I am an experienced communications and marketing professional, with a BBA and a Master of Sustainable Urban Management. Following a personal challenge of #100DaysOfClimateAction, I've transitioned my career to influence sustainable business, urban policy, economic system change, and behaviour change. Working to become bilingual (English / French).
Cate Fox
Cate Fox (she/her/hers) is Director, AmbitioUS. AmbitioUS is CCI’s national pooled fund program that invests in alternative economic paradigms of and federated infrastructure by those most dispossessed—primarily African American and Native American communities—who are seeking financial self-determination in order to preserve and support their cultural identity and artistic expressions on their own terms. Prior to joining CCI, she spent nine years at the John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation leading and co-leading arts and institutional grantmaking; participating in and advising interdisciplinary initiatives that center artists and creatives as change-makers (such as Envisioning Justice); and supporting the Foundation’s racial equity and racial justice work. Additionally she brings more than a decade of experience in nonprofit consulting, strategic planning, and fundraising. She has served as an advisory board member of the Center for Cultural Policy (University of Chicago), Arts for Illinois Relief Fund, and the Urban Manufacturing Alliance. Cate is a creative writer, trained mediator, mother of three, and nonprofit nerd.
Cate has an M.A. in peace and development studies from the University of Limerick (Limerick, Ireland) and a B.A. in interdisciplinary studies from Hollins University (Roanoke, VA).
Torie White
Torie is a somatic practitioner, mental health coach, and community organizer with experience moving people with wealth and class privilege to redistribute their excess resources to movements led by folks on the frontlines of systemic oppression. Building off of years of study and practice around anti-racism and uprooting white supremacy, Torie is an aspiring anti-racism facilitator, working to assist white people to transform their embodiment of white supremacy and step into collective action in solidarity with BIPOC-led movements.
Liza Mueller
Liza Mueller is the Vice President of Thought Leadership & Knowledge at Echoing Green, a global nonprofit that finds, invests in, and connects visionary social innovators advancing racial equity globally. Over her tenure, she has transformed the organization’s systems, guided strategic planning, and launched the knowledge function to leverage data and insights to deepen Echoing Green’s impact. Her team's best known work is the 2020 report Racial Equity and Philanthropy: Disparities in Funding for Leaders of Color Leave Impact on the Table. Liza believes that social change can happen only when deep trust, respect, and community voice are centered across the board — from sharing resources, to program design and implementation, to research and thought leadership. Previously, Liza’s career focused on furthering the mission of remarkable organizations, entrepreneurs, and artists. Liza holds a degree in biology from Hendrix College and was awarded a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship.
Maria Ta
Maria Ta currently serves as the Program Director for Ujima Company, Inc, a non-profit professional theater located in Buffalo, NY. She is a graduate of Canisius College where she earned a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations and Political Science. She has just started her own event and wedding planning business, Meep Time Events, in 2021 and is looking forward to growing it into a workers cooperative in the future. Maria is dedicated to sustainable practices, intentional living, and making her world as just as she can. In her free time, Maria dabbles in voice and stage acting, enjoying her role as a pup and plant mom, and puzzling into the wee hours of the morning.
Alisha Foster
Alisha was born in Nashville, TN to a Tamilian mother and Floridian father. She was always disappointed in the narratives presented to her about who she was and what the world was like, and has always felt a deep desire to build pathways out of these limiting narratives. She studied philosophy in college and has spent six years coaching, strategizing, writing, and launching projects in order to make the world better. She most recently launched and ran a transformative $500K wraparound services & community-building program in San Francisco centered around unhoused people.
Kerry OConnor
As the first Chief Innovation Officer for the City of Austin, Texas, Kerry helped teams identify and test solutions to complex challenges. Her teams focused on homelessness, displacement due to gentrification, racial profiling, re-imagining public safety, achieving zero waste, and application of emerging technologies, such as an MVP distributed ledger platform for people experiencing homelessness to store their identity documents.
As a former diplomat with the U.S. Department of State, she established an innovation unit in the Office of the Secretary of State, developed and managed an employee idea generation program, helped architect sustainable management reforms, coordinated logistics for the Pittsburgh G20 Summit, served as an executive staffer, and improved programs and operations at two U.S. Embassies.
Julia Ziegler-Haynes
I have an arts and culinary background and those paths have converged in my latest project: Moiré, an ethically and sustainably sourced bean-to-bar chocolate company hoping to launch in early 2022. What makes Moiré unique is that the chocolate is sweetened only with dates and the line of products is entirely plant-based. The most integral aspect of the company is our commitment to promoting agroecology while fostering deep and meaningful partnerships with the farmers we work with in our strive for a more equitable future. I am seeking a better understanding of alternative business models that support and uphold the values at the core of Moiré.
Velma Gentzsch
Velma loves learning – about herself, other people, and how systems work. She excels at understanding the details, keeping sight of the big picture, and crafting creative solutions to whatever challenge shows up. She has the privilege of a 20+ year career in the public benefit sector, being the mother of an amazing child, leading an organization dear to her heart, and moving back home to rural Missouri after many years in the SFBA. Cats, dancing and deep conversations feed her soul.
Claire Arkin
Claire is a communications and community engagement professional who has worked in both the for-profit, government, and non-profit sectors on issues such as environmental justice, public education, and local food systems. She is currently the Global Communications Lead at GAIA, a cross-regional network of frontline groups and organizations fighting injustice from waste pollution, and building just and equitable zero waste alternatives. Her work has appeared in outlets like The Guardian, The San Francisco Chronicle, and NextCity.
