Who We Are

Our People


Alexandra
Urdaneta

She/her
Communications and Administrator Coordinator
Unceded Seminole Territory
(Homestead, FL)

I was born in Caracas, Venezuela, and raised in South Florida. My family and I fled Venezuela due to its political turmoil, hoping to build a better future in the U.S.  I am a beach lover and adventure seeker who loves to travel, listen to music, learn new skills, and meet new people. From an early age, I understood the importance of community, our interconnectedness, and our relationship with nature. My career has spanned various sectors including education, non-profit programming, direct services, and event management. After completing my graduate studies in Community and Social change, I made it my goal to find a job aligned with my values of collaboration, love, freedom, and innovation. LLC’s work inspires me to lean into my curiosity, lead with kindness, explore “just work in just ways” in our community, and continue to self-improve.

Photo credit to Amira Maxwell

Bella
Celnik

She/her
Special Projects Manager
Unceded Ohlone Land
(San Leandro, CA)

I was born in a Displaced Persons Camp in Feldafing, Germany where my parents (both survivors of concentration camps) met. I believe history is one of the things that inform who we are, and that history has shaped me. I grew up in Brooklyn, NY and was raised in a family who were vigilant about injustice, in all its shapes and forms. I feel so fortunate to be part of a team committed to joyful learning, sharing that learning with a goal of creating a more just world where the voices of those most impacted are at the forefront.

Photo credit to Amira Maxwell

Ericka
Stallings

She/her
Co-Executive Director
Munsee Lenape Territory
(Queens, NY)

Prior to LLC, I worked at the Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development (ANHD), supporting organizing and advocacy and leading ANHD’s community organizing capacity building work. I also directed ANHD’s Center for Community Leadership (CCL) which provides comprehensive, support for neighborhood-based organizing in New York City. At ANHD I directed programs designed to strengthen community organizing in local neighborhoods. Before working at ANHD I worked at the New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC), managing its Immigrant Housing Collaborative. In addition, I co-coordinated the NYIC’s Immigrant Advocacy Fellowship Program, an initiative for emerging leaders in immigrant communities.

Photo credit to Amira Maxwell

Iman
Mills Gordon

She/her
Director of Liberatory Programs
Unceded Ohlone Land
(Oakland, CA)

I was born and raised in Oakland, CA. I have always sought our collective liberation, as passed down to me from my parents during our daily dinner conversations and from our ancestors for several generations before them. I couldn’t name this as explicitly in my work environments until I landed at LLC. The LLC community inspires me to lend the skills I’ve acquired through my career to continue to explore the best ways to support and deepen our organizational commitment to liberatory leadership while holding as my North Stars our shared values of radical collaboration, experimentation, and leading with love and joy.

Photo credit to Amira Maxwell

Kyle
Shimamoto

He/him
Director of Liberatory Operations and Special Projects
Unceded Miwok Land
(Pleasant Hill, CA)

I was born and raised in the Bay Area of California although I am proud to have also spent a significant portion of my life in Seattle/Tacoma Area. My career has spanned from early childhood education to a brief foray into the private sector and fortunately, back to the social justice sector at LLC. I am humbled to have this opportunity to think about, embody, implement, and share how LLC is striving to do “just work in just ways”!

Photo credit to Amira Maxwell

Nikki
Dinh

She/her
Co-Executive Director
Unceded Ohlone Land
(Oakland, CA)

I’m the daughter of boat people refugees who instilled in me the importance of being in community. I grew up in a California county that was founded by the KKK, but my family’s home was in an immigrant enclave. My neighborhood taught me about resistance, resilience, joy and love. I’ve also had the great fortune of having a career that has spanned from legal aid to philanthropy and leadership. One persistent truth in this journey is that the people in communities we seek to serve are best positioned to identify and create solutions for their community.

Sadia
Hassan

She/her
Liberatory Leadership Manager
Unceded Wabanaki Land
(Portland, OR)

I am a Somali, Muslim poet from a deep and matrixed refugee community in east Atlanta. I am grateful for the love and encouragement I received from my community as a young person to ask as many questions as I need to make sense of the world. As an educator, I am inspired by LLC’s commitment to play and curiosity in service of collective liberation. I come to this work as a teacher, poet, network weaver and facilitator who loves to travel, read, and make other people’s fur babies fall in love with me. I look forward to making magic together!

