Miriam Abrams, Miriam Abrams & Associates

Miriam Abrams brings more than twenty five years of senior level experience and consulting with non-profit organizations and public agencies. She has had her own consulting practice since 1993, specializing in strategic planning, and meeting and retreat facilitation. Miriam has collaborated in developing comprehensive multicultural strategic planning processes, was a consultant with Diversity Matters, and has worked in association with VISIONS, Inc., a national organization focusing on long-term diversity initiatives.  Ms. Abrams is an affiliate consultant with University of California-Berkeley’s Center for Organizational Effectiveness and The CBO Center.

Nick Allen, Donordigital

Nick Allen is CEO of Donordigital, the direct marketing company that helps organizations use the Internet to build their constituencies through fundraising, advocacy, advertising, and marketing.  He was co-editor of the first book on online fundraising, Fundraising on the Internet (Jossey-Bass, second edition, 2001) and leads workshops for the Direct Marketing Association (DMA), the Association of Fundraising Professionals, and the International Fundraising Conference in the Netherlands.  He has worked as executive director (and founder) of Neighbor to Neighbor, and Washington director of the Fenton Communications public interest PR firm.  In the early 1990s, he spent three years based in Prague, training environmental activists across Central and Eastern Europe.  This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Roberto Almanzán, MS, Contra Costa Crisis Center

Roberto Almanzán is the Cultural Competency Coordinator at the Contra Costa Crisis Center. He provides an ongoing training program on diversity and cultural competence for the staff and volunteers and offers these programs to community, government and private organizations in the county. Roberto earned a BS in International Relations from Stanford University and an MS in Counseling from California State University East Bay. Roberto was a participant in the award winning documentaries, The Color of Fear, and its sequel, Walking Each Other Home. These documentary films serve as catalysts for a deeper understanding of how race and ethnicity affect our daily lives. This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Keith A. Archuleta, Emerald Consulting

Keith has served as Executive Director of several nonprofit organizations.  Keith is stepping down after seven years as Executive Director of Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) of Contra Costa County in order to return to working full-time as President and CEO of his company, Emerald Consulting.  He has served on the Board of Regents of John F. Kennedy University and on the Board of Directors of several nonprofit organizations including the California CASA Association, Opportunity Junction, and The CBO Center.  He earned two bachelor degrees from Stanford University in Communications and in African and African American Studies.  He has also earned an M.A. in Nonprofit Organizational Management from the University of San Francisco.

Joel Bashevkin, Taproot Foundation

Joel Bashevkin has over 25 years of experience in nonprofit management, especially with agencies undergoing substantial growth and challenges. As the Taproot Foundation’s West Coast Regional Director, Joel is responsible for realizing the opportunity to make high quality pro bono services available to nonprofits across the West Coast. Joel oversees operations in the Bay Area, Seattle, and Los Angeles.  Previously, Joel was Executive Director of the Jewish Community Center of the East Bay for eight years.  Prior to the JCC, Joel served as Deputy Director of Finance and Administration at the Jewish Museum San Francisco (now Contemporary Jewish Museum), Operations Director at the Boston Food Bank, and he has consulted with nonprofits in the areas of arts, disability, public health, domestic poverty and hunger.

Tom Beaty, City National Bank

Tom Beaty, serves as Senior Vice President and Office Director of the San Francisco unit of Wealth Management Services.  Prior to joining City National, he served as a Director of Business Development and Wealth Planning at Deutsche Bank/Scudder Private Investment Counsel. In addition to his Business Development efforts there, he specialized in developing comprehensive wealth and tax planning strategies for high net worth individuals.  Prior to that, Tom was a Financial Advisor with Sagemark Consulting in San Francisco, a fee based financial planning firm.  Active in his community, Mr. Beaty is an advisory board member and past board chair of the Bay Area Make-A-Wish Foundation, and also serves on the Professional Advisor committee of the East Bay Community Foundation. 

Jennifer Bennett, VolunteerMatch

Jennifer joined VolunteerMatch in June 2007 to build and manage the organization’s volunteer engagement programs, and to develop resources for volunteer managers.  Jennifer has over 10 years of nonprofit management experience including seven years working directly with volunteers, and developing, managing, and revitalizing volunteer programs for small, grassroots nonprofits.  She’s managed programs with both traditional and ‘new model’ volunteers, and is a strong believer that the most successful volunteer programs are flexible and engage all styles of volunteers.  She is also currently participating in The Conference Board research working group on Managing an Aging Workforce at Nonprofits.

