Coro’s Lead Fellowships program trains professionals to master adaptive leadership strategies, deepen knowledge of regional challenges and opportunities, and expand their network. Over nine months, this part-time program helps professionals gain a deeper understanding of the systems shaping communities. The program is offered in both Greater Los Angeles and the Bay Area.
Meet the new cohort of our Lead Bay Area program and learn more about how they’re driving meaningful change in their communities.
Meet the Lead Fellowships Bay Area cohort
Andrew Miller
Area Director
UC Cooperative Extension Santa Clara & San Mateo-San Francisco
Andrew serves as Area Director for UC Agriculture & Natural Resources (Cooperative Extension) in the South Bay and Peninsula. Previously, he co-founded a group of companies in Guatemala focused on tropical landscape restoration and sustainable forestry. Earlier in his career, he worked in institutional timberland and renewable energy investment across Latin America and supported the monitoring and evaluation of international food security programs. He also worked at MIG, a leading management, planning, and design firm, and served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Guatemala.
Andrew holds a Master of Public Affairs from Princeton University and an MBA from IE Business School. His career has centered on advancing agriculture, natural resource management, rural development, and organizational leadership across the public, nonprofit, and private sectors. Through Coro, he hopes to hone leadership tools gleaned from professionals across multiple industries and establish a peer group in the Bay Area.
Andy Lyons
Program Coordinator
UC Agriculture and Natural Resources
Dr. Lyons is a Program Coordinator within the University of California Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources. In this position, he manages a portfolio of technology projects in data science, geographic information systems, and decision support tools. In his spare time, he enjoys hiking in the East Bay Hills. He is looking forward to the Coro program, where he hopes to develop problem solving skills and join a network of kindred spirits seeking to address complex challenges facing the Bay Area.
Anthony Rodriguez
Principal Consultant
Social Impact Practice, an Independent Consulting Practice
Anthony is the Principal of an independent social impact consulting practice. He advises nonprofit, philanthropic, and public-sector leaders on strategic planning, policy analysis, organizational effectiveness, stakeholder engagement, and the design and evaluation of initiatives serving historically disenfranchised communities. His experience spans local government, philanthropy, applied research, education, and nonprofit leadership, with a consistent focus on equity, effective and inclusive public systems, and measurable community impact.
Anthony’s civic interests include building systems for social good, advancing civic leadership, and providing board service in support of youth development and economic opportunity. Through Lead Bay Area, he hopes to strengthen his leadership practice, expand his regional network, and identify new opportunities for professional growth and greater impact across the Bay Area.
Caitlin Healy
Senior Manager of Learning & Impact
The Practice Space
Caitlin is the Senior Manager of Learning & Impact at The Practice Space, a nonprofit that supports youth and adults to become confident, effective communicators and leaders. As one of The Practice Space’s first employees, Caitlin built the data and evaluation infrastructure that enables data-driven decisions, ensures high quality programming, and communicates organizational impact.
Over the past decade, she has organized locally to advance racial and economic justice with SURJ, Bay Resistance, and other community organizations dedicated to transformative change. Many things bring her joy but especially spending time with her son, family and friends, dancing, and adventuring outdoors. Caitlin is thrilled to be part of Coro’s Lead Bay Area Fellowship, and looks forward to engaging with others in deep reflection and strengthening her leadership skills.
Caitlin Schroeder
Principal Environmental Planner
Stantec
Caitlin is a Principal Environmental Planner and Project Manager with Stantec in San Francisco, where she leads multidisciplinary teams delivering environmental compliance, permitting, and planning services for complex transportation, utility, and renewable energy projects throughout California. With more than 15 years of consulting experience, she specializes in California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) projects, client management, and team leadership. In addition to her project work, Caitlin serves as a senior resource team leader, mentoring staff, supporting professional development, and helping build a collaborative and inclusive workplace culture.
