Chairperson
Rafael Yaquián
Partner, Goldfarb & Lipman LLC
Rafael Yaquian-Illescas specializes in the legal areas of community-economic development, affordable housing and real estate finance. His practice emphasizes land use, real estate, economic development and municipal government advice to public agencies, private organizations and individuals. Rafael also has extensive experience helping clients interpret and implement the redevelopment dissolution statutes.
Vice Chairperson
M. Teresa García
Family Resource Center Program Associate, First 5 San Francisco
M. Teresa García has worked as a business consultant, nationally and abroad, providing economic-development strategy for the past 17 years. She is dedicated to grassroots small businesses and community-economic development in underrepresented communities. Teresa showcases an excellent understanding of small-business challenges and economic-development issues as they relate to startup microenterprises, especially family child care facilities. She holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration.
Secretary
Marco Chavarín
Senior Vice President – Financial Access Partnership Manager at Citi
Marco Chavarín is a community and economic development professional with over 12 years of experience leading financial inclusion and economic justice initiatives for low-income communities. Marco has worked with the philanthropic sector, federal regulators, financial institutions and municipal leaders to design products and services to help hardworking families and individuals gain access to the financial mainstream and build assets.
Treasurer
Whitney Jones
Director of Housing Development, Chinatown CDC
Whitney Jones first started in 1992 at Chinatown CDC, a San Francisco-based nonprofit that works in the areas of community planning and engagement; youth and leadership development; and housing development, management and service provision. He was hired as Housing Development Assistant before becoming a Project Manager, then Senior Project Manager, and eventually assuming his current position. Whitney has been involved in the acquisition, rehabilitation and development of over 2,000 units of affordable housing in Washington, D.C. and San Francisco. He is a graduate of LISC’s Housing Development Training Institute and the University of Southern California’s Bay Area Ross Program for Real Estate, as well as the University of Kansas with a B.A. in English, and the University of California, Berkeley with an M.A. in Geography. He has lived in the Mission District since 1991.
Ed Cabrera
Regional Public Affairs Officer at U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Region 9
Ed Cabrera has remained committed to improving the lives of low-income communities throughout California and the Western U.S. for nearly two decades. He has served in various leadership positions in the public and private sectors, forging strong professional partnerships with multiple government and nonprofit agencies and numerous federal, state and local elected and appointed officials.
Ysabel Duron
Founder/President, Latino Cancer Institute
Ysabel Duron is a retired, award-winning TV news broadcaster, inducted into the National Association of Hispanic Journalists Hall of Fame in 2009 following a four-decade career. In her current nonprofit work, Duron collaborates with researchers and the community to bring science to community and the community to science by developing educational tools and addressing gaps that exacerbate the cancer burden.
Ysabel was the 2013 winner of the national Purpose Prize as a “Champion for Latinos Fighting Cancer” by Encore.org, which turns the spotlight on people over 60 who are combining their experience and their passion for social good by creating new ways to solve tough social problems. Duron currently sits on the Independent Review Board (IRB) at the National Institutes of Health. The IRB is responsible for approving all applications for the All of Us Research Program, the government’s largest research program to recruit 1 million participants in a search for answers to major health programs including cancer, the number one cause of Latino deaths.
Teddy Gray King
Partner, Synergy Public Affairs
Teddy Gray King’s political and government experience spans over two decades, with notable roles in both California and Washington DC. As the Co-founder and Partner of Synergy Public Affairs, Teddy provides strategic advice and advocacy to diverse clients across private, public, and non-profit sectors, focusing on policy and political issues including regional transportation, infrastructure development, housing, clean energy, and smart cities. She also served as the mayor and city councilmember of Piedmont, California, for eight and a half years. In this capacity, she oversaw city management, set agendas, and legislated on various critical issues such as housing, environmental stewardship, public safety, transportation, and municipal budgeting. Teddy holds a Bachelor’s degree in American History from the University of California, Berkeley.
