San Francisco Education Fund Management Team

Hugh J. Vasquez M.S.W.
Executive Director

Hugh Vasquez is Executive Director of the San Francisco Education Fund and founder of the Todos: Sherover Simms Alliance Building Institute. Driven by a deep sense of fairness, equity, and justice, Hugh has emerged as one of the nation's top leaders in working with individuals, groups, and institutions to help transform our society into one where equality, fairness, and justice are realities for all. For over 20 years, Hugh has worked with youth and adults in hundreds of organizations, helping them learn how to build coalitions across race, gender, religious, and class backgrounds and become advocates for eliminating discrimination in our society. Hugh is a primary cast member in the award-winning film The Color of Fear, lead facilitator in the film Skin Deep, a documentary on race relations with college students, and advisor to It's Elementary, a film addressing homophobia with children. He has co-authored the books No Boundaries and Making Allies Making Friends: A Curriculum for Middle Schools, as well as published various articles on strengthening cultural roots and eliminating privileged systems.

Donna McMillion
Director of Development

Donna joined the Education Fund as Development Director in September 2007 after serving approximately 15 years as Executive Director of three education funds in Pleasanton, Hayward, and Dublin, California. She has published articles on fundraising and is co-author of a popular fundraising events book, How to Produce Fabulous Fundraising Events: Reap Remarkable Returns with Minimal Effort. She has trained at over 15 nonprofit training centers and universities across the US on the subject of fundraising. Donna has a passion for raising money for the benefit of vital education fund programs, and she looks forward to the challenge of raising much-needed funds for the benefit of San Francisco ’s students.

Peter Grace
Director of Finance

Peter joined the San Francisco Education Fund initially as a consultant and is now the Director of Finance. For many, 9/11 was a turning point as well as the tail end of the dot-com shake-out. Having walked in Afghanistan while at college, he knew he had to do something and volunteered with the American Friends Service Committee on their blanket drive for Afghan refugees. He found the Afghan Coalition in Fremont with whom the AFSC did several drives. This led to Bay Area Afghans supervising the distribution in Pakistan. He has also worked as a backpack instructor in Wyoming teaching outdoor skills for the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS). He is the Treasurer of the Sequoia Audubon Society and has served on the Board of the Friends Committee on Legislation of California. He holds a BSc in civil engineering from Bristol University and an MM from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management.

Brian Stanley
Director, Peer Resources

Brian Stanley, Ph.D. is the Director of the San Francisco Peer Resources program. Before joining the Ed Fund, Brian worked at California Tomorrow as Senior Associate for Public Education, Advocacy, and Alliance Building for the Community College Access and Equity Initiative. In this position, Brian oversaw policy development and legislative advocacy focused on developing and strengthening access and equity for vulnerable student populations in California community colleges. Prior to working at California Tomorrow, Brian spent seven years as the Director of Black Student Programs providing academic advising, advocacy, and support for Black, Latino, APA, first generation, and low-income students at Saint Mary's College of California in Moraga. Brian was born in San Francisco and attended public and private schools in San Francisco and Oakland. He graduated from Saint Mary's College of California with a B.A. and Mills College in Oakland with a Doctorate in Educational Leadership.

Cristina Valdez
Director of Policy and Professional Development

As a long-time advocate for children and youth, Cristina has worked to enhance educational opportunities for youth typically marginalized and underserved. Her commitment to supporting education equity has been evident in her work, from direct service for youth to advocating policy changes at the state level. As a Program Director at Latino Issues Forum (LIF), she lobbied state legislators to provide greater access to California ’s public colleges and universities for historically underserved communities. She conducted research for a publication by California Tomorrow on Multicultural Curricula, and has worked with youth in the Mission District of San Francisco to provide mentorship and leadership development programs through the YWCA Mission Girls Services and Coleman Advocate's Youth Making a Change Program (YMAC). In 1995 shewas recruited to launch and direct the Cross Cultural Environmental Leadership Program (XCEL); sponsored by Audubon Canyon Ranch and located at San Rafael High School. The program successfully engaged youth primarily from the Canal area of San Rafael and Marin City in learning about natural science and environmental justice. In 2003, after years of planning and collaboration with educators and a creative design team, she opened the Cross Cultural Environmental Leadership (XCEL) Academy, a college-prep charter high school in San Francisco designed to further engage students in natural science and environmental justice while preparing students for leadership. Cristina has a B.A. in Sociology from the University of California at Santa Cruz and was a Sloan Fellow for Public Policy at the University of Texas at Austin.

