Ella Baker Center Staff & Board

Jakada became Ella Baker Center's Executive Director in 2007, after serving as a lead strategist and chief team member on some of Ella Baker Center's most high profile campaigns for eight years.

Most recently, Jakada directed Books Not Bars, taking the ongoing campaign to replace California's abusive youth prisons with effective rehabilitation programs to ever-increasing heights. Before that, Jakada helped lead the successful "Stop the Super Jail Campaign," a two-year effort to stop Alameda County from building a massive, expensive and remote juvenile hall that it didn't need. He was a leader in the "Justice for Moreno and Pacheco Campaign," the successful fight to free two wrongly convicted Latino boys in Solano County. And he ran Ella Baker Center's youth organizing project, Third Eye Movement, during the "No on 21" campaign to educate voters about the dangers of Proposition 21, a draconian ballot measure aimed at putting 14-year-olds in adult courts and 16-year-olds in adult prisons.

Before joining Ella Baker Center staff, Jakada was a Constituent Liaison for Oakland City Councilwoman Nancy Nadel. He helped launch or lead a number of important Bay Area organizations, including Empowered Youth Educating Society (EYES), Rising Youth for Social Equality (RYSE) and Underground Railroad (an artist collective).

Born and raised in Oakland, California, Jakada is the father of three powerful and creative young girls.

Shemika Skipworth joins Ella Baker Center as the Director of Finance and Operations with ten years of accounting experience and five years of human resources experience. She's worked in the nonprofit sector for seven years, at Family Builders by Adoption and New Connections. In her free time, Shemika enjoys spending time with her son and her younger sister.

As associate director, Kris leads the resource development for Ella Baker Center, building partnerships with foundations and other funders, while working with our program staff to ensure the fulfillment and longevity of our work. Prior to joining the Ella Baker Center in 2006, Kris worked independently as a grant writer, communications consultant and lobbyist in Sacramento, with clients such as the Drug Policy Alliance, Coalition for Effective Public Safety, Californians United for a Responsible Budget, Critical Resistance, California Bicycle Coalition and the International Association of Skateboard Companies. Kris has also worked in nonprofit development and administration with environmental advocacy groups such as Friends of the River and the Planning and Conservation League.
As a former federal prisoner of the war on drugs, Kris has experienced first-hand the waste and futility of our society's over-reliance upon incarceration. He draws from his experience an untiring commitment to justice and a passion to promote opportunity-based alternatives to imprisonment and violence.

As a recent graduate of U.C. Berkeley, Madelein joins the Ella Baker Center as the assistant for the Executive Director and the Development Team.  Working behind the scenes of the Ella Baker Center, she provides invaluable support to the executive staff ensuring that their job is as easy as possible. Prior to joining the Ella Baker Center, Madelein has worked with various private law firms and has interned with the ACLU of Northern California and the Legal Aid Society of NYC.

In her free time, Madelein loves reading non-fiction (specifically Foucault and Butler), drinking coffee with friends and exploring the various vegan restaurants in the Bay Area.

Zachary is the Director for the Books Not Bars campaign. Schooled at one of the top organizing programs in the country — the Los Angeles-based Labor/Community Strategy Center, a cutting edge "Think Tank/Act Tank" — Zachary has been instrumental in building Families for Books Not Bars - California's only statewide network of families with children in California youth prisons. As an attorney, Zachary served as a law clerk for Equal Justice Initiative, where he prepared a post-conviction petition to Alabama courts on behalf of a capital defendant. He is also a Board Member of Witness for Peace, a national organization working for peace, justice and sustainable economies in the Americas.

Sumayyah leads Books Not Bars policy work, crafting and tracking legislation and conducting extensive research to support the campaign's effort to reform the California juvenile justice system. After working at the Family Violence Law Center and Equal Rights Advocates during law school, Sumayyah came to the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights on a fellowship after graduating. When her fellowship expired, EBC was thrilled to add her to its team as a grassroots organizer. She served as one of the primary people responsible for leading Families for Books Not Bars, the only statewide network of families whose children are locked away in California youth prisons. After nearly a year in that role, Sumayyah put her law degree for work as the Books Not Bars Policy Advocate.

Joyce is a Families Organizer with Books Not Bars. Before becoming paid staff, she worked tirelessly as a Families for Books Not Bars member, getting other parents who have incarcerated family members involved in the campaign to reform the notorious California Youth Authority. She is an anchor for other working families in the Richmond community where she lives. She has eight years experience working with children in both school and daycare settings and extensive experience as a teacher's assistant and elderly care provider. She utilizes her experience as a community activist and care provider in her work organizing families to fight for justice in the juvenile system.

