Full List of Boot Camp Presenters
Aimee Allison
former host & producer , KPFA Morning Show
Aimee Allison is the former host of the popular Bay Area daily program the KPFA Morning Show. In 2009, she founded the innovative local media project OaklandSeen. In addition, Aimee hosted Comcast Newsmakers on CNN Headline News regional broadcasts. Her talk show covered a wide range of issues – from the economy at home to conflict abroad, and she features unlikely heroes bringing new ideas and connections to solve our problems. Recently, Aimee has hosted national live specials for Pacifica Radio, Link TV, and Clear Channel’s Green 960 on a variety of topics, including: Winter Soldier – Iraq War veterans testimony, the Democratic and Republican National Conventions, “Obama Goes to Africa,” “Greasy Rider – Used Vegetables as Fuel,” and “Black Power in the Age of Obama.” Her diverse experiences and multicultural background, from soldier to community activist to corporate manager make her wide-ranging discussions engaging to a wide variety of people. She worked as the media manager at Green for All in Oakland, CA. In 2010, she was awarded the Women’s Media Center Progressive Women’s Voices Fellowship. She is the co-author of “Army of None” and has held workshops in over forty communities in the US. She holds a BA and MA from Stanford University.
Anna Bloom
fellow , Code for America
Anna Bloom has worked as a reporter and researcher for news organizations ranging from local newspapers to national websites. After graduating from UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism in 2010, she worked for YouTube to launch an innovative news project documenting the Bay Area with user-generated video. Prior to that, she regularly contributed to The New York Times Bay Area Blog and co-founded a hyper-local news site for Oakland in 2008.
Cross-Sector Collaboration
Mat Dryhurst
community manager , Craigslist Foundation
Mat Dryhurst is the Community Manager at Craigslist Foundation, and is one half of the team that has researched and launched LikeMinded in the last year. In a previous life he represented independent record labels in Berlin and London and curated programs in the contemporary arts. He is currently interested and invested in technology for the public good, and spends the rest of his time playing with synthesizers and thinking about the conundrum of sustainable arts practice.
LikeMinded: Transforming Local Knowledge Sharing into Action
Peggy Duvette
CEO , WiserEarth
Since 2005, Peggy Duvette has managed WiserEarth, an online community space that allows organizations and individuals to connect and collaborate within the social and environmental sphere. Born and raised in France, Peggy has believed from a young age that each of us can make a true difference. Presently, she is interested in the intersection of sustainability across sectors, specifically how to harness the power of existing initiatives for communities of action to be more effective.
Virtually Seamless: Online Networks to Offline Gatherings | Someone’s Done That Already: the Best Practice of Using Best Practices
Ed Everett
community engagement coach , Ed Everett Consulting
Ed is a nationally known expert in the areas of Community Building and Civic Engagement. He has spoken to numerous state and national conferences on these topics, has led successful training programs in these areas and has written on community building. His passion is to help cities and communities understand and implement successful community building and civic engagement strategies. Ed uses his 34 successful years in local government, including 24 years as a city manager, to share his research and practice in these fields.
Victoria Fine
managing editor , CauseCast
Victoria Fine is the managing editor of Causecast and director of outreach and advancement for The Tiziano Project, a nonprofit providing community members in conflict, post-conflict and developing regions the equipment, training and affiliations necessary to report their stories and improve their lives. Victoria is also the managing editor of Modern Overland, a travel guidebook series dedicated to making global exploration socially sustainable and eco-friendly.
How to Make Your Content More Visible and Appealing to Cause-Focused Media Outlets
Chris Gates
executive director , PACE (Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement)
Chris Gates is the first Executive Director of PACE, Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement. PACE is a new organization founded to bring more attention and focus to the issues of civic engagement and to encourage more members of the philanthropic community to make civic engagement a part of their funding priorities. He previously served for eleven years as President of the National Civic League, is currently a member of the board of the California Center for Civic Renewal and is an elected Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration. He is the founder and Chair of the Colorado Institute for Leadership Training and is a regular instructor at the University of Denver’s Leadership Program, the University of Colorado’s Graduate School of Public Affairs, Leadership Denver, and Roaring Fork Leadership.
