Past Panelists

Robin Abad Ocubillo

Robin is a Planner and Urban Designer at the San Francisco Planning Department. His current and past work has focused largely on public space design, management, and policy. He currently manages the Central Waterfront-Dogpatch Public Realm Plan and serves as a core staff with SF Pavement to Parks, helping to test community-generated public space ideas and stewardship models in neighborhoods across San Francisco. He is the Lead Policy Planner or Places for People, a legislative package that creates a framework for amplified tactical urbanism activity in San Francisco’s streets and open lots.

Afatasi The Artist

Afatasi The Artist is a mixed-media conceptual artist, futurist, and proud native San Franciscan. Her artwork is a continuous exploration of the intersectionality of race, culture, gender, class, and geopolitics. Past injustices have shaped present-day realities, so what does this mean for our futures?​ The mediums used to navigate this question include textile, metalwork, and mixed-media visual arts.

Valentin Aguirre

Valentin is originally from Logan Heights, San Diego—he moved to the Bay Area for college in 1986 and found a vibrant gay Latino community mobilizing against AIDS. In the early 1990s, he joined the staff at Mission Neighborhood Health Center’s Clinica Esperanza and, later, Community United in Response to AIDS/SIDA (CURAS). In 1992, he appeared in Augie Robles’ Cholo Joto video; they both made Viva 16! in 1994 to mark the loss and struggles of the queer Latinx community in San Francisco. Later, he worked with Queer Latino/a Artists Coalition (QueLACO), the Institute for MultiRacial Justice, and Tenth Muse Productions to produce art festivals, a movie festival, and an opera on Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz , respectively. Valentin is also a poet and has worked as a journalist. Valentin holds a BA in Communication from Stanford University, works at the Shanti Project as their Institutional Giving Manager, and serves as Co-Chair of the Board of Directors for the GLBT Historical Society.

Reyna Amaya

Reyna Amaya is a comedian, actress, and voiceover artist from Oakland, CA. She has rocked stages from the San Francisco Punchline to the Nokia Theater in LA for BET Weekend with Cedric the Entertainer. Reyna has performed and appeared on Bounce TV network’s Brkdwn, Magic Johnson’s AspireTV’s WE GOT NEXT, and Russell Simmons’ All Def Digital series Professor White.

Jeremy Ambers

Jeremy is an Emmy-nominated filmmaker of Impossible Light, his feature-length debut about the monumental task of transforming the San Francisco Bay Bridge into a light sculpture that we now almost take for granted as always been a part of the city but did not exist until 2013. While keeping his roots in production, he spent over 15 years editing everything from television commercials and corporate videos to television programming, short films and eventually feature-length projects.

Tina Bartolome

Tina Bartolome was born and raised in San Francisco, the queer daughter of working-class immigrants from the Philippines and Switzerland. Somewhere between unlearning the lie of Columbus discovering America, facing eviction, writing on walls, and fighting racist propositions, she joined the movement and never looked back. She is a writer, filmmaker, and popular educator, striving to continue the legacies of June Jordan and Paulo Freire.

Keith Battle

Keith Battle is a born storyteller. Whether through lyric verse and music, film/video, or at the gaming table in an epic D&D session, Keith’s thirst and enthusiasm for stories is on display. This love of sharing stories informs his passion for teaching. Keith finds deep joy in helping students find their way to “Aha!” moments. Keith also has a knack for putting creative people together. He sees and then seizes upon connections and opportunities for collaboration. Keith’s current dream project is a sci-fi psychedelic martial arts feature film that spans several thousand years… or does it?

Russell Blanchard is an independent filmmaker who believes film has the power to inspire change. His award winning narrative short, THE LOT, has inspired a movement to build a new park for the children of New Orleans. His experience on larger productions allowed him the opportunity to learn from Academy Award winners such as Adam McKay, Ari Sandel and Nicole Kidman. In development on his first feature film MONUMENT, which speaks to social injustice and economic inequality. BFA from University of Hawai’i-Mānoa’s Academy for Creative Media. A California native who resides in Los Angeles but is never far in spirit from New Orleans. If not home, he’s probably at the movies.

Ron Blatman

Ron is executive producer, producer, and creator of Saving the City. He created and produced the acclaimed PBS series Saving the Bay about the history of San Francisco Bay. Ron previously worked in real estate development and finance in his native San Francisco and on Wall Street in New York, as well as serving as Director of Business Development in the San Francisco mayor’s office in the early 1990s. He earned an MBA in Finance from the Wharton School and a concurrent Master of City Planning from the University of Pennsylvania. He holds a BA in Architecture from UC Berkeley.

Rachel Brahinsky

Rachel Brahinsky serves as Faculty Director of the Graduate Programs in Urban Affairs and Public Affairs. She also teaches in the undergraduate Urban Studies program. She earned her PhD from the University of California, Berkeley. Her research and teaching center around the challenges of race and inequality in the context of rapidly changing American cities. Her current projects are focused on the San Francisco Bay Area.

Peter Brastow

For over twenty years, since the mid-1990s, Peter has worked to restore nature and biodiversity in San Francisco. He founded Nature in the City in 2005, the first and only organization wholly dedicated to restoration and stewardship of the Franciscan bioregion and to connecting people and nature where they live. Since 2012, he has been Senior Biodiversity Coordinator for the City of San Francisco, working at the Department of Environment to propagate local biodiversity-friendly operations and programs throughout the city. Previously he worked for ten years for the National Park Service at the Presidio of San Francisco, Golden Gate National Recreation Area, restoring dunes, wetlands and coastal grasslands for rare plants and wildlife, and as the Ecological Stewardship Coordinator for Crissy Field. Peter holds a graduate degree in geography from UCLA.

Michelle Brega

Michelle Brega is the California Regional Manager, Community Development and CRA (Community Reinvestment Act), for U.S. Bank. She is responsible for a team of community development managers in U.S. Bank’s California footprint who partner with external stakeholders to achieve the bank’s CRA goals. Michelle is based in San Francisco, and currently serves on the advisory boards of the Asian Pacific Fund, GreenLight Fund and Enterprise Community Partners Northern California. Michelle lives in the East Bay with her husband and three sons.

David C Brown

Mr. Brown leads the Home Matters® movement, which was launched in 2013 by a group of visionary housing professionals and leaders that identified a gap in public discourse. Fundamental social challenges in our nation – from health to education, to public safety, the economy and individual success – all have a common denominator: their connection to Home. Home Matters’ mission is to raise awareness of the need for affordable homes and better communities across the nation. The movement has a coalition of over 340 partner organizations.

Derick Brown

Derick Brown is the Senior Director for the Leo T. McCarthy Center at the University of San Francisco. A native San Franciscan, who brings more than 20 years of experience leading neighborhood engagement strategies and addressing complex community issues. A graduate of UC Berkeley, Derick most recently worked with the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) as Senior Community Engagement Advisor since 2018. He was responsible for implementing the department’s community relations strategy, securing and strengthening partnerships with CBOs, private companies and universities, and building relationships with community thought leaders. Prior to the SFPD, Derick was San Francisco’s Director of the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Services where he managed the Mayor’s community relations strategy. As Senior Director of the Leo T. McCarthy Center, Derick is committed to continuing and enhancing the tradition of inspiring USF students to serve others and pursue successful careers in public service.

James Castañeda, AICP is a planner with 13 years of government experience working with the public. He is currently a planner with the San Mateo County in the San Francisco Bay Area, whose projects and responsibilities have allowed him a variety of opportunities to engage with community members and officials on complex community issues. In addition to his current planning duties at San Mateo County, he’s the Program Coordinator for the San Francisco International Airport/Community Roundtable, a group of elected city officials and airport administrators tasked with addressing noise impacts in communities near the airport. James is Director Elect for the Northern California section of the American Planning Associations’ California Chapter. With a passionate interest in the art of storytelling as well as technology, James is an advocate of leveraging new tools to build stronger relationships between citizens and their government, and promote meaningful and productive civic participation.

