Board of Directors
Lisa Fujie Parks
Chair
Lisa Fujie Parks is a queer parent, public health professional, and mindfulness practitioner and teacher who is passionate about helping children and families thrive in inclusive, equitable communities. Growing up female, mixed race, and queer in the US and Japan gave Lisa an appreciation for the power of community and culture and the need for collective action to build caring and just communities.
Lisa serves in the role of an Associate Director at Prevention Institute, a national nonprofit with headquarters in Oakland, where her portfolio includes projects and initiatives focused on promoting health equity and community resilience and preventing multiple forms of violence and trauma. Lisa blends her deep knowledge of community-based public health with her commitment to community organizing and advocacy.
She has designed, implemented, and evaluated local and state-level initiatives employing policy, communications, and coalition-building strategies. She also has extensive experience providing capacity-building services, including strategic planning, curriculum development, in-person and online training and technical assistance, and facilitation of learning networks.
Koko Lin
Secretary
Koko was born in Taiwan and came to the United States when she was 16. As the oldest of 6 children, she was responsible for her siblings throughout their school years. She graduated from UC Berkeley with a Bachelors in computer science and began her career as a software engineer.
Along the way, Koko became progressively more and more involved with the API and LGBT community, first volunteering with API-PFLAG, API Wellness Center, Asian Pacific Sisters (APS), Self Help for the Elderly and the Asian Women’s Shelter as well as APLBN (Asian Pacific Lesbian Bisexual Network).
Koko is married to Margot Yapp (first in 2002, then again in 2004 and 2008) and they live in Oakland. Their daughter, Megan, was born in 2004, and they added a pet hamster, Pancake, in 2013. When she has any leisure time, Koko loves to oil paint, play tennis and golf, and continue to build a better community for LGBT people. Occasionally, she even develops software for her clients.
Ginna Brelsford
Treasurer
Originally from Juneau, Alaska, Ginna Brelsford is a highly qualified administrator with over 15 years of progressive leadership experience. A graduate of Smith College, Ginna honed her expertise in nonprofit financial and operations experience at MassEquality, Nonprofit Finance Fund, and Environmental Justice Coalition for Water before joining GSA Network in 2011.
As Co-Executive Director of GSA Network, Ginna oversees organizational human resources and operational needs in a rapidly expanding staff and infrastructure, including the opening of two regional offices outside of California. Ginna became Co-Executive Director in 2015 and has been an Arcus Foundation Leadership Fellow with her Co-ED, Geoffrey Winder. Ginna is currently one of 18 Women of Color LeadStrong Fellows through LeaderSpring Center. When not at GSA Network, Ginna enjoys spending time with her partner Jill and daughter Raven at their home in Oakland, CA.
Naomi Goldberg
Board member
Naomi grew up in the Central Valley of California and will always be a Californian at heart, but she has spent the past 12 years living in the Midwest. Currently, Naomi lives in Ann Arbor with her Libby and their son, where they enjoy hiking in all types of weather, swimming in Lake Michigan, and caring for their two dogs, two cats, and a fish.
For her entire career, Naomi has worked to advance LGBTQ policy, including for LGBTQ families, through her work first at the Williams Institute and now at the Movement Advancement Project where she is deputy director and leads the LGBTQ program. She believes strongly in the power of data to break down silos and the ability of stories to change hearts and minds.
Naomi also serves as the VP for social action for her local Jewish congregation and is the LGBTQ Liaison to the City of Ann Arbor.
Alexis Petra
Board member
Alexis was born and raised on the East Coast, and earned her M.D. from the University of Pittsburgh, where she also attended the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business for an MBA. After school, she gradually made her way out west and worked in private practice in Scottsdale, Arizona.
She is a recent transplant to the Bay Area, which has always been a dream of hers. She currently works as an Emergency Medicine Physician at Kaiser Permanente in Walnut Creek.
Alexis is an aspiring parent, and hopes to one day have a large, loving family. She is a proud LGBT activist and is excited to be helping work towards equality for all.
