Board, Staff, and Advisors

Board Members

Juan Barajas cropped

Juan Barani (formerly Barajas)

Director of Partnerships, Mozilla Foundation

Board Secretary

Juan Barajas is an accomplished nonprofit executive who has fundraised more than $30 million dollars over his nearly 20-year career. He joined Mozilla in 2017 recognizing that an open and healthy Internet is core to advancing human rights in the 21st century. Having seen the role of the Internet in mobilizing millions to support the freedom to marry, grow visibility and acceptance for LGBT people and our relationships, and serve as a lifeline for LGBT people around the globe who face risk of violence and death, protecting the health of the Internet as a safe, open, and accessible resource is urgent. In his role, he helps establish partnerships with other philanthropic foundations to invest in the thinking, leaders, and campaigns that have meaningful impact today and lay the groundwork for a major shift in how the public, companies, and governments think about the Internet over the next 5-10 years.  

Prior to Mozilla, he primarily worked in the LGBT equality movement, helping advance the wellbeing, cultural acceptance, and legal respect for millions of LGBT Americans and their families. His past roles include Executive Director of the Pacific Center for Human Growth, Chief Development Officer for Freedom for All Americans, Deputy Director of Development with GLAAD, and Director of the Outlet Program for LGBT youth. Most notably, he led fundraising for Freedom to Marry, the campaign that won marriage for same-sex couples nationwide. He also served on the Boards of several nonprofits including the San Francisco LGBT Community Center, Center Link, and Stanford Pride.

He graduated from Stanford University and lives in San Francisco with his husband, Prakash Ramsinghani.

 

Derek Barnes

CEO, East Bay Rental Housing Association

Derek Barnes has over 15 years of executive leadership transforming organizations through all stages of a business’ lifecycle – startup, rapid growth, business turnarounds, and M&A. Derek’s experience includes building strategy, global organizations, and technologies in highly competitive markets. He has expertise within sectors in high-tech, professional services, telecom, financial services, real estate, healthcare, retail and nonprofit.

Derek is a Co-founder at g-dii Enterprises and served as the firm’s COO/CTO. Currently, he is the CEO of the East Bay Rental Housing Association. He is also Senior Advisor at Ignition Point Consulting, supporting clients such as Fremont Bank, Microsoft, T-Mobile, and TeleNav.

Previously, as COO at Executive Networks (EN), he led strategic growth initiatives and managed operational expansion. Before joining EN, Derek ran Global Operations at Openwave and successfully oversaw key corporate initiatives through the sale of its core businesses. He has also held the previous roles: VP of Technical Services and Operations at PlanetOut/Here! Media; Sr. Director of Operations at Homestore/Move.com, Director of Customer Operations and IT at Medchannel, Director of Operations and Integration at Vialog where he grew the flagship operation and oversaw merger activity, leading to an IPO.

Derek also serves on the boards of Homebridge and Sunflower Wellness. He has been an active event committee member for the Bay Area Toys for Tots since 2006; Board Chair at Under One Roof; on the National Board of Directors of Victory Fund; and on the Board of the San Francisco LGBT Community Center during its capital campaign and construction. He attended Marymount University with a B.A.

 

 

 

Adam D. Blum, MFT

Director and Founder, Gay Therapy Center

Chair Emeritus

Adam D. Blum, MFT is the founder and director of the Gay Therapy Center, a psychotherapy and couples counseling practice focused on the needs of the LGBT community, with six offices in the Bay Area. Adam is a licensed psychotherapist, and has specialized in work with LGBT clients for over ten years. He writes a popular blog on LGBT relationships and self-­esteem.  

Prior to his work as a psychotherapist, Adam spent over 25 years leading the development efforts of Bay Area non-­‐profit organizations. He worked for eleven years at Mills College where he completed a $130 million capital campaign and served as Associate Vice President for Advancement. He was also the Director of Development at The Urban School of San Francisco (4 years); The Bay School of San Francisco (4 years); and the National Multiple Sclerosis Society (5 years).

Adam did his undergraduate work in psychology at Vassar College and at Harvard University. He has a Master’s Degree in Counseling Psychology from John F. Kennedy University.

Adam is currently on the Board of Directors of the Marina Counseling Center, a low-­fee therapy clinic in San Francisco. He is a former volunteer with Shanti Project, the S.F. AIDS Foundation, and the Pacific Center for Human Growth.

He lives in San Francisco’s Glen Park neighborhood with his husband Gary Lang.  They met while volunteering for the Shanti Project and have been a couple for 27 years.  

Xóchitl Carrion

Xóchitl Carrion

Assistant District Attorney, San Francisco District Attorney's Office

Xóchitl Carrion is an Assistant District Attorney with a passion for community advocacy and is currently assigned to the Domestic Violence unit. Her work at SFDA ensures a safer and healthier San Francisco by promoting justice, transparency, and fairness. Carrion brings an extensive background in both law and community involvement.

She has held leadership positions in more than thirty non-profit and civic organizations at the local, state, and national level, and is currently the vice-president of the Northern District of the California La Raza Lawyers Association and a member of both the San Francisco and East Bay La Raza Lawyers Association. She also served as the co-chair of the Board of Directors for Brava! Theater and as the Chair of Communications of the Hispanic National Bar Association’s LGBT Division.

