Who We Are
Our Mission
Hidden Leaf promotes inner awareness within liberatory movements in order to advance a more just, ecologically healthy and compassionate society.
We believe that when organizations, leaders, movements, and foundations cultivate inner awareness and tend to the spiritual as well as the strategic, the power we build with others and the changes we engender are deeper, more lasting, and more likely to heal the historical injustices that shape our current relationship to the Earth and to each other.
Our Vision
We envision a future of joy, love, justice, and collective liberation.
In this future, power and resources are shared equitably, and everyone has the space and support they need to realize their potential, build community, weather hardships, and fulfill their dreams; people and planet exist in a sustainable relationship and society operates from a sense of sacredness and responsibility for future generations.
Our Team
Hidden Leaf is governed by a board that includes both family members and independent members. We have a staff of four.
Hidden Leaf is governed by a board that includes both family members and independent members. We have a staff of four.
Leslie Lindo
Executive Director
Leslie Lindo is an activist with two decades of experience in environmental, social, and economic justice movements. Her career spans entrepreneurship, nonprofit leadership, and fund management, centering racial equity and community empowerment. As Managing Director of Olamina Fund, Leslie focused on capital strategies to advance collective liberation. Through a community-centered strategy, she led the Fund to achieve full allocation of its initial $40M, strategically investing in BIPOC- and women-led organizations in the Deep South, Indian Country, and Rural America. These investments focused on building equitable financing tools and shared ownership models for land, housing, and businesses. Prior to Olamina, Leslie served as VP of Strategic Partnerships at Common Future. In this role, she collaborated with organizers, foundation leaders, and investors to develop and implement strategies to close the wealth gap in communities across the U.S. Her work emphasized integrated entrepreneurial ecosystems, democratic governance structures, and sustainable and equitable development. Leslie's commitment to systems change is also reflected in her board service with organizations like New Economy Coalition, RichmondLAND, Pacific Community Ventures, and Just Futures. She grounds her work in transformative and collaborative justice through somatic and mindfulness practices. Leslie lived in diverse regions of the country before settling in the Bay Area where her family has been for three generations. She is most at peace in nature, either at the water or in the forest, and cherishes her roles as daughter, mother, life partner, and human companion to her dog Bella Leia.
Jenny George
Program Officer
Jenny George is Hidden Leaf’s program officer. Before she joined the foundation in 2009, she worked as program coordinator for the Seasons Fund for Social Transformation, a collaborative fund whose aim was to catalyze vibrant and effective social change movements by coupling the power of personal transformation with the public work of creating a just and sustainable world. Alongside her work in social justice philanthropy, Jenny is also a poet. She holds a Masters Degree in Poetry from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and an undergraduate degree in Human Ecology from the College of the Atlantic. She lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Mia Lewis, PMP
Finance and Systems Lead
In the evolving landscape of finance and operations, Mia Haywood stands out as a transformative leader. With a sharp mind for project management, process optimization, customer experience, and progressive thinking, she excels in navigating the dynamic world of operational efficiency.Mia pursued higher education at California State University, Hayward, earning a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a minor in African American Studies. She has also completed the CSUEB Project Management Certificate program. With experience in both corporate and nonprofit sectors, Mia brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to her role. Her strengths lie in turning challenges into triumphs, resolving inefficiencies, and constantly seeking innovative ways to elevate the organizations she collaborates with. As a mother of three, from toddler to teen, Mia balances her professional and personal life with grace and determination. Integrity, deep healing, spiritual practices, and personal growth are at the core of Mia's values. Beyond her professional realm, she finds solace in simple joys such as podcasts, fairies, and quality time with her cherished family. Mia’s approach to life and work is holistic, ensuring that every step she takes aligns with her higher purpose and contributes to the greater good.
Allison Darrow
Grants and Board Liaison
Allison Darrow, based in Berkeley, CA, has a background in Math and Accounting from UCLA. She has hands-on experience in retail forecast analysis, marketing, operations, and event planning. She loves using her analytical skills to tackle challenges and find creative solutions that keep things running smoothly. When she’s not at work, Allison enjoys traveling with her husband and daughter, discovering art and flavors around the globe. Her adventures fuel her creativity and bring a fresh perspective to her role, making her a key player in blending strategic thinking with practical solutions.