Nick Resnick
Board member
Nick has been working across the K-12 educational ecosystem for 15 years, seeking solutions to long-standing educational inequities. As Chief Executive Officer at Inquiry by Design (an English Language Arts curriculum company), Nick is grounded by his extensive experience as a classroom teacher, instructional coach, site administrator, and systems leader working across school districts. Coupled with Nick’s steep on-the-ground K-12 expertise is his unique experience in scaling small business models through the strategic development of programs, products, and operations.
For Nick’s entire adult life, he has had the pleasure of calling Oakland home. As a father of two young children, Nick enjoys spending time around Oakland’s regional parks and the restaurant/brewery (kid-friendly of course) scene. Previously, Nick spent much of his volunteer time as a board member and past-President of the East Bay Stonewall Democratic Club, stewarding drastic increases in club membership and fundraising. In addition to caring deeply about advancing LGBTQ+ awareness and policy, Nick spends time as a member of Oakland Unified School District’s Equitable Enrollment Working Group to identify new solutions to long-standing systemic issues around school choice and placement.
Laura Valdez
Board member
Laura Valdéz was born and grew up in El Paso, Texas on the U.S./Mexico border. Her social justice framework is rooted in the struggles she witnessed growing up as a daughter of Mexican immigrants and queer Xicana.
Laura brings over 20 years of leadership experience in nonprofit administration, public health, public policy and grassroots organizing. As a human rights activist, she has led several social justice organizations including organizations working for immigrant and LGBTQ rights. As a National Urban Fellow, she earned a Master of Public Administration degree from Bernard M. Baruch College, School of Public Affairs in New York City and was chosen as a LeaderSpring Fellow and 21st Century Fellow.
Laura believes that long-term social change in this country requires sustained commitment and leadership from those most closely impacted by pervasive inequity and injustice.
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Emeritus Board
Emeritus Board members have elected to continue their service to the Our Family Coalition community by offering insight and support on an ongoing basis, beyond the expiration of their Board term.
Chris Armijo
Emeritus Board member
Major Chris Armijo has spent over 20 years in the U.S. Army and is currently assigned to U.S. Army Medical Command, Fort Sam Houston, Joint Base San Antonio. Since 1998, Chris has held leadership and staff positions in the Army and around the world and currently serves on the Fort Sam ISD School Board. He is interested in cultural diversity and social change and brings a broad range of qualifications to include presentation skills, public relations savvy, program development, project management, community outreach, marketing/media relations, fundraising and management skills and is an OFC Emeritus Board Member. Chris has proven experience in cultural diversity and social change with strong skills in communications, business administration and finance management to drive results in mission planning, strategy implementation and bringing vision to fruition. Chris is, most importantly, the father of two precocious twin daughters.
Alma Soongi Beck
Emeritus Board member
Alma Soongi Beck is a partner in the Trusts and Estates Group and is certified by the State Board of Legal Specialization as a specialist in estate planning, trust and probate law. Prior to joining Lakin Spears, Alma was principal and founding attorney of The Beck Law Group, P.C. Alma's estate planning practice focuses on revocable living trusts, wills, and powers of attorney, which includes Medi-Cal and long-term care planning, IRA Inheritance trusts, and beneficiary controlled irrevocable trusts; for unmarried and same-sex couples, she also offers consultations on the legal and tax implications of domestic partnership, marriage, and property co-ownership. Alma has conducted public programs for Our Family Coalition (for LGBT parents and families), Gay Asian Pacific Alliance (GAPA), Asian Pacific Islander Queer Women and Transgender Community (APIQWTC), Openhouse (for LGBT Seniors), the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), Barbary Lane Senior Communities, and the Horizons Foundation. She has served on the board of Transgender Law Center, Our Family Coalition, Bay Area Lawyers for Individual Freedom (BALiF), and the Korean American Bar Association of Northern California (KABA-NC). In addition to the schools listed above, for high school, she attended Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts (1988).
Diana Buchbinder
Emeritus Board member
Until her recent retirement and move to Arizona, Diana was a human resources professional in San Francisco, working at MUNI, the Exploratorium, and most recently at the San Francisco Arts Institute. Diana was as active volunteer in the LGBTQ community and a foster care advocate before her move, and intends to explore opportunities for involvement in her new home state.
Diana holds a BA in Developmental Psychology from UC Berkeley and an MA in Marriage and Family Counseling from JFK University.
