Mateo is one of the co-founders of the Movement Generation Justice & Ecology Project. He was born and grew up in La Paz, Bolivia. Since moving to the San Francisco Bay Area, he has worked in the labor, environmental justice and international solidarity movements. Mateo is the son of Barbara, fortunate father of Hayden and Nilo, and blessed to be partnered with Effie. He is a member of the Latin rock band Los Nadies. Mateo is also national co-chair of the Climate Justice Alliance, co-chair of the Justice Funders’ Board of Directors, and a board member of Grassroots International.

Executive Director, Dwaign has over twenty-five years of professional experience in economic development, community and neighborhood development, youth development and workforce development. Throughout his professional experience, Dwaign has effectively led capable and diverse teams and has also been able to communicate complex public policies to various stakeholders to show how community-based partnerships can build stronger communities and empower residents and businesses to take active roles in their neighborhoods.

Juan E. Rosario Maldonado was born in 1950 in a low-income community in Caguas, Puerto Rico among solidarity, love, and care. Within hardships through the years, there was no sense of misery among them. No one went hungry to bed and the community looked out for each other.

Juan has been involved with his community since he was a child. And in 1969, he decided to quit his first year in University to move and work in an Afro-American community in the South part of Chicago. After the Democratic Convention, the assassination of Martin Luther King, and the trial of the 7 of Chicago, he experienced nothing short of a rebirth. He had to stay active in his communities. 

Juan is with the Alliance for Sustainable Resources Management (AMANESER 2025)- a network of grassroots organizations to promote sustainability in Puerto Rico. They support local communities with the organizational and material resources to improve their resiliency.

Shaheen Hasan serves as the Managing Director of Grantmaking and Programs at The Solutions Project, where she leads all grantmaking, working closely with philanthropic partners, external stakeholders, and grantees.

With a deep commitment to economic and racial justice, Shaheen recognizes that low-wealth and BIPOC communities disproportionately impacted by climate change and other inequities hold powerful solutions to address multiple and intersecting political, economic and climate crises. She has spent over 13 years leading and supporting efforts to transform our economy and financial systems to enable shared prosperity, self-determination, and well-being by investing resources in and strengthening the capacities and power of workers and communities of color. She is guided by a vision for philanthropy which plays an active role in building a thriving, regenerative and just world by redistributing wealth, democratizing power and shifting economic control to communities.

More recently, she was a Senior Program Officer at the Target Foundation, where she launched a national portfolio focused on closing the racial wealth gap, exploring the intersection between climate and economic justice, and advancing equitable community development by reinvesting resources into community-led efforts, including cooperative, community and worker-owned projects. Her portfolio also invested in racial justice and movement infrastructure and capacity building.

Prior to grantmaking, she held programmatic and research roles at organizations focused on community development and expanding equitable access to finance in the U.S. and globally, including at the Financial Health Network, Accion International, the Clinton Global Initiative and the NYC Mayor’s Office of Long-term Planning and Sustainability. She started her social justice journey interning at organizations, such as South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT) and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) NY advocating for the civic engagement and power-building of South Asian, Muslim and immigrant communities in New York in the wake of 9/11 and the “war on terror.”

Shaheen is a lifelong learner, spiritual wayfarer, avid wander luster, voracious reader/podcast junkie and foodie. She is the daughter of Muslim-Indian American immigrants and was raised in Brooklyn, NY.

She holds a Masters in International Affairs from the School of International and Public Affairs, focusing on Economic and Political development at Columbia University and a Bachelor of Science in Marketing with a minor in Economics from the University of Maryland, College Park.

Dr. Jennifer S. Ramirez is a social science researcher specializing in environmental policy, environmental justice, and community development. As the Senior Researcher and UNITE-EJ Assistant Project Director at the Tishman Environment and Design Center, she spearheads vital research initiatives collaboratively with environmental justice groups and intermediaries across the United States. Her work is dedicated to bolstering the influence of the climate and environmental justice movements within public policy, practice, and the philanthropic sector, encompassing crucial areas such as resource mobilization, community organizing, urban planning, and disaster management.

Jenn has assumed significant leadership roles in program and membership development throughout her career at renowned, storied organizations, including the Partnership to End Addiction, the National Audubon Society, the Wildlife Conservation Society, and the New York Botanical Garden. She also has developed and taught courses on American Public Policy, Environmental Politics, and Environmental Justice at Fordham University. Jenn holds a PhD in Public and Urban Policy from The New School, an MPA in Policy Analysis and Program Evaluation from Baruch College, and a BS in General Science and Environmental Studies from Fordham University.

Jenn loves traveling to new places, reading science fiction and fantasy novels, crocheting, baking, and completing crossword puzzles with her kids.