The Facilities, Arts and Communities Experts (FACE) group is the panel of local experts who are experienced arts, culture, and community development leaders that will assist Community Vision with making funding recommendations. Panelists bring unique geographic and industry perspectives, and are deeply-rooted members of their communities.

Alon Adani

Tamara Mozahuani Alvarado

Tanuja Bahal

Edgar-Arturo Camacho-González

Raissa de la Rosa

Adam Fong

Zakiya Harris

Ciera Jevae

Margot Melcon

Nadine Rambeau

Ted Russell

Elena Serrano

BK Williams

Alon Adani | Cornerstone Properties
Sonoma & San Mateo Counties

Alon Adani’s commitment to the North Bay community is a consistent value and can be seen in his consideration of all current and potential projects and partnerships. His work in giving back to the community can be seen through Cornerstone Properties, as well as 180 Studios, North Bay Makers.

After the Northern California wildfires in 2017, Cornerstone donated 16,000 square feet in downtown Santa Rosa to be used as the Sonoma County Local Assistance Center serving fire-affected individuals. 48,000 square feet of warehouse in Santa Rosa was donated by Cornerstone to the American Red Cross as the central distribution center for displaced individuals and families. Another combined 15,000 square feet of warehouse was given to Mentor Me Petaluma, Sonoma County Fire Relief and Sonoma Family Meal.

180 Studios is a makerspace in Santa Rosa providing workforce training programs and classes to the North Bay community. Alon and Cornerstone are large supporters, donating both money and space to this non-profit organization. Following the fires, 180 Studios acted as an evacuation center for Keysight Technologies employees and their families.

Currently, Alon is working on an infill, transit-oriented, master plan development consisting of four sites, located at the heart of downtown Santa Rosa and Historic Railroad Square. These projects can create substantial housing projects for the community, as well as many service-based amenities such as childcare, a grocery market, health clinics and shared gathering spaces. He is working closely with the City of Santa Rosa, as well as many other local partners to make this vision a reality.

Tamara Mozahuani Alvarado | The David and Lucile Packard Foundation,
San Mateo, Santa Clara, & Santa Cruz Counties 

Tamara serves as a Program Officer in the David and Lucile Packard Foundation’s Local Grantmaking Program in a new role leading the cultural and civic investments in the Vibrant Communities portfolio spanning the five Bay Area counties that the program serves: San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Monterey, and San Benito. The portfolio invests $4 million annually to advance creative, environmental, and civic organizations that connect people with art, nature, and their communities, creating a unique sense of place for all.

Tamara joins the Packard Foundation after serving as executive director of the Leo M. Shortino Family Foundation, a San José, California–based foundation that focuses on youth and arts. Tamara has held executive, board, and director positions at various local, regional and national arts and community organizations, including the School of Arts and Culture at Mexican Heritage Plaza; the Multicultural Arts Leadership Institute at 1stAct Silicon Valley (now SVCREATES); MACLA/Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana; and WESTAF (Western States Arts Federation).

Tamara holds a bachelor’s degree in Spanish Literature with an emphasis in Chicano Studies from Stanford University. She has been a traditional Aztec dancer for over 20 years and is a member of Calpulli Tonalehqueh Aztec Drum and Dance.

Tanuja Bahal | ArtsWeb & SVCreates
San Jose, Santa Clara County

Tanuja Bahal is a seasoned non-profit leader with more than two decades of experience in nonprofit leadership, strategy, program management and marketing in corporate and non-profit environments. Currently working on strategic projects for Silicon Valley Creates and PeopleShores, she is passionate about community building. In her past role as Executive Director of the India Community Center, she was instrumental in growing the organization and leading it on a path to sustainability. Tanuja also serves on the board of Planned Parenthood Mar Monte and CreaTV.

Edgar-Arturo Camacho-González | El Comalito Collective
Vallejo, Solano County

Edgar-Arturo Camacho-González is a queer Indigenous Xicanx community activist, artist, and poet living on occupied Ohlone land in Vallejo, CA. He is committed to making the communities he is part of safe, vibrant and welcoming for all by creating work that celebrates who he is without compromising his identity.

His work is a celebratory ode of representation to queer people and people of color. Edgar-Arturo’s work has been published in several anthologies, and he has exhibited throughout the West Coast and is currently the artist-in-residence with the ACLU, NorCal. Edgar-Arturo is a co-founder of El Comalito Collective Cultural Arts Center in Vallejo, CA, and was awarded the “Artists and Cultural Practitioners Grant, 2020” from the California Arts Council.

Raissa de la Rosa | City of Santa Rosa
Santa Rosa, Sonoma County

Raissa de la Rosa is the Economic Development Division Director for the City of Santa Rosa in Sonoma County. She brings to this position experience from a career spent in non-profit and local government administration. Currently, Raissa is focused on infill development and land-use intensification to meet the full spectrum of new housing and business needs, and on social equity and equitable resilience initiatives. In addition, with public art a program of the Economic Development Division, she is intent on linking arts, culture and design to compel placemaking and economic growth. Prior to her work in Santa Rosa, Raissa managed the cultural funding program for the City of Oakland, and before that ran a performing arts theater in San Francisco.

Adam Fong | William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
San Francisco, Bay Area

Adam Fong joined the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation in 2018 as a Program Officer in Performing Arts. He manages a diverse portfolio of grants supporting artists and communities throughout the Bay Area.

Adam is a musician and cultural entrepreneur with deep experience in the San Francisco Bay Area. He co-founded two Bay Area service organizations: Emerging Arts Professionals, a network dedicated to the development and growth of next generation arts and culture workers (director, 2011-2014); and Center for New Music, a hybrid supporting and presenting organization that fosters contemporary music and its community of practitioners (executive director, 2012-2018).

Earlier in his career, Adam held positions with organizations including Other Minds, Music at Kohl Mansion, and the San Francisco Opera. In addition, he has served as co-chair of the funding advisory committee for the city of Oakland’s Cultural Funding Program, and as a member of the Emerging Leader Council of Americans for the Arts. He has also been a frequent advisor and panelist to a broad community of artists, arts leaders, and arts organizations, and has led workshops and presentations on arts leadership, business models and planning, and community building.

Adam remains active as a composer, with his work having been performed in Auckland, London, Berlin, across the United States, and throughout California. He also performs occasionally, focusing on contrabass, voice, and piano. He holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from the California Institute of the Arts, as well as bachelor’s degrees in music composition and creative writing, and a master’s degree in English from Stanford University.

Zakiya Harris | ArtsWeb & SVCreates
Oakland, Alameda County

Zakiya Harris, affectionately known as Sh8peshifter, is a woman who has truly chartered her own path in life. A Cultural Architect, she has over 2 decades of experience working at the intersections of Art, Activism and Spiritual Entrepreneurship. Zakiya is the co-founder of nationally recognized projects Impact Hub Oakland, Grind for the Green and a past Fellow of Green For All and Bold Food. Currently she serves as the Co-Founder + Senior Advisor at Hack the Hood, an award-winning non-profit that introduces low-income youth of color to careers in tech by hiring and training them to build websites for real small businesses in their own communities. Zakiya is the published author of Sh8peshift Your Life: The Creative Entrepreneurs Guide to Self Love, Self Mastery and Fearless Self Expression. In addition, she is retained as a consultant by a diverse set of leaders as a coach, trainer and strategist where culturally relevant education and cross sector collaboration are seen as assets. Zakiya’s experience in arts and equal access movements includes a combination of management, education and public speaking. As a successful performance artist she has released two EP’s under the name of Sh8peshifter and has toured extensively throughout the country. She is also the company member of Ase Dance Theater Collective and House Full of Black Women. Awards and recognitions include the Ella Baker Center Future Leaders Award, Tutorpedia Foundation Award for Personalizing Education and Nationswell Allstars Finalist. Zakiya holds a B.A. in Political Science and History from Rutgers University, and attended New College of Law before leaving to pursue her lifelong passion of serving community. In 2019, she traveled to Osogbo, Nigeria where she became initiated as a priest of Oya in the West African Spiritual tradition of Isese. In her spare time, you can find her near a body of water, reading Octavia Butler, or cooking with her 14 year old daughter.

