Staff and Board

Alli Chagi-Starr is Green For All's Senior Community Engagement Strategist and was the Event Chair of the Dream Reborn Conference. She worked previously at Ella Baker Center, where she helped implement the Solutions Salon series and other large convenings, including the Social Equity track at the United Nations World Environment Day. Alli is also the co-founder of the 8-year old Art in Action Youth Leadership Program, which offers uplifting programs for young, urban artists. Her essays about innovative activism appear in Democratizing the Global Economy, Global Uprising, Voices from the WTO, The Political Edge and How to Stop the Next War Now. She facilitates seminars on developing creative tools for global/personal transformation and movement building.

Vivian Chang MA brings to Green For All a background in urban planning and over 15 years of experience with community organizing, and policy advocacy to the organization’s vision of creating an inclusive green economy. Prior to joining Green For All, Ms. Chang served as the Executive Director of the Asian Pacific Environmental Network, a nationally recognized environmental justice organization focused on building leadership in Asian immigrant and refugee communities. As a well-recognized experienced organizer in the Asian community, Ms. Chang has spoken on numerous panels as well as in media outlets including KPFA (the Bay Area’s Pacifica network radio station), National Public Radio, the most popular Chinese ethnic media outlets including Sing Tao and Channel 26 KTSF. She holds a Masters degree in Urban Planning from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) with a concentration in regional economic and community development. Ms. Chang is a recipient of the 2007 Gerbode Fellowship and Oakland’s 2009 Woman of the Year award.

Ryan's beliefs are deeply rooted in nature. He was born and raised in Humboldt County, California amidst the towering Redwoods, rocky coastlines, rivers and mountains. He is a graduate of the University of California, Santa Cruz where he received a B.A. in film/video production. Ryan has over 13 years experience making videos and short films. He has traveled over most of the continents of the world, filming and broadening his awareness of the needs of others. He volunteered in orphanages in Africa and Tibet and a refuge camp in Thailand. He made films to help these organizations gain support and to help enlighten others of their needs. It was while participating with the League of Young Voters in San Francisco, that he was truly inspired into political activism. Ryan is an avid long distance runner and is happiest when playing music with his family and friends. His favorite animal is the Narwhal. He channels his energy to video production so that he can communicate Green for All's dedication to build an inclusive green economy strong enough to lift people out of poverty. Ryan is a servant warrior and his camera is his weapon against eco-apartheid.

Ali'a is new to the Bay Area, having recently relocated from Atlanta, GA. Her commitment to social justice and actualizing progressive ideals brought her to Green For All. Her most recent work experience was with Be Present, Inc, a nationwide network that has been breaking new ground – by utilizing the Be Present Empowerment Model, a unique process that guides personal and collective transformation. Free spirited and idealistic, Ali'a has found her home in Oakland to be an exact fit for her soul and is filled with joy every day that she lives in such an extravagantly beautiful environment. Ali'a is filled with pride and gratitude for being the mother of a brilliant and beautiful son.

Nick comes to us from the private sector and seeks to engage the power of the business community to further Green For All's social mission. He serves as the manager of the Capital Access program, which is committed to mobilizing financial, human and social capital to help create, sustain, and scale green jobs in the U.S. Nick brings a wide variety of business experience to the organization, having previously worked in both real estate private equity and investment management. He has also worked in business development and operational roles within the sports industry, for the former Seattle Sonics as well as the PGA Tour. This unique background serves him well in his role as the lead for business incubation and engagement. Nick holds both an MBA and a BA from Stanford University, and lives in San Francisco.

Diana is the Finance Director for Green For All, as well as a founding member of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights. Diana received her B.A. in Social Welfare and her J.D. at Hastings College of Law. While she is not focused on Green For All and the Ella Baker Center, she is operating a private community criminal defense practice, and serving on the boards of Bay Area non-profits Machen Center and TURF (Together United Recommitted Forever.) This San Francisco native is also a real estate broker, supporting activists and other members of her community to empower themselves through homeownership.

Jeremy manages a portfolio of projects that advance Green For All’s mission. His work focuses on the implementation and replication of green economic and workforce development initiative at both local and national levels.