Leveraging a Civic Moment: New Roles for Citizens and Leaders
Deborah Goldblatt
host , World Café
Deborah Goldblatt works as a facilitator, coach and World Café host. As program director for Rockrose Institute’s Youth Dialogue Project, Deborah initiated a global cross-cultural network of emerging leaders to convene all generations for conversations on questions that matter. She brings over 25 years of multi-generational team-building experience in both business and community to her work. Deborah is currently serving on the core team of The World Café Community Foundation developing the global evolution of The World Café.
Leela Gill
former president , North of Panhandle Neighborhood Association
Leela’s interest in improving safety and quality-of-life for all San Franciscans developed while working with her District Supervisor to make significant improvements in her own neighborhood. She was elected President of the North of Panhandle Neighborhood Association (NOPNA) in 2006 and shortly thereafter was awarded the Safety Network Community Leadership Award for Park District. In 2007, Leela was honored again by Project SAFE for creating more than 20 active neighborhood watch programs. As the President of NOPNA, Leela stabilized then grew the association’s financial resources, tripled the number of major community events, and established the area’s first Farmers’ Market. Leela continues to serve on the NOPNA board as Safety Team Leader and Newsletter Editor, is the chairperson for San Francisco’s Department of Children Youth and Families Citizen Advisory Committee, and is a member of the SFPD Park Station Community Advisory Board.
Creating Change in Your Community
Catherine Houdek
CPCC , Rigoré Consulting
Catherine Houdek is a certified Meeting Facilitator, Trainer and Professional Coach. In her private coaching practice, Catherine specializes in working with solopreneurs and artists. She brings integrity, accountability and rigorous compassion to all of her clients, while at the same time challenging them to be more than they ever thought was possible. Catherine was born in New Zealand and grew up in the US. Prior to moving back, Catherine worked in IT as a trainer and as a consultant in a PR and Communications agency. Catherine holds a BA in Psychology from Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand. She served as the Organizer for a MeetUp group for the Institute of Management Consultants and she was on the Board of the Strong Neighborhood Initiative within her neighborhood.
Action Labs
Charlotte Hill
communications associate , EARN
At EARN, Charlotte harnesses the power of new and traditional media to engage key stakeholders. Prior to EARN, she served as the college national outreach coordinator for STAND, later co-founding a social media consulting company. In 2010, Charlotte was a Carl Wilkens fellow with the Genocide Intervention Network and a writer for Change.org. She currently serves as a 2011 fellow with the New Leaders Council. Charlotte graduated from UC Berkeley in 2009 with a BA in peace and conflict studies.
Leveraging Digital Storytelling and Social Media to Build Your Organization & Network
Daniel Homsey
director of strategic initiatives , City Administrator's Office, City & County of San Francisco
Daniel has spent the last 25 years as a marketing and communications professional in both the private and public sector. After a long stint in the technology sector, Daniel was director of The Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Services in 2004. In January 2008 he became a member of the City Administrator’s office. Daniel is the project manager for an initiative called the Neighborhood Empowerment Network, a coalition of residents, community supported organizations, nonprofits, academic institutions and government agencies with the mission to empower residents with the capacity and resources to build, and steward, strong sustainable communities.
Darian Rodriguez Heyman
author , Nonprofit Management 101: A Complete and Practical Guide for Leaders and Professionals
After five years of service, Darian recently stepped down as Executive Director of Craigslist Foundation. While there, he helped launch Nonprofit Boot Camp (now Boot Camp), the Environmental Nonprofit Network, and the Next Generation Leadership Forum. His new book, Nonprofit Management 101: A Complete and Practical Guide for Leaders and Professionals, includes practical tips and tools from 50 recognized experts across 35 topics, and he recently launched a nationwide Social Media for Nonprofits conference series. Heyman previously served as a Commissioner for the Environment for the City and County of San Francisco and currently is a public speaker who provides strategy, messaging, and fundraising consulting for nonprofits and green economy organizations.