James Q. Chan

James Q. Chan is an Emmy-nominated producer and director based in San Francisco. Recent producing credits include PLAGUE AT THE GOLDEN GATE (American Experience, 2022); CHINATOWN RISING (America ReFramed, 2022). Recent directing projects include BLOODLINE (KQED/Truly CA); large-format CIRCLE VISION 360° films for Disney; and launching the doc series CHINATOWN SHORTS. His film FOREVER, CHINATOWN (Emmy® Nominee) received multiple festival awards, screened globally with American Film Showcase where James serves as a filmmaker envoy. James received a Certificate of Honor from the Board of Supervisors for his work highlighting stories from the API community. His sensibilities throughout his projects are shaped by his refugee and working class background, love for nature shows, and memories of his mother’s cooking. He is currently adapting Laurence Yep’s acclaimed CHILD OF THE OWL book into a narrative series. James is a 2021 YBCA100 Honoree and a member of the Directors Guild of America.

Ann Cheng

Ann Cheng is the creator and director of the GreenTRIP program which over the last 7 years has included developing the GreenTRIP Certification program, supporting over 23 cities around the Bay Area and Oakland in particular with smarter parking and TDM policies, and creating free online tools like the GreenTRIP Parking Database and now GreenTRIP Connect. To this role Ann brings over 15 years of professional planning experience and perspective as a councilmember and former Mayor of El Cerrito, in 2008-2012.

Pedro Lange Churión

Pedro Lange Churión is an Associate Professor, received his PhD at the University of Cincinnati, specializing in Latin American Contemporary Narrative and Critical Theory. His academic areas of specialization include Latin American Literature and Culture, Film Studies, Urban Studies, Comparative Literature and Critical Theory; particularly Psychoanalytic theory. Professor Lange Churión has written and directed various films, most recently Budapest: Identity of Facades, a series of documentaries that explore Budapest’s cityscapes and architecture, informed by urban space theory and Benjaminian cultural archeology.

Donté Clark

Donté Clark, a native of Richmond California, who reigns as one of the most prolific writers and voices out of the Bay Area arts community. Donte Clark is an actor, stage and film director, scriptwriter, lyricist and Public Defense attorney consultant, who’s work as an artist and community member is dedicated to shifting the narrative(s) of black/aborigine peoples history; While challenging educators and courtroom officials to abolish all racist policies.

Amy Cohen

Amy is Director of Neighborhood Business Development at the San Francisco Mayor’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development, where she oversees the Mayor’s Central Market/Tenderloin initiative and various commercial corridor revitalization programs. As the City’s lead for Central Market, Amy oversees grants and programs for the neighborhood as well as inter-agency collaboration and public-private partnerships responsible for implementing a robust neighborhood revitalization strategy.

Helen S. Cohen

Helen S. Cohen is an award-winning filmmaker and painter based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her work as a documentary filmmaker follows draws on is a long and diverse history of activism and professional work with cultural,educational and community development organizations. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Hampshire College and a master’s degree in urban planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).  Helen’s producing credits include the first three films in the “Respect for All series: It’s Elementary: Talking About Gay Issues in School (1996); That’s a Family!” (2000); and “Let’s Get Real” (2003). With Mark Lipman, she recently produced and directed the award – winning feature documentary “States of Grace” (2014). Helen has also directed, produced and/or executive produced documentaries for public interest organizations, including “Homes & Hands: Community Land Trusts in Action”, (1998) and “Streets of Dreams: Development Without Displacement in Communities of Color” (2013).

Priscilla Cohen

As Senior Executive Producer at Wondros, Priscilla has created award-winning content that is both socially responsible and visually compelling, bringing an authentic and compassionate voice to each new project. In 2008 she worked alongside Wondros Founder Jesse Dylan to produce the “Yes We Can” video on behalf of then-candidate Barack Obama. Together they have partnered with some of the world’s most innovative individuals and organizations to craft film campaigns that spark passion, incite action, and catalyze change. She graduated from Vassar College and resides in Santa Monica with her husband, son, and dog, Blaze.

Katie Conry

When the Tenderloin Museum opened its doors in July 2015, Katie served as its Program Director, with a dynamic vision for neighborhood-centric, diverse programs that bring people together from all walks of life. Katie has also held positions at the California Academy of Sciences, the Exploratorium, and the Contemporary Jewish Museum. In 2012, she helped fundraise to save Mission neighborhood gem Adobe Books, created its events department, supported the gallery’s transition to nonprofit status, and served on the Board of Directors for three years. She holds a B.A. in Anthropology and American Studies from the University of California at Berkeley.

Todd Darling

Todd Darling recently directed the documentary feature, “Occupy The Farm”. His other films include: “Black Rock Horse” (2011), a 30-minute documentary about an audacious and nearly disastrous art project at Burning Man; “A Snow Mobile for George” (2009), a trip across America to tell stories about loosening environmental regulations and the impact on salmon fishermen, cowboys, firemen, and the snowmobile industry; and the MTV reality show “Laguna Beach: The Real OC” (2004 – 2006). He and his wife Linda live in Berkeley and have two children.

Ben Davis

Ben is Founder and Chief Visionary Officer of Illuminate the Arts and the creator of “The Bay Lights” project. For more than 25 years, Ben has led communications on civic mega-projects cutting his teeth working as the manager of public information on the $4 billion Boston Harbor Cleanup project. A recipient of two international Webby Awards for best website in government, Ben has helped name and brand infrastructure projects including the Transbay Transit Center and the Presidio Parkway.

JK Dineen

JK is a staff reporter at the San Francisco Chronicle, focusing on development and urban planning.

Joe Eskenazi was born in San Francisco, raised in the Bay Area, and attended U.C. Berkeley. He never left. “Your humble narrator” was a staff writer and columnist for SF Weekly from 2007 to 2015, and a senior editor at San Francisco Magazine from 2015 to 2017. This year, his work has appeared in San Francisco Magazine; the San Francisco Public Press; the San Francisco Chronicle; The London Guardian; the San Francisco Business Times; J., the Jewish News; and Mission Local, where he is a weekly columnist. He resides in the Excelsior with his wife and kid, 4.3 miles from his birthplace and 5,474 from hers.

Mike Evans Jr

Mike Evans Jr is a 28 year old Stand Up Comedian and MC from San Francisco California. He’s performs at Cobbs Comedy Club , Punchline Comedy Club and Tommy T’s. He’s known around the Bay Area as the artist/activist comedian as he has been featured on multiple music albums and hosts more concerts and more community fundraisers than most comics at his age . Mike’s personal sense of humor leans more towards crude political and relationship humor , but he has the strong ability to adapt to any situation as he’s also performed for political campaigns, Churches , Retirement Homes, Colleges and High schools. Mike was also involved in the creation of the film “The Last Black Man in San Francisco “ as a creative consultant – the film won the highest awards in its category at Sundance Film Festival in 2019 and continues to be nominated for Independent Film Awards. Mike doesn’t have any recent videos of his comedy , but is currently working on his first comedy special set to come out in 2022.

Tyra Fennell

Tyra Fennell is founding director of Imprint.City, an organization seeking to activate industrial, underutilized spaces with art projects, encouraging community and economic development.  Imprint.City produces BayviewLIVE, an annual art and music festival created to highlight the beauty of performing and visual arts that reflects the cultural landscape of the Bayview Hunters Point. Imprint.City also produces two subsequent Bayview-based festivals including the Burning Man inspired Bayview SPARC Festival in collaboration with the Flaming Lotus Girls and Bayview Harvest.  Prior to launching Imprint.City, Tyra Fennell spent over five years developing and implementing programs for the San Francisco Arts Commission and is also credited for starting then SF49ers Vernon Davis’ Visual Arts Scholarship Fund, now the Vernon Davis Foundation for the Arts and 3rd on Third, an activation which continues to occur every third Friday in Bayview.  Tyra currently serves on the board of the San Francisco Bay Area Planning and Urban Research Association (SPUR) and Bayview Community Legal. She is also a resident of the Bayview Hunters Point and a Howard University graduate.