Kathryn Clubb photo

Kathryn Clubb

Head of Change and Transformation, BTS

Kathryn Club has over 30 years of experience in consulting and industry. Creating, growing, and transforming business organizations through great strategies and greater organizations is the theme that links the various chapters of her consulting and industry work life.

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.

Headshot of Dipti Ghosh

Dipti Ghosh

Senior Vice President, Investments, Wells Fargo Advisors

Board Co-Chair

Ms. Ghosh is a longtime community activist living in San Francisco. She passionately believes in being part of the solution and not watching from the sidelines. Her activism has involved work on women’s rights and LGBTQ issues, especially in the Asian American community. Her past affiliations have included Board Chair of The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, Co-Chair of Trikone, a South Asian LGBTQ organization, and a member of the investment committee of Horizons Foundation. Currently she is Board Co-Chair of the Center for Asian American Media (CAAM) and is a board member at EARN.

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.

Chris Lim headshot

Chris Lim

Founder, Climb Real Estate

Chris Lim is a real estate entrepreneur with over 18 years of experience. In addition to being a Coldwell Banker sales agent, he is a real estate investor, franchiser, hotelier, stager, and property flipper. He firmly believes in the meaning of home. Beyond that, he is passionate about architecture, design, fine arts, and lobster rolls. 

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. 

Chris is an avid philanthropist who also serves on the Board of Directors for Horizons Foundation. He is honored to participate in the storied tradition of the San Francisco Art Institute as a member of their Board of Trustees. Additionally, he is a regular patron of 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. Chris currently resides in Reno, Nevada. 

Jae Maldonado

Director of Business Development, Marketing, and Evaluation, Be The Change Consulting

Jae Maldonado is a people centric, strategic thinker, with over 15 years of demonstrated success in developing cross-sector programs that advance racial and gender equity. His unique experience as a transmasculine identified Latinx activist has enabled him to lead from the intersections of movements that center the experiences of those most impacted by institutional violence. In his current role as Director of Business Development, Marketing, and Evaluation with Be The Change Consulting, Jae continues to draw from his extensive field experience to create transformative spaces that support change agents with the skills needed to realize racial justice. 

Jae is a recipient of the 2017 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Award for Health Equity and has a Masters Degree in Public Administration from Seton Hall University. As a passionate health advocate, Jae supports health access of indigent communities as Board Member and Co-Chair of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee of Lyon-Martin Health Services.

Melisa Márquez

Engineering Manager, Cash App

Melisa, a Puerto Rico native, currently is the Square Mobile Engineering Manager overseeing the integration of Cash App’s latest acquisition, Credit Karma Tax, into the Cash App. Melisa originally joined Square through the Weebly acquisition and managed the Square eCommerce Android app that empowers entrepreneurs to start their small business journey to sell online.

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.

ASH MCNEELY

Senior Program Officer, Pacific Foundation Services

Ash McNeely has a long track record of leadership in the philanthropic field. Since 2012, she has been a member of the senior program team at Pacific Foundation Services, a private foundation management firm that supports the philanthropy of more than 30 families. She serves as executive director of Sand Hill Foundation and managing director of Yellow Chair Foundation. The portfolios she manages span the areas of health, wellness, economic opportunity, education, environment, journalism, and civil liberties. Prior, Ash spent four years in the Philanthropic Partnership Group of the Pew Charitable Trusts primarily focused on environmental policy, eight years leading advised fund grantmaking and philanthropic services for families at Silicon Valley Community Foundation, and ten years in performing arts marketing and development.

She has been a visiting lecturer at Stanford University, Harvard Business School, and Colorado College and was a founding member of the Silicon Valley Out-of-School-Time Collaborative and Bay Area Environmental Education Funders Collaborative. A frequent speaker, Ash has participated in numerous national forums, advising on philanthropic trends and strategy at the Council on Foundations, Grantmakers for Education, Institute for Private Investors, and Grantmakers for Effective Organizations. Her past board experience includes the domestic microfinance institution Opportunity Fund and family foundation Open Square Foundation. She was on the Horizons Foundation Advisory Council from 2005-2017 prior to joining the board. Ash received an M.B.A. in nonprofit management from Golden Gate University and graduated summa cum laude from Vassar College with a B.A. in English and Women’s Studies.

When not enjoying all this wonderful work, Ash can be found outside with family, friends, dogs or horses. She and her wife, Elisa Odabashian, live in Burlingame, CA and have two grown children. Ash and Elisa were the first lesbian couple in San Mateo County to be granted the right to be legal parents of their children after appealing the State’s discriminatory second parent adoption law in 1995.

TERRY MICHEAU

Civil Engineer and Real Estate Broker

Board Treasurer

Terry Micheau is a licensed civil engineer and real estate broker. In his 30+ year professional career, he managed the construction and development of significant real estate projects, mostly in the San Francisco Bay Area, for real estate developers, real estate investors, and as owner’s agent with private consulting firms before retiring to volunteer work in 2003.

