Glossary - Movement Strategy Center

Glossary of Terms

Terms to Avoid

Language can be used to engage or divide. The language we use relating to challenging intersectional issues of systemic racism, environmental inequities, and economic exploitation allows us to honor, celebrate, and amplify voices of BIPOC, women, and LGBTQIA+ movement leaders, activists, and communities working toward a world of interdependence, liberation, and resilience. This is not intended to be a be-all-end-all list for inclusive language — it provides guidelines for ways that we can employ inclusive language and integrate a racial equity lens in our writing.

This is not intended to be comprehensive but reflects the language MSC uses in conversations regarding social justice, diversity, and allyship. In every context, these meanings may change and evolve but they provide a starting point for our community and our website visitors to engage in open and honest conversation throughout our ecosystem. We hope it will be used as a tool to build a shared language of understanding and We acknowledge that we do not own this thinking — there is a community producing this, from the languages we use to the concepts and insights that we suggest. We acknowledge our infinitive indebtedness to others and suggest you explore the references at the bottom of the page to learn more.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Abolition

A political vision and broad strategy eliminates imprisonment, policing, and surveillance and creates lasting alternatives to punishment and incarceration. Abolition is both a practical organizing tool and a long-term goal.

Accountability

How individuals and communities hold themselves to their goals and actions and acknowledge the values and the groups for which they are responsible. To be accountable, one must be visible, with a transparent agenda and process.

Afrofuturism

The philosophical intersection of imagination, history, the future, and liberation melds African Diaspora culture with technology.

Ally

A person who makes the commitment and effort to recognize their privilege (based on gender, class, race, sexual identity, etc.). A person who works in solidarity with oppressed groups in the struggle for justice. Allies understand that it is in their interest to end all forms of oppression, even those from which they may benefit in concrete ways.

Anti-black

A two-part formation that both voids the values of Blackness while systematically marginalizing Black people and their issues. The first form of anti-Blackness is overt racism and the covert structural and systemic racism that categorically predetermines the socioeconomic status of Black people in this country. The second form of anti-Blackness is the unethical disregard for anti-Black institutions and policies as a product of class, race, and/or gender privilege that certain individuals experience due to anti-Black institutions and policies. The first form of overt racism protects the second form of anti-Blackness.

Beloved Community

Coined by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the concept describes a society built on economic and social inclusivity, a community in which everyone is cared for, absent of poverty, exploitation, and hate.

Bigotry

Intolerant prejudice that glorifies one group and denigrates members of other groups.

BIPOC

Referring to those who identify as Black, Indigenous, or a Person of Color.

Black Lives Matter

An ideological and political intervention in a world where Black lives are systematically and intentionally targeted for demise. It is an affirmation of Black humanity, Black contributions to society, and Black resilience in the face of deadly oppression.
A political movement started in 2013 by three radical Black organizers — Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi; it addresses systemic and state violence against African Americans.

Colonization

Invasion, dispossession, and subjugation need not be military; it can begin — or continue — as a geographical intrusion in the form of agricultural, urban, or industrial encroachments. Such incursion is the dispossession of vast amounts of lands from the original inhabitants, often legalized after the fact. The long-term result of such massive dispossession is institutionalized inequality. The colonizer/colonized relationship is, by nature, an unequal one that benefits the colonizer at the expense of the colonized.

Climate Justice

As a form of environmental justice, climate justice means that all species have the right to access and obtain the resources needed to have an equal chance of survival and freedom from discrimination. As a movement, climate justice advocates are working from the grassroots up to create real solutions for climate mitigation and adaptation that ensure the right of all people to live, learn, work, play, and pray in safe, healthy, and clean environments.

Climate Resilience

A future in which ecosystems, human labor, and cultures are integrated into a thriving regenerative web of life.

Color-blindness

The racial ideology that assumes the best way to end discrimination is by focusing on commonalities between people, such as their shared humanity, without regard to race, culture, or ethnicity. This is a term that should be avoided in transformative movement work.

Critical Race Theory

Critical Race Theory considers many of the same issues conventional civil rights and ethnic studies take. Still, it places them in a broader perspective, including economics, history, and even emotions and the unconscious. Unlike traditional civil rights, which embraces incrementalism and step-by-step progress, critical race theory questions the very foundations of the liberal order, including equality theory, legal reasoning, Enlightenment rationalism, and principles of constitutional law.