Through Coro, Caitlin hopes to broaden her understanding of regional issues and leadership perspectives, build meaningful relationships across sectors, and further develop the skills needed to lead effectively through others while creating positive, lasting impact in the communities she serves.
Caroll Peña
Vice President
Bank of America, Global Commercial Banking
Caroll is a Commercial Associate in Global Commercial Banking at Bank of America, where the team partners with middle market companies to understand their financial needs and connect them with strategic banking solutions that support growth and long-term success. In addition to her professional role, Caroll serves as a Tri-Chair of HOLA Bay Area, BofA’s Hispanic/Latino employee network, where she helps lead initiatives focused on professional growth, networking, mentorship, and community engagement.
Inspired by her hardworking immigrant parents, Caroll is passionate about expanding economic opportunity through financial literacy, leadership development, and support for businesses and underserved communities. She is also active in Scouting, volunteers regularly, and enjoys bringing people together to strengthen communities. Through Coro, Caroll hopes to deepen her understanding of regional challenges, strengthen her cross-sector leadership skills, and build lasting partnerships that create meaningful, positive change.
Carolyn Flynn
Director of Administration
EOBA
Carolyn is the Director of Administration at East Oakland Boxing Association (EOBA), where no two days are ever the same and she’s often putting out three fires before noon. She oversees finance, grants, operations, technology, HR, and compliance, and loves untangling complex problems and building systems that help people work smarter.
Her career has taken an unconventional path through entrepreneurship, enterprise technology sales, and nonprofit leadership. Along the way, she discovered she’s happiest helping organizations grow stronger and bringing people together around a shared purpose. Outside of work, Carolyn enjoys cooking, traveling, spending time near the ocean, attending live performances, watching movies, and learning to ice skate.
Through Coro, Carolyn hopes to deepen her understanding of civic leadership while building lasting relationships with leaders committed to strengthening the Bay Area. She also believes some of the best conversations happen over a great cup of coffee, and hopes you’ll join her for one.
Cynthia Alexander
Director of Marketing and Communications
Goodwill SF Bay
Cynthia is Director of Marketing and Communications at Goodwill of the San Francisco Bay, where she leads brand strategy and communication efforts across digital and traditional channels. As part of a growing Bay Area nonprofit, her work helps connect shoppers and donors to Goodwill’s mission of creating pathways to employment and economic opportunity.
Raised in Oakland, Cynthia’s leadership journey was shaped by a father who taught her the power of community activism and a mother who modeled discipline and hard work.
Throughout her career, Cynthia has served as a connector and bridge-builder, bringing together businesses and community leaders to expand opportunity for underserved youth and under-resourced communities. Her work has included partnerships with local chambers of commerce and volunteer service with organizations such as Girls Inc., Year Up United, YMCA, Boys and Girls Club, Kids Against Hunger, and the Solano Food Bank. She is also the founder of Sisterhood Journey, a faith-based community focused on mentorship.
Through Lead Bay Area, Cynthia hopes to deepen her cross-sector leadership skills to create greater impact in the communities she serves.
Elissa Roy
Development Lead
Restore Oakland
Elissa is the Development Lead at Restore Oakland, which advances community-governed projects that build political power, create shared economic prosperity and cultivate collective healing. Elissa’s personal focuses of building local, regenerative economies and creating more permanent supportive housing align closely with Restore Oakland’s work. There is nothing more important to Elissa than building community wealth, and she is invested in advancing the many time-tested strategies of community ownership. Through growing these efforts, she aims to ensure the wellbeing of the next generations and our truly amazing planet.
With nearly 15 years in nonprofits large and small, Elissa understands that the most lasting, effective changes require alignment among philanthropy and the private and public sectors. Elissa hopes to build a clearer understanding of how these sectors interact, what drives successful partnerships across them, and meet rising leaders in them by participating in Lead Bay Area.
