About Us

The values that guide us

Our core values define our overall strategy, grantmaking, and the way we work with grantee partners and funders.

01
COMMITTED TO EQUITY

We center people locked out of opportunity with a lens on race, gender, youth, disability, LGBTQ identities, and immigration. We value and celebrate differences.

02
NIMBLE AND STRATEGIC

We ensure flexibility and adaptability while working toward ambitious goals. We act quickly to leverage unique resources to fuel progress.

03
People and data-driven

We nurture compassion, trust, and mutual respect. We seek out and provide data and evidence to ensure work is informed by best practices.

04

CHAMPIONING COLLABORATION AND DIVERSITY

We take a big-tent approach, and that means believing every stakeholder – whether funder, grantee or partner – brings something unique to the table. It is going to take all of us working together to win.

Essential Leaders Council

We collaborate with those at the forefront of recovery

When it comes to challenges, the true experts are people who lead through them every day. For our work to be effective, it must be grounded in the realities that diverse groups of workers and families experience daily. Too often, many workers and families face difficulties with workplace indignities, insufficient social safety net benefits, lack of family sustaining pay, and other inequities. 

Our Essential Leaders Council (ELC) is a group of workers and leaders who are committed to sharing the distinctive vision and expertise of frontline workers and their families to achieve more dignified conditions in the workplace and social safety net. Within Families and Workers Fund, Essential Leaders Council members provide strategic guidance on priorities and weigh in on grant prospects.

We also uplift Essential Leaders Council members’ voices through communications and events to amplify their important perspective and impact externally. To date, their guidance has influenced millions of dollars in our grantmaking and key strategy decisions. The Essential Leaders Council is stewarded by Tyonka Perkins Rimawi, Program Director at the Families and Workers Fund.



Who we are

Our Co-Chairs, Staff, and Executive Committee have unparalleled experience in building large-scale collaborations to create more opportunity for all.

The Executive Committee oversees the Fund’s overall strategy, impact strategy, and success, taking on leadership roles like chairing program areas, spearheading fundraising campaigns, and presiding over Advisory Board meetings.
Staff

Rachel Korberg

Executive Director and

Co-Founder

Rachel Korberg is the Executive Director and co-founder of the Families and Workers Fund, a coalition of more than 25 diverse philanthropies working together to build a more equitable U.S. economy that uplifts everyone. The $125+ million pooled fund makes grants and builds strategic partnerships to advance good jobs, scale inclusive workforce development, and help deliver poverty-reducing public benefits. It has a special focus on climate jobs and public sector-philanthropy partnerships.

Read more...

Previously, Rachel served in program leadership roles at the Ford Foundation and Rockefeller Foundation, where she worked to advance economic opportunity, mobility, and equity. Earlier, she was vice president of a boutique investment firm and a global development and humanitarian aid worker serving communities coping with disasters.

Her commentary has appeared in, or her work has been profiled by, the New York Times, Washington Post, TIME, Fortune, TechCrunch, and Stanford Social Innovation Review. She has been a featured speaker at the Federal Reserve, United Nations, National League of Cities, Aspen Institute, and many universities. Rachel was named a 2023 Presidential Leadership Scholar and New York Times DealBook 2022 Groundbreaker. She also received Crain’s New York’s recognition for notable leaders in philanthropy for her service during the COVID-19 pandemic and a 2021 “Stevie Award” for female nonprofit executive of the year.

Rachel is President of the Board of the Stonewall Community Foundation, one of the largest funders of LGBTQIA+ causes. She has a Master of Public Policy from Yale University and executive training in human-centered design from Stanford Graduate School of Business. Rachel’s leadership is also informed by her lived experience as a working parent, survivor of workplace sexual assault, and a family member who has witnessed loved ones navigate the inadequate public benefits system and a job market that too often writes off those who don’t hold college degrees.

