Staff

Community

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Executive Office

Tessie Guillermo, President and CEO [bio]

Community Investments

Laura L. Efurd, Vice President and Chief Community Investment Officer [bio]

Jessica Eting, Program Associate [bio]

Brian Gallagher, Senior Program Associate [bio]

Ruth E. Williams, Community Investment Officer [bio]

Robin Wu, Community Investment Officer [bio]

Renaissance Journalism Center (ZeroDivide - fiscal sponsor)

Jon Funabiki, Executive Director [bio]

Whitney Wilcox, Program Manager [bio]

Partnerships and Communications

Timothy C. Wu, Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer [bio]

John Hoffman, Director of Business Development and External Affairs [bio]

Margaret Stangl, Communications Manager [bio]

Finance and Operations

David Veneziano, Chief Financial and Operations Officer [bio]

Vonnie Chan, HR and Operations Manager [bio]

John M. Hayes, Accounting and Finance Manager [bio]

Nasser Halteh, Contract Tech Circuit Rider [bio]

Amro Radwan, Manager of Technology [bio]

Staff Biographies

Vonnie Chan is HR and Operations Manager with primary responsibility for ensuring that the human resources, benefits administration, and facilities management maximizes the ability of the Foundation to function smoothly and effectively.

Vonnie has a broad range of operations experience in the non-profit and corporate sectors, having most recently served as operations coordinator for Wild Planet Toys, a leading company in innovating and designing toys that encourage creativity and learning without resorting to violence or gender stereotypes. Her non-profit work experience includes positions at Eth-Noh-Tec, Asian Law Caucus, and Asian Women’s Shelter.

Her community work also includes launching a multi-lingual legal clinic for Asian survivors of domestic violence, and researching her family genealogy for the In Search of Roots program which promotes exploration of the Chinese immigrant history and experience in America.

Laura L. Efurd is Vice President and Chief Community Investment Officer. She is responsible for all of the foundation’s programmatic work including grants, initiatives and policy development and implementation. Ms. Efurd has over 15 years of legislative and public policy experience. She served as Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Director of the White House Office of Public Liaison in the Clinton Administration. She coordinated the Administration's legislative activities around employment and training issues as Associate Director of Legislative Affairs for the U.S. Department of Labor. Laura was Legislative Director to the late Congresswoman Patsy T. Mink of Hawaii, working on policy issues related to education, labor, welfare, civil rights and health care. She is a recipient of the Women's Information Network Young Women of Achievement Awards and a 2002 Asian Pacific American Women's Leadership Institute Fellow. She serves on the Federal Communications Commission Consumer Advisory Committee and the Board of Trustees for the Patsy Takemoto Mink Foundation for Low-Income Women & Children.

Jessica Eting is a Program Associate for the foundation, providing support to the Community Investment Team. Previously, she worked as an Administrative Assistant to the Director and Human Resources Director of the Associated Students of the University of California Auxiliary. She has spent time as a volunteer at the East Bay Sanctuary, an immigrant and refugee rights non-profit, and was an adult literacy tutor for the Berkeley Reads program. A graduate of UC Berkeley, Jessica has a B.A. in Political Economy of Industrial Societies and a B.A. in Ethnic Studies.

Jon Funabiki is the Executive Director of The Renaissance Journalism Center (RJC). The Center conducts research, training and other programs to identify and to spark promising journalistic models and practices that serve, strengthen and empower communities. RJC seeks to ensure that the concerns and interests of communities are served as media, technology and business evolve.

