Strategic Planning Committee

Saida is a longtime cultural organizer, activist, and seasoned nonprofit leader. She has guided statewide advocacy efforts promoting the rights of LGBTQ youth in foster care, education, and juvenile justice, winning critical new protections, and directed national art actions uplifting the visibility of Black girls, women, and LGBTQ communities. Founder of the Rooted Collective, a gathering of Black LGBTQ healing justice activists in Baltimore, Saida is dedicated to building radical healing spaces that move us towards freedom. She comes to Funders from YWCA USA, where she served as Vice President of Member Services, directing a department responsible for stewarding a […]

Erik serves as Chief Executive Officer of Native Americans in Philanthropy, a national organization  advocating for stronger and more meaningful investments by the philanthropic sector in tribal  communities. Previously, he served as the Executive Director for the Center for Native American  Youth at the Aspen Institute. He has held positions at the Center for American Progress on their  Poverty to Prosperity team, as Majority Staff Counsel for the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs,  and in the Obama administration as a Policy Advisor at the U.S. Department of Education. Erik began  his career in Washington, D.C. at the National Congress […]

Andrea “Andy” Hong Marra (she / her / hers) is executive director of the Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund (TLDEF). Prior to TLDEF, she spent five years leading external communications at the Arcus Foundation; managed public relations at GLSEN, a national organization focused on LGBTQ issues in K-12 education; was co-director at Nodutdol for Korean Community Development; and served as a senior media strategist at GLAAD. Andy currently serves as Board Chair of the Freedom for All Americans Education Fund. She has previously served on the boards and advisory councils of Chinese for Affirmative Action, the Funding Exchange, Human […]

Paulina is a queer artist, trainer, political organizer, and strategist from Veracrúz, Mexico, who has made the US South her home for more than two decades. For eleven years, she was the co-director of Southerners on New Ground, a social justice advocacy organization supporting LGBTQ people in the US South. Prior to that she coordinated the Southern regional youth activism program at the Highlander Research and Education Center. Paulina has a background in farmworker and immigrant/refugee rights organizing, anti-violence work, and gender and sexual liberation work that centers people most affected by poverty, war, and racism. Paulina is always exploring […]