Tyonka Perkins Rimawi

PROGRAM DIRECTOR

Tyonka Perkins Rimawi is a Program Director with the Families and Workers Fund. Tyonka leads our 21st Century Benefits impact area, stewards our Essential Leaders Council, and collaborates with leaders across the benefits access and equity ecosystem to reimagine and repair the social safety net and other benefits that help to propel economic security and mobility.

Read more...

Tyonka has a track record leading innovative philanthropic initiatives focused on economic security, including a public-private partnership that launched the first fully funded Mayors for a Guaranteed Income pilot in the nation and an emergency cash assistance fund that supported over 2,600 families at the onset of the pandemic. She also led economic opportunity initiatives at Goodwill Industries International, including a sector-based initiative to advance qualified yet often overlooked frontline employees into leadership positions and a program to increase the accessibility of market-valued credentials for youth and adults. Earlier, she served in communications, research, and programmatic roles at the Center of Excellence in Leadership of Learning, ultimately leading a statewide initiative that reduced the time and cost of postsecondary education for high school students, particularly students who were most likely to be left behind.

Tyonka currently serves on the Grants Committee of SisterFund and is a member of the Guaranteed Income Community of Practice. She previously served on the Richmond Resilience Initiative Economic Security Task Force and regularly speaks and writes about issues of economic security, including with Nonprofit Quarterly and Virginia Public Media, among other outlets. She earned a BA in Journalism from Butler University and an MBA in Supply Chain Management from the University of Indianapolis.

Jenny Weissbourd

PROGRAM DIRECTOR

Jenny Weissbourd is a Program Director with the Families and Workers Fund, where she leads grantmaking and partnerships to advance good jobs and equitable workforce pathways. Jenny collaborates with governments, nonprofits, and employers at the federal, state, and local levels to support them in delivering jobs that sustain and uplift workers and their families.

Read more...

Jenny brings more than a decade of experience advancing policies and practices to strengthen economic mobility. Most recently, she was the Associate Director of the Workforce Strategies Initiative at the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program, where she led applied research and capacity building projects to improve job quality, in partnership with public agencies, workforce development nonprofits, community lenders, employers, and workers.

Previously, Jenny built the capacity of nonprofit and public agencies to scale their impact. At The Food Trust, Jenny guided the development of food access initiatives, including a small business marketing program that created 100 jobs and $11M in economic impact, and a public/private partnership to increase SNAP utilization. Early in her career, Jenny was a consultant to nonprofit and public agencies at Fairmount Ventures.

Jenny holds a BA from Brown, an MBA from MIT, and an MPA from Harvard, where she was a Fellow at the Center for Public Leadership and editor of the LGBTQ Policy Journal. As a graduate student, Jenny worked with MIT’s Institute for Work and Employment Research to study strategies to increase worker voice, and served as a Dukakis Policy Fellow for Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo.

Jenny is a regular public speaker and writer on workforce issues. Her work has been featured in the Boston Globe, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Federal Reserve’s Invested Magazine, and other outlets. She lives in Philadelphia with her partner Mariele and their dog Frank.

Sarah Mostafa

PROGRAM DIRECTOR

Sarah is a Program Director at the Families and Workers Fund, where she leads grantmaking and partnerships to advance good jobs and inclusive workforce development, with a focus on climate and infrastructure careers and small and medium-sized businesses.

Read more...

Prior to joining the Fund, she was the Deputy Director of the Office of Performance and Data Analytics at the City of Cincinnati, where she oversaw the city’s performance management strategy, the launch of a new evaluation function that informed the expenditure of millions of dollars towards evidence-based practices, and the development of a racial equity roadmap that resulted in $2 million of new investment in children savings account and medical debt relief for thousands of residents. Earlier, she was a Fellow at the Harvard Government Performance Lab supporting multiple cities across the country in outcomes-based procurement and equitable contracting.