The Pitchathon: American Idol for Your Cause | Top Ten Fundraising Tips
Jacob Harold
program officer , Hewlett Foundation
Jacob Harold leads grantmaking for the Philanthropy Program at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation where he has overseen $25 million in grants, which aim to build a 21st century infrastructure for smart giving. Harold has worked as a strategy consultant for the Bridgespan Group and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, and as a climate change campaigner for Rainforest Action Network, Greenpeace USA, and Green Corps. He is a member of the Board of Directors of Guidestar USA. He earned an AB summa cum laude from Duke University and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
The Pitchathon: American Idol for Your Cause
Mariah Howard
host , World Café
Mariah Howard works as a meeting designer, World Café host, and visual facilitator. In collaboration with her design partners, she crafts meetings that tap into the wisdom and innate creativity of groups. For over a decade, Mariah has been hosting World Café conversations that foster deep listening and collective action. As a visual facilitator, she creates real-time visual records that synthesize her clients’ ideas, missions and action plans. She is passionate about bringing art into workplaces and communities to engage the artist that lives within everyone.
Athena Katsaros
leadership trainer, executive and team coach , IdeaTribe
Athena Katsaros works with individuals who are committed to being exceptional leaders, visionaries and catalysts for change. As a member of the Executive Committee for the Business Council for Peace, Athena co-develops and delivers training and mentoring programs for businesswomen in post-conflict countries, including Afghanistan and Rwanda. She has worked with the Center for International Profitable Enterprise (CIPE) to deliver train-the-trainer programs in Kabul, Afghanistan. A member of the faculty of The Coaches Training Institute, Athena spent 20 years as a marketing strategist for Fortune 500 companies.
The Transformative Power of the Co-Active Approach
Beth Kanter
principal & co-founder , Zoetica
Beth is the author of Beth’s Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media, one of the longest running and most popular blogs for nonprofits and is also the co-author of the forthcoming book, The Networked Nonprofit. Beth is the CEO of Zoetica, a company that serves nonprofits and socially conscious companies with top-tier, online marketing services. In 2009 she was named one of the most influential women in technology by Fast Company Magazine and one of Business Week’s Voices of Innovation for Social Media. She is the visiting scholar for Social Media and Nonprofits for the Packard Foundation.
Measurement is not Counting: Social Media & Return on Investment | Virtually Seamless: Online Networks to Offline Gatherings
David Kakishiba
executive director , East Bay Asian Youth Center
Since 1980, David Kakishiba has served as the Executive Director of the East Bay Asian Youth Center (EBAYC), a non-profit community-building organization that serves a racially and ethnically diverse membership of 1,000 children, youth, and families in Oakland’s San Antonio neighborhood district, a high-poverty community where Southeast Asians are a plurality. David is the author of the Kids First! Initiative, Oakland’s landmark ballot measure requiring the City of Oakland to protect and expand funding for children and youth services, which provides over $10 million each year for children services without raising taxes. David was elected to the Oakland Board of Education in 2002, 2006, and 2010. David served three years as President of the Board of Education and he is currently the chairperson of the Board’s Finance & Human Resources Committee. David has been recognized for his leadership and activism through fellowship awards with Eureka Communities (LeaderSpring); The Charles Bannerman Memorial Fellowship; and the Ford Foundation Leadership For A Changing World.
Creating a Shared Vision for a Community
David L. Kirp
professor of public policy , University of California at Berkeley
David is a former newspaper editor and policy consultant as well as an academic. In fifteen books and scores of articles he has tackled some of America’s biggest social problems. His involvement with government agencies and foundations – including serving on President Obama’s Transition Team — as well as his teaching and community activism, address these issues at ground level. His new book, Kids First: Five Big Ideas for Transforming the Lives of Children examines promising policy innovations that span the first generation of children’s lives. From the beginning of his career at Harvard Graduate School of Education, children’s issues have been his passion. The Sandbox Investment: The Preschool Movement and Kids-First Politics emerged from his spending several years crisscrossing the country, crouching in pre-k classrooms and nurseries across the country and talking with experts in the field.
Micki Krimmel
founder , NeighborGoods.net
Micki Krimmel (aka Mickipedia) is the founder of NeighborGoods.net, a community where you can save money and resources by sharing goods and skills with your neighbors. Previously, Micki ran the community department at Revver.com and led the interactive efforts for Participant Media where she managed the social media campaign for Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth. Micki can often be found speaking and writing about online community development and playing roller derby with the LA Derby Dolls.
