Leadership Team
Romilda (Romy) Avila (she/her/hers) is CEO of Tides Advocacy, working to strengthen political infrastructure and investments to support power building and policy reform led by and benefitting those most impacted by injustice.
Romy was previously a social impact consultant at FSG, where she advised on grantmaking strategies advancing social justice and equity with Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, General Mills Foundation, Houston Endowment, Greater Cincinnati Foundation, and the Alliance for Strong Families and Children. Romy also served as a consultant and researcher with BCT Partners to address racial disparities and gender inequities through strategic planning, organizational development, policy, and systems change in the social sector. She provided capacity building support and technical assistance in partnership with Annie E. Casey Foundation and Northwest Area Foundation.
Romy obtained her Master of Public Policy from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities and Bachelors in Family, Youth, and Community Sciences from the University of Florida. She is originally from Little Haiti, Miami, Florida.
Sihle Dinani (she/her/hers) is the Chief Financial Officer at Tides Advocacy. With over 20 years of finance and operations experience, Sihle is passionate about supporting highly functioning nonprofit infrastructure.
Most recently, Sihle worked with Movement Strategy Center, a funder intermediary and fiscal sponsor incubating social justice organizations nationwide. Sihle also currently serves as Board Treasurer for Urban Tilth and as Board Secretary for the Movement Strategy Center. A mother, consummate volunteer and novice gardener, Sihle is dedicated to efficiency and accountability within social justice organizations.
A California native, Sihle holds a degree in Economics and Accounting from Claremont McKenna College.
Renita Francois (she/her/hers) is the Chief Strategy Officer at Tides Advocacy. Prior to joining Tides Advocacy, Renita built and led one of New York City's signature community safety initiatives as the Executive Director of the Mayor’s Action Plan for Neighborhood Safety (MAP), a citywide, multi-agency intervention focused on reducing violence by resourcing residents, City agencies and community-based organizations to address the factors underlying safety. For 7 years, she was tasked with developing innovative strategies to mobilize residents in historically underserved neighborhoods to build community power, while directing the City's resources to increase well-being, create access to opportunity, and combat inequity. She is known as one of the key architects of NeighborhoodStat, a place-based process that brings stakeholders in impacted communities together with City leadership to identify shared priorities and implement non-law enforcement centered public safety strategies. As a result of this work, Renita became a founding leader of New York City’s Office of Neighborhood Safety.
Her leadership approach is a reflection of her experience serving as a resource coordinator working in juvenile justice at Brooklyn Family Court, and as a frontline staff member for public housing programs in both Los Angeles and Compton, California, working directly with Black and Brown communities facing multilayered systemic challenges.
Renita holds a BA in American Studies from UC Berkeley and an MBA from Cornell University, where she was a Roy H. Park Leadership Fellow. She is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated and is originally from South Central Los Angeles.
Andrea Granda (she/her/hers) is Senior Director of Advising Services for Tides Advocacy, designing and delivering solutions-based services that meet core organizational and philanthropic needs of the advocacy space. Andrea joined the Tides community in 2011.
Originally from Jersey City, New Jersey, Andrea moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2009. Andrea pursued her calling as a public servant and followed an AmeriCorps internship opportunity at a youth center and clinic in the Bayview/Hunters Point neighborhood, focusing on leadership development. Throughout her 10 years at Tides and Tides Advocacy, she has honed her leadership capacity working with community practitioners, movement leaders, and funders who believe in challenging the status quo and dismantling inequities. Andrea has a vested interest in fostering partnerships to create a platform where ideas, no matter how big or small, can be shared to thrive into social change and policy wins.
Andrea holds a degree in Psychology from Seton Hall University.
