Board, Staff, and Advisors

Having built his career on fueling some of the most important social impact efforts in our lifetimes — including winning the freedom to marry for gay and lesbian couples in the United States — he’s fundraised more than $85M from people and institutions worldwide. He lives with his husband and son in San Francisco’s Glen Park neighborhood.

Currently, Kathryn is the Head of Change and Transformation at BTS, a global professional services firm. She started her career at Accenture before serving as CEO of The Ajax Group of Companies, President and CEO of Ivivi Health Sciences, and Chief Innovator of WHWest, Inc. She is a graduate, and now a trustee, of St. Catherine University.

Jonathan was born and raised in Santa Monica, California and earned a Bachelor’s of Arts degree from U.C. Berkeley in Art History before going on to earn his Juris Doctorate at U.C. College of the Law (formerly Hastings College of the Law), where he served on the Law Review.

In 2000 she was the recipient of Trikone’s Pink Peacock Award for Leadership in the South Asian LGBTQ community. In 2007 she received the Phoenix Award by APIQWTC (Asian Pacific Islander Queer Women Transgender Community) for her dedication and outstanding contributions. In her spare time, if she is not at the movies, she is probably looking for a mountain to ascend on her bicycle or a mountain to descend on her skis.

He was the founder and President of Climb Real Estate — and under his leadership, Climb became the fastest-growing boutique brokerage in San Francisco, garnering over $1.2 billion in annual sales and growing to more than 300 agents in 7 locations. In 2016, Climb was sold to Realogy, the largest residential brokerage conglomerate (with 190,000 independent sales agents in the United States and more than 112,000 independent sales agents in 113 other countries and territories). Prior to real estate, he worked in advertising and finance in New York City. 

Beyond his professional work, he is passionate about architecture, design, fine arts, and lobster rolls. Chris is an avid philanthropist who also has also served on the board of the San Francisco Art Institute and has been an active supporter of many organizations, including True Colors United, Nevada Humane Society, The Trevor Project, Nevada Museum of Art, and Surfrider Foundation. A native of Northern New Jersey, he graduated with honors from the University of Richmond.

Melisa also serves on the San Francisco Community Health Center board of directors, which provides comprehensive medical care for all marginalized communities in the San Francisco Tenderloin area. In her spare time, she’s also a fitness enthusiast and avid dancer.

Tim has served on the boards of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and the University of Minnesota Weisman Art Museum. A graduate of Williams College, he is a longtime resident of San Francisco, where he lives with his husband Tom Murphy and son Dash.

He has been actively involved in nonprofit organizations including the American Medical Association (serving as chair of the young physician Section from 2012-2013 and currently as a chair of the LGBTQ advisory Committee), being a board member with Equal Rights Washington where he served as chair from 2009-2011, served on the National LGBTQ Task Force (Co- Chair from 2013-2015), Phi Chi Medical Foundation (Chairman of the Executive Trustees), and served as Co-Chair of the board of Generations Aging with Pride. While on faculty at the University of Washington he served as the faculty advisor to Qmed (queer medical association) and as the director of the LGBTQ Health Care Pathway.

Before his tenure at SFAF, Tim served for nearly a decade as Executive Director of Maitri and as Director of Health at Home for the San Francisco Department of Public Health.

A native of Wisconsin, Tim holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Master of Arts in Asia Pacific Studies from the University of San Francisco. He lives with his husband and their Frenchie in the Castro.

Kathleen‘s involvement as a nonprofit volunteer began with serving on the board of the AIDS Legal Referral Panel in the early 1990s.  She has also been an active lay leader with the Unitarian Universalist Society of San Francisco, serving as moderator, vice moderator, and treasurer of the board of trustees, as chair of the personnel committee, and in many other capacities, including as a member of the handbell choir. 

Kathleen has a passion for good governance, and completed director certification programs offered by the National Association of Corporate Directors, and UCLA’s Anderson School of Management.  

She was the first attorney in the Bay Area to provide no-cost legal seminars for the LGBTQ community, and worked on domestic partnership rights, then marriage equality. She has served on many boards, often as chair, including being chosen as the first LGBTQ representative on the City of Oakland Human Rights Commission. Linda has been honored with the Human Rights Campaign’s Lifetime Achievement Award and by the California State Senate for her work with the LGBTQ community.

In her prior roles as Senior Director at Stanford Healthcare in the Bay Area, VP of Asset Management at Deutsche Asset Management, Director of Asset Management with Gaw Capital, and SVP at Jones Lang LaSalle in China and Hong Kong, Maya was responsible for asset management of large opportunistic/value-add portfolios and repositioned over $4Bn of assets across all real estate asset classes focusing on sustainability and technology.  

Maya also serves as an advisor in CFO/COO capacity to startups in the real estate and healthcare space.  She is an established PropTech expert speaking at conferences and publishing articles on the subject.

As a volunteer, Maya has served as Treasurer & VP of Finance for the MIT Club of Northern California, as Treasurer and Board Director of the Bay Meadows Master Association and co-chairs Cushman & Wakefield’s Tech Communities of Practice Group.  Since moving to San Francisco in 2020, Maya and her wife have been active through philanthropy and volunteerism in AIDS/Lifecycle, QWOCMAP and Open House (Bob Ross LGBT Senior Center). 

A graduate of MIT Sloan, Maya is multilingual and has lived and worked in Sofia, London, Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, and New York before settling down in San Francisco, where she is enjoying the beautiful outdoors, spending time with her wife and preschool son, and exploring the vibrant tech scene.

Prior to joining Veris in 2015, Jane worked as a Portfolio Manager and Vice President with Northern Trust. During her 15-year career with Northern, Jane worked to build their SRI practice. She served on several committees including the Corporate Social Responsibility Task Force, Women in Leadership, and the LGBT Advisory Team.

Jane graduated from Mills College in Oakland, California with a degree in Economics and holds the Chartered Financial Analyst® designation. She lives in Berkeley with her two children.