Eric Ares serves as Housing and Homelessness Director for Los Angeles City Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez. Prior to this he was the Sr. Manager of Strategy and Systems Change at the United Way of Greater Los Angeles.

Co-Chair

Chris Ko serves as VP, Impact & Strategy for the United Way of Greater LA overseeing its efforts to combine community power, donations, and new solutions to support neighbors in crisis and close the prosperity gap.

Paul is best known as a communications and public affairs strategist. Paul has over 25 years of experience working to engage and influence a range of audiences on key issues such as juvenile & criminal justice, racial equity, homelessness and health care.

Margaret Hardin is a global products CEO and board director who helps scale B2C and B2B2C companies by building passion brands, creating go-to-market strategies, and evaluating acquisition opportunities.

Michelle’s career has been defined by standing up for equity and access for disenfranchised individuals and communities and is currently the CEO of LIFT.

Treasurer

Vera is a program director at the Weingart Foundation where she manages the John W. Mack Movement Building program, capacity building partnerships and grantmaking in Ventura County.

Chair

Alina Sanchez is Founder and Principal at Accelerating Purpose, an impact consulting firm whose mission is to collaborate with purpose-driven business leaders to activate their most pressing and compelling social and environmental initiatives.

Amber Sheikh is Chief Impact Officer at Sheikh/Impact, where she leads an incredible team who tenaciously work to raise the capacity of organizations trying to solve the toughest issues and assist our Los Angeles communities through organizational development, fundraising, and communications.

Ashley Bennett Boardman provides legal representation to companies, by advising on formation, fundraising, operations, privacy, and acquisition matters.

Vice-Chair

A lawyer and mediator by training, Carolyn currently serves as a Trust Research Specialist at US Trust, Bank of America.

Helen Leung is the Executive Director of LA Más, a community-based organization that builds collective power in Northeast Los Angeles.

John is currently President of the Greater Los Angeles Education Foundation, a newly formed foundation of the Los Angeles County Office of Education.

Kaci Patterson has worked in the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors for over 18 years. She began her career in the nonprofit sector while in college and soon developed a passion for advancing social justice through expanding educational, economic and political opportunity for people of color.

Secretary

Mark leads Chrysalis, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit that works with the homeless and those disconnected from the workforce to help them find and retain employment.

Co-Chair

Sam is the Founder & Executive Director of LA Room & Board. With nearly 14 years of experience in higher education as a student affairs practitioner, most of his career has been built in Housing & Residential Education.