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Team

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Des Buford (she/her/Des) Pronunciation: nmdrp.me/desbuford
Director of Consulting Operations & Administration
des@justicefunders.org

Aminata Diallo (she/her) Pronunciation: nmdrp.me/amidiallo
Director of Organizational Culture & Development
aminata@justicefunders.org

 

Jessica (Jessi) Espinoza-Jensen (she/her)
Pronunciation: namedrop.io/jessicaespinozajensen
Director of Funder Organizing
jessi@justicefunders.org

Dino Foxx (they/them) Pronunciation: nmdrp.me/dinofoxx
Director of Imagination & Culture
dino@justicefunders.org

Lorenzo Herrera y Lozano (he/him/his)
Pronunciation: nmdrop.me/lorenzoherreraylozano
Co-Executive Director
lorenzo@justicefunders.org

Sharon Hing (she/her) Pronunciation: namedrop.io/sharonhing
Director of Collaborative Learning
sharon@justicefunders.org

Rachel Humphrey (she/her/hers)
Pronunciation: nmdrp.me/rachelhumphrey
Senior Director of Practice Acceleration
rachel@justicefunders.org

Dana Kawaoka-Chen (she/her) Pronunciation: nmdrop.me/danakawaokachen
Co-Executive Director
dana@justicefunders.org

abdiel j. lópez (they/them) Pronunciation: namedrop.io/abdiellopez1
Director of Capital Activation
abdiel@justicefunders.org

Rosita Lucas (she/her) Pronunciation: nmdrop.me/rositalucas
Senior Director of Resource Development & Finance
rosita@justicefunders.org

Mario Lugay (he/him/his) Pronunciation: nmdrop.me/mariolugay
Senior Director of Innovation
mario@justicefunders.org

Kururama Masomere (she/her/her)
Pronunciation: namedrop.io/kururamamasomere1
Director of Capital Strategies
kururama@justicefunders.org

Kimi Mojica (they/siya/she) Pronunciation: nmdrp.me/kimimojica
Senior Director of Consulting
kimi@justicefunders.org

Maria Nakae (she/her) Pronunciation: nmdrp.me/marianakae
Senior Director of Just Transition Investing
maria@justicefunders.org

Kristine Piasecki (she/her/hers)
Pronunciation: namedrop.io/kristinepiasecki
Director of Finance & People-Centered Systems
kristine@justicefunders.org

Sujatha Sebastian (she/her)
Pronunciation: nmdrp.me/sujathasebastian
Senior Director of Leadership Programs
sujatha@justicefunders.org

 

Lora Smith (she/her) Pronunciation: namedrop.io/lorasmith
Director of Investment Partnerships
lora@justicefunders.org

Jasmine Jones (she/her)
Pronunciation: namedrop.io/jasminejones
Consultant, Philanthropic Reparations Project
reparations@justicefunders.org

Des joined Justice Funders in 2021 and currently serves as the Director of Consulting Operations & Administration, where she supports the consulting practice in guiding philanthropic institutions to align their organizational practices with the values and principles of Just Transition.

For nearly two decades Des has been dedicated to building and celebrating community through arts and cultural programming—namely at the intersection of LGBTQ communities and communities of color. She deeply believes in the transformative power of community to create dialogue, bolster coalition building, and spark social change. Des thrives on building long-term and deep relationships with colleagues, philanthropic allies, strategic partners, movement organizations, and community members.

Prior to joining Justice Funders, she was the Director of Institutional Partnerships & Events at Horizons Foundation. Des previously led the San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival (Frameline), the largest showcase of queer cinema in the world, where she served in various leadership roles for fifteen years. Des has a demonstrated commitment to mentoring and developing new talent, particularly through a lens of justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion.

In her free time, Des enjoys gardening, grilling, singing along to showtunes and Ricky Martin, and romping around the Bay Area with her partner and their beloved pup, Osita. She holds a B.A. from the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, with a minor in LGBTQ Studies.

As the Director of Organizational Culture & Development, Ami’s role is to facilitate Justice Funders’ culture, learning, programs, and systems to nurture the sustainability of the organization’s internal infrastructure and capacity to advance the goal of field-wide transformation in philanthropy through a just transition.

Ami brings years of experience in evaluation, and program and project management in nonprofits and foundations. Most recently, Ami was the Manager of Learning and Community Impact at The Scattergood Foundation where she focused on mental and behavioral health advocacy, and managed a region-wide evaluation capacity building initiative for over 100 nonprofits in Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey.

