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 as a National Organizer and Coordinator of POC programs, organizing young people with access to wealth towards the redistribution of wealth, land, and power. They live in West Philadelphia and are a member of the Life Center Association cooperative land trust. 

Denise M. Brown

Denise Brown is the executive director of the Leeway Foundation, which provides support for individual women and trans (people who identify as transgendered, transsexual, and genderqueer) artists in the Greater Philadelphia area who create art for social change. Denise was the associate director of Bread & Roses from 1998 to 2005. She has served on the board of the Funding Exchange and the Women’s Community Revitalization Project and is currently on the board of the Scribe Video Center. A graduate of Brown University, Denise was a film programmer for the Philadelphia Festival of World Cinema, from its debut to 1998. She has also served as a panelist for the Philadelphia Cultural Fund, the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and the Pennsylvania Humanities Council.

Jill Feldstein — Secretary

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.

Elicia Gonzales

Elicia Gonzales has worked in the social justice field for more than 19 years. She is currently the executive director of Women’s Medical Fund. 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.

Jennifer Jordan — Co-chair

Jennifer Jordan is a policy wonk who’s passionate about health equity, social transformation, and data analysis. She has worked in a variety of settings, including labor unions and state agencies. Jennifer is a consultant to state Medicaid agencies, Medicaid health plans, and safety net providers. While her paid work is currently focused outside the Philadelphia region, she sees serving on the board of Bread & Roses as an opportunity to invest her time, talents, and resources in supporting social change in her community. Jennifer lives in South Philadelphia with her partner, Rose, and their son, Levi.

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.

Farrah Parkes

Farrah Parkes has spent her entire professional career in the non-profit sector working to address societal imbalances in resources and opportunities. She is inspired by Bread & Roses’ commitment to “change, not charity.” She previously served on the board of the Women’s Medical Fund and is currently the chair of the Board of Trustees of the Valentine Foundation.

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.

Nina Wong

Nina Wong is a lifelong Philadelphian always in search of new avenues to contribute to a collective, holistic vision of equity in the community she loves. Whether in her day-to-day roles as an operations consultant or trauma-informed yoga and mindfulness instructor, she is passionate about helping individuals and organizations alike align intention with action – while doing so ambitiously and sustainably. Nina was a member of Bread & Roses’ Spring 2017 Giving Project and considers it one of the most thought-provoking and paradigm-shifting experiences of her life (and she thinks you should join one as well!).