Our Team

At TRiO Plus, our dedicated team is committed to making housing more affordable for educators and strengthening the communities they serve. Meet the people driving our mission forward.

Kyra (she/ella) is a passionate advocate for racial, social, and educational equity, leveraging her experience as an Oakland public school teacher to her leadership of TRiO Plus.
As the Deputy Director of Education in the Oakland’s Mayor’s Office, Kyra co-founded Teachers Rooted in Oakland (TRiO) and TRiO Plus to support teacher retention by addressing housing costs. She also co-wrote legislation that generates $30M annually to support Oakland’s youth from preschool through college, played an instrumental role in securing tech access for every public school student through #OaklandUndivided, and helped raise $5M in COVID relief to meet basic needs citywide.
With a BA in Anthropology from Brown University and an MA in Urban Education from Loyola Marymount, Kyra is a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree and a Roddenberry Fellow. Kyra always gives 100%, except when donating blood. She enjoys mastering crossword puzzles with a cup of tea, exploring the Bay Area’s beautiful trails with her dog Noodle, and running into friends at Lake Merritt.

Kyra Mungia

Lydia (she/they) is dedicated to fostering joyous connection and thriving communities in Oakland and beyond. Her mission is to support people, especially educators, to access affordable, healthy ways to care for themselves and their communities. Raised in Long Beach Public Schools and surrounded by educators in her family and community, she developed a deep respect for the impact of great teachers and the resourcefulness with which people, especially communities of color and educators, navigate systems with limited resources.
Lydia brings with her 10+ years of working with educators and students in and beyond Oakland to create conditions for health and success. In Oakland, she taught garden-based nutrition and science education for two years, working with students from transitional kindergarten through adult education. She taught them about the connections between health, food, and the environment. For seven years, she worked in Oakland Unified School District, where she coordinated health and wellness programs and managed projects across everything from staff wellness to environment, food, and garden, to youth leadership. She is grateful for the impactful relationships she cultivated across OUSD and beyond, and is excited to continue her commitment to educators and students as Program Manager with TRiO Plus. Lydia joined TRiO Plus in July 2024, and leads efforts to make sure as many educators as possible are aware of and supported in accessing TRiO Plus services.Lydia holds a Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Studies from Brown University, and is working towards a Project Management Professional certification. She loves growing, preparing, and sharing food, and getting outside to explore beautiful California.

Lydia Yamaguchi

Jack (he/him) joined TRiO Plus in 2023. He oversees the Affordable Housing Marketplace, and cultivates partnerships with housing providers to create win-win outcomes for owners, managers, and educators.
Jack is an Oakland native with deep career experience in housing and education. After completing three years in Peace Corps Ecuador, Jack served in and directed Aspire Education, an Oakland-based tutoring and early literacy nonprofit. Pivoting to the housing world in 2018, Jack served in a number of roles at real estate fintechs, including Director of Operations at Landed, which helps teachers purchase homes with shared equity financing.
Jack holds a B.A. from Bard College and an MBA from UC Berkeley. He is an ADU fanatic and completed his own basement unit in 2019. He serves as board chair of Aspire Education, and spends his free time biking, backpacking, hanging with family, and singing with a local jazz group

Jack Woodruff

Nat Mendoza

Nat Mendoza´s (she/her) versatile experience in Customer Service, Database Management, Appointment Scheduling, and Back-office for over 3+ years in addition to her degree in Modern Languages gives her an advantage in handling the constant information flow of the properties, concessions, updating the system with property changes, and more.
She brings a dynamic skill set and commitment to excellence, ensuring seamless operations, and always ready to embrace continuous changes and growth.

Juma Crawford

Juma Crawford has been a leader in the philanthropic, non-profit, and education space for over twenty years. He currently serves as the Chief Executive Officer of the Oakland Fund for Public Innovation where his focus is building public private partnerships that lead to innovative solutions for the highest need zip codes in Oakland. Previously, Juma was President of the Lewis Family Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Kensington Investment Company, one of the leading private real estate development and investment firms in Boston, where he oversaw a $270.2 million dollar investment portfolio of both private and corporate giving. In that role, Juma oversaw the dissemination on average of $11.8M new grant monies every year to high-performing non-profits, schools, and institutions of higher education.
Juma believes that philanthropy must be more active at the grassroots level, where innovation happens and more proximate to the communities and people it aims to empower. Juma is a graduate of Amherst College, Harvard University, and Boston College Law School. Juma lives with his wife and two young children in East Oakland.

