Keynote: Gopal Dayaneni

Gopal Dayaneni has been involved in working for social, economic, environmental and racial justice through organizing & campaigning, teaching, writing, speaking and direct action since the late 1980’s. He is a co-founder of Movement Generation: Justice and Ecology Project (MG), which inspires and engages in transformative action towards the liberation and restoration of land, labor, and culture. MG is rooted in vibrant social movements led by low-income communities and communities of color committed to a Just Transition away from profit and pollution and towards healthy, resilient and life-affirming local economies. MG is a founding member of the Climate Justice Alliance, and Gopal serves on the staff-collective where he is active on the Planning Committee and Board.

Currently, Gopal supports movement building through his work with organizations including The Climate Justice Alliance, ETCgroup, NDN Collective, the Center for Story-based Strategy and People’s Solar Energy Fund, among others. He was a Fellow with the Center for Economic Democracy from 2019-2022. Gopal teaches Ecological Systems Thinking and Social Justice Frameworks for Sustainability in the Masters of Arts in Urban Sustainability program and Climate Justice and Environmental Justice in the undergraduate program at Antioch University in Los Angeles. Gopal also teaches Race, Activism and Climate Justice; Asian Americans and Environmental Justice; and South Asians in the United States at San Francisco State University in the Race and Resistance Studies and Asian American Studies Departments. At SF State, Gopal is also on the steering committee for Climate Justice Leadership Initiatives and the Certificate in Climate Change Causes, Impacts and Solutions.

Studies and Asian American Studies Departments. At SF State, Gopal is also on the steering committee for Climate program and Climate Justice and Environmental Justice in the undergraduate program at Antioch University in Los Angeles. Gopal also teaches Race, Activism and Climate Justice; Asian Americans and Environmental Justice; and South Asians in the United States at San Francisco State University in the Race and Resistance Studies and Asian American Studies Departments. At SF State, Gopal is also on the steering committee for Climate Justice Leadership Initiatives and the Certificate in Climate Change Causes, Impacts and Solutions.

Aguilar, Josefina is Executive Director of South Bay Community Land Trust. An urban planner with over 30 years of experience, Josefina specializes in economic development, affordable family housing, cooperatives, resident controlled and senior housing development. She has worked for several cities in southern California, including the Redevelopment Agencies in Simi Valley, Palmdale, Redlands, and Santa Barbara. She is the former Executive Director of TRUST South LA, a community land trust. She has extensive experience as a consultant in strategic planning, grant proposal writing, fundraising and organizational development. Josefina has done board development and training for several non-profit organizations and has received various community service commendations from the City of Los Angeles, the State Assembly, the National Latina Alliance and the U.S. Congress for her entrepreneurship and for work promoting art and culture. (Workshop(s): Emerging Opportunities for Co-ops and Community Land Trusts)

Arroyo, Claudia serves as the Executive Director of Prospera. She has been an active leader in immigrant rights, bringing in a necessary perspective having been undocumented herself for 12 years. She has also been active in movements of gender and violence prevention, gay and queer rights, and health promotion for underserved communities for more than 15 years. Claudia is also a certified Coach who firmly believes in the untapped potential within every individual. Her life is enriched by engaging with practices rooted in solidarity economy, popular education, and community liberation. She cherishes the opportunity to connect her personal story with those of countless other women who, like her, strive to raise their voices and claim the space needed to manifest their dreams and co-create a just and deserving world. (Workshop(s): Herramientas de Comunicación Efectiva para Nuestras Cooperativas, Cómo Incorporar la Magia de la Educación Popular para Prácticas Liberadoras en Nuestra Cooperativas, Voces de Mujeres Latinas Cooperativistas: Los Retos y las Oportunidades)

Barton, Elisabeth is a founding member and the CEO of Echo Adventure Cooperative, a socially and environmentally sustainable worker-owned cooperative operating in Yosemite National Park. Since moving to the Yosemite region in 2009, Elisabeth has been instrumental in working with nonprofit organizations, government agencies and other local companies to support small business, promote sustainable tourism and expand worker rights. (Workshop(s): Cooperative Businessing, Empowering Your Workforce)