Ali Michael Canon
Emeritus Board member
Ali Michael Cannon served on Our Family Coalition's Board of Directors from 2009 to 2017. In his professional life, he serves as Associate Director of Adult Programs and Training at Rainbow Community Center of Contra Costa. He also works as an independent consultant, creating opportunities for schools to gain competency in gender and LGBT equity with particular expertise in transgender inclusion. In addition to his private consulting, Ali is a facilitator for the Anti-Defamation League, leading anti-bias and bullying prevention programs for educators, students and families. Prior to his current roles, he served as Trainings and Events Manager for Bay Area Regional Health Inequities Initiative, working collaboratively with Public Health Departments across the Bay Area to address workplace bias, and spent six years as a School District Administrator, managing state and federal grants that improved the lives of youth without equal access to education. Beyond his district position, he worked as a non-profit education manager for 20 years. Throughout his career he has been a strategic visionary, well-versed in coalition building and systems-change.
Mr. Cannon has a BA and MA in Women's Studies and continues to bring his strong feminist and anti-oppression lens to all of his endeavors. In addition to his professional expertise, he is a writer, organizer, activist, and public speaker. A recognized leader in the transgender community, he has been invited to speak on various panels, and he has organized numerous conferences and events for the Jewish, LGBTQ, and Queer Jewish communities. His writing has been published in From the Inside Out: Radical Gender Transformation, FTM and Beyond. His provocative illumination of Jewish and transgender themes can be seen in the film It’s A Boy: Journeys from Female to Male, and his essay (co-authored with TJ Michels) "Whose Side Are You On: Transgender at the Western Wall" (in Queer Jews, Routledge, 2002 and republished in Kulanu: All of Us: A Program and Resource Guide for GLBT Inclusion, URJ Press, 2007). Ali lives in Oakland with his wife, Jessica, an OUSD principal, and their teenaged son, Raffi.
Leroy Gaines
Emeritus Board member
Leroy Gaines is Executive Director at New Leadership Council. Previous to this he served nearly a decade as principal at Acorn Woodland Elementary School in Oakland Unified School District. He received his Masters in Educational Leadership at Columbia University's Teachers College, and his undergraduate degree in Africana Studies at Bowdoin College.
In 2014 he was recognized by Our Family Coalition for his leadership implementing the Welcoming Schools curriculum at Acorn Woodland, and shining a light as an advocate for inclusive and just schooling for all children and their families.
Michael Ginther
Emeritus Board member
Michael Ginther’s most important and favorite role is as Papa to Kel(aka Emma) and Audy. He and his husband adopted the kids at birth 14 and 11 years ago. They are amazing kids who are constantly surprising and delighting their parents. Michael retired when Kel was born and became a full-time dad and homemaker. Before that he worked as a staff attorney for the First District Appellate Project, primarily advising court appointed attorneys in indigent criminal appeals. He also taught for 10 years at the New College of California School of Law. He has volunteered with many San Francisco community groups including ACT UP, Men Overcoming Violence (MOVE), On Your Feet Foundation (OYFF) and 826 Valencia.
Michael has been married for 20 years (well, committed, then legally committed and finally married) to Jim O’Donnell, who recently retired after 35 years as a pediatrician and hospital administrator. Their family has been involved with Our Family Coalition since Kel was a baby. The OFC parenting group Mamas and Papas was their go-to place for support and advice when their kids were young and people they met in that group are some of their closest family friends to this day. They have participated in many OFC activities over the years, from Michael’s stint on the board of directors to participation in a class on parenting tweens and teens. He is honored and proud to support Our Family Coalition as a board member emeritus.
Vivienne Ming
Emeritus Board member
Dr. Vivienne Ming was named one of 10 Women to Watch in Tech by Inc. Magazine, she is a theoretical neuroscientist, entrepreneur, and author. She co-founded Socos Labs, her fifth company, an independent think tank exploring the future of human potential. Dr. Ming launched Socos Labs to combine her varied work with that of other creative experts and expand their impact on global policy issues, both inside companies and throughout our communities. Previously, Vivienne was a visiting scholar at UC Berkeley's Redwood Center for Theoretical Neuroscience, pursuing her research in cognitive neuroprosthetics.
