2017-2018 Advisory Board
Benjamin Bac Sierra
Author, Community Innovator
Professor at City College of San Francisco
Benjamin Bac Sierra was raised by a widowed mother and the San Francisco Mission streets. After his honorable service in the United States Marines, Ben completed his B.A. in English at U.C. Berkeley, earned a teaching credential and a Master’s from San Francisco State University, and merited a Juris Doctor degree from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law. Currently, he is a professor at City College of San Francisco, an advisor for HOMEY SF, and a community innovator and speaker throughout the Bay Area. His first novel Barrio Bushido was presented a “Best of the Bay Award” and an “International Latino Book Award.” In 2016, U.C. Hastings College of the Law La Raza Students Association honored him as an Alumnus of the Year.
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Author, Community Innovator
Professor at City College of San Francisco
Benjamin Bac Sierra was raised by a widowed mother and the San Francisco Mission streets. After his honorable service in the United States Marines, Ben completed his B.A. in English at U.C. Berkeley, earned a teaching credential and a Master’s from San Francisco State University, and merited a Juris Doctor degree from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law. Currently, he is a professor at City College of San Francisco, an advisor for HOMEY SF, and a community innovator and speaker throughout the Bay Area. His first novel Barrio Bushido was presented a “Best of the Bay Award” and an “International Latino Book Award.” In 2016, U.C. Hastings College of the Law La Raza Students Association honored him as an Alumnus of the Year.
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Rita Bullwinkel
Author, Arts Educator
Development Coordinator at ScholarMatch
Rita Bullwinkel is a native of the San Francisco Bay Area and the author of the story collection Belly Up, forthcoming from A Strange Object in May 2018. She is a recipient of awards and fellowships from Brown University, The MacDowell Colony, The Helene Wurlitzer Foundation, The Drue Heinz Foundation, and Vanderbilt University, where she was a Commons Writer in Residence. She has also taught classes on the uses of invented language, appropriated language and foreign language as tools for world building at the Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts. At ScholarMatch, Rita works to make college possible for under-resourced youth through grant-writing, fundraising, and sharing ScholarMatch scholars' remarkable stories.
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Author, Arts Educator
Development Coordinator at ScholarMatch
Rita Bullwinkel is a native of the San Francisco Bay Area and the author of the story collection Belly Up, forthcoming from A Strange Object in May 2018. She is a recipient of awards and fellowships from Brown University, The MacDowell Colony, The Helene Wurlitzer Foundation, The Drue Heinz Foundation, and Vanderbilt University, where she was a Commons Writer in Residence. She has also taught classes on the uses of invented language, appropriated language and foreign language as tools for world building at the Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts. At ScholarMatch, Rita works to make college possible for under-resourced youth through grant-writing, fundraising, and sharing ScholarMatch scholars' remarkable stories.
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Amy Chen
Business Development Manager at UCSF Health
Amy Chen is a Business Development Manager at UCSF Health (University of California, San Francisco). In this role, she develops and executes strategies with a focus on patient operations in Asia. Prior to joining UCSF Health, Amy worked at SIRUM, the "Match.com" of unused medication, where she led the company’s nationwide patient growth, launching pharmacy locations that warehoused unused, unexpired pharmaceuticals from institutional donors and dispensed to low-income patients. Amy sourced and grew partnerships with federally-qualified health centers, hospital systems, free clinics, and nursing homes. Amy previously served as a Stanford University Fellow at the Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation, a venture philanthropy firm that invests in early-stage, high-impact social entrepreneurs, where she funded portfolio companies in the healthcare space. Amy received her undergraduate degree in Human Biology from Stanford University with a concentration in Management of Healthcare Systems.
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Business Development Manager at UCSF Health
Amy Chen is a Business Development Manager at UCSF Health (University of California, San Francisco). In this role, she develops and executes strategies with a focus on patient operations in Asia. Prior to joining UCSF Health, Amy worked at SIRUM, the "Match.com" of unused medication, where she led the company’s nationwide patient growth, launching pharmacy locations that warehoused unused, unexpired pharmaceuticals from institutional donors and dispensed to low-income patients. Amy sourced and grew partnerships with federally-qualified health centers, hospital systems, free clinics, and nursing homes. Amy previously served as a Stanford University Fellow at the Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation, a venture philanthropy firm that invests in early-stage, high-impact social entrepreneurs, where she funded portfolio companies in the healthcare space. Amy received her undergraduate degree in Human Biology from Stanford University with a concentration in Management of Healthcare Systems.