Boian, Jeffrey holds a Master of Arts degree in Organizational Leadership, along with a Graduate Certificate in Organizational Development & Change, and has been teaching undergraduate and graduate courses in leadership studies, organizational psychology, and career development since 2008. His areas of expertise are strategic planning, leadership development, and organizational culture. (Workshop(s): Designing an Organizational Culture that Works)

Brohi, Tehmina is the Membership Director at the US Federation of Worker Cooperative. She is a Pakistani-born, NYC-cultivated, citizen of the world. She has experience as a community organizer, cooperative developer and a small business owner. Currently, she is also on the steering committee of Happy Family Night Market, a recently-converted multi-stakeholder cooperative which celebrates the Asian diaspora through food, art, and education. In NYC, Tehmina also sits on the board of the NYC Network of Worker Cooperatives. Tehmina is inspired by the methods of exchange and relationship building that the solidarity economy presents and is excited to move this work forward by adding her perspective and skills to the worker-cooperative sector. In all that she does, Tehmina values and upholds collaboration, creativity, joy and authenticity. (Workshop(s): Setting up a Governance Structure for Conflict Resolution)

Cadenas, Maria is the Executive Director at Ventures, a nonprofit that works with California Central Coast’s rural Latino working class families to ensure a shared and prosperous economic future for all. For over 20 years, Maria has focused on developing local and global social, business, and philanthropic models that foster equity and community engagement. This includes the launch of Semillitas, a universal children’s savings account program serving Santa Cruz County that focuses on creating a positive impact on early childhood development, educational aspirations, and financial capability of families. Under her leadership Ventures also launched UndocuFund Monterey Bay to support undocumented workers in need of emergency relief and is currently overseeing an effort to build worker-cooperatives in the Salinas Valley. Born in Mexico and raised in California, Maria is Steering Committee Chair for the California Asset Building Coalition. (Workshop(s): Building Worker-Owned Business Structures: Futuro Co-op Program Model)

Castaño, Ana started her relationship with Prospera in 2014. She worked as a worker-owner in a cooperative business project for the production and sale of of popsicles for two years. Later, due to her love and respect for the training and education of people from an early age, she began a new cooperative project called Luna y Sol, focused on child care. Motivated by the need and trust that families with children have in child care suppliers and her conviction that cooperativism is a vehicle for the economic and professional sustainability of humanity, Ana continued to participate with Prospera. She was a member of the Board of Directors, then became the President of the Board, always attentive and engaged in the programs and opportunities that Prospera offered. Later, Ana supported Prospera’s programs as a contractor. In January 2023, she joined the staff as an Entrepreneur Success Coordinator. (Workshop(s): Herramientas de Comunicación Efectiva para Nuestras Cooperativas, Cómo Incorporar la Magia de la Educación Popular para Prácticas Liberadoras en Nuestra Cooperativas)

Castillo, Mayerling is a business consultant dedicated to support the development of social entrepreneurships and worker-owned cooperatives. Mayelring, originally from Chile,  is the co-founder of Colmenar Cooperative Consulting, a company that provides education for the sustainable development of worker-owned cooperatives, and her roles include marketing, finances and sales. (Workshop(s): Finanzas Cooperativas, Herramientas para la Comunicación y Prevención del Conflicto)

Collins, Jen is currently the Operations and Stewardship Manager at the Oakland Community Land Trust and secretary of the board for the California Community Land Trust Network. She and her family are also OakCLT homeowners. Prior to joining OakCLT's staff, Jen served as a resident representative on the OakCLT board of directors. (Workshop(s): Emerging Opportunities for Co-ops and Community Land Trusts)

Coontz, E. Kim is the Executive Director at California Center for Cooperative Development (CCCD). She has been working with cooperatives for more than 30 years, including 14 years with the Center for Cooperatives at U.C. Davis. Kim's experience includes assisting groups in the start-up of cooperatives, teaching cooperative board governance seminars, providing technical assistance to cooperatives, conducting research, writing and endeavoring to find new ways to strengthen cooperatives. She has authored and co-authored more than 12 publications about cooperatives and written numerous articles. (Workshop(s): Compensation in the Cooperative)

de la Mora, Aldo worked with migrant coffee farmers in Chiapas, Mexico, mainly from Guatemala. He carried out pest control and biodiversity studies and simultaneously interviewed coffee farmers about their management decisions regarding pest control, conservation practices, and climate change. Currently, he is collaborating with BIPOC small farmers in California to increase farmer resilience. He is interested in the emancipation process of vulnerable communities, including Latinx immigrants or historically oppressed communities. (Workshop(s): Compensation in the Cooperative, Compensación en la Cooperativa de Trabajadores)