In his second career, he is a veteran board member of SPUR, a nonprofit planning and advocacy group, and he helped in financing and managing the construction of SPUR’s Urban Center, which opened in 2009. He was a charter member of San Francisco’s Citizens General Obligation Bond Oversight Committee, and also served for 10 years on the County Transportation Authority’s Citizens Advisory Committee, acting as chair for three years. Additional board service currently includes a six-year term as treasurer of San Francisco’s LGBT Community Center, and treasurer for Lambda Alpha Golden Gate Chapter, an honorary land economics society.

A longtime San Francisco resident, Terry is a native of northwestern Pennsylvania and received a Bachelor of Science in civil engineering from the University of Pittsburgh. He earned a Master of Science in construction management from the University of Illinois, and was commissioned an officer in the Navy Civil Engineer Corps, which took him to Honolulu for his final assignment. There he met Rob Evans, whom he married in 2013 after a 38-year courtship.

Rob and Terry live in Noe Valley with their cat Latte. Both are active in the LGBT community through philanthropy and volunteerism when they are not traveling or attending the symphony or Giants baseball games.

Board member since 2014

Tim Murray

Creative Director, Glassdoor

Board Co-Chair

Tim Murray is a Creative Director and marketing executive for nonprofit organizations and Fortune 100 companies. Former roles include Creative Director at Mozilla, VP of Brand at SFGoodwill, and Creative Director at Target Corporation. He specializes in brand identity development and speaks about collaboration and openness in design practice.

 

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.

Shilpen Patel

Shilpen Patel, MD, FACRO FASTRO

Medical Director, Genentech

Dr. Shilpen Patel is a radiation oncologist who does research at Genentech and has an affiliate appointment as an associate professor in the UW Department of Global Health as well as an affiliate appointment in the Division of Public Health at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. He also sees patients in the Sutter Health System.

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.

Linda Scaparotti

Linda Scaparotti, Esq.

Owner, Law Offices of Linda M. Scaparotti

Linda heads one of the longest-standing firms devoted to the LGBT community in the San Francisco Bay Area. She began her practice at the forefront of litigating civil cases for children and adults discriminated against or sexually exploited due to gender and/or sexual orientation. As the need arose, she shifted her focus to day-to-day legal issues (Estate Planning, Family Law, Parentage, Adoptions), also writing and lecturing extensively on these topics.

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.

Headshot of Jane Swan

Jane Swan

Partner and Senior Wealth Manager, Veris Wealth Partners

Jane began working in the field of socially responsible investing in 1996. She builds holistic relationships with wealthy families, individuals and foundations that integrate their values with a personalized investment strategy. Jane serves on the Veris Investment Committee, and the Marketing and Sales Committee.

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.

Barry Taylor

Barry Taylor, CFP

Senior Wealth Manager and Managing Director, Sand Hill Global Advisors, LCC

Barry has more than 40 years of experience in the business, investment, and non-profit world. Barry is especially passionate about empowering individuals to help meet the needs of the community through charitable giving.

Barry has worked with Horizons Foundation for more than 10 years and is the founder and co-chair of the Horizons Professional Advisors Council, which is dedicated to educating professionals about the financial planning needs that are unique to the LGBTQ community. He also chaired Horizons’ Inaugural Pro Bono Day, which provided pro bono financial guidance to members of the LGBTQ community who typically may not have access to professional financial advice.

He has served as President of the Board of Directors of the San Francisco Chapter of the Financial Planning Association (FPA) and is the founding chair of its Pro Bono Committee. In addition, he is a member of the San Francisco Estate Planning Council and the Northern California Planned Giving Council. Most recently he served as a member of the Professional Advisors Council of the San Francisco Foundation. He is a past member of the Planned Giving Committee for Grace Cathedral and was one of the early board members for Project Open Hand.

Barry, who is a Bay Area native, resides in Sausalito with his partner of 33 years, John Inson and their Vizsla, Cody. Barry and John feel fortunate to be in a position to give back to the community and enjoy boating and traveling.

CRAIG ZODIKOFF

Managing Principal, Cresa San Francisco

Craig Zodikoff serves as Managing Principal for Cresa’s San Francisco office. Cresa is the world’s largest tenant-only commercial real estate firm. His real estate experience includes portfolio strategy, financial analysis, mergers and acquisitions, build-to-suits, site selection, labor analysis, state and municipal tax and non-tax incentives and dispositions. He has completed over 200 transactions ranging from 1,200-1.3 million square feet in urban, suburban and remote markets around the country and has managed individual accounts in excess of 12 million square feet.

Craig’s experience in commercial real estate is preceded by three years in the practice of law. Craig has led projects within every asset type from sales offices to headquarters, R&D to major distribution centers, including over 8 million square feet of build to suit projects. His expertise spans many industries including professional services, law firms, life sciences, technology, non-profits, consumer products and manufacturing.

Craig has served on the national Board of Directors of Cresa. He has also served on the boards of multiple non profit organizations such as the HRC Board of Governors, The San Francisco LGBT Community Center, GLAAD and ODC. Craig lives in San Francisco with his partner Jay Grant and their two children, Avery and Jesse.