Smart Growth California

LAFC Steering Committee Members

The Los Angeles Funders’ Collaborative is led by an active steering committee comprised of representatives from: the California Community Foundation, Enterprise Community Partners, First 5 LA, Liberty Hill Foundation, Kaiser Permanente, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, Resources Legacy Fund, Garfield Foundation, and the Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation.

Members

John Guevarra (Co-Chair)

FIRST 5 LA

As a Program Officer at First 5 LA, John helps to develop and manage projects and advocacy efforts that benefit children and families in Los Angeles County. John brings together over 10 years experience working with government, non-profits, political, and philanthropic sectors to help create more livable and equitable communities.

At First 5 LA, John manages the Built Environment Policy Advocacy Fund, a multi-year grant and technical assistance program focused on improving neighborhood conditions for children 0-5 and their families in the Best Start communities. The fund focuses on three areas: transportation/mobility, parks and open space, and food security. John also helps guide the Link program, a pooled fund focused on improving and increasing parks and open space investments in Best Start communities.

John holds a Master’s in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of California, Los Angeles. He is a former board member of People for Parks and the YMCA-Hollywood, and a former youth basketball coach. He currently enjoys his time with his wife, son, and dog in South Pasadena. John joined the Los Angeles Funders’ Collaborative steering committee in 2020.

Jean Armbruster

COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES, DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH

Bio and photo coming soon

Francisco Covarrubias

CALIFORNIA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION

Francisco Covarrubias manages the community organizing collaborative and supports multiple initiatives within the CCF’s housing team, including the Program Related Investment Program, the Accelerating Permanent Supportive Housing Program, and the housing provider collaborative.

Prior to joining CCF, he directed the Tenant Organizing team at Inner City Law Center that empowered thousands of tenants to speak out against the slum conditions caused by unscrupulous landlords. Previously, Covarrubias worked on several labor organizing campaigns with workers in the service industry. He brings to CCF deep knowledge of government and constituent services, having worked for a state legislator.

Covarrubias earned a BA in sociology from Pomona College in 2010. He is a native Angeleno and enjoys exploring the many wonders of the city.

Lisa Craypo

THE ROSALINDE AND ARTHUR GILBERT FOUNDATION

Lisa Craypo, Principal at Ad Lucem Consulting, has more than 20 years of experience in strategic planning, initiative design, philanthropic advising, program evaluation and research. She has successfully led numerous clients through strategic planning processes, conceptualized and managed funding initiatives, designed and conducted program evaluations, provided training and technical assistance, and developed innovative tools to meet client needs.

Through Ad Lucem, Lisa provides strategic consultation to a range of clients including foundations, public health departments, healthcare providers, and nonprofits. Lisa approaches projects with a partnership model that facilitates identification of priorities, development of strategies, and clear linkages to impacts.

In her role as consultant to The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation, Lisa serves as program officer for Type 2 diabetes and obesity prevention grantmaking, which focuses on healthy land use and access to parks. In 2013, The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation became a member of the Los Angeles Funders’ Collaborative, and as the Foundation representative, Lisa has encouraged the Collaborative to include a focus on parks and health in discussions and events. Lisa joined the Los Angeles Funders’ Collaborative steering committee in 2013.

Gisele Fong

The California endowment

Gisele Fong is a Program Manager for The California Endowment’s on the Los Angeles regional and Inclusive Community Development teams. Within philanthropy and within community based organizations and coalitions, Gisele has worked for over a decade on health impacts from air and goods movement pollution, environmental justice, and supporting capacity building of communities to bring their vast wisdom of needs and solutions to decision making tables.

Gisele has served on numerous boards and commissions including the California Air Resources Board’s Environmental Justice Advisory Committee, Harbor Community Benefit Foundation, a community based performance arts organization, and a social justice oriented bilingual charter school.

Gisele earned her MA in Asian American Studies and PhD in History from UCLA, and is a resident of Long Beach. Gisele joined the Los Angeles Funders’ Collaborative steering committee in 2020.

Alfredo Gonzalez

RESOURCES LEGACY FUND

Alfredo Gonzalez is Southern California Director at Resources Legacy Fund (RLF).
Alfredo leads efforts to broaden and diversify the constituency for environmental conservation with a specific focus on engaging communities of color and younger Californians.

Prior to working at RLF, Alfredo served as director of the South Coast and Deserts Region for The Nature Conservancy, where he managed various programs including a Los Angeles-based urban conservation project and oversaw large scale land protection and habitat restoration projects across the region. Alfredo previously served in senior government affairs positions for the Southern California Association of Governments and the County of Santa Clara, and was a policy analyst for Latino Issues Forum in San Francisco.

Alfredo received a BA in Communications from UC Berkeley and an MA in Public Administration from California State University, Los Angeles. Alfredo joined the Los Angeles Funders’ Collaborative steering committee in 2016.

Frida Hatami

ROY AND PATRICIA DISNEY FAMILY FOUNDATION

Frida Hatami joined the Roy and Patricia Disney Family Foundation in 2015 as its first Grants Manager. She has been instrumental in overseeing the effort to formalize processes and procedures and to develop a state-of-the-art grants database. She is responsible for working with grantee partners, grant seekers, and Foundation staff to manage the grantmaking processes. Frida is also responsible for leading the Foundation’s emerging Environmental Justice portfolio, including identifying new partnership opportunities with organizations on the frontline of environmental fights and addressing capacity challenges of the field.
 
