture and social entrepreneur training program that worked with men and women returning home after incarceration, and working with the Urban Permaculture Institute in Marin City supporting a People’s Planning Process, which supports community members to assess and design strategies for their own resilience.

She has just been awarded a fellowship with the Movement Strategy Centers National Association of Climate Resiliency Planners. Her fellowship is focused on supporting Community Driven Resiliency Planning.

Thomas has studied four languages and lived and worked in over twelve countries and her other achievements include being featured in the films The Future of Energy and Inhabit, presenting at Tedx Denver and SF, and being awarded internships and fellowships to the Center for the Study of Human Rights at Columbia University, Green For All, the Bronx Zoo and the Applied Research Center.

Her writing includes a children’s book, various curricula and a manual entitled “Shades of Green” for individuals wanting to teach green building to youth. Pandora studied at Columbia and Tufts University and with several permaculture and ecological design programs.
When she is not working you can find her spending time with her beloved mother and cats or in the redwoods.

Tamira is the Director of Operations, operationalizing program vision and managing the related administrative infrastructure of Climate Innovation. Bringing a strong systems background to the role, Tamira leads on designing and implementing processes to strengthen the program vision and capacity.

A native of Northern California, Tamira spent her childhood running through the redwoods and making mischief. For the last 20 years, Tamira has been working within the environmental nonprofit sector, both in the U.S. and abroad. She most recently led the fiscal sponsorship program at Earth Island Institute for 7 years, supporting the amazing project advisory team and its 80 projects. As the Program Manager, Tamira designed and implemented administrative systems in support of frontline activists and initiatives working to protect people and the planet. Tamira spent the past three years developing capacity-building training and collaborative learning tools in order to seed a community of practice within her activist network.

Tamira previously worked for TransForm, a sustainable transportation and land use advocate, coordinating a pilot program to promote multi-model transportation throughout the Bay Area. Tamira also spent three years planning the largest section of the California Coastal Trail through Mendocino County, resulting in permanent public access to the coastline and protection of critical habitat. In addition, Tamira lived and worked throughout the Caribbean, where she studied coastal ecology, conducted coral reef and marine protected area monitoring, and developed the first place-based environmental curriculum for Jamaica.

Tamira draws on her experience working with nonprofits of all sizes and missions in order to improve, evolve, and experiment with systems and structures that are solution-focused. Much of the last decade of her professional life has been coaching grassroots activists through the founding, scaling, and stabilizing phases of organizational development. She loves putting wings on visionary ideas to see them take flight. She holds a Masters of Arts in Community and Environmental Studies and a Certificate in Nonprofit Management.

In addition to being Movement Strategy Center’s Transitions Initiative Program Assistant, Bianca is the owner and founder of a growing jewelry shop called Bianquis’ Designs in which she creates commemorative vessels to her matriarchal ancestors and the women in her family. She bridges past, present, and future as she honors their stories, sacrifices, and celebrates their resiliency through her craft. You might find her selling jewelry at Lake Merritt, outdoor markets, or at art galleries across the Bay Area. The East Bay is very dear to her, because not only is she from here, but her life has been surrounded by the beautifully diverse, community-driven movements that have manifested ground-breaking outcomes. Much of her family was involved in the movimiento during the seventies and eighties across the Bay Area, largely in labor union organizing across Oakland, Stanford, and in the Central Valley. Duty to community service and breaking institutional barriers run through her veins.

Prior to joining MSC, Bianca was on two fund development teams at Girl Scouts of Northern California and Hispanics in Philanthropy, from which she brings ample event planning and fundraising experience. She also holds a Bachelor’s degree in the Humanities from San Francisco State University. A current goal of hers is to invest in opening/holding two equitable spaces for entrepreneurs and artists of color, situated in the East Bay and in Mexico. Bianca’s hope is to rid the fear of displacement and to welcome artists to comfortably create and flourish in these spaces.

In her role as Learning & Data Systems Manager, Sarah seeks to support a culture of learning; connect data and insights with decision-making; and support the strategic learning and evaluation needs for the Transitions Initiative through developmental evaluation for social innovation. Sarah hopes to shift away from extractive ways of traditional evaluation toward learning that embodies and supports regeneration, resilience, and interdependence.