Ashok
Regmi

Advisory Board Co-Chair
Executive Director, Street Law, Inc

Ashok is the Executive Director of Street Law, Inc. Ashok has more than 20 years of experience in youth development, leadership development, social entrepreneurship, and innovation. As a former senior executive at the International Youth Foundation, he led institutional strategic planning efforts; oversaw a multi-country, multi-year, and multi-million-dollar portfolio of youth development programs; and developed multi-sector partnerships across the globe. He graduated from Johns Hopkins University with a Master’s in Public Policy and has been a frequent speaker at events convened by organizations such as the United Nations, World Bank, and the Inter-American Development Bank. When he’s not working to advance a just and inclusive community, Ashok likes to spend time with his family, travel, and dance to any music anywhere.

Beth
Kanter

Master Trainer, Speaker, Author, and Blogger

Beth is an internationally recognized thought leader in networks, social media, philanthropy, wellbeing in the workplace and training. Beth has over 35 years working in the nonprofit sector in capacity building and has facilitated trainings for thousands of social change activists and nonprofits on every continent in the world. She is an in-demand keynote speaker and workshop leader. Named one of the most influential women in technology by Fast Company and one of BusinessWeek’s “Voices of Innovation for Social Media,” Beth was Visiting Scholar at the David and Lucile Packard Foundation 2009-2013. She is the author of the award winning Networked Nonprofit Books and The Happy Healthy Nonprofit: Strategies for Impact without Burnout (http://bit.ly/happyhealthynpbook) published by J.Wiley. She writes “Beth’s Blog,” one of the first nonprofit blogs. Her clients include foundations, government agencies, and nonprofit organizations.

Daniel
Lim

Founder and Principal, Daniel Lim Consulting

Daniel Lim is a queer social change maker of Chinese descent who was born in Myanmar and raised in an immigrant, working-class family in Brooklyn, New York (Lenapehoking). These identities and the respective positions of privilege and oppression that he occupies shape his work as Founder and Principal of Daniel Lim Consulting, a social justice consulting firm that partners with organizations and communities to build regenerative and liberatory cultures. His practice is strongly rooted in the wisdom of living systems and teachings of Black- and indigenous-led liberation and sovereignty movements. Daniel’s passion in life is to advance collective liberation for all our relations, help human beings belong to the earth again and support them to live in a reciprocal, mutual care-taking relationship with each other and our more-than-human kin. He studied ecology, ecological design and community development at the University of Vermont (B.S. Natural Resources, McNair Scholar), and community-based planning, environmental justice, and disaster planning at Pratt Institute (M.S. City and Regional Planning).

Duchesne
Drew

Advisory Board Co-Chair
President, Minnesota Public Radio

Duchesne serves as President at Minnesota Public Radio. Duchesne Drew leads strategy, programming and daily operations serving MPR’s growing regional audiences through MPR News, Classical MPR, The Current and MPR’s rapidly expanding digital, social and mobile services. Drew came to MPR from the Bush Foundation, where he led the foundation’s leadership programs, community innovation and communication teams and built networks across the region as its Community Network vice president. Prior to his role at Bush Foundation, Drew was managing editor of operations at the Star Tribune, where he began as a summer intern and rose to one of the most senior roles in the newsroom. Last year, he was honored with the Widening the Circle Award by ThreeSixty Journalism, recognizing individuals who have contributed to the next generation of journalists, particularly while promoting inclusion and diversity.

Jennifer
Lopez

Capacity Building Program Coordinator, the Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development

Jennifer Lopez believes that where oppression creates fractures, healing is rhizomatic. Drawing from experience and training in academic, organizing, and non-profit settings, she supports individuals, groups, and organizations in integrating trauma-conscious, healing-oriented principles and practices into their work. She weaves together facilitation, research, writing, and deep detailed reflection to work with people in recognizing and honing their crafts, tools, and practices. She is currently the Capacity Building Program Coordinator at the Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development (ANHD), where she works with participants and alumni of ANHD’s capacity building programs in their continued learning and relationships. Jennifer holds an MSW from the Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College.

Johnny
Phommasyha

YAP (Youth Advocate Program) Program Manager, West Coast Children’s Clinic

Johnny P. is a 2nd generation Lao American and proud Oakland, CA native who has over 10+ years of experience supporting and advocating for youth and young adults of color from low income communities. In his current professional role, he supports young adults impacted by the child welfare and juvenile justice system. Johnny utilizes his own hxstory of growing up in a single mother household, being in poverty, witnessing firsthand the impact of violence,
substance abuse, systemic racism and the inequitable access to services to coach, support and celebrate young folx. He is committed to lifting their voices and creating equitable access for other youth and young adults of color to pursue higher education, obtain leadership skills and build their support systems. Johnny P. is also the first person in his family to attend and graduate from college, having obtained a B.A. in Social Welfare and Ethnic Studies from the University of California, Berkeley in 2013. In his time outside of the work, he enjoys bowling, camping and spending time with his two dogs, Oreo and Penny.