Jeremy joined Green For All early in 2008 as the National Field Director. Before that he was the National Organizing Director at the Apollo Alliance where he helped state and local coalitions of environmentalists, labor unions, civil rights groups, and businesses advocate for good jobs and clean energy. Jeremy has broad experience organizing multi-stakeholder efforts to address poverty, environmental issues, and economic development. He has worked a program director for Urban Strategies Council—a community building support and advocacy organization in Oakland, California; as a project manager for the Governor’s Oregon Solutions program; as a policy researcher for the Assistant Secretary of Environmental Justice at Cal/EPA; and as an organizer or technical assistant in a variety of other community development and environmental justice initiatives. He has master’s degrees in City Planning and in International Development from the University of California—Berkeley, and is a co-author of "Green-Collar Jobs in America’s Cities: Building Pathways out of Poverty and Careers in the Clean Energy Economy" (2008).

As a Policy Associate at Green For All, Stacy works with partner organizations, community leaders, and policymakers to develop and implement local policy innovations that advance an inclusive green economy that provides pathways out of poverty.  She is co-author of A Short Guide to Setting up a City-Scale Retrofit Program and author of Watershed Reconnaissance: Getting the Lay of the Land and Municipal Assessment: Partnering with Local Governments.

Stacy has a background in public interest environmental and social justice policy and law.  She received her B.A. in History from Yale University and her J.D. from Lewis & Clark Law School, and is a member of the California Bar Association.  Her past experience includes serving as environmental policy advisor to two New Jersey governors and helping individuals on welfare overcome legal barriers to employment as a pro bono attorney at Bay Area Legal Aid in San Francisco.

Ying-sun is a longtime leader in the Bay Area progressive movement. As a longtime core staff member of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, he was a key figure in nearly every major campaign within the local youth-and-student and prison-reform movements of the young century. Now, he is lending his strategic and communications expertise to Green For All. A native San Franciscan, he is also a musician and writer. Currently, Ying-sun is lead guitarist, vocalist, and primary songwriter for the San Francisco rock group Dialectic.

Ken Lewis is excited and honored to be a part of Green For All’s Strategic Growth Team. With a background in finance and customer relations he looks forward to supporting Green For All’s development activities. He has volunteered with Habitat for Humanity, Sports 4 Kids, and the Alameda County Computer Resource Center. He is a graduate of Carleton College in Northfield, MN where he played football and studied abroad in Mexico and Spain. He lives in Oakland, loves riding BART, and enjoys exploring and discovering all of the great things the Bay Area has to offer.

Mahfam comes to Green For All with a background in environmental education and activism and a strong passion for social justice issues. Her life pre-Green For All included serving as Office Manager at environmental group Circle of Life; getting hands-on experience with solar panels, hydro-electricity, and pot-bellied pigs while house-sitting in Humboldt County; slinging espresso and reading poetry at her favorite green coffeehouse, Nomad Cafe; developing, fundraising for, and implementing the La Manzanilla Environmental Education Project in Jalisco, Mexico; and getting a B.A. in Film Studies from UC Santa Barbara. Her dream is to see her home country of Iran once more in this life.

Born and raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Ada came west for love and adventure, and instead wound up at Green For All. She helped organize the Dream Reborn, was the Online Organizer for Green Jobs Now, and currently works in online communications for Green For All. Previously, Ada worked in Washington DC in youth development and video. She graduated from Harvard with a BA in Social Studies in 2006. She is thrilled and honored to be doing this work with such amazing people at such a critical time.

Julian is an Oakland native raised behind the redwood curtain of Humboldt County. He is a graduate of San Francisco State University who came to Green For All through his organizing work with The League of Young Voters. Julian’s passion for saving our people and our planet finds a vehicle in his work as Green For All's Field Organizer.

Julian works with people around the country who are putting government investment dollars to work on a local level to build the green economy. He trains local leaders to build the green economy from the ground up by serving as the facilitator of the Green For All Academy. He trains leaders with the tools they need to communicate the promise of the green economy and to engage disadvantaged communities in support of green jobs and climate protection strategies. Julian works everyday to link local partners, lift those local best practices and models to national prominence, and leverage the success stories for large-scale change. Julian has been featured in The Nation, Wiretap magazine and The San Francisco Xpress, and has been recognized by the California Labor Archives for excellence in writing.

Melinda's background as a bookkeeper for over 20 years with a client base of non-profit organizations, homeowner associations and law firms will serve Green For All well, with her strong accounting skills to set up, clean up and maintain computerized bookkeeping records. Melinda received her Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration from the University of Phoenix and was recognized as "Entrepreneur of the Year." She is a member of the American Institute of Professional Bookkeepers and a former Board Member of Women's Initiative for Self Employment.