Sarah has 5 years of experience in event production and management, database management, and administrative management. Supporting the ecosystem in this way, she experiences joy in knowing that her work is part of a greater purpose and vision. Prior to working at MSC, Sarah worked as a fast food worker. In those difficult two years, Sarah learned the value of herself and the importance of seeing the humanity of others.

In 2012, Sarah became the first in her family to graduate college. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in Political, Legal, & Economic Analysis with an emphasis in Economic Analysis and a minor in Environmental Studies from Mills College.

In recent years, Sarah’s (dis)connection with her heritage has been given strength and love by the Seven Generations and Forward Stance work at MSC. As a 4th generation Mexican-American, her people are forgotten in memory but remembered in her body. Her ancestors come from León, Guanajuato; Phoenix, Arizona; El Paso, Texas; & Pomona, California. Sarah lives in her breath; which lives in her body; which lives in Oakland, CA – with her partner Efren.

As the Climate Innovation Program Manager, Michelle helps MSC to transform our larger cultural, political and physical infrastructure in ways that enhance health, the environment, social justice, culture, and beauty.

Michelle brings over 20 years of experience uniting the fields of sustainability, justice, culture, nature, and art. Michelle comes to MSC from University of Colorado Boulder’s Environmental Center where she was the Assistant Director for Energy and Climate Justice. There she managed student and staff-run programming, founded the “FLOWS” program, advocated for equitable policies and engagement within the climate sphere and with local governments, co-founded the Just Transition Collaborative, and taught permaculture design. She is a former US State Department BoldFood fellow (Uganda) focused on sustainable urban agriculture, and served as a delegate for the Colorado River in San Luis del Rio Colorado, Mexico. She is the founder of Candelas Glows, raising awareness about the dangers of Rocky Flats—a local nuclear superfund site turned “wildlife refuge.”

Michelle serves on the leadership council for Frontline Farming, a food justice organization in Denver, CO. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Anthropology (with additional concentrations in International Development and Urban Studies) from Colorado College. Seeking eco-cultural regeneration, she is a facilitator and alternative educator, project instigator, multi-ethnic poet, wife, and mother of three.

As the Director of Climate Innovation, Corrine leads the vision and strategy for MSC’s climate innovation and governance portfolios, bringing a lens of racial equity and transformative movement building. Corrine convenes and cultivates creative leadership within climate justice and deep democracy ecosystems toward a shared vision for a Just Transition to a world of interdependence, resilience, and regeneration.

Corrine’s 15+ years of experience are deeply immersed in movements for social, economic, and racial equity. As a former IDEAL Scholar (Initiative for Diversity in Education and Leadership), she witnessed and continues to nurture the compelling impact of investing in youth and disenfranchised communities of color so that leadership reflects the diversity it seeks to serve. Since then she has continued to develop her leadership working with the Rockwood Leadership Institute, Greater New Beginnings Youth Services, Oakland Climate Action Coalition, and contracting with various organizations. Corrine was the former Co-Director of Rooted in Resilience (formerly Bay Localize) where she led organizational management, development, communications, and outreach.

She currently serves on the steering committee of the California Trade Justice Coalition, Oakland Climate Action Coalition and the Resilient Oakland Initiative. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley. Family is what drives Corrine’s commitment to justice and thriving communities.

Yvette is a human resources coordinator with over 20 years of customer service experience. Yvette has been with MSC since April 2019, graduated from California State University, East Bay with a Bachelor’s in Liberal Studies, and has an aPHR certification from the Human Resources Certification Institute. She grew up in Oakland and currently resides in Stockton with Kobe, her teacup Yorkie. In her spare time, she enjoys shopping, watching her favorite TV programs, and spending quality time with family and friends.

