Christopher Gil
Associate Director of Marketing and Communications
Mission Economic Development Agency (MEDA)
(415) 282-3334 ext. 152
cgil@medasf.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Richard Raya Promoted to MEDA Chief Strategy Officer
Sharing the nonprofit’s successful models across the nation
SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 28, 2021 — The Mission Economic Development Agency (MEDA) has announced that Richard Raya has been promoted to Chief Strategy Officer for the 48-year-old organization. Raya has worked for MEDA as Director of Mission Promise Neighborhood (MPN) for almost four years.
In this new role, Raya will share MEDA’s model with other nonprofits across the nation. This meets one of MEDA’s six stated results: “Nationwide, organizations rooted in historically underserved communities are equipped to ensure that families, workers and small businesses thrive.”
Raya will be sharing models around: integrating financial coaching into all direct services; creating a community anti-poverty education initiative, as MEDA has done as lead agency of MPN; building a real estate team focused on affordable housing and reversing displacement of a community of color, based on MEDA now having 1,300 units preserved or produced in the epicenter of gentrification, San Francisco’s Mission District; and becoming a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI), as MEDA has done with its Fondo Adelante community loan arm, one of the few CDFIs focused on Latino small business owners.
“This is the perfect moment for Richard Raya to take on this role, as an equitable recovery from the pandemic needs to be devised and implemented in communities of color across the nation,” said Chief Executive Officer Luis Granados. “Richard showcases in-depth knowledge of our nonprofit’s comprehensive work coupled with the relationship-building skills needed to succeed as CSO as MEDA looks to build capacity of other organizations to best tackle this critical work.”
“MEDA’s on-the-ground experiences can inform the racial justice and equitable recovery efforts on which communities are embarking during this time of change,” Raya said. “We are not alone in this work. We are part of a national movement to reverse legacies of discrimination. We’ve seen that we can begin to solve many of our most intractable problems when we come together, both within our community and across the country.”
Raya officially assumed this new role on Aug. 16, 2021. K-12 Program Manager Efrain Barrera has been promoted to Director to carry on Raya’s work for MPN.
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About Mission Economic Development Agency (MEDA)
Rooted in San Francisco’s Mission District, MEDA is advancing a national equity movement by building Latino prosperity, community ownership and civic power. We envision generations of Latino families choosing where to call home, thriving economically, succeeding in learning opportunities, and leading policy and social change toward a more equitable society.
medasf.org
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