Staff & Board

Staff

Jessie Spector, Executive Director

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Jessie Spector has worked at Resource Generation since graduating from Wesleyan University in 2008. Over the past 4+ years, Jessie has played a variety of roles at RG including office manager, chapter organizing, developing the campaign for tax justice, and facilitating East and West coast leadership trainings in her role as Program Director. As an activist and  donor, Jessie participates in several innovative cross-class models of wealth redistribution: the Criminal Justice Initiative, a circle of donors and activists who use consensus to fund the transformation of the criminal justice system in the US, and the Solidarity Family of POOR Magazine, a cohort of young people with wealth learning from and fundraising for POOR and the project of Homefulness, a permanent and sustainable pilot model of co-housing for homeless people. Jessie is constantly inspired by the power of organizing within her own community of young people with wealth and class privilege in partnership with people working for justice from all class backgrounds. She is in particular awe of the personal and familial deepening she has experienced and gets to witness within the RG community. When not at work you will find Jessie riding her bike, watching Downton Abbey, baking rosemary bread, or boogying on the dance floor.

Michael Gast, Associate Director

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. | 415 713 4942
Michael Gast is the associate director of Resource Generation (RG). Mike has been involved with Resource Generation since 2002, when he attended his very first RG program, the Making Money Make Change Retreat. Over his many years with RG, Mike has become an experienced social change philanthropist, donor organizer and fundraiser. He co-coordinated the Movement Generation Support Committee, a donor circle supporting young progressive leaders in the Bay Area, and has led multiple young donor delegations to events such as the U.S. Social Forum and multiple Council on Foundations conferences. Over the last ten years, Mike has organized hundreds of young people with wealth and young family foundation trustees to move from isolation to action, in support of movements for social change. He is a talented facilitator and educator with years of experience leading programs, workshops and trainings on topics from environmental justice to creating a giving plan. Mike lives in Oakland, loves the Seattle Quake Rugby Football Club, and is a graduate of Vassar College.

nitikaraj_staff_photoNitika Raj, National Organizer

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. | 206 407 5591

Nitika Raj first got involved with Resource Generation in Seattle, Washington as part of a cross-class giving circle, a partnership between Social Justice Fund Northwest and RG. Collectively, a cohort of 18 members donated $90,000 and raised an additional $50,000, which was granted to 12 grassroots social change organizations. Nitika went on to join her first praxis group, and eventually the Seattle chapter's leadership team to focus on mobilizing young people of color with wealth. She joined staff in January 2012, and is excited to work at the intersection of racial oppression and class privilege to move communities of color towards wholeness. Her "giving" (returning of wealth) supports the transformation and independence of women and LGBTQ communities of color, embodied healing practices and ending violence. Nitika is deeply spiritual, wildly hopeful, and a writer and dancer. Her family lives in Kuwait, England, India, and the U.S. and they are often perplexed but mostly very proud of her.

Contact me about organizing people of color with wealth, starting an affinity based praxis group, In Our Image (an upcoming book for young people of color with wealth who believe in social change), or about potential partnerships for moving resources.

Zara Chaudary, Operations Manager

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Zara Chaudary joined RG in March of 2012, bringing with her boundless amounts of energy and idealism. Although she is pre-med, as an undergraduate at Columbia University she studied Anthropology and Women's Studies with the hopes of better understanding the complicated cross-cultural definition of woman. Along the way, she was joyfully immersed into the non-profit world through Jumpstart and City Year, both of which focused on the educational disparity within the US. After 5 years of educationally-focused non-profit work, Zara wanted to switch gears to be more involved in the larger social change movement happening today. She is the epitome of a New Yorker, living every day to truly discover what the limits of multi-tasking can be. Zara's zest for life comes in handy as she is a Zumba instructor who, when not happily alphabetizing and numerically coordinating vast amounts of spreadsheets, can be found choreographing new dances on the subway. She hopes to return to medical school in the future to continue her life mission of positively impacting lives of others.

Contact me if you would like further information about Resource Generation and how you can support us in the work we do.

Sarah Abbott, National Organizer 

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.  | 507 301 8688

Sarah Abbott is a national organizer for Resource Generation. Sarah has been involved with RG since 2009, when in her senior year at Wesleyan University she first attended the Making Money Make Change conference. She is a founding member of the Arizona Migrant Justice Giving Collective, a cross-class giving project that supports grassroots migrant justice organizing in Arizona. She has also been an RG chapter leader in Minneapolis. Sarah is passionate about developing the ability of young people with wealth to fully align their skills and resources with the social movements they believe in. As a donor, Sarah is committed to supporting grassroots organizing that builds power in communities most affected by injustice. She is a midwesterner at heart and by choice, raised in small-town Minnesota and currently residing in vibrant Minneapolis. When she's not organizing, you'll find Sarah aerobicizing at her local YWCA or breaking it down on the dance floor.

Contact me If you want to get involved in Resource Generation and live in one of our chapter cities.