Julia H. Rhee is a first generation movement builder and has been training students across the country on issues grounded in racial justice, anti-oppression, and building student power for the past seven years. She joins the Green For All team to leverage youth leadership in the environmental justice and equity movement and brings youth work experience hailing from New York City, Oakland, CA and Tacoma, WA.

A graduate of Eugene Lang College of the New School, she is a proud alumnus of the National Asian American Student Conference (NAASCon) and Young People For (YP4) Leadership Academy Fellowship.

Julie is a Regional Program Manager for Green For All. As part of the Cities team, she helps local city partners realize model programs that create an inclusive green economy with pathways out of poverty. By working to leverage all of Green For All’s resources (business, policy, communications, education, and movement building) in a group of cities, she's helping local partners create model economies that will inspire the nation.

With ten years of city, state, and national organizing experience, Julie's work has included developing and passing a model Responsible Contractor Ordinance, shaping Project Labor Agreements to create opportunities for urban communities, helping to develop the City of Paterson, New Jersey’s first green and mixed-income housing development, and building volunteer networks in coal states to help them advocate for a strong clean energy and climate bill. She is honored to have helped create these victories by working side-by-side with amazing staff and members at ACORN and MoveOn.org.

Julie holds a BUS Summa Cum Laude from the University of New Mexico, where she was a Regents Scholar. She also earned a Masters with Distinction in International Conflict Analysis from the University of Kent at Canterbury, where she was a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar. When she takes a break from working with an excellent team of local and national leaders, she practices Kuk Sool, a Korean mixed martial art.

As a strategist, technologist and communicator Bari comes to Green For All with a strong foundation in assisting non-profit organizations to leverage information technology and the Internet to further their mission. In 2003, Bari launched a groundbreaking online project based on newly available, disaggregated U.S. Census data. In the form of a searchable online database, the work made critical connections between socio-economic disparities and health care in Asian and Pacific Islander communities in the United States. In 2005, he launched the South Asian Forum (southasianforum.org), another groundbreaking online resource that documents the history of community organizing by South Asians in North America and provides current resources to community-based organizations, activists and individuals in the South Asian diaspora. He holds a Masters degree in International Relations with a focus on global economic justice issues. Bari brings his passion for social justice work to his personal life as well. He has worked extensively on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation between 1998 and 2000 where he remodeled a home for transitional children and later built a straw-bale home for a Lakota family. Bari has also studied and taught Augusto Boal's Theater of the Oppressed techniques to examine and heal personal and societal oppressions.

Megan is a Policy Associate at Green For All. Based in Washington, D.C., she works with partner organizations and policymakers to shape and advocate for federal policies that help build an inclusive green economy that provides pathways out of poverty. Megan comes to Green For All with a background in policy research, advocacy, and equitable development. Most recently, she worked with SCOPE in Los Angeles to research and advocate for policies that create family-supporting, green jobs in the construction and manufacturing sectors. Megan holds a Master of Public Policy from the UCLA School of Public Affairs and a B.A. from NYU.

Sarah Shanley Hope is honored and excited to direct Green For All's strategic relationships with financial partners and stakeholders. Prior to joining Green For All in January 2009, Sarah managed customer insight research and corporate brand strategy for Cargill. In May 2007, Sarah received her MBA in social entrepreneurship and strategic marketing from the University of Minnesota, Carlson School of Management. Since Fall 2005, Sarah has also led numerous consulting engagements on brand strategy, marketing communications and fundraising for a range of government and non-profit clients in Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN, Buffalo, NY and Oakland, CA. Before business school, Sarah worked as the Individual Gifts Manager for the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights and as the Volunteer Coordinator for the Arianna Huffington Campaign for Governor during the California recall election.

Ladan Sobhani is a Program Manager at Green For All where she is developing a Community of Practice, a program established to connect practitioners so they may share expertise and collaborate in order to advance their work while contributing to the national effort to build a green economy strong enough to lift people out of poverty. Ladan graduated from UC Davis with a major in International Relations and minor in Environmental Economics. Following graduation Ladan spent a life-transforming year in Venezuela teaching English and learning Spanish. Her eye-opening travels in Latin America led her to work for two years at the International Forum on Globalization where she researched and wrote about the environmental impact of economic globalization and helped to organize large teach-ins on the World Trade Organization and the International Monetary Fund. Ladan went on to spend five years at the human rights organization, Global Exchange where she worked on a variety of campaigns including: a response to the California Energy crisis, organizing protests against the war on Iraq, and leading political fact finding delegations to Iran (the country of her birth), Lebanon, Syria, Palestine and Israel.

