Team

Executive Team

Tessie Guillermo, President and CEO [bio]

Laura L. Efurd, Vice President and Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer [bio]

David Veneziano, Chief Financial and Operations Officer [bio]

Millie Guillermo-Trovão, Executive Assistant [bio]

Staff

Jessica Eting, Senior Program Associate [bio]

Brian Gallagher, Program Manager [bio]

Nasser Halteh, Technology Engineer [bio]

John Hoffman, Director of New Markets [bio]

Kathryn Jimenez, Development Associate [bio]

Tina Lee, Director of Innovation and Learning [bio]

McCrae A. Parker, Senior Program Manager [bio]

Emma Perez, Accounting and Finance Manager [bio]

Jeff Perlstein, Director of Strategic Engagement [bio]

Amro Radwan, Director of Technology [bio]

Alexander Tran, Program Associate [bio]

Ruth E. Williams, Senior Program Officer [bio]

Robin Wu, Community Investment Officer [bio]

Timothy C. Wu, Strategic Advisor to the CEO [bio]

Renaissance Journalism Center (ZeroDivide - fiscal sponsor)

Jon Funabiki, Executive Director [bio]

Valerie Chow Bush, Deputy Director [bio]

Staff Biographies

Valerie Chow Bush is the Deputy Director of the Renaissance Journalism Center. A former journalist, she has more than 15 years of experience in communications, pr, event planning and nonprofit management.

Prior to joining the Center, Valerie was the Communications and Marketing Director at California Institute of Integral Studies, responsible for the graduate school’s integrated communications strategy and brand. Her experience includes serving as the executive director of the Asian American Journalists Association, as well as working as a reporter for the Marin Independent Journal, an assistant editor at The Village Voice, and as the publications director for the Maynard Institute. She is the editor of four books of poetry by at-risk youth, published by WritersCorps; the former executive editor of San Francisco State's online guide for journalists covering Islam and Muslim Americans; and the co-editor of Jump Write In! Creative Writing Exercises for Diverse Communities, Grades 6-12, published by Jossey-Bass. Valerie holds an MA from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. She is a proud co-founder of San Francisco's Asian Women’s Shelter.

Laura L. Efurd is Vice President and Chief Strategy and Innovation 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 Senior Program Associate for the foundation, providing critical support to the Strategy and Innovation Team, and is a certificed Salesforce administrator. 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 Program Manager, responsible for implementing ZeroDivide's work with the Community Leadership Project (CLP) and the Mozilla Foundation partnership. His previous responsibilities involved managing the Digital Storytelling and ZeroDivide Fellowship initiatives as well as general grantmaking. Prior to ZeroDivide, Brian worked in Programs at the University of California, San Francisco, and spent time as an intern for U.S. Congressman, Mike Thompson in Washington, D.C. Brian is a Bay Area native and received a B.A. 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.

Millie Guillermo-Trovão is the Executive Assistant to the CEO. Her background encompasses over 25 years of practical administrative experience that includes providing executive level support for top management teams in corporate environments such as oil and gas exploration, accounting and construction management firms, and a high-tech Silicon Valley company.

Prior to ZeroDivide, Millie worked as a part-time Technical Analyst at a nonprofit health policy and advocacy group. Although she is a true native San Franciscan at heart, she now lives in the South Bay with her husband and youngest child.

Nasser Halteh is a Technology Engineer at ZeroDivide. Working closely with the Director 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 Hoffman is Director of New Markets. John is responsible for overseeing strategic partnerships with corporate, foundation, and other philanthropic institutions in support of ZeroDivide’s mission. In addition, he helps to manage ZeroDivide’s annual fundraising efforts, and to implement marketing, social media, and other outreach activities that inform the field of philanthropy on the integration of technology for social good.

John brings more than 10 years of experience in successfully developing strategic relationships within the nonprofit, technology, and financial services sectors. Before joining ZeroDivide, John was a Producer for Groove11, a boutique creative/interactive advertising agency, where he helped pioneer flash-animated product demos for the enterprise technology market. Prior to Groove11, he was a Senior Marketing Manager at Sun Microsystems, where he led messaging and launch teams for the company’s $4 billion enterprise-class server division. He also previously worked as an Account Executive at IBM and a Branch Manager for U.S. Bank. John holds an MBA from the Foster School of Business at the University of Washington, a certificate in Risk Management from the Swiss Banking Institute at the University of Zurich, and a B.A. in English from the University of Pittsburgh.

Kathryn Jimenez is a Development Associate providing administrative and communications support to the Business Development Team. Prior to joining ZeroDivide, Kathy worked for the federal government for 20 years. In 1989, she began working in the San Francisco Division of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court - Northern District of California and, in 2003, she served as the Executive Assistant to the Director of Property Management, General Services Administration. Kathy is a Bay Area native.