Ciera Jevae | RYSE
Contra Costa County

Ciera Jevae is a Richmond Native serving her community as an artist, educator, healer, Poet Laureate, writer, activist, and scholar. She reps her ancestors, & shines light on the lived experiences of the divinity in Black women & girls through poetry and performance. She is the published author of her new collection of poems, Unto Ivy’s Rib, as well as the author of two chapbooks, Testimonies of Richmond, and Incarcerated Words. She obtained her B.A. in Sociology and her MFA in Writing. Her work highlights the intersectionality of Black girls and women and incarcerated communities while centering joy, self-discovery, and healing. She is the Founder of Melanin&Mimosas, a sanctuary space for Black women & Femme identified folks to laugh, heal, be seen, and grow together. For more, go to her website at Cierajevae.com.

Margot Melcon | Zellerbach Family Foundation
Alameda, Contra Costa, & San Francisco Counties

Margot Melcon joined the Zellerbach Family Foundation in 2015 as the Program Executive for the Community Arts program. In that role, Margot has developed new strategies for promoting cohesive support of the arts community as well as advancing the foundation’s practices in data collection, evaluation and distributed leadership models in grantmaking. She has served on peer review panels and selection committees for arts organizations, nonprofits and philanthropies across the country.

Prior to joining the Zellerbach Family Foundation, Margot spent seven years as Director of New Play Development at Marin Theatre Company, as well as four years with A.C.T. in San Francisco, and has been an active participant in developing new plays locally with Bay Area Playwrights Festival, Crowded Fire Theater, Shotgun Players and Berkeley Rep’s Ground Floor, and nationally with the Kennedy Center, the New Harmony Project, and The Playwrights’ Center in Minneapolis.

Margot is also a playwright. With Lauren Gunderson, she co-wrote Miss Bennet and The Wickhams, the first two parts of the Christmas at Pemberley trilogy; part three, Georgiana and Kitty, will premiere in 2021. Margot is a graduate of California State University, Chico.

Nadine Rambeau | EPACENTER
East Palo Alto, San Mateo County

Nadine has spent the last 20 years activating creativity as a catalyst for youth empowerment, economic equity, and social change in multiple communities across the United States. Nadine has a deep understanding of the needs of arts, culture and youth development organizations, the economic and social realities youth face, and the imperative to shape an equitable future that advances inclusion and belonging for all.

Prior to joining EPACENTER, Nadine served as Managing Director of the arts & education division at the California Institute of the Arts, where she oversaw programming, operations, and fundraising. She completed a campaign that established an endowment for the division, established new partnerships with government agencies, corporations, community art centers, public and charter schools, and school districts, including L.A. Unified, and created innovative programming in animation, film, music, dance, theater, and visual art for more than 8000 youth per year.

Before moving to California, Nadine played key leadership roles in establishing accessible arts education programs for vulnerable youth at the YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago Chernin’s Center for the Arts, and the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs’ award-winning job-training-in-the-arts program, Gallery 37.

Nadine brings a wide breadth of knowledge and experience in strategic planning, culturally-responsive program design, community arts, arts education, program evaluation, communications, and fundraising to her role as Executive Director. She earned her MFA from the California Institute of the Arts and holds an undergraduate degree in Political Science from Northwestern University.

Ted Russell | Kenneth Rainin Foundation & Grantmakers in the Arts
Oakland, Alameda County

Ted Russell is Director, Arts Strategy & Ventures for the Kenneth Rainin Foundation. Ted leads the Foundation’s strategic direction for the arts, supporting diverse, visionary artists and collaborating with artists, partners and funders to foster an equitable ecosystem.

