John Gioia

John Gioia is Vice Chair of the Contra Costa Board of Supervisors. First elected in 1998, John has been overwhelmingly re-elected five times and represents 210,000 residents in the western most urban and diverse area of the county. He previously served for 10 years on the East Bay Municipal Utility District Board, serving as President in 1995 and 1996.

John is a recognized leader in Bay Area regional government and on air quality and climate change issues. He was appointed by Governor Brown in 2013 to the California Air Resources Board and has served on the Bay Area Air Quality Management District Board since 2006, serving as Chair in 2012.

John has served as President of the California State Association of Counties and the California Cities Counties Schools Partnership. He has been a leader on environmental issues and serves on the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC) and as Vice-Chair of the San Francisco Bay Restoration Authority where he helped lead an effort to pass an historic measure to raise $500 million for S.F. Bay. John is also Co-Chair of Rise Together, a regional effort to reduce poverty in the Bay Area.

John grew up in Richmond, graduated from El Cerrito High School and the University of California, Berkeley with a B.A. in Political Science and also earned his law degree at U.C. Berkeley. He completed the Program for Senior Executives in State and Local Government at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. John practiced law until his election to the Board of Supervisors.

John’s public service was inspired by his father, who was a popular civics and history teacher for 20 years at Kennedy High School in Richmond.

John has successfully built coalitions to address issues such as affordable housing, homelessness, violence prevention, environmental justice, access to healthcare and public transportation, air and water quality, San Francisco Bay restoration, and expanding opportunities for youth.

John helped found the RYSE Center, an innovative and popular youth center in Richmond, which is grounded on principles of social justice and youth development. He is currently working with non-profit Urban Tilth to develop an urban educational farm in North Richmond.

Lateefah Simon

Lateefah Simon joined Akonadi Foundation as President in August 2016. As a nationally recognized advocate for civil rights and racial justice, she brings over 20 years of executive experience in advancing opportunities for communities of color and low-income communities in the Bay Area. Prior to joining Akonadi, which seeks to eliminate structural racism that leads to inequity in the United States, Lateefah served as Program Director for the San Francisco-based Rosenberg Foundation, a statewide grantmaker focusing on systemic barriers to full access to equity and opportunity for Californians. Lateefah managed the Foundation’s portfolio of grants supporting groundbreaking advocacy in criminal justice reform, immigrant rights, low-wage workers’ rights, and civic engagement. In 2016, Lateefah helped launch the $2 million Leading Edge Fund, created to seed, incubate, and implement bold ideas from the next generation of progressive movement leaders in California.

Before joining Rosenberg, Lateefah was Executive Director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area, where she revamped the 40-year-old organization’s structure and launched successful community-based initiatives, including the Second Chance Legal Services Clinic. Lateefah also initiated San Francisco’s first reentry services division and spearheaded the flagship program, Back on Track, under the leadership of then-District Attorney Kamala D. Harris. Back on Track, an advocacy program for young adults charged with low-level felony drug sales, brought recidivism for the population it serves below 10 percent. Lateefah’s passion for supporting low-income young women and girls, and her advocacy for juvenile and criminal justice reform, began at San Francisco’s Center for Young Women’s Development (CYWD), now called the Young Women’s Freedom Center. Lateefah became Executive Director of that grassroots organization, run for and by young women who come through and are affected by these systems, at age 19; she remained in that role for 11 years.

Lateefah has received numerous awards for her work, including the MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship and the Jefferson Award for extraordinary public service. She was named ‘Most Promising New Foundation President’ by Inside Philanthropy in 2017 and was one of the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s 40 Under 40 in 2016. The California State Assembly named Lateefah Woman of the Year and she has also been recognized by the Ford Foundation, the National Organization for Women, Lifetime Television, and O Magazine. In 2016, Lateefah was elected to serve District 7 on the BART Board of Directors and was appointed by Gov. Jerry Brown to the California State University’s Board of Trustees. She also serves on the Board of Directors for Tipping Point Community.

When not working, Lateefah spends her time enjoying Oakland’s many family-friendly spaces with her two daughters."

Lisa Villareal

Lisa Villareal joined Youth Ventures Joint Powers Authority, as the CEO in 2016.  She is a native Californian of Mexican-American descent who has been a Bay Area resident for the past four decades.  Her career spans from time as a front-line bilingual adolescent crisis counselor, with La Raza Consortium, to spearheading national think tank efforts in education equity and social justice on the boards of Grantmakers for Education, the National Equity Project, and the National Coalition for Community Schools.

Lisa has worked at the local, regional, state and national levels to convene both public and private sector groups. For more than a decade she served as the Education Program Officer at the San Francisco Foundation, and helped seed funding efforts such as the Oakland offices of African American Student Achievement, Latino Men and Boys, Restorative Justice, and Community Schools/ Thriving Students.

Lisa has an M.Ed from San Francisco State University and a K-12 Management and Administration Credential from CSU East Bay. She also holds degrees in Psychology and Counseling, is a trained facilitator, and earlier served on the American Federation of Teachers/AFLCIO executive board. Her long and diverse background in both the public and private sectors allow her to view the work of the JPA “from the balcony to the stage.”

