About the GLIDE Legacy Committee
Learn more: youngprofessionals@glide.org
In 2019 we celebrated 10 years of the Legacy Committee and GLIDE Legacy Gala! Check out this video about our journey, evolution, and vision for the future!
Legacy Committee Sunday Funday | Sunday, May 17, 2020
Join the Legacy Committee for our quarterly Sunday Funday! The LC and friends will start at 9:30 am supporting the GLIDE Daily Free Meals Program with lunch prep, then our group will join the congregation for Celebration at 11:00 am, followed by brunch afterward at Rusty’s Southern! Please email youngprofessionals@glide.org to RSVP.
Legacy Committee Sunday Funday | Sunday, August 30, 2020
Join the Legacy Committee for our quarterly Sunday Funday! The LC and friends will start at 9:30 am supporting the GLIDE Daily Free Meals Program with lunch prep, then our group will join the congregation for Celebration at 11:00 am, followed by brunch afterward at Rusty’s Southern! Please email youngprofessionals@glide.org to RSVP.
Legacy Committee Sunday Funday | Sunday, November 15, 2020
Join the Legacy Committee for our quarterly Sunday Funday! The LC and friends will start at 9:30 am supporting the GLIDE Daily Free Meals Program with lunch prep, then our group will join the congregation for Celebration at 11:00 am, followed by brunch afterward at Rusty’s Southern! Please email youngprofessionals@glide.org to RSVP.
Born and raised in the boogie-down Bronx, Paloma Figueroa came to San Francisco in 2009 looking for a short break from her fast-paced East Coast life. Instead she fell in love with the city, its endless quirks, and its inspiring residents.
With a Bachelors in Social Psychology from Carnegie Mellon University, and a life-long fascination with how people work best, she's dedicated her professional life to creating more equitable and meaningful workplaces through Diversity and Inclusion consulting in the Bay Area.
Her work takes her across the USA, collaborating closely with leadership teams, from tech start ups to social impact organizations,to build and develop thoughtful People programs, helping to spearhead forward-thinking diversity and inclusion initiatives, and stewarding cultural structures that encourage values-driven environments at scale.
When she's not working, she spends a good portion of her time chasing after unique and unusual experiences across the globe, sharing a good meal with friends, ortweeting and podcasting about the representation of women and PoC in comics, cosplay, and pop culture.
She continues to be involved in the local community through organizations like The Red Cross, NERT, and Compass Family Services. After having admired the passionate and inspired work of GLIDE for many years, joining the Legacy Committee has been a dream come true. She hopes to match that passion in spades in the work that they will do together.
Chris was raised in San Francisco and first volunteered for GLIDE in middle school. He has been attending Celebrations ever since alongside working regularly with GLIDE's Harm Reduction team since 2017.
His professional interests at the crossroads of design, technology, and geopolitics have sent him on a global journey. From a blockchain startup within the Royal Academy of Arts in London, to leading design-thinking workshops at a boarding school in Jordan, to an internship at the White House during the Obama administration. He is now a fellow at Google.org focused on leveraging satellite imagery for climate action.
Chris is excited to work with the Legacy Committee to create moments that engage and inspire young people while bringing more voices to the table.
Lucy specializes in the overlap of tech and social enterprise, with a particular focus on marketing and strategy.
She is presently the VP, Strategy at TubeScience and Marketing Advisor to the Social Enterprise, Elefant.
She gained her PhD at the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford. Her thesis research focused on how people create, authenticate, market and trade on terms like "ethical" and "sustainable". She is an experienced research, communications, PR, events, and marketing consultant, advising entities who strive to define themselves in the ethical-consumption industry.
Her event-production experience has helped bring to life the Skoll World Forum and TEDx Oxbridge.
Lucy holds a BA Hons in Human Sciences and an MSc in Management Research from the University of Oxford. She is proudly from Yorkshire and also a keen traveler, exerciser, and socializer, who runs on disco and liberally supplements life with fizz and sparkle.
Maiysha is the Community Outreach & Partnership Manager at Children’s Council of San Francisco, a non-profit that works in collaboration with families, educators, government agencies, and community-based organizations to ensure quality early education is accessible for all San Francisco children. With over a decade of nonprofit experience, Maiysha currently organizes City Kids Family Fair, a day of music, art and fun for families with young children. A true “Connector” she has a knack for bringing people together and building relationships that are meaningful, supportive and lasting.
