Meet the Los Angeles Funders’ Collaborative
The Los Angeles Funders’ Collaborative works to support funder learning and collaboration to promote healthy, equitable and sustainable communities in Los Angeles County.
Members
- John Guevarra (Co-Chair)
First 5 LA - Lisa Craypo (Co-Chair)
The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation - Vanita Bhargava
California Wellness Foundation - Melissa Bond
County of Los Angeles Department of Public Health - Katherine Cabrera
The Greenlining Institute - Francisco Covarrubias
California Community Foundation - Gisele Fong
The California Endowment
- Alfredo Gonzalez
Resources Legacy Fund - Frida Hatami
Roy and Patricia Disney Family Foundation - Alexandra Paxton
Water Foundation - Angelo Logan
Liberty Hill Foundation - Shaun Randolf
LA n Sync/California Community Foundation - Thomas Yee
Community Partners
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.
Lisa Craypo (Co-Chair)
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.
Vanita Bhargava
THE CALIFORNIA WELLNESS FOUNDATION
For nearly 30 years, Vanita Bhargava have had the great privilege of working to create positive impact for philanthropic and nonprofit organizations. In 2020, she joined the California Wellness Foundation where her grantmaking has focused on community environments. Specifically, the foundation invests in organizations that empower communities of color to actively engage and build power over the environmental policies and conditions that affect the places in which they live, work and play – paying particular attention to issues impacting water and air.
Melissa Bond
COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES, DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH
Melissa Bond is the Director for the Resource Development Unit (RDU) within the Office of Planning, Integration, and Engagement (PIE) of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (DPH). In this role, she and her team are creating an infrastructure for the Department to meaningfully engage with the philanthropic sector to form public-private partnerships and further health equity.
Prior to joining DPH, Melissa worked in the not-for-profit, public, and private sectors. She managed criminal justice efforts at the Los Angeles County Justice Care and Opportunities Department (JCOD) and San Diego City Attorney’s Office; advocated for women’s financial inclusion at the New York City Department of Small Business Services; and supported legislative action on issues of child welfare at a non-profit. Before turning her focus to public policy and social justice issues, Melissa was a litigator in New York City. She has a B.A. in Psychology and American Civilization from Brown University; J.D. from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law; and a M.P.A. from Columbia University.Katherine Cabrera
the GREENLINING INSTITUTE
Katherine Cabrera (she/her/ella) is a Program Manager for Capacity Building at the Greenlining Institute where she collaborates with community stakeholders in Eastern LA County, providing them with the essential resources, tools, and partnerships needed to bring their visions for climate equity to fruition. She also supports the organization’s Greenlining the Block initiative, which fosters the leadership and expertise of communities of color. This initiative helps them prepare for and maximize federal, state, and local infrastructure investments to drive effective climate action that meets community needs.
Katherine holds a Master’s in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of California, Los Angeles, and a B.A. in Environmental Analysis from Pitzer College. She is a Solis Policy Institute Fellow through the Women’s Foundation and a Fulbright recipient. Katherine joined the Los Angeles Funders’ Collaborative steering committee in 2023.
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.
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
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.
Shaun Randolf
LA n sync/california community foundation
Shaun Randolph oversees the coordination and management of LA n Sync efforts and priorities including, but not limited to, work-group and advisory board coordination; grants management; advocacy; public/private partnership development; communications; convening; fundraising; budget and contracts; forecasting; and strategic planning.
Prior to joining CCF, Shaun briefly relocated to New Orleans to serve as a FUSE Corps Executive Fellow in the New Orleans Mayor’s Office followed by a short stint as Executive Director of the New Orleans Mayor’s Fund.
As a former serial entrepreneur, grant writer, social enterprise consultant and innovative finance pioneer turned venture capital/private equity advisor, Shaun remains dedicated to harnessing some of the most profit-driven concepts from the private sector (private equity, investment banking + mergers and acquisitions) and re-tooling them into vehicles for social impact via public-private partnerships.
Angelo Logan
LIBERTY HILL FOUNDATION
Angelo has served as a leader in the environmental and climate justice fields for the last 22 years. He got his start as an organizer for Communities for a Better Environment in 2000 when they successfully fought the location of a polluting power plant in Southeast LA. Angelo became the principal co-founder of East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice in 2001, where he served as Executive Director until 2014, leading the organization’s growth from a “kitchen table” neighborhood group to a community institution with national impact on land use, transportation, and environmental initiatives. For the last eight years, Angelo has served as the Policy Campaign Director for a national coalition, The Moving Forward Network (MFN) housed at Occidental College, coalescing over 50 organizations across 23 states to address the environmental health, justice and climate impacts of Ports, freight, and the global goods movement industry.
Angelo currently serves on the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council, appointed as one of 4 Western Region representatives by the Biden Administration. He has also held appointments with the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) EJ Advisory Board, the Mobile Source Technical Review/Ports Workgroup of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the EV Infrastructure Strike Force of the Electric Transportation Community Development Corporation. In the nonprofit arena, Angelo has served as a Board member for the Harbor Community Benefit Foundation, Human Impact Partners, and Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs.