FII Staff & Board

Staff

Maurice Lim Miller, President and CEO
Maurice is Founder and CEO of the Family Independence Initiative. Previously he ran a successful community development agency in San Francisco and Oakland and was honored by President Clinton for his work. Maurice sits on the boards of the California Endowment and the Hitachi Foundation.

Michelle Chao, Program and Operations Director
Michelle has worked at the Family Independence Initiative since six months after its inception. During which time, she completed her studies for a Master’s in Business Administration/ Management at Cal State University, Hayward in 2004. Michelle is a native of Oakland, California, where she is a committee member of the Iu Mien Scholarship Fund since 2000. She was a member of the Board of Directors of the Lao Iu Mien Cultural Association (LIMCA) from 2004-2006. Michelle continues to work to help her community preserve its culture and language through various events and projects.

Mia Birdsong, Vice President
Mia Birdsong grew up on the East Coast surrounded by accomplished writers, journalists, lawyers, photographers, educators, artists, and activists. Mia brings to her work at FII a wide-range of professional experience from her time in the publishing world and a decade spent in the field of youth health education. She deeply committed to social justice and anti-oppression work. Mia sits on the board of directors of People’s Grocery and the Young Women’s Health Leadership Program Advisory Board. She lives with her family in West Oakland.

Jorge Blandón, Vice President
Prior to joining FII in 2009, Jorge worked for seven years in the financial securitization sector. His experience focused in underwriting bond financings for U.S. municipal entities, investor owned and publicly owned utilities as well as infrastructure projects the U.S. and Latin America. Jorge also has experience in starting and raising capital for a small business in Colombia of which he is a partner. He holds an M.A. in International Relations with a focus in Business Management from the University of California in San Diego and has a B.A. from Amherst College. Jorge is a Woodrow Wilson Fellow from Princeton University.

Boston Demonstration Project Staff

Jesús Gerena, Director
Jesús comes to FII with more than a decade of experience working with youth, most recently as Deputy Director of the Hyde Square Task Force. Jesús is a member and Co-Chair of the English for New Bostonians Oversight Committee, and is a former board member of City-Life/Vida Urbana, where he served as its Treasurer and President. He is also a former elected member of the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Council, and served as its Chair. Jesús was recognized by the Boston Celtics with the “Heroes Among Us Award” (2004), and as a Neighborhood Fellow by The Philanthropic Initiative (2005).

San Francisco Demonstration Project Staff

Karen Smith, Family Liaison
Karen Smith is a Bay Area native, mother of 5, and college student. For the past 4 years, she has volunteered as a community leader and worked as a community organizer on social justice issues centered on poverty in the area of welfare rights, economic equality, and education. In May 2006 she received an Associate of Arts Degree in Liberal Arts from Chabot College, and is currently attending UC Berkeley’s College of Letters and Science to pursue her Bachelors Degree in Social Welfare. She plans to complete a Masters Degree in Public Policy to facilitate her work as an agent for social change.

Roberto Aparicio, Family Liaison
Roberto Aparicio is a San Francisco native. He graduated with a degree in International Relations and Politics from University of San Francisco. Roberto has worked with incarcerated youths and their families for the past eight years. He has participated in a number of youth seminars, served as a moderator for the first ever Youth Summit and was also a panelist in a discussion about San Francisco gangs on KALW Radio. Roberto continues to work hard to provide services to arrested youth and to educate society about how to support them more effectively.

FII Community Fellowship Fellows

Lizeth Gomez, a mother of two, is originally from Mexico. She recently renewed her career path by becoming an assistant teacher and completing her GED. Since 2002, Lizeth has been an active volunteer at her Catholic church. She’s been a Community Leader in her church since 2006. Lizeth plans to get a Masters in teaching, in addition to learning sign language and perfecting her English.

Tamara Jones is the mother of three, and lifelong resident of Bayview Hunter’s Point. She has worked for over 15 years in the San Francisco Unified School District as a preschool teacher, and is currently a school bus driver for Laidlaw providing transportation to student’s throughout the District. She has worked as an informal community leader providing resources to parents to increase parent engagement in the schools and working to secure neighborhood and school safety.

Tiffany Lofton is has one child, and works as a demolition supervisor providing referrals for construction jobs and training in the greater Bay Area. She has used her capacity as a Site Supervisor to improve the labor participation of men and women who have been dislocated and underrepresented in the labor force.

Gaynor Siataga is a former gang member who uses her past experience to improve the life conditions of youth in some of the toughest neighborhoods of San Francisco. She has organized citizens in Bayview-Hunter’s Point around issues involving environmental justice and economic inclusion. She is currently a leader in AIGA, a collaboration of various Asian Pacific Islander organizations that work on community issues. She is also a leader in Caravan for Justice, an initiative that was organized to overturn unjust laws, policies, and planning affecting individual freedoms.

Board

Charles (Chuck) Parrish, Board President
Chuck Parrish is founder and former Executive VP of Phone.com (now Openwave), former VP of Contel Cellular, GTE Mobile (now Verizon), Board member of CFED, board member of Novarra Inc of Itasca and former Chief of Staff, US Department of the Interior in the Carter Administration.

John (Tony) Mayer, Board Treasurer
Tony Mayer is retiring Managing Director and CEO of J.P. Morgan Capital Corporation. Mr. Mayer is a Trustee of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. He is also a Director of Public/Private Ventures, Expansion Capital Partners, and a number of private companies.

Robert (Bob) Friedman
Bob Friedman is founder and chair of the board of the Corporation for Enterprise Development (CFED) and former member of the Levi Straus corporate board. Bob also sits on the boards of the National Fund for Enterprise Development, EARN, the Rosenberg Foundation, the Friedman Family Foundation and the Koshland Committee of the San Francisco Foundation. Bob has been central in the development of the IDA matched savings accounts and an asset agenda for this country.

Sherry M. Hirota
Sherry Hirota is chief executive officer of Asian Health Services, based in Oakland. Formerly a founding member of The California Endowment’s Board of Directors, Sherry was appointed member of the Advisory Committee on Research on Minority Health of the ORMH, National Institutes of Health along with many other appointments. Sherry has a long history of working in some of our most difficult communities.

Maurice Lim Miller
Non-Voting member
Maurice Lim Miller is Founder and CEO of the Family Independence Initiative. Previously he ran a successful community development agency in San Francisco and Oakland and was honored by President Clinton for his work. Maurice sits on the board of the California Endowment and the Hitachi Foundation.

External Members

Jack Burns, Finance Committee Member
Jack Burns joined P/PV in January 2006 as Senior Vice President for Finance and Administration. Prior to joining P/PV, Mr. Burns served as controller of Special Olympics- Pennsylvania for several years. He has more than 20 years’ experience in various global and domestic corporate finance capacities, including for Tower Perrin, Glaxo SmithKline and PNC Bank. In addition, for the last 25 years, Mr. Burns has served as an instructor at Philadelphia-area colleges and universities. Mr. Burns holds an MBA in Marketing and International Business and a BBA in Finance from Temple University. He is currently enrolled in a doctoral program at a Philadelphia-area university.