Rich Gross
Founding President Emeritus of the Board and member of the Credit Committee for the Housing Accelerator Fund
Rich Gross has extensive experience in affordable housing, strategic leadership in the nonprofit sector and has dedicated his career to making a positive impact on communities and advancing social equity. He is currently the founding President of the Board and member of the Credit Committee for the Housing Accelerator Fund where he is responsible of approving and analyzing all loan and investments including the underwriting of borrowers. He is currently a consultant for Puente, a nonprofit organization in Pescadero where he is assisting in the development of a housing
development program for farmworkers. This work includes site selection, due diligence, feasibility and financing. Prior to this he was Executive Director for Northern California for Enterprise Community Partners from 2000 – 2022. He directed the staff in all programs, investments in affordable housing, regional and statewide housing policy, fundraising and nonprofit management and budgeting. He has been a presenter at many national and regional conferences. From 1987 to 2000, Rich was Senior Associate for Devine and Gong where he consulted on finance and structure of affordable housing projects. He has an MS in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Wisconsin – Madison.
Dr. Carina Marquez
Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF)
Dr. Carina Marquez is an infectious diseases physician and researcher. She has dedicated her medical career to serving Latinx and underserved communities. This commitment stems in part from her personal history — her father emigrated to the US from Mexico. She provides HIV primary care at “Ward 86,” the HIV clinic at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital (ZSFG), and inpatient and outpatient consultation in infectious diseases at ZSFG. Carina is the lead of the SALUD clinic, a clinic housed within “Ward 86,” that provides multidisciplinary care to monolingual Spanish-speaking patients living with HIV. She is also an NIH-funded researcher with a focus on community-based research on HIV and Tuberculosis in East Africa. During the COVID-19 pandemic Carina partnered closely with the Latino Task Force on community-based research and advocacy on low-barrier testing and wraparound services for people who test positive. In addition to patient-care and research she is a staunch advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in education and research. Carina is the DEI lead of UCSF’s Infectious Diseases Fellowship, serves on the Infectious Diseases Society of America’s Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Access Task Force, and she is the Associate Director for Equity of the UCSF/Gladstone Center for AIDS Research.
Carolina Martínez
CEO, California Association for Micro Enterprise Opportunity (CAMEO)
Carolina Martinez has considerable experience leading non-profit organizations and multicultural teams in North and South America. She has coached many entrepreneurs in the development and execution of their business plans. In Colombia, she worked with vulnerable communities to identify business opportunities and develop strategic and marketing plans. In 2011, she joined Community Action Development Corporation of Bethlehem (CADCB) in Pennsylvania, where she taught 18-week classes for pre-ventures and startups. In 2012, she became the director of the Kutztown University Small Business Development Center’s Latino Business Resource Center (LBRC). She returned to CADCB in 2015 as the Director to support the economic development of South Bethlehem and coordinate its 6-year revitalization plan. In 2016 Carolina opened her own business, The Puentes Group, a consulting firm focused on providing small businesses with marketing and business strategies and accounting services to manage their growth. She served on the Pennsylvania Governor’s Advisory Commission on Latino Affairs, the Berks County Latino Chamber of Commerce board, and the Kutztown University Foundation board.
Manuel Santamaría
Senior Philanthropic Leader
Manuel Santamaria has over two decades of experience specializing in high-impact philanthropy and strategy development. His dynamic career has been dedicated to building, supporting, and amplifying the leadership and initiatives of communities of color in the Bay Area. During his tenure at Silicon Valley Community Foundation, he implemented programs that support nonprofits and service provider collaboratives, investment opportunities and various special projects, including support for Bay Area Rapid Response Network, California Dignity for Families Fund, Census 2020, Emergency and Disaster Relief Fund, technology toolkits and platforms, such as CitizenshipWorks, CONEC, and e-immigrate. Throughout his executive management and program leadership roles, Manuel has spearheaded initiatives to address critical issues such as economic security, education, and housing, consistently striving to make a meaningful impact in the region. Manuel holds a Master’s in Public Administration from Golden Gate University and a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations from San Francisco State University.
Kevin Stein
Associate Director, California Reinvestment Coalition
Kevin Stein works primarily on housing issues, including efforts to fight predatory mortgage lending. Kevin was the primary author of CRC’s reports, “Stolen Wealth: Inequities in California’s Subprime Mortgage Market,” which investigated subprime and predatory lending practices in the state, and “Who Really Gets Home Loans? Years Ten and Eleven” and “Who Really Gets Higher Cost Home Loans,” a duo of analyses of home lending that explores the relationship between race and the cost of credit. Before coming to CRC, Kevin was Supervising Attorney at the East Palo Alto Community Law Project and Lecturer in Law at Stanford Law School, working on community economic development issues. Prior to that, he worked at HomeBase, a law and social policy center on homelessness. Kevin is a graduate of the Georgetown University Law Center and Stanford University.
