Meet Our Team
We don’t just talk about equity and inclusion, we practice it everyday. Meet our unique crew of changemakers who take on the hard work of building a fair and just future where our communities thrive.
Debra Gore-Mann
President & CEO
Alvaro S. Sanchez
Vice President of PolicyAlvaro S. Sanchez is an urban planner with extensive experience crafting, implementing, and evaluating strategies that leverage private and public investments to deliver community benefits to impacted communities. Alvaro leads our work on SB 535 (de León) which directs at least one quarter of California’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund to disadvantaged communities. He also leads our neighborhood-scale sustainability initiative, a comprehensive and scalable approach to greenhouse gas reduction that leverages private and public investment while improving underserved communities throughout California.
Prior to joining Greenlining, Alvaro led Green For All’s stormwater infrastructure strategy. As a member of the State and Local Initiatives team, he led the organization’s strategies for connecting impacted communities to economic opportunity related to national stormwater infrastructure investments. He wrote several reports detailing the untapped opportunity of using green infrastructure as a cost-effective stormwater management tool that creates job and business opportunities for underserved communities. Several leading water and stormwater utilities throughout the country have used the framework he presented to deliver triple-bottom-line benefits.
Alvaro has over nine years of experience working on economic development and land use issues throughout California and nationally. In 2011 he received a Master of Planning degree from the University of Southern California, where he focused on affordable housing and economic development. He is the President of the Board of Directors at Dolores Street Community Services, an immigration and community development organization in San Francisco. He also created the Triple Bottom Line Hub, a social media platform that celebrates projects that deliver triple-bottom-line benefits. Alvaro, who believes you can never be too wonky, lives in North Oakland, grew up in Los Angeles, and was born in Mexico City.
Tel.:510.926.4018
Jane Duong
Vice President of Development & CommunicationsJane Duong is the Development Director at The Greenlining Institute, where she leads a team responsible for engaging foundations, corporations, individuals and other supporters to raise resources for the organization and its mission. Jane brings 15 years of experience working with communities of color to advance economic opportunity. Previously, she worked at the National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development (CAPACD), a social justice organization improving the lives of low-income Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders across the country through a coalition of grassroots organizations. She played many roles, including Director of Programs and Advocacy, where she developed the first national network of AAPI-serving housing counseling agencies in the country. She also supported the growth of asset-building and financial capability programs in the AAPI community and contributed to groundbreaking research on how AAPI communities access financial services and products. Most recently, she served as the Director of Development and Strategic Partnerships, leading efforts to centralize fundraising efforts and grow the organization’s influence.
Jane’s perspective is grounded in her experience working in grassroots , community-based organizations at the frontlines of building community. She worked as the Housing Program Manager for the Mission Economic Development Agency (MEDA), supporting existing and aspiring homeowners in the Latino community. She also spent time working with the East River Development Agency (ERDA) in Long Island City, New York, and at the Chinatown Community Development Center in San Francisco, CA. She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, and received her Master of Public Administration from New York University’s Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service.
Jane is the daughter of immigrant parents from Vietnam and enjoys spending time in the outdoors with her husband and daughter.
Tel.:510.809.1819
Sandra Ruiz
Vice President of TalentSandra has a deep commitment to serving mission-driven organizations and joined The Greenlining Institute to help foster a workplace culture where values are reflected in how we stretch and support our staff and how we as leaders show up each day. As a recent addition to the Greenlining team, she hopes to bring about systems and tools that will help the organization become even more effective. She is a graduate of UC Berkeley and San Francisco State University, academically trained in the field of Industrial/Organizational Psychology, and was indelibly transformed by her experiences working for social justice organizations La Clinica de La Raza, Center for Elders Independence, Juma Ventures, and Proyecto Contra SIDA Por Vida. As a queer Mexican immigrant raised in a working-class community in South Central L.A., she feels a great sense of responsibility to lend her expertise and lived experiences to uplift her community and can think of no better way to do so that by supporting this amazing organization.
Tel.:510.926.4029
Carmelita Miller
Senior Director, Climate EquityCarmelita Miller was born in the Philippines and grew up in South San Francisco, California. She graduated from Sacramento State University where she became a Ronald E. McNair Scholar and earned a B.A. in History with a minor in Greek studies. After a graduating from UC Hastings College of the Law, she became a Greenlining Legal Fellow in 2013-14, focusing on telecommunications policy.
While at UC Hastings, she served as the President of the Pilipino American Law Society and Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Hastings Race and Poverty Law Journal. Inspired by her personal experiences living in low-income, immigrant, and working class communities, she dedicated her free time in law school to providing legal assistance to the low-income population by interning and volunteering at various pro bono organizations such as Legal Aid Society of San Mateo County, UC Hastings Civil Justice Clinic, Legal Aid of San Francisco’s Workers Rights Clinic, the Veterans Equity Center, and the Filipino Community Center.