In her free time, Vivienne has invented AI systems to help treat her diabetic son, predict manic episodes in bipolar suffers weeks in advance, and reunited orphan refugees with extended family members. She sits on boards of numerous companies and nonprofits including StartOut, The Palm Center, Cornerstone Capital, Platypus Institute, Shiftgig, Zoic Capital, and SmartStones. Dr. Ming also speaks frequently on her AI-driven research into inclusion and gender in business. For relaxation, she is a wife and mother of two.
Martin Mitchell
Emeritus Board member
Martin Mitchell is Director of Human Resources Operations for Oakland Unified School District. He's a transformational leader with a career marked by success in human resources (HR) operations, recruitment, policy development/implementation, and compensation/classification. He is a trusted strategic partner and senior leadership advisor, and highly effective around organizational policy, union relations, employment law, compliance issues, and complex legal matters. Martin received an MBA in Marketing from Clark Atlanta University, and a BA from Howard University. He and his husband are proud dads of a teenage son.
Phillip Parkerson
Emeritus Board member
Phillip Parkerson is a native southerner who grew up in the Deep South in Georgia, went to college at UNC-Chapel Hill in North Carolina, and moved to San Francisco in 1988. After college he didn’t know what he wanted to do, but he knew he wanted to do whatever it was in the most liberal, gay-accepting place he could think of. After reading Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City series, San Francisco beckoned him, and he heeded the call. In San Francisco he joined the Gay Men’s Chorus and immersed himself in the wonderful culture of the city. He started a career in financial services in 1990 and is currently the Director of Investment Operations and Principal for a large investment advisory firm headquartered in San Francisco.
A lifelong dream of becoming a father led him to become a co-parent with a close lesbian friend to two wonderful daughters born in 1995 and 2001. His oldest daughter was the second child born from the old gay/lesbian parenting group Prospective Queer Parents (PQP), which met in the 1990’s and was where he met the mother of his daughters. He originally joined the Our Family Coalition Board in the early 2000s, and served as Interim Executive Director of the organization in 2004, just prior to Judy Appel joining the organization. He is thrilled to join the Emeritus Board of Our Family Coalition to help support other LGBTQ families in the Bay Area and beyond.
Ora Prochovnick
Emeritus Board member
Ora Prochovnick is Director of Litigation and Policy at Eviction Defense Collaborative, Inc. Prior to this, Ora served as Director of Clinical and Public Interest Law Programs and as professor of law at John F. Kennedy University. For over 30 years she has specialized in LGBT family law, tenant advocacy and civil rights. Ora was a partner and founding member of Bayside Legal Advocates, a woman-run community law office in the Mission District of San Francisco, and in addition to her teaching continues a private practice in queer family law, with a focus on adoptions, family creation and protection. She has a distinguished history of community service and pro-bono activities, and has received many awards from the State Bar and local bar associations in recognition of her expertise and legal assistance, particularly to the low income community.
She served on the OFC Board for eight years, which included serving as co-chair. She has also served on numerous other boards and committees including active participation in the advisory committee of the National Center for Lesbian Rights and Camp It Up! Inc. Ora has been a frequent presenter at workshops and seminars, for both legal professionals and the general public. Without understanding how it happened Ora now finds herself the parent of two young adults, and is supported in everything she does by Rena, her life partner of over thirty-five years (and now legal spouse) and their two daughters, now in their twenties and thirties.
James Raycraft
Emeritus Board member
A San Francisco Bay Area native and proud member of Our Family Coalition, James Raycraft is a husband, father and Emeritus Board member of OFC. James proudly volunteered his time and talents with the OFC community from 2011 to 2016. James and his husband, Mark, are parents to two transracially adopted children: Malia and Felix, both of whom have been members of the family since birth. James splits his time, attention and dedication with his four passions – family, friends, work, and community. When he is not traveling on business, James can be found in Hayes Valley at Mosaic Event Management, where he serves as the firm’s CEO. When at home, you can find James in San Mateo – at the park with the kids, trying a new restaurant downtown, or exploring one of the many unique areas of the Peninsula. James graduated from Loyola Marymount University and was fortunate to study abroad during his university career and later live abroad following graduation. While living in Los Angeles, James volunteered extensively and was honored by LA mayor Richard Riordan, Teaching Tolerance (Southern Poverty Law Center) and former President Bill Clinton for his work on race relations, community building, and volunteerism. James is proud to be a part of Our Family Coalition as the organization’s work is vital to his family’s safety, wellbeing, and future. James cites traveling as his greatest pleasure; however, his husband argues that his greatest pleasure is making and completing to-do lists.
