Pamela has more than 7 years of experience in the financial sector of Colombia. Prior to coming to Los Angeles to pursue a Master of Science in Social Entrepreneurship from the University of Southern California, Pamela studied Financial Engineering in Bogota, Colombia and worked for the 3 of the 4 biggest pension funds in the country in the areas of Risk Management, Strategy Evaluation and Portfolio Administration, administrating $220 million government entities' trust business in local government securities market. Pamela's background is in quantitative evaluation and financial analysis. Pamela is passionate about helping nonprofits and social enterprises to solve the most challenging social problems and be able to connect and support them in finding innovative profit models.

Jose is a social services professional with over twenty years of experience working in program development, outreach, counseling, Human Resources and project management for community-based nonprofit organizations. Areas of expertise include public housing, gang violence prevention/intervention, emancipated foster care youth, early child development, skills development, substance abuse, HIV/AIDS services, sexual health education, mental health treatment.

Leonard Hyman is a Senior Performance Auditor for the City of Long Beach. He has worked in program performance evaluation for local governments for the past five years. He has previously worked for the City of San Jose and the City of Los Angeles. He is a policy wonk with a keen interest in civic innovation, good governance, and emerging technology. His career has spanned the public, private and nonprofit sectors. He received his Master's in Public Policy and his B.A. in English from the University of Southern California.

Victoria Palacio Carr is the Deputy Director of State Strategy at the Legal Action Center (LAC). At LAC, Victoria leads the development of partner engagement strategies and serves as project manager for the No Health = No Justice campaign and the Black Harm Reduction Network. In her role, she works to advance state-based health and criminal justice reform and policy solutions. Moreover, she is passionate about tackling complex social justice and racial equity issues that impact communities of color. Before working at LAC, Victoria was a research assistant at the Center for Law and Social Policy. There, she supported advocacy efforts to improve access to work support programs for low-income communities and justice-involved populations. Victoria received a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from California State University Long Beach and a Master of Public Policy from American University. She is also a Certified Associate Project Manager (CAPM). Victoria is from Los Angeles, California, and has a lifelong passion for social justice, guiding her professionally and personally.

Ejiro has more than twelve years of grant writing experience for nonprofit agencies in Southern California. She received her Bachelor's of Art degree in Mass Communication from Meredith College in Raleigh, NC and a Master's of Art degree in Communication from California State University, Fullerton. She is a graduate of The Grantsmanship Center's Grant Writing Training Program and Competing for Federal Grants in Los Angeles, California. She has written grants for organizations working with: at-risk youth, early childhood education, families with children who have developmental disabilities, reducing recidivism and re-entry, human trafficking, human services, domestic violence victims, veterans' services, and healthcare. Ejiro's grant awards total more than $3 million dollars from government and foundations, including the UniHealth Foundation, Weingart Foundation, Ahmanson Foundation, Annenberg Foundation, California Community Foundation, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Boeing as well as Social Services Agency of Orange County.

Sarah Bedy has 15 years of non-profit experience with expertise in policy analysis, grant writing and program management. Her professional focus has ranged from foreign democracy assistance to fair lending advocacy. She is currently the director of an entrepreneurship training program that serves hundreds of incarcerated people each year in Southern California, and is active in Long Beach organizing and politics.

Brettany Shannon, Ph.D., is an urban planning and development scholar who studies how people use digital communications for urban and social placemaking. Her research agenda is broadly defined. She looks at how people can and do use media arts to foster community engagement and participatory placemaking; how real estate developers use websites, social networks, and their constituent media for marketing or to reinforce power; and how people engage with social networks to engage with and represent their cities. Brettany believes digital communications hold promise in that they engage with such planning phenomena as identity, participation, and process, and uphold context as a decisive factor in all. But her research reminds us that technology is a social production, and that just as we extol the virtues of the information age, planners must not forget planning’s complicated history owes in part to its uncritically technophilic tendencies. In support of her research, she studies community planning, the cultural economy, cultural landscapes, digital media, media arts, public space, the public realm, and comparative urbanism. Brettany received the 2016 John Dyckman Award for Best Dissertation for her thesis, Avoiding Middle-Class Planning 2.0: Media Arts and the Future of Urban Planning, and since graduating she has been the USC Bedrosian Center on Governance's first Scholar-in-Residence where she produced a podcast series, Los Angeles Hashtags Itself, an interview-based look at the intersection of digital culture and urban studies. Finally, she is co-editing a book (Routledge) called Planning for AuthentiCITIES, a look into authenticity's increasing relevance with community development.

In 2018 Daniel Lee became the first ever African-American Council Member in Culver City California's 100+ year history. Daniel has a master's degree in social welfare from UCLA and is a doctoral candidate at USC. He credits his grandmother, who participated with Dr. Martin Luther King in the Montgomery bus boycott, for his desire to be of service and his own social justice perspective. He has served on the Culver City Martin Luther King Celebration Committee for 7 years, planning its citywide celebration of the iconic Civil Rights leader. Much of Mr. Lee’s local effort has been with youth. A filmmaker and actor, he has volunteered with El Rincon Elementary School students in an artists and communication program for the past 16 years. He also developed a Civil Rights curriculum that he implemented at the Teen Center to increase young people’s understanding of their country’s history. Daniel Lee was a key grassroots organizer with Move to Amend Los Angeles helping lead a campaign to get the Los Angeles City Council to pass a resolution calling for a constitutional amendment in December 2011. Shortly thereafter he was asked to join Move to Amend’s national board and has served since 2012. He also serves on the Board of Directors for the Backbone Campaign and the Clean Power Alliance.

Lauren firmly believes that accurate data collection and analysis can be a powerful tool for social change and advocacy. She currently works at CHIRLA, as their Legal Department’s Data Coordinator, managing grants and contracts that fund free/low cost immigration services. Prior to joining CHIRLA, she worked at Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Los Angeles as their Grants Coordinator. She also worked at UCLA's Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, UCLA School of Law and Southwestern Law School, working closely with students, ensuring their educational goals and needs were met. She received a Bachelor's Degree in English Literature and Spanish from Loyola Marymount University.

Jennifer Fei is the Founder and Principal of ōen studios. She is a strategist, facilitator, and advisor based in New York City. She founded ōen studios to advance the visionary leadership and impact of justice-driven organizations through strategy development, capacity building, and impact storytelling. Through past senior leadership roles, she has managed large cross-functional teams and budgets, led successful multi-million dollar non-profit fundraising campaigns, and implemented global partnership programs. She earned her Bachelor of Arts from UC Berkeley and her Master’s in International Policy from Stanford University. With extensive professional experience in philanthropic, corporate, research, and non-profit organizations, she is passionate about leveraging her skills and expertise for the benefit of impactful leaders and teams and in service of a more just and equitable world.