CACLTN STAFF
Leo Goldberg: Co-Director For Policy And Capacity Building
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Leo Goldberg is Co-director for Policy and Capacity Building at the California Community Land Trust Network where he advocates for affordable, community-owned housing and facilitates peer-to-peer learning and program development for the state’s twenty-four Community Land Trusts. Prior to returning to California, Leo was Policy and Research Manager at the Center for NYC Neighborhoods where he led work on countering speculative real estate practices, addressing the racial wealth gap, and establishing pathways to homeownership for low-income New Yorkers. He was also a board member of the Cooperative Economics Alliance of New York City. Prior to obtaining a graduate degree in Urban Planning, Leo worked on housing policy in both domestic and international contexts with a focus on equitable development, zoning, and gentrification and organized tenants in Central Brooklyn. He holds a B.A. in History and Urban Studies from Columbia University and a master’s degree in City Planning from MIT.
Lydia Lopez: Co-Director for Organizing and Partnerships
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Lydia Lopez joined the CA CLT Network in 2022, supporting the network’s curriculum, policy, convening, and technical assistance programs to members. Prior to this role, she was Executive Director at La Raza Centro Legal, where she supported access to affordable housing and civil rights through legal programs. She has worked with both tenants and homebuyers, and designed and implemented Habitat for Humanity’s Credit Repair Program, which was launched concurrently in San Francisco (Bayshore neighborhood) and other Bay Area cities. Lydia has also worked with immigrants seeking asylum and family reunification, and conducted Flores Settlement monitoring of detention conditions. She believes in strategic partnerships and consulting indigenous populations through collaborations that could create lasting impact by promoting mutual education and change. She has served on the boards of CSC, La Raza Centro Legal, Centro del Pueblo, and NISGUA, and is currently serving on the board of USSen. Lydia grew up in Guatemala City and Caye Caulker, Belize, and holds a BA in Political Science from Stanford University and from UC Berkeley School of Law.
Shirley Kawafuchi: Program Manager
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Shirley (they/them) is a queer, trans, nonbinary international adoptee, renter, and lifelong Angeleno. With 6 years of nonprofit and organizing experience, they are a program leader and community-builder at heart. Most recently, they managed membership and annual giving at The Soraya, raising over $500,000 and creating a space for joy and connection amidst a pandemic.
They hold a B.A. in Political Science from UCLA, a certificate in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion from Cornell University, and a Grantwriting and Administration certificate from Cal State Dominguez Hills. They are excited to work towards a better future for land use and housing, one that is deeply rooted in community-led decision making and coalition building.
In their spare time, they enjoy reading romance and fantasy novels, getting wildly excited about feline behavior and enrichment, and resource-sharing under capitalism.
CACLTN Board Members
Nazir Abuyounes:
LiBRE
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Nazir Abuyounes is the Director of the Housing for All Long Beach CLT and has called Long Beach home for the past 14 years, working in nonprofit and collective spaces to promote community ownership, collective care, and mutual aid models where they live. Nazir is devoted to community ownership practices that center the leadership of those directly impacted—people organizing to build collective power, prevent displacement and gentrification, stabilize neighborhoods, and take back community control. They bring their extensive experience in organizing, nonprofit management, and community lawyering and economic development to the CLT work in Long Beach.
Sharayah Alexander:
Eden CLT
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Sharayah is a dedicated Community Coordinator at Eden Community Land Trust, serving since 2021. With a deep understanding of the Bay Area, including Hayward, Oakland, San Francisco, Concord, and Vallejo, she has witnessed firsthand the systemic injustices that many encounter. Sharayah’s passion for social justice has fueled her activism from an early age, and she remains committed to effecting positive change. In her free time, she enjoys hiking with her family and exploring her newfound passion for herbalism.
Brisa Aviles:
Tierras Indigenas CLT
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Brisa was born in San Diego and raised between Tijuana, San Ysidro, and Chula Vista. She is a founding board member of Tierras Indigenas Community Land Trust, an organization dedicated to fighting gentrification and displacement by providing stable, dignified housing for families and communal spaces to afford opportunities for economic sovereignty and community building. Brisa became radicalized in the housing movement when her grandmother’s house of 30+ years unexpectedly burned down due to a negligent landlord. From this moment forward, Brisa became an organizer through the CLT movement. She has experience working with community-based organizations on projects related to affordable housing, transportation, public health, and environmental justice. She holds a BA in International Development Studies from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA).
Jen Collins:
Oakland CLT
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Jen Collins is Operations and Stewardship Manager at the Oakland Community Land Trust and board secretary for the California CLT Network. She and her family are also OakCLT homeowners. Prior to joining OakCLT’s staff, Jen served as a resident representative on the OakCLT board of directors.