When she is not studying or fighting for justice, Carmelita enjoys lounging, hiking, and playing with her two black labrador retrievers named Maximus and Athena.
Tel.:510.926.4017
Molly Tafoya
Director of CommunicationsMolly Tafoya is the Director of Communications at The Greenlining Institute, where she leads the communications team responsible for the organization’s strategic communications as well as earned and digital media strategies. Molly brings 13 years of experience executing comprehensive public education campaigns, including policymaker and legislator engagement strategies to advance equity and justice for all. Her most recent roles have included Director of Nonprofit Partnerships with Open to All, where she directed a coalition of more than 200 intersection national and state advocacy organizations in advance of the vision that when a business opens its doors to the public, it should be open to all. She also served as the Director of Community Engagement with the Movement Advancement Project (MAP) maximizing the organization’s work advancing equality for LGBTQ people focusing on state-level engagement, coalition building, and advocacy. She has also served as Senior Field Representative with Asm. Rob Bonta, Director of Public Affairs with Early Edge California, and Director of Communications with One Iowa.
From her work advancing LGBTQ equality, to lobbying for increased investments in early childhood education, Molly’s lifelong work for social justice and equity is grounded in her deep commitment to intersectional community engagement and a strong love of strategic communications. She is the Board Chair for the City of Oakland Head Start program, a Head Coach with the Oakland Girls Softball League, and a volunteer with Brown Girl Surf. Raised in Hawai’`i, she misses it every day as she now lives in Oakland with her 2-year-old and spouse. She holds a BA from Georgetown University.
Bruce Mirken
Associate Director, Media RelationsBruce Mirken brings two decades of journalism and communications experience as well as a long history of activism to his position as Media Relations Director. An award-winning writer who serves as Greenlining’s resident editor and all-purpose wordsmith, Bruce’s work has appeared in wide range of publications, including the San Francisco Chronicle, Men’s Health, and The Advocate. From 2001 through 2009, he served as Director of Communications for the Marijuana Policy Project. In that capacity, he appeared frequently on radio and television, including ABC World News, Anderson Cooper 360, and The Rachel Maddow Show, and was quoted in newspapers and magazines worldwide. His activist career began in the LGBT community (starting just out of college with the campaign against Proposition 6, which would have fired gay or lesbian schoolteachers in California) and quickly branched out to a wide array of social justice issues.
In his spare time, Bruce enjoys hiking, cooking and gardening – hoping that the San Francisco fog will burn off enough to permit a decent tomato crop each summer. He claims to make the world’s best spaghetti sauce, though our Research department considers this claim unverified.
Tel.:510.926.4022
Emi Wang
Associate Director, Capacity BuildingEmi holds a deep commitment to supporting communities of color to access the resources and skills needed to achieve self-determination. Our neighborhoods have been shaped by racist and exclusionary public policies, and we must double down on community ownership over the solutions. At Greenlining, Emi leads our capacity-building and locally-based work, helping to build the capacity of under-resourced communities to gain equitable opportunity to achieve our own transformations. Prior to joining Greenlining, Emi supported grassroots community improvement initiatives in communities of color and low-income neighborhoods across New York City.
Born and raised in Brooklyn, Emi has mad love for the 718. She is happiest in sunshine, cities, mountains and the ocean. Emi graduated from Vassar College in 2011 with a B.A. in History, focusing on modern American social and political history, and a minor in Japanese.
Tel.:510.926.4025
Mariah Gonzalez
Associate Director, Events & Donor EngagementMariah coordinates Greenlining’s Annual Economic Summit, Academy Graduation and various events throughout the year. Prior to joining the Greenlining team, she helped to start-up Insight Garden Program, a nonprofit that builds gardens and offers job training in prisons across California. After receiving a degree in Food Systems, Ethnic Studies and Political Economy from UC Berkeley, her love of traditional foods and non-profit life led her to La Cocina, a food business incubator in San Francisco. It was there that she fell in love with the adrenaline rollercoaster that is event management — helping pull off the San Francisco Street Food Festival, an event that attracts 60,000 attendees to highlight La Cocina’s women-of-color-owned businesses. Mariah is committed to work that helps provide good jobs, meaningful work and economic opportunity to low-income communities.
Tel.:805-714-2343
Rosa María Martinez
Operations DirectorRosa María Martinez is The Greenlining Institute’s Operations Director, overseeing the management of our office and building. Previously, she worked with the Health Equity Team managing Greenlining’s Diversity in the Health Workforce initiative, looking at current representation of people of color at all levels within the health field. She also worked on ensuring that information about the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was reaching limited-English communities throughout California, conducting presentations across the state. Rosa María co-authored an issue brief designed to help ethnic small businesses understand key elements of the ACA affecting them.
Rosa María served on the Advisory Council to the San Francisco Mexican Consulate (2012-2014) and was the secretary for the Council’s Committee on Health and Sports. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in Spanish Language and Literature with a minor in Business Administration from the University of California, Berkeley.
Originally from Zacatecas, México, Rosa grew up the Bay Area where she currently lives with her husband and daughter. In her spare time she loves to go horseback riding.
Tel.:510.926.4015
Sona Mohnot
Associate Director, Climate ResilienceSona comes to us from New Orleans, and recently moved to the Bay Area to work on environmental equity issues. She became interested in environmental equity after witnessing the disproportionate environmental burdens that communities of color face in New Orleans, especially after Hurricane Katrina and the B.P. oil spill. Sona interned at several environmental nonprofits throughout law school and realized that she wanted to pursue a career in public interest environmental law. As Environmental Equity Manager, she looks forward to advocating for environmental equity and learning how to effectively empower communities of color.
Tel.: 510.926.4004
Rawan Elhalaby
Senior Program Manager, Economic EquityRawan Elhalaby is the Senior Economic Equity Program Manager at the Greenlining Institute where she oversees bank accountability efforts using the Community Reinvestment Act. As the daughter of working class refugees, Rawan is all too familiar with the obstacles to achieving self-sufficiency in the United States for low-income and immigrant families. As such, she has spent her career addressing these obstacles at Greenlining and one-on-one with recently arrived refugees from Iraq, Somalia, Syria, and Afghanistan (among others) to San Diego at the International Rescue Committee. She has also worked as a policy consultant to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the County of San Diego, the Western Regional Advocacy Project, and the Dellums Institute for Social Justice. Rawan holds a degree in Political Science from San Diego State University and a Master of Public Policy from UC Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy.
Tel.: 510.926.4012
Mercedes Gibson
Senior Program Manager, Small Business StrategyMercedes Gibson is an Economic Equity Strategist at the Greenlining Institute, where she partners with the Business Team inside City of Oakland’s Economic & Workforce Development Department to better support small businesses of color, as outlined in Oakland’s 2018 -2020 Economic Development Strategy.
As an East Oakland native, Mercedes is familiar with barriers to wealth for black and brown families living in parts of Oakland that have been historically underdeveloped, ignored and redlined. Since 14, she has advocated for the needs of communities often not invited to sit at the table: poor folks, people of color, queer people and women. She has also worked at various nonprofits that serve these communities: Hack the Hood, LYRIC and Young Women United For Oakland. As a San Francisco State University alum and a certified life coach in positive psychology her passions are communication, strategy and performing on stage. In her downtime she tries to be in a lake or river as much as possible, stargaze around a fire, and read graphic novels.
Tel.:510.238.7090
Ashley Myrriah
Senior Digital Strategy ManagerAshley Myrriah works to build up The Greenlining Institute’s robust digital communications and social media operation. Ashley got her start in advocacy fundraising on behalf of the Democratic National Committee while at Grassroots Campaigns during the 2008 general election and continued grow her campaign skill sets at GMMB. Prior to joining the Greenlining team in December 2018, Ashley worked in public affairs and strategic communications at several major political organizations in Washington state and D.C.
Ashley Myrriah earned a Master of Communication in Digital Media from the University of Washington and a B.A. in Government & Politics from The University of Maryland, College Park.
Tel.:510.926.4026
Chagan Sanathu
Senior Program Manager, Casa JoaquinChagan Sanathu has a long history of engagement with the youth leadership programs — first as a 2010 Young People For (YP4) Fellow and later as a Center for Progressive Leadership Fellow. For 3 years, Chagan worked at the Young People For offices in Washington, DC, where she worked with the 12-person alumni board to help support the YP4 program. Chagan graduated in 2012 from Goshen College with a degree in business and public relations. During her time as an undergraduate, Chagan interned at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities where she researched the effects of child tax credit and earned income tax credit of low-income communities, with an emphasis on women who survived domestic violence.
Chagan is a former board member for the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum-DC Chapter, focusing on fundraising to support the chapter’s work on immigration reform, reproductive justice, and other issues impacting the API community.
Since her relocation to the Bay area, Chagan likes to explore the nearby region, cook, ride her electric blue bike and organizing with the local Desi (South Asian) community.
Tel.:510.540.1984
Hana Creger
Senior Program Manager, Climate EquityAs Environmental Equity Program Manager, Hana contributes to the development and implementation of policies leading to clean transportation and mobility investments in California that result in positive health, environmental, and economic outcomes. Her work is focused on the intersection of transportation, climate change, and economic opportunities for low-income communities of color. Prior to Greenlining, Hana implemented innovative campaigns for Alameda County’s Clean Commute Program, to promote long-term sustainable behavior changes. Hana has also worked as a community organizer, advocating for climate change action and public transit policies in San Diego.