Ami has a master’s degree in Science, Technology & Society from Drexel University, and a master’s degree in Social Policy from the University of Pennsylvania. As a first generation Senegalese-American born in Harlem and raised in Queens, NY, her passion for culture and community has guided her perspective in this work.

Based in North Carolina, she enjoys life as a foodie, cooking, swimming, and her newly found joy in hiking and the outdoors.

Jessi joined Justice Funders in 2022, and currently serves as the Director of Funder Organizing where she stewards the political journeys of funders toward collective action to both mobilize philanthropic resources to build a regenerative economy and accelerate a Just Transition for philanthropy.

Jessi has 15 years of experience in grassroots partnership building, capacity building, community building, facilitation, community driven research, and art-based practices which cultivate creativity, curiosity, connectedness, and play. Prior to joining Justice Funders, Jessi was the Director of the New Mexico Health Equity Partnership, a statewide network organizing to advance health equity and racial justice. In this role, she served as a connector in grassroots and philanthropic spaces.

Jessi lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico and holds a MA in Sociology and a BBA in Marketing & Accounting. Jessi was the proud mama to two beagles for 16 years and recently adopted a rescue coonhound, named Letna. She enjoys morning walks to the river and spending time in the mountains amongst the wildflowers and snow. Creative care practices, such as bilateral drawing, making photo stories, and somatic scribing to the sounds of nature also bring Jessi joy.

As Director of Imagination and Culture, Dino works closely with Justice Funders’ People-Centered Systems Circle by introducing and supporting the adoption of regenerative practices and co-creating a culture of: psychological safety, centering well-being, radical interdependence, untethered imagination, and generative leadership internally and externally.

As a gender non-conforming, queer, indigenous grassroots fundraiser from San Antonio, TX, Dino comes to Justice Funders with many years in social justice philanthropy, two decades in non-profit operations and has been working to return financial resources to the places from which wealth has been extracted. As Operations Coordinator and Donor Organizing Coordinator for Thousand Currents (formerly IDEX), Dino collaborated on the formation of a giving circle of young inheritors of wealth in the Bay Area and helped establish the Thousand Currents’ COVID-19 rapid response fund which provided emergency grants to organizations in the global south.

Dino is a mindfulness practitioner who enjoys cooking, meditation, yoga, hiking, volunteerism, traveling (when safe) and music. They are the author of When the Glitter Fades (Kórima Press), and are committed to the creation of nonviolent social change through the art of Drag.

As Co-Executive Director, Lorenzo Herrera y Lozano supports the team in pursuing collaborative strategies to build a bold and sustainable Justice Funders by strengthening internal operational systems, aligning programs with our vision, and cultivating practices that nurture an organizational culture through which we are all able to flourish, thrive, and bring our full selves to the work of transforming philanthropy toward a Just Transition.

Early in his journey, Lorenzo was confronted with the painful contradictions between the radical and inspiring mission statements of movement organizations and the mistreatment and exploitation of their employees. Moved by the stories of heartbreak and loss of those who came before him, coupled with the heartbreak and loss he was experiencing, he rejected the practice of creating martyrs out of each other and of offering ourselves—our physical and mental health, our agency, our dreams—as sacrifices in the name of future generations. Turning to the wisdom of women of color, most of them queer, he began nurturing an organizational development and leadership praxis rooted in two fundamental beliefs: 1) to do our work well, we must support each other in being well; and, 2) to move in the direction of a shared vision, we must begin embodying that vision in the present.

Building on two decades of nonprofit management and governance experience; graduate training in Cultural Studies, Organizational Leadership and Ethics, and Chicanx Studies; and, a practice in neuroscience-informed asset-based coaching, Lorenzo applies these beliefs to every aspect of his work with the Justice Funders team—from the infrastructure we create; to the design, delivery, and assessment of our programs; to the supervision and professional development we provide; to the questions we ask and the reflections we offer one another; to the wellness strategies we weave into our together.

Raised in the Bay Area and northern Mexico, Lorenzo makes queer home with his partners, two rapidly growing teenagers, and a chihuahua in San Francisco.

As Director of Collaborative Learning, Sharon leads and supports a growing body of Justice Funders’ public engagements, including organizing a series of trainings about the just transition in philanthropy, and developing the leadership of funder organizers through peer learning workshops.

She has dedicated her career to building community, developing channels for collaboration, and designing creative interventions for collective action. Recently, she was with the Immigrant Legal Resource Center (ILRC) where she led multiple immigration advocacy collaboratives and regranting programs. Sharon also was a lecturer at UC Berkeley School of Law where she taught legal ethics. She began her career at Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy.