 Sarah’s first career was as a management consultant specializing in sustainability and clean energy and providing economic analysis and strategic planning to help governments meet ambitious climate goals. She also worked with power utilities, bringing experience on the design and implementation of state and local financial incentives to support clean energy market transformation. Sarah is passionate about the power of public-private partnerships and the role of state and local governments to drive an equitable and data-driven climate transition. She holds a Master of Public Policy from the University of Michigan and a BS in Environmental Science and Policy from the University of Maryland.

Christian Carter

PROGRAM ASSOCIATE

Christian Carter is the Program Associate at the Families and Workers Fund, where she manages stakeholder relationships to support FWF’s mission and the work of our grantees.

Read more...

Christian joins the Fund after working at the Coastal Community Foundation in South Carolina, supporting grantees in achieving meaningful wins to benefit the Lowcountry community through relationship management, capacity building efforts, and informing strategic grantmaking direction as a Lowcountry native herself. Previously, Christian served at the North Carolina Coalition Against Sexual Assault as a Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation intern, where she supported more than 200 Black youth from across NC in sexual assault prevention and intervention education through the organization’s annual Young Advocates Institute.

Christian holds a BA in Sociology from North Carolina State University, where she graduated summa cum laude and became a proud member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. Christian is also a family caregiver, advocating for the support of care workers and a strong care economy. She brings an appetite for community centered grantmaking and knowledge on place-based impact to the team.

Lee Domeika

Program Fellow

Lee Domeika is the Program Fellow for the Powering Climate and Infrastructure Careers Initiative (PCIC) at the Families and Workers Fund. In this role, she leads technical assistance design and supports grantmaking to advance quality jobs and wraparound support for workers in the growing climate workforce.

Read more...

Prior to FWF, Lee was a director with Jobs for the Future focusing heavily on program and grant management for work-based learning, technical assistance for student and worker voice, and quality green job research. Lee previously worked in statewide public policy in Maryland, organizing with students, workers, community organizations, community colleges, employers, and more on legislation to expand access to college tuition assistance as well as low-wage worker access to paid sick leave. Prior to this, they worked in adult education, collaboratively building wraparound support for students. Her love and care for robust, supportive services for both students and workers remains strong. 

Lee lives in Baltimore, her home of 10 years, with their partner and doggo. Outside of work, Lee enjoys trying new recipes, attempting to make a crankie, and working closely with the Baltimore Abortion Fund, a grassroots organization providing financial and logistical support to people seeking abortion care in Maryland. 

Joshua Rivera

Program Fellow

Joshua Rivera is the Benefits Access & Equity Initiative Program Fellow for the Families and Workers Fund (FWF). He supports FWF’s efforts to increase family economic security through the equitable modernization of government safety net programs. 

Read more...

Before his role at FWF, Joshua was a researcher at the American Institutes for Research (AIR). His work at AIR focused on promoting the use and generation of evidence within federal workforce agencies to improve program outcomes.

Before joining AIR, Joshua served as the Economic Stability Administration Policy Director at the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS), where he led strategic planning and COVID-19 emergency response for public assistance programs such as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and the Low-income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP).

Joshua also provided data analysis, policy research, and program implementation assistance to the City of Detroit as the senior data and policy advisor at Poverty Solutions at the University of Michigan. Josh is a proud alumnus of the Public Policy and International Affairs (PPIA) fellowship and is a first-generation Saluki and Wolverine with a BA in Economics and Political Science from Southern Illinois University and a Master of Public Policy from the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy.

Samiya Sayed

Program Manager

Samiya Sayed is a Program Manager at the Families and Workers Fund. She manages the Fund’s monitoring, evaluation, and learning, coordinating closely with grantees and strategic partners to cultivate a learning community, deliver on our shared strategic goals, and evaluate outcomes.

Read more...

Samiya has a profound commitment to driving positive change and brings a wealth of experience to her role. Drawing from a diverse career spanning workforce development initiatives for formerly incarcerated individuals to direct service delivery with underserved youth, Samiya has actively worked to bridge gaps in opportunity and representation within these fields. She also brings a strong research background, contributing to studies on advancing gender equity in employment, increasing minority access to STEM careers, and improving the outcomes of foster youth. Through her extensive research, Samiya was a contributing author of 4 research publications and played a significant role in 3 research studies.

