Jim Becker, WA

Jim Becker has spent the last 20 years working closely with progressive foundations, first with the Liberty Hill Foundation in Los Angles and then Social Justice Fund NW in the Northwest. As board chair of Liberty Hill from 1986 to 1989, Jim led them through a large growth phase. He has been an Social Justice Fund NW board member, Fundraising Committee chair, Treasurer and Grants Oversight Committee chair, and participated in several grants committees. Outside of Social Justice Fund NW, Jim created two ongoing programs: a homeless food program in Santa Monica, CA, and the Cherry Crest Elementary School Aide Fund in Bellevue. Jim is a founder of the ACCORD Foundation in Bellevue, a clinic and advocacy group serving children with complex developmental disorders. When not fundraising, he is a partner in becker&mayer!, one of the largest book producers in the United States, creating juvenile and adult books for major publishers worldwide.

Rujuta Gaonkar, OR
A Midwest native, Rujuta moved to the West coast after receiving her Master of Public Health degree, and has lived in the Pacific Northwest for the past decade, where she has focused her professional life on the intersection of public health and social justice. She was first introduced to SJF through her participation on the Board of Directors of Chaya, an SJF grantee. An active member of the Social Justice Fund since 2004, Rujuta has also served on the Basic Grant committee and Grants Oversight Committee before joining the Board. 

Rujuta recently joined the staff of the Multnomah County Health Department, coordinating a health promotion initiative with the Community Capacitation Center. In her spare time, Rujuta loves to spend time with friends and family - traveling, being outdoors and cooking (and more importantly, eating) good food.
 

Sharon Gary-Smith, Co-Chair, OR

Sharon Gary-Smith has focused her four-plus decades of community activism and leadership on a woman’s right to choose; affordable and accessible health care for all; community empowerment and economic development, and increasing the number of vulnerable and affected citizens involved in public discourse and influence policy that leads to fairer, more equitable systems.
A native Oregonian, Sharon has held a number of professional positions within the nonprofit and business world, as a Program Fund Manager for United Way of Columbia-Willamette (Portland); Vice President, Austin (Texas) Urban League; National Programs Director, National Black Women’s Health Project (Atlanta); and National Girls Programs Director, Be Present, Inc. (Atlanta).
Sharon co-chairs the People of Color Caucus of The National Network of Grantmakers; sits on the National Cultural Competence Advisory Group of The Alliance for Nonprofit Management, (Washington, DC), and the Racial Equity Committee of The National Network of Grantmakers. She is a board member of the Western States Center (Portland); a board member of Partnership for Safety and Justice (Portland), a board member of Changemakers, Inc. (San Francisco), as well as the Social Justice Fund NW (Seattle).
She has consulted with a number of local, regional and national nonprofits and philanthropies that seek active engagement in the creation and funding of a racially and socially just world.

Felicia Gonzales, WA
For nearly twenty years Felicia has made a personal and professional commitment to working with nonprofit and community-based organizations, with both depth and breath of expertise working in arts and culture, community development, and human and social services. As a life-long advocate of social justice and community empowerment, she has lead several grass-roots efforts to give voice to multi-lingual and often marginalized groups, including co-chairing the North Beacon Hill Urban Village Planning Committee. A published poet, she has received the Jack Straw Writers Program Award for publication, reading, radio presentation (KUOW) and been awarded residencies at Norcroft Writers Retreat, Minnesota, and Hedgebrook Retreat for Women Writers on Whidbey Island.

Vickie Goodwin, Co-Chair, WY
Vickie Goodwin has been actively involved with Social Justice Fund NW since 1999. She was recruited to Social Justice Fund NW through member Judy Tobin and helped build Social Justice Fund NW’s presence in Wyoming through hosting and co-hosting house parties there. Along with her responsibilities as an Social Justice Fund NW board member Vickie is active in the Wyoming Democratic Party. She served as a national committeewoman from 1998 to 2004 and chaired the Converse County Democrats from 1984-2004. She is currently the state committeewoman for Converse County. Before retiring in 2004, Vickie worked for 15 years as an organizer for the Powder River Basin Resource Council. The main issues the council dealt with included gravel pits, recycling, and refineries. Vickie is married to another social justice activist, Sissy Goodwin, a transvestite, who serves as the president of the Wyoming chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. They have two children, Travis and Kristi, 32 and 31 years old, respectively. They also have a granddaughter, Brittany who is 6. Vickie currently serves on the Three Year Grants Committee. She holds a Bachelors Degree in elementary education.
 

Eli Hastings, WA
Eli Hastings grew up goofing around beneath hor d’oeuvre plates on the carpets’ of ATR members and getting away with mischief at the summer ATR retreats his mother, Patricia Close, dragged him to. Eli graduated with honors in International Relations from Pitzer College, having spent most of his extra time organizing a lectures series on Truth, Lies and Democracy, supporting the dining hall workers fight to unionize, raising questions about the police killing of an unarmed young black man, and writing his thesis on the rise of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela.  He landed a teaching fellowship and attended grad school at UNC at Wilmington, after which he published his first book, Falling Room, in 2005.  Since 2004, Eli has worked for Montana People’s Action, Tierra Learning Center, moved to Spain, gotten hitched, founded and managed a Spanish-Nepali fair trade import company (Sathi Art), and returned home to Seattle to work in social services and the arts.  He really digs reading contemporary fiction, jogging, and also not jogging with his old golden, Kaya.

Larry Kleinman, OR

(Bio coming soon!)

Natalie Lamberjack, Secretary, WA
Natalie Lamberjack has been an active member of Social Justice Fund NW since 2004, serving on the Membership and Basic Grants Committees and volunteering with fundraising events. Through site visits, Natalie has been particularly impressed by Social Justice Fund grantee organizations’ success in using community organizing as a mechanism for social change. Having grown up in rural Ohio, Natalie has now lived in Seattle for the past seven years, five of which she has worked in the field of nonprofit development. In her time working for The Collins Group, a regional fundraising consulting firm, she has helped more than 20 nonprofit organizations advance their capabilities for annual and capital fundraising. Natalie has also served on the board of Groundswell NW and with several committees for the Northwest Development Officers Association. In her free time, Natalie enjoys traveling, spending time on the ocean or in the mountains, running, reading, and cooking with friends and family.

David Rogers, OR
David currently serves as the Executive Director of the Partnership for Safety and Justice. He orginally came to the Northwest to work for Western States Center as a Senior Trainer/Field Organizer. He has fifteen years of organizing and social change non-profit experience, with a strong commitment to criminal justice issues. His work history also includes five years with the Peace Development Fund, and in 1997 he was a recipient of a Charles Bannerman Fellowship for Organizers of Color from the New World Foundation.