In 2025, LeaderSpring Center is putting into practice writing Solidarity Statements and stand in unity with those impacted by systems of power that oppress, harm, and limit our communities.

Theresa Harlan, a Native American and Alaska Native Women LeadStrong Fellow, represented as the descendant of the last Indigenous family to live along the west shore of Tomales Bay in Point Reyes Station.

Curt Yagi, the Executive Director of ROCK SF and Class of 2007 San Francisco Fellow, shared the importance and programming of the organization for our youth.

Pia is a nationally recognized advocate for trust-based philanthropy, spend down, and embodied leadership. LeaderSpring awarded her a 2022 Gamechanger Award for her visionary, equity-driven leadership in philanthropy.

Teiahsha Bankhead, a LeaderSpring Center alum from the Class of 2021 Women of Color LeadStrong Fellowship, shares her powerful insights on restorative justice programs that provide crucial support for survivors of trauma.

“We are really excited to enhance our economic development work, including our fair wage initiatives and making sure that individuals are connected to permanent and fair-wage jobs,” said Mirna Cervantes, the organization’s executive director.

Zahra Billoo, Executive Director of CAIR California, shares ““We are now managing people’s fears about this and other government targeting internally and externally to our workloads,” Billoo said. “That is in addition to everything we must do to serve our community and clients.”

Malcolm Yeung, director of the Chinatown Community Development Center, said it’s a “relief” that voters overwhelmingly approved the measure.

“I’m still here in the district, but you never hear anything about Indigenous people,” Betti said. “So to finally have something come up here, you know, (I am) really thankful for the Berkeley Public Schools Fund that continues to support diverse projects.”

“I’d like to see a service driven leadership style grounded in moral courage, and committed to bringing forward the wisdom of all the voices in the community to actualize the potential of the community,” Wilson said.

“In college, I was very engaged in anti-police brutality and fighting against mass incarceration. I had environmentalists saying what we were fighting for was a distraction from the cause because if we didn’t have a planet, it didn’t matter,” Meyers said.

“My Community Mental Health experience was really a big part of why I'm a clinician now,” Dr. Tito said, smiling. “[It] helped me think bigger, think outside of the box as far as how I wanted to bring back the education that I learned from them and integrate it into the community.”⁠
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We are talking about a structure where groups of volunteers who barely know one another, see one percent of the work, often don’t reflect the communities we serve, and who may have little to no experience running nonprofits, being given vast power to supervise leadership and determine values, policies, and practices. Why did we think this weird structure would work?

Join us to hear from HMD’s leadership team about their journey, lessons they learned along the way, and the ways that their organizational structure currently embodies equity. Moderated by Safi Jiroh, Principal Consultant at LeaderSpring Center.

The relationships between money, power, and inequity are visible in the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors. LSC has expanded our analysis of these dynamics from the macro level to the micro level as we implement curricular elements that incorporate reflection of how an individual’s relationship to money and power can impact their leadership.