Ken Fisher

Ken Fisher is an Emmy nominated social justice documentary filmmaker. He is the founder and chief creative at Truth Be Told Creative. His most recent film, “The BIG Experience” premiered at BIG Sky documentary festival and was used by presidential candidate Andrew Yang to build the grassroots movement for a Universal Basic Income.

Lisa Fisher

Lisa Fisher leads the Sustainable City Program at the San Francisco Planning Department, which includes neighborhood-scale policies and tools for new and redeveloping areas, inter-agency work on biodiversity, and complete streets that align the co-benefits of greening and flood resilience, with sustainable mobility. Previously, as an Associate Principal with AECOM (EDAW) for ten years, she served as Project Manager and Urban/Sustainability Planner on complex urban regeneration plans in Latin and North America, such as 45-blocks in central São Paulo, San Francisco’s Pier 70 project, and a 350-acre mixed-use waterfront vision for North Vancouver. Lisa holds a Master’s Degree in Urban Planning from Columbia University and serves on the Board of Directors for the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, San Francisco’s largest advocacy organization. She and her husband Greg are raising their 4-year old son in Bernal Heights to love biking and connect with nature every day.

Paloma Flores

Paloma Flores is an advocate for American Indian voice and representation in the arts, curricular development through a racial equity lens, and is passionate about cultural education. She is an activist and voice for her people. Paloma is an artist, a poet, a Peace & Dignity Journeys intercontinental prayer runner, and a dancer. She has been writing since she was 14 and understands the power of voice, tone, and delivery. Poetry in motion in its truest form. To know your audience is to know yourself. She speaks for the ones who did not have the luxury to speak their truth. Having gone by many stage names such as the Lady Dove, P. Flo and Lucky. You may call her Paloma. She believes, “when the People come together for the People, magic happens.”

Raphael Garcia

With over 18 years of experience in green infrastructure, innovative biological and mechanical water treatment systems, high-end residential and commercial landscape architecture, and biology-based work experience spanning North America, Raphael Garcia brings a unique set of skills and experience to his position as Project Manager at SFPUC. He is currently managing several innovative green infrastructure projects in San Francisco as part of the City’s $6.9 Billion Sewer System Improvement Program.

Ben Grant

Ben is Public Realm and Urban Design Program Manager at SPUR. He has developed exhibitions on a range of urban issues, including “Agents of Change,” a historical survey of San Francisco urbanism for the opening of the SPUR Urban Center. Since 2006, he has been a lecturer and studio instructor in the graduate program in Urban and Regional Planning at San Jose State University and has taught at the San Francisco Art Institute.

Justin Gray

Justin Gray is an affordable housing specialist with the Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) located in San Francisco, CA. Prior to HUD, Justin worked as a Community Planner with the U.S. Coast Guard based in Oakland, CA. Previous experience includes community development positions with City government, community serving nonprofits as well as work as a legislative assistant on Capitol Hill, where he had the opportunity to work directly on smart growth, transportation and sustainability initiatives. Current interests include connecting public policy and social history with visual storytelling.

Nato Green

Nato Green is a San Francisco-based comedian, writer, and union organizer. He writes a column in the San Francisco Examiner, hosts FSFSF on KALW public radio, and co-hosts monthly comedy shows Verdi Wild Things Are at the Verdi Club and Riffer’s Delight at the Alamo Drafthouse. He’s been named best comedian by SF Weekly, CBS, Huffington Post, and SFist.

Twilight Greenaway

Twilight Greenaway is a writer and editor whose work has appeared in the New York Times, The Salt (NPR’s food blog), the Guardian, Food & Wine, Mother Jones, Gastronomica, Modern Farmer, and on Grist, where she was the food editor in 2011 and 2012. She is currently the managing editor of CivilEats.com.

Kristen Hall is an urban designer and planner who specializes in complex urban infill projects. She has led the urban design of several high profile projects in San Francisco, including Mission Rock and Central Subway Chinatown Station. Through her experience both locally and internationally she has worked across many different scales and contexts to design masterplans, write guidelines, coordinate public outreach, and create implementation strategies. Kristen’s core area of expertise is delivering projects that require innovation, interdisciplinary collaboration, and stakeholder engagement.

Josh Healey

Josh Healey is an award-winning writer, performer, filmmaker, and creative activist. His work has been featured in the New York Times, Huffington Post, and on his 13-year-old cousin Brian Silverstein’s Youtube page — where it has almost 27 ‘likes.’ A regular performer on NPR’s Snap Judgment, he currently directs the Culture Shift program for Movement Generation. Born and raised in DC, Healey lives in Oakland, CA.

Malo André Hutson is an academic scholar and practitioner in the areas of community development and urban sustainability/equity; racial and ethnic inequalities and urban policy (metropolitan fragmentation, segregation and health); built environment and health. He is currently an Associate Professor and the Chancellor’s Professor of City and Regional Planning at the University of California at Berkeley and Associate Director of the Institute of Urban and Regional Development (IURD) within the College of Environmental Design.

Mason J.

Mason J. is an Artist, Activist, & recovering A-hole. Inspired by life as a AfroLatinx SF Native, 2nd Generation Punk, Grandson of Immigrants, & Genderqueer Person of Color their work blends an unlikely pairing of tenderness and arrogant flippancy with influences that range from listening to “Wind Beneath My Wings” in the frozen food aisle to Tamuzi poetry. Their musings on Gender, Pop Culture, Ableism, Race & Fashion have been published in many a zine, all around the internet & in print for Archer, Vice, Dude!, Veuxdo & Bitch Magazines. As a 13 year fixture in the Bay Area Lit Scene they have performed, lectured, and workshopped at Vona Voices!, SFSU, Stanford, UC Berkeley, Radar Productions, National Queer Arts Festival, CellSpace, 826 Valencia and YouthSpeaks

TJ Johnston

TJ Johnston is a San Francisco-based journalist and longtime contributor to Street Sheet. He has submitted to publications such as the San Francisco Public Press, 48 Hills and Street Spirit, among others. His coverage on homelessness has focused on it as public policy, human interest and civil rights issues.

Cleve Jones

Cleve Jones is a human rights activist, lecturer, and author of “When We Rise: My Life in the Movement,” which partly inspired the ABC miniseries of the same name. Mentored by LGBTQ pioneer Harvey Milk, Cleve co-founded the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, conceived and founded The NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, led the 2009 National March for Equality in Washington D.C., and served on the Advisory Board of the American Foundation for Equal Rights, which challenged California’s Proposition 8 in the U.S. Supreme Court. Today he works as an organizer for the hospitality workers’ union UNITE HERE.

Niema Jordan

Niema Jordan is a journalist and filmmaker from Oakland, Calif. Her passion for storytelling led her to Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. Jordan’s early career was spent in New York at ESSENCE magazine. She returned to the Bay Area for graduate school and received her Master of Public Health and Master of Journalism from Cal. In recent years, Jordan has continued to write for national publications including Shondaland, The Crisis and Glamour, while working in documentary film. Her production credits include The Chosen Life (associate producer), Fatherless (associate producer), Bobby Kennedy for President (researcher), The Me You Can’t See (story producer), and Eyes On The Prize: Hallowed Ground (story producer). She is currently a producer at Trilogy Films and an adjunct professor at Santa Clara University. Jordan serves on the Board of Directors of Oakland Kids First and is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.