Maiysha was 9 years old when first introduced to GLIDE, serving meals alongside her 4th grade classmates. Many, many years later, she returned with friends to witness GLIDE’s Sunday celebrations. Moved by the message, music and community, Maiysha was deeply inspired by GLIDE’s mission and ongoing impact on the Tenderloin and San Francisco Bay Area. She is overjoyed and honored to join the Legacy committee and looks forward to working with fellow members to alleviate suffering and celebrate radical inclusivity and unconditional love.
A SF native and mother of one, Maiysha is passionate about self-care and celebrating community and culture. She finds peace, beauty and inspiration in yoga, a good book, live music and exploring the world’s beaches and parks.
Nicole is a Creative Director who works with with clients that range from mission-based startups and nonprofits to corporations on storytelling, branding, design, and video. She believes that crafting a great story is the most important part of creating a memorable message.
For a time, she dreamed of becoming an Anthropology professor as a way to uncover tales of people and cultures. Applying theory to anything and everything, however, didn’t feel right. After deciding the ivory tower wasn’t for her, she pursued visual communication through branding, design, and filmmaking.
Along the way, Nicole opened Quiet Mind Yoga in Washington, DC. in 2008, which still exists today. While running the studio was an incredibly rewarding experience, San Francisco was calling her name.
In 2010, she made this lovely city her home, and was able to shift her focus back to brand and filmmaking. Currently, she is working on a documentary short about an unhoused woman in the Mission who provides medical services on the street. Other interests include travel, surfing, film festivals, dance, reading, and pretty much any outdoor activity.
KJ settled into Bay Area life when he came for his first visit one summer and never left. The strangely beautiful, vibrant, colorful souls of San Francisco have kept him in the city since 2010.
Because of his passion for the community which fully embraced him, KJ is thrilled to promote GLIDE's efforts to ensure all walks of life - no matter their journey - are shown the radically inclusive love they deserve.
After growing up in Seattle and graduating from University of Washington with a Marketing and International Business degree, he spent nearly a decade in management consulting roles.
KJ then ditched cubicle life for more creative pursuits. He committed the next few years to becoming an independent Event Manager/Producer and is currently working for the experiential marketing and consulting company Tencue.
During his time with GLIDE's events liaison White Rain Productions, he was a Lead Producer for several of the organization's major events including their annual Legacy Gala.
His love for GLIDE's Legacy crew since 2015 eventually led him to an official spot on the committee.
KJ's first name is Kwaku, a popular Ashanti name chosen by his Ghanaian parents for males born on a Wednesday. His West African roots inspired his own nonprofit efforts to establish the North Mo Foundation raising scholarship funds for junior secondary school children of the Bamboi region.
After spending her whole life in North Carolina, Lauren Jamiolkowski arrived in San Francisco in 2013, eager to grow her career in such a progressive and vibrant city. It wasn’t long until she realized that her long hours as an investment banker left something to be desired.
Lauren found GLIDE as she was searching for both perspective and community. Six years later, she continues to be involved with the meals program, annual toy-drive and Legacy Gala. She has decided to make San Francisco her home and is invested in seeing it become a more inclusive, just and loving place.
Today, Lauren works as a Strategy & Finance Leader at Intuit and spends her free time playing ‘cars’ with her nephew, drinking wine with her feminist book club and planning weekend getaways with her fiance.
Lauren graduated from Duke University as a Benjamin N. Duke Scholar with degrees in Psychology and History.
John is a 4th generation California and proud Bay Area Native. His passion for stepping in to help those at the margins began during an internship with the Marin County Youth Court. While there, he became a proponent of restorative justice and policymaking with empathy. He continued to help others through his work with the Oakland Lacrosse Club, organizing sports equipment donations and mentor relationships.
After graduating from UC Berkeley with a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Economics with a focus on international economic development, he made his childhood dream come true by moving into the city he loves. His work at Tres Agaves has him working bilingually on operations, marketing, and logistics with his Jalisco, Mexico-based coworkers. In 2018, his inherent motivation to help others guided him to volunteer at GLIDE.
Today, John is eager to encourage more of his fellow San Franciscans to become part of GLIDE and embrace an attitude of stepping in, rather than stepping over. In his free time, you can catch him reading page-turners, backpacking the Sierras, playing lacrosse, or taking in views of the Golden Gate while running along Crissy Fields.
Margaret is digital and social strategist focused on synthesizing emerging technology, consumer behavior and business trends into tactics to increase visibility, engagement and traffic.
As a digital strategy consultant, Margaret has been responsible for integrating social into business strategies, from research to ideation to strategic recommendations to execution.
She’s guided companies like Nespresso, Ross Stores Inc, Salesforce, Blue Shield and MTV/Viacom in their quest to stay relevant and evolve in todays always connected world.
Prior to her role at SocioFabrica, Margaret led a cross-platform digital campaign that secured a first-of-its-kind investment from Google. The same year she oversaw the rebrand, redesign and revised content strategy for an award-winning online publication, leading to a 200% increase in audience and acquisition offers by major lifestyle magazines.
Before that, Margaret co-founded and successfully raised capital to launch an online publication that mapped and highlighted innovative companies led by minorities and women.
In addition to her digital strategy expertise, Margaret is an accomplished content creator, contributing to MTV, Huffington Post, G4TV and much more.
She graduated with honorable mention from San Francisco State’s School of Behavioral and Social Sciences with a degree in Psychology and in 2007 presented research findings to the American Psychological Association.
Genay is a proud Bay Area native and a passionate activist with over 10 years of experience working with non-profits around civic engagement, racial justice, education, and affordable housing.
She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Community and Regional Development from UC Davis.
She is currently an Urban Habitat’s Boards and Commission Leadership Institute Fellow. Genay works with low-income communities of color teaching leadership and campaign development skills as a lead community organizer at the Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation.
Prior to working for TNDC, she founded a reading program for low-income youth in Davis CA called Children Harmony Independent Reading Program (CHIRPS) , interned at the Department of Education, mentored teenage youth in East Oakland, served as a Resident Services Coordinator for three affordable-housing buildings, and worked in Community Relations.
She has received the Betitia C. Memorial Community Service Award, Leslie Campbell Community Outreach Award from UC Davis and, has a Certificate of Recognition from the Partnership for Children and Youth. Because of her passion for the Tenderloin community, Genay is excited to promote GLIDE’s efforts to serve the community in a radically inclusive way and influence young professionals to become involved with GLIDE. She is thrilled to use her skills to continue to serve the community she has come to know and love.
Originally a SF native, Kiyana Merritt has spent 4-plus years flourishing personally and professionally with the Glide community. Growing up, she was inspired by her Aunt Deborah Whittle; Executive Director of the GLIDE Community Housing branch for 30-plus years, helping establish three affordable-housing buildings for homeless and low-income individuals and families.
Inheriting values of service and compassion Ms. Merritt decided to obtain her education in Social Work, recently receiving her Masters of Social Work from Washington University in Saint Louis in December 2016.
Throughout her matriculation of higher learning she has been a part of the Emerging Leaders intern program at GLIDE since 2014 working in the Women’s Center and Walk-In Center.
Kiyana currently works at Booker T Washington Community Service Center. Her unique position dually serves as the High School Coordinator for at risk teens in SF and Assistant Property Manager managing 50 units of affordable housing dedicated to former foster care and transitional youth.
At the young age of 25, Kiyana hopes to continue to serve her community creating healthy and equitable resources for people of color here in San Francisco.
A lifelong traveler and adventurer, Derek’s zeal for fresh challenges and perspectives has led him to surf Australia’s Bondi Beach, study martial arts in dojos in Japan, act as an extra on Bollywood movie sets in Jaipur, climb to the top of the Preikestolen in Norway, perform onstage and as a voice actor in South Korea, and participate in ayahuasca ceremonies in the Sacred Valley of Peru. Eventually his travels took him to San Francisco, where he began working as a local tour guide and as a coordinator of worldwide luxury tours.
When he first came through GLIDE’s doors in July of 2015, he cried at the emotional force of the GLIDE Ensemble and Change Band, joined the next week, and has been in the bass section ever since! The support he received from this community helped bring him in touch with his spirituality and social activism. Wanting to give back, he facilitated workshops for Bridging the Divide (healthy political discussion) and A Better Me (health and wellness) and helped strategize partnerships with the Immigration Task Force, all active congregational groups. Derek is also a certified professional life coach and serves as Lead Coach for the The Liberation Institute, a grassroots mental health non-profit in the Mission District.