Jessica Mofield (she/her/hers) is Tides Advocacy's inaugural Chief Advancement Officer. Before this role, she served as the Executive Director for the NYC Mayor’s Office to Prevent Gun Violence (OPGV) and a founding leader of the NYC Office of Neighborhood Safety, where she led the vision, growth, and strategy of New York City’s $150M gun violence initiatives to transform and scale government’s approach to public safety, community investment, and social justice. This was accomplished through aligning the city’s public safety initiatives to address the individual, familial, and community-based needs of historically disinvested and marginalized black and brown communities.
With over 10 years of management experience, she has held previous posts as the Deputy Executive Director of OPGV and the Deputy Director of the Community Engagement Unit at the NYC Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice. Jessica holds a license as a mental health clinician and has provided culturally informed therapeutic support to over 200 justice-involved men and women. Jessica is currently a Senior Racial Equity Fellow with the Atlantic Institute, where she is a part of a global community that is dedicated to accelerating the eradication of oppression, inequity, and injustice to create a fairer, healthier, and inclusive society through social innovation. Her focus is on addressing the racial imbalances in mental health care through developing a fund to honor the humanity and nuances of the black healing experience.
Jessica earned a master’s degree in counseling for Mental Health and Wellness from New York University and her Bachelor of Science in Psychology from Virginia State University. Go Trojans! Jessica was born and raised in New York City and resides in Brooklyn.
Jen Jorczak (she/her/hers) is Tides Advocacy’s General Counsel. In this role, she brings 18 years experience in advocacy and legal work with Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Planned Parenthood Action Fund, and other Planned Parenthood organizations to bear for broader social justice and policy reform.
She is known for collaboration with advocacy and political staff, fundraisers, finance staff, CEOs, and board members, as well as legal and compliance staff, to ensure effective and compliant advocacy, lobbying, and electoral programs. Her dedication to progressive causes fueled her decision to attend law school while also still working for Planned Parenthood.
Jen is a proud graduate of Brooklyn Law School’s part-time program. In addition to her J.D. magna cum laude, she holds a B.F.A from New York University. Born and raised in the Midwest, Jen and her wife now call New York City home.
Yasmine Laurent (she/her/hers) is a seasoned talent, equity and inclusion practitioner in both for-profit and non-profit sectors. Her versatile background encompasses developing and implementing full scale diversity, equity, and inclusion strategies and building talent management programs. Yasmine has grown a robust career leading people development and advocacy initiatives.
She received her MBA from Simmons College and is a proud alumna of The Florida State University where she received her dual Bachelors of Arts degree in Multinational Business Operations and International Affairs.
Staff
Jordan Brown (she/her/hers) is a Senior Advisor at Tides Advocacy, providing a wide range of core partner management support through strategic and organizational development advising. As the Principal of Collective Grant Writing & Consulting, Jordan provides institutional, individual donor, and organizational development strategies to support innovative base-building organizations, organizing networks, and alliances. Jordan previously served as the Donor Relations Manager at National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA) where she spearheaded the creation of a Major Donor Program whose combined giving capacity exceeded $100 million. Successfully building out Black-led partnerships to champion advocacy efforts for affordable housing, transit equity, and economic development, she served as the Development and Strategic Partnerships Manager at Georgia STAND-UP. Throughout her activism work, Jordan’s mission is to center Black women and girls. She currently works with the Southern Black Girls & Women Consortium, assisting in grant selection and serving as a social justice mentor. Jordan is currently in the 2022 Federal Grant Seeking Cohort sponsored by the William Julius Wilson Institute (WJWI) at Harlem Children’s Zone. A 2021 Western States Center fellow, she wrote a research article addressing the juxtaposition of White women’s political ideologies and their lack of support for Black women. A Georgia native, she studied Psychology at Georgia State University before earning her Master of Public Health, becoming a two-time Georgia State graduate.