At SFSU, Mr. Funabiki is teaching and developing a new center on the community-building potential of news media that serve regional, ethnic, cultural and other communities of shared interest. Previously, Mr. Funabiki spent 11 years as the Deputy Director of the Media, Arts and Culture (MAC) Unit of the Ford Foundation in New York, where he led grant programs to promote ethics, credibility and diversity in journalism; social justice journalism; and the ethnic and independent news media. He is the former founding Director of San Francisco State University’s Center for Integration and Improvement of Journalism and a former journalist with The San Diego Union, where he specialized in U.S.-Asia political and economic affairs. Mr. Funabiki is a graduate of San Francisco State University. He was awarded the John S. Knight Professional Journalism Fellowship at Stanford University; the Jefferson Fellowship at the East-West Center of Honolulu; and a National Endowment for the Humanities Professional Summer Fellowship at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Brian Gallagher is a Senior Program Associate, providing support for the Digital Storytelling and Leadership & Policy initiatives. Prior to ZeroDivide, he worked in Programs at the University of California, San Francisco, Comprehensive Cancer Center. Previously, he worked as an intern for U.S. Congressman, Mike Thompson in Washington, D.C. Brian received a B.A. in Religious Studies from UC Berkeley.

Tessie Guillermo is President and CEO of ZeroDivide. Prior to ZeroDivide, Ms. Guillermo served for 15 years as CEO of the Asian and Pacific Islander American Health Forum, a leading national health policy/advocacy organization with offices in San Francisco and Washington, D.C. In 2000, Ms. Guillermo was appointed by former President Bill Clinton to serve as an inaugural member of the President's Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. She currently serves as Board Chair for The California Endowment, and Vice-Chair for Catholic Healthcare West. Ms. Guillermo is also a member of the Board of the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health, the Nonprofit Finance Fund in New York and Northern California Grantmakers (NCG). Ms. Guillermo is an alumna of the University of California, Berkeley and California State University, East Bay, with a BA in Economics. She is a graduate of the Gallup Leadership Institute and was a 1997 Fellow of the Asian Pacific American Women's Leadership Institute.

Nasser Halteh is the Tech Circuit Rider at ZeroDivide. Working closely with the Manager of Technology, he is responsible for tech support including network, hardware and software issues at the foundation. Prior to ZeroDivide, Nasser was a software tester at SureCircle.com. Passionate about network security and prevention, Nasser is also skilled in multimedia production from software and web design, to media audio/video engineering. He is a graduate of San Francisco State University with a degree in Computer Science.

John M. Hayes is the Accounting and Finance Manager. John brings over ten years of non-profit financial management and accounting experience with such groups as the Native American AIDS Project, theInstitute for Community Health Outreach, and the STOP AIDS Project. He is also a former Treasurer on the Board of Directors for Bay Area Young Positives. He has a BA in Economics from Antioch College in Yellow Springs, OH.

John Hoffman is Director of Business Development. He is responsible for building strategic partnerships in support of ZeroDivide’s fund development goals. John brings more than ten years of experience in creating and implementing successful strategies in business development and marketing within the high tech sector. Prior to ZeroDivide, Mr. Hoffman worked for Groove Eleven, Sun Microsystems, IBM and US Bancorp. He is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh and has an MBA from the University of Washington. John currently serves on the Board of Directors for the San Francisco Bay Area chapter of the Social Enterprise Alliance.

Amro Radwan is Manager of Technology. At ZeroDivide, he is responsible for the foundation’s internal information technology infrastructure, including day-to-day issues and future growth. Prior to ZeroDivide, Amro was a technology consultant for companies such as Visa, SBC, Schlumberger and Food.Com. He is a technologist, social entrepreneur and youth mentor. Amro also heads a growing, technology consulting firm that focuses on bringing quality technology services to community based organizations and small businesses. As an active volunteer, Amro engages at-risk youth around the San Francisco Bay Area as a grassroots activist by helping them tell their stories through digital storytelling (film), music and other forms of media.

Margaret Stangl is the Communications Manager and works closely with the Chief Strategy Officer in developing and implementing the Foundation's efforts in fostering strategic communications for social change. Prior to joining ZeroDivide, Margaret was the Corporate Web Manager for NightFire Software, Inc. Previously, she worked as Marketing Manager for GATX Capital Corporation. She brings a wealth of experience in project management, marketing, web and event management. She has a B.S. in Marketing from Golden Gate University.