Cultural Appropiation

Theft of cultural elements — including symbols, art, language, customs, etc. — for one’s use, commodification, or profit, often without understanding, acknowledgment, or respect for its value in its original culture. It results from a dominant (i.e., White) culture’s right to appropriate other cultural elements.

Decolonization

The active resistance against colonial powers and a shifting of power towards political, economic, educational, cultural, and psychic independence originates from a colonized nation’s own indigenous culture.

Diaspora

The voluntary or forcible movement of peoples from their homelands into new regions. The common element in all forms of the diaspora are people who live outside their natal (or imagined natal) territories and recognize that their traditional homelands are reflected deeply in the languages they speak, the religions they adopt, and the culture they produce.

Discrimination

The unequal treatment of various groups based on race, gender, social class, sexual orientation, physical ability, religion, and other categories.

Disinvested

The systemic reduction or elimination of capital resources and the purposeful withdrawal of investment from communities, meaning developers and builders no longer spend their money to improve neighborhoods, businesses, or shared spaces in the community, resulting in less infrastructure over time.

Diversity

How people differ, including race, ethnicity, and gender — the groups that most often come to mind when the term "diversity" is used — but also age, national origin, religion, disability, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, education, marital status, language, and physical appearance. It can also involve different ideas, perspectives, and values.

Ecosystem

In the pursuit of equity, liberation, inclusion, and justice, the MSC beloved community ecosystem comprises Movement Strategy Center’s board, staff, network partners, sponsored projects, program participants, and supporters.

Embodied Practice

An embodiment practice is a method of using the unique sensations of our body as a tool to develop awareness, stay present, self-regulate, feel whole, find balance, feel connected, know ourselves, love ourselves, and be empowered.

Ethnicity

Refers to identifying a group based on a perceived cultural distinctiveness that makes the group into a “people.” A social construct, Ethnicity divides people into smaller social groups based on ancestral geographical base, history, the shared sense of group membership, values, behavioral patterns, language, political and economic interests.

Extractive Economy

A capitalist system of exploitation and oppression that values consumerism, colonialism, and money over people and the planet. An extractive economy views natural resources as commodities to dig, burn, and dump with no regard for its impact on communities and utilizes oppressive force to undermine democracy, community, and workers. The extractive economy perpetuates the enclosure of wealth and power for a few through predatory financing, expropriation from land and commonly accessed goods and services, and the exploitation of human labor.

Frontline Communities

Members of the communities include those impacted most by climate change and its root causes, which include white supremacy, patriarchy, and colonization. These communities are embedded in legacy struggles against social, economic, and environmental injustices exacerbated by extractive and pollutive industries that have been purposely and systemically situated adjacent or within to their communities. This disproportionate exposure to climate and environmental injustice results in acute and chronic impacts to human and environmental health. Frontline organizations are those created by and for frontline communities, and are accountable to a base of frontline community members.

LGBTQIA+

Gender Non-Conforming, referring to those who do not identify with binary gender identity.

Implicit Bias

Negative associations that people unknowingly hold and express automatically, without conscious awareness. Implicit biases affect an individual’s attitudes and actions, thus creating real-world implications, even though they may not even be aware that those biases exist within themselves. This produces behavior that diverges from the explicit attitudes that many people profess. The Implicit Association Test (IAT) is often used to measure implicit biases concerning race, gender, sexual orientation, age, religion, and other topics.

Incubation

Physical spaces for social interaction and development in which socially vulnerable individuals, through the use of cross-sectoral partnerships and community-adapted development services, are empowered to become agents of their social transformation.

Income Gap

This refers to the extent to which income is distributed unevenly among a population. In the United States, income gaps are so pronounced that America’s wealthiest ten percent now average more than nine times as much income as the bottom 90 percent. The nation’s highest 0.01 percent and 0.1 percent of income-earners have seen their incomes rise much faster than the rest of the top one percent in recent decades.
This is a term that should be avoided in transformative movement work. Instead, use: income inequality; wage inequality; racial income inequality; or CEO/worker pay gaps.