Lourdes is a Families Organizer with Books Not Bars. She is a founding member of Families for Books Not Bars and assisted in growing the membership from 10 members to over 400 members. She has spoken extensively on the issue of juvenile justice reform in both the English and Spanish media. She is a former member of Coleman Advocates for Youth and she continues to fight for juvenile justice reform locally in San Francisco where she is from and at the state level. She has worked previously as a sales person for various telephone companies and as a childcare provider. These experiences and her experience fighting for justice for her own son have proved invaluable for her as a families organizer.

As a Books Not Bars Associate, Jennifer combines her extensive policy work experience with her exceptional organizing skills to further the goals of the Books Not Bars campaign. After graduating from UCLA with a B.A. in English and a B.A. in Korean, Jennifer pursued her interest in the criminal justice system at the University of San Francisco, School of Law. Her course of study has focused on Children's Rights and Juvenile Law. As a pending recipient of the School's Public Interest Certificate, she has had past experience working with organizations such as Learning for Life and Habitat for Humanity. It was during her internship with Books Not Bars as a policy intern when she committed herself to reforming California's juvenile justice system. When she isn't advocating for the rights of youth, you can find her sipping British high tea or cheering at a Giants game.

Ian Kim works at the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights as Director of the Green-Collar Jobs Campaign. He advocates for policies in the city of Oakland and statewide in California to create "green-collar" jobs (quality, career-track, manual labor jobs in industries like renewable energy, water and energy efficiency, and green building), especially for low-income young adults and those with barriers to employment. Ian is a co-convenor of Oakland Mayor Ron Dellum's Green Economy Task Force, and served as Vice-Chair of the Oakland Oil Independence by 2020 Task Force. Ian holds an MBA from the Yale School of Management. Ian and his wife, Sunjung, are often laughing at the antics of their two-year-old daughter, Minju.
The Ella Baker Center for Human Rights runs cutting-edge, solutions-driven campaigns for justice, peace and opportunity in our cities. The nationally-renowned Green-Collar Jobs Campaign works to leverage the explosive growth of the new green economy to create meaningful career opportunities for poor people and people of color. In Oakland, the Campaign anchors a multi-sector coalition called the Oakland Apollo Alliance and spearheads a local demonstration project — the Oakland Green Jobs Corps — to showcase job training that can provide "green pathways out of poverty." Statewide, the Campaign advocates for green-collar policy solutions for California, in partnership with major labor, environmental, business, and education institutions, that can create many thousands of good jobs as well as a strong infrastructure for green workforce development. Nationally, the Campaign played a central role in the passage of the federal Green Jobs Act of 2007, which authorizes 5 million annually for green job training, with million specifically allocated to "pathways out of poverty" programs.

Aaron is an environmental and social justice activist with a background in sustainable community development. He serves as the State Policy Director for Green-Collar Jobs Campaign, where he works to create opportunities for young adults in the emerging green economy. He co-founded Bay Localize and has worked for Circle of Life, Earth Island Institute, ReThink Paper, and the Student Environmental Action Coalition. He holds an MA in Globalization and the Environment from Humboldt State University and a double BA in Anthropology and Environmental Studies from Iowa State University. His commentaries have been featured on NPR and Bay Area radio stations, and his articles have been published on AlterNet, in the Earth Island Journal, and the San Francisco Bay Guardian. Aaron lives in Berkeley and is an avid gardener and music fan.

As a jock-turned-activist, Nwamaka grew up as a jazz-loving trumpet player who could run really fast. As a first generation Nigerian, Nwamaka did not actively begin pursuing her interest in civil rights and social justice issues until college. When not in the weight room, on the track, in the library, or at work, Nwamaka spent the rest of her time editing the African American magazine or organizing the Pan-African Student Organization on campus. As a double major in Sociology and African American Studies, she realized her passion is working to solve social justice issues and her future career would be a civil rights lawyer. After moving to the Bay Area, Nwamaka began volunteering at the Ella Baker Center because she believed in the mission of the organization and its commitment to peace, justice and opportunity. Nwamaka is passionately committed to the work of the Green Collar Jobs Campaign because she believes that the pressing environmental justice concerns are the civil rights movement of her generation.
Nwamaka is also an active member of Ella's Daughters, a new national networking organization focused on connecting women activists and organizers from across the nation around issues affecting our communities in memory of Ella Baker. During the weekend she can also be found steaming creamy lattes, flipping waffles and working on her DJ skills at Guerilla Cafe in North Berkeley.