Athena Kalkopoulou

Athena Kalkopoulou is a San Francisco-based producer and consultant with over fifteen years of experience in film production and film festivals in the Bay Area and Europe. Until recently, she oversaw the San Francisco Film Society’s fiscal sponsorship & documentary grants program, where she worked with hundreds of filmmakers nationwide, actively helping them fundraise, produce and carry out outreach efforts for their projects. She has been a reviewer in grant review panels and has participated in panels, pitching forums, juries and industry meetings in festivals such as SXSW, Sundance, Camden International Film Festival and Ashland Film Festival.

Gary Kamiya

Gary is the Executive Editor of San Francisco Magazine and the author of the book “Cool Gray City of Love: 49 Views of San Francisco” Gary was the senior editor of the San Francisco Examiner’s Sunday magazine “Image” as well as the paper’s culture critic and book editor. He was a co-founder and longtime executive editor of the pioneering web site Salon.com, where he wrote about politics, international affairs, art, literature, music and sports. His work has appeared in the New York Times Book Review, Sports Illustrated, ArtForum, Mother Jones and many other publications.

Sibella Kraus

Sibella Kraus has long called upon cities to embrace the farms at their borders and in their regions and on regional agriculture to link its vitality to healthy cities. She is founding president of SAGE (Sustainable Agriculture Education), a nonprofit organization founded in 2001 to revitalize agricultural places near cities where farming and local food culture can thrive and be celebrated. She founded and directed from 1991-2000, the Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture (CUESA) and created its signature program, the acclaimed San Francisco Ferry Plaza Farmers’ Market.

Zoey Kroll

Zoey Kroll is an artist, designer and urban gardener. She was a core organizer at Hayes Valley Farm, an interim-use demonstration project on 2.2 acres in the heart of San Francisco (hayesvalleyfarm.org). She is currently working on a series of art seed packets (bit.ly/seedsongs), and makes “web things” at the San Francisco Department of the Environment (sfrecycles.org).

Landa Lakes

Landa Lakes is a Chickasaw writer, musician, activist and artist. Landa has represented their tribe in various forms from dances, stickball games and demonstrations from High School until attending the University of Oklahoma. Relocated to San Francisco in 1992 from the rural community of Oklahoma within her tribal boundaries after her time in the US Navy serving during Desert Storm. Landa founded in 2005 two drag performance groups that have contributed to San Francisco’s art and cultural scene: the Two-Spirit Native American drag troupe, Brush Arbor Gurlz (BAGz), and the creative and campy House of Glitter (HoGz). Landa uses art to combine contemporary ideas with Native history and traditional stories to convey the shared experiences and understanding of human nature outside the colonial Christian perspective. Some of her notable honors are: the New York Fresh Fruit Festival Performance Award, KQED LGBT Local Hero Award, being publicly elected as Grand Duchess 36 of the Grand Ducal Council of San Francisco, and leading as chapter Mother of the Westcoast Ballroom Scene’s Legendary House of Lauren, Intl. Landa co-founded Bay Area American Indian Two-Spirits (BAAITS) Powwow, the first and still the largest public Two-Spirit Powwow, as well as de-gendering the dance categories towards a policy of no gender policing—rooted firmly in an extensive knowledge of Native histories, her own cultural background, and with proper powwow protocol followed at every step. Thomas served as Co-Chair to the BAAITS and is currently on the Board of the BAAITS Powwow. Co-curator and co-producer on the Weaving Spirits Festival and leading the curatorial process with her co-producer. She presents, writes, directs and performs her own work as part of the festival.

Kyung Lee

Kyung Lee is an emerging filmmaker, experienced film editor, and cameraperson currently based in the United States. She was an editor and post-production manager for Link TV, a national television network. Her wide-ranging talents include work on documentary films including “Big Joy: The Adventure of James Broughton” (SXSW, Tribeca), “The Illness and the Odyssey” (Mill Valley, Guam Int’l), “After Winter, Spring” (Mill Valley, Hamptons Int’l), “Atomic Mom” (Sarasota) as well as multi-media projects and commercial productions.

Ben Lilienthal

Ben is a serial tech entrepreneur currently working on ScreenMeet.com Previously, he started and sold the world’s largest VoIP audio conferencing service to Citrix Online, the owners of GoToMeeting. He then worked as the GM, Audio for GoToMeeting for 2+ years. He grew up in Reston, VA on Lake Anne and his grandmother Anne was married to Robert E. Simon, the founder of Reston for 10+ years. He and Bob were close friends until Bob’s death last year.

Jane Lin

Jane Lin, AIA, is a founding partner at Urban Field Studio, an urban design firm in San Francisco. Jane has over ten years of experience working as an urban designer combining her skills in architecture and background in city planning. Jane’s work focuses on ways to physically revitalize mixed-use districts, from downtowns to transit-oriented developments. Jane consults on projects that involve public-private-partnerships in both Northern and Southern California. Jane also is an artist-in-residence with LEAP Arts in Education and teaches architecture to K-12 students. It is important to Jane that large groups of non-designers become empowered with creative communication skills because they are the key to making our communities better. More recently, Jane has been testing the use of video as a visual communication tool for engaging the public in her projects.  She holds a BA in Architecture, MS in Architecture, and a Masters in City Planning all from UC Berkeley and a member of the AIAEB, SPUR, and ULI.

Mark Lipman

Mark Lipman has worked as a documentary filmmaker for over thirty years,

exploring a wide range of subjects from domestic violence to human sexuality to affordable housing and community organizing. His films have been broadcast nationally on public television and won numerous awards. His producing credits include “To Have and To Hold” (1981), the first documentary to look at domestic violence through the experiences of men; “Holding Ground: The Rebirth of Dudley Street” (1996), a film about the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative’s successful efforts to revitalize a Boston neighborhood devastated by redlining, arson and illegal dumping; “Father’s Day” (2003), an experimental documentary about the death of Mark’s father; and “Gaining Ground”(2013), a sequel to “Holding Ground” that explores DSNI’s success in preventing foreclosures and fostering youth leadership. Mark has an MFA in filmmaking from the Massachusetts College of Art and a BA in psychology from Harvard University.

After working as a Cinematographer at the advertising agency Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, creator of the famous campaign “GotMilk?” and named Agency of the Decade by Adweek Magazine, Juli is a full time Co-Founder, Cinematographer and Producer at Free Range Puppies where with all the Puppies are working on a bunch of unleashed ideas for a better world. He holds an undergraduate degree in Business and three Master’s Degrees, in International Business, Culinary Arts and Cinematography.

Kristina Loring

Kristina Loring is sound-oriented storyteller, writer, and content strategist. She’s produced stories that explore identity, urban landscapes, and technology’s influence on culture for Good Magazine, Fortune Money, Gawker, NPR’s WCAI, KALW, PRX’s Public Radio Remix, and Warink.org. In a past life, she was the editor of Jonathan Harris’s Cowbird.com and editor for frog design’s multimedia platform, “design mind.”

Erin Lutes

As a public health nurse and clinical educator, Erin works with underserved communities disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS, homelessness and substance use. This film project is a return to her creative and artistic roots and an exploration into her interests in gender equality and representation.

Honey Mahogany

Activist, drag queen, superstar. San Francisco native Honey Mahogany does it all. Honey rose to international fame as the first (and as of yet only) San Francisco drag queen to appear on the reality tv series RuPaul’s Drag Race, but more recently, Honey Mahogany has honed in on making a difference in her hometown. Honey is a founding member of the Stud Collective, a co-op of Stud regulars, performers, and nightlife aficionados who recently saved the Stud from closing and made it the nation’s first co-operatively owned nightclub. Honey also played a key role in establishing the newly recognized Compton’s Transgender Cultural District in the Tenderloin of San Francisco, creating the first district of it’s kind in the country. Honey has many production and hosting credits including the MainStage of Castro Street Fair, San Francisco Pride, Topsy Turvey Queer Circus, and more. Currently, you can catch her hosting SF’s hottest new variety showcase and dance party: Black Fridays every 4th Friday at the Stud!