Tiffany Ann Brown, Making Money Make Change Retreat Director 

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Tiffany Ann Brown joined the Resource Generation team in late 2012 as the new Making Money Make Change Retreat Director, after having an organizational crush on RG since 2003.  From 2002 – 2010 Tiffany coordinated dozens of events for young leaders (ages 18-35), nationally and internationally.   One key program actually began as a partnership with RG and worked with young people with exceptional wealth or fame to leverage their privilege for social change.  She spent years inspired by a community of activists, and decided to take a break from the “sector” to focus on urban homesteading and music.  During this time Tiffany made everything from sausage to lard soap, canned, preserved and crafted.  She also spent a year DJing at a San Francisco bar, hosting a weekly jazz night called No Room For Squares (all vinyl, all the time!).  In addition, she expanded her event-planning portfolio through organizing events on reproductive rights, a wedding and a string of urban homesteading events that merged music and local food called Down Homes Style.  Now Tiffany happily splits her time between RG and making yogurt, having learned that life is about striking a delicate and loving balance of being out in the world and cultivating rich systems that support a relationship to home.  

Contact me about Making Money Make Change. 

Isaac Lev Szmonko, Campaign Organizer
 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. | 510 842 7834

Isaac Lev Szmonko is the Campaign Organizer for Resource Generation.  Isaac Lev grew up in Waltham, Massachusetts, went to school at Wesleyan University, and has lived in Oakland since 2008.  Most of his campaign experience comes from his work with Critical Resistance, an organization that works to end the use of imprisonment, surveillance, and policing to address social, economic, and political problems.   When he is not fighting to tax the rich and abolish the prison industrial complex, Isaac can often be found writing poetry, singing, reading fantasy novels, or frolicking outdoors. 

Contact me about getting involved in RG's campaign work!

National Board of Advisors

  • Katrina Schaffer (co-chair), Lexington School of the Deaf, and Filmmaker
  • Sam Seidel (co-chair), Educator, Hip-Hop Artist, and Published Author
  • Mika Albright, The Northwest Network of Bisexual, Trans, Lesbian, and Gay Survivors of Abuse
  • Walter Barrientos
  • Lori Choi, Veris Wealth Partners
  • Heather Davis, Registered Nurse
  • Sha Grogan-Brown, Grassroots Global Justice Alliance
  • Sarah Insel
  • Irene Kao, Tides Foundation
  • Virginia Leavell
  • Braeden Lentz, The Urban Justice Center
  • Nakisha Lewis, The Schott Foundation for Public Education
  • Mario Lugay, The New American Leaders Project & The Mitchell Kapor Foundation
  • Zeke Spier, Social Justice Fund NW
  • Liz Sullivan
  • Jen Willsea, Interaction Institute for Social Change 

Fellows


 

Matthew Guidarelli

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Matt is passionate about cultivating and empowering informed, confident leaders capable of driving social change. As a Fellow with Resource Generation and Confluence Philanthropy, he is responsible for coordinating and advancing the Next Gen Fellowship Program in Mission-Related Investing, a collaboration between Confluence Philanthropy and Resource Generation.  Prior to joining Confluence, Matthew founded Hope in One - Colorado’s first nonprofit organization dedicated to assisting families with the cost of healthcare accrued by their children. He launched Hope in One as a sophomore in college where he also designed and introduced a service-learning program empowering children to be agents of change, along with a novel research initiative to improve the recovery rates in pediatric patients undergoing invasive procedures. Matthew’s experience also includes designing performance measurement and evaluation tools for one of New York City’s largest cultural institutions, in addition to nonprofit capacity building. A Southern California native, Matthew is an avid athlete, surfer, and cook, and finds great joy in completing more than half the clues on a given crossword puzzle. He is currently pursuing his MPA in Public and Nonprofit Management and Policy from NYU’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service.

Betsy Edasery

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Bets is excited to join Resource Generation as a new fellow working on organizing young people of color with wealth/access to class privilege to use their resources for progressive social change.  She strongly believes that working toward racial, social and economic justice requires: • reducing barriers and increasing access to resources for low-income, communities of color in particular • leveraging resources, networks and funding to bring to scale innovative and impactful community development programs • addressing root disparities through cross-sector partnerships and multi-lens approaches • supporting leadership development within underrepresented groups, particularly women of color leadership • engaging in participatory action research and community-based strategies of community empowerment supplemented by advocacy and policy change. She recently graduated from UCLA with a Masters degree in Urban and Regional Planning with a focus on community development, housing and design. While at UCLA, she was part of a student group called Planners of Color for Social Equity and she also worked with a range of organizations including Southern California Grantmakers, Global SoCal, South Asian Network and the LA County Commission on Human Relations. Although she has years of experience in community-based, social justice organizations, she is fairly new to progressive philanthropy (less than two years) and looking forward to learning from, growing within and expanding her understanding of the field. She currently lives in Brooklyn and loves to sing (with others), read, write, find new music, bike, bake, eat, dance, and laugh…a lot.

 

anna winham

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anna is a philosophically troubled antinational interested in education and the end of capitalism. ze's also a junior at dartmouth college, purportedly majoring in english (concentration: literary criticism and theory) and linguistics (modified with anthropology and women's and gender studies), perhaps minoring in geography but ultimately in love with the history department. when not doing homework, anna helps to plan divestment campaigns, organise fair contract demonstrations, coalise, occupy, liaise, found/read leftist newspapers, and spit poems. anna is excited to work with rg and learn to leverage zer own privilege in these struggles, rather than putting "engage with privilege" on some kind of check-box to-do list.