Krystal
Portalatin

Consultant and Coach, KPG Consulting

Krystal is a Queer Femme Nuyorican. As a youth she co-founded FIERCE, an LGBTQ youth of color community based organization, to fight against the impacts of gentrification and policing in the West Village. At 19 she left New York and lived for several years in Oahu, Hawaii and San Diego, California where she worked in the areas of domestic violence, HIV/AIDS prevention and youth development. Longing for her political home, she returned to NYC in 2008 to work at FIERCE. After transitioning out of her role as Co-Director in 2015 she continued to support the movement as a consultant. She has also had the great privilege of working at Communities United for Police Reform as the Operations Coordinator and served as the Interim Deputy Director at CAAAV Summer 2017 – Winter 2018. There she supported the organizers professional development, assessed programs, created infrastructure to make critical shifts, and supported the onboarding of the new Executive Director. As a consultant, she brings her knowledge of organizational development, leadership development, fundraising, and facilitation to support grassroots organizations to build their capacity and functionality. Her approach to consulting draws from the skills she cultivated while working for social justice organizations that are rooted in an anti-oppression and intersectional analysis. Krystal also sits on the North Star Fund’s Community Funding Committee. Outside of her commitment to social justice and work life, Krystal enjoys reading, cooking, running and perfecting her winged eyeliner!

Linshuang
Lu

MSOD
Principal, Praxis Consulting Group

Linshuang (pronounced “Lin-Shang”) Lu, MSOD, is a Principal at Praxis Consulting Group. She currently provides organization development, strategic planning, leadership development and culture change services to nonprofits and employee-owned companies. She is passionate about helping organizations develop their leaders and foster deeper staff engagement in order to create better workplaces and achieve greater impact. Linshuang plays an active role in the nonprofit and employee ownership communities. She regularly speaks at regional and national conferences, and writing on leadership development and culture topics. Linshuang also serves on the Board of the Untours Foundation and is a Steering Committee Member of Philadelphia’s INTERGEN. Linshuang teaches a master’s level course on Team Dynamics at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine and financial leadership in the Nonprofit Executive Leadership Institute (NELI) Certificate Program at Bryn Mawr College. Linshuang holds a Master of Science in Organization Development from American University.

Lisa
Leverette

Director and C.C.O., Chief Change Orchestrator, Community Connections

Lisa Leverette is a Detroit-based Change Orchestrator. Her experience spans over 25 years and is concentrated upon utilizing the framework of relationship building and an equity lens to identify and eliminate barriers to success, manage and change systems to improve conditions, opportunities and odds for marginalized groups and communities. Lisa currently manages Community Connections Grant Program, a philanthropic intermediary working in partnership with institutions, foundations and communities to re-grant funds to increase the capacity of institutions and grassroots groups to act and achieve relevant and transformational change. Miss Leverette serves on several local and national boards and development exchanges including co-founder and design team member, Transforming Power Fund (TPF), Detroit Equity Action Lab (DEAL) fellow, Grassroots Grantmakers and 1Michigan for immigrant rights, board member and chairperson of the International Committee for Self-Development of People (SDOP). Lisa enjoys traveling, listening to house music, and loves the city of Detroit.Lisa has a B.S. in Psychology from Michigan State University and M.A. in Applied Social Science from Eastern Michigan University.

Our Fiscal
Sponsor


Network
Weaver


Liberatory Leadership
Partnership


Our Origin Story


Leadership Learning Community was created in 2000, with the goal of deepening network engagement of local field leaders through shared tools, resources, curriculum approaches, practices and challenges. We held circles for and listened to local community leaders within the social good sector.
By 2009, we saw clearly the intersection of race and leadership. Over the years, we have made it a focal point of our work and developed and promoted tools and resources to help leadership programs center race and equity.
In 2019, we became a BIPOC-led organization, and began our work in liberatory leadership and liberatory practices. This allowed us to venture beyond the edges of race equity, and begin our analysis and strategy with our values, rather than the disparities created by systemic oppression.
Since then, we have strived to do just work in just ways, while continuing to hold space for collective leadership to advance equity and liberation.

Read more about Learning Framework

Our Learning Framework