Hana was born and raised in Berkeley, California. She graduated magna cum laude from San Diego State University with a degree in Sustainability, with a particular interest in environmental justice and equity. Outside of work, Hana enjoys spending time with family and friends, hiking, cooking, and traveling. Her greatest fear is being stuck inside on a sunny day.
Tel.:510.809.1810
Irma Hurtado
Senior Coordinator, FinanceAs the Operations Coordinator at The Greenlining Institute, Irma is responsible for overseeing the organization’s accounts payable and accounts receivable as well as offering support to the Development team on grant and data processing. Previously, Irma worked at Briones International, LLC as a bookkeeper, where she provided bookkeeping services to various nonprofit organizations in the Bay Area.
While volunteering at Mujeres Unidas y Activas, Irma became passionate for human rights and social justice as well as the work of the nonprofit sector. This is what drew Irma to The Greenlining Institute.
Irma holds a B.A in Political Science from Cal State East Bay. She grew up in the Bay Area, where she currently lives with her husband. During her free time Irma enjoys dancing, hiking and spending time with her family.
Tel.:510.926.4014
Isa Gillard
Transformative Communities Program ManagerIsa Gaillard is an urban planner and environmental justice advocate who is passionate about creating a future in which all communities have access to clean, healthy, and affordable transportation options. As a Program Manager at the Greenlining Institute, he helps facilitate and lead the Towards Equitable Electric Mobility (TEEM) Community of Practice. He also works to grow Greenlining’s capacity-building efforts so that the organization can scale its racial and environmental equity approaches. Isa holds a Master’s degree in City Planning from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Bachelors in Public Policy from the University of Michigan.
In his off time, Isa enjoys playing basketball, soccer, and learning Spanish
Kelsey Lyles
Senior Program Manager, Transformative Racial EquityTel.:510.926.4024
Leslie Aguayo
Program Manager, Transportation EquityLeslie Aguayo is an urban planner and advocate with experience in poverty alleviation, asset building, affordable housing, equitable transportation and community outreach strategies using both quantitative, qualitative and ethnographic methodology in an effort to increase upward mobility in urban, suburban and rural spaces. As Environmental Equity Program Manager Leslie works to further equitable electric vehicle policy and investments. She leads Greenlining’s transportation equity work, advocating to increase racial equity in transportation planning and investments, implementing the Charge Ahead California Initiative–a law that works to make electric vehicles accessible to low- and moderate-income Californians — and advocating for equitable EV charging infrastructure investments at the California Public Utilities Commission, the California Energy Commission, and within the Volkswagen Diesel Settlement.
Prior to joining Greenlining, Leslie attended graduate school where she studied affordable housing development, researched environmental racism impacts in Bayview Hunters Point, conducted a transit oriented development assessment of the Fruitvale BART station, and reimagined the Oakland Coliseum Neighborhood using urban design solutions for sea level rise. She has also worked for the Center for Responsible Lending, advocating for predatory lending protections in communities of color, and at TransForm assisting on the LyftUp East Oakland project to improve equitable access to new mobility transportation in East Oakland.
Leslie was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a Master of City Planning and holds two Bachelor of Arts degrees in Anthropology and Urban Studies from the University of California, Irvine.
In her free time Leslie loves to dance, play tennis, practice her Portuguese, enjoy a good cup of tea, and collect handicrafts. She is always on the lookout for anything floral print.
Tel.:510.926.4006
Ana Oseguera
Operations ManagerAs Operations Manager at The Greenlining Institute, Ana assists the Operations Director with overseeing the management of the office and building. Previously, she worked at Mayer’s Laboratories, Inc. and Briones International, LLC as an Administrative Assistant and Bookkeeper.
Since 2010, Ana has volunteered at SEIU Local 1877, advocating for human rights. Ana supports the union by translating, participating in protests and helping write letters of support for workers. Additionally, Ana has volunteered with various organizations that support foreign students learning English and achieve a higher education.
Ana will be earning her Human Development/Early Childhood Development degree from Cal State East Bay oi Spring 2016. After graduating, her biggest goal is to give back to her community by working/volunteering for non-profit organizations. Ana is excited to continue growing and expanding her professional knowledge at Greenlining.
Ana was born in Michoacán, Mexico but raised in the Bay Area and currently lives in Oakland with her family. In her free time, Ana loves to go shopping, dancing, watch movies and spend quality time with her family.
Tel.:510-809-1821
De’Zhon Grace
Coordinator, Economic EquityDe’Zhon Grace, 2019 Economic Equity Fellow, comes from Oakland, California. He graduated from the University of California, Berkeley as a first-generation college student, with a major in Sociology & minor in African American Studies.
