As the Senior Program Officer for the Mindfulness & Healing Justice Program, Donna provides leadership for grantmaking supporting mindfulness and transformative practices in communities most impacted by systemic racism and oppression, to build individual and collective resilience and power to transform those same systems of oppression.
Donna brings 25 years of experience in community organizations and social justice philanthropy to her work at Kataly. For the past decade, Donna has led a consulting practice partnering with progressive foundations and donors in the areas of grantmaking, grantee network engagement, program strategy and executive leadership support.
Donna has held several leadership positions in the field, including Executive Director of Changemakers, a public foundation and donor education provider; Director of ACORN International, the international program of the former national membership organization of low-income families; Director of Outreach at Tides Foundation, managing donor engagement for a national community of progressive donors; and Director of Development and Marketing at Project Open Hand, a service-provider for people living with HIV/AIDS.
Donna is Chair of the Board of Directors of the Black Organizing Project. She received her B.A. from Wesleyan University. Donna is a proud Mama to a tree-climbing, drum-playing young child and lives with her family in Oakland, where she enjoys a regular yoga practice, eating veggies from her garden and chatting with her neighbors on walks around her neighborhood.
Photo by Bethanie Hines