Derek’s love of impactful storytelling caused him to become a leader in the worldwide presentation phenomenon PechaKucha—a fast-paced public speaking format where each presenter has only 20 slides and 20 seconds per slide. After first participating in PechaKucha Night in his hometown of Orlando, he organized his own event while living in Seoul and also performed onstage at the original home of PechaKucha in Tokyo. Encouraged by the event's founders, he became the local organizer and host of PechaKucha San Francisco in 2019, reactivating the event and drawing sold-out crowds to this exciting community forum. In his day job, Derek works for Streamlinevents, a production company which helps leading corporations put on major conferences around the world.
He’s grateful to the Legacy Committee and looks forward to engaging a new generation with the organization’s strong commitment to social justice, helping others find the same meaning, purpose and connection he’s found at GLIDE.
Although Kyra grew up on the East Coast outside of Philadelphia (Go Eagles!) she has lived in San Francisco--the best city in the world-- for the past ten years. Her East Coast parents met in San Francisco before they moved back. She is convinced that their love of the City was transmitted to her at birth.
Kyra has been a life-long lover of politics and policy, and has committed to a career in public service. She has worked at the national level for the Obama campaign, at the state level for then-Attorney General Kamala Harris, and most recently at the city level for a policy innovation team that advises San Francisco city departments on government efficiency.
Today, her professional interests lie at the intersection of public policy and civil rights litigation. After five years working for San Francisco, leading process design workshops for City employees, and immersing herself in homelessness and criminal justice policy in SF, she decided to pursue her dream of becoming a civil rights lawyer. She is currently a Chancellor’s Scholar, Olivier Scholar, and Tony Patiño Fellow-Elect at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law.
Kyra has a deep and abiding love for the Tenderloin, the neighborhood in which she currently resides and considers her home. She originally engaged with GLIDE when she volunteered with GLIDE’s Harm Reduction Team in 2017 prior to starting law school.
In her free time, Kyra loves to do yoga, cook, run, and play with her nephew, Jack.
Leo Stroe is a proud second-generation San Franciscan back in his hometown after undergraduate school at the University of Wisconsin - Madison.
After returning from school in the beautiful Midwest Leo was determined to do give back to the Bay Area community he feels incredibly lucky to have grown up in. Despite it’s flaws, Leo still thinks it’s the best city in the world. In addition to volunteer work with GLIDE, Leo spends time managing the baseball team at San Quentin Prison, which is close by to his job in Marin County.
When not working, Leo loves to cook, be with family and friends, play golf, and spend as much time as possible with his dog in Golden Gate Park.
Brittnay, a Bay Area native who started out in the South Bay, quickly realized upon adulthood that she needed a more inclusive atmosphere. Enter: San Francisco!
After moving to San Francisco in 2009 to pursue a career in finance the city stole her heart and she became invested in its future.
A "Jill-of-all-trades", she has successfully navigated the industries of finance, technology, real estate, and cosmetology, before realizing her passion lied within producing nonprofit events from conception to execution.
Now an Associate Producer at White Rain Productions/Winslow & Associates, working within the nonprofit niche, Brittnay is dedicated to the success of the nonprofit sector via her work and personal time.
Originally drawn into GLIDE as their event producer in 2016, she immediately fell in love with GLIDE's mission to serve the marginalized of the local community. Utilizing the various networks she has amassed with her wide range of experience, Brittnay hopes to create fruitful new relationships and resources for GLIDE and the community it serves. Brittnay graduated from San Francisco State University with a Bachelors of Arts in Liberal Studies and a Minor in International Relations.
Mia is an analyst in Finance and Strategy at Zendesk, a company that drew her in with their focus on customer service and proud ties to the Tenderloin community.
Recently, she founded Women at Zendesk, an employee-run resource group to support, inspire, and develop female employees in SF and around the globe.
A California native, she attended Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo and holds an MBA from Mills College.
She began by volunteering with GLIDE's Meals Program and is excited to be more involved in joining the Legacy Committee. Inspired by GLIDE's dedication to radical inclusion, she is driven to introduce more young professionals to the organization, in particular bridging the gap between the tech community and our most vulnerable neighbors.
In her free time, you can find Mia at SoulCycle or Barry’s Bootcamp, volunteering with the Spinsters of San Francisco, or exploring craft breweries.