Kristy is a social worker with ten years of experience in community education and outreach. She interned with UN Women, Asia Pacific Region and went on to work with women-led organizations including the Women’s Health Specialists of Northern California. For the last three years, she managed a capital campaign to raise funds to build a regional animal shelter and disaster evacuation center in Butte County, California — home of the historic 2018 Camp Fire. Kristy has worked with MSC since 2014 and is pursuing professional education at UC San Diego and Portland State University in the field of project management and grant writing. She is also a yoga teacher and is passionate about bridging the practice with social justice work. Kristy loves water, cats, coffee, and is a dedicated dancer.

Marie-Louise is a first-generation American with over 18 years of experience in operations, human resources, and compliance for organizations including CBRE, Grubb and Ellis, and Metropole Staffing. Marie-Louise joined MSC in September 2018 and has a Bachelor’s in Industrial and Labor Relations from Cornell University. She lives in Playa del Rey with her two rambunctious Boston terriers, six fish, and three aquatic frogs. Marie-Louise loves to spend her free time baking, arranging flowers, traveling, and crafting.

Jamillah is a project advisor with over 15 years of experience in financial reporting, budgeting, strategic planning, and team building. She has worked in various industries including public relations, internet technology, banking, and government contracting, including with MS&L Worldwide and JP Morgan Chase & Co. Jamillah has been with MSC since April 2021 and has a BS in Accounting from Morgan State University. She lives in New Jersey with her two children and enjoys sewing, word games, music, DIY projects, and spending time with her family and friends.

Daniel Parada joined MSC in April 2021 with a background in operations, employee experience, and as a learning and development specialist. One of Daniel’s many social imperatives is to empower and give voice to people who are marginalized, leading him to help establish DEI, Pride+Allies, Embajadores [email protected], and Women in Culinary mentorship committees throughout his career. Daniel and his husband are proud owners of a home in East Oakland where they play an active role in the neighborhood watch. Daniel loves working on construction projects at home, tending to his urban farm and chickens, and is always down for some good grub!

An activist first and foremost, Saman is a people connector and amplifier, who joined MSC in March 2021 with 20 years of community organizing experience. Since 9/11, she has been active in the New York Metro area on issues concerning American Muslims, most recently as director of development for the Creating Law Enforcement Accountability & Responsibility Project at the CUNY School of Law. She also worked within Institutional Advancement at LaGuardia Community College and in grassroots advocacy at Americans for Democracy and Human Rights in Bahrain. She has a Bachelor’s in Philosophy from Rutgers University, lives in New York City, and comes from a family of activists, teachers and writers.

Ginger joined MSC in April 2020 and brings with her over 20 years of administrative experience. She has held many office support roles in various industries. Her goal is to incorporate the wealth of administrative knowledge and customer service that she has acquired to equip the MSC team to best serve the community. Ginger is very passionate about nonprofit work and doing her part to contribute to the greater good. The Bay Area has been home to Ginger for her entire life; she currently resides in El Cerrito with her two sons. In her spare time, she enjoys hanging out with her village, planning events, and watching true crime documentaries.

Leila has over ten years experience in community and campus organizing and electoral facilitation and is dedicated to fostering collaboration across diverse coalitions. She has worked with various nonprofits including Working Partnerships USA, was involved in a student-initiated minimum wage campaign that helped kickstart the national minimum wage movement, and, in 2012, led a group of canvassers that registered 14,000 voters in Santa Clara County. Leila joined MSC in March 2019 and has a Bachelor’s from San Jose State University. She is working on a Master’s from Mills College and lives in Oakland with her partner, young son, and their two cats. She trains capoeira and is part of the In Lak’ech dance academy.

Victoria, a senior executive administrator for over 15 years, comes with experience in operations, human resources, compliance, and marketing for organizations including Mom’s Project, Uber, Paul Blanco Good Car Company, Square Peg Design, and Tavistock Group, Clorox. She joined MSC in March 2021. Victoria resides in Oakland, where she was born and raised. As much as she loves cooking and afternoons enjoying her new found love of gardening, there is nothing she is more passionate about than being a mother to her six children.

