Bread & Roses Community Fund’s board of directors is a dynamic, energetic, and creative group of people dedicated to advancing racial and economic justice in the Philadelphia region.
Yahya Alazrak
Yahya’s experience growing up with one wealthy parent and one poor one has instilled in them a commitment to building a world where all people have three things: enough resources, power over their own lives, and community. They see Bread & Roses as having a key role in nurturing those things in the Philadelphia area, and they couldn’t be more grateful to serve that work. Yahya has been with Resource Generation since 2015 and currently serves as executive director of their work organizing young people with access to wealth towards the redistribution of wealth, land, and power.
Jill Feldstein
Jill Feldstein is a longtime community organizer with experience leading coalitions to win resources for low-income families, registering and mobilizing tens of thousands of voters, and developing the skills of community members to lead campaigns. She is the director of the Penn Center for Community Health Workers, a growing organization that hires and trains residents of West and Southwest Philadelphia to support high-risk patients of Penn Medicine. Jill believes that Bread & Roses is a unique grassroots institution in the Philadelphia region and is excited to help sustain vital movements and cultivate the next generation of organizing leadership.
Patrice Green
Co-chair
Patrice Green is a dedicated advocate, public servant, grant maker, and philanthropist for change. For 15 years, in both the nonprofit and government sectors, she has worked passionately to transform economically distressed but culturally rich communities by building innovative cross-sector partnerships. As Program Officer for Inclusive Economies at the Surdna Foundation, she seeks to actualize racial equity through wealth creation, systems accountability, and democratic participation for communities of color across the nation. Patrice knows first-hand that we rebuild neighborhoods with neighbors, hand in hand with the people who know these places best and call them home. In her free time, she can be found carrying out her passion for people, dance, and food.
Elicia Gonzales
Elicia Gonzales has worked in the social justice field for more than 20 years. She is currently the executive director of Abortion Liberation Fund of PA. She holds master’s degrees in social work and human sexuality education and is an adjunct professor for Widener University’s Center for Human Sexuality Studies and co-founder of the SEXx Collective. From 2009 to 2016 she served as executive director for GALAEI, a queer Latinx social justice organization. Elicia sits on the boards of Planned Parenthood of Southeastern PA and Camp Sojourner Girls’ Leadership Camp. She lives in Fishtown with her wife and cat and is originally from Denver.
Jean Hunt
Co-chair
Jean has lived in Philadelphia since 1965 and has been active in a variety of struggles for justice: civil rights, the anti-war movement, the grape boycott, the women’s movement, and neighborhood organizing. Jean’s career has included paid organizing, staff nursing, running a feminist women’s health center, working for Philadelphia Parks & Recreation, foundation work, and running two nonprofits: Elizabeth Blackwell Health Center for Women and the Campaign for Working Families. Jean has always supported the People’s Fund/Bread & Roses because she believes in its mission of strengthening organizing at its base, in neighborhoods, among people most directly impacted by injustice.
Trina Middleton
Treasurer
Trina Middleton’s objective in life has always been to serve others. She has worked with alumni volunteers, with high school and college students interested in being educators, and as a civil engineer. She is the director of the University of Pennsylvania alumni board services and also volunteers with organizations that focus on alumni, arts, and health care. Trina appreciates that the mission of Bread & Roses has always been to help sustain organizations that give a voice to those who’ve been ignored — something that may be more crucial now more than ever — and she is grateful for the opportunity to serve.
Andrea Pien
Secretary
Andrea Pien lives in (and loves) South Jersey and can’t go ten days without eating something with tomato sauce in it. She organizes young people with wealth and/or class privilege for the equitable distribution of land, wealth, and power with Resource Generation. As a college counselor at Friends’ Central School, she sees the ways that capitalism creates stress and anxiety in the U.S. college process. She feels seen by the term “Type B personality” and likes Euro-style board games, dumplings, and big dogs.
Susan Schewel
When Susan Schewel moved to Philadelphia 30 years ago, Bread & Roses was the first place she volunteered. Her continued support has been motivated by her belief in the power of Philadelphia grassroots organizations to create change. A women’s health activist, she was as an OB/GYN nurse, a women’s health nurse practitioner, and the executive director of the Women’s Medical Fund from 2003 to 2017. Susan has worked in patient care, research, policy, management, and fundraising. She served on the Philadelphia Board of Health, the National Women’s Health Network board, and the Congregation Mishkan Shalom board, and is excited to bring her knowledge and skills to the Bread & Roses board.
Julia Stone
Julia Stone is a microbiologist for the Philadelphia Water Department. Her social justice work has included organizing young people with wealth or class privilege to redistribute land, wealth, and power with Resource Generation and organizing tenants to fight back against unscrupulous landlords with Philly Socialists’ Solidarity Network. Julia believes that Bread & Roses’ focus on change, not charity, and democratic grantmaking moves power from people with money to people working for real change. She believes that board service with Bread & Roses will deepen her commitment to social justice.
Sandra Thompson
Sandra brings comprehensive experience in nonprofit administration, implementation of policies and training programs, and resource development. She also has a long history as a volunteer in HIV/AIDS services, juvenile justice, and LGBTQIA+ issues. She served on Bread & Roses’ Community Grantmaking Committee in 2015 and served on staff as Interim Director of Grantmaking from 2020 to 2022.