Faustina Mututa
Assistant Director
The City of Oakland Housing Authority, Family and Community Partnerships
Faustina serves as the Assistant Director of Family and Community Partnerships at the City of Oakland Housing Authority. She leads the development and expansion of social service programs that support families and individuals in the Authority’s Public Housing and Housing Assistance Voucher programs. Her portfolio includes employment and asset development, community engagement, and education initiatives designed to strengthen long term economic stability and opportunity. Faustina’s professional mission lies at the intersection of community development and environmental health; she is a committed recycler and believes all communities deserve clean, healthy, and safe environments.
Outside of work, she enjoys quality time with her husband and three children, enthusiastically supports her young athletes, volunteers, and desires to travel widely to experience different cultures. Through the Coro Fellowship, Faustina hopes to build a broader network of colleagues whose perspectives will support her continued leadership growth.
Juan Herrera
Vice President, Community Relations Manager
Greater San Francisco-East Bay, Bank of America
Juan is Vice President and Community Relations Manager for Bank of America in the San Francisco–East Bay Market. In this role, he leads the bank’s community engagement strategy, building partnerships with nonprofit organizations, civic leaders, and community stakeholders to advance economic mobility, workforce development, and inclusive growth. He also oversees employee volunteer initiatives and aligns enterprise resources with local community needs.
Outside of his professional responsibilities, Juan is deeply committed to civic engagement and volunteer service. His leadership experience includes serving as Board Member of the LGBT Asylum Project, participating in AIDS/LifeCycle, and supporting numerous community initiatives recognized through multiple volunteer awards. Through participation in the Coro Fellowship, Juan hopes to strengthen his civic leadership skills, broaden his regional perspective, and build meaningful cross-sector relationships that will enhance his ability to create sustainable community impact.
Kordnie Jamillia (KJ) Lee
House Manager
KJ is a human services professional with more than 15 years of experience in nonprofit leadership, behavioral health, workforce development, leadership coaching, and training. A certified Mental Health First Aid Instructor, KJ specializes in developing engaging curricula, facilitating transformative learning experiences, and empowering individuals and teams to reach their full potential. Guided by the belief that character is revealed through adversity and that obstacles can become opportunities for connection, KJ strives to lead with humility, compassion, and a servant’s heart.
Outside of work, KJ’s greatest joy is being an aunt, growing in her faith, and expressing creativity through cooking, baking, and handcrafted jewelry. Through the Coro Fellowship, KJ hopes to deepen collaborative leadership skills, learn alongside a diverse cohort of changemakers, and build cross-sector partnerships that create lasting, community-centered impact.
Latora Baldridge
Head of School
Lodestar, A Lighthouse Community School
Dr. Baldridge is a dedicated school leader with over a decade of experience in both traditional and charter schools. As Head of School at Lodestar, a TK-12 public charter in Oakland, she has led gains in student achievement, college readiness, and teacher retention, including a 90% retention rate and 88% of graduates meeting A-G college requirements. Beginning her career as a special education teacher, Latora advanced to leadership roles and is an alumna of the GO Public Schools Teacher Policy Fellowship, where she deepened her commitment to equity-driven leadership.
A lifelong Oakland resident, she focuses on culturally responsive pedagogy, inclusive practices, and student voice, while also leading extracurriculars, community partnerships, and professional development. Latora holds a Doctorate in Educational Leadership from USC, a Master’s from Touro University, and a Bachelor’s from San Jose State.
Lisa Hu
Senior Staff Specialist
Bay Area Air District, Community Investments
Lisa (she/her) currently serves as Senior Staff Specialist of Community Investments at the Bay Area Air District. In this role, she co-leads reinvestment of penalty dollars into pollution-burdened communities through community-led projects advancing public health, clean energy, urban greening, electrification, transportation, housing, workforce, and just transition strategies. Previous employers span local, regional, state, federal, and international scales and include the US Department of Energy, California Strategic Growth Council, California Governor’s Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation, The Greenlining Institute, and United Nations Development Programme.
