Community Voices

Born and raised in Daly City/San Francisco, Jessica Campos is the Community Engagement lead for the SF Office of Racial Equity (ORE) through the Human Rights Commission. She connects ORE’s work in multi-racial, multilingual communities to eliminate racial disparities in employment, housing, criminal justice, economic advancement, health, transit, education, and homelessness. Previously, she was the manager of a Head Start/Early Head Start program in District 10, developing an environment where children were seen and heard as active learners and participants in their community. Her passion for change guides her to advocate in different levels of community, from being a mentor with City of Dreams to a member of the Board of Directors with Early Care Educators San Francisco.

Mory Chhom is a Cambodian American born in a Cambodian refugee camp in Thailand and raised in Modesto, California. She has spent the last 17 years working with low-income marginalized people of the global majority to support the improvement of their health. She is the Program Director for Youth and Families at the Center for Empowering Refugees and Immigrants (CERI), an Oakland non-profit with a mission to improve the social, emotional, psychological, economic, and physical health of refugees and immigrants from Southeast Asia affected by war, torture, genocide, or other forms of extreme trauma.

Meifeng Deng immigrated to America at age eight and grew up in San Francisco’s Chinatown. She is a recent graduate of UC Davis, where she majored in Managerial Economics. She now serves as a Community Organizer with the Chinatown Community Development Center, where she works with low-income families and small business owners to advocate for improvements in Chinatown.

Maurice Harper was born in Berkeley, California, and served as an educator for most of his career. For more than 40 years, Maurice took on roles including teacher, counselor, coach, activities director, campus minister, administrator, and dean. He is currently involved in many youth-serving organizations in San Francisco and Oakland, including the Mindful School's Mindful Teacher Certification Program Class of 2022.

Metzi Henriquez, M.A., MFTI, is a native of El Salvador and was raised in San Francisco’s Mission District. She has extensive experience providing direct services to the Latinx and Immigrant communities of San Francisco as an artist and mental health clinician. Currently co-director of the award-winning Fogo Na Roupa Grupo Carnavalesco, she shares her love of holistic health through teaching dance and wellness as a mental health therapist to immigrant families.

Khafre Jay hails from San Francisco’s Hunters Point. His experience in merging activism and expressive cultural arts led him to found Hip Hop for Change, Inc., a 501c3 education organization. Through grassroots activism, Hip Hop for Change educates people about socio-economic injustices and advocates solutions through Hip Hop culture. It raises funds for local causes that enrich marginalized and historically oppressed communities. Khafre has touched the lives of more than 25,000 youth in the Bay Area and nationwide.

Lucas Tobin serves as Supervisor for Therapeutic Recreation and Inclusion and ADA Coordinator for Programmatic Access for the San Francisco Recreation and Parks department. He is also a Lecturer for the Recreation, Parks, and Tourism department at San Francisco State University, teaching Therapeutic Recreation and Inclusion to future recreation professionals. His work is about helping ensure that everyone has access to the quality of life recreation brings. He strives to include recreation in his own life through biking, camping, snowboarding, martial arts, and music.

Favianna Rodriguez is an independent artist and cultural strategist, and president of the Center for Cultural Power, which empowers artists to disrupt the status quo and ignite change. Her art and praxis address migration, gender justice, climate change, racial equity, and sexual freedom. She is based in Oakland, California.

Maya Rodgers has worked in the parks sector for more than 10 years as a mother, native San Franciscan, and park advocate. Born and raised in San Francisco’s Bayview Hunters Point, she is committed to building lasting equity in the City's open spaces and currently works as Senior Project Manager at SF Parks Alliance. She believes collaboration and co-creation are the key to successful, equitable, and community-centered engagement in parks and open spaces.

Kaushik Roy is the Executive Director of Shanti Project, one of San Francisco's pioneering safety-net non-profits. He recently completed a seven-year term on the San Francisco Interfaith Council's Board of Directors, serving as its president for four years. Previous community engagements include appointments to the City's Department of Disability and Aging Services (by the late Mayor Ed Lee) and the City's inaugural LGBTQ+ Aging Policy Task Force (by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors).

Mark Smith is an occupational therapist, Veterans Health Education Coordinator, and Health Equity Council Co-Chair at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Healthcare System. For the past five years, he has partnered with the GGNRA, Parks Conservancy, and Presidio Trust to create meaningful, inclusive, and accessible outdoor experiences for veterans in their local national parks through the San Francisco VA Healthcare System, W.A.R.I.O.R. program. Mark is committed to ensuring that all communities are able to equitably enjoy the many benefits of Bay Area parks and the outdoors.

Sharaya Souza (Taos Pueblo, Ute, Kiowa), is Co-founder and Executive Director of the American Indian Cultural District, dedicated to recognizing, honoring, and celebrating American Indian legacy, culture, people, and contributions. She is an ambassador for promoting equitable resource distribution to American Indian communities, increasing Native visibility and political representation, and protecting and preserving tribal cultural resources in the San Francisco Bay Area. She serves on the Climate Council, SFAC Monuments and Memorials Advisory Committee, Aquatic Park Pier Planning Committee, Housing Policy Committee, HRC Racial Equity in the Arts Working Group, Bay Area Equity Advisory Group, Environmental Justice Working Group, and the Human Rights Commission Roundtable.