Growing up in a single-parent household, he witnessed the persistent challenges Black mothers face when raising a family in today’s America.This experience developed in him a passion for love in all forms (mentally, physically, spiritually), problem-solving, and a desire to strengthen the Black household. He believes that Black and Brown communities have a shared struggle that encompasses both economics and spirituality. Furthermore, he perceives this struggle to have persistently been the greatest obstacle in mastering self-sufficiency, prosperity, and love of self. De’Zhon has dedicated his life to searching for a solution to this struggle, which would allow for a collective shift of focus away from basic survival towards a household that thrives.
In the future, De’Zhon intends to pursue a dual J.D. and M.A. in Public Policy in his quest to establish large-scale solutions to provide economically sustainable practices, services, and policies that ensure the mental and physical well-being for historically marginalized and oppressed communities. At Greenlining, he will primarily focus on working with financial institutions to provide communities of color with access to capital, avenues to homeownership, and promoting both leadership and supplier diversity. De’Zhon will also conduct research pertaining to the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) and supplier diversity. Finally, he will identify and engage POC-led organizations to assess community needs and build a stronger base for Economic Equity advocacy.
He loves to meditate, read, have thought provoking conversations, and enjoy life with his loved ones.
Tel.:510.809.1808
Vinhcent Le
Legal Counsel, Technology EquityVinhcent Le is a Technology Equity attorney at the Greenlining Institute, where he develops Greenlining’s strategy to protect consumer privacy, prevent algorithmic bias in economic opportunity and to close the digital divide. As an attorney practicing before the California Public Utilities Commission, Vinhcent helped secure multi-million dollar commitments to increase broadband access in California, modernization of the Lifeline program and the development of a program providing laptops to low-income students across the state.
Vinhcent received his J.D. from the University of California, Irvine School of Law and a B.A. in Political Science from the University of California, San Diego. Prior to Greenlining, Vinhcent advocated for clients as a law clerk at the Public Defenders Office, the Office of Medicare Hearing and Appeals and the Small Business Administration.
Tel.:510.809.1813
Román Partida-López
Legal Counsel, Transportation EquityAs Legal Counsel with the Environmental Equity team, Román works to ensure that lower-income communities of color have a seat at the table in order to drive climate investments to help improve air quality and economic opportunities within their communities. He believes that communities and their members must be prioritized, engaged and heard. Román grew up near San Diego in National City, two blocks away from the freeway and across the street from a car body shop that regularly violated city codes by sanding, chroming and painting vehicles out in the open. His exposure to these toxic chemicals and pollution inspired him to work on addressing environmental concerns in his community.
Román was the Environmental Equity Legal Fellow from 2013-2014 where he worked on SB 535 implementation and the development of the Charge Ahead Initiative, creating pilot programs to increase access to cleaner vehicles. More recently he was Senior Equity Specialist at the Center for Sustainable Energy, where he worked with CSE’s reneweables and transportation teams.
Román received his B.A. from the University of San Diego and J.D. from Thomas Jefferson School of Law. In his down time, he loves to spend time with his partner and two kids, coaches their sports teams and tries to live out his long lost dream of making it to the Major leagues by playing on an Adult Baseball League team with his three brothers.
Tel.:619.279.4766
Sonrisa Cooper
Program Manager, Transformative CommunitiesSonrisa Cooper is a city planner and affordable housing advocate who leads Greenlining’s community development strategy and housing policy. She is passionate about equitable policies and strategies that protect low-income communities of color from displacement. Sonrisa got her start in housing as an intern at the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Development Corporation in Boston, where she worked on affordable real estate development and organized tenants around energy issues. She also has experience as a program evaluation consultant for utility energy efficiency programs. Sonrisa is a recent graduate of Greenlining’s Leadership Academy, and holds a master’s in City Planning from UC Berkeley and a B.A. in Environmental Studies from Wellesley College.
Sonrisa is a Jeopardy! champion and trivia enthusiast with a tendency to sprinkle useless facts into every conversation. In her free time, she enjoys experimenting with sourdough bread, spending time outdoors, and rooting for the Portland Trail Blazers.
Tel.:510.926.4005
Serena Oduro
Technology Equity FellowSerena Oduro is a recent graduate from Seattle University and Greenlining’s 2020-2021 Technology Equity Fellow. Serena graduated from Seattle University with a BA in History with minors in Business Administration, Chinese Language, Global African Studies, and Philosophy.
Serena aims to find ways to ensure that technology policy centers the needs of historically marginalized groups. Her experience in genocide studies and technology ethics have ignited her passion for responsible technology creation, implementation, and use. In addition, she aims to help usher a culture in technology that allows for Black creators and creators from other historically marginalized groups to ideate, create, and implement technology outside of the white western gaze.
While at GLI, Serena has provided key support for GLI’s role as sponsor for AB13, The Automated Decision Systems Accountability Act of 2021. Serena is also the author of the forthcoming report about regulating AI used in the public sector, “Good AI and Good Governance: 7 Policy Recommendations to Thwart Algorithmic Oppression”. Through her public speaking, publications, and regulatory work Serena creates frameworks for AI development and regulation that promotes racial justice.