Lisa served as a Court Appointed Special Advocate for foster youth for 4.5 years; on the Community Advisory Committee for Ava Community Energy; and on nonprofit boards for MALIKAH, Prism Foundation, New Leaders Council Oakland, and East Bay Stonewall Democratic Club. She hopes Lead Bay Area will reroot her work in the Bay and support an ecosystem in pursuit of justice, liberation, and culture-keeping.
Michelle Reiss Top
Director of Data Integration
Mission Economic Development Agency (MEDA)
Michelle is the Director of Data Integration at the Mission Economic Development Agency, a nonprofit in San Francisco. As Director, she guides the design and usefulness of data for all programs, client outcomes, analysis and learning. A trained Human-Centered Design facilitator, Michelle has led several projects to improve services and develop community metrics based on community voices. Working in service of immigrants and the working poor brings intractable systemic problems to life on a daily basis.
Michelle hopes the Coro training will help her break through normalized ways of thinking and put the community’s innovative ideas at the table with decision-makers with the power to implement them. She recently came out of retirement from women’s lacrosse and hopes to one day bring the game to the girls and women of the southeast neighborhoods of San Francisco.
Nick Hoult
Financial Advisor
Merrill Lynch
Nick is a Financial Advisor with Merrill Lynch, where he helps individuals, families and business owners navigate financial decisions with confidence. His work centers on translating complex planning and investment strategies into practical outcomes that help clients build, preserve, and transfer wealth across generations.
Outside the office, Nick is passionate about community involvement and building meaningful connections. He enjoys mentoring, professional development and creating opportunities to strengthen both his own community and his organizations. Through Coro, Nick hopes to expand his perspective beyond financial services, sharpen his ability to lead across different backgrounds and viewpoints, and develop the relationships and skills needed to drive meaningful impact in both business and life.
Pamela Crawford
Senior Advisor & Strategist in Public Policy, Global Health, and Social Impact
Dr. Crawford is a senior advisor/strategist in public policy, global health, and social impact with leadership experience spanning federal government, international organizations, and the nonprofit sector. Her career includes service in the White House Offices of National Drug Control Policy, Social Innovation, and Science and Technology Policy. A STEM Presidential Management Fellow, she advanced complex policy and public health initiatives through partnerships across government, academia, nonprofits, and international institutions.
Beyond federal service, Dr. Crawford contributed to global health and development efforts through the World Health Organization/Pan American Health Organization and the World Bank Institute. Earning her PhD from Johns Hopkins University, she served as Principal Investigator on an NIH-funded dissertation grant. A Fulbright Scholar, she has also volunteered with Mexico’s National Institute of Public Health, a human rights nonprofit in Ghana, and as an educator in Indonesia. She looks forward to learning from and contributing to the Coro community.
Sarah Crowe
Communications and Advocacy Manager
University of California, Office of the President
Sarah is the Communications and Advocacy Manager at the University of California Office of the President, where she manages the UC Advocacy Network. Prior to joining UC in 2023, Sarah worked for Senator Dianne Feinstein. She earned her bachelor’s degree in political science from UC Davis.
Through this fellowship, Sarah hopes to gain a deeper understanding of how to serve communities across the Bay Area, broaden her perspective on the region’s diverse challenges and opportunities, and strengthen her ability to make a meaningful impact through public service. Outside of work, she enjoys competing in trail running races and spending as much time outdoors as possible.
Silvia Ahn
Senior Manager of Training
Project Glimmer
As Senior Manager of Training, Silvia leads hands-on leadership and financial literacy development training programs in collaboration with various youth-serving organizations across the nation. She also holds a fervent dedication to liberate financial information, aiming to foster greater financial equity for women and communities of color. Silvia earned her bachelor’s degree in Ethnic Studies from Mills College and her Masters in Social Entrepreneurship from Pepperdine University.