Farrell, Deborah’s first job was helping progressives use technology was as a Technical Support Representative at the pioneering Institute for Global Communications. Helping harried activists around the world check their email on dial-up connections proved to be all the inspiration she needed to make it her life’s work. After four incredible years at IGC in roles including Operations Director and Executive Director, Deborah pivoted in early 2001 to providing more general technology infrastructure advice and consultation to local progressive nonprofits and small businesses. In 2004 she found a home at Alternative. In her 18 years here, she has worked as a field technician, consultant, account manager, and managing director. In each of these roles, the common thread has remained the same: make technology accessible to the people who need to use it to make a difference in local and global communities. (Workshop(s): Different Way to Lead: Panel on Collaborative Leadership in Worker Coops)

Fick, Mark is a Senior Loan Officer with Shared Capital Cooperative where he works with the business development, loan underwriting and portfolio management functions of the organization.  As a cooperatively owned loan fund, Shared Capital works to build economic democracy by providing financing to cooperative enterprises throughout the United States including consumer, worker, and producer owned cooperatives.  Prior to joining Shared Capital, Mark was the Director of Lending Operations with the Chicago Community Loan Fund where he was responsible for providing financing and technical assistance to affordable housing, social enterprises and community-based organizations in the Chicago land area. Over the past 25 years Mark has been an active leader with a variety of community-based and cooperative development organizations with a focus on building economic systems that are democratic and radically inclusive.  This has included serving in volunteer leadership roles with the Partnership in Property Commercial Land Trust, Black Lives Unitarian Universalism, the US Federation of Worker Cooperatives, the Chicago Mutual Housing Network, NASCO Development Services, Organization of the Northeast, and the Northside Community Federal Credit Union. (Workshop(s): Investing in Cooperation, Loan Readiness for Cooperatives)

Glancy, Alex is a partner and founding attorney at GGH LLP, where she practices transactional law. Alex advises startups, impact-oriented companies, cooperatives, and creatives. She focuses in the areas of corporate structuring and governance, fundraising, business transactions, and intellectual property. Alex has supported the formation of over a dozen worker-owned cooperatives in California. (Workshop(s): California Cooperatives and Governance – A Legal Perspective)

Guiterrez, Kateri is a former co-founder of Collective Avenue Coffee, a start up worker cooperative in Southeast Los Angeles (2015-2019). She then volunteered at Project Equity in summer 2020, where she published articles around cooperatives such as: Latinas Are Equipped for the Cooperative Movement, Harvard Journal of Hispanic Policy 31, 85-88, and Identifying Key Metrics for Successful Conversions to Worker Cooperatives through the University of Michigan. Most recently she co-authored a chapter on cooperatives in Bleeding-Edge Entrepreneurship: Digitalization, Blockchains, Space, the Ocean, and Artificial Intelligence. (Workshop(s): Elements for Successful Worker Co-op Conversions)

Jeffers-Fabro, Ayano is a community weaver who is bi-coastally rooted in Waialua, Hawai`i and Oakland, CA. She was born and raised in rural Waialua, and politicized in the Bay Area. This has given her the insight and experience to bridge urban-rural connections to land, food and the people. Her work centers Black, Brown and Indigenous leadership, technology, and wisdom. It also supports community self-determination and interconnectivity. Ayano is currently the Education and Curriculum Developer with CoFED, where she facilitates spaces for knowledge exchange guided by decolonial and re-indiginizing praxis. Outside of her work with CoFED, she's an independent community development consultant, dog-mama, child of the waters, food grower and people nourisher. (Workshop(s): Building a Liberatory Cooperative Movement for our Collective Tomorrows)

King Fitzsimons, Bernadette is the Coordinator for the Worker-Owned Recovery California (WORC) Coalition, a statewide legislative advocacy coalition advancing worker ownership. Bernadette first became active in worker cooperative policy during her time as a New York City Urban Fellow within the Office of New York City Deputy Mayor for Strategic Policy Initiatives J. Phillip Thompson, where she worked as part of a team advancing municipal policy to create more worker-owned cooperatives in New York City. Bernadette is on staff at SEIU United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW) and has a particular interest in solidarity and collaboration between the labor movement and the worker cooperative movement. She is a co-author of A Union Toolkit for Cooperative Solutions, a resource for labor unions interested in incubating and supporting worker cooperatives.

