Elly Brown serves as the Co-Executive Director of San Diego Food System Alliance, a diverse and inclusive network that works across sectors to promote collaboration, influence policy, and catalyze transformation in the food system. Elly has been with the Alliance since 2015, currently leading the admin and resource development domains. Elly is a mom and nonprofit/ business management professional with 20+ years experience in organizational development, fundraising, administration, system creation, and field building. Elly combines traditional business management and operational skills along with her passion and commitment to liberatory practices. One example is co-founding the now vibrant CCF San Diego chapter. After a decade of venting sessions on the strange dynamics of the fundraising and philanthropy dynamics, Elly and Claire Groebner from Olivewood Gardens started the chapter to attract and weave together like-minded souls engaging in nonprofit fundraising in the region. 

Previous to the Alliance, Elly has worked in a variety of roles including consulting and financial services and received her MBA at Duke University. Elly is a first generation American, having spent the majority of her life in San Diego and Japan. Elly enjoys the ability to contribute her skills and life energy to a cause she loves—food, place, and community.

Storyteller Extraordinaire, Social Justice Warrior and Savant of Relations, Frank Velásquez Jr., relentlessly pursues racial and gender equity, while creatively connecting our stories, preserving the unique flavor of each one like in a yummy bowl of gumbo. As Founder of 4 Da Hood and the mastermind behind the Ascending Leaders in Color leadership program, he’s forging paths for Peeps of Color to lead with more authenticity, courage, and joy! Because for Frank, advancing equity isn’t just a job – it’s a movement towards building generational wealth for communities of color to thrive! And he’s doing it one connection, one story, one courageous conversation at a time.

Grace Weil (pronounced “while”), is the Founder and CEO of Golden Thread Consulting, an all-in-one fundraising and creative services consultancy working with progressive nonprofits and movements to transform fundraising, strengthen capacity, and plan events. Blending traditional consulting with vibrant creativity, Grace uses her expertise to tailor-make strategic fundraising support that’s practical — reducing workloads, driving game-changing results, strengthening supporter relationships, and building long-term sustainability.

Grace dedicated her career to ending domestic health care disparities and protecting abortion access – first working at a Memphis nonprofit serving children affected by HIV/AIDS and then taking her talents to Planned Parenthood affiliates leading fundraising and donor engagement efforts in 7 states. She holds a Master’s Degree of Nonprofit Administration from the University of Notre Dame. Outside of the office, Grace is recognized as a thought leader among peers and a valuable contributor to her local communities. She is a disabled, heterosexual, cisgender, white woman, living with multiple chronic illnesses. When she’s not working, you can catch her hunting for the perfect snickerdoodle recipe, watching a baking competition show, and spending time with her twin dogs: Bean and Sprout.

Jennifer Li Dotson 李麗玲 (she/her) is a Chartered Advisor in Philanthropy® and Strategic Advisor for AI in Fundraising, helping nonprofits ethically use technology to grow giving. Dotson serves with the US Commission for Civil Rights, Committee on the Status of Women and the Committee on Refugee and Immigrant Affairs. She led philanthropy teams at the National Kidney Foundation, American Red Cross, Muscular Dystrophy Association, and Mothers Against Drunk Driving.  She holds a BSc from Georgetown University, a MSc from the London School of Economics and speaks two dialects of Chinese fluently.

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Jenny Brandt es una filipino-estadounidense que vive en Querétaro, México. Trabajó con miembros del Consejo Global de Mesoamérica para desarrollar los principios en español para el sitio web y organizó los primeros eventos virtuales de CCF en español. Está muy emocionada por presentar la primera serie de sesiones en español en la reunión familiar presencial de CCF. Su carrera se ha desarrollado en organizaciones sin ánimo de lucro de nueva creación, dedicándose a la recaudación de fondos, la programación y la administración relacionadas con sus pasiones: la protección del medio ambiente y la garantía de un acceso equitativo para las comunidades latinas.

Jenny Brandt is a Filipino-American living in Querétaro, Mexico. She worked with Global Council members from Mesoamerica to develop the principles in Spanish for the website and held the first virtual CCF events in Spanish. She is excited to be hosting the first series of sessions in Spanish at the in-person CCF Family Reunion this April. Her career has been in non-profit start up organizations doing fundraising, programming and administration related to her passions of protecting the environment and ensuring equitable access for Latinx communities.