Inclusion

The act of including traditionally excluded individuals and/or groups into processes, activities, and decision-making in a way that shares power with authenticity.

Indigeneity

Indigenous peoples can be identified in particular geographical areas by the presence in varying degrees of the following characteristics: close attachment to ancestral territories and the natural resources in these areas; self-identification and identification by others as members of a distinct cultural group; an indigenous language, often different from the national language; the presence of customary social and political institutions, and primarily subsistence-oriented production.

Individual Racism

Individual racism refers to the beliefs, attitudes, and actions of individuals that support or perpetuate racism. Individual racism can be deliberate, or the individual may act to perpetuate or support racism without knowing what they are doing.

Integration

An act or instance of integrating a racial or other ethnic group. The goals of intergration include desegregation, the process of ending systematic racial segregation, and goals such as leveling barriers to association, creating equal opportunity regardless of race, and the development of a culture that draws on diverse traditions, rather than merely bringing a racial minority into the majority culture. This is a term that should be avoided in transformative movement work.

Internalized Racism

Internalized racism is the situation that occurs in a racist system when a racial group oppressed by racism supports the supremacy and dominance of the dominating group by maintaining or participating in the set of attitudes, behaviors, social structures, and ideologies that undergird the dominating group’s power.

Intersectionality

Coined by Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, intersectionality can help clarify how a person can simultaneously experience privilege and oppression. For example, a Black woman in America does not experience gender inequalities in the same way as a White woman, nor does she experience racial oppression identical to that experienced by a Black man. Each race and gender intersection produces a qualitatively distinct experience.

Just Transition

A set of unifying principles and practices supporting a just society has shifted from an extractive economy to a waste-free, regenerative economy. It must be equitable and must redress past harms. Its process must be just, or the outcome will not be.

LGBTQIA

Referring to those who identify as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transexual, Queer and Questioning, Intersex, Asexual.

Movement Building

The process of organizing and activating the will and capacity of people and organizations to work individually or collectively toward a shared vision.

Power

The ability to influence others and impose one’s beliefs. All power is relational, and different relationships either reinforce or disrupt one another. The importance of the concept of power to anti-racism is evident: racism cannot be understood without understanding that power is an individual relationship and a cultural one. Those power relationships are constantly shifting. Power can be used malignantly and intentionally but need not be, and individuals within a culture may benefit from the power they are unaware of. Cultural power is all-encompassing, economic power is foundational, and political power reflects economics and culture.

Privilege

Society’s formal and informal institutions accord the unearned social power to all members of a dominant group (i.e., white privilege, male privilege, etc.). Privilege is usually invisible to those who have it because we are taught not to see it, but it puts them at an advantage over those who do not.

Prison Industrial Complex

A term used to describe the overlapping interest of governments and industries who use surveillance, policing, and imprisonment as solutions to economic, social, and political problems.

Racial Disparity

The policies, practices, and procedures across institutions like housing, education, and transportation, that have discriminated based on race making race is a key determinant of one’s life outcomes.

Racism

A complex system of beliefs and behaviors grounded in a presumed superiority of the white race. These beliefs and behaviors are conscious and unconscious, personal and institutional, and result in the oppression of people of color and benefit the dominant group, white people.

Rematriation

Returning to the ways of life that hold reverence for Nature and are inclusive of many types of knowledge.

Repatriation

Commonly used to describe the rightful return of land, remains, and cultural items to Native communities. Tied to Euro-centric, male-dominant ideas of ownership.

Restorative Justice

A theory of justice that emphasizes repairing the harm caused by crime and conflict. It places decisions in the hands of those most affected by wrongdoing and gives equal concern to the victim, the offender, and the surrounding community.

Social Justice

The idea that all people should have equal rights, opportunities, and access to resources.

Systemic Racism

The structure through which public policies, institutional practices, cultural representations, and other norms work in various and often reinforcing ways to perpetuate racial inequities among groups.