Luis Diaz-Albertini (he/him/his) joined Tides Advocacy in 2018, where he supports strategy and collaborates with BIPOC-led organizations building long-term political power. Prior to joining Tides Advocacy, Luis worked with several international human rights and development organizations, including the Rockefeller Foundation, American Jewish World Service (AJWS), Transparency International, and Hispanics in Philanthropy. Most recently, he served as part of the Rockefeller Foundation’s Strategy and Strategic Planning team, where he supported the Foundation’s teams in developing new programmatic initiatives. Previously, he was a Program Officer at AJWS, where he managed the organization’s sexual health and rights and natural resource rights grantmaking program in Latin America and the Caribbean. While at AJWS he shaped and implemented strategies to advance the rights of Indigenous peoples, Afro-descendant people, LGBT people, sex workers, and human rights defenders. Luis received a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science and Africana Studies from Vassar College, and a Master’s in Public Administration in Public and Nonprofit Management and Policy from New York University’s Wagner Graduate School of Public Service.
Lauren Gallagher (she/her/hers) joined Tides Advocacy in September 2021. Before joining Tides Advocacy, she served as Controller of Humane Society Silicon Valley for over 15 years, overseeing the finance department for one of the largest humane societies in the nation and the first Model Shelter in the world. Lauren supported the President’s initiative of both raising the funds to build the existing campus as well as growing the organization to its current financial position of sustainability and further reaching mission impact. She has an active CPA license in the state of California, as well as a background in auditing, previously serving as audit manager at a Bay Area CPA firm. She serves as Treasurer on the board for a local nonprofit, Loma Public Education Fund, which fundraises for the critical core educational programs not funded by the government for the local schools. She also fostered hundreds of puppies for Humane Society Silicon Valley and other rescue groups, as well as recruited and mentored many other foster volunteers. Lauren earned a Bachelor of Science in Commerce with a major in Accounting from Santa Clara University. In her spare time, Lauren enjoys fostering puppies for local animal shelters, watching her favorite pro and college sports teams, volunteering for her daughters’ school and cheering on her two daughters in soccer and basketball.
Eli Isaacs (he/him/his) is a native of the Bay Area with previous residences in Los Angeles, New Orleans, and Flagstaff. Prior to joining Tides Advocacy, he was employed with Movement Strategy Center and Reem’s California. Prior to Reem’s, Eli was a social worker for unhoused populations for eight years at several organizations including the Housing Authority of the County of Alameda and Compass Family Services, among others. In his free time, Eli enjoys hanging out with his two children and playing soccer with Left Wing Fútbol Club. LWFC was founded in Oakland, California in 2003 by a group of lefties and activists who wanted to stay in shape to help outrun the police. They have since expanded to 6 different chapters throughout the country. Fun fact: at 8 years old, Eli won third place in a national yo-yo championship!
Jessica Jordan (she/her/hers), Senior Project Accountant at Tides Advocacy, has been working in nonprofit accounting for the last 8 years with a focus in fiscal sponsorship, and has been working in the accounting field for the last 18 years. Jessica enjoys working directly with clients and being able to help them resolve their needs and to proactively partner with clients about financial health and longevity. She believes fiscal sponsors can develop deep partnerships in helping organizations reach their mission goals. Jessica was born in San Francisco and grew up in the East Bay. When she’s not crunching numbers and helping clients through accounting issues, she loves to spend her time knitting.
Dayne Lee (he/him/his) is passionate about advising progressive, community-based movements, and as a lawyer, draws upon his background in organizing, immigrant rights advocacy, and politics. Prior to joining Tides Advocacy, he advised political candidates, community organizations, and civic tech startups, and practiced litigation at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan. Born in Los Angeles, Dayne is a proud graduate of Pomona College and Harvard Law School, where he was a Peggy Browning Fellow in labor law and a member of the tenant defense practice of the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau.
