The People of People's Grocery
Nikki Henderson - Executive Director
After much anticipation we are excited to announce that People’s Grocery’s Board of Directors has chosen Nikki Henderson as our new Executive Director beginning Jan. 11, 2010. Before Brahm leaves at the end of January, he will be working to train and support Nikki as he hands her the reins of People’s Grocery and connects her to the many relationships that have been at the foundation of People’s Grocery’s work for the last seven years. Learn more about
Nikki here.
Jason Uribe-Garden and Grub Box Manager
A product of the Oakland Public School district, Jason Uribe comes to us from Longfellow Middle School in the Berkeley Public School District, where he taught garden based curriculum to 6th and 7th grade science classes. Before that Jason worked for many Oakland organizations including the East Bay Conservation Corps/Americorps program, Youth Employment Partnership/We Mean Clean program, and the Student Conservation Association's Oakland office. Jason brings a background of urban gardening, youth empowerment, community activism and a passion for social change. Email Jason.
Victoria Fabella - Administrative Manager and Donor Fundraiser
Victoria came to the Bay Area in 1991 after earning her J.D. from UC Davis. She's worked for several Bay Area non-profits including Disability Rights and Education Defense Fund, New College School of Law, Swords to Plowshares, and the UC Regents. She's worked as a worm farmer, circus manager, event producer and legal advocate for prisoner civil rights. Email Victoria.
Max Kurtz-Cadji - Greenhouse Coordinator
Max hails from suburban sprawled streets of Las Vegas, Nevada. He is an avid guerilla composter and urban gardener. Many of the horticultural skills he employs were acquired from the 3 years he spent living in Madagascar. Max's greatest inspiration is his mother, Marlene. When it comes to bringing fresh, local produce to the masses he employs the philosophy "by any means necessary." Email Max.
Diana Abellera - Education Director/Grub Box Manager
Diana Abellera is the Community Education Director and Grub Box Manager at People's Grocery, where she is developing a job training program for adults in the food sector. Diana has developed comprehensive curriculum and facilitated trainings that connect low-income people and people of color to tangible means for improving the community's quality of life. She has worked with various Bay Area non-profits, including Urban Habitat, Redefining Progress, the Environmental Justice and Climate Change Initiative, and Slide Ranch. Email Diana.
Erica Torrence - Community Outreach Coordinator 
Erica has been a long time advocate for women and children. Being the mother of 4 children she is aware of the many issues that face inner-city youth. Erica has built political and social justice alliances throughout California and has advocated at the State Capital on behalf of women & families and has been a featured speaker at many community and University events. She attended CSU Sacramento majoring in Political Science with a focus on urban development and a minor in Women’s Studies. While in school, Erica was called upon to organize the first AIDS awareness campaign for area college campuses and she was the co-founder of an on-campus organization called “My Sista’s Keeper” (MSK). Erica and other members of MSK were able to provide scholarships to students of color, organized various community events, and were recognized by local and national celebrities including Maya Angelou. My Sista’s Keeper was such a success that they eventually decided to allow men to join! Erica’s professional background is in Human Resources and staff development and she has had extensive executive training. She has since transferred her skills and talents toward her desired career path of social justice and community development. Her passion is in the people she serves. Email Erica.
Brent Walker - Farm Manager
Brent and his family are from Memphis, Tennessee. He received an undergraduate degree from the University of Middle Tennessee State where he played college football. Having been around agriculture and farming since he was a child, Brent had an opportunity to learn and work on an organic, sustainable farm in the area were lived. He recently completed the farm and garden apprenticeship at the Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He became interested in the community activism People's Grocery was involved in. Brent has a strong commitment towards activism and would like to impact the West Oakland community through farming and connecting people to the food that they eat. Email Brent.
Molly Clark - Development Manager 
Molly brings a quarter of a century of experience working with nonprofit and philanthropic organizations. Joining PG in April 2009, as both staff and consultant, Molly has an extensive background in grassroots community and economic development and related policy change. Her experience includes fundraising, strategic planning, organizational development, executive and project management, meeting facilitation, and community leadership training.
Her previous experiences include: Monument Community Partnership and Monument Futures; Working Capital - Community Catalyst and the Family Independence Initiative; the California Endowment’s Partnership for the Public’s Health and National Center for Women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (WiSTEM); Project Manager for the start-up of the Family Independence Initiative (FII) in Oakland; and worked with a team of professionals from See Change Evaluation, United Way of the Bay Area and TEAMS: Transformation through Education and Mutual Support. At Monument Futures, her greatest pride is that they succeeded in doing what few believed possible: redefining a city to include some of its most disenfranchised residents – day laborers and undocumented immigrants – as respected peers, community leaders, philanthropists and visionaries in their own right.
