A national network of funders supporting strategic, innovative, and effective solutions to homelessness

2025 Funders Forum Speakers

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Last updated: 02/6/2024


Andrea Iloulian

Senior Director, System Optimization and Communications, Homeless Initiative and Affordable Housing
Chief Executive Office, County of Los Angeles

She/Her/Hers

Andrea Iloulian manages the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation’s domestic grantmaking in the area of chronic homelessness. Prior to joining the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, Iloulian worked in commercial property management, where she served as property manager of Class A high rise office buildings in the downtown and Miracle Mile areas of Los Angeles. Iloulian also previously held positions with TreePeople, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health’s PLACE Program, and served as a senior consultant at MAXIMUS. She holds a master’s degree in public policy from the University of Southern California’s Sol Price School of Public Policy and a bachelor’s degree in social ecology from the University of California, Irvine.


Ann Oliva

Chief Executive Officer
National Alliance to End Homelessness

She/Her/Hers

Ann Oliva is CEO of the National Alliance to End Homelessness, a public education, advocacy, and capacity building organization dedicated to ending homelessness in the United States. A career veteran of homelessness and housing policy, she is recognized as one of the foremost experts on homelessness in the nation. In her role, Ms. Oliva works closely with members of Congress and the Administration, as well as with officials and advocates at the state and local levels. As part of that role, she also collaborates closely with Alliance partners to educate the public on the real nature of homelessness and its solutions, and to advance known best practices within the homeless services sector.

Ms. Oliva previously served as Vice President for Housing Policy for the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, and as a Senior Policy Advisor at the Corporation for Supportive Housing. Her distinguished career is also marked by a decade of federal service at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

During her 10-year tenure at HUD, Ms. Oliva successfully designed and implemented a variety of initiatives and programs, including homelessness prevention, supportive housing, and rapid re-housing programs, as well as a demonstration to end youth homelessness.

In 2015, Ms. Oliva was named one of the 50 Most Influential Leaders in the department’s first 50 years, and was honored with the True Colors Fund’s True Leader Award. She was a finalist for a Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medal (Sammie) in management excellence in 2011, and was part of an inter-agency team that won a Sammie for the team’s work on reducing Veteran homelessness in 2012.

Jawanza James Williams

Managing Director of Organizing
VOCAL-NY

He/Him/His

Jawanza is a Black, Radical Queer, Abolitionist and Socialist. He is currently the Director of Organizing at VOCAL-NY, a grassroots organization building power among poor and low-income New Yorkers. Williams is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America and a founding member of its Afrosocialists and Socialists of Color Caucus and a member of Black Alliance for Peace. He was born and raised in Beaumont, Texas, attended Schreiner University in Kerrville, Texas, receiving a BA in 2012. Williams is a PhD student in the Political Science Department at CUNY Graduate Center. Learn more: https://jawanzajameswilliams.com/

 

 

Jazmin Segura

Director of Strategic Initiatives, Housing Justice 
Common Counsel 

She/Her

Jazmin joined the Common Counsel Foundation in 2017. Currently, she is the Director of Strategic Initiatives focused on Housing Justice. In her role, Jazmin oversees the Fund for an Inclusive California and the Community Ownership for Community Power Fund.  She is responsible for developing, implementing, and managing the collaborative funds' fundraising and program strategy and development. With over 15 years of experience in housing justice, immigrant rights, and social justice movements, Jazmin has successfully organized funders and raised resources for BIPOC-led power-building efforts in California.  

Before joining CCF, Jazmin spearheaded the development and launch of the San Francisco Foundation’s inaugural Rapid Response Fund for Movement Building, bolstering grassroots organizations at the forefront of racial and economic justice in the Bay Area. Other previous roles include Policy Manager at Immigrants Rising, formerly known as Educators for Fair Consideration, and Policy Advocate at Services, Immigrant Rights, and Education Network (SIREN). Under her direction, E4FC developed its first policy platform and created a leadership team of undocumented youth who successfully led a statewide policy campaign to make career licenses accessible to all Californians regardless of immigration status.  

Her dedication to organizing and movement-building is deeply rooted in her family’s immigration journey to the United States. Jazmin grew up in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles, and graduated from the University of California Berkeley with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Economy.  

Currently, she is the co-chair of the San Joaquin Valley Funders Collaborative. 

 


Joanna Jackson

President and CEO
Weingart Foundation

She/Her/Hers

Driven by her commitment to racial and social justice, Joanna has over 25 years of experience in the nonprofit, philanthropic and public sectors. Joanna joined Weingart Foundation in 2008 and after five years on the leadership team, Joanna was appointed President & CEO as of June 7, 2024.

Prior to joining Weingart Foundation, Joanna held roles at the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, The California Endowment, the City of San Jose and several other nonprofit organizations. Joanna currently serves on the boards of Southern California Grantmakers and Grantmakers for Effective Organizations (GEO).

Joanna earned a master’s degree in public administration from Baruch College, The City University of New York, where she was a National Urban Fellow. She is also a proud HBCU graduate having received her bachelor’s degree from Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia. Originally from New York, Joanna lives in Mid City Los Angeles with her husband and children, who are the joy of her life.