William B. Walker, M.D.

William B. Walker is the Director of Legislative and Governmental Relations for Contra Costa Health Services (CCHS), a comprehensive public health system in the San Francisco Bay Area with a 166-bed hospital (Contra Costa Regional Medical Center), 11 community health centers, 4,200 employees and a $1.6 billion annual budget. He has served with CCHS for 40 years, beginning as a staff physician in 1974, as the local Health Officer from 1983-2018, and as the Director of the Department from 1995-2018.


Under Dr. Walker’s leadership, CCHS has been widely recognized for developing an integrated health system that is at the forefront of implementing health reform. The system includes the divisions of Hospital and Health Centers, Contra Costa Health Plan, Behavioral Health, Public Health, Environmental Health, Hazardous Materials and Emergency Medical Services.

Dr. Walker has also nurtured the Family Medicine Residency Program at Contra Costa Regional Medical Center to make it one of the most popular and well- regarded programs in the nation. 
Dr. Walker is passionate about addressing disparities in health and health care and has championed many community efforts to address these issues. He received his medical degree from the University of Colorado School of Medicine in 1971, is board-certified in Family Medicine, and maintained a family medical practice even as CCHS Director.

Dr. Walker also is the past chair of the Association of Bay Area Health Officials, is a member and former chair of the California Association of Public Hospitals and Health Systems, past chair of the California Healthcare Safety Net Institute, and past chair of the board of directors of America’s Essential Hospitals (formerly the National Association of Public Hospitals and Health Systems).

Alvaro Fuentes

As Executive Director of the Consortium, Alvaro Fuentes is responsible for ensuring that member clinics are recognized as key leaders and providers of quality health care services and resources throughout Contra Costa and Solano Counties. Alvaro has been with the Consortium since 2008 and has served as Fund Development Manager and Director of Community Affairs.

Alvaro is also active in local community efforts, most notably the Healthy Richmond Initiative, which is an effort sponsored by The California Endowment’s Building Healthy Communities Initiative. Prior to joining the Consortium, Alvaro was employed by AltaMed Health Services Corporation in Los Angeles, one of the largest community health care organizations in the country.

Over the last fifteen years, Alvaro has dedicated his career to nonprofit social service work, particularly in public housing, economic and community development, and health care.

Raquel F. Donoso

Raquel F. Donoso has nearly two decades of leadership experience in the philanthropic, direct service, public policy, advocacy, and research sectors. She is on a mission to increase educational, health, and economic opportunities for children, youth, and their families. She currently serves as the Senior Program Officer for Equity in Education at the Yellow Chair Foundation. She is also the principal of Just Results Consulting, where she supports organizations and leaders to achieve equitable results in the areas of education equity, youth development, early learning, environmental justice, civic engagement, and economic empowerment.

In previous positions, Raquel was the Director of the Mission Promise Neighborhood, a $30M U.S. Department of Education collective impact initiative to build a cradle-to-college-to-career pipeline for students in San Francisco’s Mission District. Prior to MPN, Raquel served as the Chief Executive Officer of the Latino Community Foundation and Associate Director of the Latino Issues Forum.  

Raquel is an Annie E. Casey Foundation Children and Family Fellow, practicing Results Count Leadership, and serves on the boards of Teen Success Inc., Familias Unidas, and Alliance for Girls.

Born and raised in Los Angeles, Raquel now calls Richmond her home. She completed her undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of California, Los Angeles and is currently completing her dissertation in Education Leadership at the University of California, Davis. In her free time, Raquel is a political junkie who is writing children’s books that feature the voices of children of color.

Sonia Bustamante

Board Liaison

Sonia Bustamante is the Chief of Staff for the Board of Supervisors, District 1 of Contra Costa County, and serves on the Contra Costa Transportation Authority Citizens Advisory Committee. She has served as the Legislative Director for Alameda County Supervisor Richard Valle, working  on constituent issues and policy areas including immigration, workforce development, and healthcare, working on neighborhood initiatives with CBOs  and coalitions. Before her work in the public sector, Sonia worked in the labor movement organizing hotel workers for Unite Here 2850, and in the Central Valley as part of the California Labor Federation.  Sonia grew up in Fresno, attended Santa Monica College and transferred to UC Berkeley where she earned her BA in Sociology.

Ken Ikeda

Finance and Capital Consultant

A former public media CEO and nonprofit Executive Director, organizations under Ken’s direction have secured $150m+ in private equity investment and philanthropic support; managed an $8.5m loan fund; negotiated over $300m in mergers and acquisitions that grew public radio’s audience reach by 65 million+ listeners; consulted with over 250 public broadcasting station GM’s and University Trustees; co-authored the National Public Lightpath white paper on the future of public broadband adopted by NPR, PBS and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting; and been recognized by the MacArthur Foundation’s “genius award” for organizations (bavc.org).