When it comes to creating opportunities in the green economy for people with barriers to employment, Emily exudes a fierce passion. As the Bay Area Organizer for the Green-Collar Jobs Campaign, Emily works with businesses, labor unions, environmental groups and community-based organizations to create an inclusive green economy strong enough to life people out of poverty. Studying with Urban Studies professor Raquel Pinderhughes, Emily is a graduate of San Francisco State University with a self-designed major in Urban Health, Justice and Sustainability. Emily also recently directed a film for the National AIDS Fund called Empowering the Yard. The film looks at HIV prevention from the perspective of incarcerated women who are using peer education to empower themselves, their families and their communities. After work, Emily enjoys trowing fast kicks as she trains in the Brazilian martial art of Capoeira. In and out of work, Emily is committed to developing her knowledge and skills for a sustainable and just future for her generation and generations to come.

With roots in the labor movement, Nicole is one of the Ella Baker Center’s senior most staff members. After four years of student organizing to defend affirmative action, Nicole became an organizer with the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union (HERE) Local 2850 in her hometown of Oakland. There, she helped launch EBASE (East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy), now one of the most powerful grassroots economic justice organizations in the Bay Area. Nicole also helped found the East Bay Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice, an alliance of people of faith supporting worker organizing in the East Bay. In 2000, Nicole focused her efforts around the youth by taking the helm of Third Eye Movement’s Oakland chapter (now Silence the Violence). Nicole led Let’s Get Free through its first neighborhood-based campaign, a successful bid to remove a notoriously violent police officer from the streets of North Oakland. She helped steer the “Stop the Super-Jail” campaign to victory, preventing Alameda County from building one of the country’s largest juvenile halls (per capita). Later, as Books Not Bars’ lead organizer, she was key to the success of the ongoing campaign to close California’s massive, violent youth prisons with the type of small rehabilitation centers that have proven successful elsewhere. Now, with the Ella Baker Center growing and strengthening the ties between its campaigns, Nicole will be providing political direction for all of the organization’s programmatic work.

As an organizer with Silence the Violence, Xiomara is continuing a lifetime of work to find healthy solutions to poverty, violence and environmental degradation. Xiomara cut her teeth in the movement to end U.S. military intervention in El Salvador. She has organized farmworkers in the Northwestern United States, and helped refugees receive healthcare and legal services in the Southwest. Most recently, Xiomara worked as a grassroots educator, helping youth around the country draw the connections between international human rights movements and domestic civil and human rights struggles. Xiomara is also a co-founder and director of Art in Action, a youth leadership program blending art with social justice activism.

As a Policy Associate for Silence the Violence, Stephanie brings her passion for criminal law and research to further the goals of the Silence the Violence campaign. Stephanie is a graduate of the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. Throughout her three years of law school, Stephanie focused on criminal law issues and graduated with a concentration in criminal law and procedure. During her second year of law school, she completed a yearlong clinical assignment/seminar at the Innocence Project. Her experiences at the Innocence Project led to a desire to focus on criminal justice policy issues. She was able to do so in 2006 as a summer intern for the Death Penalty Policy Director at the ACLU of Northern California where she researched medical and legal ethical as related to the death penalty, prosecutorial misconduct, and other wrongful convictions issues. In her third year at law school, Stephanie joined the Cardozo Criminal Defense Clinic where she worked with the Legal Aid Society of New York City, representing clients from arraignment through final disposition. Stephanie has a BA in American Literature from UC, Santa Cruz. Before attending law school, Stephanie worked in non-profit development.

Kijani is a newcomer to the Ella Baker Center, but certainly no newcomer to the social justice movement. Inspired by the music of artists like John Coltrane, 15-year–old Kijani entered the world of arts and activism through the artist collective Artistic Order of 144,000, based in Cincinnati, OH. There, he spread his wings as a poet, actor, jazz/soul musician, and, most importantly, servant working to create an equal and just society for all people.

Now a Bay Area citizen, Kijani plans to continue that mission through the Ella Baker Center and Bay Area PoliceWatch by empowering Bay Area citizens with education, resources, and support to create a responsible and accountable government.