Amy Simon
Emeritus Board member
A founding partner at Goodwin Simon Strategic Research, a national public opinion research firm, Amy Simon brings three decades of political experience to her work as a pollster and communications strategist on public policy, and a winning record on ballot measure campaigns.
Amy has a special expertise in conducting innovative qualitative and quantitative research on socially controversial and emotionally complex issues, including issues relating to LGBT people and families and marriage for same-sex couples. She is a co-author of Heartwired: Human Behavior, Strategic Opinion Research and the Audacious Pursuit of Social Change, A Strategy Guide for Change-Makers.
Amy is one of the leading architects of the freedom-to-marry messaging that helped propel Maine and Washington state voters to support allowing marriage for same-sex couples in the November 2012 elections. She has also helped craft winning strategies on abortion, marijuana, medical aid-in-dying, climate change, insurance reform, and medical malpractice, as well as other issues.
Amy has a unique background among the nation’s top progressive pollsters. She was a community and field organizer, campaign manager, direct mail fundraising and persuasion consultant, campaign trainer, and political director before becoming a pollster. She brings that diverse political understanding to all of her message development and message delivery research.
Amy grew up in Boston, graduated from the University of Michigan, then spent several years working on campaigns across the nation. She worked for a decade inside the Washington, D.C. Beltway, before settling in San Francisco’s Bay Area, where she now happily resides with her wonderful, rambunctious, and spirited children.
Catherine Teare
Emeritus Board member
Catherine Teare is Senior Program Officer at California Health Care Foundation, following service as associate director of its High-Value Care team, supporting policies and care models that align with patient preferences, are proven effective, and are affordable. She leads the foundation’s work on behavioral health care, including behavioral health integration in primary care and behavioral health interventions for high-cost populations. She also manages projects related to the county role in health care delivery and oral health care. Catherine has worked at CHCF since 2011 and previously led the organization’s efforts on enrollment in public programs, with a particular focus on consumer experience.
Before joining the foundation, she worked as a consultant for safety-net health care providers, foundations, and local government, providing research and policy analysis in the areas of health care financing and delivery, public and private health insurance programs for children, adolescent health, reproductive health, HIV, and youth development. She also worked as director of policy for Children Now and as a health policy analyst for the National Center for Youth Law.
She received a bachelor’s degree in English from Yale College and a master’s degree in public policy from the University of California, Berkeley.
Deborah Wald
Emeritus Board member
Deborah H. Wald is the founder and managing partner at The Wald Law Group. A Certified Family Law Specialist, her work has evolved over the past 30-plus years from a part-time home-based family formation law practice to a multi-disciplinary full-service family law firm. Ms. Wald’s goal is to ensure that all individuals, families and children receive the highest quality legal protections available.
Ms. Wald has three specific areas of expertise: assisted reproduction law, parentage law and the law as it impacts lesbian, gay and transgender families. She has been involved in shaping California’s legislative approach to all three of these areas.
Ms. Wald also is an experienced criminal defense attorney, having started her career as a public defender and then gone on to focus on indigent criminal appeals. As a criminal defense lawyer she largely devoted her energy to protecting non-citizens facing deportation or exclusion from the United States as a result of their contacts with the criminal justice system. She also was a founder of Women Defenders, an organization providing professional, technical and social support for female criminal defense practitioners.
A teacher and author as well as a lawyer, Ms. Wald uniquely blends a practitioner’s experience with national and historical perspectives. Ms. Wald lives in San Francisco with her partner of almost 40 years and their big dog whose responsibility it is to make sure that no matter how busy Ms. Wald gets, she doesn’t forget to start each morning by taking a walk.