LIBERTY HILL FOUNDATION - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Co - Chair
- Founder of AWA Consults
Amelia Williamson currently serves as the founder of AWA Consults, whose mission is to provide philanthropic advising and brand management to maximize social impact.
Amelia is the former president of the Magic Johnson Foundation (MJF) where she focused on expanding the foundation's impact in urban communities across the US by providing strategic leadership, direction and oversight.
Prior to her role as president, Amelia served as vice president, providing support in organizational development and strategy, fundraising, communications and business development. Amelia's journey also includes management roles for Junior Achievement of Southern California, the Girl Scouts of America and Imani Corporation.
Amelia graduated cum laude, and holds a bachelor's degree in mass media communications, and a master's degree in organizational development with an emphasis in leadership.
Job Titles:
- Deputy Director, PR and Community Engagement
Andres is the Deputy Director of Public Relations and Community Engagement at Liberty Hill Foundation. In this role, he develops and executes media outreach, community engagement, and social media strategies that cultivate meaningful relationships with targeted external audiences-including potential donors, media, and key public officials. He supports Liberty Hill grantees and partners by providing communications training and support to amplify their work. Additionally, he proactively identifies public relations and community engagement opportunities to uplift the Liberty Hill mission.
Prior to joining the Liberty Hill team, Andres served as Director of Community Engagement at The Wall Las Memorias (TWLM)-a local nonprofit organization that provides health and wellness services to the underserved Latinx and LGBTQI2-S communities. Andres served as the liaison to community and corporate partners, representatives of government offices, and various community leaders to garner support for the organization mission and vision. He also spearheaded the organization's robust marketing and branding department.
Andres was a member of the NextGen LGBTQ Emerging Leaders Program (Los Angeles Chapter, Class of 2019). He has also served on the Los Angeles County Care with Pride Community Advisory Board, the UC Riverside Design Thinking Executive Program Advisory Board, and the Cedars-Sinai LGBTQ+ Cancer Community Advisory Board. Andres is a proud first-generation native Angelino and graduated from Loyola Marymount University with a bachelor's degree of Liberal Arts in Political Science. As Deputy Director of Public Relations and Community Engagement, Andres is responsible for developing and executing media outreach, community engagement, and social media strategies that amplify the mission and success of Liberty Hill.
Job Titles:
- Program Manager for Environmental Justice
Job Titles:
- Secretary
- Executive Director for the Angell Foundation
Angel Roberson Daniels is Executive Director for The Angell Foundation, a Los Angeles based private foundation that funds transformative opportunities in the Southern California and New England regions. Throughout her career, she has worked with foundations and community-based organizations to design and evaluate initiatives that produce positive outcomes for underserved and under-resourced communities. Prior to The Angell Foundation, Angel was a Program Officer at First 5 LA where she was instrumental in the allocation of over $800 million in investments designed to benefit young children and their families. As a member of the UCLA Technical Assistance Group, she facilitated assessment and planning efforts for local public health agencies. Angel is also Board Member of the Boston Opportunity Agenda, co-chair of the Los Angeles County Arts Collective, former co-chair of the Los Angeles Partnership for Early Childhood Investment and a Leadership Fellow of The Association for Black Foundation Executives.
Angela has worked in the public accounting field for 10 years managing audit engagements within the private, public, and nonprofit sectors.
She has also worked for several years in the nonprofit sector as the Foundation Manager for a major institutional client of the Tides Foundation.
Angela holds a Master of Science in Accounting degree from San Diego State University and a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations from San Francisco State University. She and her son were participants in The Center's Families program when Angela was a new parent, and she continues to be an active member of the LGBTQ community. She is a member of the Audit Committee for the San Diego Center for Children and Treasurer of Live and Let Live Retreat.
Job Titles:
- Leader
- Director, Environmental and Climate Justice
With a deep commitment to grassroots communities and residents, Angelo is a respected voice among local, regional, and national EJ movements. He brings strong skills in coalition building, campaign development, fundraising, and capacity and power-building programming-as well as trusted relationships with local, statewide, and national organizations and funders.