As associate director, Kris leads the resource development for Ella Baker Center, building partnerships with foundations and other funders, while working with our program staff to ensure the fulfillment and longevity of our work. Prior to joining the Ella Baker Center in 2006, Kris worked independently as a grant writer, communications consultant and lobbyist in Sacramento, with clients such as the Drug Policy Alliance, Coalition for Effective Public Safety, Californians United for a Responsible Budget, Critical Resistance, California Bicycle Coalition and the International Association of Skateboard Companies. Kris has also worked in nonprofit development and administration with environmental advocacy groups such as Friends of the River and the Planning and Conservation League.
As a former federal prisoner of the war on drugs, Kris has experienced first-hand the waste and futility of our society's over-reliance upon incarceration. He draws from his experience an untiring commitment to justice and a passion to promote opportunity-based alternatives to imprisonment and violence.

Lynn recently joined the Ella Baker Center staff as the Individual Gifts Officer to help build the base of financial support from local and national community members and corporate allies. Prior to joining EBC, Lynn spent 11 years as a fundraiser for Earthjustice, a national nonprofit environmental law firm. A writer, performer, and community activist, Lynn employs her skills and passions in service of spiritual and social transformation. She served on the board of liquidFire Productions, a queer women of color arts organization, volunteers with Brava! Women for the Arts and the East Bay College Fund, and is a co-organizer of the annual Sistahs Steppin' in Pride March and Festival. Lynn lives in Oakland with her partner, Matema, their two dogs, and one cat.

Kristin has been a community organizer for roughly 10 years, when she started working at the Women's Resource Center on her college campus. After earning a BA in Feminist Activism for the 21st Century (an interdisciplinary degree focused on women's studies, political science and sociology) and a visual arts minor from the University of Northern Colorado, she put her skills to use by fundraising for a Congressional campaign and serving as a counselor and volunteer coordinator at a battered women's shelter. Kristin relocated to the Bay Area in 2001 to work as the public affairs manager at a large Planned Parenthood affiliate, where her work building the online advocacy program was recognized at the state and national level. Most recently, Kristin was thrilled to merge her activism and her artistic eye to help create and launch campaigns as the design and production director for Donordigital, the premiere online fundraising, marketing and advocacy firm serving progressive nonprofits including Amnesty International, the Humane Society of the United States, NARAL Pro-Choice America, Earthjustice, SEIU, and the Human Rights Campaign. After hours, Kristin works with her husband to build their production company, or lets off steam by singing in their family band, hip hop dancing, traveling, and knitting. She lives in Oakland with her husband, Gary, and two cats, Alice and Rita.

Hayes has been providing invaluable technological support to progressive non-profits in the San Francisco Bay Area for almost ten years. He started soon after earning his undergraduate degree, working at a childcare center in West Oakland. Not only did he provide the center with ongoing technical support (like maintaining workstations, servers, and printers), he also developed a state-of-the-art database system to help the center manage complex reporting and attendance requirements. Seeing that non-profits needed help making better use of technology, Hayes joined Techsperience, a small Oakland-based consultancy, in 2000. That was where he first encountered Ella Baker Center, one of the many non-profits he has helped to improve their use and management of technology resources. After helping repair and upgrade the PoliceWatch database, Hayes spent the next five years providing Ella Baker Center with emergency technical support. In 2005, Ella Baker Center decided that Hayes had become too valuable to remain a consultant and brought him on staff as Director of Information Technology. Since then, he has transformed the agency's entire technology framework. Hayes resides in East Oakland with his brother, his dog, two goats, three chickens, and four cars (one biodiesel, another with no engine).

Abel Habtegeorgis has been working around issues of social justice for more than 10 years. He has advocated for better recruitment and retention for people of color on college campuses, immigrant’s rights, and a greater investment in education for our disenfranchised youth. He has used his knowledge of public relations to highlight issues around discrimination and social justice while working in the areas of media communication and outreach strategy development for the Mosaic Cross Cultural Center and the Cesar Chavez Community Action Center. Abel has also spoken at the Tommie Smith and John Carlos “Fists of Freedom” ceremony, Young Leaders Summit, and The Conference of Indigenous Peoples. He is also a graduate of the NCCJ Leadership Today program, the Center for Third World Organizing, and has been inducted into the Associated Students “A.S. 55 Club” for his work in student activism. Abel has also participated in a PBS Documentary Series in the summer of 2006 entitled "“Roadtrip Nation".”