After graduating from UCLA School of Law with specializations in critical race theory and public interest law and policy, Sharon served as a law clerk to the late Judge Harry Pregerson of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. She received her undergraduate degrees from UCLA with majors in Fine Art, International Development Studies, and History.

She finds joy in baking her way through a growing pile of cookbooks, and taking walks along the New York City waterfront with her pup and partner.

Driven by a vision of a truly just and equitable world, Rachel Humphrey has worked in the philanthropic and nonprofit sector for 25 years as a strategist, capacity builder, and movement builder. She is passionate about people feeling connected, empowered, and purposeful in their collective efforts for justice, and brings a solid and ever-evolving anti-oppression lens as well as skills in Appreciative Inquiry and Conflict Literacy to supporting this aim.

Beginning in 2015, Rachel designed and led Justice Funder’s leadership development and consulting work. In 2022, Rachel’s work at Justice Funders focuses on accelerating the shift to regenerative practice through individual and group coaching. Prior to joining Justice Funders, Rachel supported social justice nonprofits and foundations as an independent consultant and as a Senior Consultant for TCC Group. Rachel also spent a decade mobilizing resources for community-based organizations around the world, including seven years as Director of Philanthropic Partnerships at the Global Fund for Women.

Rachel has trained extensively in participatory facilitation methods, including with the Institute of Cultural Affairs, Social Transformation Project, and the Center for Right Relationships. She has studied embodied leadership practices with Strozzi Institute and Coaches Rising. She is a few administrative hoops away from becoming a Master Certified Coach (MCC) through the International Coach Federation and holds a Master’s degree in Nonprofit Administration and an A.B. in Anthropology and Asian Studies. In her free time, she can be found on the trails near her home in West Marin County, CA.

As Co-Executive Director of Justice Funders, Dana Kawaoka-Chen partners and guides philanthropy in reimagining practices that advance a thriving and just world.  Dana leads with vision and is guided by relationships.  As a practitioner, Dana co-authored the “The Choir Book: A Framework for Social Justice Philanthropy,” and was a primary contributor to “Resonance: A Framework for Philanthropic Transformation.”  You can find her writing on a Just Transition for Philanthropy in Medium.

As founding Executive Director of Justice Funders, Dana grew the organization by aligning its strategy to the visions of movements working for racial, economic and social justice.  Dana’s leadership in facilitating a Just Transition for philanthropy by redistributing wealth, democratizing power and shifting economic control to communities has resulted in millions of philanthropic dollars being mobilized and aligned to build infrastructure for frontline communities to govern themselves.  For her work advocating for deeper investments in social movements and grassroots organizing, Dana was recognized by Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy (AAPIP) in 2015 as one of twenty-five national “Leaders in Action.”

Dana has previously served in executive functions for two other non-profit organizations.  She has a Masters of Science degree in Organization Development from the University of San Francisco, Bachelor of Arts degrees in American Studies and Visual Art from the University of California at Santa Cruz, and Non-Profit Management Certification from San Jose State University.

Born and raised in the Bay Area, Dana currently lives in San Jose with her family.

abdiel j. lópez is the Director of Capital Activation at Justice Funders, where they work closely with philanthropic foundations to shift their investment practices to align with Just Transition values. abdiel curates and oversees narrative strategy and public engagement to inspire the field to take actionable steps in redistributing capital and control toward a regenerative economy, authored by frontline BIPOC communities.

abdiel joined Justice Funders in January 2023. Since 2019, they’ve worked across the regenerative economic ecosystem, with roles at the Center for Cultural Innovation, Purpose Foundation, and Roanhorse Consulting. A lover of the arts, abdiel also held curatorial and gallery management positions in Los Angeles and Mexico City. abdiel earned a BA in sociology and studied art history at Grinnell College, where they were a Posse Foundation Scholar and Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow. abdiel is currently a student in the Impact and Sustainable Investing certificate program at Tufts University.

Outside of Justice Funders, abdiel is a critical essayist who self-organizes alternative art exhibitions, volunteers in mutual aid efforts, lifts weights, and spends quality time with loved ones. abdiel currently works and lives between Oaxaca City (their motherland) and Los Angeles (their hometown) with their Pomeranian dog-child, Horchata. (Photo by Bethanie Hines.)

As Senior Director of Resource Development & Finance, Rosita leads development and strategy to secure contributed income that will advance Justice Funders’ mission, partnering with the Co-Executive Directors and Senior Directors in providing executive leadership; stewarding organizational complexity while caring for people and culture; making values-aligned decisions for the organization; and coaching others in service of Justice Funders’ theory of change. As part of her resource development work Rosita engages with a range of stakeholders including philanthropic supporters, Justice Funders Network members, program participants and consulting clients, and our larger national network of movement and philanthropic allies.