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.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Senior Director of Los Angeles County Programs for Harbor Freight Tools for Schools
Belen Vargas is Senior Director of Los Angeles County Programs for Harbor Freight Tools for Schools, the flagship program of the Smidt Foundation. In this role, Belen leads a philanthropic effort to advance excellent skilled trades education in L.A. County public high schools. Most recently, she served as the Associate Vice President for Operations and Chief Mission Officer at Cal State LA, where she led and managed community partnerships and government relations in the President's Office. A first-generation college student, she grew up in East Los Angeles and received her B.A. in Communication from Cal State LA, and a J.D. from USC Gould School of Law. She served almost twenty years at the Weingart Foundation, where she assumed the role of Senior Vice President. Prior to philanthropy, she worked in the Los Angeles nonprofit sector for almost a decade, providing greater resources and access to individuals and communities that have been historically underrepresented and underserved. Throughout her career, Belen has been guided by her commitment to advancing racial, social and economic justice, particularly in low-income communities of color. Belen serves on the Boards of New Village Girls Academy and InnerCity Struggle.
Job Titles:
- Director of Public Partnerships
As Director of Public Partnerships, Ben works with social justice organizations working in LA County's frontline communities to create programs supportive of their missions, and helps shape State, regional and local policies to provide inclusive mechanisms ensuring the interests of low-income communities of color are driving decisionmaking. He is the architect of the emPOWER regional outreach campaign and developed and helped manage the award-winning stakeholder engagement process of the first-ever LA County Sustainability Plan. Ben is the lead author of the 2017 Green Zones and Grassroots report, which analyzed benefits of climate change programs in LA County and provided actionable recommendations for how State agencies can forge grassroots partnerships to increase the transformative power of investments, bring low-income residents to the decision-making table, and create development without displacement.
Ben is a 2014 graduate of UCLA's Masters in Urban and Regional Planning program, where he participated in the 2014 Community Scholars program, providing recommendations for improved residential quality of life through conflicting land use resolution along Pacoima's Montague/Branford industrial corridor.
Job Titles:
- Senior Director, People Operations
Job Titles:
- Chief Communications Officer
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Chief of Staff at Unical Air, Inc
Dominique Tan is the Chief of Staff at Unical Air, Inc., a supply chain solutions provider for aerial fire-fighting initiatives. Their services support innovative solutions to wildfires such as the 24-hour Quick Reaction Force (QRF) program, which has been featured in 60 minutes, Bloomberg, and CBS News. She also co-founded and serves as Co-CEO of Mitra BUMMA, a project under the for-profit arm of Forest Watch Indonesia. Mitra BUMMA partners with indigenous tribes in Indonesia to help them establish their own Indigenous-owned Enterprises (BUMMAs). These entities manage tribal territories and provide ecosystem services, offering effective solutions for companies to meet their climate targets. Prior to her current positions, Dominique held diverse leadership roles at the Unical Group, a global aerospace supply chain solutions provider. As Head of Corporate Social Responsibility, she oversaw Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG), Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), and corporate giving programs. As Director of Special Projects and Business Intelligence, she guided strategic initiatives to boost growth and efficiency.
Dominique earned her B.A. in International Studies from USF and previously served as an Advisory Board member for the McCarthy Center for Public Service and Common Good. She is a former Chapter leader and National Membership Council committee member of Resource Generation, a membership organization dedicated to equitable wealth distribution and an alumni of the Just Economy Institute's Integrated Capital Fellowship. She serves on the Liberty Hill Foundation's Environment and Justice Donor Circle Group Steering Committee.
Job Titles:
- Program Manager, Capacity Building
Job Titles:
- Program Director, Housing
Job Titles:
- SVP, Chief of People and Advancement
Job Titles:
- Deputy Director, Contract Compliance
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Research Director at USC Equity Research Institute
Jennifer Ito is the Research Director at USC Equity Research Institute (formerly known as Program for Environmental and Regional Equity and the Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration) which provides data and analysis in the areas of economic inclusion and climate equity; immigrant integration and racial justice; and social movements and governing power.
Before joining USC, she was the Research Director for Strategic Concepts in Organizing and Policy Education. Appointed by the California Assembly Speaker, she served on the California Commission on the 21st Century Economy in 2009. In 2015, she served on the California State Controller's Council of Economic Advisors. She currently serves on the boards of the Economic Roundtable, California Budget and Policy Center, and Asian Pacific Environmental Network Action. She holds a Masters in Urban Planning from UCLA.
