The Funders Network Event
Dates/Time
May 20, 2020
10:00 am-11:30 am
How are NGO’s that work on transportation, land use, and livability issues adapting their campaigns and strategies to account for the rapidly changing environment and what do funders need to know to best support them?
This session will lift up five land-use and livability nonprofits from the national, statewide and regional levels to share with funders how their work is shifting due to COVID-19 and the deepening structural inequities that the pandemic has elevated. We will draw the connections between how work at the various geographic levels is interacting and influencing each other and how funders and partners can work together in the short and long term to mobilize more urgent action to protect healthy, sustainable and equitable communities. We will discuss shifts in work as it relates to policy, organizational infrastructure, evolving community engagement/organizing strategies and where they see the biggest opportunities and challenges to advance equity in shaping a new path forward. We’ll also explore what funders are doing during this time that is most helpful, not helpful and where ongoing gaps remain. This will be a conversational format with facilitated discussion.
Register now, and contact Kerry Hastings with any questions.
Speakers include:
Calvin Gladney, CEO, Smart Growth America
Calvin Gladney, LEED AP, is President and CEO of Smart Growth America and is a nationally recognized thought leader on the equitable and sustainable revitalization of communities. Prior to being named President and CEO of Smart Growth America in April of 2018, Mr. Gladney was Managing Partner of Mosaic Urban Partners, a real estate development and advisory services firm that advised non-profits, cities, and elected officials on how to sustainably and equitably regenerate their communities. In 2017, Mr. Gladney was also the Urban Land Institute’s Senior Visiting Fellow for Equity.
Over the past ten years, Mr. Gladney has worked on community revitalization projects in more than 25 cities and has served as a strategic advisor on projects with estimated development costs of over $1B and totaling more than 5M square feet of planned development. He has worked on community revitalization projects throughout the United States including projects in Baltimore, Baton Rouge, Birmingham, Boston, Denver, Detroit, the District of Columbia, Grand Rapids, Houston, Jacksonville, Kansas City, Louisville, Memphis, Oakland, Pittsburgh and Prince George’s County, MD.
Mr. Gladney graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School, received his BS from Cornell University and is a LEED Accredited Professional. He is a trustee of the Urban Land Institute and a board member of the Center for Community Progress. He is also a member of ULI’s national Public/Private Partnership Council (Blue Flight). Mr. Gladney also serves as an adjunct professor at Georgetown University’s Masters in Real Estate Program where he teaches real estate entrepreneurship and a real estate market analysis class.
David Zisser, Associate Director, Housing California
David Zisser joined Housing California as Associate Director in August 2018. Most recently, David worked for four years at Public Advocates as a Senior Staff Attorney on the Metropolitan Equity Team. He co-convened the Bay Area’s only regional equity coalition (called the 6 Wins for Social Equity) and led Public Advocates’ housing justice advocacy in Oakland. David partnered with dozens of grassroots and policy organizations in local, regional, and statewide coalitions to advance affordable housing funding and policies, supportive housing development, fair housing, tenant protections, community benefits, and equitable transit and climate investments.
Previously, David worked for four years at the national Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law in Washington, DC, as Counsel in the Fair Housing and Community Development Project. David spearheaded the Lawyers’ Committee’s Gulf Coast work, leading campaigns for affordable housing, fair housing, disability rights, tenants’ rights, and environmental justice, primarily in New Orleans, LA, and Gulfport, MS. He also coordinated transactional legal assistance to dozens of affordable housing developers, community land trusts, and other community development organizations.
David received a law degree from UC Hastings and a Master’s in City Planning, with a focus on housing and community development, from UC Berkeley in 2007. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Sociology from UCLA in 2003. Outside of work, David spends most of his time exploring the outdoors with his wife and daughters and visiting family in the Bay Area and Oregon.
Laura Raymond, Director, ACT-LA
Laura Raymond is the Director of the Alliance for Community Transit – Los Angeles (ACT-LA), a coalition of 37 organizations. Since 2015, she has led ACT-LA’s work on numerous successful city and County campaigns that have won policies including Measure JJJ, LA’s affordable housing linkage fee, and LA Metro’s Transit-Oriented Communities (TOC) policy. She also co-led a community/labor campaign that defeated Measure S. Currently, she is directing the coalition’s equitable planning program, its city, county and statewide policy work, and a transit justice organizing and advocacy campaign.
Over the last 20 years, she has been active in a wide range of policy campaigns, civil and human rights projects and has built and coordinated numerous social justice coalitions. Prior to ACT-LA, she spent 6 years managing advocacy campaigns with the Center for Constitutional Rights and 3 years as National Student Organizer for the National Lawyers Guild. She has a self-designed Masters degree in Policy Advocacy from the School for International Training and a B.A. in Community Studies from UC Santa Cruz.
Susan De Anda, Executive Director, Community Water Center
Susana De Anda is Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Community Water Center, a nonprofit environmental justice organization based in California’s San Joaquin Valley, whose mission is to act as a catalyst for community-driven water solutions through organizing, education, and advocacy. Susana is a seasoned community organizer and has received numerous awards and recognitions, including: James Irvine Foundation Leadership Award (2018); White House Champion of Change for Climate Equity (2016); Mark Dubois Award from Friends of the River (2014); “150 Fearless Women in the World” by Newsweek Magazine (2012); “Women on Top – Top Activist” by Marie Claire magazine (2012); AOL sponsored PBS three-part series titled, Makers: Women Who Have Shaped America (2012); and “Las Fabulosas” and “Inspiring Latinas” by Powerful Latinas (2011); and the 2009 Petra Foundation Fellowship award.
Susana’s experience includes planning and organizing positions at the Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment; the County of Merced Planning Department; the Santa Barbara County Water Agency; and the Santa Barbara non-profit Community Environmental Council. Susana earned a B.A. from the University of California, Santa Barbara while completing a double major in Environmental Studies and Geography. Susana served for the past few years on the Community Funding Board of the Grassroots Fund through the Rose Foundation for Communities and the Environment, Tulare County Water Commission, and on the Board of Directors of the Tulare County United Way. She currently serves on the Advisory Council for the Water Solutions Network and is a Steering Committee member on the Water Equity and Climate Resilience Caucus. Susana is also a co-founder and member of the board of Water Education for Latino Leaders (WELL).
Josh Stark, State Policy Director, TransForm
Joshua advocates for TransForm’s statewide goals at the Capitol and through building coalitions with our many allies. Before coming to TransForm, Joshua represented a number of nonprofit environmental and environmental justice organizations at the state and federal levels, including the National Parks Conservation Association. He helped build diverse alliances at the state level and in the Central Valley, and represented organizations through Spanish language media. Before taking on policy work Joshua worked in agriculture, education, park management and outdoor guiding.
Joshua and his family live in West Sacramento, where they enjoy the Delta river life – paddling, fishing, hunting and camping. And, though he enjoys his two mile walk to work, he can’t wait for the trolley service to start. Joshua received his BA in Social Science in 1998 and his teaching credential in 2000, both from California State University at Sacramento.
Kerry Hastings (moderator), Program Manager, Smart Growth California
To learn more about how land use and livability organizations are responding to COVID-19, check out our latest blog post.
In case you’re not on the TFN mailing list, they reimagined its Annual Conference that was to take place in San Diego into several virtual learning experiences (see email below from Pat Smith, TFN’s CEO).
Smart Growth California is also co-hosting a webinar on May 15th: Covid-19 and the Environment: Power Building, Leadership and Civic Engagement.