Jessy Tolkan serves as the Political Director for Green For All, leading the federal political work of the organization. Prior to her role at Green For All, Jessy served as Executive Director for the Energy Action Coalition, a coalition of 50 leading youth organizations throughout the U.S. and Canada. Under her leadership the Energy Action Coalition is growing a generation-wide movement to stop global warming, by advocating for green jobs, stopping new coal plants, and making young people's voices heard in the policy debate around global climate change. Jessy has spent most of her career working to build power amongst the millenial generation. In 2004, as state director for the New Voters Project, Tolkan helped to register more than 130,000 young voters and produce one of the highest youth turnout rates in the country. She's been featured in Time Magazine, Hard Ball with Chris Matthews, and Vanity Fair Magazine. Jessy helped to plan the largest youth gathering on global warming in our nation's history - POWER SHIFT 2009, a conference that brought together more than 12,000 youth representing all 50 states, and culminated with the largest single lobby day on capitol hill focused on global warming. Jessy spearheaded POWER VOTE, a campaign to mobilize 1,000,000 young voters are climate and energy issues in more than 30 states across the country.

Prior to her work at the Energy Action Coalition, Tolkan worked with leading advocacy and grassroots organizations including: United States Student Association, Young Democrats of America, and Grassroots Campaigns, Inc. Tolkan received a B.A. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in Political Science and African American-Studies. In 2008, Tolkan was named one of 100 agents of change by Rolling Stone Magazine.

Vien Truong is the Senior Policy Associate at Green For All. She supports and collaborates with community leaders and policymakers in the development and implementation of green jobs policies and programs in states throughout the country.

She has worked with a California State Senator, researching and developing state law, and a U.S. Chief Magistrate, researching and analyzing issues before the federal court. Vien was the founding instructor for the Legal Assistance Program for Clarita Career College, a legal training program for entering legal professionals. She also taught Street Law at Castlemont High School, a program that teaches law to high school students. She was the Community Economic Justice Law Fellow at the East Bay Community Law Center, helping to develop innovative, long-term economic development solutions to address the systemic problems confronting low-income communities.

When she's not at work, Vien serves on the City of Oakland's Planning Commission. She also serves on the boards for the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA) and the East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation (EBALDC).

Vien holds a B.A from the University of California at Berkeley. She also holds a J.D. from the University of California at Hastings College of the Law.

As the Strategic Growth Manager with Green For All, Jen leads the Strategic Growth Team’s individual donor strategy and infrastructure. Prior to Green For All, Jen was the Individual Giving Officer and Associate Director of one of the largest Planned Parenthood affiliates and its action fund in the country. Since 2003, Jen has managed a variety of collaborative fund raising, membership building and public policy strategies and initiatives at national and community non-profit and political organizations in New York City and Hartford, CT.

Jen received her MA in Gender and Politics from NYU's Gallatin School for Individualized Studies and holds a BA in French and Political Science, with a focus in Gender Studies, from Loyola University in Maryland.

Donald Cohen is the co-founder and president of the Center on Policy Initiatives, a San Diego-based research and policy center. Cohen has over 25 years experience as an organizer and trainer in strategy, policy and organization. He is the former Political Director of the San Diego-Imperial Counties Labor Council, AFL-CIO. He also has served on the Workforce Investment Board, the Legislative Committee of the San Diego Chamber of Commerce, the Mayor's Affordable Housing Task Force and the Mayor's Committee on Smart Growth. Currently, Cohen is a member of the advisory committee for the Helen Edison Endowed Lecture Series at UCSD. He serves on the Board of Directors of both the Partnership for Working Families and the Horizon Institute, a Los Angeles-based think tank.

Juliet has a Masters of Science in Business Administration with an emphasis in environmental and urban studies from San Francisco State University. Prior to becoming Director for Urban Habitat, Juliet was the Associate Program Officer for Neighborhood and Community Development at The San Francisco Foundation. She was responsible for all aspects of grantmaking in the areas of workforce development, housing, homelessness, economic development, community development, and neighborhood planning.

Juliet has served on numerous regional and local boards and committees, including the Oakland Homeless and Low-Income Taskforce, the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, the San Francisco School of Volunteers, and the Alameda County Public Health Disparities Taskforce. She currently serves on the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission and the Boards and Steering Committee of Transform, the David Brower Center, the Partnership for Working Families, and the White House Environment and Climate Taskforce.