David Veneziano is CFO & COO for the organization. Mr. Veneziano comes to ZeroDivide with 25 years of financial services experience in corporate banking, investing and strategic planning. Prior to ZeroDivide, Mr. Veneziano served for 7 years as CFO of Women’s Initiative, the largest not-for-profit agency in the country dedicated to business training & lending for low-income women. In addition to overall agency financial management, Mr. Veneziano led the Financial Services Group, providing business loans and access to savings programs for graduates. Prior to joining Women’s Initiative, David was Vice President of Strategy & Planning at Charles Schwab & Co. in their high-volume trading division. Mr. Veneziano was also Assistant Controller for Schwab’s Online Trading Division and participated in the explosive growth of Schwab’s internet trading business in the late 1990s. Before joining Schwab in 1990, Mr. Veneziano worked at Bank of America in Bankcard Operations and in Benefits Finance. He earned a B.S. in Finance & Real Estate from Colorado State University in 1986.

Whitney Wilcox is the Program Manager for Renaissance Journalism Center. Prior to joining the Center, Whitney worked as the Interim Deputy Director of New Routes to Community Health, a grantmaking program supporting the development of media in collaboration with media production centers, immigrant organizations, and community institutions. She also served as the station manager of a community television station and as a staff associate of the Benton Foundation. Whitney has an M.S. in community development from UC Davis and a B.A. in journalism and political science from UW Madison.

Ruth E. Williams is a Community Investment Officer for ZeroDivide. Ms. Williams is responsible for a portfolio of media-related social justice grants and initiatives that strengthen families and empower young people through the use of information and communications technologies. She has nonprofit, business and government experience including Deputy Director of Young Community Developers in San Francisco, a variety of San Francisco City and County positions, including Director of Operations for the Mayor's office and Senior Project Manager at the Department of Elections. She serves on the Citizen Advisory Committee of Grants for the Arts, San Francisco Hotel Tax Fund. She also serves on the boards of Community Initiatives, a fiscal sponsor which provides financial and programmatic oversight to unincorporated nonprofit projects, and Bay Area Blacks in Philanthropy (BABIP), a membership organization that addresses the impact of racial disparity within philanthropic institutions and African American communities in the Bay Area. Ms. Williams holds a Masters of Arts degree from the University of Illinois and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Chicago.

Robin Wu is a Community Investment Officer primarily responsible for implementation of the ZeroDivide Fellowship. Robin joins ZeroDivide after having worked as a Projects Director in Program Services at CompassPoint Nonprofit Services for eight years. At CompassPoint, she oversaw the management of a three-year statewide initiative designed to build capacity in HIV prevention organizations throughout California serving people of color. She also managed various aspects of the consulting practice comprised of thirty-plus consultants who worked with over 300 Bay Area nonprofit organizations each year out of offices in San Francisco and San Jose.

Prior to working at CompassPoint, Robin oversaw minority access programs at the State Bar of California and provided staff direction to the Ethnic Minority Relations Committee, Committee on Women in the Law, Committee on Sexual Orientation Discrimination, and Committee on Legal Professionals with Disabilities. Previous to that, she carried out civil rights advocacy work at Chinese for Affirmative Action in San Francisco. Robin received her BA in East Asian Studies from Stanford University and an MBA from UCLA with a concentration in arts management and marketing. She serves on several nonprofit boards and is an experienced carpool driver for her two kids’ various sports activities.

Timothy C. Wu, Esq., is Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer. He oversees external relations, partnership development, and communications. Prior to joining ZeroDivide in July 2003, he served as the Deputy Director and Program Director of the September 11 Fund in New York City, managing the distribution of over $500 million in disaster relief assistance. Mr. Wu served as a White House Fellow to US Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala; as a journalist for CBS News, Inc.; an on-air reporter for HK-TVB News in Hong Kong; and Director of Development at CompassPoint Nonprofit Services in San Francisco. He is a summa cum laude graduate of Princeton University, a cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School, and is admitted to practice law in California. An active volunteer, Mr. Wu is the Immediate Past Chair of the board of KQED/NCPB, the nation's largest public broadcasting station; a former board member of Asian Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy; a former trustee of Princeton University; and Commissioner of the San Francisco Asian Art Commission. Mr. Wu also serves on the boards of San Francisco Ballet, College Track, Sequoia Hospital, and Tectonic Theater Project, creator of "The Laramie Project."

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