Supriya Lopez Pillai, Executive Director, is a writer and mother who has been dedicated to movement building in the US and in the Global South for more than 20 years. Supriya founded Vision & Ink in 2011, a consulting group that has assisted social justice movement partners in the US and abroad. From 2008-2012, she served as the Executive Director of the Funders’ Collaborative on Youth Organizing (FCYO) to advance youth organizing as a strategy for greater social transformation. Prior to FCYO, she was the Program Officer for Asia at the International Women’s Health Coalition where she focused on health and human rights movements led by women, girls and LGBTQI communities across the Middle East, South and Southeast Asia. In 1999, Supriya received a fellowship from the International Foundation for Education and Self-Help to better understand rural women’s collectives in Guinea. In 2002 she joined PSI, an international public health organization, working and living in West Africa and Cambodia. She has served on the boards of the Global Fund for Women, Political Research Associates and the Third Wave Foundation. Her writing has appeared in publications such as Gender and Development and The Nation. From 1997-2001, she was a Senior Editor and Political Editor of the iconic Stress Magazine, a groundbreaking publication dedicated to hip-hop and the contemporary socio-political issues of the time. Supriya is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis and Columbia University. She currently resides in Oakland, California with her partner and two daughters.

Jenny George, Program Officer, holds a B.A. in Human Ecology and an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Alongside her work in transformative social change, she is also a poet. Jenny has been with Hidden Leaf since 2009.

Diana Abellera, Finance and Operations Administrator, has been fighting for social justice and environmental justice throughout her career. She has held various roles at non-profit organizations such as the Environmental Justice and Climate Change Initiative, Urban Habitat, People’s Grocery, and more. She served as Chief Operating Officer with Community Alliance with Family Farmers (CAFF) and as a co-chair on the Board of Directors with FACES (Filipino-American Coalition for Environmental Solidarity). She established Abellera Consulting in 2017 to help small and mid-sized organizations with developing their fundraising programs, writing grants, and building capacity to support impactful programs in communities throughout the country.

Karie Brown, Board Chair, is the VP of Grants for Comic Relief USA, a new fundraising and grantmaking institution that is working to end child poverty in the US and around the world, primarily through the Red Nose Day campaign. Prior to this role, through KB Consulting, Karie worked with nonprofit and philanthropic organizations to promote social change effective philanthropy. Over the course of fourteen years with a range of clients, she provided guidance in strategic planning, program design, and organizational development as well as executive coaching for board and senior staff members. Prior to her consulting practice, Karie was the Director of Programs for Tides Foundation, a donor-advised grantmaking institution; the Director of Programs for Katalysis North/South Development Partnership; and the first Executive Director for International Development Exchange. Karie has a Masters degree in regional planning from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an undergraduate degree in economics from Stanford. She currently serves as a trustee for Hidden Leaf Foundation, Yoga Dana Foundation, California Yoga Teachers Alliance, and the Reynolds & Brown Corporation. She is a dedicated yoga practitioner and an occasional yoga teacher. She derives sustenance from nature and her three grown children.

Tara Brown, Board Treasurer and former Executive Director, began her work for transformational social change with a Masters Degree in Integral Anthropology (after ten years working in international community development). For six years, she then directed the Institute for Deep Ecology, which articulates a mind/body/spirit worldview addressing many of today’s pressing social and environmental quandaries. Tara directed Hidden Leaf for 17 years. During this time, she also helped co-found the Seasons Fund for Social Transformation, a collaborative fund advancing transformative leadership for movement building. Her current passions include surfing and parenting her 22-year-old son.

Kristen Stinnett-Brown, Board member on sabbatical, graduated from Stanford University in 1989 receiving a Bachelor’s degree in Human Biology with an emphasis on Environmental Science and Policy. Since then she has worked for a number of outdoor and environmental organizations, including the National Wildlife Federation, the Environmental Law Foundation, San Mateo Outdoor Education School, and Outward Bound. With Pacific Crest Outward Bound, Kristen served as a wilderness instructor for five years and then as Associate Program Director of the Oregon & Idaho Programs for four years. Most recently, she directed Project Management for Plan It Solar, a locally-owned solar company based in the Sierra Nevada foothills. Kristen has been dedicated to inner reflection since her early 20’s, engaging in practices guided by organizations such as Temenos and Diamond heart, as well as through yoga and nature. Kristen’s primary focus is now on the deep practice of raising her two children.

The true revolutionary is guided by strong feelings of love.  -Che Guevera