Regenerative Economy

A regenerative economy is based on ecological restoration, community protection, equitable partnerships, justice, and full and fair participatory processes by producing, consuming, and redistributing resources in harmony with the planet, rather than extraction from the land and each other. A regenerative economy values the dignity of work and prioritizes community governance and ownership of work and resources instead of oppressive systems that devalue people and their labor through violent hoarding by few, while supporting collective and inclusive participatory governance, rather than limiting peoples’ ability to fully shape democracy and decisions that impact their communities. This requires an explicit anti-racist, anti-poverty, feminist, and living approach that is intersectional and eschews top-down, patriarchal, classist, xenophobic, and racist ideology.

Self-determination

A characteristic of a person that leads them to make choices and decisions based on their own preferences and interests to monitor and regulate their own actions and to be goal-oriented and self-directing.

Transformative Justice

Transformative Justice (TJ) is a political framework and approach for responding to violence, harm, and abuse. It seeks to respond to violence at its most basic without creating more violence and/or engaging in harm reduction to lessen the violence. TJ can be thought of as a way of “making things right” or creating justice together. TJ is an abolitionist framework that understands that prisons, police, and I.C.E. are sources of enormous amounts of violence and are systems designed to maintain social control through inherent violence.

Transformative Movements

Movements that recognize that we are whole people and whole communities and our issues and problems are interconnected; thus, our systemic solutions and movements must be interconnected.

Transformative Practice

An intentional activity, or set of activities, done regularly over an extended period to ground oneself in purpose and facilitate profound growth, embodiment, and transformation.

Under-resourced

This refers to relatively heavily populated areas of high poverty and low income. It is often thought that these communities are largely Black and Brown inner-city neighborhoods located in metropolitan areas.

White Fragility

A state in which even a minimum amount of racial stress becomes intolerable for White people, triggering a range of defensive moves. These can include the outward display of emotions such as anger, fear, and/or guilt, and behaviors including argumentation, silence, and/or leaving a stress-inducing situation. These behaviors, in turn, function to reinstate White racial equilibrium.

White Privilege

Refers to the unquestioned and unearned set of advantages, entitlements, benefits, and choices bestowed on people solely because they are White. Generally, White people who experience such privilege do so without being conscious of it.

White Supremacy

An ideology that White people and the ideas, thoughts, beliefs, and actions of White people are superior to People of Color and their ideas, thoughts, beliefs, and actions. White supremacy is ever-present in our institutional and cultural assumptions. It assigns value, morality, goodness, and humanity to the White group while casting others as immoral, evil, inhuman, and undeserving.

White Supremacy Culture

Artificial and historically constructed, White Supremacy Culture is the dominant culture (that of the White middle class) that shapes our institutions, our media, the way we see ourselves, and each other. White Supremacy Culture is unconsciously used as the norms and standards that promote white supremacy thinking, training, internalized attitudes, and behaviors that can show up in any group or organization, and are harmful to people of color and White people. Those characteristics are perfectionism, sense of urgency, defensiveness, quantity over quality, worship of the written word, paternalism, either/or thinking, power hoarding, fear of open conflict, individualism, objectivity, right to comfort, and progress.

Terms to Avoid

Economy/Poverty

Avoid

Inner City
Low-Opportunity
Disadvantaged/Distressed

Use This Instead

Neighborhoods with high poverty rates
Under-resourced
Disinvested
Having to make ends meet on low wages
Neighborhoods with access to fewer opportunities
Low-income neighborhoods/communities

Vulnerable (except for homelessness)
Integration (as a solution to poverty)

People with incomes below the poverty line
People facing barriers/multiple barriers
Low-income
Low-wealth
Strengthening families
Economic mobility
Economic opportunity
Equity
Financial stability
Giving families the tools they need

Inner City
Low-Opportunity
Disadvantaged/Distressed

Neighborhoods with high poverty rates
Under-resourced
Disinvested
Having to make ends meet on low wages
Neighborhoods with access to fewer opportunities
Low-income neighborhoods/communities

Gender/Sex

Avoid This

Sexual Preference
Bathroom Bill
Gender Identity Disorder/Sex change
Non-straight/Not Straight

Hermaphrodite
Pre-operative/Post-operative
Sex Change Operation
Prostitute/Prositution
Transgendered
She-male
Shim Transsexual (unless that is how the person identifies)
Transvestite (unless that is how the person identifies)
Gender-bender