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Kori Chen
Director of Strategic Initiatives at Red Bay Coffee
Kori Chen grew up in Oakland and has over a decade of experience working in both nonprofit and small business arenas. He has worked as a community organizer and served on the core committee of the Oakland-based Asian Prisoner Support Committee. Now, as the Director of Strategic Initiatives at Red Bay Coffee, a quality specialty coffee roasting company, Kori directs a key workforce development initiative that aims to achieve goals for diversity and inclusion throughout the company through hiring and training programs targeted at community members with high barriers to employment such as the formerly incarcerated, disabled, women, and people of color. He is interested in environmental and economic sustainability to build a more inclusive, responsible, and just economy.
Kori won a Bay Area Inspire Award in 2014 (Expanding Employment for the Formerly Incarcerated).
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Director of Strategic Initiatives at Red Bay Coffee
Kori Chen grew up in Oakland and has over a decade of experience working in both nonprofit and small business arenas. He has worked as a community organizer and served on the core committee of the Oakland-based Asian Prisoner Support Committee. Now, as the Director of Strategic Initiatives at Red Bay Coffee, a quality specialty coffee roasting company, Kori directs a key workforce development initiative that aims to achieve goals for diversity and inclusion throughout the company through hiring and training programs targeted at community members with high barriers to employment such as the formerly incarcerated, disabled, women, and people of color. He is interested in environmental and economic sustainability to build a more inclusive, responsible, and just economy.
Kori won a Bay Area Inspire Award in 2014 (Expanding Employment for the Formerly Incarcerated).
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Janet Heller
Founder, CEO, and Director of Education at Chapter 510
Janet Heller is a poet, teaching artist, and community arts leader. She grew up a tom girl in a reform Jewish household in Tampa, Florida and graduated from Tulane University (BA in English) and Florida State University (MFA in Creative Writing). She founded the San Francisco WritersCorps and during her tenure built an award-winning, highly respected literary arts program for youth. Janet has been teaching creative writing for 20 years, most recently at North Oakland Community Charter School, and has published poetry and essays. She is currently working on a novel about an American Jewish family in Oakland with roots in Cuba.
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Founder, CEO, and Director of Education at Chapter 510
Janet Heller is a poet, teaching artist, and community arts leader. She grew up a tom girl in a reform Jewish household in Tampa, Florida and graduated from Tulane University (BA in English) and Florida State University (MFA in Creative Writing). She founded the San Francisco WritersCorps and during her tenure built an award-winning, highly respected literary arts program for youth. Janet has been teaching creative writing for 20 years, most recently at North Oakland Community Charter School, and has published poetry and essays. She is currently working on a novel about an American Jewish family in Oakland with roots in Cuba.
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Jayson J. Phillips
Senior Software Manager at Trilogy Education Services
Full Stack Web Development Instructor at UC Berkeley Extension
Jayson J. Phillips is a Senior Software Manager at Trilogy Education Services. At Trilogy, Jayson works on the learning platform that powers the student and instructor experience with the courses administered at dozens of continuing education campuses. In addition, Jayson is also a Full Stack Software Instructor at UC Berkeley Extension, empowering students to learn the skills needed to transition into careers in the tech industry. He is passionate about mentorship development and making the tech industry more diverse and inclusive. His avenues for this include his membership at /dev/color, mentoring in programs such as CODE 2040's Summer Fellowship, and volunteering with organizations like Black Girls Code and Citizen Schools. A New York native, Jayson enjoys the Bay Area and considers Oakland his second home.
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Senior Software Manager at Trilogy Education Services
Full Stack Web Development Instructor at UC Berkeley Extension
Jayson J. Phillips is a Senior Software Manager at Trilogy Education Services. At Trilogy, Jayson works on the learning platform that powers the student and instructor experience with the courses administered at dozens of continuing education campuses. In addition, Jayson is also a Full Stack Software Instructor at UC Berkeley Extension, empowering students to learn the skills needed to transition into careers in the tech industry. He is passionate about mentorship development and making the tech industry more diverse and inclusive. His avenues for this include his membership at /dev/color, mentoring in programs such as CODE 2040's Summer Fellowship, and volunteering with organizations like Black Girls Code and Citizen Schools. A New York native, Jayson enjoys the Bay Area and considers Oakland his second home.
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