Rosita’s previously held roles include Director of Advancement Services for Student Affairs Philanthropy at UC Berkeley,  philanthropic director for Oakland’s Holy Names University, and analyst for City College of San Francisco’s Office of Research, Planning and Grants.

Rosita is credentialed as a Certified Fund Raising Executive (CFRE) and 21/64 Certified Advisor. She holds a M.A. in Latin American, Caribbean and Iberian Studies from the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and a B.A. in History from UC Berkeley. She resides in Oakland with her family.

As Justice Funders’ Senior Innovation Director, Mario leads our organization’s Movement Commons Culture and Collective Action Lab. He partners with philanthropy and field practitioners to design, pilot, and scale interventions that advance social movements.

Mario comes to the organization via Stanford University’s d.school, where he served as a 2016-2017 Civic Innovation Fellow, and Guidestar, where he was an entrepreneur-in-residence. Mario is the founder of the movement-building technology platform, Giving Side.

In 2010, he co-founded New American Leaders, the country’s first and only organization dedicated to training first- and second- generation immigrants to run for elected office. He has held leadership positions at the Kapor Center for Social Impact, as well as the Funders’ Committee for Civic Participation, where he organized new and unprecedented philanthropic investments in both integrated voter engagement strategies and for a fair and accurate 2010 census count. He built significant community organizing experience as the National Coordinator of the national anti-war coalition, Racial Justice 911, and at CAAAV Organizing Asian Communities in the Northwest Bronx.

Mario is a long-time philanthropic and nonprofit consultant, speaker, facilitator, and writer. He has served in board and advisor roles at New Left Accelerator, POC Donor Collaborative, Digital Impact at Stanford’s Digital Civil Society Lab, New Media Mentors, American Prospect, and Asian Pacific Environmental Network. He is a graduate of Columbia University.

Kururama (Kuru) Masomere is the Director of Capital Strategies at Justice Funders, where she works with movement partners to support the integrated capital fundraising strategies of Just Transition projects, enterprises and loan funds. As a member of the Integrated Capital team, Kururama supports the mobilization of resources toward the creation of community-controlled institutions that build economic, cultural and political power in Black, Indigenous and other communities of color.

Kururama arrives at Justice Funders with experience in immigrant rights organizing, grantmaking, impact investing, and community and economic development strategies in philanthropy, local government and the broader nonprofit sector. Kururama was introduced to transformative philanthropic practices during her time at a foundation where she oversaw and co-led the mobilization of both grants and loans to community-based organizations. Kuru earned a dual BA in Organizational Communications and Criminal Justice at Western Michigan University and a Masters degree in Public Policy from the University of Michigan.

Kuru is Zimbabwean originally and currently works and lives in Detroit with her two kids, Amani and Ario.

Kimi Mojica joined Justice Funders in 2018 and currently serves as the Senior Director of Consulting where they guide and support philanthropic institutions in aligning grantmaking practices with social justice values and the Just Transition. In addition to leading Justice Funders’ consulting practice, they lend their talents to support the design and delivery of the Harmony Initiative and other leadership programs. They bring over twenty years of experience as a process strategist, facilitator and trainer working with a broad range of leaders and groups to vision and steward positive change beyond traditional DEI efforts, to transform culture, conflict and practices towards collective liberation.

Kimi works at the nexus of conflict literacy, peacemaking, leadership and organizational development grounded firmly in an equity lens that recognizes how power, structure and systems impact connection, relationships and quality of life. In addition to philanthropy, their career and background spans across sectors  having worked in higher education, tech, corporate, as well as community based formations. Prior to Justice Funders, Kimi has worked as the Membership Services Manager at Asian Americans Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy (AAPIP) and has served as Board Chair of East Bay Meditation Center and the Astrea Foundation. Kimi’s commitment to racial, gender and healing justice is evident through the dynamic ways they hold space/process with a participatory, experiential, learning-centered, skills-based approach rooted in compassion. Possessing an insatiable desire to explore the complexities of change, resilience and the human condition, Kimi is also an associate trainer at SEEDS and a lead facilitator and curriculum designer at Awaken, in addition to being a coach, mediator and circle keeper.

Born in San Francisco, Kimi currently lives in Oakland, CA/Ohlone Territory. They believe in the power of imagination and can often be found seeking refuge in nature, or in their meditation and Kajukenbo martial arts practices.

