Pasadena is home to countless nonprofits and leaders who are loud and passionate about the issues that affect them and others. Pacific Oaks is continuing in the spirit of this tradition with our recently launched Advocacy & Social Justice programs. To celebrate, we’re honoring five local leaders who spark change in the local communities they serve—from cultivating local leadership, community organizing, and connecting uninsured children with doctors to working with vulnerable youth and mentoring at-risk teenagers.
ALMA APODACA
BOARD OF DIRECTORS FOR LEADERSHIP PASADENA
Alma Apodaca grew up in a home where hot meals and sandwiches were handed out to people who came and knocked on her door.
“Being a person of color and living at lower socioeconomic neighborhoods, I saw that all was not equal. I always had a sense of fairness so whenever I saw something that didn’t feel like it was, I felt like I needed to speak up.”
As a result, volunteer work is important to Apodaca: She has volunteered for the National Conference for Community and Justice (NCCJ), sat on the board of Planned Parenthood Pasadena, and served on the California Diversity Council and LA Diversity Council. Apodaca now leads leadership trainings herself and is a chair on the board of Leadership Pasadena.
“Leadership Pasadena was designed to create a platform where community leaders could come together and not only learn about leadership but also spend some time with people they would normally not have access to,” Apodaca explains. “At the end of eight months, they will have created the kinds of relationships that will naturally then flow into what’s next for all of them.”
While her professional career has been in human resources, she has found a way to incorporate her expertise in diversity and inclusion into her work. Prior to her current job as Executive Director of HR Strategic Partnerships at City of Hope, she worked as the Diversity & Inclusion Strategist for Southern California Edison. For Apodaca, advocacy guides the way she lives.
“I want to help make things better or improve things,” Apodaca says. “Whether I want it or not, I am seen as a role model for people who have come from a similar background, who think, ‘If that person can do it, I can too.’ It’s about modeling the way for other people so that people know that something is possible.
BRIAN BIERY
PASADENA COMMUNITY ORGANIZER
From the Guatemalan Peace Corps to the Pasadena streets, Brian Biery’s work has had far-reaching impact.
“The overarching connection is to create a more just, fair, democratic world. All of the work that I undertake is with that notion in mind,” Biery says.
His time as a Youth Development Volunteer in Guatemala gave Biery the push into his professional life of advocacy. He managed the City of Pasadena’s Neighborhood Connections office for more than 11 years before working as the Director of Community Organizing at the Flintridge Center.
Currently, he serves as an advisory board member of the Center of Council and works with Collaborate PASadena to support public education in the community. Biery also runs “The Power of One” blog and TV show that chronicle the “unsung heroes” of the Pasadena/Altadena community.
Biery received the Jim Stivers Award for Lifetime Community Service from the Pasadena Police Department in May 2011; he was recognized by Leadership Pasadena through the Friends of the Program award and presented with the Hamilton Elementary School Alumnus Star Award in 2013, both for his efforts to build community and improve the quality of life in Pasadena/Altadena.
“I feel like Pasadena is a microcosm of the nation,” Biery says. “If we can address issues of poverty, of public education, of incarceration, of housing, of homelessness, if we can be more generous and caring and effective here—we can be a model for not only the rest of the state, but also the rest of the country.”
MARY DONNELLY-CROCKER
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF YOUNG & HEALTHY
Mary Donnelly-Crocker’s 28 years at the helm of Young & Healthy have provided her with plenty of perspective of the importance of leadership and community.
“I’m a real believer in modeling and in walking the walk, talking the talk, doing what I say we should be doing,” Donnelly-Crocker says. “I am a person who likes to be surrounded by people who are smarter than me. I, too, keep learning and have the abilities to not just learn from other people but to be able to see other perspectives than what I would have.”
Young & Healthy works to provide uninsured and underserved children, and families’ access to healthcare by linking them with volunteer doctors or facilitating their healthcare enrollment. From its inception, the nonprofit has increased from 18 volunteer doctors to 353.
“If you put opportunity in front of people to help, they will,” Donnelly-Crocker says. “They just don’t sometimes know how to.”
Young & Healthy’s newest program is about trauma-informed care, focusing on the CDC-Kaiser Adverse Childhood Experience study about early childhood traumas and the associated long-term health effects. Donnelly-Crocker gives many of these hour-long presentations herself. She believes that if people are educated on the study and know this information, they can come together as a community and change the trajectory of what is happening to children.
And while American healthcare remains an uncertain entity, Young & Healthy is as committed to its mission as Donnelly-Crocker is to her position.
“We don’t know what’s going to happen with the Affordable Care Act. But no matter what happens, we’re going to be here and we’re going to take care of those kids.”
ERIC JOHNSON
DIRECTOR OF PARTNERSHIPS & COLLABORATIONS AT LAKE AVENUE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION
For Eric Johnson, advocacy was never an option—it was his life. Born June 6, 1960 into Jim Crow, he lived through the Civil Rights Movement in Los Angeles.
“I remember when Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy were assassinated and what that was like in our community,” Johnson recalls. “Everyone who stood up for what was right was killed during my childhood.”
Johnson’s own childhood experiences in an abusive home inspired him to become an advocate for vulnerable youth and to serve in youth ministry for 41 years.
“Openly sharing about my story is what allows me to talk to the hardest individual and let them know I understand what they’re going through,” Johnson says.
For the past 10 years, Johnson has worked at Lake Avenue Community Foundation, a faith-based nonprofit that helps children, youth, and families in vulnerable communities. He also serves on the Clergy Community Coalition, the leadership council for Collaborate PASadena, and the Equity and Access Advisory Committee to the Superintendent of the Pasadena Unified School District.
Johnson sees the difference that his work makes on his students as the greatest impact the Pasadena community has had on him.
“I don’t live the life that I live because people are watching me, but I do live the life that I live understanding that people are watching me,” Johnson says. “When I run into a former student that says ‘I know I gave you a hard time but when I was in prison, all I could hear were the messages that you shared and that kept me going,’ it reminds me that my life has purpose and meaning.”
CHRISTY ZAMANI
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF DAY ONE
Advocacy has been woven into the fabric of Day One Executive Director Christy Zamani’s life. She was 5 years old at her first demonstration—a hunger strike in front of the federal building.
“I remember asking my dad, ‘if they’re hungry, why won’t they eat?’’” Zamani says. “I was always curious about the world around me growing up. My dad would take the time to explain world matters to me and challenge me by asking, ‘Well, what are you going to do about it?’”
Zamani’s own background coming from a family of Iranian immigrants and being a first-generation college student helps her relate to the students she serves at Day One, a nonprofit that focuses on youth advocacy and leadership rooted in community-based prevention.
“I use the same philosophy my dad did,” Zamani says. “We all have a sad story. We can either wallow in it or we can tap into it and do something with that anger and pain.”
As executive director at Day One for over 10 years, Zamani uses her influence as a community leader to cultivate more local leaders.
“It’s exciting to hear the younger generation say, ‘I can’t wait to run for office,’” Zamani says. “I’m like, ‘Good! Do it!’ It’s making leadership accessible and a possibility for those who never considered it. It’s priceless to witness people who never thought of themselves as leaders realize their potential and possibility.
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