Samiya holds a BA in Psychology from the University of California, Berkeley and a Master of Social Work from the University of Chicago. Samiya is also a cat mom, kitten foster parent, and pet advocate.

JAE GHO

OPERATIONS ASSOCIATE

Jae is the Operations Associate at the Families and Workers Fund, working closely with the Director of Philanthropy and Operations and across the organization to support grant administration, finance, and events. 

Read more...

Jae has supported the operations, fundraising, and administration of a range of nonprofit and start-up organizations across the education, healthcare, arts, and youth health equity sectors. They have also worked as a line cook and bartender. They hold a B.M. in Double Bass Performance from The Juilliard School.

Jae has resided on unceded occupied Lenapehoking lands for the last 9 years (currently in Brooklyn, NY) and is committed to the learning and unlearning of our interconnected oppression and freedom.

Courtney Lindemann

EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT

Courtney is an Executive Assistant at the Families and Workers Fund, working closely with Executive Director Rachel Korberg and the Operations Team to support the organization’s mission. Courtney is deeply committed to driving positive change within underserved and underinvested populations and communities

Read more...

Courtney joins the Fund after spending several years in administrative roles in the nonprofit sector aiding children and families challenged by food insecurity. Courtney holds a B.A.in Psychology and is the proud momma of a son and two rescue pets.

Jaidah Murray

ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT

As part of the operations team at Families and Workers Fund, Jaidah brings a wealth of experience in administrative excellence and a deep understanding of government relations. She has a passion for facilitating and supporting initiatives that empower communities and support economic mobility.

Read more...

Jaidah holds B.A. in International Affairs from American University’s School of International Service. Previously, Jaidah supported key operations in the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Department of Energy.

YK Vandekamp

Director, Philanthropy & Operations

YK Vandekamp is the Director of Philanthropy & Operations at the Families and Workers Fund. In this role, they oversee all operations, including development and fundraising, ensure practices are aligned with the Fund’s value of equity, and lead the operations and philanthropy team. They also partner with the Executive Director on organizational strategy and talent development.

Read more...

Previously, YK was the founder and CEO of a restaurant group that employed dozens of frontline and hourly workers. As an employer, they prioritized job quality and equity, including through the creation of a program that created pathways to management roles for re-entry citizens. They regularly draw on this experience in FWF’s work focused on small and midsize businesses.

Throughout their career, YK has been committed to operationalizing racial equity to create systems change and to creating opportunities for advancement for historically marginalized communities. They have served as the Executive Director of a community arts organization where they created and led career advancement programs for adults with developmental disabilities. As the CEO of a restaurant group, YK oversaw a program that created pathways to leadership for re-entry citizens.

YK brings a deep care and commitment to working class families and immigrant communities and is immersed in their intersecting communities’ collective liberation through mutual aid and grassroots organizing.

Co-Chairs

ERIC BRAVERMAN

Co-Chair Emeritus, The Families and Workers Fund

Eric Braverman is a CEO, founder, and teacher.

Currently, he is leading the creation of a new philanthropic project to be unveiled later this year.

For the past half-decade, he served as the founding CEO of Schmidt Futures, a philanthropic initiative that bets early on exceptional people solving hard problems in science and society. Prior to creating Schmidt Futures, Eric oversaw all philanthropic and non-investment efforts and directed the family office.

Read more...

Named by Fortune magazine in 2010 as one of the “40 Most Influential Leaders in Business” worldwide under 40 years old, Eric previously served as CEO of Rex Group, CEO of the Clinton Foundation, and a partner and co-founder of McKinsey & Company’s government practice – as part of a career at the firm from 1997 to 2013.