Tina Lee is Director of Innovation and Learning. She is responsible for developing and maintaining systems for collecting, analyzing and evaluating program outcomes at ZeroDivide. She also identifies and tests new technology applications for community use and develops new products and services for ZeroDivide. Prior to ZeroDivide, Tina worked as a fellow at the City of San Francisco’s Department of Technology Services, where she assisted the Chief Information Officer and Emerging Technologies Team in driving the City’s open government initiatives, including DataSF.

Tina’s professional experience includes management consulting, business development, and sales and recruiting in the technology industry, for private and nonprofit organizations. She currently serves on the advisory board of Netroots Nation. Tina has a B.A. in Political, Legal and Economic Analysis and an MBA from Mills College. She also holds an M.A. in Education from Stanford University’s Learning, Design and Technology program.

McCrae A. Parker is a Senior Program Manager. He has 20 years of experience in the youth development, workforce development, and media education fields through his work with organizations such as Just Think!, Children Now, the San Francisco Department of Children, Youth and Their Families and, the San Francisco Conservation Corps. Before coming to “ZeroDivide”, McCrae was the Director of Strategic Initiatives at Youth Radio, a national youth media education and production organization headquartered in Oakland, CA, where he served as a lead staff in the strategic development of programs, fundraising, and social enterprise efforts. McCrae studied Comparative Literature and Film at Occidental College in Los Angeles, CA.

Emma Perez is the Accounting and Finance Manager. Working with the CFO, Emma establishes and reviews accounting policies and procedures, maintains the automated accounting system and assures compliance with all applicable Federal and State statutes, rules, and administrative codes, and procedures.

Prior to ZeroDivide, Emma was the Controller for the San Francisco Ballet and the San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI). Emma brings a wealth of financial reporting and analysis experience from her engagement with the San Francisco Symphony; Paramount Theater of the Arts, Inc.; San Francisco Jazz Organization; Magic Theater and California Pacific Medical Center. She co-founded the Huckabay McAllister Dance company and is an accomplished swimmer who swam the English Channel as part of the 2007 Chamorro Flying Proa Relay Team.

Jeff Perlstein is Director of Strategic Engagement. He is responsible for field-building activities that strengthen technology’s role in the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors. He is also responsible for strategic communications, as well as policy development and implementation.

Prior to ZeroDivide, Jeff worked for more than 10 years at the intersection of community transformation, nonprofit management, and media and technology. In 1999, he initiated the global media project, Indymedia.org, now in 32 countries and more than 85 cities. As the Executive Director of Media Alliance, he co-founded two national coalitions: the Media and Democracy Coalition and the Media Action Grassroots Network (MAG-Net). Recently, Jeff’s emphasis has been on the role of philanthropy in fostering cross-pollination amongst these sectors: both as program director of Grantmakers in Film + Electronic Media and as a consultant. Jeff received a BA in Psychology and a BA in Sociology from The Johns Hopkins University, with a minor in Women’s Studies.

Amro Radwan is the Director of Technology at ZeroDivide. Amro supports IT infrastructure management, technology innovation and training for ZeroDivide and its grantees.

With over 14 years in building and supporting IT infrastructures, Amro delivers quality administration and technology engineering services that fit the needs of social impact organizations. His experience spans supporting some of the first corporate Windows NT and Unix based systems to consulting on Internet-based systems for large .com companies. His focus now is on helping Non-profits and Social Entrepreneurs leverage technology to become more effective, efficient and secure in their work.

Amro’s passion extends to youth development and social entrepreneurship as well. He helped start ASK Academy, a volunteer based organization that works to transform the educational, juvenile justice, and foster care systems. Amro engages at-risk youth around the San Francisco Bay Area by helping them tell their stories through digital storytelling, music and other forms of art.

Alexander Tran is a Program Associate and comes to ZeroDivide as a graduate of the Coro Fellowship in Public Affairs, which trains young leaders to work across government, businesses, nonprofits, labor unions, and campaigns in order to achieve cross-sector goals for the public good. He is excited to apply his passion for web technology and social media toward empowering underserved communities at ZeroDivide. His current favorite tech tool is Instapaper, an app that lets users read simple text documents of their favorite things on the web. Follow him on Twitter @themutantmethod for tips and news on nonprofits doing good with tech.

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.

Ruth E. Williams is a Senior Program 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 as Treasurer 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 at ZeroDivide. Prior to joining ZeroDivide, Robin worked as a Projects Director in Program Services at CompassPoint Nonprofit Services. 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 a recent empty-nester.

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."