Job Titles:
- Program Manager, Public Partnerships
Job Titles:
- Co - Chair
- Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Institute of the Environment
- Co - Chair of Liberty Hill Foundation 's Environment
Jon Christensen is an adjunct assistant professor in the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, the Department of History, and the Center for Digital Humanities at UCLA. He is a founder of the Laboratory for Environmental Narrative Strategies in the IoES, and a senior fellow in UCLA's cityLAB. He is editor of LENS Magazine, and a consulting producer for KCET/LinkTV's "Earth Focus" programming, produced in collaboration with the Thomson Reuters Foundation. He is also a partner and strategic adviser at Stamen Design, a National Design Award-winning interactive design and technology firm specializing in mapping, data visualization, and strategic communications.
Jon was executive director of the Bill Lane Center for the American West, an interdisciplinary center for research, teaching, new media, and journalism at Stanford University before coming to UCLA. He has been an environmental journalist and science writer for more than 30 years. His work has appeared in The New York Times, Nature, High Country News, and many other newspapers, magazines, journals, and radio and television shows. He was a Knight Journalism Fellow at Stanford in 2002-2003 and a Steinbeck Fellow at San Jose State University in 2003-2004, before returning to Stanford to work on a Ph.D. in environmental history and the history of science.
Jon is co-chair of Liberty Hill Foundation's Environment + Justice Giving Circle. He also serves on the board of directors of the Los Angeles River State Park Partners and on the advisory board of Friends of the Los Angeles River.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Co - Founder / Co - Executive Director of Gutsy Media
Julie Hermelin is the Co-Founder/Co-Executive Director of Gutsy Media and its sister organization, Wake Up & Vote. Gutsy and Wake Up & Vote activate the largest pool of high-level creative talent across entertainment, advertising and digital to create and produce research-driven political and social impact content. Julie is also one of the co-founders/co-chairs of The XX Fund, a women's donor-advised fund through Liberty Hill. In partnership with Creative Visions, she co-founded The Women's Excel Project that pairs emerging female filmmakers with XX Fund grantees to create short impact and fundraising films to help raise further awareness about their work. A Michigan transplant, Julie lives in Los Feliz with her three teenage boys.
Job Titles:
- Senior Vice President of Programs
Job Titles:
- Accounts Payable Specialist
Job Titles:
- Director, Youth and Transformative Justice
Job Titles:
- Director, Training and Capacity Building
Job Titles:
- Treasurer
- Client Advisor With Bank of the West 's Wealth Management Group
Mark Smith serves as vice president and senior private client advisor with Bank of the West's Wealth Management Group, where he leads a team of knowledgeable professionals to help clients grow, manage, protect and distribute their wealth on a tax-efficient basis.
Prior to that, he was a senior private client advisor with City National Bank. His other past positions include: portfolio manager for Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Management, interest rate risk manager for First Chicago Corporation and investment officer for First Interstate Bancorp where Mr. Smith started his banking career in 1983.
Mr. Smith earned his bachelor's degree in economics from Rutgers University in 1980, and his MBA in finance from the Gradziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University in 1983.
In addition to serving on the Liberty Hill Foundation board, Mr. Smith serves on the board of RISE Financial Pathways of Los Angeles.
Job Titles:
- Co - Founder
- Founder
- Member of the Board
- President of Starfish Impact, Inc
Marta Ferro is the President of Starfish Impact, Inc., a philanthropic consulting company founded in 2005. Starfish Impact makes a difference in the greater community by providing strategic investment consulting services to grantmaking private and corporate foundations, strategic planning and development consulting services to operating nonprofits, and social impact advisory services to corporations and individuals who strive to achieve a stronger double bottom line vision.
Marta's consulting team has deep and broad skill-sets, relationships, and experiences in both the nonprofit and for-profit business arenas as well as in marketing, PR, strategy, fundraising operations, finance and investment due diligence, and brings a "make a difference" passion to all of its nonprofit, corporate and individual clients.