Use This Instead

Sexual orientation
Non-discrimination law/ordinance
Gender affirmation
Queer/LGBTQIA/genderqueer/genderless/genderfluid

Intersex

Reassignment surgery/gender confirmation surgery
Sex worker/sex work
Transgender people/person
Transition/transitioning/trans woman/trans man
Agender
Bigender
Non-binary/non-gender
They/them/their

Race/Indigeneity

Avoid This

Negro
Eskimo

Full-blood/Half-breed/Half-caste
Indian (unless it is a quote or referring to an already established name)
Indio
Mestizo
Multo
Pardo
Part-aboriginal
Part-Indian
Part-native

Use This Instead

People of the global majority
Inuit/Inuk (singular of Inuit)

Indigenous (for global references)
Original Peoples (for global references)
Aboriginal Peoples (specifically Australia)
First Nations (specifically Canada)
Native Americans (specifically Americas)

A friendly reminder: we’ve done our research, but you should, too! Check our sources against your own, and always exercise sound judgment.

Sources

A Progressive’s Style Guide

ABC’s of Social Justice A Glossary of Working Language for Socially Conscious Conversation

Colors of Resistance Archive: Cultural Appropriation

Disability Language Style Guide

Disinvestment from Communities

Eberhardt, Peter Eberhardt, Howard Wial, and Devon Yee Initiative for a Competitive Inner City, “The New Face of Under Resourced Communities”

Fiscal Policy Institute for Inclusive Language

“Glossary.” Racial Equity Tools

Guide for Avoiding Ableist Language

List of Ableist Language

Them “Kimberlé Crenshaw and Lady Phyll Talk Intersectionality, Solidarity, and Self-Care.”

Iyer, Deepa “My Role in a Social Change Ecosystem: A Mid-Year Check-In.”

Lundgren, Kristina Lundgren, and Fares Youcefi. “Social Incubators or Social Work?

National Conference for Community and Justice, St. Louis Region Dismantling Racism Institute

Somatic Movement Project

The Movement for Black Lives (M4BL), “Glossary.”

United Frontline Workers, “Working Definitions”

“What Is the PIC? What Is Abolition?” Critical Resistance

White Supremacy Culture in Organizations

“Rematriation” @IllumiNative

Alejandra García Lezama

MIIC Project Advisor

Ale is a social justice, mobilization, and fundraising professional with over ten years of experience in organizing, storytelling, marketing, and development strategy for nonprofits and international organizations, including Save the Children, United Way for Greater Austin, and LifeWorks. Ale joined MSC in August 2022 and has a Master’s in Nonprofit Leadership from the University of Pennsylvania and a JD from the University of Guanajuato. She lives in Austin, where she enjoys going out with her friends to try new restaurants and listen to live music while she plans her next adventure somewhere in the world.

Marcus Cunningham

Director of Institutional Giving

Marcus is an anti-racist fundraising professional with over ten years of experience in the social sector in Texas and with nationally-based organizations like New Leaders, Teaching Trust, and Reasoning Mind. He is also an organizer for the Community-Centric Fundraising movement, working to transform philanthropy and center the practice in race, equity, and justice. Marcus is a native of Dallas, TX, and has a Bachelor’s in management from the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. He currently lives in El Paso, TX, with his partner, two cats, and one dog. In his free time, he enjoys watching, playing, and arguing about basketball, and attending pro wrestling events.

Lauren Wheat

MIIC Process Manager

Lauren is a strategic problem solver with over ten years of experience at various nonprofit organizations, including ZACH Theatre, Austin Community Foundation, and Austin Ed Fund. Lauren has Bachelor’s degrees in Theatre and Public Administration from Texas State University. She lives in Austin and loves catching a movie at the Alamo Drafthouse, taking her dogs to neighborhood parks, and checking new places off of her travel bucket list.

Karmella Green

MIIC Project Advisor

Karmella has spent her professional career in Austin working with local nonprofits, community stakeholders, and artists to curate art shows, engage diverse audiences, and support the local cultural arts scene. Her expertise is in grant writing, multicultural programming, community outreach strategy, and actively cultivating partnerships that sustain our culture, our stories, and our future. She has over a decade of experience in direct client services and program administration; and her professional practice has exposed her to a wide range of responsibilities and individuals.