Huber Munoz-Viveros (he/him/his) joined Tides Advocacy in February 2022 as the Compliance Specialist with the Legal, Risk and Compliance team. He lives in Sacramento with his partner and their 2 fur babies, Camila and Simona. When not chasing after his energetic pups, he enjoys listening to podcasts, watching movies, long walks, traveling, and wine tasting with friends. He graduated from the University of California, Merced with a B.A in Political Science. Prior to joining Tides Advocacy, Huber worked at a political law firm, Olson Remcho LLP, as a Compliance Specialist working with Political Action Committees, Lobbyists and Major Donors. Before Olson, he worked as an Office Manager for a local non-profit which aids victims of human trafficking and resettles refugees.
Ashlee Powers (she/her/hers) has over 12 years of progressive Human Resources experience and a Master of Science degree from Regis University in Denver, Colorado. Ashlee resides in Thompson’s Station, Tennessee about 25 miles south of Nashville, Tennessee where she recently spent the last six years working as Senior Human Resources Manager at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. Before that, she served at both the State and University of Colorado, where she specialized in various areas of HR in both the private and non-profit sector. Ashlee has often been referred to as a “staff advocate” and an empathetic professional that strives to treat people the way they want to be treated and supports total-person wellness. She believes that Human Resources serves as a strategic business partner and places both people and culture at the heart of every organization she serves.
Gayle Sheehan (she/her/hers) is the Senior Compliance Manager for Tides Advocacy and supports lobbying and political campaigns for our partners. Gayle got her start in nonprofits and advocacy work at the Sierra Club, including serving as their Director of Compliance for 10 years. Gayle develops and delivers our Compliance trainings, and works closely with TA Advisors and our partners as they develop their programmatic activities to ensure that they are compliant with relevant lobbying, election, or tax regulations.
Sonya Watson (she/her/hers) is a Senior Advisor with Tides Advocacy. She is a fiscal sponsor and non-profit management wizard with over 20 years of experience. Sonya’s specialization is empowering BIPOC-led as well as leadership & community-based development programs by providing operationalized c3 and c4 organizations with support through compliance, fundraising and grantmaking. She brings forth winning strategies with an issue area focus and passion towards economic and racial justice. With her deep commitment and experience working with youth development, women’s and girls’ empowerment, workforce development, reproductive advocacy and progressive political strengths as a connector, Sonya is a partner in values-aligned social justice.
Charlotte Williams (she/her/hers), Tides Advocacy’s inaugural Director of Communications, is a seasoned and skilled communicator with almost 20 years of advocacy focused experience in domestic and international for profit and non-profit communications management and administration. She has joyfully participated in grassroots organizing since she was a teenager, working to bring about collective socioeconomic and sociopolitical liberation. A firm believer in the power of well-crafted communications vehicles as spaces for healing and transformation, she has worked collaboratively and individually on a multitude of social justice focused interdisciplinary projects. Her broad and deep experience includes building and maximizing departments and strategies for the historic social justice focused Allen Temple Baptist Church, Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Bay Area, Sephora Canada, and as a freelance Communications Consultant. A native of Oakland, California, Charlotte is a published author on the ethics of intersectionality, as well as a visiting lecturer. She holds Bachelors and Master’s degrees in International Business from Trinity University and a Master of Divinity with emphasis in Ethics from Fuller Theological Seminary.
Board of Directors
Vincent Jones (he/him/his) is an innovative connector with a passion for building dynamic communities around common purpose and finding creative solutions to advance progressive change. Currently he is Founding CEO of The Citizen Jones Companies which includes Citizen Jones Travel, Citizen Jones Consulting (formerly Reinvent Communications), Proud Photobooth, and Ctzn Jns. His career spans the worlds of philanthropy, non-profits, politics, government, communications, and travel. Vincent served as Deputy Director of Campaigns and Senior Program Officer at the Liberty Hill Foundation, was executive director of the Center for Health Justice, led a youth civic engagement project for California Common Cause, and was Associate Director of the National Teen Leadership Program. He also was the LA County Field Representative for Sen. Barbara Boxer and worked in senior positions on her 2004 and 2010 campaigns as well as those of other statewide, federal, and local campaigns. Vincent believes strongly in serving on non-profit boards and currently serves on the Board of Directors of Strategic Concepts in Organizing and Political Education (SCOPE) and Freedom for All Americans.