Using Collaborative Consumption and the Sharing Economy to Strengthen Neighborhoods
Queena Kim
community editor , Bay Citizen
Queena comes to the Bay Citizen from 89.3-KPCC, Southern California’s leading NPR-affiliate, where she helped start its show Off-Ramp. At KPCC, Queena has done hundreds of stories and she also co-produces a pop + tech program called CyberFrequencies, which continues to air on KPCC and Sirius/XM. A graduate of NYU and the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, Queena spent four years at the Wall Street Journal. Queena’s stories have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Modesto Bee and the LA Weekly, and have aired on the BBC Global Perspective, WNYC’s Studio 360, KQED’s California Report and NPR’s Day To Day.
Fast Media– Harnessing the Power of Citizen Journalists to Get Your Story Out
Sam Kaner
executive director , Community At Work
Sam Kaner, PhD, has been named as “one of the world’s leading experts in collaboration” (source: Sandor Schuman, Ph.D., founding editor of the Journal of Group Facilitation and editor of several textbooks on collaboration and group facilitation.) Sam’s classic bestseller, Facilitator’s Guide to Participatory Decision-Making has gone through 19 printings and is now in its 2nd edition. Sam’s social sector clients have included the California Supreme Court, United Nations, March of Dimes, Special Olympics, World Bank, Omidyar Network, Virgin Unite, Annie E. Casey Foundation, and many foundations, community-based organizations, universities, government agencies and multi-stakeholder initiatives.
Sam has been a featured speaker at more than 40 professional conferences, including several years at IAF North America. Since 1987 he has been the executive director of Community At Work, a San Francisco-based consulting firm that specializes in designing and facilitating collaborative approaches to complex system change.
Hanmin Liu
president , Wildflowers Institute
Wildflowers Institute is a social innovation lab dedicated to understanding how communities work and to helping them be self-sustainable. Hanmin was selected to the Board of Trustees of the W. K. Kellogg Foundation of Battle Creek, Michigan, in 1996 and continues to serve on the board today. From 2003 to 2005, he was its chairman. He is a 2009 distinguished scholar in Residence, Clinton School of Public Service, University of Arkansas, and a 2006 Purpose Prize Fellow. In 2006, the U.S. Patent Office awarded Hanmin a patent for a breakthrough technology invention that improves communications.
Joe Lambert
founder & director , Center for Digital Storytelling
Joe founded the Center for Digital Storytelling, an international nonprofit working in story and new media. He has 30 years of experience as a community arts activist, writer, producer, media educator, and troublemaker.
Lynn Luckow
CEO , Craigslist Foundation
With extensive experience guiding organizations, leaders, and communities to maximize their potential, effective leadership and impact have defined Lynn Luckow’s professional and voluntary endeavors for more than three decades. Lynn is the chief executive of Craigslist Foundation, following a long career as president and CEO of Jossey-Bass Publishers. He also served for two years as transition president and CEO of Northern California Grantmakers. Lynn has served on or consulted to more than 40 nonprofit boards, including Chanticleer and the National 4-H Council, and chairing the board of San Francisco’s Project Open Hand. He currently serves as senior advisor to The Kinsey Institute and as dean of the Noyce Leadership Institute.
Matt Lewis
fellow , Code for America
Matt Lewis has a wide array of experiences in politics, business, and technology. He has worked as a search marketing analyst for a digital ad agency in San Francisco, did political organizing for the Newsom for Progress campaign, and worked as an equity analyst for a boutique financial analysis firm, where he undertook the redesign of the corporate blog retailgeeks.com. He graduated from Claremont McKenna College in 2009 with a degree in Politics, Philosophy, and Economics (PPE).
Cross-Sector Collaboration
Mike Lanza
founder and chief play officer , Playborhood
Mike Lanza is a blogger, writer, and community activist for children’s play in neighborhoods. He’s done some innovative things to make his neighborhood in Menlo Park, CA an oasis of play for his three boys (6, 3, and 1). His blog about this and his other neighborhood play discoveries can be viewed here. Prior to this work, Mike was a software and Internet entrepreneur, starting five companies. He holds four degrees from Stanford University, most recently an MA in Education.
