EQUITY ADVISORY COMMITTEE (EAC)

Tom Battipaglia

I was born in the Bronx, New York in 1951. I came to San Francisco in 1969 for a vacation, went back home to the Bronx, packed a few bags and moved here. I was in the service industry for a number of years, bartending in several clubs and hotel. In the mid 1980’s I was diagnosed with HIV. All of my friends and extended family died. My life spiraled out of control and I went from substance abuse to homelessness to incarceration. These events changed my life and I have been clean and sober for over 20 years now. I graduated from City College of San Francisco in May 2004 and earned a degree in graphic design and certificates in printing and prepress. Of necessity, I have become involved in many issues dealing with HIV, LGBT rights, and housing. I recently was selected to be a member of the San Francisco Housing Authority Housing Choice Voucher Resident Advisory Board which was formed to develop an administrative plan that would bring the Housing Authority into compliance with the federal Housing and Urban Development rules and regulations, thus taking the SFHA off of “probation” with HUD. Safe affordable housing and equal access to medical care, including dental coverage, for all of San Francisco residents, especially low income seniors and people with disabilities, are very important to the future of our city.

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Valerie Coleman 

Valerie Coleman has spent the last 10 years working for a variety of nonprofits, including community arts, publishing, and providing direct service and advocacy on behalf of typically marginalized populations, especially disabled adults and seniors. She is currently the Resource Development Manager for Rebuilding Together San Francisco (RTSF) which mobilizes volunteers to provide critical repairs for low-income San Franciscan’s as well as our community centers and schools. Additionally, Valerie is managing a variety of community based projects in 3 neighborhoods, through a collaboration between RTSF and the Mayor’s Office of Housing. In addition to working with the EAC, Valerie is a huge fan of public radio (KPOO, KALW), volunteers with her 2 favorite nonprofits and is plotting and scheming about graduate school. Having graduated with a degree in Politics at UC, Santa Cruz, Valerie is also an alumni of Leadership SF. Extremely passionate about aging in place, social justice and all efforts around creating a more livable city for everyone, Valerie is dedicated to working on urban related challenges that directly address our quality of life issues, with a particular focus on the rapidly aging senior population here in the Bay Area.

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Rick Hauptman 

For 40 years Rick Hauptman has been advocating for underrepresented communities, especially people of color and women. He has worked on behalf of homelessness, environmental justice, immigration, healthcare, senior quality of life, youth and education, criminal justice, housing access, workforce, diversity, and equality of opportunity. Rick has worked alongside Cesar Chavez, Dolores Huerta, Harvey Milk, Tom Ammiano, Chris Daly, Harry Britt, and other progressives. He has held numerous positions, among them Vice President of the Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club; Vice President for the Nation Organization for Women; Outreach Chair for the Cesar Chavez Celebration Birthday Committee; Executive Director of the Harvey Milk Memorial Education Commitee; and President of the SF Relocation Appeals Board. He has supported SF Jobs with Justice, SF Immigration Rights Committee, Transit Justice Coaliton, SF Tenant's Union, Committee to Save Lyon-Martin Health Clinic, Healthcare for All, and Tenants Together.

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Angela R. Jenkins 

Angela R. Jenkins is the fifth of eight children born to parents who ingrained into all eight of their children a volume of virtues like honesty, trustworthiness, faithfulness and a respect for ethical authority. She maintains this simple, sensible nature by focusing on honoring the memory of her parents’ everyday lessons. Her grassroots community work garnered interviews in local and national media; from Newsweek, Associated Press, and front-page recognition in the Philadelphia Inquirer. She is a civil servant with a long career working inside public and private organizations to bring harmony to the cognitive dissonance between good intentions and actual impact. She has been a member of the board of trustees for an international non-profit implementing policies, authoring proposals, breaking new ground in the area of inclusiveness and communication. During her board tenure, she had oversight of region budget development, managing budget processes for committees vital to the organization’s success. She holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree from the College of Ethnic Studies at San Francisco State University. As a precursor to her current work in unconscious bias, her graduate work replicated the correlation between volunteerism and religiosity.