Vero Majano

Vero Majano is a queer Latina artist born and raised in San Francisco’s Mission District. Her works are steeped in film, performance, visual culture, and storytelling. She works to archive, curate, reinterpret, and re-historicize Latino culture in San Francisco’s Mission District for broad audiences to stake out complex stories of the Mission in the City’s memory and history. She is part of The Caca Colectiva, and is cofounder of Mission Media Archives, which collects and preserves audio and films shot in San Francisco’s Mission district during the 1970s and ’80s. The full-length version of her latest work, “Remember Los Siete,” premiered in 2019.

Omeed Manocheri

Colin Marshall

Colin Marshall is a writer, broadcaster, and video essayist on cities. His series The City in Cinema explores our urban world, especially that unfathomable corner of it known as Los Angeles, as represented in movies of every kind. He’s also at work the book A Los Angeles Primer and the crowdfunded journalism project “Where Is the City of the Future?”

Alba Roland Mejia

Alba Roland Mejia is a writer, producer, and director based in Oakland, California. Her work focuses on the African diaspora and strives to capture the true essence of storytelling by pulling from real-life experiences.

Greg Miller

Stylish Spokes is my directorial debut. It unites my passions for filmmaking and cycling, as well as my desire to create media that educates, inspires, and moves people to action. I’ve been making a living on set since 2006, as a location sound mixer and producer, working on commercial projects and documentaries. This freelance work continues, as does my search for more meaningful collaborations (like Stylish Spokes!) on topics related to social justice and sustainability.

John Moon leads outreach/engagement and oversees the regional managers for community development as the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco’s District Manager. He has extensive social change experience in the public and private sectors including work at Living Cities, the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, U.S Treasury’s CDFI Fund, Municipal Government, Federal Home Loan Bank of Seattle, and Fleetbank.

Dimitri Moore

Dimitri Moore (aka the Hugger-In-Chief) has spent his many years on earth producing everything he can get his hands on from a youth leadership seminar in Chicago to a documentary about Bayview/Hunter’s Point that screened at Cannes. He likes long walks with a production team on the beach or anywhere there is a war to be fought. During peace time he can be seen wrestling with his one year old (and losing), rewatching episodes of 24, Lie To Me and the The West Wing with his loving and equally geeky wife and brooding like Bruce Wayne over his next project. He believes in truth, beauty, freedom and above all, love.

Tomiquia Moss leads Hamilton Families as CEO with more than 20 years of nonprofit leadership and management experience. From 2014-2017, she served directly under the mayors of both San Francisco and Oakland, most recently as Chief of Staff for Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf. Previously, she was the Executive Director of the HOPE SF Initiative, a public housing and neighborhood revitalization effort with San Francisco Mayor Edwin Lee’s Office. Prior to that, Moss was SPUR’s Community Planning Policy Director. She was the founding project director of the San Francisco Community Justice Center of the Superior Court of California and served as director of the Community Organizing Department for the Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation. Tomiquia has been a social worker and community activist working as an advocate for social justice and economic equality in many communities around the country. She holds a Masters’ Degree in public administration from Golden Gate University. Tomiquia and her family are proud to call Oakland home.

Isa Nakazawa

Isa Nakazawa is an Oakland-based writer, educator, and radio host. After graduating from Wesleyan University in 2008 with a dual degree in Sociology and American Studies, Isa jumped coasts to join Youth Speaks, one of the country’s leading spoken word and literary arts organizations, as a teaching artist and poet mentor. She is currently the Director of Marketing and Communications at the Bay Area Video Coalition, a community media hub and resource for media makers in the Bay Area, serving over 7,500 filmmakers, activists, and artists every year.

No matter the medium, Isa leads with her curiosity, attention, and fundamental belief in the interconnected nature of the liberation of all people. Shake the syntax, shake the world.

Leah Nichols

Leah Nichols is a designer and filmmaker based in San Francisco. Her work explores social justice themes and community politics through a range of visual storytelling techniques, from street art to short films to block parties. She has collaborated with artists on projects about gentrification, written about neighborhood change, and spoken about the importance of public open spaces. Her short films include Where My Ladies At, which seeks to reveal the lack of female representation in public art, and Asians in America (CAAMFest selection), which chronicles the history of Asian-Americans through three stereotypes.

Jeffrey Paris is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of San Francisco, since 2001.  He is also Director of the Environmental Studies Program, and teaches courses in environmental and animal ethics.  His early research concerned problems such as political resistance and incarceration.  He is currently working on the topic of our hominin ancestors and family tree in order to better understand the human difference from nonhuman animals in the present day.

Celia C. Peters

Celia C. Peters is a filmmaker creating daring futurist stories about intriguing, authentic characters. She’s currently developing her afrofuturist feature film GODSPEED in partnership with WarnerMedia150. In 2022, she will launch her afrofuturist audio drama DOMESTICATED. She curated Afropunk, New York Comic Con and L.A.’s California African American Museum. Peters has an honors B.A. in French and Political Science from University Michigan and an M.A. in Public Policy from the University of Chicago, with graduate studies in clinical psychology at NYU.

Shantré Pinkney

Shantré Pinkney – inspired by hip-hop, jazz and New Wave cinema, Shantre began her creative venture in New York and studied film-making in Atlanta, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. As a lover of non-traditional and inquisitive stories, she seeks to raise dialogue between art and audience. She creates in the mediums of photography, film, spoken word, commercials, and web tv.

Lucia Pohlman

Lucia is a community organizer and greening advocate who creates public spaces connected to cultural heritage and future resilience. As The Greenhouse Project’s Program Manager, Lucia’s work focuses on developing community projects connected to the Garden District identity of San Francisco’s Portola District. Her primary aim is conserving the city’s only remaining agricultural vestige – 2.2 acres of abandoned greenhouses in the Portola – and transforming the site into an educational urban farm. At TGP Lucia also works with residents to reimagine the neglected Caltrans parcels that border the neighborhood, and collaborates with city agencies to further sustainable infrastructure projects with robust public benefits.

Joel Pomerantz

Joel Pomerantz is a journalist-turned-explorer who has a passion for San Francisco water. He published a water exploration map, Seep City, in March, and is working on a companion book about his water history research and his tromps through creek beds and springs scattered across local hillsides. He leads Thinkwalks and also works as a private guide and teacher. He loves to canoe and backpack.

Yesica Prado

Yesica Prado is a multimedia journalist and a first-generation Mexican immigrant from Nezahualcoyótl, Mexico. She grew up undocumented in a southeast neighborhood in Chicago, Archer Heights. With limited choices for a job without social security, she ventured into photography to learn a skill –– a trade. She hoped to earn a living as an independent contractor and attended the University of Illinois at Chicago, earning a BFA in Photography. But unexpectedly before turning 21, she was granted a humanitarian visa (U-Visa). Yesica took advantage of this new opportunity, expanding her borders to seek a master’s in journalism from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.

Tom Radulovich

Tom joined Transportation for a Livable City as executive director in June 2004. He has been an urban environmental activist since attending college at UC Berkeley, advocating for urban environmental restoration, better public transport, and the greening and revitalization of public streetscapes and open spaces. He played an important role in voter initiatives to create the Octavia Boulevard and to create a “Grand Central Station” at San Francisco’s Transbay Terminal that connects regional and intercity rail and bus lines.  He served as an elected director of the Bay Area Rapid Transit District from 1996 to 2016, where he has advocated for reinvestment and renovation of the BART system, and improving BART practices in the areas of sustainability, accessibility, customer service, architecture and urban design, and the creation of transit villages at BART stations.