Before holding this position, Ted was Associate Director, Arts Strategy & Ventures. In that role, he developed new initiatives, managed elements of the Arts Program’s portfolio, and advanced learning and evaluation processes, including sharing knowledge about promising practices.

Prior to joining the Foundation, Ted was an organizational consultant who specialized in working with arts and cultural organizations and funders. He also served as the Senior Program Officer for the Arts Program at the James Irvine Foundation from 2005-2016. Earlier in his career, Ted was Director of Marketing at Montalvo Arts Center, Audience Development Manager for the San Francisco Symphony, Annual Fund Director at the La Jolla Playhouse, and Managing Director of Malashock Dance. In 2016, Ted was named a Faces of Theatre Bay Area 40@40 Celebration Honoree as one of 40 community members who have changed the face of theater in the San Francisco Bay Area. In 2020, he received the AATAIN Award for Exceptional Merit and Commitment to Supporting the African American Arts Community from the African American Theater Alliance for Independence.

Ted is chair of the board of Grantmakers in the Arts, the only national association that brings together public and private arts and culture funders. Ted is also a founding board member of 43rd & 44th Street Garden, a community garden in Oakland’s Temescal neighborhood.

Ted has a BA in Mechanical Engineering from Yale University and an MBA in Arts Management from the Anderson School of Management at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Elena Serrano | Eastside Arts Alliance
Oakland, Alameda County

Elena Serrano is the Program Director and founding member of the EastSide Arts Alliance Collective. Serrano is a cultural strategist and community organizer. As Program Director for EastSide Arts Alliance she coordinates community and cultural events and the annual Malcolm X JazzArts Festival (currently in its 21st year!). She is also overseeing EastSide Arts Alliance’s fundraising efforts. Serrano has over 40 years working in all aspects of non-profit arts management including work at La Peña Cultural Center in Berkeley and the Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts in downtown Oakland. Currently, she is helping to lift up Oakland’s cultural hubs as essential components of equitable community infrastructure and as sites for power building and community self-determination. Serrano has served as a cultural strategist for the City of Oakland’s Department of Transportation (OakDOT) and currently with Community Arts Stabilization Trust (CAST).

EastSide Arts Alliance (ESAA) is a collective of cultural workers who live and work in East Oakland. Its mission is to unite art with activism to work for community empowerment and cultural development and to build bridges between the disenfranchised, racially divided communities we serve. The EastSide Cultural Center is a multi-use theater, sound & visual arts studios, with 16 units of affordable housing and storefront spaces. ESAA made history by being one of the only grassroots organizations of color, which owns and operates an independent community cultural center, free and clear of debt.

BK Williams | Richmond Progressive Alliance
Contra Costa County

BK is Co-Coordinator of the Richmond Progressive Alliance (RPA). She has served as a Richmond Arts and Culture Commissioner and as Board Chair for Queer Women of Color Media Arts (QWOCMAP) where social justice issues are routinely addressed. BK is a filmmaker and “Against Hate”, a film exploring religion, politics, free speech and homophobia in Richmond was her last effort while her new script “Riding While Black” is in progress. She cofounded the Richmond (Women’s) Film Collective to help diverse women tell their own stories through film.

As Vice President of Richmond Rainbow Pride, and as cofounder of Women in Politics, BK continues her commitment to community work and increasing the visibility of underserved communities through art, advocacy and politics. Recently appointed to Richmond’s Reimagining Public Safety Task Force, and the MeasureX Advisory Board, BK seeks opportunities to both contribute to and be changed by advocacy and support for the most vulnerable members of our society. She is a Native Californian and attended UC Berkeley and the University of San Francisco and has spent her career as a banker in Financial Intelligence. BK is most proud to be a daughter, mother, sister, aunt and friend.