We are driving transformational change to enhance the lives of girls* and gender-expansive youth of color in California.
Since its inception in 2012, Alliance for Girls has been facilitating development, coordination, and collective action for systemic change across the girl-serving sector.
We work strategically, passionately, and collectively to dramatically shift gender norms and realities and to ensure that the next generation of girls and gender-expansive youth realize their full potential.
WE AREthe largest regional alliance of girl-serving organizations and leaders in the country.
Our membership includes 120+ organizations that employ 2,400 people with more than 5,100 volunteers serving more than 300,000 girls across nine Bay Area counties and L.A. County.
Our team
is a powerful group of women and girls, 100% self-identifying as people of color, based in California. Together we are dedicated to the advancement of gender equity, where girls and gender-expansive youth themselves are key decision-makers in their own lives and communities.
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Chantal has a decade’s worth of experience working in the nonprofit sector to advance equity, through community mobilization, capacity building, advocacy, technical assistance, community-based participatory action research, and program management in international and California-based programming. She brings an intersectional lens and a passion for creating spaces for historically oppressed populations to share their diverse experiences and lead decision-making processes to improve their lives and wellbeing, and that of their communities. Her work has contributed to improving and passing over 20 policies, implementation guidelines, and budgets addressing issues of gender inequity in Kenya, Nigeria, Malawi, South Africa, and the state of California in the United States.
Chantal received her Masters degree from the University of California, Berkeley in Public Health and City Planning. She currently serves as a member of the Racial Equity Index, a global collective of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) dedicated to holding the global development sector accountable to dismantling all forms of systemic racism.
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Liz Alvarado is our newest incoming Operations Fellow. We are thrilled to have her on board, representing the vibrant city of Los Angeles, CA, and are eager to embark on this journey of empowerment, support, and growth together.
She moved to Los Angeles mid 2021 to become a full-time caregiver of her mom and encountered the challenges caregivers and disabled individuals have to face as a daily basis, while also adapting to a new region.
Her experience motivated her to look for an opportunity to create a positive change in the community and has served as a fellow for Caring Across Generations and her experience and dedication to empowering caregivers, disabled individuals, and those involved in caregiving have already demonstrated her commitment to making a meaningful impact in the Los Angeles community.
In her role as Operations Fellow, she will be reporting to the Director of Finance and Administration who is equally excited to work alongside her in advancing AFG's mission and goals. Liz's role will be pivotal in shaping the development of operations and support for AFG.
Email: liz@alliance4girls.org
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Kailin Chou joined Alliance for Girls’ staff in 2014, providing broad support for leaders of girl-serving organizations, managing membership engagement and outreach, developing Alliance for Girls’ communications, and coordinating services and resources among members and the community. Since joining, Alliance for Girls has become the largest alliance of girl-serving organizations and champions working collectively to effect powerful change for girls, gender-expansive youth, and their communities.
Kailin has a strong passion for supporting children, youth, and marginalized communities. She has more than a decade of experience in the nonprofit sector, both in direct service and in management and administration. This includes mentoring children, supporting unhoused people at emergency shelters, developing the digital strategy for a large international NGO, consulting local nonprofits, and leading awareness campaigns on human trafficking.
Kailin has a Masters in Public Administration from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, with concentrations in Nonprofit Management and International Development. Her studies culminated in a consultancy for the Community Alliance for Safety and Peace, an alliance of over 30 stakeholders in Monterey County working together to reduce gang violence in Salinas and its surrounding areas. She also holds a B.S. in Management Science/Economics from the University of California, San Diego.
Kailin enjoys cooking, the outdoors, art and design, traveling, and learning languages.
Email: kailin@alliance4girls.org
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Irina is a muxerista abolitionist jotx living in Sacramento, CA with their two children and partner. She organizes for freedom fiercely using their expertise in Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) and Community-based participatory research (CBPR).
Their justice work began in grassroots immigrant rights organizing and in studying the strategies of intersectional abolitionist feminists like Angela Davis, Audre Lorde, and Grace Lee Boggs. Organizing in the community deepened her commitment to transformative justice. After leading youth programming in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and teaching as a high school teacher, they realized organizing alongside youth is essential for us as a society to move towards our liberation.
