MERCH
MERCH
Stacey has over 30 years of development, marketing, and non-profit management experience. Most recently she served as Chief Operations Officer for RCF Connects (formerly known as the Richmond Community Foundation). Prior to that she was Director of Capital and Major Gifts for Planned Parenthood Shasta Pacific, where she coordinated a significant capital campaign that raised $6.5 million.
Prior to Planned Parenthood, she served as Executive Director for the Berkeley-East Bay Humane Society, where she successfully helped the organization navigate the aftermath of a devastating fire in the shelter.
Stacey also has extensive experience in arts administration, having served as Executive Director for the California Symphony for nearly nine years. Previous experience in the arts include roles as Interim Executive Director and Director of Development and Marketing at Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Patron Services Associate for San Francisco Opera and Special Events Manager for Handel & Haydn Society in Boston.
Stacey graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard University with a B.A. in Anthropology. She is a classical vocalist who sings with and serves as Vice President for the Board of the Peninsula Women’s Chorus and has studied voice privately, as well as performed solo recitals for over 30 years. Stacey lives in the Bay Area with her blended family.
Iris Podschun PCC (they/them) created Venerations to support healing journeys and spiritual spaces for experiencing more freedom, hope, and joy. They are a Professional Certified Coach through the International Coaching Federation, Somatic Coach through Strozzi Institute (a holistic healing lineage based in Aikido, a Japanese martial art), Reiki Level 2 attuned by Marie Morohoshi of Starnation Reiki, and a member of Olivia Pepper's Rainbow Serpent Dreamers Society. Iris is also the Senior Director of Coaching & Collaboration at RCF Connects, where they coach artists, change makers, and nonprofit leaders. They are a facilitator with Gratitude Blooming and lead somatic practice spaces with Showing Up for Racial Justice's Twin Ports chapter, near where they live on Anishinaabe and Lakota lands. They love to dance, read visionary sci-fi, and hang out with trees. You can follow them on Instagram @thevenerations.
Kapi’olani Alyce Laronal (she/her) is Haida (Eagle) and Tsimshian, Hawaiian, and Filipino. She is a life coach and consultant specializing in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, and First Nations partnership building. She serves on the Board for the Olohana Foundation that “promote[s] community resilience around food, energy, water, and knowledge systems”. She is a Certified Professional Coach specializing in individual and organizational change, and shared leadership. She’s worked in Higher Education for over 23 years and consulting independently for four. Her partners include: Institute for Nonprofit Practice (INP) at Harvard Kennedy School, Wild Earth 501c3, Green Peace and Yale. In other areas of her professon, she helps universities in the Northeastern region to create strategic initiatives that support student Mental Health & Well-being and to prevent suicide and substance misuse. She has a Master’s in Higher Education (Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor) and a Bachelor’s in Sociology (Univ. of Wash., Seattle)
Zimbabwe Davies (he/him) is a Film Producer/Motivational Speaker/Philanthropist, Certified Community Coach, and Facilitator. Zimbabwe started his career in the entertainment industry producing fashion shows for non-profit organizations, raising funds for foster youth and was so successful in his endeavors that he became an advocate for foster youth on a national level. Currently, Zimbabwe spends his time in philanthropy work in Oakland and Coaching Communities, with the intention of helping people thrive.
Megan Joseph is the founding director of Impact Launch, a collective of social impact professionals that support individuals, teams and collaboratives to work effectively for equitable and sustainable outcomes in organizations, systems and community change. Megan has worked hands-on for two decades with social impact organizations and multi-sector collaboratives to design and facilitate leadership development, organizational capacity building and project design. Through Impact Launch, she has worked with over 25 different organizations and initiatives to advance results focused strategic plans, program development, community initiatives, capacity building, Diversity Equity and Belonging goals and systems change. Prior to Impact Launch, Megan served as Executive Director of Rise Together, a multi-county initiative to cut poverty in the Bay Area. Megan implemented a 250-member coalition for policy and systems change, addressing issues of employment, affordable housing and early childhood education for critical populations. As Director of Community Organizing for the United Way of Santa Cruz County she founded and supported multiple sustained initiatives, including the Santa Cruz County Youth Violence Prevention Task Force and the Community Corrections Partnership Community Engagement Task Force. Megan was recognized with the 2015 National Community Indicators Consortium Emerging Leader award for her work using community indicators as a catalyst for change to reduce youth violence. Megan has worked with organizations across the country, from New York City to San Francisco. Megan has practiced Radical Transformational Leadership for a decade with Monica Sharma, and over the last 10 years launched several large scale leadership programs which together have trained over 1,700 leaders to design and implement equitable and sustainable social change projects. She has also served as faculty at JFK University. Megan earned an MA in Consciousness Studies from JFK University and an MA in Criminology, Law and Society from UC Irvine. Megan splits her time with her partner and dog between California and Upstate New York.
Mitzi Meriwether is an artist and writer who explores a wide variety of experiences —specifically human interactions and self-exploration related to family, mental health, and Black history in the African diaspora and the American South. Having traveled to more than 40 countries across the globe, Mitzi values building relationships and cross-cultural bridges. As an artist, Mitzi writes memoir and creative non-fiction. She also collaborates on projects that combine her written and spoken words with her own images—still and moving. Mitzi has previous work experience in investment banking, including: Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, First Boston, and Nikko Securities in Tokyo. In the Barack Obama 2008 presidential campaign, Mitzi was active in the Women for Obama effort, raising over $15,000 in one month of fundraising. Mitzi’s post-graduate educational history includes being selected as a Rotary Ambassadorial Fellow—University of Cape Town—receiving a degree in African Studies and completing a dissertation titled “The Writings of South African Women Political Prisoners.” Mitzi earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Government from Harvard-Radcliffe College, graduating cum laude. Mitzi obtained a Master in Fine Arts degree in creative writing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.