Philip Byrdsong, Targeted Fundraising

With over 10 years of fundraising experience, Philip is a member of the Association for Fundraising Professionals, Northern California Planned Giving Council, National Center for Black Philanthropy, and Development Executive Roundtable as well as Disabled American Veterans. He has given presentations at National Center for Blacks in Philanthropy, Council for Advancement and Support of Education, CompassPoint Funder's Fair, Multicultural Alliance of AFP-GGC, Bay Area Black United Fund, National Association of College Admissions Counselors, NAACP, and Lafayette-Orinda Presbyterian Singles. He has raised funds for United Way, California Peace Action, Central American Resource Center, A Better Chance, NAACP, East Bay Conversion and Reinvestment Committee, International Association of Machinist & Aerospace Workers, and local charities.

Liz Callahan, ACC, The CBO Center

Liz is the founding executive director of The CBO Center. She was an independent consultant for thirteen years and spent 30-plus years in nonprofits, academia, and government, including as vice president for Public Affairs and Marketing at Recording for the Blind and founding executive director of the Hudson County Coalition of Nonprofit Organizations. Her consulting areas include team development, business process improvement, collaborations, restructuring, board development, matrix management, management accountability, and planning and project management. She is an ICF-certified executive coach and holds a Master’s degree in psychology from New School University.

Nhi Chau, OASES

In January 2005, H. Nhi Chau became the Executive Director of the Oakland Asian Students Educational Services, a community-based nonprofit organization that seeks to empower youth with limited resources to maximize their potential through educational and social support services.  Nhi is a current fellow of LeaderSpring and a graduate of CompassPoint’s Leadership Development Program for Woman Executive Directors of Color leadership. Prior to joining OASES, Nhi served as a Program Manager at the California Alumni Association, a Facilitator/Teacher/Co-founder of the Alameda Community Learning Center, and a Youth Counselor at the Asian Community Mental Health Services. Nhi earned her BA in Social Welfare from the University of California and M.Ed from Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Cynthia Chavez, LeaderSpring

Cynthia Chavez is Executive Director of LeaderSpring which has a ten-year track record of fostering high performing nonprofits and increasing leadership capacity, retention and renewal among nonprofit leaders in the San Francisco Bay Area.  She is a former staff member at the W.K .Kellogg Foundation where she helped shape a national grantmaking strategy to foster philanthropy among and for communities of color.  She serves on the board of the Leadership Learning Community, a national entity that invests in people who fund, study and provide leadership development for social change.  Cynthia also serves on a 15 member national think tank to foster coaching as an effective tool for leadership development in the nonprofit sector.

Alice Collier Cochran, M.Ed., Cochran Consulting

Alice Collier Cochran has been an organization effectiveness consultant in the Bay Area for over twenty years. She now focuses primarily on improving nonprofit governance and increasing engagement of board and staff members through regular meetings and future planning “Advances” (not retreats).  She is a frequent presenter at nonprofit conferences and trainer of nonprofit leaders in how to modernize meetings and toss overboard the methods of parliamentary procedure.  In 2004 Jossey-Bass (Wiley) published her book Roberta’s Rules of Order: Who is Robert and Why Do We Still Follow His Rules Anyway? In early 2008 she will launch a new QuickStart Guidebook to implement Roberta’s Rules.

Marla Cornelius, CompassPoint Nonprofit Services

Marla Cornelius is a Projects Director at CompassPoint Nonprofit Services, a nonprofit consulting, research, and training organization providing nonprofits with management tools, strategies, and resources to lead change in their communities. She is responsible for the creation and management of several of CompassPoint leadership and governance programs.  Additionally, she develops curricula in the areas of staff management, personal development and governance/boards of directors. She has served on several community based organizations' boards and is a graduate student at the University of San Francisco pursuing her masters in Nonprofit Administration.

 C. Davis Fischer, The Foundation Center San Francisco

C. Davis Fischer is the Training Coordinator for the Foundation Center- San Francisco.  Previously, she was a consultant providing her clients guidance on strategy, process, fundraising and organizational change management for non-profits and individual donors.  Prior to becoming a consultant, Davis developed a program in India which facilitates the rehabilitation of women recovering from sex-trafficking.  Davis has also worked in the education field, designing, developing and coordinating service oriented leadership training for youth in Cairo, Egypt for Amideast Inc. Davis received her undergraduate degree from Mount Holyoke College in economics and philosophy and received a graduate degree in education from Harvard University.

Dolores Garay, Fundraising Consultant

Dolores Garay is a consultant with ten years of experience in the non-profit sector.  She has worked with clients across the non-profit spectrum including education, health, youth, LGBT, media, and philanthropic organizations.  She is currently on the Board of the Development Executives Roundtable.  She is also serving on the Executive Planning Committee for the July 2008 Raising Change: A Social Justice Fundraising Conference.  In 2004, she co-chaired the Association of Fundraising Professionals Golden Gate Chapter Fundraising Day Conference, which attracted over 1200 people. In her past lives she was a community organizer, a music journalist and radio commentator. She is a co-founder of shellac magazine, a queer people of color arts journal.