Frida brings many years of experience in philanthropy and the nonprofit sector, including her previous role at Annenberg Foundation, the California Endowment, and Jewish Family Service of Los Angeles. Frida holds a Master’s degree in Public Health from California State University, Northridge.

Alexandra Paxton

Water foundation

Alex Paxton develops and implements programs for the Water Foundation. Prior to joining the Water Foundation, Alex worked for over a decade on local strategies for redevelopment, displacement mitigation, workforce development, and urban sustainability for a range of employers including LA Unified School District, then-LA City Councilmember Eric Garcetti, Mayors James Hahn and Antonio Villaraigosa, the LA City Community Redevelopment Agency, the LA Economic Development Corporation, and Estolano LeSar Perez Advisors. She also taught a course on Sustainable Urban Economies for the Masters Program in Urban Sustainability at Antioch University.

Alex received a BA in American Studies, an MFA in Theater Management, and a law degree from Yale University, as well as an MS in Social Anthropology from University College London. Alex joined the Los Angeles Funders’ Collaborative steering committee in 2019.

Almas Sayeed

LIBERTY HILL FOUNDATION

Almas is the Vice President of Public Partnerships at Liberty Hill Foundation. In this capacity, Almas develops partnerships with government and public entities to better build and serve communities and advance Liberty Hill’s vision of progressive change. Almas also guides the foundation’s economic justice and housing portfolios.

Almas brings more than 15 years of experience to the foundation, working at the intersection of organizing, legislative policy change and litigation in housing equity, workers rights and imhuman justice. Almas served as General Counsel and Policy Advisor to the National Domestic Workers Alliance, leading groundworking campaigns for domestic workers’ rights and shaping the organization’s rapid growth. More recently, Almas served as Deputy Director of Programs at the California Imhuman Policy Center, steering critical campaigns to ensure healthcare access, worker protections and mitigating the impact of immigration enforcement for California’s undocumented communities. Almas began her legal career as a housing lawyer, defending tenants losing their housing due to eviction and pursuing affirmative claims against unscrupulous landlords. Before her time as a lawyer, Almas served the Senate Banking Committee, Senate Joint Economic Committee and two New York gubernatorial administrations. She has appeared on BBC America, Al Jazeera America and National Public Radio and published in the LA Times, Slate and the Yale Journal of Law and Social Policy.

Almas is a graduate of UCLA School of Law, where she was a Public Interest Law and Policy Fellow. She holds an MSc from the London School of Economics, an MA from Hebrew University, where she was a Fulbright Fellow, and a Certificate of Advanced Studies from Birzeit University. She earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Kansas.

Jamie Schenker

The California Wellness foundation

Jamie N. Schenker is a program officer for Cal Wellness’ Community Well-being portfolio. In her role, she reviews letters of interest, evaluates grant proposals, conducts site visits, and makes funding recommendations. She brings over 15 years’ experience in grantmaking, evaluation and organizational learning. She is passionate about supporting social change and racial justice efforts to ensure all people are safe and healthy.

Schenker was appointed to her current position after serving as evaluation officer at Cal Wellness for over six years. During her tenure, she developed evaluation and organizational tools, designed trainings for staff, and designed internal processes to evaluate grantmaking. Additionally, she led efforts to support learning and documentation through grants data.

Prior to joining Cal Wellness in September 2013, she was a program specialist for collaborative philanthropy at Northern California Grantmakers (NCG), where she managed two loan programs for nonprofit organizations in the Bay Area. Before her time at NCG, she was a program assistant at Cal Wellness working on organizational learning and evaluation. She also served as a project manager at Abundantia Consulting, where she led evaluation projects for nonprofit and philanthropic organizations.

Schenker previously served as cochair for Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy’s Bay Area chapter. She earned her master’s degree in public administration, with a concentration in nonprofit administration, and her bachelor’s degree in sociology from San Francisco State University. Jamie joined the Los Angeles Funders’ Collaborative steering committee in 2021.

Elizabeth Trombley

KAISER PERMANENTE

Elizabeth Trombley currently serves as Southern California Regional Manager of Upstream Community Health for Kaiser Permanente. In this role, she oversees the Region’s upstream community health improvement strategy which seeks to maximize Kaiser Permanente’s positive impact on the health of communities by leveraging all organizational assets, including and beyond coverage and care, to address social, economic, and environmental determinants of health.

Prior to this role with Kaiser Permanente, Beth served as Director of Public Affairs and Brand Communications for the Kaiser Permanente Downey Medical Center where she directed the public relations, corporate communications, community health improvement and community benefit grant program, and the government affairs for the hospital and health plan.

Before joining Kaiser Permanente in 2005, Beth served as the Senior Health Policy Analyst for the New York State Senate Committee on Health advising on public health policy and strategy for New York State. Beth became engaged in public health work while working in the non-profit community on the East Coast in the areas of violence and injury prevention. Beth holds a Masters in Public Health from the Boston University School of Public Health and a Bachelor of Arts in Public Relations from Ithaca College. Beth joined the Los Angeles Funders’ Collaborative steering committee in 2021.