In her role at People’s Grocery, it is the first time ever that Molly has had a chance to combine her commitment to grassroots social and economic equity with her love of food and gardening. Molly came from a small town in southern Ohio, where her uncle and cousin were both commercial farmers. (Every summer the big treat for Molly and her brother was riding in her uncle’s combine, scrambling to the top of the pile of corn cobs that poured in.) Her parents’ generation of relatives all had huge gardens, raised chickens and canned everything in sight. When she went to college and began to travel, Molly was weaned from a mid-West diet of meat and potatoes, and learned to love food from all over the world. To this day she remains the only person in her family who eats sushi and sweetbreads. Email Molly.
Marcelo Garzo, Urban Agriculture Progam Assistant
Marcelo comes to us by way of Toronto, Canada; San Diego, CA; and Valparaiso, Chile. He came to the Bay Area in 2007 to pursue higher education at UC Berkeley, where he received his B.A. in Comparative Ethnic Studies, with a Minor in Global Poverty and Practice (Agroecology). Food justice became the meeting place of his training in sustainable agriculture and philosophies of liberation. Before deciding to become a full-time student, Marcelo worked as a musician and artist in his hometown of San Diego, CA. Marcelo supports our Urban Agriculture program as well as coordinates the Food Justice Allyship program and Anti-Oppression Trainings. Aside from his work in food justice, Marcelo has also worked in prison abolition, political education, and bicycle-based activism. His inspiration comes from Chicana feminist Gloria Anzaldua and his mother, Lucy del Carmen Montalvo Hicks. Email Marcelo.
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People's Grocery Youth Staff
Dannae Washington - Peer Educator 
Dannae began working for People's Grocery since the summer of 2006 educating youth about eating healthy and helping them make better food choices. Dannae graduated Rudsdale High in 2008 and now attends Merrit College, She plans to transfer to Gremlin down south. Her goal in life is to become a nurse. One of her passions is to travel the world. Dannae's favorite food is catfish, and she loves the colors purple and green. Her two inspirations in life are her two nieces: Aylia and TyTy.
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Independent Contractors
Vigi Molfino, Adult Cooking Instructor
People’s Grocery hired Vigi Molfino as the adult cooking class instructor in September 2008. Vigi has cooked for family and friends for over forty years with her home grown organic vegetables, cherries, apples, chicken eggs, and goats milk. Vigi’s professional experience includes owning a small catering business for eight years, buying cookbooks from publishers for a major east bay book store, and hosting cookbook author appearances with preparation of recipes from author's book. Email Vigi
Nisha Anand - Individual Donor FundraiserNisha has been a leading trainer, activist and fundraiser in the global justice, direct action and anti-violence movements in the U.S for the last 15 years. Nisha organized campaigns and protests around the country as the National Field Organizer for the War Resisters League, an 85 year-old peace organization. She has also worked as the Director of Development at the Ruckus Society, a national direct action training organization and San Francisco Women Against Rape, a women-of-color led rape crisis center. Nisha is a trainer and consultant for GIFT, The Grassroots Institute on Fundraising Training, and The Ruckus Society. She facilitates trainings on Anti-Racist Organizing, Nonviolence, Grassroots Fundraising, Organizational Development and Management, Direct Action, and Conflict Resolution. In addition, she sits on the Advisory Board of The Catalyst Project and The Board of Directors for SFWAR. In 1999, she received her Masters Degree in International Peace and Conflict Resolution from the American University in Washington, DC. Nisha is also the proud mother of two amazing young children. Email Nisha
2010 Board of Directors
Malaika Edwards
Malaika Edwards is a co-founder of the People's Grocery. Malaika holds a BA in Environmental Studies and dance from Oberlin College. She has been an organizer and facilitator for over 15 years working for environmental health, justice and community self-reliance. Malaika worked with Youth for Environmental Sanity and Rural Quality Coalition. She has served on the boards of The Institute for Deep Ecology and The Sierra Friends Center. Malaika is a recipient of the Jefferson Award for Public Service, Food & Wine Magazine Tastemakers Award, the East Bay YMCA Public Service award, and the Flywaway Productions 10 Women award. She was chosen by Utne Reader, San Francisco Magazine and Organic Style Magazine as a young visionary and environmental leader. Malaika's life goal is to create positive change through love, service, and creative expression.