Rubén Lizardo
associate director , PolicyLink
Rubén leads equitable public investment efforts to ensure public investments in infrastructure generate community benefits. His work includes research and public education, training and technical assistance to strengthen community and civic participation in decision-making, and working with public officials to develop investment strategies and policies that further equity and economic vitality. Prior to joining PolicyLink, he was the capacity-building director of California Tomorrow, where he led advocacy, training, and technical assistance efforts to address diversity and equity issues.
Know Your Community: Tools for Harnessing the Diversity in America’s Changing Communities
Holly Minch
consultant , LightBox Collaborative
Holly has spent her entire career helping do-gooders do better. She offers moxie and know-how to help organizations realize a vision for a better society. Holly launched the LightBox Collaborative in 2010 to harness fresh talent to help jump start strategic thinking, create clarity in real time, and identify actionable approaches to engage communities toward worthy causes. Because she believes it’s easier to draw people into your ideas when you’re having fun, Holly has created game-based tools for facilitation of accelerated strategy dialog; the fun format belies the deep questions she helps teams tackle on a regular basis.
Holly’s work has been honored by the Council on Foundations with a Gold Award for Excellence in Public Policy Communications. She was named by PR News as a “Young PR Star,” recognizing her as a PR leader and creative practitioner in the industry. Her experience includes her work as Vice President of Spitfire Strategies, where she created communications programs for grantees of the nation’s largest foundations, including the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and The David and Lucile Packard Foundation.
Joel Mahoney
fellow , Code for America
Joel Mahoney has been designing and developing web applications since 1999. He is a Certified Scrum Master and has served as the COO and CTO of multiple start-up companies. Recently, he was the lead architect of Pandoxa, a citizen-engagement platform for the 2010 California Special Election. He holds a BA from Bates College in Lewiston, ME, and a MA from St. John’s College in Santa Fe, NM.
Marsha Murrington
senior program officer , Bay Area Local Initiatives Support Corporation
Marsha Murrington joined Bay Area LISC in April 2010 where she oversees the neighborhood and economic development work for the organization. She is currently spearheading the Social Innovation Fund, drawing from her extensive economic development experience that she gained during her 15 years of employment with the Unity Council in the Fruitvale district of Oakland, California.
While at the Unity Council, Marsha instituted a comprehensive approach to developing programs and community partnerships that included accomplishments such as: developing a LISC sponsored urban neighborhood Main Street program that transitioned to a business improvement district; establishing social enterprise businesses to create jobs for low-income residents; developing micro-enterprise opportunities through a public market business incubator; building a workforce development program with a One Stop Career Center and an industry sector partnership with educators and employers; and addressing the social development needs of families through quality programs such as Head Start, Early Head Start, Family Literacy and Senior Services.
Tanya Jo Miller
co-host of Cyberfrequencies , KPCC (L.A.'s NPR affiliate)
Tanya Jo Miller is the co-host of CyberFrequencies a pop+tech+science podcast that airs on LA’s NPR-affiliate KPCC, Sirius XM Channel 136 and is available as a podcast on iTunes. Her audio work has aired on KPCC’s Off-Ramp, Pacific Drift, NPR’s Weekend Edition and a piece (co-produced) for NPR’s Day-to-Day, won second place for “Best Feature Story” in the 2009 LA Press Club awards. She’s also an award-winning film/video producer. She’s made over 80 short videos for KPCC’s Off-Ramp, UC Berkeley’s Mission Local, and the Bay Citizen. Her short films have screened in festivals around the world including alongside work by Jane Campion, Julie Delpy, and Chantal Akerman. She’s a multimedia instructor at UCLA Extension and blogs for the Huffington Post.
Fast Media – Harnessing the Power of Citizen Journalists to Get Your Story Out
Abhi Nemani
director of strategy and communications , Code for America
Abhi Nemani recently graduated magna cum laude from Claremont McKenna College with an honors degree in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE). Abhi has worked closely with technology firms, political organizations, and local governments, focusing on leveraging technology to grow their impact. At the Rose Institute of State and Local Government, he led a 30-person research team to increase transparency and efficiency in governance using technology, and at various political organizations, including the Center for American Progress and Young Democrats of America, he has organized national outreach and mobilization campaigns. At Google, he pioneered an innovative strategy to leverage social media. As a designer, editor, and developer, Abhi has extensive experience creating popular and award-winning websites, magazines, graphics, and publications. Abhi will transition to a full-time role at Google later this year.