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Erin Le

Erin Le is an attorney who specializes in helping low-income clients who need access to public benefits, health care coverage, safe housing, and unemployment benefits. Through her training in law and public health, and her work with several Medical-Legal Partnerships, she has learned to look for the socio-economic roots of health disparities and works toward minimizing such inequity. She is also a former 2nd grade teacher. In the fall of 2010, she served as an SF HRC legal intern, during which time she processed discrimination complaints in employment and public accommodation, helped to organize a public hearing on surveillance in Muslim, Arab and Middle Eastern Communities, and created a draft implementation plan for a City ordinance requiring agencies and NGOs that work with youth to participate in annual LGBT-sensitivity training. She is a graduate of Dartmouth College, Northeastern University School of Law, and Tufts University School of Public Health.

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Robert Mansfield

Robert Mansfield is an analyst in the office of the Executive Director for Global Health Sciences at UCSF, coordinating communications and special projects. He also serves on the Citizens Advisory Group for the SFMTA Central Subway Project, is a member of the South Beach Neighborhood Association and The Alliance for a Better District 6, and does volunteer work with the San Francisco AIDS/Breast Cancer Emergency Fund and the San Francisco AIDS Walk. A product of the California Penal system himself, Robert was also a long-term resident of Delancey Street Foundation where he opened the popular Crossroads Café and worked in the office of Mimi Silbert, President/CEO of the organization. The Delancey Street training, a BA in Urban Studies from San Francisco State University, and participation in the Leadership San Francisco Program (LSF 2007) really opened his eyes to the many and varied needs of the City, and Robert is dedicated to making sure that everyone has the same opportunities he has been given. He completed a Master of Science in Health Communication with Boston University in 2012 and recently participated in SPIN Academy 14 – a retreat for non-profit communicators.

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Patricia Pittman Mitchell

Patricia Pittman Mitchell is a native San Franciscan residing in the southeastern sector of town. Her interest are promoting Equity and Human Rights Issues. As a Child of the Civil Rights Movement, she learned her community organizing, leadership and organizational skills while developing youth programs at Olivet Presbyterian Church; where she was also a Youth Minister, and at the Potrero Hill Neighborhood House and the Police Athletic League. Patricia holds an M.A. in Humanities and Leadership from New College of California, B.A. in Political Science, San Francisco State University, California Community College Life Credential, Legal Assistant, Class 1 and is an Early Childhood Educator. She is married and has two lovely daughters, Wynter-patrice & Meaghan -Markietta Mitchell, and two cats, Bentley & Little Bear. Patricia is honored to serve on the Equity Advisory Committee with a host of wonderful and committed Citizens of San Francisco.

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Miquel Penn

Miquel Penn is a Construction Program Manager at MHH. He joined MHH in July 2009 as a Program Counselor. Mr. Penn holds a Bachelor of Arts in Interdisciplinary Arts from San Francisco State University. Mr. Penn has taught English at Philip Burton High School in San Francisco’s Portola district and worked as an at-risk youth mentor and tutor at the RAAP center in the Mission district. Mr. Penn is also in his third term as a member of the Human Rights Commission’s Equity Advisory Committee. Mr. Penn primary functions at MHH are the Sector Coordination for OEWD’s CityBuild Academy, management of the Successor Agency to the Redevelopment Agency’s Construction Job Referral program and Mr. Penn is Program Manager for MHH’s construction referral program with UCSF (CCOPM) which is a collaboration between the Laborer’s Community Trust Fund, Brightline Defense Project, A. Phillip Randolph Institute, and Aboriginal Blackman United. Over the last year Mr. Penn has lead MHH’s collaboration with Webcor Builders in developing a veterans construction job program “Veterans Building Futures.” Through MHH’s construction programs Mr. Penn has continued to develop the long time relationships MHH has enjoyed with local Trade Unions and construction contractors. With the CityBuild Academy, Mr. Penn facilitates the career development in the construction industry of selected students.  