Nicole Boucher (she/her/hers) is the Chief Strategy and Operations Officer at The Just Trust, a brand new philanthropic fund 100% dedicated to criminal justice reform. With an initial commitment of $350m in c3 and c4 resources over the next four years, The Just Trust and The Just Trust for Action is powering leaders and advocates across the nation, with a focus on state-based advocacy infrastructure. Bringing over two decades of experience building high-impact teams and organizing and scaling c3, c4 and PAC resources to strengthen movement and power building strategies, Nicole came to The Just Trust to grow the pool of resources dedicated to advancing the hard work of advocates, building creative alliances, centering the work of directly-impacted individuals, and sustaining the calls for reform among the mainstream. Prior to The Just Trust, Nicole served as Vice President at Way to Win and Co-Executive Director of The California Donor Table. She currently serves on the boards of Tides Advocacy and Color of Change PAC, as well as serves as a brain trust member of the Democracy Frontlines Fund, housed at The Libra Foundation. Nicole lives in Oakland, CA with her feisty 11-year old Paloma, obsesses over where she will take her next bike camping trip, and loves throwing down for her community family style, making lomi salmon, palusami, and the sapasui her Grandpa taught her as a kid.
Nat Chioke-Williams (he/him/his) is the Executive Director of the Hill-Snowdon Foundation. An organizer, a connector, a thought leader, and a tireless worker who creates and captures space in the philanthropic sector to garner more social, political, and financial capital, he brings 22 years of philanthropic experience at organizations including the Funders Collaborative on Youth Organizing, Grantmakers for Southern Progress, Black Social Change Funders Network, and Freedom Funders.
William Cordery (he/him/his) is a Donor Advisor and Consultant with Leverage Philanthropic Partners and Principal of Freedom Futures. He has held several roles in the field of philanthropy – from working at large national private grantmaking institutions to managing fundraising efforts for large, international nonprofit organizations. Over his career, Will has developed and implemented multi-million-dollar grantmaking and fundraising portfolios. Will’s grantmaking has helped to move multi-issue agendas, including racial justice, voter engagement, public education, health equity, LGBTQI human rights and criminal justice reform. Will received his B.S.B.A. in Business Finance from Xavier University and his M.P.A. from New York University. He formerly worked with Marguerite Casey Foundation, Surdna Foundation, and Wellspring Philanthropic Fund. His philanthropic board leadership includes the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice, Greater New Orleans Funders Network, Funders’ Collaborative on Youth Organizing, and Grantmakers for Southern Progress. Additionally, Will is an Advisor for the Global Engagement Lab at the EDGE Funders Alliance, and is an alumnus of the Association of Black Foundation Executives’ Connecting Leaders Fellowship.
Monique Couvson, Ed.D. (she/her/hers) is the President & CEO of Grantmakers for Girls of Color, the nation’s only philanthropic organization explicitly focused on resourcing movements and organizations led by, and in support of, girls and femmes of color. Dr. Couvson is an award-winning author and social justice scholar with three decades of experience in the areas of education, civil rights, juvenile and criminal justice. An expert fundraiser and grantee, Dr. Couvson has launched funds which have granted over $5 million and seek to mobilize over $1 billion in investments centering Black girls over the next 10 years.