Kure, Suparna is a decolonial educator and immigrant mother living in unceded Kumeyaay lands. She brings with her over 15 years of experience imagining and breathing life into educational programs and leading organizational development. Suparna believes in the power of unraveled unlearning to shift narratives, heal trauma, and transform systems. She is guided by ancestral re-visioning, abolitionist and decolonial praxis, and manifesting collective dreams. Suparna responds to the call to return stolen wealth as the Choreographer of Collective Change by moving money where it can have a critical impact on building a beautiful regenerative food system – into the hands of young cooperators of color. (Workshop(s): Building a Liberatory Cooperative Movement for our Collective Tomorrows)

Lapeyrolerie, Erin is an attorney at Goldfarb & Lipman LLP. Her practice emphasizes affordable housing, land use, cooperative corporations, and real estate transactions.  She represents numerous public agencies and nonprofit housing developers on subjects such as affordable housing requirements, real property transfers, land use entitlements, and compliance with federal and state fair housing laws.  She further assists public agencies in complying with planning and land use laws, including new state housing laws.  Ms. Lapeyrolerie advises housing cooperative corporations on compliance with the Davis-Stirling Act, the Corporations Code, and other laws and regulations impacting cooperatives. (Workshop(s): Addressing Tough Questions in your Housing Cooperative)

Leal, Jose has founded six traditional companies. Autonet, his third startup, was acquired by a Canadian media conglomerate, where he became the vice president and GM of the English online division. During that time, Jose was also the vice-chair of the Canadian Interactive Advertising Bureau and was highly involved in the industry. After 13 years of working in a dysfunctional organization and industry, Jose realized that he could no longer live or contribute to the dysfunction brought about by the systems of force. He has spent the last seven years researching human motivation and organizational environments, leading to the Radical Purpose Dynamic, Collaborative Canvas, and Collaborative Agreement and co-authoring Radical Companies. (Workshop(s): Working with Radical Purpose)

Maturana, Pedro has been a cooperative business specialist at the California Center for Cooperative Development (CCCD) for over two years. His role has been to support CCCD’s worker cooperative development. He serves as the facilitator and mentor for the center's homecare and green cleaning worker cooperatives and provides advice in the development and operation of worker cooperative farms. Pedro’s experience also includes 7 years of worker-cooperative membership where he was involved in member recruitment, orientation, training, and scheduling. As well as two years of technical assistance for the Arizmendi Association, an innovative worker cooperative incubator program in the Bay Area that brings worker cooperatives to scale through replication and providing networking and support services. With the association, he developed procedures, systems of accountability, as well as coordination and facilitation support to member cooperatives. (Workshop(s): Compensation in the Cooperative, Compensación en la Cooperativa de Trabajadores)

Mierson, Sheella is a founding member of The Sociocracy Consulting Group helping to build organizations that are responsive, inclusive, and transparent. She is also a certified facilitator of the Blueprint of We Collaboration Process to help design and create relationships built on trust. Sheella has a longtime interest in the cooperative movement, and is a member of the North American Students of Cooperation (NASCO) Cooperative Hall of Fame. (Workshop(s): Introduction to Sociocracy: Getting Things Done Together, Managing the Meeting Monsters)

Mobedshahi, Ojan is the Finance Director and a Staff Owner at the East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative (EB PREC), a democratic, BIPOC-led cooperative that takes land and housing off the speculative market to create permanently affordable, community-controlled land and housing. A certified permaculture designer with a background in economics, sustainable land use, and real estate development, Ojan strives to bring the financial and strategic know-how to help visionary organizations build their capacity and long-term sustainability, to support a just transition to a regenerative economy. (Workshop(s): Orientation to East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative)