Karie Brown
Board Chair
As the Principal of KLB & Co., formally known as KB Consulting, Karie has been partnering with nonprofit organizations and foundations to promote effective philanthropy and social change for the last two decades. Through coaching, consulting, and collaboration, Karie helps her clients: clarify strategy and direction, strengthen leadership, manage successful transitions, and foster healthy organizational cultures. From 2017 – 2021, Karie served as the SVP of Grants Programs for Comic Relief USA, a new fundraising and grantmaking institution working to end child poverty in the US and around the world. Over the course of her career, Karie has held multiple senior roles in the philanthropic sector including: Interim Executive Director for the Discount Foundation; Director of Programs for Tides Foundation; Director of Programs for Katalysis North/South Development Partnership; and Executive Director for International Development Exchange. Karie has a Masters degree in regional planning from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an undergraduate degree in economics from Stanford. She currently serves as a trustee for Hidden Leaf Foundation, Yoga Dana Foundation, California Yoga Teachers Alliance, and Reynolds & Brown Corporation. She is a dedicated yoga practitioner and an occasional yoga teacher. She derives sustenance from nature and her three grown children.
Tara Brown
Board Treasurer and former Executive Director
Tara began her work for transformational social change with a Masters degree in Integral Anthropology (after ten years working in international community development). For six years, she directed the Institute for Deep Ecology, which articulates a mind/body/spirit worldview addressing many of today’s pressing social and environmental quandaries.Tara directed Hidden Leaf for 17 years. During this time, she also helped co-found the Seasons Fund for Social Transformation, a collaborative fund advancing transformative leadership for movement building. Tara’s current passions include surfing, dancing, and lively conversations with beloveds.
Thea Harvey-brown
Associate Board Member
Thea studied neuroscience on a pre-med track at Johns Hopkins before joining Venture for America’s fellowship program, which led her to work as an engineering manager at a mortgage tech startup in Philadelphia. She learned to code on the job there and found herself increasingly drawn to software development. After completing a coding bootcamp, she spent two years as a software engineer at Google, where her interest in quantum computing began to develop. She now works as a software engineer on the quantum operating system team at IonQ, building trapped ion quantum computers—work that sits at the intersection of physics and computation, not far from her original interest in understanding how complex systems function. When she’s not working, she cooks, runs, practices yoga, and makes things with her hands: rugs, paintings, woodworking projects. The throughline is a preference for building and creating, whether the medium is quantum systems or weekend projects in her Brooklyn basement.
James Lopez
Board Member
James is the Executive Director of Power U in Miami, Florida, an organization that fights in the interest of working class families of color. An Afro-Latino Puerto Rican native of Rochester, New York, James has made a commitment to developing and working with as many leaders as possible to build strong organizations of everyday people, and was first swept up into fighting for justice during the movement for black lives. James has trained dozens of young organizers in his role as a Trainer with BOLD (Black Organizers For Leadership and Dignity) and through his involvement with The Midwest Academy. He is also a Board Member of the Funder's Collaborative on Youth Organizing (FCYO), and For The Many, a Power Building Organization in the Hudson valley.
Elissa Sloan Perry
Board Member
Elissa Sloan Perry aspires to live life as a call to the sacred in everyone. She defines the sacred as what’s possible when we all have what we need to show up as our best self and to contribute meaningfully to the well-being of people and planet. She has over 25 years of experience in movements for liberation. In recent years the form has most often looked like supporting individuals, organizations, and networks as a consultant and coach to be better in what they do. Elissa joined Change Elemental in 2013 as the Program Catalyst for the Network Leadership Innovation Lab, became Co-Director in 2015, and transitioned to Founding Director, Prefiguring Futures Lab in 2024. In addition to working with Change Elemental, Elissa teaches in the MA in Leadership Program at Saint Mary’s College where she facilitates diverse, cross-sector, and multi-issue learning communities in developing and implementing leadership for interdependent thriving. Prior to joining Change Elemental, Elissa was a consultant and spent six years with the Leadership Learning Community where she worked to further the social justice field through the development, sharing, and application of leadership knowledge in its many forms. Elissa has also been involved in innovative initiatives to improve education and was a Vice President for the Different Ways of Knowing arts-infused model of public education. Elissa enjoys bringing together theory and real-world practice and is driven by the values of dignity, interdependence, and liberation in both what she does and how she does it. She is co-author of numerous published articles and short stories, and she holds a BA in Humanities with a concentration in social change and an MFA with concentrations in teaching and Black literature. She is also a Values & Leadership Coach and a graduate of the Coaching for Transformation program. When she’s not at Change Elemental (and even sometimes when she is!) you can find Elissa writing, dancing, exploring other art forms, and spending time with trees.