Eli was born in the Bay Area but lived in Los Angeles, New Orleans, and Flagstaff before returning. Before joining MSC in May 2018, Eli was at Reem’s California, serving up delicious man’oushe to the community, both at the Fruitvale bakery and at farmer’s markets. Before that, he was a social worker for unhoused populations for eight years at the Housing Authority of the County of Alameda and Compass Family Services. In his free time, he enjoys hanging out with his toddler or playing soccer with Left Wing Futbol Club, founded in Oakland in 2003 by a group of lefties and activists who wanted to stay in shape to run from the cops. Fun fact: Eli won third place in a national yoyo championship when he was eight.

Sophie is a design strategist, facilitator, and artist who works to transform challenges into opportunities for design and social innovation. Rooted in Buddhist practice and with over 20 years of experience in community empowerment, organizational development, and socially engaged performing and visual arts, Sophie has worked on projects with the United Nations Department of Public Information, and the Magnum Foundation’s Expanded Media, as well as an educational initiative for first-generation Chinese students. She joined MSC in February 2020 and has a Master’s in Transdisciplinary Design from Parsons the New School for Design. She lives in Oakland and enjoys delicious meals, time with nature, and art making.

Frank is a social justice and sustainability-focused storyteller with over 15 years of experience in writing, visual storytelling, product design, and marketing strategy for lifestyle brands, publications, agencies, and nonprofits including The Boston Globe, Tommy Hilfiger, Warby Parker, and Racked.com. Frank joined MSC in February 2021 and has a Master’s in Sustainability and Social Impact in Business from Glasgow Caledonian New York College and a Bachelor’s in graphic design and journalism from Northeastern University. He lives at the Jersey Shore with his two rescue dogs and is passionate about community gardening, birdwatching, cooking, and live music.

With a long-time interest in bookkeeping, Rita comes to MSC with over 25 years of administrative experience within the private sector in the venture capital and executive search industries. A Minnesota native, her firm relocated her to New York in late 2000. Eight years later, Rita decided to take the biggest leap of her life –- resigned from her job; downsized her possessions into mini-storage; completed a 108-day solo backpacking adventure through Europe; and upon return, relocated to San Francisco. Rita joined MSC in January 2014 and has a BSBA in Decision Sciences from San Francisco State University. Rita enjoys traveling and sewing, loves Black Joy, and Prince, and currently lives with her partner in Oakland.

Mo has over 20 years of combined strategic business leadership experience in design, philanthropy, and the nonprofit sector, leading corporate philanthropy programs at PVH, and at NGOs including Custom Collaborative and North American Passive House Network, where her focus was BIPOC, immigrant, and women workers as well as environmental interventions. She also serves on the board of Her Future Coalition, an anti-human trafficking nonprofit. Mo joined MSC in January 2021 and has a BFA from Parsons School of Design and an Advanced Diploma in Coaching from NYU. She is based in New York City and is an artist and art activist with a passion for storytelling, animals, pebble beaches, and remote adventure travel.

Chrystal serves as the chief human resources officer at MSC with over ten years of leadership and organizational development experience. Chrystal served as director of human resources for Hanna Boys Center, as executive director for Grattan After School Program, and was recognized for her commitment to education and leadership development by the California Department of Education in 2016. Chrystal joined MSC in April 2021 and is a graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary. She resides in the Bay Area, where she and her husband enjoy the great outdoors and spending time with friends and family.

Anya is an educator and strategic advisor with over 23 years of experience in organizational development, transformative education, finance, operations, and communications for organizations addressing violence, culture, and healing including MISSSEY, the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, and the city of Oakland. Anya has been with MSC since October 2019, has a Master’s in Women’s Spirituality from New College, and holds a CORe credential from Harvard Business School Online. She lives in Oakland where she performs in and directs Oakland Flamenco Sessions and is currently writing Potato Candy, a book about her family’s Texan Wendish heritage, cultural assimilation, memory, rituals, and textiles.