Effie Rawlings

Effie Rawlings was raised in California and in Illinois, where her family grew seed corn. Her interests found a nexus at the Gill Tract Farm, where she joined the 20-year community struggle to protect the historic farmland by co-founding Occupy the Farm; the grassroots direct action collective for which the film is named. Today, she helps farm 2.5 acres at the Gill Tract and teaches a luminous group of preschoolers there with the Five Creeks Collective. She is currently a fellow with the Farmer Veterans Coalition, and organizes internationally with the Friends of the MST (Landless Workers Movement).

Randy Rentschler

Randy serves as Director of Legislation and Public Affairs for the San Francisco Bay Area’s Metropolitan Transportation Commission and the Bay Area Toll Authority. MTC is recognized across the nation as a premier transportation planning and financing agency. It is Mr. Rentschler’s job to advance the legislative, public outreach and external communications objectives of the 21-member Commission at the local, state and federal levels. He also guest lectures on the subject of public finance or transportation at UC Berkeley, Stanford and the University of San Francisco.

Jules Retzclaff

Jules Retzclaff, otherwise known as Cereal For The Kids, is a born and raised San Francisco community organizer and experimental multimedia-maker. Their work utilizes a mixture of new and found media, photography, and animation, often using non-linear storytelling to reflect on community, temporality, and the fluidity of memory.

William Rhodes

​​I received a BA in Furniture Building and Design from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia and a MFA from the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth. My creative works are in the collections of various galleries and museums. Most recently, my work was included in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. I currently dedicate part of my time to art education and directing an Intergenerational art program at Bayview Senior Services. I am a co-founder of a Black art collective in San Francisco. The 3.9 Art Collective was formed in 2011 in response to the declining Black population in San Francisco.

Asha Richardson

Asha Richardson is the Interactive Manager at Youth Radio, the Peabody Award-winning youth-driven production company in downtown Oakland. In 2010, she co-founded the Innovation Lab there, where young people combine journalism + coding + design to create mobile apps and interactive news stories. Asha’s driving passion is to diversify tech of the future and help youth of color develop expertise in data and computer science to make the changes they seek in the world.

Chris Roberts

Chris Roberts has covered urban issues in San Francisco since 2008, recently as editor in chief of SF Weekly, reporting on fatal fires, lead contamination, and sex offenders in San Francisco public housing.

James Rojas

James Rojas is an urban planner, community activist, educator, and artist. He is the founder of a community healing and visioning outreach process – Place IT!  The  innovative and interdisciplinary method uses storytelling, objects, art-production and play to help underserved communities participate more equitably in the planning process. He is an international expert in public engagement and has traveled around the US, Mexico, Canada, Europe, and South America, facilitating over 500 workshops, and building 70 interactive models. He has collaborated with municipalities, non-profits, community groups, educational institutions, and museums, to engage, educate, and empower the public on transportation, housing, open space and health issues. He holds a masters degree in city planning from MIT.

A Swarthmore College graduate with an Honors degree in French & English literatures, Scott Samels (who goes by the alias SCS) is a Hip Hop recording artist who focuses on topics of social justice and delivering positive messaging toward youth. Having lived in San Francisco ever since graduating back in 1999, SCS is also the Founder of his own Richland Records imprint which enables him and fellow artists on the label to get their music out to the world.

Doniece Sandoval

Doniece has orchestrated marketing, PR and development for both private and nonprofit organizations including ZERO1: The Art & Technology Network, San Jose Museum of Art, Wilson McHenry Company, Informix, DoubleClick, Toyrus.com, McGuire & Company for Coca Cola and ACA Joe among others. Her passion is finding unique solutions to problems that matter to her. Homelessness has been on her radar for quite some time but she was at a loss as to how to truly help—until she passed a young woman on the street crying over and over that she’d never be clean. Lava Mae is Doniece’s answer.

Tanu Sankalia

Tanu Sankalia is Professor in the Department of Art + Architecture, and coordinates the Urban Studies Concentration within the Environmental Studies Program. He teaches courses in urban planning and design, architectural and urban history, and architectural design. Professor Sankalia’s research and creative work covers a wide range of topics related to architecture and urbanism from the local context of the San Francisco Bay Area to the global perspectives of India and Latin America. His articles and essays have appeared in the Journal of Urban Design, Journal of Urban History, Journal of Planning History, and City, among others. He is co-editor of Urban Reinventions: San Francisco’s Treasure Island (University of Hawaii Press, 2017), and is currently completing a manuscript titled The Urban Unseen: San Francisco’s Interstitial Spaces.

Renée Elaine Sazci

Renée Elaine Sazci hails from suburban-rural Granite Bay, CA. She holds a B.A in Sustainable Community Development and a M.S in Urban and Regional Planning. Her professional experiences range from public health, e-waste recycling, specialized transportation planning, sustainable land use development, and digital & content marketing. Her passion for the built environment, hyperlocalism, storytelling, and marketing spurred the launch of The Global Grid: Urbanist news – Local views in 2010 during a four-year stint in Istanbul, Turkey. Feel free to connect with her on LinkedIn and follow The Global Grid on social media.

Emily Schlickman

Emily Schlickman is interested in forgotten urban landscapes, the power of mapping and the role of exploratory representation. As a landscape and urban designer at SWA Group, she focuses on large-scale infrastructure and planning projects. At the same time, she pursues independent research leading to publications and art installations. Over the past seven years, she has worked on a wide variety of projects – from a participatory mapping initiative to improve sanitation and educational access in Indonesia to an immersive installation to activate the Danube River floodplain in Germany.

Todd is a documentary filmmaker and television producer currently based in San Francisco. In 2007, Todd produced and co-directed “Red Without Blue,” which received the Audience Award from the Slamdance Film Festival and the Jury Award from the Frameline Film Festival. He has also produced live events and behind-the-scenes programs for Fox, MTV and Spike. Todd currently works as a freelance editor, and was recently awarded a Qatar Foundation International grant to produce a series of shorts on the Pacific trash gyre.

Sarah Skinker

Sarah holds a degree in Landscape Architecture from UC Davis with a minor in Sustainable Agriculture and the Environment. At Davis she worked on the Student Market Farm and Ecological Garden and managed the Salad Bowl Garden, a small centralized edible space for community foraging. After graduating she served two years on the Oregon Coast with FoodCorps, an AmeriCorps program that connects kids to real food through school gardens and nutritional education. She also volunteered on farms and worked to support small farm incubator projects in the rural community. Sarah currently works as TNDC’s Urban Agriculture Supervisor in the Tenderloin District of San Francisco, where she manages 5 edible rooftop gardens and the Tenderloin People’s Garden, a free public farm located on the corner of Larkin and McAllister. TNDC is adding expansive equitable rooftop farms to many of their new developments in the pipeline. She leads TNDC’s Urban Agriculture team that facilitates food justice programming, health and wellness education, urban food production and much more.

Susannah Smith

Susannah Smith is a documentary filmmaker specializing in urban stories. In particular, she is interested in exploring the ways race and sexuality intersect with the politics of gentrification and sustainable cities. She is dedicated to creating films that are nuanced, based in social justice, and still bring a smile to your face. Recent projects include The Lexington Club Archival Project, People Live Here, and collaborating on Women’s March short, Queer Arts Festival performances of White Lies , and work with the UC Critical Sustainabilities Group. She has worked as a Creative Producer, Account Manager, Editor, and Post-Production Supervisor in the Bay area for over 15 years. For fun, she gets her buddies to collaborate on playful lo-fi animations with cardboard, embraces the role of art teacher and spoiler extraordinaire to her nieces, makes jewelry, and posts ridiculous pics of her dog George to Instagram. In 2012 she earned her MA in Social Documentation from UC Santa Cruz.