At the Clinton Foundation, Eric led an effort to secure an endowment, develop infrastructure to support best-in-class operating practices, improve strategic planning and financial management, strengthen Board governance and internal controls, and use data effectively. During his tenure from 2013 to 2015, Charity Navigator awarded the Foundation a perfect score for transparency and accountability.

At McKinsey, Eric was the global leader of McKinsey’s work on government innovation and an expert on the transformation of complex institutions. He counseled heads of state and former presidents, cabinet secretaries, civil service officials, and business leaders in media, entertainment, and technology. Eric also served as an advisor on performance management for President Obama’s transition team in 2008.

At Yale, he was a Senior Fellow for more than a decade and continues to teach on public leadership matters including ethics, innovation, and global competitiveness. Eric is a member of YPO and the New York State Bar, and in addition to his work with the Families and Workers Fund also served on the boards of America’s Frontier Fund, Ready, Arena Stage, and other organizations.

Darren Walker

Co-Chair, The Families and Workers Fund
President, The Ford Foundation
Darren Walker is president of the Ford Foundation, a $14 billion international social justice philanthropy. He is a member of Governor Cuomo’s Reimagining New York Commission and co-chair of NYC Census 2020. He chaired the philanthropy committee that brought a resolution to the city of Detroit’s historic bankruptcy.

Under his leadership, the Ford Foundation became the first non-profit in US history to issue a $1 billion designated social bond in US capital markets for proceeds to strengthen and stabilize non-profit organizations in the wake of COVID-19.

Read more...
Before joining Ford, Darren was vice president at Rockefeller Foundation, overseeing global and domestic programs. In the 1990s, he was COO of the Abyssinian Development Corporation, Harlem’s largest community development organization.

Darren co-chairs New York City’s Mayoral Advisory Commission on City Art, Monuments, and Markers, and has served on the Independent Commission on New York City Criminal Justice and Incarceration Reform and the UN International Labour Organization Global Commission on the Future of Work. He co-founded both the US Impact Investing Alliance and the Presidents’ Council on Disability Inclusion in Philanthropy and is a founding member of the Board Diversity Action Alliance. He serves on many boards, including Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the National Gallery of Art, Carnegie Hall, the High Line, the Committee to Protect Journalists, and the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture. In the summer of 2020, he was appointed to the boards of Square and Ralph Lauren. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society and is the recipient of 16 honorary degrees and university awards, including Harvard University’s W.E.B. Du Bois Medal.

Educated exclusively in public schools, Darren was a member of the first Head Start class in 1965 and received BA, BS, and JD degrees from the University of Texas at Austin. He has been included on numerous leadership lists: Time’s annual 100 Most Influential People, Rolling Stone’s 25 People Shaping the Future, Fast Company’s Most Creative People in Business, Ebony’s Power 100, and Out magazine’s Power 50. Most recently, Darren was named Wall Street Journal’s 2020 Philanthropy Innovator.

Executive Committee

Sarita Gupta

Co-Founder, The Families and Workers Fund
VICE PRESIDENT, U.S. Programs, The Ford Foundation

Sarita Gupta is vice president of the foundation’s U.S. programs, leading the team that oversees Ford’s domestic work including Civic Engagement and Government, Creativity and Free Expression, Future of Work(ers), Technology and Society, Disability Rights, and Gender, Racial, and Ethnic Justice.

Sarita joined the foundation with more than 20 years of experience working to expand people’s ability to come together to improve their workplaces, their communities, and their lives by creating solutions to the problems they face.

Read more...
She has deep expertise in policy advocacy, organizing, and building partnerships across the workers’ rights and care movements, having served as executive director of Jobs With Justice and co-director of Caring Across Generations. She is a nationally recognized expert on the economic, labor, and political issues affecting working people, and is widely acknowledged as a key leader and strategist in the progressive movement.