Morales, Adriadna was born in Oaxaca, Mexico and grew up in East San José. She has over ten years experience working in movements for racial and economic justice as a community organizer on policies that put workers first. In 2022, she seeded Corazón y Pueblo, a social justice consulting business, that supports organizations to foster deep relationships, develop leaders, and empower collective and individual agency. Her expertise and passion is in providing opportunities for economic liberation and sustainable, healthy lives. Corazón y Pueblo supports organizations and businesses to embrace families as a whole and to honor the multiple identities they hold. Corazón y Pueblo is currently working with SOMOS Mayfair to accompany and build the next phase of FUERTES, the community-led economic justice that has incubated two successful worker-owned cooperatives. (Workshop(s): Economic Liberation - Panel with Worker Owners & Future Co-op Residents in San Jose, Part 2)

Preisler, Daniella brings extensive experience as a cooperative development consultant since 2017, community coach, trainer and facilitator, graduate of Next Economy MBA, and former board member for the U.S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives for two periods. She launched her second cooperative business, Colmenar Cooperative Consulting in 2020, that provides consulting services to the Latinx community through educational programs and tools for start-up and existing co-ops. In addition, Daniella currently is a Peer Advisor for the Co-op Clinic and co-chair of the International Council at the USFWC, Vice President of Cicopa Americas, and President of Cicopa North America. Her experience in finances started at her first cooperative, an eco-cleaning service in San Francisco, where she was in charge of the Admin and Finances Committee of the cooperative for 7 years. (Workshop(s): Finanzas Cooperativas, Herramientas para la Comunicación y Prevención del Conflicto)

Ratliff, Shannon is the Vice President and Outreach Manager for SunCoast Market Co-op, a grocery cooperative opening in Imperial Beach, CA. Since organizing in 2015, SunCoast Market has grown to over 1000 invested owners, with a lease signed for their store location and a plan to open in 2024. They will be the second grocery cooperative in San Diego County, the first in the South Bay, the first to open in a predominantly Latino community, and plan to be the first to open debt free. They've encountered challenges opening in a low to middle income neighborhood and have been creative with their outreach and fundraising efforts so they can improve access to healthy and locally grown foods and products. Shannon holds a Masters degree in Health Psychology and works as a health counselor for Kaiser Permanente. (Workshop(s): Diversifying Fundraising by Aligning with Local Officials & Organizations, Grassroots Initiatives to Strengthen the Co-op Movement [Panelist])

Reicher, Andy is the Executive Director of UHAB for over 40 years until retiring earlier this year. During that time UHAB developed over 1,000 limited-equity housing co-ops in New York City with over 30,000 household members. Andy now works with UHAB’s National Co-op Community Services which trains co-ops, community land trusts (CLTs), and other non-profit partners through out the country to develop permanently affordable housing co-ops, and support organizations, in their regions. (Workshop(s): Introduction to Limited-Equity Housing Cooperatives, Grassroots Initiatives to Strengthen the Co-op Movement [Panelist])

Rivera, Jacky is a founding member, and currently the Operational Co-Director, of South Bay Community Land Trust in San Jose, CA. She participated in local tenants rights advocacy as a renter herself in San Jose from 2014 - 2020 and in issues of food sovereignty and food access through her paid work in La Mesa Verde at Sacred Heart Community Service for seven years. She has also organized in San Jose around the issues of immigration and worker’s rights - and has led unionization efforts at two of her work sites. A graduate of Cornell University, Jacky's passion for land-use, community development and justice is inspired by her upbringing in the agriculturally dense areas of Ventura and Madera, California. (Workshop(s): Emerging Opportunities for Co-ops and Community Land Trusts)

Having participated in a wide variety of innovative member-and-mission-driven organizations for over 20 years, Sassoon, Kate "Sassy” has a wealth of experience in organizational culture, change management, education and training, community organizing, mission-driven strategic planning, decision making process design, conflict management, and mediation. She has served on boards of directors large and small, teaches at numerous conferences across the U.S., and holds two degrees from the University of California, Berkeley. Kate is passionate about supporting innovative organizations committed to building a better world. (Workshop(s): Facilitation: Fundamental Skills and Structures, Increasing Participation and Leadership: Building Century Cooperatives)