Caroline Brain
Whilst an ever-curious & evolving student of our interconnected & inspiring universe, Caroline Brain is currently focused on building a fermented beverage business, Kif & co, aimed at exploring, sharing & evangelizing the magic of microorganisms and fermentation. Brought to this opportunity by a passion for changing the Western food system, she is particularly interested in the lynchpin that food/food culture can provide in addressing the suite of issues and opportunities at hand in our 21st century life. She adores being outdoors, nature, yoga, cooking, fermenting, meditation, small businesses, community- minded coffee shops, urban design, podcasts and travel.
Dulce Noonan
Dulce Noonan is a marathoner, pianist, foodie, music, and traveling lover. With bachelor’s degrees in Gastronomy (chef), Business Management and International Trade, in her loved Mexico City, she has been working for the last 3 years for Preserve Farm kitchens as a General Manager. She has learnt a lot about regenerative farming and conscious co-packing. She is always looking to learn new things, new people and enjoy great experiences.
Adrienne Baker
A socially conscious artist, Adrienne strives to use her voice to help others find theirs. A dedicated educator, Adrienne teaches privately - flute, voice and piano - to students of diverse musical backgrounds and ages. There is no greater joy to her than to simultaneously foster a life long love of learning and appreciation for music. The intersection of community and commitment with their accompanying values was a foundation of her upbringing and permeates her creative process and output.
Through her collaborative duo with saxophonist Seychelle Dunn-Corbin, NorthStar Duo, they work to promote and expose audiences to works for winds. Previous commissions include Spirituals for Wind Duo, an arrangement of negro spirituals by composer Anthony Green. Some of their commissions include a premiere in Boston of Aaron Jay Meyers' You Save One You Save the World Entire and Liz Gelinas' The Sky Is Green. Their current passions involve commissioning new works and championing pre-existing works by composers of color and women through their podcast, ‘NorthStar Duo and Keeping Score’.
An active freelancer, she is a musician member of the Groupmuse Founding Council, exploring musician collectivism through cooperative ideals. She is also a certified Suzuki instructor and seeking a doctorate in musical arts from Rutgers University with an expected graduation in 2023.
Emi Yoko
Emi works for a national racial justice organization. She believes that abolition is the necessary solution, that it’s possible to live in a world without capitalism, white supremacy, and patriarchy, and that movement building is what will change our culture and bring us collective liberation. Outside of work, she enjoys backpacking and being outdoors, growing food, and building her political analysis around various issue areas. She currently resides in Oakland with her husband and cat. Emi owes her stubbornness and intentionality to the collective of Japanese women who raised her, including her sister, mother, aunties, and grandmother.
Azure Skye
Azure is a Researcher, a Creative, a Naturalist, and a Visionary. Having been exposed to a myriad of socio-economic and cultural experiences, she applies a global and compassionate lens to all she commits to. Using her technical and personal wisdom to build economies and community centered around integrity, inclusion, and redemption, she is manifesting an ethical empire while constantly broadening her abilities in service to sustainability, climate advocacy, marginalized populations, and creative reform.
Rebecca Coffey
Rebecca serves as Impact Growth Partner's lead consultant. Since IGP’s inception, Rebecca has stewarded companies across a wide range of industries, from footwear and fashion to investing, through the process of measuring and improving their social and environmental impact. These companies include Vivobarefoot, Good Culture, Tidal NY, and Greenvest among others.
Rebecca brings nearly 15 years of nonprofit strategic growth, revenue generation, board development, and organizational collaboration to the field of stakeholder capitalism. As founder and previous director of New Haven Farms (now Gather New Haven) and a Deshpande Foundation Fellow, Rebecca understands how to successfully build and run a mission-driven organization.
Rebecca earned her BA from Sarah Lawrence College, MPA in Environmental Science and Policy from Columbia, and lives in Vermont with her husband and three young children.
Mosa Tsay
Mosa Tsay is currently supporting musicians impacted by COVID-19 as a worker-owner of Groupmuse (www.groupmuse.com), an online platform that connects musicians with local audiences, and gives musicians 100% of contributions from performances. As Executive Director of Groupmuse Foundation, Mosa is dedicated to organizing musicians to increase inclusion and resilience in classical music. As a cellist, she has performed internationally, and recently returned from a year in Paris on a Fulbright Scholarship. Mosa is a graduate of The Juilliard School and UC Berkeley, where she received two bachelor’s degrees, in Music and in Society and Environment.
Jessica Rosenberg
Jessica is an organizer, writer, and early-riser, currently rerooting in Minneapolis, MN. She became a rabbi in order to learn her people’s diverse and nuanced histories, and create spaces, rituals, tools, and organizing that help transform our relationships to past, present and future. After five years as part of the Radical Jewish Calendar collective, she is eagerly diving into next economy learning, to be able to bring just transition and solidarity economy principles to her work and organizing. She is grateful to be part of and always learning from movements for the just distribution of land and wealth, and the abolition of police, prisons and someday (fingers-crossed), nation-states.
Kat Steele
Kat Steele is a passionate changemaker and the Director of OrcaSong Institute. From 2008-2015, she managed the Sustainable Development Program at Esalen Institute in Big Sur, Calf. A creative and well known Permaculture teacher, she founded the Urban Permaculture Guild in Oakland, CA in 2000. She has designed and facilitated eight Transition trainings and dozens of workshops and programs on sustainability, permaculture design, and eco-conscious leadership.
Anna Shneiderman
Anna Shneiderman is an artist, entrepreneur and cultural strategist. After an early career in public school teaching, Anna co-founded Ragged Wing Ensemble, a multidisciplinary theater company, and The Flight Deck, a shared performance venue in Oakland, CA. She has worked on incubator programs for creative entrepreneurs and researched alternative arts business models. Anna is fiercely committed to shifting conditions so that under-resourced artists can thrive. Her current work is to forge a cooperative and regenerative economy for the arts, deeply rooted in racial and social justice.