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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Linda has 13 years experience in research and evaluation working with local grassroots organizations to national nonprofits. She has extensive experience in research and evaluation design and analysis, strategic planning, and creative facilitation. Most recently, Linda led Evaluation Studio, a research and evaluation firm rooted in an integrated approach of decolonized and feminist research methods with traditional approaches to recenter knowledge creation and intergenerational communities of color.
Linda is passionate about and inspired by creating opportunities to shift research and social justice spaces towards embracing innovative and creative participatory research approaches that make visible the invisible and decolonize data and research approaches. At Loyola University Chicago, she initiated the first Women’s Studies and Gender Studies interdisciplinary concentration in her Cultural and Educational Policy Studies Masters program. Since then, she has been dedicated to girl-centered organizations and after-school and expanded learning programs from Oakland to India.
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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 July 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 girls’ organizations and champions working collectively to effect powerful change for girls, young women, 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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Kennedy Foye is the 2023-2024 Senior Membership Fellow at Advocacy For Girls. In this role, she directly assists with helping with administrative duties and programmatic member activities. She has spent much of her young adult life traveling, living in places like London and New York City. These experiences lead Kennedy to realize that she wants to have a career in which she can make a strong and long-lasting impact, which is why she felt drawn to Alliance For Girls.
Some of her advocacy efforts include being the Advocacy Coordinator for students of New York University in London and working with underserved youth. She began her education at New York University studying Global Studies, but moved back to her hometown in the Bay Area after a brief pause in her studies. She has resumed her studies currently at San Jose City College, and will begin finishing up her degree at San Francisco State University in Spring 2023.
Kennedy is passionate about yoga, nature, entrepreneurship, and spending time with her family. She is currently in the process of becoming a yoga instructor. In her free time, she also works as a Social Media Manager. As a young mom, Kennedy hopes that her future revolves around helping other young parents receive more resources to ensure their success as parents and professionals.
Email: kennedy@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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Reina (she/they) specializes in decolonial feminism, liberatory pedagogies, and women of color epistemologies. Reina received a BA and MA from the Chicano Studies department at Cal State LA and a PhD in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies with a minor in Development Studies and Social Change from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.
Reina has worked with youth of all ages for over 20 years. Reina’s favorite part of working with youth is witnessing the magic that happens when youth assert their voices and write their own stories. Reina is a lover of inclusive and intersectional feminism, critical and liberatory pedagogies, reproductive justice, and community care and healing. Reina lives in Southern California with her partner and son.
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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.
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Shwetha (she/her) has spent 20 years working for corporate and non-profit organizations in California and India that serve women and girls. She has designed and led programs in the fields of youth development, visual impairment, and access to clean drinking water and sanitation. Her commitment to center the lived experiences of girls of color led her to found South Asian Girls Project (SAGP), a youth mentorship program for South Asian teen girls in the Bay Area, California. Shwetha received her BA in Business-Economics from UCLA.
Her focus is on youth participatory research, qualitative data analysis, and community partnerships. Shwetha co-lead AFG’s seminal study “Radical Visions of Safety”, a report on safety and healthy relationships defined by girls for girls that led to a safety learning framework for practitioners and funders. She also worked on AFG’s report on the lived experiences of girls of color in South and Southeast LA County, “Girl, You Can Do Anything”. Her close relationships with her nieces and children are the foundation for the work she does, and she is committed to seeing a better future for our girls and youth of color.
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As the Culture & Community Engagement Associate, Nia helps strengthen AFG’s culture and supports the implementation of AFG’s community engagement activities, including outreach, event planning, logistics, and project management support.
Since teenhood, Nia has coordinated, facilitated, and supported multiple youth-focused programs and is pleased to continue exploring such work as a young adult. She has worked for organizations such as California Youth Media Network, Causa Justa:Just Cause, and Peers Envisioning and Engaging in Recovery Services to provide elevation, perspective, and voice in areas ranging from communications and media to mental health and social justice.
Nia enjoys leaning into rest and relaxation, beach and neighborhood strolls, TV and film, quality time with loved ones, and reading in her day-to-day life. She is passionate about many things, including slow, sustainable living, liberation for all, all things plant-based and chocolate, and practicing her Christain faith.
Nia is deeply inspired by the words and works of the Combahee River Collective, Fannie Lou Hamer, Octavia Butler, Ella Baker, Berta Cáceres, and of course – her communities. She spends time between Long Beach and the Bay Area, keeping good company with friends, family, her cat Luna, and of course – too many houseplants.
Email: nia@alliance4girls.org
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
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Tina Sandford
GLOBAL HR LEADER, STRATEGIC BUSINESS PARTNER & CHANGE AGENT
OUR LA ADVISORY GROUP
These LA-based organizations and their leaders provide expertise and strategic thought on how to better meet girls’ needs in LA County.
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!