Kristin Aldana-Taday 

Program Officer, Homelessness 
Conrad N. Hilton Foundation 

She/Her/Hers 

Kristin Aldana-Taday coordinates grantmaking activities for the Program Department of the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation. Aldana-Taday monitors current grants and supports the development, review, and presentation of grant proposals, with a focus on the Foundation’s Homelessness initiative, for consideration by the Foundation board of directors. Prior to joining the Hilton Foundation, Aldana-Taday worked for the Liberty Hill Foundation, where she directed donor services with a focus on donor engagement activities and donor advised funds. Aldana-Taday also previously worked for Pacoima Beautiful, an environmental justice organization in Los Angeles. She holds a master’s degree in urban planning from the University of California, Los Angeles, and a bachelor’s degree in sociology and urban studies from the University of California, San Diego. 

 

Rasheedah Phillips 

Director of Housing 
PolicyLink

She/Her/Hers

Rasheedah Phillips, Director of Housing, leads PolicyLink’s national advocacy to support the growing tenants’ rights, housing, and land use movements in partnership with grassroots partners, movement leaders, industry, and government leaders. Previously serving as Managing Attorney of Housing Policy at Community Legal Services of Philadelphia, Rasheedah has led various housing policy campaigns that resulted in significant legislative changes, including a right to counsel for tenants in Philadelphia, and the Renter’s Access Act, one of the strongest laws in the nation to address blanket ban eviction polices having a disparate impact on renters of color. Rasheedah has trained on racial justice and housing law issues and skills throughout the country, previously serving as the Senior Advocate Resources & Training Attorney at Shriver Center on Poverty Law. Rasheedah’s leadership has been recognized with the recipient of the 2017 National Housing Law Project Housing Justice Award, the 2017 City & State Pennsylvania 40 Under 40 Rising Star Award, the 2018 Temple University Black Law Student Association Alumni Award, and more. Rasheedah is also an interdisciplinary afrofuturist artist and cultural producer who has exhibited and performed work globally.


Sean Dollard

He/Him

Over the last 13 years, Sean Dollard (he/him) has worked across health and racial justice philanthropy, housing direct service, communications, and community building, with a deep commitment to advancing housing justice. Most recently, Sean served as Program Officer at the Colorado Health Foundation, where he stewarded over $40 million in grantmaking partnerships addressing affordable housing, holistic youth well-being, public spaces, and community-led solutions. Sean played a strategic role in evolving the Foundation’s housing strategy from an access-oriented approach to one rooted in addressing structural inequities, centering housing justice at the intersections of health, housing, and racial justice. Key highlights of his work include co-visioning and deploying a landmark $1.5 million investment to First Nations Development Institute for Colorado’s Native American Fund for Health Equity and leading a $6 million blended capital deal to secure community ownership within a $110 million mixed-use development in Globeville, CO.

Sean's work centers on building authentic relationships, rooting in intrinsic community power, and mobilizing resources to galvanize the conditions for community-led transformation in places everywhere. Now a community-engaged philanthropy advisor, Sean is actively relocating to the Bay Area, CA, by way of Denver, Colorado.


Zach Lou

Director
California Green New Deal Coalition

He/Him

Zach Lou is the Director of the California Green New Deal Coalition, a grassroots-led statewide alliance of over 80 community, labor, climate, and racial justice organizations. He previously worked at the California Workforce Development Board on the High Road Training Partnerships program, working with unions and community organizations to develop equitable pathways into jobs needed for climate action. He was also the lead author for Resilience Before Disaster, a report sponsored by APEN, SEIU, and the BlueGreen Alliance that highlighted models for community resilience and social infrastructure. 

 


Showing 1 reaction

We joined Funders Together because we believe in the power of philanthropy to play a major role in ending homelessness, and we know we have much to learn from funders across the country.

-Christine Marge, Director of Housing and Financial Stability at United Way of Greater Los Angeles

I am thankful for the local partnerships here in the Pacific Northwest that we’ve been able to create and nurture thanks to the work of Funders Together. Having so many of the right players at the table makes our conversations – and all of our efforts – all the richer and more effective.

-David Wertheimer, Deputy Director at Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Very often a lack of jobs and money is not the cause of poverty, but the symptom. The cause may lie deeper in our failure to give our fellow citizens a fair chance to develop their own capacities, in a lack of education and training, in a lack of medical care and housing, in a lack of decent communities in which to live and bring up their children.

-President Lyndon B. Johnson, 1964 State of the Union Address

Funders Together has given me a platform to engage the other funders in my community. Our local funding community has improved greatly to support housing first models and align of resources towards ending homelessness.

-Leslie Strnisha, Vice President at Sisters of Charity Foundation of Cleveland

Our family foundation convenes local funders and key community stakeholders around strategies to end homelessness in Houston. Funders Together members have been invaluable mentors to us in this effort, traveling to our community to share their expertise and examples of best practices from around the nation.

-Nancy Frees Fountain, Managing Director at The Frees Foundation


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