Yaynicut Franco:
Wukchumni Tribe
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Yaynicut Franco serves as the Vice-Chairperson of the Wukchumni Council of Visalia, CA. She comes from a long line of strong Wukchumni, Yowlumni, and Tachi Yokuts women and continues to lead her community in her role as the Director of Culture and Land Stewardship for the Wukchumni Tribe. Yaynicut is a cultural practitioner and ceremonial leader that dedicates her time to preserving and revitalizing traditional life ways, language, and traditional ecological knowledge of the Wukchumni Yokuts by bringing elders, youth, and adults together for storytelling, land stewarding, and ceremonies throughout the seasons. Yaynicut is Board Chairperson for Quaker Oaks Farm and a Board Member for FoodLink for Tulare County. Yaynicut collaborates with various organizations throughout California to uplift the generations of land based and community focused work led by the Wukchumni Yokuts to fundraise for elder housing, the Wukchumni Farms food sovereignty project, youth programs, and for land back efforts.
Roberto Garcia-Ceballos: Fideicomiso Comunitario Tierra Libre
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Roberto Garcia-Ceballos works as the Tierras Comunitarias Co-director at Fideicomiso Comunitario Tierra Libre and Community Power Collective. He has been involved in housing justice for thirteen years, starting his journey as a community organizer at Springfield No One Leaves, an eviction defense organization in Springfield, Massachusetts. While there, he learned about eviction defense and organized several bank accountability campaigns. In 2015, Roberto joined the East LA Community Corporation (ELACC) as an organizer, where he worked on equitable development campaigns related to demanding 100% affordable housing on vacant Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Agency land. In 2018, he co-founded Fideicomiso Comunitario Tierra Libre (FCTL), which focuses on decommodifying land and housing in East LA and Boyle Heights. Roberto‘s latest initiative is the Community Power Collective (CPC), which he co-founded during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The organization aims to build a mass movement that centers on people directly impacted by racial and economic injustice.
Zerita Jones:
JEPWA CLT
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Zerita Jones is a born Angeleno, mother of 5 and grandmother of 7. She attended school, worked, and has lived in the Baldwin Hills/Crenshaw community for over 40 years. Now, a retired Grocery Manager for Boys Markets, Lucky’s Stores and Albertsons, Zerita regularly hosts “Renters Rights” workshops for the Baldwin/Leimert/Crenshaw, local of the Los Angeles Tenants Union, which she co-founded.
As a dynamic voice in housing justice advocacy in the face of widespread gentrification in the affluent, primarily Black and Brown Baldwin Hills community, Zerita is also Board Vice-Chairperson of the Liberty Community Land Trust (Crenshaw Corridor, South Central Los Angeles) and Executive Director of the JEPWA Community Land Trust (Jeffferson Exposition Park West Adams).
Oscar Monge:
T.R.U.S.T South LA
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Oscar Monge is a native Angeleno aspiring to stabilize gentrifying neighborhoods through community building/control. He’s worked at T.R.U.S.T. South LA as Environmental Planner, Community Development Manager, and currently as Associate Director of Community Development to support multifamily housing, leadership development, and operations. He brings a wealth of experience working with nonprofits and the public sector, focusing on improving the quality of life of inner-city residents. His passion for social/environmental justice started early on at the LA Conservation Corps, where he envisioned his underserved community beautified with environmental work and youth economic empowerment, inspiring him to work with LA’s inner-city youth increasing access to education and job training. Oscar is currently Board Chair of the California Community Land Trust Network, and collaborates with the Cypress Park Neighborhood Council’s Land Use and Housing Committee.
Maribel Nunez:
Inland Equity CLT
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Maribel Nunez is the Executive Director of the Inland Equity Community Land Trust. Maribel is the 1st generation daughter of an immigrant family. She was born in Bellflower, CA. She is the 1st member of her family to graduate from highschool and the 1st member of her family to graduate from college. Maribel earned a Master’s degree in History from Cal State L.A. While teaching History at Riverside Community College she became the Inland Empire organizer with California Partnership in 2010. She became the executive director of California Partnership in 2016 and has transitioned California Partnership into the Inland Equity Partnership to focus on the Inland Empire. The work has further focused on the two main drivers of poverty in California, housing and healthcare costs. The Inland Equity CLT is an initiative to address the costs of housing and her work for a single payer health care system is to solve the disparities in health care.
Hope Williams:
San Francisco CLT
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Hope Williams is the Co-Director of the Radical Real Estate Law School and a legal apprentice through the Sustainable Economies Law Center. As a black queer woman in the Bay Area, she is devoted to housing rights and organizing people-power to fight the oppressive white supremacist regime. She spends most of her time making sure that the law is accessible to the people. Hope serves as the Board President for the San Francisco Community Land Trust and Governance Director for East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative. Her background includes managing political campaigns, organizing within the boycott division of UniteHere!, organizing endorsements for Berkeley’s Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act, and coalescing with tenants’ rights organizations. In her spare time, she trains people on how to organize coordinated acts of civil disobedience.
Ian Winters:
Northern California Land Trust
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Ian Winters has served as Executive Director of the Northern California Land Trust since 2002 and is a long-term CLT & coop resident. Professionally he has over 10-years of experience in sustainable construction and architecture as well as community activism and organizational development. He trained as a photographer/filmmaker and art/architectural historian at Tufts University and the Boston Museum School and graduate architecture/design work at the San Francisco Institute of Architecture. Outside of the CLT world, he maintains an active life as a working artist.