Alta Starr
Board Member
As the current Director of Training at BOLD (Black Organizing for Leadership and Dignity), Starr is a somatics practitioner offering coaching and bodywork to individuals, and an organizational consultant skilled in building high-performing teams and partnerships. A former teacher, counselor, and radio news producer, for 25 years, Starr also worked as a program officer and grantmaker at the New World and Ford Foundations, funding community organizing, capacity-building, and leadership development. She has served on many boards, among them the Progressive Technology Project, the Peace Development and Needmor Funds, the Seasons Fund for Social Transformation, and the National Domestic Workers Alliance.
Leslie Lindo
Executive Director
Leslie Lindo is an activist with two decades of experience in environmental, social, and economic justice movements. Her career spans entrepreneurship, nonprofit leadership, and fund management, centering racial equity and community empowerment. As Managing Director of Olamina Fund, Leslie focused on capital strategies to advance collective liberation. Through a community-centered strategy, she led the Fund to achieve full allocation of its initial $40M, strategically investing in BIPOC- and women-led organizations in the Deep South, Indian Country, and Rural America. These investments focused on building equitable financing tools and shared ownership models for land, housing, and businesses. Prior to Olamina, Leslie served as VP of Strategic Partnerships at Common Future. In this role, she collaborated with organizers, foundation leaders, and investors to develop and implement strategies to close the wealth gap in communities across the U.S. Her work emphasized integrated entrepreneurial ecosystems, democratic governance structures, and sustainable and equitable development. Leslie's commitment to systems change is also reflected in her board service with organizations like New Economy Coalition, RichmondLAND, Pacific Community Ventures, and Just Futures. She grounds her work in transformative and collaborative justice through somatic and mindfulness practices. Leslie lived in diverse regions of the country before settling in the Bay Area where her family has been for three generations. She is most at peace in nature, either at the water or in the forest, and cherishes her roles as daughter, mother, life partner, and human companion to her dog Bella Leia.
Jenny George
Program Officer
Jenny George is Hidden Leaf’s program officer. Before she joined the foundation in 2009, she worked as program coordinator for the Seasons Fund for Social Transformation, a collaborative fund whose aim was to catalyze vibrant and effective social change movements by coupling the power of personal transformation with the public work of creating a just and sustainable world. Alongside her work in social justice philanthropy, Jenny is also a poet. She holds a Masters Degree in Poetry from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and an undergraduate degree in Human Ecology from the College of the Atlantic. She lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Mia Lewis, PMP
Finance and Systems Lead
In the ever-evolving landscape of digital marketing, Mia is not just a strategist; she's the secret sauce behind success stories. With a sharp mind for project management, process optimization, customer experience, and progressive thinking, Mia navigates the dynamic world of digital marketing and execution. Hailing from Tulare, California, Mia's journey led her to the Bay Area, where was educated at California State University, Hayward, earning a Bachelor's of Science in Business Administration with a minor in African American Studies. Boasting over 15 years of experience in both corporate and nonprofit realms, Mia brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the table. Her magic lies in turning challenges into triumphs. Mia thrives on resolving inefficiencies, constantly seeking fresh and innovative ways to elevate the client or company she collaborates with. Beyond the digital realm, Mia finds solace in the simple joys of podcasts, fairies, and quality time with her cherished family. Integrity is at the core of Mia's values, intertwined with her commitment to deep healing, spiritual practices, and personal growth.