Marta earned her MBA from the Anderson School of Management at UCLA in 1999. She was awarded a Dean's Fellowship Scholarship as well as a Kauffman Fellowship for Entrepreneurial Leadership. While at the Anderson School, Marta was the Finance Director of the Women's Business Connection and the Co-Director of Finance for Challenge For Charity, the largest corporate donor to Special Olympics in the State of California. She also worked as a Teaching Associate for the Management Development for Child Care Providers, a Harold Price Center for Entrepreneurial Studies program led by Dr. Alfred E. Osborne.
Marta is the Co-Founder of Angeles Art Fund, Founder of Supporting Our Sector and has been a Social Venture Partners Los Angeles Partner for over ten years, including serving on the Board of Directors. She is the Emeritus Board Chair of Camp Coca-Cola and Step Up Women's Network, as well as served on several other boards including currently as a Trustee of Westland School for the past three years.
Mary Ann is a documentary filmmaker and film producer. She was a film and television executive for production companies at Warner Bros, Universal, and Disney. She was head of production for Tom Selleck's company, TWS. Prior to that she was vice president of Production at Spring Creek Productions and director of development for George Lucas' Lucasfilm. She served on the board of the San Francisco Film Society.
Mary Ann currently serves on the board of Heidi Duckler Dance Theatre, a Los Angeles contemporary dance company. She is on the Advisory Board of California Participation Project, a non-partisan voter engagement and registration non-profit. She is a long time volunteer for Liberty Hill.
Mary Ann is an advocate for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, a member of the California Chapter's Public Policy Committee, a participant at their state and national Public Policy Conferences, and lobbies on the state and federal level for the NMSS. She is currently an advisor to the Arizona Chapter of the NMSS and four western chapters on training MS advocates.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Principal of Singer Philanthropy
Mitchell is the Principal of Singer Philanthropy, an advisory firm that helps philanthropists and foundations define their goals, develop their strategies, choose their grantees, and understand their impact.
For ten years at Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, Mitchell helped individuals, families, corporations, and foundations build strategies for giving and make high-impact grants. Before working directly with donors, he served as the associate director of the Center on Philanthropy and Public Policy at USC, an academic center that studies the field of philanthropy. Prior to that, he spent eight years at The California Endowment, a $4 billion private foundation that seeks to improve the health of underserved communities. He started his career as a caseworker for Congresswoman Jane Harman, where he assisted constituents and discovered that nothing is more satisfying than being of service.
Before joining the board of Liberty Hill Foundation, Mitchell spent six years on the board of Funders for LGBTQ Issues. When not working, he is planning vacations he might never take, walking in his neighborhood, spending time with friends and family, and wondering how anyone can live anywhere but here.
Job Titles:
- Senior Grants Manager of Foundation and Government Grants
Job Titles:
- Marketing Communications Coordinator
Job Titles:
- Executive Assistant, Board Liaison
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Chief Strategy Officer for Fenton Communications
A native Angeleno, Paul Hernandez has spent more than 20 years as a communications and public affairs strategist, supporting foundations, local government, non-profits and advocates to advance issues ranging from education to homelessness to racial equity to health care.
Paul is currently Chief Strategy Officer for Fenton Communications, where he acts a senior advisor to some of the most prominent progressive organizations in California and throughout the country. Past and present clients include the California Community Foundation, United Way of Greater Los Angeles, the Advancement Project, W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Strategic Actions for a Just Economy, New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty, and the Executives' Alliance to Expand Opportunities for Boys and Men of Color, including coordination with President Obama's My Brother's Keeper Initiative. He recently partnered with the Silicon Valley Community Foundation to plan a campaign to engage California's gubernatorial candidates to support early childhood development, and worked with the Sierra Health Foundation to spearhead a communications effort to improve the health and well-being of residents in the San Joaquin Valley.
Prior to joining Fenton, Paul worked for The California Endowment, the state's largest health foundation. He built alliances and generated support for the foundation's health priorities, and played a central role in crafting and implementing a multi-million-dollar campaign to advance statewide health reform. He is also a veteran of local government and politics, having served as a legislative deputy to former Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina, where he acted as the Supervisor's chief advisor on law enforcement, public safety and transportation issues.