Carla has spent over 30 years in nonprofit management and economic development, providing support to vital community building efforts. Prior to joining MSC in October 2020, Carla was senior vice president at Tides Network, as well as vice president of Community Investment for the East Bay Community Foundation, and program officer for Children, Families, and Communities at the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. Carla has a BS in Public Administration from the University of Southern California and an MS in Public Policy from California State University, Long Beach. Carla enjoys Creole cooking, traveling with her teenage son and her jazz musician husband, and playing with her dog, Foo Foo Strawberry Jack BeBop.

A writer, producer, and entrepreneur, Anasa has dedicated her work to the importance of culture and the power of love. As CEO of Culture Shift Creative, Anasa works to build and execute strategies for artists and organizations that are aligned with her belief in creativity as a pathway to personal, community, and global transformation. Best known for her work as strategic advisor and executive producer for long time friend India.Arie, Anasa awakened to her life’s work during her time in Atlanta, Georgia, attending Spelman College and founding Groovement/EarthSeed Music, a successful record label and collective of cutting edge, visionary musicians, performers, and writers.

Jacqui is the director of the NAACP Environmental and Climate Justice Program. Since 2007, she has served as coordinator and co-founder of Women of Color United. Jacqui has worked as a researcher, program manager, coordinator, advocate, and activist working on women‘s rights, HIV and AIDS, racial justice, economic justice, and environmental and climate justice. She also served as a US Peace Corps volunteer in Jamaica. Jacqui holds a Master’s in Social Work from the University of Maryland and a Master’s in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University. She currently serves on the International Committee of the US Social Forum, and the Steering Committee for Interfaith Moral Action on Climate.

Judith is a member of the Caddo Tribe of Oklahoma, and director of the Native Organizers Alliance, a national Native training and organizing network. She worked within MSC for four years as a member of the Transitions Lab community. At the core of her work is the belief that organizing a grassroots, durable ecosystem of Native leaders and organizers, who share a common theory of change rooted in traditional values and sacred practices, is necessary to achieve tribal sovereignty and racial equity for all. Since 2016, she has partnered with others to reestablish the right of Oceti Sakowin tribes in the Missouri River Basin to regain co-management of the bio-region. Judith is a 2019 Roddenberry Fellow.

Tomás works as a social justice strategist, most recently as the national field director for Mijente, an independent political home for Chicanx/Latinx organizing. He has over 20 years experience in political strategy and campaign development and worked as a community organizer, campaign manager, and strategic advisor for 22 grassroots social justice organizations, four candidate campaigns and five institutes and universities. His most formative experiences were his time as co-director of the SouthWest Organizing Project and organizer of the People’s Climate March. Tomás is a Native New Mexican Chicano, born and raised in Albuquerque. He currently lives in Brooklyn.

Sihle is currently the chief financial officer at Tides Advocacy, and was previously the finance director and interim deputy director of operations at MSC. She is passionate about supporting highly impactful nonprofit infrastructure, with over 20 years of finance and operations experience. Sihle currently serves as board treasurer for Urban Tilth and has previously worked with the YMCA of San Diego County, the Garment Worker Center and other grassroots organizations. A mother, consummate volunteer and novice gardener, Sihle is dedicated to efficiency and accountability within social justice organizations. A California native, Sihle holds a degree in Economics and Accounting from Claremont McKenna College.

Taj is a father, poet, strategist, designer, and philanthropic and capital advisor. He is the founder and current board president of MSC, founding partner at Full Spectrum Capital Partners, and co-founder with Kat Taylor of The Good Life Pledge. Taj thrives on connecting community stewards and capital stewards to bring financial value into alignment with sacred values in ways that build community wealth. A graduate of Stanford University, Taj was a recipient of a Next Generation Leadership fellowship from the Rockefeller Foundation and was named a “Local Hero” by The San Francisco Bay Guardian. Taj currently lives with his family in Oakland.

Kimi is the lead organizer of the United Workers Congress, a new strategic alliance to build power for excluded workers and their national independent worker alliances. Her MSC work has included serving as the national coordinator for the Alliance for Educational Justice, an organization that she helped to build and shape. Kimi has been organizing and working for social justice over the past 20 years, and currently serves on the board of the Chinese Progressive Association San Francisco. She is the mother of two little girls and lives in the Bay Area.