Aside from parenting two little munchkins and serving as the Chair for a local organization in Oakland, she loves making kimchi on the weekends and recently became obsessed with skateboarding. She hopes Lead Bay Area will help her become a more thoughtful and effective leader by connecting her with like-minded practitioners who can challenge her thinking and serve as thought partners. She wants to leave the program with a clearer vision for how to strengthen our Empowerment Academy, create a curriculum that is both practical and equitable, and build a network of leaders committed to empowering young people.
Siraj Jibicho
Founder and CEO
Blenda Creative
Siraj is the founder of Blenda Creative, a Bay area-based film and creative studio that partners with candidates, ballot measures, and mission-driven organizations to modernize their communications and tell stories that move people. His path to that seat began in a refugee camp in Kenya, where he spent nearly a decade after his family fled Ethiopia, and has run through founding Didomi, a clean-water social enterprise providing 250k individuals with access to water; strategy consulting at Bain & Company; and serving as Chief of Staff at Manta Cares, a digital health startup.
A Pomona College philosophy and economics graduate, Gates Scholar, and Minnesota 25 Under 25 honoree, Siraj is active in Bay Area civic life as an alliance partner with Black Action Alliance and as a member of the Rotary Club of Oakland. Through Lead Bay Area, he hopes to build civic fluency to help Bay Area communities navigate technological change and all it is remaking: how we work, relate to one another, and govern.
Steven Bazley
Professor of Practice
UC Law San Francisco
Steven is a Professor of Practice and Director of the Startup Legal Garage at University of California College of the Law, San Francisco. There, Steven teaches a weekly course on startup business law and leads an experiential education program where he pairs his students with volunteer attorneys in the Bay Area to represent founders in foundational legal matters on a pro bono basis.
He is a cultural preservationist at heart, having completed a program with the Los Angeles Conservancy in his now (recently) former home. In his free time, Steven is a dedicated chef and baker, tinkering with vintage recipes and pushing the boundaries of his skillset.
Steven’s goal is to collaborate across disciplines through Coro to become a thought leader in experiential education. Specifically, Steven wants to learn more about experiential learning to design an evolutionary, experiential law curriculum that utilizes artificial intelligence for knowledge acquisition.
Zoe Leonard-Monrad
Senior Director of Growth and Recruitment
Coro California
Zoe is the Senior Director of Growth and Recruitment with Coro California, where she builds cohorts for the statewide portfolio of programs and Coro X’s custom leadership trainings. She brings over a decade of nonprofit partnerships expertise, including past roles at high-impact organizations focused on economic mobility for low-income and immigrant communities in the Bay Area and the Twin Cities.
Zoe holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics and Human Rights & International Development from Macalester College. She currently serves on the board of BrasArte, a Bay Area nonprofit dedicated to preserving Afro-Brazilian culture and cross-cultural exchange. She is thrilled to participate in Lead Bay Area to experience Coro’s transformative leadership programs firsthand.
About Coro’s Lead Fellowships program
The Lead Fellowship program helps professionals practice adaptive leadership, communication, decision-making, team management, and coalition-building strategies. Through peer coaching, experiential learning, and engagement with regional leaders, participants learn essential leadership frameworks and build strong cohort relationships.
Fellows leave the program with practical leadership tools, an expanded network, and the confidence to navigate complexity and accelerate their impact, in their organizations and in their communities.
The benefits of the Lead Fellowships program
As a result of the program, Lead Fellows learn to:
- Navigate change and uncertainty through adaptive leadership strategies
- Enhance self-awareness and practice thoughtful decision-making
- Master inquiry methods, effective feedback, and communication strategies for building teamwork and culture in organizations. Gain tools for managing teams and navigating conflict.
- Deepen knowledge of challenges and opportunities in the Bay Area, gaining a better understanding of systems
- Build a network of peers to learn from and learn with, long after the program ends
Gohar Chichian
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