Kelly Phipps is a doting auntie, book nerd, and dog-cuddles enthusiast. When she isn’t in the thick of an Afrofuturist novel or learning to dance, Kelly serves as part of the leadership team at a Black women-led base building organization. She also facilitates a monthly (QT)BIPOC community circle at an urban farm. Kelly has spent well over a decade in nonprofit fundraising, communications, and strategy (in healthcare, higher education, and grassroots community work).

Lucas Land is Director of Development at The Delores Project — a Housing First organization in Denver serving women, transgender, and nonbinary people experiencing homelessness — where they lead fundraising, communications, and community engagement with a deep commitment to equity and community-centered practice.

Lucas holds a Master of Divinity with a concentration in Social Justice (yes, divinity school — yes, they left the church — it’s a whole journey) and a CFRE, because apparently they enjoy studying for hard tests. As a nonbinary parent of trans kids, their investment in this work is very much not abstract.

When not fundraising, Lucas can be found hiking, rolling dice, catching live music, writing songs, or deep in a sci-fi novel or British mystery. Sometimes several of these at once, spiritually speaking.

Nate Levin-Aspenson (he/him) is a writer, fundraiser, and consultant based in Denton, Texas. He has been an institutional fundraiser for over 10 years, a dad for only one year, and a troublemaker for much, much longer than that. You can find him cultivating new things with the Texas CCF chapter and alongside the other members of The Equilibria Collective.

Naya Diaz is a facilitator and nonprofit leader with over 18 years of experience supporting mission-driven organizations through complexity, polarization, and institutional strain. Her work centers on how fundraisers and leaders practice equity, accountability, and belonging within real-world power dynamics; especially when certainty is unavailable. She is the founder of the Mythic Plurality Project, a practice-based body of work focused on emergence, working in the cracks and thresholds of systems, and reimagining how we respond ethically in times of breakdown.

Nel Taylor (they/them he/him, Umatilla), is an organizational equity strategist, ethical fundraising expert, and nonprofit systems fixer with over 14 years of nonprofit experience. As the Founder and Steward of Now This Consulting, Nel guides organizations through operationalizing anti-racist principles into everyday operations and practices, moving their clients beyond DEI committees, into direct action and organizational change.

Their introduction to nonprofit work came out of their transition from houselessness when they were 18 years old, advocating as a program participant in the fundraising efforts of the nonprofit that supported them. After experiencing exploitation at the hands of the nonprofit industrial complex, he set out to shift traditional practices in the internal systems that perpetuate harm throughout the nonprofit sector.

Nel has supported clients in adopting non-hierarchical organizational structures, building out HR handbooks to align with equity values, building restorative justice-based accountability structures, ditching outdated and harmful fundraising practices, and many more human-centered projects for organizations looking to make long-term changes to center liberation.

A member of the Confederated Tribes of The Umatilla Indian Reservation, Nel approaches their work with a simply stated motto: “I’m just out here trying to Indigenize the nonprofit sector”

Shantel Suárez Ávila is the proud daughter of Mexican immigrant parents and a Chicago native now rooted in Escondido, CA. A dog mom, yoga student, creative spirit, and nature lover, she brings heart and intention to everything she does. In 2018, after receiving a bittersweet severance package, she chose to fundraise boldly—centering community wisdom, practicing her values, and refusing to shrink dreams to fit broken systems.

In 2019, she founded Más Allá, a fundraising practice grounded in love, justice, and possibility beyond the status quo. Through Más Allá, she partners with BIPOC-led organizations nationwide to raise transformative revenue with care and integrity, while challenging harmful norms in the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors. With more than a decade of experience, Shantel has raised over $53 million for women-led and Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC)-led organizations. She began her career at Obama for America Headquarters in 2012, where she deepened her commitment to grassroots power-building and people-centered strategy.

A former co-steward of the CCF San Diego Chapter and now a co-steward of the San Diego Solidarity Network and CCF North American Council, she is dedicated to systems change—building authentic relationships, strengthening community, and expanding the power of historically excluded communities.