Data Organizer
Lisa Marie Wong was introduced to Faith in Action Bay Area in early 2017, when she attended a Rapid Response training. She quickly became hooked on the organization’s mission, ethos, and people. She joined the Faith in Action Bay staff as a Communications and Data organizer later that year.
Communications Director, Lead Community Organizer
Matt was a Faith in Action Bay Area leader for nearly 20 years, before he finally joined the organization as a community organizer in 2018. He was a teacher and principal in the San Francisco public schools for over two decades, and he now serves as an elected member of the San Francisco Board of Education.
Matt learned about the power of organizing in the early 2000s, when he and other teachers, parents, and youth came together across race, class, and language to create a vision for a more effective, community based high school. After many months of attempts, they could not get a meeting with the district superintendent. But when they announced that they were hosting a public event with 250 people and three school board members to discuss the proposed school, suddenly they had three meetings with the superintendent in two weeks. Two years later, the group opened June Jordan School for Equity, which became a nationally recognized innovative small high school. Matt knows through this experience and others like it that when people come together around common values, we can create the power necessary for real change.
Integrated Voter Engagement Organizer
Marc joined Faith in Action Bay Area in 2021. Prior to joining the organization, Marc served as a campus minister in San Diego, worked for various nonprofits in Cochabamba, Bolivia, and worked as both a reporter and producer in broadcast journalism in Washington D.C. As an extrovert who has always loved connecting with others and building relationships and bridges across difference, people are his passion and community is where he finds his home.
Among his many roles over the years, his most cherished is that of a husband to his partner of 11 years and father to his two young children, both of whom inspire him create a world with new urgency where everyone truly belongs. Marc was born and raised in Orange, California.
Research, Policy, and Communications Organizer
Nani Friedman joined the Faith in Action Bay Area staff in 2020. Nani was first introduced to Faith in Action Bay Area in 2017, when she supported the organizing work of our leaders in Redwood City and North Fair Oaks as part of a summer fellowship in college. She has experience in housing organizing and policy.
Nani grew up in Belmont in San Mateo County and is deeply invested in organizing for a more equitable and inclusive home. She is inspired by Faith in Action’s vision to change how power works in the county, led by members of our community that are most impacted by racial, economic and social injustice.
Integrated Voter Engagement Director
Tom joined Faith in Action Bay Area in 2021. He has over 22 years experience in arts and culture work, labor organizing, community organizing, and government work. His skills include listening, dialoguing, teaching, organizing adults and youth, and recruiting and developing leadership. He has deep experience organizing in schools, neighborhoods and workplaces. Tom has dedicated all of his professional life to empower communities to better themselves and their future.
Lead Community Organizer, San Francisco
Violeta joined Faith in Action Bay Area as a community organizer in 2016. Under her guidance, Violeta’s leaders do powerful work in affordable housing, eviction prevention, voter engagement in San Francisco.
Violeta found her calling as a community organizer when a close family member experienced deportation. The accompaniment that the faith community offered her during that time affected her deeply and inspired her to help others in a similar way.
Violeta is a longtime parishioner at St. Peter’s Parish in the Mission District of San Francisco.
Community Organizer
Veronica Martinez is a community organizer with Faith in Action Bay Area since 2022. She organizes in San Mateo County and has been a leader with the organization since 2020.