Maria is the Senior Director of Just Transition Investing at Justice Funders, where she works with foundations to align their investment practices with the values and principles of Just Transition. She leads the Just Transition Investment Community, a new peer learning and action community for staff and trustees of philanthropic institutions who are committed to divesting from the extractive economy and redirecting investment capital to BIPOC-led, movement-aligned Just Transition projects and loan funds that build local, regenerative solidarity economies. She brings 20 years of experience in expansive roles as movement builder, organizer, trainer, fundraiser, communicator, capacity builder, community educator, researcher and direct service provider.

Prior to Justice Funders, Maria served as Development Director for Forward Together where she led a team that tripled the organization’s institutional and individual fundraising revenue, significantly grew its grassroots donor base, established the organization’s first major donor program, institutionalized the participation of the Board of Directors in individual fundraising efforts, and shifted the culture and practice of fundraising from isolation to integration into the overall organization and its programs. She is passionate about mobilizing resources to support thriving movements for racial, gender and economic justice.

Maria serves on the Investment Committee of Just Futures, a new platform that harnesses the power of nonprofit retirement savings for transformative social change. She is a 2006 New Voices Fellow and holds a Master’s degree in Public Health from the University of California, Berkeley with an emphasis in maternal and child health. She loves reading food blogs, but can’t find time to cook most of the recipes she wants to try. Instead, you’ll find her at the nearest playground, farmers market or whatever natural bodies of water she can get to, frolicking about with her three spunky girls.

Kristine Piasecki grew up in Northeastern Minnesota on the Northern Shores of Lake Superior. She is an enrolled member of the Couchiching First Nation of Ontario, Canada, holds a BS in Accounting, with a background in finance, human resources, and project management. Kristine founded Piasecki Solutions, a small business that recognizes the importance of advocating for organizational resources and equally advocating for the well-being of the worker. She is a self-taught artist who is driven by her activism and involvement with social justice and women’s rights within her community. Kristine has a passion for leading with integrity, working from spirit and joy.

Sujatha believes in the power of collaboration to help advance a just and thriving world. As Senior Director of Leadership Programs, she oversees the design and implementation of Harmony and Maestra in close partnership with the Justice Funders team. In this role, she works with foundation leaders across institutions to build the capacity and resources to align philanthropy with social justice.

Sujatha is an experienced strategist, capacity builder, and facilitator with a diverse background in systems change and community development. Over the past 18 years she has collaborated with a broad cohort of foundations, intermediaries, and nonprofits.  In addition she is the  founding principal of the Conveners Group and co-founder of Conveners.org.

Sujatha grew up in a multicultural household, the proud daughter of a midwife and an immigrant entrepreneur. She is a graduate of Bryn Mawr College and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. While she considers herself a New Yorker at heart, Sujatha feels blessed to call the East Bay home where she lives with her wonderful family and joyful pup Luna.

Lora arrived at Justice Funders after two decades of movement building and Just Transition work in Central Appalachia and the American South. As Director of Investment Partnerships, she collaborates with movement leaders and philanthropic partners to redirect investment capital away from the extractive economy toward local, regenerative solidarity economies that build economic power and self determination in Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) communities on the frontlines of economic and racial injustice.

Lora is the founder and former Executive Director of the Appalachian Impact Fund, the first place-based social impact investment fund of its kind serving Appalachian Kentucky with a focus on non-extractive, community-controlled investment. Previously, Smith worked as the Network Officer for Central Appalachia at the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation where she directed the Foundation’s strategic grantmaking and program related investments in the region. Feeding her love of the arts, Lora is a co-creator and member of the Waymakers Collective, a fund and democratically controlled collective supporting artists, arts and culture organizations, and culture bearers in Central Appalachia. In 2022, she co-founded the Lige Clarke Liberation Fund, the first philanthropic fund in Kentucky focused on supporting queer communities in the mountains.

Lora is a mother, writer, and avid traveler. She lives in an overflowing and happy home with her partner, their four children, and two very mischievous poodles.

Jasmine is a strategic, analytical and innovative executive leader with over thirteen years of demonstrated success leading organizations in grant-making, program design and implementation, strategic planning, organizational development and capacity building. She is known for her ability to quickly gain the trust and confidence of diverse colleagues and stakeholders, while guiding them with authentic insights and unwavering support. She leads teams and organizations with a unique combination of big picture thinking balanced with a knack for analyzing and strategically using complex data to tell a story.

Born and raised in Richmond, CA, Jasmine represents “REAL Richmond” everywhere she goes! She loves her full time job as a mother, she likes to explore hiking trails in Northern CA and connect with family and friends over good food.