Ann Berry started working with the city in her Bernal Heights neighborhood to underground all the electricity on the hill. She worked with the Rafiki Coalition on their Health and Environmental Justice committee to clean up and label toxic areas in the Bayview. She also worked with the city health department to bring fresh food and Fresh & Easy stores to San Francisco. She was voted into the CSL and started going to the state capital working to get bills passed to help seniors, all while on the board for the Network for Elders.

Adama Bryant is a San Francisco native and has raised her family in the San Francisco Bay Area. She is the founding director at Weekend-Adventures, a fiscally sponsored program of the Social Good Fund. Her passions include being outdoors with the trees and creating space for kids to feel and be safe and enjoy their childhood.

Tomasa is a Maya K’iche’ woman, born in Guatemala. She has lived in San Francisco since 2008. She works for the Central American Resource Center (CARECEN SF) as the Health Promotion Program Manager, leading a team of promotoras (Community Health Workers) that provides health education targeting the Latinx immigrant community. Healthy eating, oral health, and physical activity are some areas the program addresses to promote a healthy lifestyle.

Jarae Clark, a Sacramento native, is the Executive Director for City of Dreams where she is responsible for all aspects of the organization, including delivering quality mentorship to youth in the Bayview community. Growing up in a low-income community, she graduated with a Masters' Degree in Social Work to work in Community Organizing, Planning, and Nonprofit Administration. Jarae started working with youth and families in the Bayview in 2015.

Sean’s been a part of the YMCA of San Francisco since 1998 and a part of the Presidio YMCA since 2004. In his current role as Branch Operations Director for the Presidio and Point Bonita YMCA, he connects with community partners to ensure that youth, teens, and families can access programs and services. A part of national and local diversity and inclusion initiatives, Sean is especially proud of the nature engagement programs offered through the YMCA.

Francisco Ferrer, Edgewood Family Resource Coordinator, is a father, musician, community activist, and family advocate. He dedicates his time coordinating and providing services to families in San Francisco neighborhoods such as the Bayview, Visitation Valley, and the Mission District. He provides parenting classes, interactive parent-child activities, bilingual men’s support groups, food banks, and cooking classes in a fun and safe environment. He also facilitates community projects such as Parent Café, Father’s Day celebrations, and summer fieldtrips. His favorite activity is playing live music for children during his popular Play and Learn class.

Rhonda was born in Oakland and raised in Berkeley. She is the Senior Resident Services Coordinator for the San Francisco Housing Development Corporation. She works at Bayview Commons serving a 30-unit building and with RAD residents in Hunters point East/West, Bernal Dwellings, Hayes Valley, and the Geraldine Johnson Senior Housing Building. She serves low-income residents, families, seniors, and residents with HIV/AIDS, assisting them with back rent, food, diapers, bills, furniture, case management, and other resources.

Megan Hover is a dedicated nonprofit professional who believes in the power of an inclusive society where everyone can explore their passions and thrive. After more than a decade fundraising to support youth in foster care and workforce development programs for transition aged youth, she joined Creativity Explored as their Development Director where she champions opportunities for disabled artists. She also helped establish the award-winning Care to Learn Fund Kansas City chapter.

Rebecca Jackson is the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice’s Director of Cameo House. She oversees all Cameo House programming, operations, and services and utilizes lived experiences to support homeless, justice-involved women/children in San Francisco looking for the opportunity to change just as she did. Previously, Rebecca worked with the Delancey Street Foundation. Her areas of expertise are development, advocacy, management, and mentoring. She is also the sole proprietor of Rebecca J’s Decorating since 2017.

Aurora Pérez was born and raised in Santa Ana, CA. She moved to Northern California, where she received her bachelor’s degree in Environmental Horticulture and Urban Forestry from UC Davis. As the SF Bay Area Regional Coordinator with Latino Outdoors, Aurora organizes community-based programs and seeks partnerships and collaboration opportunities for the community to come together to celebrate language, traditions, and culture in the outdoors.

Carolyn is a Filipina American who’s lived in San Francisco’s Outer Sunset since her family’s migration to Turtle Island in 1970. Carolyn enjoys affinity with Sama Sama Family Cooperative, and she is board president of the Filipino-American Development Foundation (FADF). A trained educator and athletic administrator, she founded CoachingKapwa Sports Consultants. As a certified Radical Nature Change Agent, Carolyn facilitates nature healing hikes and guided group meditations for individuals and families.

Kareem Sykes, a Sacramento native, grew up in a low-income community. Today, she is the Program Director at City of Dreams, where she oversees all youth programs. Kareem also has extensive experience establishing relationships with key community partners and families and collaborating with neighborhood organizations.

Maxine was born and raised in San Francisco. She is the Community Outreach and Engagement Manager at the Rafiki Coalition for Health and Wellness in the Bayview. Rafiki has a mission of reducing health disparities and inequities in the Black and other marginalized communities in the City. Maxine is passionate about building connections with the community and getting them engaged in health-enhancing activities, as well as supporting them to be active in the broader community whether through cultural events or being advocates for change.

East Bay Area native Stephany Welch lives in Oakland. She is passionate about guiding youth to find their voice, gain opportunities, find resources, plan ahead, and cultivate skills. She previously worked as the CYC Bayview Youth Advocates (BYA) Program Coordinator, a multicultural leadership program for high school students in San Francisco District 10. In 2017, she published a nonfiction book, a collection of 103 stories that she hopes readers will find relatable and comforting.