Heidi is a partner at Urban Field Studio, which provides urban design services for early idea formation, with particular concern for the public realm and human interaction. With colleague Jane, Heidi provides a full range of urban design services with an emphasis on strategy and design, visual communication with the public, and education about the role of urban design.

Sosena Solomon

Sosena Solomon is an award winning social documentary film and multimedia visual artist from Ethiopia. Intuitively selecting subjects and stories, she is particularly interested in spaces of transition and change, acting as a cultural preservationist. Her work, whether presented as a film or an immersive 3-dimensional experience, explores cross sections of various subcultures and communities in flux, carefully teasing out cultural nuances and capturing personal narratives via arresting visual storytelling and cinéma vérité stylings. Sosena has worked for many years in the commercial and nonprofit sectors and has worked as a Director and Cinematographer on many short film projects including “dreaming of jesurusuel (2021) which made its debut on Docisover +, “Sole”, a documentary on sneaker culture that premiered on PBS affiliate MINDTV, and “MERKATO”, filmed on location in one of Africa’s largest open-air markets and exhibited internationally as an audio, visual, and sensory installation. Sosena is a freelancer currently lecturing in the Fine Arts Department at University of Pennsylvania’s Stuart Weitzman School of Design.

Peter Stein

Peter L. Stein is a San Francisco-based media producer and presenter who has enjoyed telling the stories of his native San Francisco in projects for television, film, theater, museums and online. During 11 years at PBS station KQED, he created a wide range of documentaries and series for national public television, including the six-hour series Neighborhoods: The Hidden Cities of San Francisco, which garnered a Peabody Award (for “The Castro,” which Peter wrote, produced and directed) and several regional Emmy Awards for “The Fillmore” (writer/producer) and “Chinatown” (executive producer). More at www.peterLstein.com.

Kawana Staffney

As a 4th generation Conch native, Kawana Staffney-Ashe grew up serving her community. She began as a volunteer at The Bahama Village Music Program many years ago while her son was participating and feel in love with the program and what it means to the community.  As the current Executive Director her main goal and drive is to continue to find ways to bridge the gap throughout the generations and bringing cultural awareness to the forefront.  Music and the Arts are the perfect vessel to break down the walls, build those bridges, and generate the awareness that brings forth pride.  “Bahama Village is in my heart and my life’s work goes toward preserving its beauty.”

Antje Steinmuller

Antje Steinmuller is an architectural designer and educator whose research explores the role of design (and designers) at the intersection of citizen-led and city-regulated processes in the production of urban space. She is an Associate Professor at California College of the Arts where she chairs the Bachelor of Architecture program, and an Associate Director of the Urban Works Agency, CCA’s urbanism research lab. Through her studios at CCA, she investigates new typologies of urban commons, new forms of collective living, and the agency of architecture vis-a-vis the current housing crisis. Antje is also a principal at Studio Urbis, an architecture, urban design and research practice in Berkeley, and co-founder of Ideal X, a design consultancy focused on the potentials of public spaces in transition.

Jonah Strauss

Strauss lost his live-work space in March of 2015 due to a fire in the adjacent unit, and was thus uniquely prepared to go into tenants’ rights activism immediately after Ghost Ship.  Oakland Warehouse Coalition advocates for affordable alternative housing at the local and state levels, and has forged key relationships with elected officials, city staff, and ethical developers.  The Coalition has developed partnerships with tenants’ rights groups on both sides of the Bay by opening up its advocacy work to include the broader low-income and homeless community.  Strauss has been a Production Designer for concerts and special events since 1999, and has run the DIY recording studio Survivor Sound since 2008.  He is considering running for an Oakland City Council seat in 2018.

Anne Stuhldreher

Anne Stuhldreher is the Director of Financial Justice in the Office of the Treasurer for the City and County of San Francisco.  San Francisco is the first city in the nation to launch a Financial Justice Project to assess and reform how fines, fees, and financial penalties impact the cities’ most vulnerable residents.

Throughout her career, Ms. Stuhldreher has advanced innovations in local economic empowerment, civic engagement and public interest journalism. In San Francisco, she brought people together to initiate and launch initiatives like: Bank on San Francisco (that spurs banks to create starter accounts for the estimated one in five Americans who don’t have them). As a Senior Policy Advisor to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and First Lady Maria Shriver, she helped start the Bank on California. The “Bank on” strategy that Ms. Stuhldreher conceived is being replicated in dozens of cities. She also authors op-eds and articles in outlets such as the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, and the Sacramento Bee. Formerly, Ms. Stuhldreher worked at the Ford Foundation, Opportunity Fund, the California Endowment and is currently a fellow at New America CA.

Ronald Robles Sundstrom

Ronald Robles Sundstrom is the Philosophy Department Chair; additionally, he teaches for USF’s African American Studies program and the Master of Public Affairs program for the Leo T. McCarthy Center of Public Service and the Common Good. His areas of research include political theory, critical social and race theory, and African American and Asian American philosophy. He has published several essays and a book in these areas, including The Browning of America and The Evasion of Social Justice (SUNY, 2008). His current project involves social research, and is on fair housing and the effects segregation and integration on democratic life and citizenship.

Lila Thirkield

Lila Thirkield founded the Lexington Club and was the sole owner until its closure after almost two decades. She opened Virgil’s Sea Room, next to El Rio in The Mission, five years ago and continues to foster nightlife and community through their many benefits and community gatherings. She has served on the Dyke March committee, and continued to as an advisor and fundraiser to help ensue future marches. She also loves cats.

Joaquín Torres

Joaquín Torres leads Mayor Ed Lee’s “Invest In Neighborhoods Initiative” leveraging city resources across city departments and through partnerships to maximize positive economic and social impact in our neighborhoods. Joaquín is the current Deputy Director at the San Francisco Office of Economic and Workforce Development. He also serves as the President of the San Francisco Housing Authority Commission, as the Authority undergoes a re-envisioning process of structural and financial reform as initiated by Mayor Lee. Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Services (MONS) under Mayor Lee. He lives in the Outer Mission in District 11.

A native of Australia, Jack has been fascinated by the authentic urban spaces ever since he was old enough to play LEGO. It was no surprise that since leaving college, Jack has worked in local area revitalization, real estate development for the past 15 years.  Jack is a real estate consultant at the Northern California Community Loan Fund, where he works with social purpose and arts organizations to solve their real estate needs in the Bay Area. His work encompasses real estate readiness training, acquisition and leasing strategies, multi-tenant centers and working with distressed real estate.  Jack holds a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering and business from the University of Western Australia and a master’s degree in Urban Planning from the University of British Columbia.

Dr. Eugene Tssui

Dr. Eugene Tssui (AIA, NCARB, APA) is a licensed architect and contractor, city and regional planner, industrial designer, artist, educator, investigative scientist, inventor, musician, competitive athlete, publisher, President of Tsui Design and Research, Inc. and Chairman of the Telos Foundation, a nonprofit foundation for educating the public about design, headquartered in Emeryville, California.

Ana Vasudeo joined SF Bicycle Coalition as Program Director last year. At SF Bicycle Coalition, Ana oversees the organization’s bicycle education program, community bike builds program, youth and family biking program, and valet bicycle parking.  She brings over 10 years experience in the environmental field, working both domestically and internationally. She has a passion for environmental equity, previously leading climate justice initiatives at Green for All and the World Bank. Ana also served as the Director of the Blue Greenway for the SF Parks Alliance. She is a proud San Francisco native and enjoys getting to know the city more via bike and exploring the Bay Trail with her family. She holds a Master of Regional Planning Degree from Cornell University.

