The Learning Conference 2015

Jim Keddy, Chief Learning Officer for The California Endowment, first joined the foundation in 2009 as director of Healthy Communities, North Region, for the foundation’s 10-year initiative, Building Healthy Communities. As Chief Learning Officer, Keddy is responsible for the development and oversight of the learning, evaluation, and research functions of the organization. He also leads the foundation’s work in the areas of strategic planning and organizational development. Prior to joining The Endowment, Keddy served as director of PICO California, a statewide association of faith-based community organizing efforts. He served on The Endowment’s Board of Directors from 2005-2009.

Dr. Manuel Pastor is Professor of Sociology and American Studies & Ethnicity at the University of Southern California.  Founding director of the Center for Justice, Tolerance, and Community at the University of California, Santa Cruz, Pastor currently directs the Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE) at USC and USC’s Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration (CSII).  He holds an economics Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Pastor’s research has generally focused on issues of the economic, environmental and social conditions facing low-income urban communities – and the social movements seeking to change those realities. His most recent book is Just Growth: Inclusion and Prosperity in America’s Metropolitan Regions (Routledge 2012; co-authored with Chris Benner), a volume that brings together quantitative and qualitative analysis to argue that growth and equity can and should be linked, offering a new path for a U.S. economy seeking to recover from economic crisis and distributional distress. Previous volumes include:  Uncommon Common Ground: Race and America’s Future (W.W. Norton 2010; co-authored with Angela Glover Blackwell and Stewart Kwoh) and This Could Be the Start of Something Big: How Social Movements for Regional Equity are Transforming Metropolitan America (Cornell University Press 2009; co-authored with Chris Benner and Martha Matsuoka).

Dr. Pastor served as a member of the Commission on Regions appointed by California’s Speaker of the State Assembly and as a member of the Regional Targets Advisory Committee for the California Air Resources Board; he is currently on the Commission of the Parks Forward initiative. Pastor holds the Turpanjian Chair for Civil Society and Social Change since 2015 and in 2012, the Liberty Hill Foundation awarded Pastor the Wally Marks Changemaker of the Year  for social justice research partnerships.

Kathleen P. Enright is the founding president and CEO of Grantmakers for Effective Organizations. GEO is a diverse community of more than 500 grantmakers working to reshape the way philanthropy operates. We are committed to advancing smarter grantmaking practices that enable nonprofits to grow stronger and achieve better results.

While with GEO, Kathleen (with the GEO board of directors) has developed a compelling vision and cohesive strategy for the organization, supervised the development of a host of products and services and grown the community to nearly 500 organizations.  

Kathleen speaks and writes regularly on issues of nonprofit and grantmaker effectiveness at national and regional gatherings of executives and trustees. Publications include Investing in Leadership: Inspiration and Ideas from Philanthropy’s Latest Frontier and Funding Effectiveness: Lessons in Building Nonprofit Capacity. She is also a contributing blogger for The Huffington Post.

Previously, Kathleen served as the group director, marketing and communications for BoardSource, where she was responsible for developing and implementing an organization-wide marketing and communications strategy, building and maintaining a consistent and recognizable brand, supervising the promotion of all products and services, and building public awareness of the importance of strong nonprofit boards.

Prior to joining BoardSource, Kathleen was a project manager for the National Association of Development Organizations Research Foundation where she directed a Ford Foundation funded project to encourage collaboration between nonprofits and local governments.

In 2007, Kathleen received the Distinguished Public Service Award from the George Washington University Chapter of Pi Alpha Alpha, a public administration honour society. She serves on the advisory board of The Center for Effective Philanthropy. She previously served on Independent Sector’s Building Value Together Committee and the selection committee of the Washington Post Nonprofit Excellence Award. She holds a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a master’s of public administration from The George Washington University.

Diana Ross is the Collaborative Director at the Mid-City Community Advocacy Network (Mid-City CAN) in the San Diego, California community of City Heights. Mid-City CAN is a community collaborative of over 3,000 residents of City Heights and non-resident allies in the fields of nonprofit, government, and faith. Mid-City CAN focuses on building community power and developing resident leaders to advocate for change. Under Diana’s leadership Mid-City CAN has executed successful community organizing campaigns to establish the region’s first no-cost youth bus pass in San Diego, increase space for recreating by establishing a Skate Plaza and Skate Park in City Heights, and a county restorative justice pilot to provide alternatives to the incarceration of Black and Latino youth. Diana is routinely cited by mainstream local and national media, including but not limited to: KPBS, Univision, UT San Diego, Voice of San Diego, Network Television, Healthy California, and the New York Times.

Prior to Mid-City CAN Diana led collaboratives and coalitions for 8 years in the diverse communities of Southern California and Mexico. She worked with the Los Angeles Refugee Immigrant Training Employment program in Los Angeles, US-Mexico Bilateral Safety Corridor Coalition (a bi-national anti-human trafficking collaborative), and the San Diego Refugee Forum. In addition to her work with collaboratives, she is the former Director of Refugee Employment Services in City Heights and began her career serving community in multi-country medical camps with Rotary Internal’s Polio Plus program in Ethiopia and Nigeria.

Diana has college honors and a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Los Angeles in Sociology and International Development where she was also awarded the Riordan Fellowship at UCLA’s Andersen School of Management. Diana has a master’s degree from the University of San Diego in Nonprofit Leadership and Management. She is a former Rotary International Ambassadorial Scholar at the American University in Cairo, Egypt. In 2010 she received the Springfield College School of Human Services Community Service Award for demonstrating leadership in service to humanity and was recognized in 2012 by the California State Assembly for her work on legislation promoting health equity and improving women’s lives. She is a San Diego native who speaks fluent English, Arabic, and Spanish.