Leadership
Program Manager
Sara Gurdian is the Program Manager of the Coalition.
As the program manager, Sara educates member organizations and residents about the County budget process and promotes meaningful and inclusive community engagement. She is a champion for practices rooted in equity that address gaps and disparities faced by those most impacted. Her understanding of local and regional policies has influenced her core belief that it is essential to center community voices throughout decision-making processes. As a Bay Area native, Sara learned to have a deep appreciation for people who make our communities great, regardless of gender, immigration status, color, identity, or from different walks of life. She is fortunate enough to connect with people and find alignment on issues we most care about and affect us as human beings.
Steering Committee
Sandra Naughton,
Interim Deputy Director for First 5 Contra Costa
Sandra has more than 20 years of experience in the early childhood, youth, and family services fields, working on policy, strategy, evaluation, communications, and operations. Her professional path has been motivated by a deep commitment to help improve opportunities for children and families, particularly those most impacted by disparities. Sandra spent about 11 years working for the City & County of San Francisco in various departments focused on eliminating disparities and creating more opportunities for children, youth and their families in terms of access to early care and education programs, expanded learning programs, youth leadership and workforce development programs.
Roxanne Carrillo Garza,
Executive Director for Healthy Contra Costa
Roxanne currently works with resident leaders, community-based organizations, base builders, and systems leaders to develop collective policy advocacy strategies to improve health, safety, school and neighborhood environments, and economic development opportunities. Prior to joining Healthy Richmond in 2013, Roxanne was a Public Health Program Manager for Contra Costa Health Services
Tumani Drew,
CCC Site Director for The Young Women’s Freedom Center
Tumani (a.ka. Tu) is a sister to hella siblings. She is a descendant of warriors and resilient women. She lets her ancestors and experience guide her path in fighting against white toxic patriarchal systems.Tumani studied grassroots methods and the power of historical transformational social movements while obtaining her bachelor’s degree in Urban Studies at SFSU. She gained experience with community organizing during her internship with the Black Organizing Project where she helped mobilize their Bettering Our School System (B.O.S.S) campaign that successfully removed all levels of police out of all OUSD schools.
Mariana Moore
,
Senior Director for Ensuring Opportunity
Mariana Moore proudly serves as Senior Director of Ensuring Opportunity’s, which brings together advocates across issues and sectors in a collective effort to end poverty in our community. We focus on the root causes of poverty in challenging and changing unjust and racist policies, practices, and narratives that keep our neighbors in Contra Costa members from reaching their full potential to thrive.
Solomon Belette,
Coordinator for East Contra Costa Alliance
As an Executive leader with strong planning and strategy skills, Solomon Belette is committed to building organizational capacity, promoting collaborative opportunities, and working towards greater equity and social justice. His leadership is focused on strengthening the nonprofit and philanthropic ecosystems both locally and globally. As a Social Sector leader, he wants to use his knowledge and experiences in strategic planning, innovative program development, public policy and advocacy, as well as managing social sector initiatives designed to achieve greater social impact.