During her tenure at Jobs With Justice, Sarita led a network of 30+ labor and community coalitions that anchored campaigns, changed the conversation, and moved labor, community, student, and faith voices into action. Jobs With Justice has been on the frontlines of successful organizing and policy campaigns to boost wages and working conditions for all working people, ensure worker voice and dignity in workplaces, and improve labor and civil rights protections for immigrant men and women. Sarita played a key role in seeding numerous campaigns and efforts, like the Asia Floor Wage Alliance, which is a global coalition of trade unions, workers’ rights, and human rights organizations that is actively innovating regional initiatives for higher wages in the global garment industry; the United Workers Congress, bringing together workers centers and organizations focused on raising labor standards and protections for low-wage workers across industries; and Caring Across Generations, a national movement of families, caregivers, people with disabilities, and aging Americans, working to transform the way we care in this country so that all families can live well and age with dignity.

As co-director of Caring Across Generations, Sarita spearheaded the campaign calling for policy solutions that create a much-needed care infrastructure that provides high-quality, affordable options for people who need care, support for family caregivers, and that strengthens the care workforce. Caring Across Generations was instrumental in paving the way for the Home Care Rule, the effort to provide minimum wage and overtime protections for two million home care workers. The campaign was also successful in winning state funding for the Kupuna Caregivers Program in Hawaii, which provides a financial benefit to working family caregivers. And, most recently, it shepherded the Washington Long-Term Care Trust Act into law, establishing the first state-based, public, long-term care program in the nation.

She is a Hunt Alternatives Fund Prime Movers Fellow as well as a graduate of the Rockwood Leadership Training Program. Among the awards Sarita has received are the National Women’s Law Center Annual Leadership Award, the Frances Perkins Open Door Award, a Mount Holyoke College Alumnae Achievement Award, and Corporate Ethics International’s BENNY Award.

Anna Fink

Co-Founder, the Families and Workers Fund
Executive Director, Amalgamated Foundation & SVP at Amalgamated Bank

Anna Fink is Executive Director of the Amalgamated Foundation, where she leads the foundation’s grant-making and donor advised fund services. Anna began her career as an organizer and has 20 years of experience in public policy advocacy and philanthropy.

She has developed and led major philanthropic efforts focused on women, immigrants’ rights and democracy and justice.

Read more...
She served as a senior advisor on innovation and philanthropy to the president of the AFL-CIO, and has built collaborative funding efforts supporting social justice and workers rights. Anna was a trustee of the Berger-Marks Foundation and currently serves on the boards of the National Employment Law Project, The Workers Lab and New Media Ventures.  She was named a 2019 Philanthropy Forward fellow by the Aspen Institute and Neighborhood Funders Group.

Danielle Goonan

Managing Director, Economic Policy Investments and Grantmaking, Equity & Economic Opportunity, The Rockefeller Foundation

For nearly a decade, Danielle Goonan’s work has been guided by the core goal of increasing pathways to opportunity for all Americans, improving the systems that serve them, and getting resources to communities that need them most to ensure meaningful and lasting change. Currently, Danielle is a member of The Rockefeller Foundation’s U.S. Jobs and Economic Opportunity team, overseeing investments that spur inclusive economic development. 

Read more...

Most recently, Danielle was responsible for a philanthropic grant portfolio at the Walmart Foundation that focused on issues of employment technology, place-based systems change and employer practice change and served as an internal advisor to Walmart U.S’s People team. Danielle was an appointee of the Obama Administration where she led strategic partnerships for the Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education. In this role, she worked with stakeholders in the corporate, labor and philanthropic sectors on behalf of the US Department of Education. She was also led the Clinton Global Initiative’s domestic education and skills development team with responsibilities that included managing the CGI U.S. Youth Employment Action Network in partnership with the Office of Secretary Clinton’s JobOne program, overseeing the strategy of CGI America’s education and skills Working Groups, and leading the growth of the workforce development portfolio of Commitments to Action. She received h er MSc in IR from LSE and her undergraduate degree in American Studies summa cum laude from Dickinson College where she was a Posse Foundation Scholar and a member of Phi Beta Kappa. She was also a Fulbright Scholar to Italy. Danielle sits on the Humanity in Action Board of Directors and American Planning Board. She was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York.