He is a proud alumnus of UC Berkeley and the Coro Public Affairs program, and also serves on the board of directors of Community Health Councils.
Job Titles:
- Deputy Director, Brand Strategy and Digital Marketing
Job Titles:
- Director, Foundation and Government Grants
Job Titles:
- Co - Founder and Emeritus Advisor to the Board of Directors
Sarah is a partner with Sanford/Pillsbury Productions and is immersed in both Hollywood and social activism. She co-produced "River's Edge," "Eight Men Out," "How to Make an American Quilt," "Love Letter" and the Emmy-winning HBO film "And the Band Played On." In 1976, she, along with Larry Janss, Win McCormack and Anne Mendel, founded the Liberty Hill Foundation.
Job Titles:
- Senior Philanthropy Advisor
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- President & CEO of GRACE / End Child Poverty CA
Shimica Gaskins is the President & CEO of GRACE/End Child Poverty CA. She has worked in law and public policy specializing in legislative, regulatory and policy issues associated with criminal justice reform and children's rights. Prior to joining GRACE, she was executive director of Children's Defense Fund-California, where she led statewide advocacy, policy, program and organizing efforts to ensure access to quality affordable health coverage and care for children and low-income families, reform the juvenile justice system, promote educational equity, end child poverty, and improve outcomes for children of color. She formerly served as the Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Policy (OLP) of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) where she worked to develop and implement innovative policy initiatives of the department and administration in areas such as smart on crime, law enforcement and emerging technologies, prison reform, reentry, and issues affecting children with incarcerated parents. Prior to joining DOJ, she was in private practice at Covington & Burling LLP where she managed complex civil litigation. Shimica began her career as a law clerk for the Honorable Roger L. Gregory on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and the Honorable Victoria Roberts on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. [In 2016, she was named one of the National Bar Association's "Nation's Best Advocates: Top 40 Under 40 Lawyers."
Job Titles:
- Vice President, Advancement
Job Titles:
- Senior Manager, Operations & Administration
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Chief Executive Officer of Community Health Councils, Inc
Veronica Flores currently serves as the Chief Executive Officer of Community Health Councils, Inc, an anchor institution serving the communities of South Los Angeles and beyond. As a seasoned senior-level executive and entrepreneur, Veronica Flores' professional legacy has been focused on disrupting and dismantling the inequitable systems that continue to drive disparities across the nation.
Due to her deep desire to cause radical change as an activist committed to racial equity and championing issues related to social justice, poverty, and sustainability, Veronica Flores has always identified herself as a disruptor. Flores' work as a social disruptor in South Los Angeles commenced in the 1980's when she joined Minority AIDS Project as the Director of Women's Programs. In this role, Flores developed and implemented the first Women of Color AIDS Coalition and the first Women of Color Buddy Training Program in LA County while she also penned the first educational brochure in Spanish aimed at women at risk for HIV.
Prior to joining CHC, Flores was the President of Triple Notion, a consultant group providing strategic leadership and capacity building to non-profits, public health agencies, and start-ups seeking to scale multi-cultural social enterprises and initiatives, while increasing financial sustainability. Flores is also a former Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Southern California - Sol Price School of Public Policy. Until recently, she served as Co-Chair for the Los Angeles County Community Prevention & Population Health Task Force; currently she is an Action Team member addressing the Board motion of Equity in County Contracting; a Taskforce member of Facilitating the Development of a ‘Just Transition' to Clean Energy; Community Research Ambassador to City of Hope Medical Center; member of Charles Drew University President's Advisory Council; Advisory Board Member to the California Health Interview Survey (CHIS); Leadership Board Member of the Los Angeles Food Policy Council; Advisory Member to Insure the Uninsured Project (ITUP); and member of South Los Angeles SLATE-Z Economic Development Workgroup.
Flores has received numerous awards, designed, authored and co-authored several journal publications in addition to facilitating awareness and training workshops to hundreds of people, and provided consultant services to diverse service providers, community-based organizations, government agencies and educational institutions in the United States. She received her M.A. in Human and Organizational Development from Fielding Graduate University and her B.A. in Psychology from California State University Los Angeles.
Job Titles:
- Director, Financial Planning and Analysis