Craig Newmark
founder , craigslist
Craig is the founder of craigslist, the web platform that has fundamentally changed classified advertising. Since its founding, craigslist has become one of the world’s 10 most-visited English language web platforms. craigslist provides users with mostly free advertising opportunities, and is meant to allow people to help each other with basic needs like housing and jobs. In March 2011 Craig launched craigconnects, his initiative to link up everyone on the planet using social media to bear witness to good efforts and encourage the same behavior in others. Craig currently serves on the board directors of three organizations, on the advisory board of eleven others, and provides personal or financial support to dozens more. These organizations use the Internet to help solve social issues, provide for America’s returning veterans, drive funding for school projects directly to the classroom, or help government agencies and groups on their innovation initiatives.
Elyse Napolitano
CPCC , Rigoré Consulting
Elyse Napolitano is a certified Professional Coach, trained in both individual and organizational coaching, who believes businesses are most effective when they view creativity and inspiration as assets for growth. Through her coaching practice, Elyse works with entrepreneurs to couple their creativity with rigorous planning processes to move them towards (and beyond) their vision. Before opening her practice 9 years ago, Elyse spent 15 years developing innovative marketing campaigns in creative agencies, nonprofits, and startups. Elyse holds a BA from Middlebury College and is certified through the Coaches Training Institute. She has served on the Board of the San Francisco Chapter of the Association of Corporate Growth (ACG), and she co-founded the nonprofit Bay Area Business Advisors Consortium to support budding Bay Area entrepreneurs.
Action Labs
Nicci Noble
president , Noble Services
Nicci Noble, CFRE is President of Noble Services LLC, an online fundraising, communications, marketing, and technology consulting company helping nonprofits better leverage technology and the Internet in their communication and fundraising efforts. Noble is best known for her work at The Salvation Army, where she expanded their web presence and pioneered its online communication and fundraising efforts. Additionally, Noble created and implemented the first American online giving programs for Christmas and disaster campaigns, as well as The Salvation Army USA’s Facebook Application to promote the Online Red Kettle. She also frequently presents across the country at fundraising and technology conferences, authored a chapter in the Jossey-Bass book, People to People Fundraising: Social Networking and Web 2.0 for Charities, and most recently wrote a chapter in the new Jossey-Bass book Nonprofit Management 101: A Field Guide for Social Sector Professionals.
Perla Ni
CEO , GreatNonprofits
Perla Ni, CEO of GreatNonprofits, is the former Founder and Publisher of the Stanford Social Innovation Review. GreatNonprofits is the leading provider of tools for reviews and recommendations of nonprofits with more than 75,000 reviews and more than 1.4M nonprofits listed. Major sites like GuideStar, CharityNavigator and GlobalGiving use the reviews tools provided by GreatNonprofits. Perla is a frequent speaker about nonprofits and philanthropy and has been quoted in the Financial Times, WSJ and New York Times. She’s also been named a “Top Philanthropy Game Changer” by the HuffingtonPost. She has a degree from the University of California Berkeley and a JD from Harvard Law School.
Barbara Pantuso
founder and CEO , Hey, Neighbor!
Barbara Pantuso is the Founder and CEO of Hey, Neighbor!, a network for trusted neighborly connections, favors, sharing and collaboration. Hey, Neighbor! has been featured as an emerging example of Collaborative Consumption in WIRED UK magazine, on Martha Stewart Radio, and in an RSA talk by Rachel Botsman.
After graduating from Cornell University, Barbara was a pastry chef in Italy and then a General Manager of two restaurants in San Francisco. She changed careers to join 415 Productions, an interactive agency where she became Managing Director. Moving to New York, she then launched an interactive division for a health education company. Most recently at Frog Design, Barbara led innovation programs helping clients to create and launch new products. She has spoken at numerous conferences, won many awards, and is published in several magazines. And she’s a fanatical traveler and food lover.