| Janiece Evans-Page (she/her/hers) is Chief Executive Officer of Tides. Prior to joining Tides in 2021, as the inaugural Chief Sustainability and Diversity Officer and Head of Fossil Foundation, she launched Fossil Group’s global philanthropy practice, leading the strategic modernization of Fossil Group’s global philanthropic investment portfolio. Janiece was also the architect of the organization’s signature initiative, empowering youth through innovative partnerships with social entrepreneurs. She was named Vice President of Global Philanthropy and Sustainability in 2013, and to date, the Fossil Foundation has impacted the lives of 750,000+ underserved young people around the globe. During her 20-plus year career at Hewlett-Packard Co. Evans-Page accomplishments included the transformation of HP’s $20M philanthropy portfolio. In 2018, she was honored by Ebony Magazine as one of its Power 100 awardees in the “Women Up” category. |
| Judy Hatcher (she/her/hers) is the Executive Director of Biodiversity Funders Group. Her four decades of nonprofit experience connected to social movements include experience as a fundraising and organizational development consultant and trainer for grassroots groups around the country including Amnesty International USA where she led media work in the Midwest and as the Interim Southern Regional Director. She initiated individual fundraising campaigns for the Center for Community Change. She also served as Executive Director for the Environmental Support Center and Pesticide Action Network North America. |
Dr. Aisha Nyandoro (she/her/hers) is the founding CEO of Springboard to Opportunities, a Jackson, Mississippi nonprofit that uses a “radically resident-driven” approach to end generational poverty. A dedicated advocate for those who do not have an audible voice, in 2018, Dr. Nyandoro created the Magnolia Mother’s Trust – now the country’s longest-running guaranteed income program. In addition to leading Springboard’s community work and growing the Magnolia Mother’s Trust exponentially, her work focuses on shifting gendered and racialized narratives around poverty and deservedness. Dr. Nyandoro’s career has afforded her a plethora of skills including strategic development, management, advocacy, community building, and fund development.
Kaci Patterson (she/her/hers) is the owner of Social Good Solutions (SGS), a boutique consulting practice bridging ideas with social change. In addition to building multimillion-dollar grantmaking portfolios in the United States and abroad, Kaci pioneered capacity building programs, professional development and organizational initiatives that served networks of more than 1,000 civil society leaders and public officials. She is a founding member of Communities for Los Angeles Student Success, and co-founded the BLACC (Building Leaders and Cultivating Change) Fund, a giving circle at Liberty Hill Foundation supporting grassroots social activism. Kaci has been recognized by the California Community Foundation and Empowerment Congress (2016), Liberty Hill Foundation (2017) and Los Angeles Community Action Network (2019) for her work in advancing community-driven social change. She brings more than 18 years of experience in the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors to her consulting practice.
Always with an eye toward human and community development, Kaci works with philanthropic institutions, nonprofit organizations and public entities to design, operationalize and manage strategic initiatives from concept to implementation. Kaci sits on the board of Social Venture Partners—Los Angeles and has served a state commissioner in the Department of Consumer Affairs since 2014. She is a certified mediator, a graduate of Pepperdine University and holds an MBA in Organizational Management & Leadership from the University of LaVerne.
Quanita Toffie (she/her) is the Senior Director of Groundswell Action Fund, a 501(c)(4) public foundation. Since GAF's inception in 2017, Quanita has moved over $13M in c4 general support funding to resource intersectional electoral organizing led by women of color, low-income women and Transgender and Gender Expansive (TGE) people of color. She co-created GAF’s first-ever strategic plan, 2020 – 2025 Blueprint. Prior to this role, she led Groundswell Fund’s 501(c)(3) Integrated Voter Engagement (IVE) program, a capacity building program that equips Reproductive Justice (RJ) groups with cutting edge voter engagement skills and technology to implement year-round organizing.
Quanita began organizing for social justice alongside her parents in her native South Africa. She joined her parents as they voted, for the first time in their lives, for Nelson Mandela in 1994. Quanita and her family immigrated to Florida in 1997. She found her political home at the Miami Workers Center and was involved in MWC’s first non-partisan civic engagement campaign in 2008. In 2009, she was a founding staff member of New Florida Majority and led the creation of statewide, data-driven electoral campaigns to advance social change until 2014. She holds a B.A. in Political Theory, Economic Development, and African Studies from Hampshire College.