Allison Darrow
Grants and Board Liaison
Allison Darrow, based in Berkeley, CA, has a background in Math and Accounting from UCLA. She has hands-on experience in retail forecast analysis, marketing, operations, and event planning. She loves using her analytical skills to tackle challenges and find creative solutions that keep things running smoothly. When she’s not at work, Allison enjoys traveling with her husband and daughter, discovering art and flavors around the globe. Her adventures fuel her creativity and bring a fresh perspective to her role, making her a key player in blending strategic thinking with practical solutions.
Karie Brown
Board Chair
As the Principal of KLB & Co., formally known as KB Consulting, Karie has been partnering with nonprofit organizations and foundations to promote effective philanthropy and social change for the last two decades. Through coaching, consulting, and collaboration, Karie helps her clients: clarify strategy and direction, strengthen leadership, manage successful transitions, and foster healthy organizational cultures. From 2017 – 2021, Karie served as the SVP of Grants Programs for Comic Relief USA, a new fundraising and grantmaking institution working to end child poverty in the US and around the world. Over the course of her career, Karie has held multiple senior roles in the philanthropic sector including: Interim Executive Director for the Discount Foundation; Director of Programs for Tides Foundation; Director of Programs for Katalysis North/South Development Partnership; and Executive Director for International Development Exchange. Karie has a Masters degree in regional planning from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an undergraduate degree in economics from Stanford. She currently serves as a trustee for Hidden Leaf Foundation, Yoga Dana Foundation, California Yoga Teachers Alliance, and Reynolds & Brown Corporation. She is a dedicated yoga practitioner and an occasional yoga teacher. She derives sustenance from nature and her three grown children.
Tara Brown
Board Treasurer and former Executive Director
Tara began her work for transformational social change with a Masters degree in Integral Anthropology (after ten years working in international community development). For six years, she directed the Institute for Deep Ecology, which articulates a mind/body/spirit worldview addressing many of today’s pressing social and environmental quandaries. Tara directed Hidden Leaf for 17 years. During this time, she also helped co-found the Seasons Fund for Social Transformation, a collaborative fund advancing transformative leadership for movement building. Tara’s current passions include surfing, dancing, and lively conversations with beloveds.
Thea Harvey-brown
Associate Board Member
Thea studied neuroscience on a pre-med track at Johns Hopkins before joining Venture for America’s fellowship program, which led her to work as an engineering manager at a mortgage tech startup in Philadelphia. She learned to code on the job there and found herself increasingly drawn to software development. After completing a coding bootcamp, she spent two years as a software engineer at Google, where her interest in quantum computing began to develop. She now works as a software engineer on the quantum operating system team at IonQ, building trapped ion quantum computers—work that sits at the intersection of physics and computation, not far from her original interest in understanding how complex systems function. When she’s not working, she cooks, runs, practices yoga, and makes things with her hands: rugs, paintings, woodworking projects. The throughline is a preference for building and creating, whether the medium is quantum systems or weekend projects in her Brooklyn basement.
James Lopez
Board Member
James is the Executive Director of Power U in Miami, Florida, an organization that fights in the interest of working class families of color. An Afro-Latino Puerto Rican native of Rochester, New York, James has made a commitment to developing and working with as many leaders as possible to build strong organizations of everyday people, and was first swept up into fighting for justice during the movement for black lives. James has trained dozens of young organizers in his role as a Trainer with BOLD (Black Organizers For Leadership and Dignity) and through his involvement with The Midwest Academy. He is also a Board Member of the Funder's Collaborative on Youth Organizing (FCYO), and For The Many, a Power Building Organization in the Hudson valley.