Jose Corona
Executive Director
Inner City Advisors
José Corona, is the executive director of Inner City Advisors, providing strategic leadership and direction to the organization. He has worked in business and community development for over ten years.
Prior to Inner City Advisors, Jose served as development director for five years at Mission Economic Development Association (MEDA), a San Francisco-based non-profit organization that provides micro enterprise business technical assistance and neighborhood planning services to small businesses. Before working in the non-profit sector, Jose also worked in Corporate Retail Operations and Human Resources at Macy’s.
Jose sits on various economic development boards. He serves as the secretary of the Board of Directors of Asian Neighborhood Design and sits on the Bay Area Business Advisory Board of Directors of the Consulate General of Mexico in San Francisco. Jose is also a member of Board of Directors of the YMCA of The East Bay and OBDC Small Business Finance. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree from UC Davis, and Entrepreneur Management Development Certification from the UCLA Anderson School of Management.
When he is not busy doing community development work, he enjoys coaching and playing soccer.
Kathryn Boyle
Kathryn comes from a long line of Nebraska farmers, though she grew up in various places throughout the US, mostly Virginia. She came to the Bay Area in 1982 to attend UC Berkeley, where she received a BA in Political Science and Women’s Studies. Her career in non-profit organizations has focused on community based public health strategies to create policy and systems changes to create conditions in which all can be healthy. She worked for 13 years with the Public Health Institute as Program Director/Chief Administrative Officer of the Partnership for the Public’s Health, where she managed a five year initiative to disperse over $24 million in funding to more than 50 grantees throughout California. She currently works at Kaiser Permanente, Community Benefit Programs, managing grants that focus on advocacy and environmental changes to support healthy eating and active living.
Rene Cage (bio coming soon)
Evette Brandon (bio coming soon)
Scott Atthowe (bio coming soon)
Mia Birdsong (bio coming soon)
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Past Staff & Board Members
Brahm Ahmadi- Co-Founder and Executive Director (2002 - Jan. 2009)
Brahm Ahmadi is an Iranian-American who grew up in Los Angeles and now lives in Oakland, CA. He has a B.A. in Sociology from the University of California and is an MBA candidate at the Presidio School of Management. Brahm combines social enterprise, cooperative economics, urban agriculture, public education and youth development to build healthy and stable inner city communities. He is also Executive Director of the North Oakland Land Trust, which preserves properties in North Oakland for the exclusive purpose of community gardening. Brahm is active in worker-owned cooperative business development and organizing for economic democracy and was a founding board member of the US Federation of Worker Cooperatives.
Carina Wong (Board Member)
Gates Foundation
Carina Wong is presently working as part of the College Ready Leadership Team at the Gates Foundation. She has worked in education policy at the national, state and local levels for over 15 years. She has worked on standards, assessment and curriculum reforms in several districts, including in Philadelphia as part of a $150 million Annenberg Challenge Grant. Previously, she served as Director of Youth Policy and Education at the Washington DC-based National Center on Education and the Economy. She is a former Peace Corps Volunteer and holds a master’s degree in education policy from Stanford University and a master’s in teaching from George Washington University. Carina was also Executive Director of the Chez Panisse Foundation from November 2005 until 2008.
Tynisa Zawde (Board Member)
Tynisa Zawde grew up the majority of her life in West Oakland. She attended the University of California, Davis and received her B.A. in Political Science with a double minor in Communication and African American Studies. Ms. Zawde is now working towards her Master in Public Administration (MPA) at San Francisco State University. Out of college, Tynisa worked as a Health Academy Fellow for the Greenlining Institute. In addition, at The San Francisco Foundation, she helped fund numerous non-profits associated with the West Oakland Initiative and Arts and Culture Program. Ms. Zawde is currently a Senior Policy Associate for the Early Childhood Initiative at Safe Passages, an agency committed to advocating for young children, youth, and their families with a special emphasis on vulnerable populations within Alameda County.
Robert Ogilve (Board Member)
Robert Ogilvie directs Planning for Healthy Places at Public Health Law & Policy. Over the past 15 years he has worked extensively in community development and planning to help improve low- and middle-income neighborhoods. Prior to joining PHLP, he served as a faculty member in the Dept. of City and Regional Planning at UC Berkeley, and as Director of Volunteers at the Partnership for the Homeless in New York City. He has also worked as a consultant to city and county governments, nonprofit organizations, and neighborhood activists. He is the author of "Voluntarism, Community Life, and the American Ethic" (Indiana University Press, 2004), an examination of what motivates people to participate in volunteer programs. Robert is a graduate of Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, and the University of South Carolina, and he holds a PhD in political science from Columbia University.