Natalia M. Vigil

Natalia M. Vigil is a queer Xicana writer, multi-media curator, and big sister born and raised in San Francisco. Her multi-genre writing arises from the voices and  stories  of  the  people  around  her and  mixes  poem, memoir, song,  and  myth. Her  work has   appeared   in   numerous publications   and   shows  around the Bay Area.  She is a 2016 Lambda Literary Fellow for nonfiction and the fiercely proud co-founder and Artistic Director of Still Here San Francisco.

Brian Weiner specializes in political theory (from the ancients to contemporary theory), American political theory, and public law. He teaches courses in the areas of political theory, law, and American politics. Professor Weiner also teaches Literature and Political Thought and Democratic Theory and Democratic Transitions. Professor Weiner has written, Sins of the Parents: The Politics of National Apologies in the United States, a book examining the political and legal issues raised by recent attempts by the U.S. government to redress past wrongs.

Brian Wiedenmeier

After starting as the SF Bicycle Coalition’s Development Director in May 2014, Brian became Executive Director in July 2016. He has been a member since 2007. He brings almost a decade of nonprofit resource development and management experience to the job, including leadership roles at ODC and Performing Arts Workshop. A passionate advocate for better bicycling in San Francisco, he has worked for safer streets in his SoMa neighborhood and beyond. Brian holds an MPA from San Francisco State University and a BA from the University of Minnesota.

Bryan Wiley

Born in Philadelphia, Bryan grew up in a household filled with music and art. His first renowned photojournalism project, “In Search of African Continuum; Sacred Ceremonies and Rituals,” focused on sacred ceremonies and rituals rooted in West Africa and spread throughout the Diaspora.  His still photography is on the feature film documentary, “Crips and Bloods: Made in America.” The compelling story by director Stacy Peralta examines the conditions of devastating gang violence among young African Americans growing up in South Los Angeles. “Oakland Here and Now” was born with an overwhelming sense of urgency to tell the stories of the city’s unique and diverse people before they are gone forever.  His work has been featured in Ebony Magazine, San Francisco Chronicle, Newsweek, Agence France-Presse and was a photo editor at Black Issues In Higher Education and the Children’s Defense Fund magazines.  Bryan has lived in Oakland for 9 years and mentors youth on the autism spectrum.

Junious Williams

Mr. Williams is the principal of Junious Williams Consulting, Inc. (JWC) a firm specializing in research, policy and program development on issues of equity and social justice.  From 1998 through 2016 he served as President and CEO of Urban Strategies Council, a social justice impact organization. He holds a Juris Doctorate in Law and a Bachelor’s degree in sociology from the University of Michigan.  In addition to private law practice, his career includes: founding the Saginaw Student Rights Center and co-founding the Ann Arbor Student Advocacy Center; work on school desegregation, disparate student discipline and education equity at the Program for Educational Opportunity at the University Of Michigan School of Education; Executive Director of Student Attendance and Discipline for the Detroit Public Schools; and Associate Professor of Ethnic Studies at CSU, Fresno.  He has worked on community building, education and  criminal justice reform, workforce and economic development efforts including negotiating landmark community benefits agreements on major development projects in Oakland and San Francisco. He is co-founder and Board Chair of the Oakland Community Land Trust and Board Chair for the Center for Law and Education.

Ed Wolf is featured in the award-winning documentary “We Were Here,” which tells the story of the earliest days of the AIDS epidemic in San Francisco. Ed moved to San Francisco in 1976, has been working in the HIV field continuously since 1983, and has told stories at the National Queer Arts Festival, Listen For A Change, You’re Going to Die Too, Audible.com, Porch Light: A Storytelling Series, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Still Here and numerous other open mic events. His writing has appeared in many publications, including Beyond Definition: New Writing from Gay and Lesbian San Francisco; The Bay Area Reporter; the groundbreaking AIDS Reader; Fray: Sex and Death; Christopher Street and The James White Review.

Kevin Wong

Kevin D. Wong is a Bay Area-based director, editor, and producer. After a stint in visual effects at ILM, he ventured out into the world of independent filmmaking. His narrative films include “Forgetting,” an adaptation of an epsiode of “Radiolab,” and “Be My Baby,” a family drama that was featured on Comcast’s “Pinoy TV.” Wong’s feature screenplay “Nellie” was a 2nd round selection in the 2013 Sundance Screenwriters Lab.

Winnie Wong

Winnie is an independent producer in the narrative short film, music video, commercial, documentary, and lifestyle space. She is committed to working with conscientious individuals, companies and organizations on creative projects that reflect the events and topics that move us. She is also committed to incorporating diversity and inclusion clauses when commissioned for her work.

Sara Worth

Sara leads the Story Department at Wondros, a creative communications agency dedicated to ideas that change culture. Working with clients from the initial point of engagement through to campaign completion, Sara develops messaging, film creative, and copy for leaders in health, business, technology, public policy, philanthropy, and the arts, including Univision, Home Matters, Huawei, Seventh Generation, and the Harvard Football Players Health Study. She earned her BA with Honors in English literature from USC, where she was a Trustee Scholar.

Jonathan Young

Jonathan Young grew up in foothills of the Angeles National forest of LA county. He developed a healthy appreciation of animals at an early age having been raised by an avid outdoorsman and a mother that allowed him to keep a number of critters as pets. After obtaining a Bachelors of Science in Biology from San Diego State University he moved to San Francisco where he began volunteering with the Presidio Park Stewards. A year or so of volunteering resulted in habitat restoration internship. It was during this time that he began graduate school at San Francisco State University, meanwhile advancing to a new internship which focused on the restoration of the Presidio’s Mountain Lake. His master’s work overlapped heavily with his restoration work in the Presidio and when he completed school he was hired on as the Presidio Trust’s first Wildlife Ecologist. Since then he has been developing the Presidio’s wildlife program, which in general includes monitoring, outreach, and reintroductions of lost species. He is interested in all animals from worms to zooplankton, but his all-time favorites are reptiles and amphibians. Jonathan is excited about the endless opportunities in the new field of Urban Ecology and what better place than San Francisco to bring conservation action to an urban audience.

Lily Yu

Lily is a youth education advocate and filmmaker. Lily served as a co-op member at the Echo Park Film Center and worked as a teaching artist for high school students throughout Los Angeles. She graduated from the California Institute of the Arts with a BFA in Film/Video, a minor in Cultural Studies, and a focus on arts education and pedagogy. Currently, she works at a youth arts center in East Palo Alto. Her interests include art curation and analog filmmaking.

Robert N. Zagone

Robert N. Zagone is an independent filmmaker and television director who is best known for his independent feature films Read You Like a Book (starring Karen Black, Tony Amendola and Danny Glover)[1] and The Stand-In (starring Danny Glover). He is also well known for the iconic guerilla-style documentary Drugs in the Tenderloin, as well as his many forays into the musical culture of San Francisco, including Go Ride the Music, featuring Jefferson Airplane and Quicksilver Messenger Service; A Night at the Family Dog, featuring the Grateful Dead, Santana, and Jefferson Airplane; Big Brother and the Holding Company with Janis Joplin; and the infamous Bob Dylan Press Conference. Zagone was one of the first filmmakers to cover the cultural explosion of the 1960s in the San Francisco Bay Area, as well as one of the first directors to make music videos. In addition, he was one of the first directors to implement an open policy of diversity for all of his film projects, for both cast and crew. He is the recipient of three Emmys from the San Francisco chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, and is a member of the Directors Guild of America.

Sadaf Zahoor

Sadaf Zahoor is an East Bay native and member of the underground music scene and a debate coach for the Bay Area Urban Debate League. Sadaf became an advocate for her home, Burnt Ramen after it was outed after the Ghost Ship fire and is committed to regaining access to the space that her and others love so dearly. Understanding the importance of spaces where marginalized folk can have an outlet for creative expression is a cornerstone in Bay Area life, and needs to be protected.