Irina earned a Bachelors in Women Studies from the University of Nevada Las Vegas, and a Masters in Social Work from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.
Conducting YPAR projects led by Black, Indigenous, youth of color in the Twin Cities taught them that co-creating, co-organizing, and co-conspiring with youth can radically transform our communities and create systems that will bring joy, abundance, love, and healing.
At Alliance for Girls, Irina mobilizes towards freedom with girls and gender-expansive youth of color throughout the Bay Area using YPAR and CBPR as the Participatory Research Director.
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Michelle comes from a strong leadership and university operations management background working for the University of Southern California (USC). She has over ten years of leadership experience responsible for financial and grant management programs, faculty and student administration support and university operations development. She started her career as a budget assistant at the USC Marshall School of Business for two years, progressed in her role as a business manager to manage finances for USC Student Affairs for seven years, receiving her Master of Arts in Education from the USC in 2011. Michelle wanted to further advance her role to understand university financial operations and served as a grant manager helping lead the department grant programs at the USC Keck School of Medicine in the Preventive Medicine for over four years and advanced to serve as the Finance Director for another two years. In her most recent role as the Senior Finance Director for the Kaiser Permanente Medical School where she served two years to help develop the finance infrastructure during the school’s start up phase.
Michelle is a current member of the National Council of Research Administrators (NCURA) and a member of the Financial Management Association (FMA).
Michelle received her PhD in Educational leadership from Walden University in 2021, Master of Arts in Education from the University of Southern California (USC) in 2011 and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics and Business Administration from the University of California, Riverside in 2004.
Michelle loves spending time with her family especially with her nine-year old daughter Charlotte. She loves to travel and learn about different cultures around the world. She believes in helping create a culture where organizational stakeholders have opportunities to build a positive work environment and community. Transparency, ethics, strong support and communication, building and maintaining relationships are critical elements to ensure growth where organizational stakeholders can thrive, grow and built a better university culture. She’s excited to become part of the AFG family and looks forward to its growth and success.
Email: michelle@alliance4girls.org
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Cimone (she/her) has spent 18 years researching and evaluating schools and out-of-school programs through an equity lens, as well as evaluating DEIB programs and other related organizational change efforts for various companies. She received her BA from the University of California, Berkeley in Sociology and her MA in Sociology from the University of California, Santa Cruz, with an emphasis on gender identity and the family.
In her years of experience, she has designed and led mixed-methods program evaluations, analyzed primary and secondary qualitative and quantitative data, and created data analysis reports that are accessible to all stakeholders. She is passionate about issues of equity and is dedicated to supporting changemakers through data-driven, decision-making processes.
OUR CO-LEADERSHIP MODELIS ROOTED IN THE FOLLOWING VALUES:
Joy in what we do
Creativity in the work
Freedom and care to show up as our whole and dignified selves
Trust as the foundation of relationships
Safety & support
Mutual consideration of labor
“I appreciate the smart, diverse staff leadership and hearing directly from girls, as well as the spirit of collaboration embedded in everything AFG does.”
— Attendee of AFG's 2019 conference, A Movement for Equity.
Our Board
represents leaders from across the girl-serving sector and beyond in California, including activists, nonprofit, foundation and corporate executives, lawyers, and consultants with years of experience in their fields, all coming together to support Alliance for Girls’ strategy and growth.
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Emma Mayerson
CO-FOUNDER
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Gretchen Sandler
TRUSTEE, JAMES & GRETCHEN SANDLER PHILANTHROPIC FUND
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Rebecca Peterson-Fisher
PARTNER, KATZ BANKS KUMIN
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Shauné Zunzanyika
SENIOR ADVISOR, TIDES FOUNDATION
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Sophia Andary
ANALYST & CONSULTANT, SELF-EMPLOYED
OUR MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEe
These member organizations and their leaders provide expertise and strategic thought on how to strengthen Alliance for Girls’ model for community engagement.
We are grateful
to our funders, without whom this work wouldn’t be possible. Together we are crafting a world where every girl and gender-expansive youth does not just survive, but thrive!