Aileen Umali-Hermoso

Co-Chief Financial Officer

Aileen is an experienced CPA with over 25 years of expertise in finance, audit, and accounting. She is also a certified government finance manager who is knowledgeable on single audit requirements, the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), time studies, and financial reporting. Aileen joined Noble Accounting, LLC. in June 2021. Previously, Aileen held positions at government, nonprofit, and entertainment organizations as chief financial officer, controller, and director of corporate accounting, handling budgets of up to $50 million annually. Having spent a good deal of time administering various finance, budget, and accounting projects, Aileen takes pride in providing financial leadership to various organizations.

Mohini Tadikonda

Chief Advancement Officer

Mo has over 25 years of combined strategic leadership experience in philanthropy, design, and the nonprofit sector, leading philanthropic strategies at PVH, at NGOs including Custom Collaborative and North American Passive House Network, and serves on the board of Her Future Coalition, an anti-human trafficking nonprofit. Her focus is on radical change in racial, health, and education equity and environmental, economic, and gender justice via workforce and leadership development, community driven planning, civic engagement, and art activism among women and BIPOC and immigrant communities. She joined MSC in January 2021 and oversees fundraising, regranting, fund development, and communications, while challenging oppressive systems in philanthropy. She is based in New York City and is an artist, art activist, and loves storytelling, animals, pebble beaches, and adventure travel.

Jacqueline Patterson

Board Member

Jacqueline Patterson is the founder and executive director of The Chisholm Legacy Project, a resource hub for Black frontline climate justice leadership. Previously, she was senior 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.

Rebekah West

Payroll Specialist

Rebekah started working in human resources and payroll over ten years ago, and has worked for both large corporations and small, mom and pop companies. She is originally from Texas, where she grew up in a conservative town and served as a praise and worship leader in her church; but she and her husband David moved to the Bay Area after he finished his service in the Air Force. Rebekah is the youngest of four siblings, and she is extremely close to all of them. Faith and family (she has a daughter) are priorities in her life; and music is her passion — she has performed in bands and choirs and sung in Spanish, French, Latin, and Chinese. She also loves to cook and is an avid runner, completing half marathons, 10Ks and 5Ks.

Yesenia Lopez Vazquez

Human Resources Generalist

Yesenia has been working as a human resources professional since 2018. She joined MSC in the spring of 2022, and it’s her first time working at a nonprofit. Yesenia graduated from California State University, East Bay with a BS in Business Administration and an emphasis in Human Resources; and she is currently working on her MBA there as well. For fun she enjoys spending time with family and friends; live sporting events — specifically the San Francisco 49ers; hikes with great views; and especially traveling to new places and trying new foods.

Jonathan Barona

Chief Fiscal Sponsorship Program Officer

Jonathan is a career nonprofit professional with over 15 years of experience. Prior to joining MSC, Jonathan was a donor relations officer with the Austin Community Foundation where he managed the foundation’s corporate, scholarship, fiscal sponsorship, and special project funds. In addition, Jonathan serves as a board member for Fruitful Commons, the Festival Beach Food Forest, and Austin Youth River Watch; and represents District 3 of Austin’s Zero Waste Advisory Commission. Jonathan has a BS in Business Administration from the University of Central Florida. He is committed to environmental justice, sustainability, and building a better tomorrow; and for fun Jonathan enjoys gardening, traveling, and going to Austin FC soccer games.

Sandra Bass

Board Member

For over 25 years, Sandra Bass has facilitated social change through public policy, community engagement, and education. She is the Associate Dean of Students and Director of the Public Service Center at University of California, Berkeley — where she is on the boards of the Student Affairs Civic Engagement Advisory and the Chancellor’s Community Partnership Fund. Previously, Sandra worked for University of Maryland, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, and Teach With Africa. Sandra has published numerous articles in academic journals and serves on the boards of Multiplying Good and the East Point Peace Academy, among others. Sandra holds a BA from San Jose State University, and an MA and PhD from UC Berkeley, all in Political Science. She is an avid traveler, voracious reader, and unapologetic tree hugger.