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Paul Monge-Rodriguez

Paul Monge-Rodriguez is a first-generation college graduate and the son of immigrant parents from El Salvador. Growing up in San Salvador, El Salvador and resettling in the San Francisco Bay Area, Paul went on to pursue his BA in Global Studies and Sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. As an undergraduate senior, he was elected president of the university’s student body. In that capacity he worked to protect funding for student retention services, lobbied state legislators to the support the California Dream Act and led a successful campaign to establish an on campus Food-Bank distribution center for students with limited financial resources. Paul graduated summa cum laude with election to Phi Beta Kappa in 2011 and was the recipient of the Thomas More Storke Award for Excellence, the university’s highest student honor. After spending a year in New York City working as a policy analyst for Mayor Michael Bloomberg, he returned to San Francisco to work as a political organizer for the region’s largest public sector labor union, SEIU Local 1021. Currently, Paul works as an Education Justice Policy Associate for Coleman Advocates for Children and Youth, a non-profit organization with a thirty year legacy of advocating for low-income and communities of color in San Francisco. Additionally, he serves as a Commissioner for the San Francisco Youth Commission where he was appointed by Mayor Ed Lee to represent the needs of San Francisco’s children, youth and families.

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Jeremy Schwartz

Jeremy Schwartz joins the Equity Advisory Committee having most recently worked with Organizing for America in North Carolina during the 2012 presidential campaign. Prior to his time in Charlotte, Jeremy worked in Wells Fargo’s investment banking and private equity divisions. Jeremy currently leads World Possible, an education technology nonprofit which provides offline educational libraries to developing communities around the globe. Additionally, Jeremy works to provide financial advisory services to developing social enterprises throughout California. Jeremy graduated UCLA in 2004 with a dual degree in political science and business economics.

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Monali Sheth

Monali Sheth is a staff attorney at Equal Rights Advocates, a non-profit legal organization that advocates on behalf of women and girls seeking equality in education and employment. Prior to joining ERA, Ms. Sheth practiced business litigation for several years with the law firms of Farella Braun & Martel LLP and Cox Castle & Nicholson LLP in San Francisco. Ms. Sheth earned a B.A. in Ethnic Studies from U.C. Berkeley, an M.Sc. in Nationalism and Ethnicity from the European Institute at the London School of Economics, and a J.D. from U.C. Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall). 

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Jamie Wagoner 

Jamie Wagoner, a resident of San Francisco for more than 20 years, is currently working with Bay Area Legal Aid to develop a project to deliver direct legal services to low-income LGBT seniors and disabled adults, with the object being to help prevent displacement of this vulnerable group from the supportive and tolerant community that exists in San Francisco. At 56, the most senior member of his class, Jamie is completing his juris doctorate at John F. Kennedy University College of Law and will graduate in June 2012 with a certificate in public interest law. In summer and fall of 2011, he was a legal intern in the Health Unit of East Bay Community Law Center, Berkeley, where he worked with disabled adults and children on Social Security Disability Insurance, Supplemental Security Income, and State Disability Insurance benefit appeals. During the summer of 2010, he was a legal intern at Disability Rights California, Oakland, where he assisted in the investigation of reports of abuse and neglect at skilled nursing facilities and intermediate care facilities throughout California. He has also participated as a legal intern in the JFKU Housing Advocacy Clinic, defending clients against loss of housing, and Law Clinic for Elders, providing a variety of legal services to Bay Area seniors. He is a founding member of OutLaw, the LGBT law student association at JFKU, and served as chairperson during the 2011-2012 academic year. In an earlier career, Jamie was a composer of classical music, and he still delights in his music being performed from time to time.