Heather combines her skills in facilitation, outreach, and analysis with her expertise in community and economic development to lift community voice in partnership with diverse stakeholder groups for nonprofits, foundations, and government agencies. Heather’s work often focuses on advancing equity at the intersection of education, workforce development, and neighborhood revitalization. She is committed to local capacity development, striving to share her knowledge of the tools of engagement so that communities have a greater ability to advocate on behalf of themselves.

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Heather’s background includes more than 15 years of experience in marketing and communications for nonprofits. Heather holds a Master of City Planning from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Bachelors of Arts in architecture from Wellesley College. Heather is vice president of the board of directors of the International Association for Public Participation (IAP2) USA. As part of IAP2 USA, Heather co-founded and co-chairs the DEI committee and is a member of IAP2’s Global Practise Development Committee, tasked with overseeing the refresh of IAP2’s foundational curriculum.

Dr. Chaneé D. Hawkins Ash is a passionate educator, researcher, and strategist with a career marked by success in organizational transformation, stakeholder engagement, and education research. Through her work, she uses quantitative and qualitative data to conduct landscape analyses of education and human service spaces and crafts compelling narratives that illustrate success and areas of growth in ways that allow educators, policy makers, and the general public to generate practical and impactful solutions.

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Chaneé has worked with a diverse portfolio of partners including public school districts, higher education institutions, labor unions, government agencies and private sector corporations. She earned her B.A. in English from Truman State University and her M.A. and Ph.D in Education Policy, Organization and Leadership from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign.

Dr. Ricardo Huerta Niño is a city planning consultant and a faculty member at UC Berkeley’s City & Regional Planning and in Global Poverty & Practice in the International & Area Studies Department. He is also currently a UC Berkeley Chancellor’s Public Scholar in the Public Service Center’s American Cultures Engaged Scholarship (ACES) program. Ricardo has been a Visiting Scholar at the Institute for the Study of Societal Issues (ISSI), an Affiliated Scholar at the Center for Research on Native American Issues, and a Distinguished Visiting Fellow in UC Berkeley’s College of Environmental Design.

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Ricardo has experience working in local government, including serving as Policy Director for Collective Impact in the Mayor’s Office in Oakland, leading multi-sector collaborative projects focused on education and youth development, using a social indicators approach focused on health, wealth, education, safety, and housing. As a consultant for city governments, school districts, and community development corporations, he helps develop community-driven collaboratives for engaging residents in urban planning practices and decision-making, including Neighborhood Specific Plans and inclusionary housing. Ricardo’s experience also includes working in philanthropy as a program officer and consultant focused on a range of issues including immigrant and refugee rights, environmental justice, leadership development, criminal justice reform, and multi-sector collaboratives. He has also worked as a consultant to various policy institutes, research think tanks, and nonprofit organizations, including Kaiser Permanente, where he worked as a research consultant on economic development focused on developing strategic entrepreneurialism in low-income neighborhoods in Northern California.

At San Francisco State, Ricardo has taught "Environmental Justice: Race, Class, and the Urban Environment" in the Urban Studies and Planning Department. He has also taught Ethnic Studies at city colleges in Oakland and is an award-winning educator. He mentors many students from a range of disciplines as well as young professionals.

Susana Morales is an independent consultant with 20 years of experience in community engagement and building, strategy and leadership development, and program evaluation. Her work expands nationally and internationally across several sectors: nonprofits, state and local governmental agencies, and universities. Susana was a founding partner of Communities in Collaboration.

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Susana's mission is helping organizations strengthen their mission impact. She strives to uplift the collective voice of the community to create and nurture healthy, sustainable, and equitable communities. Susana brings a unique lifespan perspective to her work as she has done work with early childhood education, youth, adults, and older adults. She is a native Spanish speaker and has a Bachelor of Arts in psychology and anthropology from UC Berkeley and a master’s degree in gerontology from San Francisco State University. Currently, she is pursuing her Doctorate in Public Health.

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