Jaime Love

Director of Programs

As the director of programs for Climate Innovation, Jaime provides leadership, strategy, and support to Climate Innovation programs that advance approaches to community-driven planning and movement building, while centering on racial equity and whole-systems solutions.

Jaime has over 20 years of experience in a variety of spaces including public health, philanthropy, and climate resilience, with a deep focus on racial justice and health equity. Her work in the public health sector cultivated opportunities for direct community organizing and advocacy work in communities with disproportionate health impacts and enhanced her leadership in philanthropy and the nonprofit sectors around racial equity and climate justice. Her expertise ranges from program development, leadership, equity, and policy advocacy, to communications and outreach. Jaime is a 2016 Professionals Learning About Community, Equity, and Smart Growth (PLACES) fellow, and has participated in multiple leadership programs including Rockwood Leadership Institute and Interaction Institute for Social Change.

Jaime is currently on the board of the Blue Ash YMCA, Co-op Cincy, and Green Umbrella locally. Nationally, she sits on the PLACES Advisory Committee and the Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems Funders (SAFSF) Policy Committee. She holds a master’s from the University of Cincinnati in Health Promotion and a bachelor’s from Central Michigan University. Love for family and community is what drives Jaime’s ongoing work for racial justice.

Venita Ray

Board Member

Venita is the co-executive director of the Positive Women’s Network-USA. She was instrumental in defeating a statewide effort allowing the subpoena of HIV test results in criminal cases, and spearheaded a 2016 effort to end HIV in Houston while drafting the Roadmap to Ending the HIV Epidemic. Venita is a policy advocate, speaker, and strategist for issues impacting those living with HIV. Born in Houston and raised in San Diego, she attended San Diego State University and American University’s Washington College of Law. She was diagnosed with HIV in 2003 while serving as an Assistant Attorney General in Washington, D.C. Venita is committed to equity, racial justice, and developing meaningful involvement among people living with HIV.

Victoria Martinez

Chief of Staff

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.

Noble Accounting

Financial and Accounting Services

Noble Accounting is a values-aligned firm providing six years of award-winning client services to local, state, and national nonprofit organizations. Founder and President, Kevin Matthews, FCCA CFE, has more than 15 years of experience as a nonprofit CFO. With expertise, advanced technologies, and a highly personalized approach, Nobel Accounting serves as a fractional CFO supporting MSC’s accounting functions. Noble Accounting is located in Torrance California. Learn more about Noble Accounting.

Lidia Alvarez

Communications Manager

Lidia is a fierce advocate for economic and racial equity, with over ten years of communications and operations experience in the private and nonprofit sectors including at Tommy Hilfiger, Custom Collaborative, and Ms. Foundation for Women. Lidia has led grassroots, multinational campaigns to abolish ICE, support immigrants, and uphold reproductive rights. Lidia joined MSC in September 2021 and is currently pursuing a Master’s in Risk, Resilience, and Integrity Management from Glasgow Caledonian New York College. She was born and raised in East Los Angeles and now lives in Brooklyn with her pup, Mija. She enjoys boxing, dancing, and reading.

Menchu Ituralde

Co-CFO, Noble Accounting, LLC

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

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 Jones Machado

Director of Operations

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.

Bianca Pilar Verbera

Movement Strategy Center’s Transitions Initiative Program Assistant

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.

Sarah Quiroga

Learning & Data Systems Manager

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.

Michelle Gabrieloff-Parish

Climate Innovation Program Manager

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.

Corrine Van Hook-Turner

Director of Climate Innovation

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 Atlas

People Operations Coordinator

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 Haber

Grants and Contract Senior Coordinator

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 Joseph

Compliance Manager

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 Renard

MIIC Project Advisor

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

Operations Manager, MIIC

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!

Ginger Mills

Administrative Operations Manager

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.

Sophie Hou

Innovation and Design Lead

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 Gargione

Communications Director

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.

Carla Dartis

Executive Director

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.

Anasa Troutman

Board Chair

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.

Judith LeBlanc

Board Member

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 Garduño

Board Member

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 Dinani

Board Member, Secretary

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 James

Board President, Co-Founder

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.