Serena also enjoys writing poetry, dancing, and long FaceTime calls.
Vic Vong
Environmental Equity FellowVic Vong is Greenlining’s 2020-2021 Environmental Equity Fellow, centering communities on the frontlines of climate change through proactive and targeted investments in social and built infrastructure.
Vic is a sociologist and policy analyst hailing from Occupied Duwamish Land, also called Seattle. Using their expertise on holistic community engagement, Vic is currently advising the City of Santa Cruz on integrating equity into their 2030 Climate Action Plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Additionally, Vic is working with the Just Recovery Network to advocate for investments, programs and policies that are targeted to low-income communities of color to support building their resilience to a changing climate.
Vic brings expertise in advancing environmental equity through grassroots organizing, community-based organizations, and federal agencies. During the COVID-19 crisis, Vic experienced and witnessed how public health crises multiplied existing racial and social disparities. As a youth organizer at API Chaya with disabled, queer/trans people of color who were surviving both systemic and interpersonal violence, Vic saw projects that tackled racism, ableism, and patriarchy at the same time. As a result of these experiences, they are committed to solutions that center the most marginalized, and benefit all.
Vic’s other interests include making environmental justice memes, seeing how plants and animals (including humans) change over time, and smelling flowers.
Sooji Yang
Energy Equity FellowSooji Yang is Greenlining’s 2020-2021 Energy Equity Fellow. Hailing from LA, she’s grown up around wildfires, smoky school days, and evacuation processes that neglected her non-English speaking community.
At UC Berkeley, Sooji pursued Society & Environment as a major with a minor in Geography to understand the disproportionate impact of climate change and policies she witnessed against communities of color. To supplement her studies, she sought to embed service in all of her campus involvements, such as serving as Philanthropy Chair of Delta Phi Epsilon, writing on Korean identity for Berkeley Opinion, and facilitating a student-run course on leadership and justice.
Sooji found alignment in pursuing climate equity work from her outrage at climate injustices and commitment to service. Prior to joining Greenlining, Sooji served as a Sustainability & Equity fellow at the City of Oakland to help develop Oakland’s 10-year Equitable Climate Action Plan to achieve its GHG emissions reduction goals by addressing the needs and priorities of Oakland’s frontline communities. This experience reaffirmed her mission to center equity and community in climate work.
Through Greenlining’s Leadership Academy, Sooji is working with local governments like Oakland to move Californian cities toward a clean energy future through building electrification. In this work, she advocates for the health and economic wellbeing of communities most impacted by climate injustices, and is led by their radical imaginations of a clean energy future created by and for communities of color.
Sooji also finds pleasure in watching standup comedy and daydreaming through playlists
Brianna Wells
Health Equity FellowBrianna Wells, born and raised in Michigan, is Greenlining’s 2020-2021 Health Equity Fellow.
Brianna’s commitment to dismantling structural oppression and promoting healing justice has shaped her academic and professional pursuits. Brianna earned a bachelor’s degree in Public Policy at the University of Michigan with a concentration in Social Welfare & Health Equity and a minor in Gender & Health. Passionate about women’s health and racial justice, Brianna served as the president of Students for Reproductive Rights & Justice while on campus. She also co-led a group of Black high school girls that focused on facilitating gender consciousness and empowerment.
Recently, Brianna’s interest in confronting mass criminalization and confinement in the U.S. led her to The Carceral State Project at the University of Michigan, where she worked collaboratively to investigate and document the history of policing in Detroit. Brianna aims to aid in the work of reimagining a future without state violence and where widespread well-being is realized. She plans to eventually pursue graduate studies that allow her to explore the intersections of health outcomes and structural violence, as well as honor traditions of community resilience.
At Greenlining, Brianna supports the health team’s work to improve a wide range of social determinants of health for communities of color. She authored a report, “Solving the Medical Debt Crisis,” that details the burden of medical debt on communities of color and offers policy recommendations for medical debt alleviation. She also helps develop the team’s campaign around the public health case for reparations.
Outside of work, Brianna loves being in nature, music festivals, making art, and spending time with loved ones.
Muhammad T. Alameldin
Economic Equity FellowMuhammad T. Alameldin grew up in Stockton, California. Witnessing ground-zero of the 2008 foreclosure crisis, Muhammad watched families around him lose their homes due to high-cost loans that primarily targeted people of color. Now, those same people are priced out by the housing crisis or are impacted by high rents & unfair banking practices. This experience led Muhammad to become Greenlining’s 2020-2021 Economic Equity Fellow. He believes that communities of color need to be unshackled by systems of oppression and given the tools they rightfully deserve to achieve economic empowerment.
