Interim Director of The LeadersTrust and Director of the Flexible Leadership Awards (FLA) 

Holly currently serves as Director of our flagship FLA program helping grantee partners to strengthen their leadership, organizations, and movements. 

After having worked for 10 years at the Community Resource Exchange (CRE) in various roles as program staff and on CRE’s senior team, Holly became co-director of the organization and served in this capacity for 4 years. Before CRE, Holly was a freelance consultant for human services and grant-making organizations in Chicago and NYC, when among other initiatives, helped to formalize the National Funding Collaborative for Violence Prevention. Earlier in her career, Holly served as a program officer at the New York Community Trust for six years, managing grant programs in youth services, human justice, employment and aging.

Now a citizen of Oakland, CA, she is active with decarceration activities in Alameda County, and serves on the boards of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights and The New York Foundation.

Holly has a bachelor’s degree from Adelphi University and a master's degree from the School of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago. She is the co-author of Working with Teen Parents - a Survey of Promising Approaches with Phyllis Smith Nickel (1985). 

Director of the LeaderPower Collaborative

Chana manages our work with several foundations (David and Lucille Packard Foundation, Grove Foundation, and Heising-Simons Foundation) to provide customized leadership development support to help grantee partners develop resiliency and sustainability. 

Chana has 25+ years of experience working with human services, human rights, and health-oriented nonprofits through consulting and philanthropy. She started her career as a consultant with a NYC focused advisory firm, working on management and strategy issues with large nonprofits in the region. Chana subsequently joined the staff of the New Jersey-based Fannie E. Rippel Foundation, serving as chief operating officer focused on organizational development, finance and operations. While working at the foundation, she helped develop the vision and strategy for its signature ReThink Health initiative, which works with regional leaders to transform health care systems in ways that foster equity, healthy people and thriving communities.

Upon moving to the North Bay, CA in 2016, Chana managed grant programs in youth organizing, democracy, and environmental justice. She serves on the California Council for IGNITE, a movement of young women ready and eager to become the next generation of political leaders.

Chana has a bachelor’s degree with honors from the University of Illinois.

Program and Finance Manager

Luigi oversees essential budgeting, program planning, and administrative and operational support for all our work here at The LeadersTrust. 

Before moving to the Bay Area in 2017, he worked for several years with New York Cares, which mobilizes volunteers to address issues from poverty and hunger to homelessness. Luigi’s responsibilities included managing the organization’s funding relationships with corporate funders, overseeing volunteer service projects, and managing project budgets. Luigi subsequently worked as a program manager with #YesWeCode, a Bay Area initiative aimed at helping 100,000 young women and men from underrepresented backgrounds find jobs and success in the tech sector. While working with #YesWeCode, Luigi developed external partnerships and engagement strategies and managed the organization’s digital communications channels.

Luigi holds a bachelor’s degree in international studies from Dickinson College and a master’s of public administration in policy analysis and evaluation from the Marxe School of Public and International Affairs at Baruch College in New York.

Director of the Fair Work Leadership Fund 

Maria manages our work in partnership with the James Irvine Foundation’s Fair Work Initiative to provide customized assistance to grantee partners in the movement for worker’s rights across California.  

Prior to her role at The LeadersTrust, Maria served for 5 years as the Co-Executive Director for Prospera Community Development, an Oakland based incubator for Latina owned cooperative businesses. Prior to her work with Prospera, Maria ran Creative Outcomes, her own coaching & consulting business. She also served as the Executive Director of Partnership for Immigrant Leadership and Action (PILA), where she oversaw civic engagement programs for community-based organizations in the Bay Area. During her tenure at PILA she co-founded Mobilize the Immigrant Vote California Collaborative (MIV), now Power California; and served on the founding board of directors for Mujeres Unidas y Activas. In the 1990s Maria helped launch five Greenpeace offices in Latin America.

 Maria brings her full self to her work and community: her experience growing up in a bicultural and bilingual family, her many years juggling family and work, her coaching practice, and her dedication to creative and contemplative practices. She brings insights gathered through many years of experience jump starting and running new organizations, leadership development initiatives, and income generating programs in the Bay Area and throughout Latin America.

Maria holds a bachelor’s degree in French and International Business from the University of Texas at Austin, and a master’s degree in Communications Studies from San Francisco State University.

Program Associate 

Miguel partners with Maria in leading out the Fair Work Leadership Fund and plays a key support role in advancing The LeadersTrust programs and its administrative and communications systems. 

Miguel spent several years in development and communications roles for a variety of nonprofits, which enabled him to advocate and gain critical support for underrepresented communities, including immigrant households seeking financial stability at Mission Asset Fund, and first-generation students of color at iMentor. Miguel was responsible for raising revenue through grant management, grant writing and running online fundraising campaigns.

Miguel spent several years exploring how storytelling can inspire and incite action for social change. He worked as a photographer capturing social justice movements happening in the streets of New York City. While living abroad in Penang, Miguel worked as a writer and editor for multiple print- and web-based publications showcasing entrepreneurs around the world.

Miguel earned a bachelor’s degree in international studies, and a minor in ethnic studies at the University of California - San Diego. He later earned a Master of Social Work degree at the University of Southern California.

Board Chair, Advisory Board, The LeadersTrust  & Senior Director for Leadership at the Evelyn and Walter Haas Jr., Fund 

 Linda designed the Flexible Leadership Awards program for the Haas Jr. Fund, and has overseen the expansion of The LeadersTrust (formerly known as the Haas Leadership Initiatives, a project of the Tides Center) to help social sector leaders and their organizations be more successful. 

After joining the Fund in 2003, Linda designed and built the Flexible Leadership Awards (FLA) program, which provides funding and other support to help the senior leaders of the Fund’s grantees strengthen their leadership so their organizations can achieve stronger results. Since the launch of the FLA program, which operates under the umbrella of the Haas Leadership Initiatives, a project of the Tides Center, Linda has also overseen the evolution of the Fund’s Leadership Development Program, with the goal of sector impact. Over the years, the Fund pioneered a range of new approaches from coaching to executive transitions to fund development and digital mobilization. She is a frequent public speaker and has contributed to a wide range of print and online publications, including the Stanford Social Innovation Review and the Chronicle of Philanthropy.

Linda serves regularly on national advisory groups in philanthropy and supports efforts to increase foundations’ investment in developing board and leadership talent. She also has served on a variety of nonprofit boards, including Larkin Street Youth Services in San Francisco.

Linda is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana and holds a master’s in business administration from U.C. Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.