Elissa Sloan Perry
Board Member
Elissa Sloan Perry aspires to live life as a call to the sacred in everyone. She defines the sacred as what’s possible when we all have what we need to show up as our best self and to contribute meaningfully to the well-being of people and planet. She has over 25 years of experience in movements for liberation. In recent years the form has most often looked like supporting individuals, organizations, and networks as a consultant and coach to be better in what they do. Elissa joined Change Elemental in 2013 as the Program Catalyst for the Network Leadership Innovation Lab, became Co-Director in 2015, and transitioned to Founding Director, Prefiguring Futures Lab in 2024. In addition to working with Change Elemental, Elissa teaches in the MA in Leadership Program at Saint Mary’s College where she facilitates diverse, cross-sector, and multi-issue learning communities in developing and implementing leadership for interdependent thriving. Prior to joining Change Elemental, Elissa was a consultant and spent six years with the Leadership Learning Community where she worked to further the social justice field through the development, sharing, and application of leadership knowledge in its many forms. Elissa has also been involved in innovative initiatives to improve education and was a Vice President for the Different Ways of Knowing arts-infused model of public education. Elissa enjoys bringing together theory and real-world practice and is driven by the values of dignity, interdependence, and liberation in both what she does and how she does it. She is co-author of numerous published articles and short stories, and she holds a BA in Humanities with a concentration in social change and an MFA with concentrations in teaching and Black literature. She is also a Values & Leadership Coach and a graduate of the Coaching for Transformation program. When she’s not at Change Elemental (and even sometimes when she is!) you can find Elissa writing, dancing, exploring other art forms, and spending time with trees.
Alta Starr
Board Member
As the current Director of Training at BOLD (Black Organizing for Leadership and Dignity), Starr is a somatics practitioner offering coaching and bodywork to individuals, and an organizational consultant skilled in building high-performing teams and partnerships. A former teacher, counselor, and radio news producer, for 25 years, Starr also worked as a program officer and grantmaker at the New World and Ford Foundations, funding community organizing, capacity-building, and leadership development. She has served on many boards, among them the Progressive Technology Project, the Peace Development and Needmor Funds, the Seasons Fund for Social Transformation, and the National Domestic Workers Alliance.
Core Partners
Full Spectrum is an incubator-accelerator that brings people, ideas, and capital together to grow regenerative economies powered by impactful solutions. FSL works to build ecosystems and marketplaces for innovation that lift up solutions and leaders emerging from communities that have been marginalized historically. By building innovation clusters in communities and connecting them to communities of capital stewards with a commitment to social and ecological impact, they make it easy to come together and align growing financial value with our deepest shared values.
RBC Wealth Management is a values-based investment manager with a focus on sustainability and philanthropic giving.
Certified Public Accountants is a full service accounting firm offering a broad range of services for business owners, executives, and professionals.
Nathan Naik Shara, MSW is a somatic therapist, writer and teacher whose work focuses on the intersections of individual healing and structural transformation. Nathan is a lead teacher and practitioner with generative somatics, bringing embodied transformation to social and environmental justice leaders, organizations and alliances. He is also a senior teacher for Strozzi Institute, offering courses on embodied leadership, somatic bodywork, and trauma, as well as leading SI’s teacher training program. Nathan maintains a small private practice in Oakland, CA. His recent essay “Facing Shame: From Saying Sorry to Doing Sorry” can be found in the anthology Beyond Survival: Stories and Strategies from the Transformative Justice Movement, edited by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha and Ejeris Dixon (AK Press, 2020).
Our Founder
David (Dave) Brown was born in 1936 and grew up in the small farming community of Walnut Grove, California. After studying agricultural economics at Berkeley, David decided to apply his business acumen toward real estate. With his partner, Jon Reynolds, Dave founded Reynolds & Brown, a Concord-based company that quickly grew into a successful commercial real estate development firm. Reynolds & Brown’s success continues to provide the core of Hidden Leaf’s assets. At age 35, Dave began to look inwards to find deeper meaning beyond the success he had already realized. Inspired by Buddhist meditative practice, he embarked on a decades-long pursuit of spiritual discipline and awareness, which led him to an interest in philanthropy. Dave was a generous spirit throughout his lifetime. The creation of the Hidden Leaf Foundation (in 1988) was an outcome of his desire to support organizations doing good work and creating transformational social change. When he passed in 2013, David endowed Hidden Leaf with 90 percent of what he owned. This decision flowed from his commitment to mindfulness and presence; he envisioned a place where his family could come together to be in conscious relationship to wealth and to the world. David’s daughters worked closely with him to develop the foundation, and continue to dedicate their time to carrying on Hidden Leaf’s commitment to growing space for inner awareness in social justice and environmental work. We are grateful for Dave’s legacy, vision and passion for helping everyone access the power that is hidden in all of us.
from our grantees