Jon Gilgoff, Young Nonprofit Professionals Network (YNPN)

Jon Gilgoff serves as Program Chair on the Advisory Board’s Executive Committee of the Young Nonprofit Professionals Network.  In his other nonprofit work, he delivers counseling and leadership programs for at-risk boys in Oakland, and male involvement programs for a child care center in Daly City.  Jon is very excited to be founding a new organization dedicated to boys and men entitled Brothers on the Rise.  As a bilingual Social Worker, he has engaged male youth, families and youth workers with gender-responsive therapy, violence prevention and responsible empowerment programs for eight years.

Charles F. Greene, Centerforce

Chuck Greene is the Interim Executive Director of Centerforce.  He has more than 35 years of nonprofit management experience as co-founder and Administrative Vice President of World College West, Executive Director of the Volunteer Center of San Francisco, The Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund and the Goldman Environmental Prize.  He has been an interim executive director for eight Bay Area nonprofits, most recently at CompassPoint Nonprofit Services, where he now serves on the Board of Directors. Previous interim assignments include Chinese for Affirmative Action, Angel Island Immigration Foundation, Zen Hospice Project and the Marin Institute. 

Darian Rodriguez Heyman, Craigslist Foundation

Darian is passionate about creating positive change in the world.  Besides serving as Executive Director of Craigslist Foundation, he serves on the Mayor’s Commission for the Environment in San Francisco, is President of the Community Fellows class of 2007 at Full Circle Fund, and works with Michael Franti & Spearhead on their annual 911 Power to the Peaceful festival.  He sits on the Board of Directors of Project Ahimsa, a global effort to empower children through music, and previously co-founded the interactive advertising agency Beyond Interactive.

Priscilla Hung, Grassroots Institute for Fundraising Training

Priscilla Hung is the Co-Director of GIFT, the Grassroots Institute for Fundraising Training. GIFT provides fundraising resources, training, and analysis to organizations nationwide, especially those that are working for social justice and are based in communities of color. GIFT also publishes the groundbreaking magazine founded by Kim Klein, Grassroots Fundraising Journal, and organizes Raising Change: A Social Justice Fundraising Conference. Priscilla got started in fundraising almost ten years ago as a GIFT intern at the Center for Third World Organizing, and has been a fundraiser, trainer, and teacher. She recently joined the board of National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum. This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Diane J. Johnson, Ph.D., Mmapeu Management Consulting

Dr. Johnson has more than 25 years experience in the business, public and social sectors in a multitude of roles.  She has been a practitioner, program director, project administrator, manager, researcher, trainer and technical assistance provider, resource developer, communications specialist, and program evaluator. Currently, Dr. Johnson serves as President and founder of Mmapeu Management Consulting, a national consulting firm that started in 1992.  This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

John R. Killacky, The San Francisco Foundation

John R. Killacky, Program Officer for Arts and Culture, joined The San Francisco Foundation in March 2003. Previously, he served as Executive Director of Yerba Buena Center for the Arts for six years and Curator of Performing Arts for the Walker Art Center for eight years.  He received the First Bank Award Sally Ordway Irvine Award in Artistic Vision; the William Dawson Award for Programming Excellence from the Association of Performing Arts Presenters; Dance USA's Earnie Award as an "unsung hero;" a Gerbode Foundation Professional Development Fellowship; a scholarship to Harvard Business School's summer intensive; and in 2004, the Fan Taylor Distinguished Service Award for Exemplary Service to the Field of Professional Presenting from the Association of Performing Arts Presenters.

Jane Lin, Tides Foundation

Jane Lin is a Philanthropic Advisor at Tides Foundation’s national office in San Francisco.  Jane handles a portfolio of individual clients as they develop and implement their giving plans through donor advised funds.  From facilitating a donor’s docket process and site visits to researching issue areas and evaluating grantees, Jane has extensive experience in grantmaking.  In addition to working with individuals, Jane also leads Tides Foundation’s economic justice initiative – Bridging the Economic Divide (BED).  The BED Initiative started in 2000 as a donor collaborative to address the growing chasm between the poor and the wealthy in this country.  To date, BED has granted approximately $3.5 million to over 55 economic justice organizations and coalitions across the country.

Pat Loomes, Girls Inc. of Alameda

In 1977 Pat Loomes became the Executive Director of Girls Inc. of Alameda County which has provided programs and real-life options to girls in the East Bay community for the past 45 years.  During her 30 year tenure with Girls Inc., Pat was presented with the 1995 Seaton Manning Oustanding Agency Professional Award, Navigator Award for Model Leadership and Award of Excellence from the Management Center, and Local Hero Award from KQED.