Muhammad got his start as a paid policy research intern for Mayor Tubbs’ office — where he witnessed Stockton’s revolutionary Guaranteed Income pilot provide economic security for families in his hometown. Then, Muhammad moved to Washington D.C. to assist a newly founded organization, Pay Our Interns. During his time there, he successfully collaborated with Congress to establish a $17+ million annual paid internship fund on Capitol Hill. Before joining Greenlining, Muhammad was the Digital Strategist for California YIMBY, where he increased volunteer engagement so California could establish a statewide rental cap & no-hassle accessory dwelling unit construction.
At Greenlining, he’s authoring a report to bring over $100 billion dollars worth of investments from the private sector to low-to-middle income communities and is leading a five-organization coalition behind Assembly Bill 946, which will end tax breaks for vacation homes in California to create nearly 100,000 new BIPOC homeowners by 2033.
Muhammad worked full-time while attending Sacramento City College & later the University of California, Berkeley. He graduated in 2019 with a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science. He likes to explore to his heart’s content, read about racial justice, and spend quality time with friends.
Amanda Pantoja
Summer Associate, Climate EquityAmanda Pantoja is a 2021 Greenlining Summer Associate supporting the Climate Equity Team. She is passionate about grassroots organizing and helping communities obtain healthy air, safe water, and clean soil. Born in Huntington Park, Amanda started her activism when she became a youth member of Communities for a Better Environment, fighting for environmental justice in Southeast LA. This experience taught her two things: 1. That communities of color are the most impacted by racist environmental planning and policies 2. Empowered, organized communities have the power to create the healthy, livable environments they deserve.
Amanda graduated in 2019 with Bachelors in Environmental Studies with an emphasis in Chican@ Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she also coordinated a student campaign with Food & Water Watch against fossil fuels in the Santa Barbara county. She organized with Food & Water Watch for 4 years and had to opportunity to fight for climate justice and build with local leaders from the Central Coast to Los Angeles. She is now looking forward to moving to Northern California and learning new tools to develop her advocacy with the Greenlining Institute.
For fun, Amanda enjoys dancing, going on hikes, eating good food with friends, and watching anime shows.
Betelhem Muno
Summer Associate, Health EquityBetelhem Muno is the 2021 Health Equity Summer Associate who will be supporting the team’s advocacy, capacity building, and community engagement work. While she was adopted and raised in Seattle, WA, she was born in Gondar, Ethiopia. It was during this first part of her life where she first experienced the impact of health inequities. This experience made her determined to do healthcare work to support her community. This commitment has sustained while being transformed by her education, communities, and engagement to reflect her values and identity.
She attends Haverford College where she will receive her Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in Environmental Studies and Health Studies. Her conception of health evolved when she started viewing it through an environmental health lens. Her understanding of health and how it is embodied and experienced by Black, brown, and Indigenous communities within all the structures and systems, including healthcare systems, has been expanded through lived experience, community involvement and academic work. Betelhem hopes to support and create intentional health policies that remove structural barriers and improve health outcomes for under-resourced communities.
For Betelhem, supporting the Health Equity team for the summer is a crucial step in the path towards a career in health policy. She looks forward to developing her skills in communicating, building, and implementing racially equitable policies in collaboration with community members and legislators. For fun, she likes to walk, hike, braid hair, and enjoys spending time with family and friends.
Otelo Reggy-Beane
Summer Associate, Economic EquityOtelo Reggy-Beane is Greenlining’s 2021 Economic Equity Summer Associate. He recently graduated from New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) with a B.A. in Social Research and Public Policy, and a minor in Urbanization. Growing up in Portland, Oregon, and Salt Lake City, Utah, Otelo witnessed how displacement, state-sponsored gentrification, evictions and foreclosures destabilize already vulnerable communities of color. This lived experience informs his commitment to addressing affordable housing and community development as racial justice issues.
Otelo was introduced to policymaking during an internship with the mayor of Portland, where he worked on an ordinance to convert vacant properties into affordable housing. He has since recommended manufactured housing legislation to Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici (OR-01) and defended low-income tenants from landlord malpractice with the Governor of New York’s Tenant Protection Unit. He recently completed a fellowship with the Utah Housing Coalition that culminated in his first publication on preserving affordable senior housing. At NYUAD, Otelo advocated for equity, inclusion and belonging as the president of Africa Global, a student group representing people of African descent, and the Global Affairs Committee Chair on Student Council. A 2022 Schwarzman Scholar, Otelo will begin a one-year Master of Global Affairs at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China, this August.
When he’s not working, Otelo enjoys cooking soul food (mac and cheese is his specialty), discussing Pan-Africanism and lifting heavy things.