Van Jones is the founder and president Green For All, based in Oakland, California. The mission is to help build an inclusive, green economy - strong enough to lift millions of people out of poverty. Van is a tireless advocate, championing "green-collar jobs and opportunities" for disadvantaged people. He is committed to creating "green pathways out of poverty," while greatly expanding the coalition fighting global warming.

Van has worked to combine solutions to America's two biggest problems: social inequality and environmental destruction. Under the slogan "green-collar jobs, not jails," he is calling for green economic development in urban America.

As an advocate for the toughest urban constituencies and causes, he has won many honors. These include the 1998 Reebok International Human Rights Award, the international Ashoka Fellowship, selection as a World Economic Forum "Young Global Leader," and the Rockefeller Foundation "Next Generation Leadership" Fellowship.

Van has served on the boards of numerous national environmental organizations. Presently, he is a board member of the national Apollo Alliance, which advocates for clean energy jobs. He is also a founding board member of 1Sky, a national coalition working to avert catastrophic climate change.

In 2007, Van helped the City of Oakland pass a "Green Jobs Corps" proposal; the City allocated funds to train Oakland residents in eco-friendly "green-collar jobs."

At the national level, Van worked successfully in 2007 with U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), U.S. Rep. Hilda Solis (D-CA), U.S. Rep. John Tierney (D-MASS) to pass the Green Jobs Act of 2007. That path-breaking, historic legislation authorized 5 million in funding to train 35,000 people a year in "green-collar jobs."

Van is also a co-founder of a new national coalition that promotes the idea of a national "Clean Energy Jobs Corps." This multi-billion-dollar federal initiative would put hundreds of thousands of people to work rewiring and retrofitting the energy infrastructure of the United States.

In 2005, Van produced the "Social Equity Track" for the United Nations' World Environment Day celebration. UNWED 2005 drew dozens of mayors from around the world to San Francisco, where they developed policies promoting the concept of "Green Cities."

In 1996, Van co-founded (with Diana Frappier) the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, now located in Oakland, California. Named for an unsung civil rights heroine, the award-winning Center promotes alternatives to violence and incarceration. The Center, for which Van serves as board president, incubated Green For All in 2007 and spun it off in 2008.

A 1993 Yale Law graduate, Van is also a husband and father. He is proud to champion some of the most hopeful solutions to America's toughest challenges.

Judy is Executive Director of Our Family Coalition. Founded in 1996, Our Family Coalition promotes the civil rights and well being of families with lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender members through education, advocacy, social networking, and grassroots community organizing. Judy has more than 15 years of experience as a public-interest lawyer involved in policy-based work. A charismatic activist with roots in San Francisco, the East Bay, and Sacramento, Judy previously was Director of Legal Affairs for the Drug Policy Alliance, a national, non-profit organization dedicated to reducing the harm caused by drugs and drug policies. She serves on the Boards of Directors of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Oakland Civil Liberties Alliance, and Coalition on Homelessness. Appel and her partner live in Berkeley and have a seven year-old son and a three year-old daughter. The two moms are co-presidents of Oxford Elementary School's PTA in Berkeley.

Diana is a founding member of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, and has remained the behind the scenes support that makes the Center's work possible. Diana has proudly supported the organization's growth from a small-scale operation of one full-time staff into a grassroots powerhouse. Diana received her B.A. in Social Welfare and her J.D. at Hastings College of Law. While she is not focused on the Ella Baker Center, she is operating a private community criminal defense practice, and serving on the boards of Bay Area non-profits Machen Center and TURF (Together United Recommitted Forever.) This San Francisco native is also a real estate broker, supporting activists and other members of her community to empower themselves through homeownership.

Belvie is a writer, educator and executive producer of Watts Up! Demaria's Journey from Watts to the Frontiers of Consciousness, featuring Edgar Mitchell, Lynn Twist, Archbisop Desmond Tutu and other global visionaries. She was writer and producer for Courage, a series hosted by Danny Glover that was selected in 2000 by TV Guide as one of the "Top Ten" inspirational shows on television. She is currently Vice President of Special Projects at Carrie Productions.

Lisa is Executive Director of San Francisco School Volunteers, an organization that recruits, trains and directly links thousands of community and business volunteers with students in San Francisco schools. Her experience includes service as a communications and media consultant and she is a former program officer at Omidyar Foundation. In 1995, she authored Americorp's first comprehensive national teaching curriculum. Lisa also serves on the Board of the Breast Cancer Fund.