Elizabeth Hubbard
Assistant Director, Peer Resources

Elizabeth is the Assistant Director of the Peer Resource program, and a public school educator for the past 13 years. After she received her Master's and teaching credential from the University of Michigan, she led an innovative school/non-profit partnership, taking students in danger of dropping out and finding job placements for half their school day at a living history museum in Dearborn, Michigan. After arriving in San Francisco in 1995, she happily accepted a job as a Peer Resource Coordinator, where she could continue to work as a nontraditional teacher and train youth to be leaders. Elizabeth was a coordinator at Ben Franklin Middle School and Lowell High School before joining the Peers management team in 2003.

Jennifer Franco
Grants and Communications Manager

Jen joined the San Francisco Education Fund in May 2005, and her position as Grants and Communications Manager marks her entrance into the nonprofit world. She is a graduate of California public schools and holds a B.A. in English literature from University of California, San Diego and an M.A. in philosophy from San Francisco State University. It was her graduate work in philosophy of education, including teaching, which fueled her desire to work toward significant changes and improvements in the public school system. Jen has extensive experience writing and editing for magazines, for academia, and for pleasure; the Ed Fund's work is an ideal complement to her dedication to San Francisco, children, community responsibility, and her belief in the vital importance of public education.

Raina Meyers
Supervisor and Trainer, Peer Resources

Raina received her BA in Classics from Oberlin College amidst plenty of cornfields. Raina moved from the cold state of New York to the cold city of San Francisco where she has spent the last 11 years working with youth to address issues of oppression. She received her MA in Education and Teaching Credential from San Francisco State University. She loves working with young people and the adults that support them to create excellent and exciting changes in the education system. She also loves traveling, and so far has hit 4 of the seven continents and can't wait to get to the remaining 3!

Griselda Aceves
Office Manager

Griselda joined the Ed Fund in April 2006. She has worked for several nonprofit organizations, including the Shelter Network of San Mateo County as a Program Secretary and the San Francisco Children and Families Commission as the Administrative Coordinator. Prior to joining the Ed Fund, she was the Office Manager at the Jamestown Community Center. Her passion is working for nonprofits that focus primarily on providing services to at-risk, low-income children, youth, and families. Griselda now volunteers at Jamestown as a group leader for a support group for young people.

Jeff Issenberg
Program Manager, Teachers Leadership Institute

Jeff Issenberg is the Program Manager of the Ed Fund’s Teachers Leadership Institute. Jeff is deeply committed to working for social justice through educational change. Before joining the Ed Fund, Jeff taught at MetWest High School , a new, small, public high school in Oakland . MetWest has an innovative pedagogy centered upon students pursuing their interests and passions through internships two full days a week, small learning communities, intense teacher collaboration, and a social justice-based curriculum. Jeff came to teaching after over a decade in the youth development field, as a summer camp director, drug prevention program coordinator, diversity trainer and a trainer for a program serving former foster youth. Jeff coordinated YouthVote! in Alameda County , supported young people and their allies to organize against the Juvenile Justice Initiative in 2000, helped create and coordinate a youth commission for the Alameda County Board of Supervisors, and taught life skills to former foster youth. Jeff worked with the Todos: Sherover Simms Alliance Building Institute, where he led anti-oppression and alliance building workshops for young people and adults around race, gender, and youth issues. Jeff holds a B.A. in Cultural Anthropology from U.C. Berkeley and a social science teaching credential from Mills College.

Kelley Abraham
Public Engagement Manager

Kelley Abraham is a lifetime resident of Oakland, California. Her career as a youth advocate and community servant began in 1999 when she worked as an AmeriCorps volunteer with the Bay Area Youth Agency Consortium, in Richmond, California. She went on to work in Richmond for an additional year and then for the Oakland Unified School District as a classroom teacher’s aide and academic enrichment mentor. In addition, Kelley worked as a consultant facilitator for the Todos Institute, working with their Young Women’s Lives program and New Bridges camps. She completed her B.A. in history at San Francisco State University in May 2006.

Paul Kuzmickas
Program Associate

Paul joined the Ed Fund in March of 2007. He received his B.A. in Political Science with a minor in History from the University of California , Davis. Prior to joining the Ed Fund, he worked as a Legislative Intern in the California State Assembly for Hector De La Torre. Paul plans to pursue an M.A. in Public Policy and teach American history and government at the high school level. The Ed Fund is a wonderful opportunity and Paul is excited to work for change and progress in San Francisco ’s public schools.

Mutheu Kivuvani
Office Manager, Peer Resources

Mutheu joined San Francisco Peer Resources in January 2007. Prior to joining Peer Resources, Mutheu was Executive Coordinator for Women's Funding Network. In the past several years, she has worked for various nonprofit organizations such as the San Francisco Foundation as CFO Assistant, Employment Lawyers' Association where she was Seminar Coordinator, and Florence Crittenton Services as Executive Assistant to the CEO. During her tenure at Community Child Care Coordinating Council of Alameda County, Mutheu oversaw the delivery of childcare services for low income families. Mutheu graduated from University of San Francisco with a B.A. in Public Administration.