Using Collaborative Consumption and the Sharing Economy to Strengthen Neighborhoods
Ahmed Rahim
CEO , Numi Organic Tea
Ahmed Rahim is the CEO, co-founder and master blender behind Numi Organic Tea. Before starting the Numi business in 1999 with his sister, Reem, Ahmed spent a decade living, working and traveling throughout Europe as a professional film maker and photographer. Calling Paris, London, the German Alps and eventually Prague home, Ahmed helped create several teahouses in Prague in the mid-nineties. Ahmed remains Numi’s alchemist, seeking and sourcing the world’s most exotic and premium organic and fair traded teas and herbs, blending them into unique flavors that awaken and inspire the American palate. Ahmed currently sits on seven non-profit boards of directors and consults with more than a dozen for profit companies. He is currently studying architecture to create a sustainable future.
Caterina Rindi
board president , Homeless Children's Network
Caterina Rindi discovered the Collaborative Consumption movement last year when she started a local food business based on sharing resources that already exist. She comes from a background in teaching and non-profits and has been building community in various forms for 10 years, from Burning Man camps and networking support groups, to having friends help her build her off-grid house. Caterina continues to be an active volunteer in her community with several organizations including VALA (Visual Arts | Language Arts), Larkin Street Youth Services, Project Homeless Connect, the San Francisco Food Bank, and the Homeless Children’s Network.
Using Collaborative Consumption and the Sharing Economy to Strengthen Neighborhoods
Leo Romero
regional manager , The John Stewart Company
Leo Romero was an organizer in the Philippines, where he worked with students, tribal minorities, miners, retail workers, businesses, and NGOs. His day job is in affordable housing, as Regional Manager at The John Stewart Company, where he oversees apartment communities that provide housing and services to working families, seniors, people with disabilities, and the formerly homeless. JSCo houses over a hundred thousand people in California, and has begun to experiment with new ways to use existing resources to do a little more for their neighborhoods. Over the past year, Leo worked with other JSCo staff and community partners to organize a statewide National Night Out, get-togethers for leaders of CBOs and nonprofits, and a playground built by local residents.
As a hobby, Leo co-edits Our Blocks, an all-volunteer project that collects stories, scholarly articles, and videos about building community in neighborhoods. To prepare for his Boot Camp presentation on the “Best Practice of Using Best Practices,” Leo asked some friends about their own favorite resources, and has started posting their responses here.
Someone’s Done That Already: the Best Practice of Using Best Practices
Matt Silva
Levi Strauss fellow for nonprofit communications , EARN
Matt communicates the importance of EARN’s work by sharing the exceptional stories of EARN’s Savers and the organization’s unique expertise. Most recently, Matt was the outreach coordinator at the San Francisco Neighborhood Parks Council, where he worked on building momentum for stewardship around recently renovated athletic fields, as well as providing organizing assistance to emerging and existing park groups citywide. Previously, Matt worked as a community organizer for an affordable housing developer in Boston, and with homelessness advocacy organizations in Providence, Rhode Island. Matt helped co-found Providence’s street newspaper, called Street Sights.
Leveraging Digital Storytelling and Social Media to Build Your Organization & Network
Jennie Winton
co-founder , Mission Minded
As a passionate advocate for great nonprofit marketing, Jennie Winton is often sought out for her expertise in branding and positioning nonprofit organizations. She is co-founder of Mission Minded, launched in 2002 to provide marketing communication to nonprofits and other do-gooders. Mission Minded clients include San Francisco Opera, Levi Strauss Foundation, California Partnership to End Domestic Violence, Out & Equal, KQED and ZeroDivide. Jennie has held various leadership positions including Chief Marketing Officer of the American Red Cross Bay Area Chapter and is a former advertising agency account executive and adjunct professor for the University of San Francisco’s Masters of Nonprofit Administration degree program. Jennie is a Marin County CASA volunteer and a graduate of the University of Maryland.
Vance Yoshida
senior manager , La Piana Consulting
Vance Yoshida, MBA, brings extensive experience in the nonprofit sector to his role as a Senior Manager at La Piana Consulting. Before joining the firm, Vance was the Director of External Relations and Development at the Pangaea Global AIDS Foundation, where he developed and implemented strategies for fundraising, development, communications, marketing, and outreach for this startup global HIV/AIDS organization.