Strand, Muriel served on the Board and as Treasurer of the San Jose Natural Foods Co-op, as Chair of the Finance, Management & Planning Committee of the Consumers Cooperative of Berkeley, and on the Board of the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op. She has a background in energy analysis, mechanical engineering, economics, cooking, and permaculture. (Workshop(s): Cooperative Adaptations to Climate Change)

Tiedemann, Karen is a partner with Goldfarb & Lipman, where she practices law in the areas of real estate transactions, affordable housing, nonprofit organization, and environmental law. Karen advises public agencies and nonprofit housing developers on affordable housing matters and represents numerous agencies and nonprofit corporations on the development, financing, and management of low- and moderate-income projects and programs. She has formed many limited equity cooperatives, and represents numerous housing cooperatives, providing advice on compliance, limited equity cooperative law, HUD financing, and Department of Real Estate regulations. (Workshop(s): Addressing Tough Questions in your Housing Cooperative)

Vartan, Kirk is a native New Yorker, NBC technologist, former hi-tech professional, community activist, and small business owner of two pizza shops in Santa Clara and Sunnyvale. In 2006, he and his wife created the first A Slice of New York shop, eventually adding a second location a few years later. As the business grew an empowered workforce emerged. The prospect of transitioning to a worker-owned business seemed the obvious choice. In 2017, A Slice of New York became the first brick-and-mortar worker-owned cooperative in the South Bay. Kirk continues to advocate for employee ownership as an option for business owners, working with local, state, and national resources to grow the co-op movement. In 2019, Santa Clara Mayor Lisa Gillmor appointed Kirk as the Special Advisor to the Mayor. (Workshop(s): Worker-Owned Recovery California (WORC), Grassroots Initiatives to Strengthen the Co-op Movement [Panelist])

Vasquez, Victor was born in Mexico and migrated to Oakland, CA as a child. Growing up in Oakland he experienced the harsh conditions of racialized poverty, the beauty of community resistance and found his love for community organizing. As a high school student, he organized against unjust discipline practices and pushed for alternatives to suspension that resulted in the creation of the One Land One People Youth Center at Skyline High School. He joins SOMOS Mayfair with experience working as case manager for East Side Youth, after school coordinator, and a grassroots community organizer. He is excited to work with the SOMOS Mayfair staff and community to build power, implement alternative solutions and create a thriving and sustainable East San Jose. Victor holds a master’s degree in Mexican American/Chican@ Studies from San Jose State University and a BA in Ethnic Studies from the University of California, Berkeley. (Workshop(s): Economic Liberation 1 [Panelist])

West, Esther joined Shared Capital as a Loan Officer in Autumn 2022. They underwrite, support cooperatives in navigating the loan process, and connect cooperatives to resources. Esther has nearly two decades of cooperative and community-rooted experiences. She was a worker-owner at Equal Exchange and The Ajani Group, has researched and mapped cooperatives with Dr. Jessica Gordon Nembhard and as a Cooperative Development Specialist at the University of Wisconsin Center for Cooperatives, and has been on the boards of the US Federation of Worker Co-ops, MadWorC, and Listen Up Youth Media. They have a BA from Xavier University, as well as two masters degrees from Cleveland State University in Environmental Studies and Urban Planning, Design and Development, as well as a Masters GIS Certificate. She has also conducted urban planning and trails analysis, teaches Environmental Studies at San Francisco State University, and works on climate justice issues. (Workshop(s): Investing in Cooperation, Loan Readiness for Cooperatives)

Yashar, Deborah has dedicated her career to supporting the resiliency of ecological farmers and the organizations that support them, including the Ecological Farming Association (EcoFarm), Agriculture & Land-Based Training Association (ALBA), and Multinational Exchange for Sustainable Agriculture (MESA). Deborah led the development of farmers markets, business and marketing education, and increased access to healthy, organically-produced foods both on the ground and through policy advocacy. She has launched a variety of impactful campaigns and events, such as the annual EcoFarm Conference–the largest sustainable agriculture conference west of the Mississippi. Trilingual in Spanish and Portuguese, Deborah holds a BA in Agroecology & Sustainable Agriculture from UC Santa Cruz. She serves on the board of directors of her local and nationally recognized BriarPatch Food Co-op and joined CCCD as Ag & Food Co-op Development Specialist in early 2013. (Workshop(s): Farmer Cooperatives / Cooperativas de Agricultores)