Lorraine Meuleners, Volunteer Center of the East Bay

Lorraine Meuleners is the Executive Director of the Volunteer Center of the East Bay.  She was the keynote speaker at the Area on Aging Partners in Planning event where she presented Ready, Set…Boomer, a preview of the coming explosion of Boomers interested in volunteering.  In 1999, Lorraine retired from Wells Fargo where she had been a Senior Vice President in the Consumer Credit Marketing area.  She has a B.S. from St. Mary’s College in Business Administration.  She is the volunteer Local Coordinator of the AARP/IRS Taxaide program, providing free tax service to low-income seniors, at the Mastick Senior Center in Alameda.

Debbie Ng, Center for Nonprofit and Public Leadership, Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley

Debbie Ng is a second-generation Chinese American and native Californian who began her nonprofit career as an AmeriCorps worker. For over ten years, she has continued to work in the nonprofit sector focusing on youth development, civic engagement, and education. Her work has a particular focus on serving and representing the voices of underrepresented communities. She is the co-author of the soon-to-be-published book, Telling the Whole Story: Insights into Community Involvement in African American, American Indian, Central American, Chinese American, Japanese American, Korean American and Mexican American Communities with Nora Silver in 2008. Debbie has also produced an award-winning film called Kieu which has screened around the world.  You may reach her at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Manuel Pastor, PhD., University of Southern California

Dr. Manuel Pastor is Professor of Geography and American Studies & Ethnicity at the University of Southern California and Director of the Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE) at USC’s Center for Sustainable Cities.  His most recent book, co-authored with Chris Benner and Laura Leete, is Staircases or Treadmills: Labor Market Intermediaries and Economic Opportunity in a Changing Economy (Russell Sage, 2007).  Pastor is currently working on issues of environmental justice with support from the California Air Resources Board and The California Endowment, on the relationship between community-building and regional strategies with the support of the Ford Foundation, and on issues of immigrant integration with the support of the California Community Foundation.  Dr. Pastor speaks frequently on issues of demographic change, economic inequality, and community empowerment and has contributed opinion pieces to such outlets as the Los Angeles Times, the San Jose Mercury News, the Los Angeles Business Journal, and the Christian Science Monitor.

Dana Textoris, NARAL Pro-Choice California

Dana Textoris is the Associate Director of Development for NARAL Pro-Choice California), where she directs the organization's statewide fundraising initiatives in major gifts, grant seeking, membership, and special events. She oversees efforts to recruit newer, younger donors by making use of online campaigns, leadership development opportunities, and activities that blend giving and activism. Before joining NARAL Pro-Choice California, she was the Interim Development Director at Fred Finch Youth Center and the Education and Communications Coordinator for the ACLU of Ohio.  Dana is a founding board member of Good Ol' Girls, and serves as the Finance and Fundraising Director. She also serves as Secretary on the Board of Directors of the Development Executives Roundtable.

Tim Wolfred, Psy.D., CompassPoint Nonprofit Services

After having served as interim executive director in 16 Bay Area nonprofits, Tim developed CompassPoint’s Executive Transitions program in 1998.  He has been under contract with the Annie E. Casey Foundation for 6 years to assist local communities across the country in developing their executive transition services.  He is co-author of three seminal studies of executive director tenure and experience, “Leadership Lost” (1999), “Daring to Lead” (2001) and “Daring to Lead 2006”, which are published by CompassPoint and have received extensive attention nationally.  Tim has also authored two monographs which were published by the Casey Foundation.  Tim served as Executive Director of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation from 1985 to 1989.

Bethtina Woodridge, Public Allies Silicon Valley

Bethtina Woodridge is currently serving as Public Allies Silicon Valley's Site Director.  In 1994, she came to Public Allies as Director of Training in hopes of utilizing her vast experience as a trainer, coach, consultant, community leader, and activist.  She has over ten years of experience working with organizations on topics such as service-learning, individual and organizational development, cultural competency, communication, and outcomes-based education.  Bethtina volunteers with organizations such as Zuna Institute, the National Gay and Lesbian Taskforce, Incite:  Women of Color Against Violence, San Francisco Children's System of Care, Vision Literacy, and Rebuilding Together. A Sally Casanova Pre-doctoral Fellow, she holds a B.A. from CSU, Monterey Bay in Human Communication, with a concentration in Practical and Professional Ethics.

Stephanie Yang, SYD Consulting

Stephanie Yang is the principal and founder of SYD Consulting, a private firm that works with foundations, individual donors and families on values-based program development and social justice philanthropy. Most recently, she served as the Director of Programs at Changemakers, a national foundation that supports and promotes community-based philanthropy.  Stephanie has presented at numerous philanthropy conferences.  She is the author of "The World Belongs to Us: Young Women, Leadership and Philanthropy" and "Legacy and Innovation: A guidebook for families on social change philanthropy".  She also contributed a chapter entitled "Voices of Young Women: The Development of Girls' Funds" in the book "Women, Philanthropy and Social Change: Visions for a Just Society".