Meeghan Prunty

Senior Advisor, Schusterman Family Philanthropies

Meeghan’s career has been dedicated to advancing economic mobility and social justice with a focus on disadvantaged children and child welfare. She recently spent 3½ years on the leadership team of the innovative philanthropic collaborative Blue Meridian Partners – with work ranging from portfolio management to program operations to funder engagement – before launching her own strategic advisory practice in early 2020. PE Strategic Partners works with foundations, non-profits and individuals to advance policy and philanthropic initiatives that maximize impact.

Read more...

Meeghan has deep experience leading organizations and teams, bringing people together around policy issues, and spearheading complex projects from initial inception through detailed execution – as she has done for Blue Meridian, The Hamilton Project at Brookings, former Treasury Secretary Bob Rubin, and the White House. Meeghan helped develop and launch the Hamilton Project, serving as Associate Director from 2005 to 2010 and senior advisor until 2016. She is a board member of The Hamilton Project and Power of Two, and previously served on the boards of national non-profits Year Up and Zero to Three. Meeghan holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and a BS in International Economics from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service.

Charles Fields

Executive Vice President of Programs, The James Irvine Foundation

 

 

Charles Sidney Fields joined the Irvine Foundation in 2016 as the Chief of Staff and Planning, was named Vice President of Program Implementation in 2019, and Executive Vice President of Programs in April 2024. He has more than a decade of leadership experience in the nonprofit and philanthropic sector, funding and supporting social change organizations to achieve greater impact.

He previously served as a Senior Program Manager for The California Endowment, where he was responsible for strategy development, grantmaking, and leadership activities in Southern California.

Read more...

He also co-developed and managed Sons & Brothers, the Endowment’s $50 million grantmaking and leadership program focused on improving the health, wellness, and opportunity of boys and young men of color. During his tenure there, he co-developed a $260 million public-private loan fund, the FreshWorks Fund, to increase access to healthy foods and spur economic development in underserved communities in California.

Prior to the Endowment, Charles was a grantmaker at the Marguerite Casey Foundation, managing an $8 million portfolio of grants focused on community economic development, civic engagement, educational equity, violence prevention, and family support.

Charles currently serves on the board of ABFE, membership-based philanthropic organization that advocates for responsive and transformative investments in Black communities, and he serves an executive committee member of the Families and Workers Fund.

Charles has a master’s in education and a bachelor’s in organizational communications from Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Allison Harrington

Program Manager, Structural Reforms, Open Society Foundations

Ryan Rippel

Director,
Economic Mobility and Opportunity

Ryan Rippel is the founding director of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s U.S. Economic Opportunity and Mobility (EMO) strategy. In this role, Ryan works with a team of leaders and advocates who are committed to breaking down the barriers that hold back nearly 50 million people from experiencing economic mobility and opportunity across the U.S. – in rural, urban, and suburban communities. The EMO strategy is organized around approaches to addressing everyday barriers to security and opportunity, better equipping communities and employers to create long-term pathways to mobility and overcome structural barriers to mobility, and helping other funders and advocates work together to set even bigger goals to achieve a more equitable, just U.S.

Read more...

Ryan has spent more than a decade working to better understand why poverty is so persistent in America and what we can do about it. His career has been shaped by his upbringing in central Missouri, through the example and devotion of his mother who raised Ryan and his sister as a single parent, and through the opportunities he’s had to witness communities coming together to make opportunity possible for their residents. Ryan is trained as a lawyer, with a particular interest in local government law. Prior to his current role, he’s held a number of leadership positions within the Gates Foundation including interim chief of staff to the CEO and special assistant to the Co-chair, William H. Gates, Sr. He serves on a number of non-profit boards and is an adjunct professor at Washington University School of Law. He resides with his family in St. Louis.

Careers
Join our team to enact sustainable, high-impact change