Tali Juliano
Summer Associate, Technology EquityTali Juliano is a recent graduate at Colorado College where she majored in Race, Ethnicity, and Migration Studies, with an emphasis in studying the U.S. carceral system. This study culminated in a thesis project, which explored the anti-Black nature of the Colorado death penalty. She will be attending Duke Law School next fall in order to pursue a career where she can advocate for change in our punitive justice system. Tali served as an intern for the Immigration Campaigns Office at the ACLU of Colorado over two semester terms and spearheaded the Know Your Rights campaign for which she wrote training programs and materials to advise undocumented people of their rights when dealing with I.C.E.
Moving forward, Tali is excited to join the Technology Equity Team at The Greenlining Institute to learn about how the equity and policy issues she studied and worked on can be embedded through technology and algorithmic justice. Eventually, she hopes to merge her interests of criminal justice reform and technology equity into a legal practice that effectively tackles the entanglements of harmful systems through individual practice and policy work. In her free time, Tali enjoys exploring new coffee shops, trying out new recipes, and unwinding by rewatching her favorite sitcoms.
Mariah de Leon
Summer Associate, Economic EquityMariah de Leon was born in Orange, California, and was raised in its surrounding communities. She comes from a background of blended cultures as her mother is Black and her father is Mexican. These cultures and community struggles strongly influence her worldview and push her to do what she can to uplift marginalized communities.
Mariah is a rising fourth year at the University of California, Berkeley double majoring in sociology and psychology, and minoring in human rights. She chose to focus on these subjects due to a natural curiosity about how people work internally (the psychological perspective) and how their actions and interpersonal relationships influence institutions on a macro level (the sociological perspective). Additionally, sociology further exposed Mariah to the interconnected structures of oppression and inspired her to pursue a minor in human rights. Throughout her studies, she became more cognizant of the injustices of the world and feels that she has been equipped with the knowledge to help bring about solutions. Both her personal and academic experiences have inspired her to pursue a career in law, specifically civil rights law. She believes that there are not enough people in positions of power that advocate for the voiceless and she would like to use a career in law as the foundation for her advocacy. She hopes to use her law degree to work at a social justice organization and empower traditionally oppressed groups to be people with agency over their own lives who can thrive in spite of the systems of oppression that we know today.
In her spare time, she spends time with friends, usually playing board games or trying new foods. She also really enjoys going to baseball games (Go Angels!) and concerts when possible. In her downtime, she is perfectly content to read a good book or bake cookies. Additionally, she loves to travel and immerse herself in new cities and countries.
Ingrid Morales
Summer Associate, Energy EquityIngrid Morales is thrilled to bring her passions for energy-equity and -justice as Greenlining’s 2021 Energy Equity Summer Associate. Born in the San Fernando Valley of California, Ingrid grew up in the environmental justice neighborhoods of Sun Valley and Pacoima. She remembers how vital green spaces were to her and her community, especially on extremely hot summer days when A/Cs would run up electric bills. Ingrid worked in the food service industry for a few years after high school before deciding to move to the Bay Area to go back to school. She attended Laney College in Oakland while working full-time to make sure she had enough to pay the rent. Though times were not always easy, Ingrid committed her energy to teaching science and literacy at an elementary school a few blocks away from where she lived in East Oakland.
During her years at Laney College, she joined the Social Justice Cohort where she participated in helping the team organize rallies and events like a Citizenship Fair & Legal Counseling Summit, the Poor People’s Campaign series at Laney College, and various speaker panels. In 2019, Ingrid was accepted into UC Berkeley as an undergrad math major, but quickly changed her major to the interdisciplinary Conservation & Resource Studies where she studied Renewable Energy Systems and Sustainable Economics. Ingrid is committed to being an Environmental J.E.D.I. (Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion) advocate, and to ensure that her work is motivated by her experience living in EJ communities while also collaborating and supporting fellow community members. She is also passionate about mental health wellbeing in communities of color, her senior dog, Iris, and finding really great pupuserias in the Bay Area.
Victor Flores
Summer Associate, Climate EquityVictor was born and raised in Oakland where he was arrested at the age of 17, resulting in an 8 year prison sentence. While in prison, he took multiple leadership roles including High Desert’s Men’s Advisory Council as an official liaison between the prisoners and corrections officers. After completing his GED, he worked as a tutor within one of his housing units and enrolled in community college courses.
Since his release, he’s completed a legal internship at Catholic Charities of the East Bay, where he took statements and wrote declarations from youth who came to the US as unaccompanied minors, many of whom were children fleeing from violence in their home countries. Victor connected with these youth who have experienced trauma from violence during their developing years, as he did growing up in East Oakland.
Over the last two years, Victor has worked for two council members and worked on multiple local campaigns. In addition to his work in public service, Victor has also served on various boards such as the Alameda County Community Corrections Partnership Community Advisory Board, Fruitvale Latino Task Force, Oakland Latino Chamber of Commerce, Latino Young Democrats of the East Bay, and East Bay Young Democrats.
A proud Laney graduate, he is currently a UC Berkeley student working on obtaining his Bachelor’s degree in Chicana/Chicano Studies.