With more than 8 years in customer success roles, Dayana Rojas (she/her) has been developing & implementing standardized operating procedures (SOP), as well as keeping International Information Security Standard controls to safeguard private information. She is leading the Customer Success area to provide a world-class service to OUSD employees.

Dayana Rojas

Walter Balmas

Walter Balmas is committed to building sustainable financial capacity & expanding non-predatory credit opportunities for all. He brings with him 25+ years of operational experience and regulatory domain expertise in the financial services industry. Walter has built his career around standing up financial programs at non-profit credit unions and foundations (USC CU, Cooperative Center FCU, Oregon Community CU, New York University CU, ECMC, SAF Montana) public companies (Xerox, Vangent) & startups in the financial technology space. Walter was part of the founding teams that launched fintechs SoFi, MyRichUncle, SimpleFi, FUTR, Informed, Funding University and most recently, HoneyBee. He is an alumnus of the University of Southern California (USC), lives in Los Angeles with his husband Joseph & is the proud parent of two chihuahua-mix rescues: Oscar & Desi.

Rosana (she/her) is a versatile professional with a blend of experience in journalism, financial management, and customer service spanning over 6 years. With strong problem-solving and service skills, she ensures success in effectively communicating and cultivating strong relationships within the OUSD community.
Her multidisciplinary background contributes to providing high-quality assistance to educators.

Rosana Alandete

Oakland Fund for Public Innovation | Nonprofit Partner

The Oakland Fund for Public Innovation (OFPI) is a 501(c)(3) organization which acts as the TRiO Plus fiscal sponsor. OFPI collects and oversees all TRiO Plus funds, makes stipend distributions to educators, and provides the backend infrastructure so we can focus on serving our educators. We are grateful to partner with the OFPI Board, Leadership, and Staff to realize the mission and vision of TRiO Plus.

Tayonna Ewin

Tayonna Ewin holds a wealth of knowledge in social media, communications, research, data analysis, and social and racial equity. As the Communications and Operations Coordinator at the Oakland Fund for Public Innovation, she enhances efficiency and drives engagement for innovative solutions in Oakland’s underserved communities. In addition, as a Business Intelligence Fellow at the City of San José Parks, Recreation, and Neighborhood Services, Tayonna leverages data analytics and ETL processes to create dynamic dashboards that drive strategic decision-making. Their work supports equitable resource allocation and empowers the city to better serve its diverse communities.
Tayonna earned a Bachelor of Arts in African and African American Studies from Stanford University. Her commitment to social justice is evident through their work with the National Education Equity Lab, The Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute, and the Women’s Foundation of California. Originally from Nashville, Tennessee, Tayonna enjoys reading, creating ceramics, tending to their plants, and spending time with family and friends. She currently resides in San Jose with her partner.

Misha Perez has run organizing, fundraising, and communications programs on progressive political campaigns across the country. Specifically, Misha has done extensive grassroots campaign work in Berkeley and Baltimore. With a comprehensive background in campaign management and community organizing, Misha partnered with people of all backgrounds in order to fight for positive and long-lasting political change.
Born and raised in Oakland, Misha now uses his professional experience to advocate for the communities he grew up in. He believes that Oakland knows what’s best for its communities and that true service involves supporting community leaders that are already making a difference. Misha holds a Bachelor of Arts in History and Political science from Warren Wilson College. In his free time, you will likely find Misha spending time in California’s beautiful regional parks or watching the gibbons at the Oakland Zoo with his partner, Grace.

Misha Perez

Board of Directors

Randal Seriguchi, Jr. competes with the school to prison pipeline. As the Executive Director of Urban Ed Academy, he is supporting the early leg of a parallel pipeline to success for the remaining African American boys in the city. Through Saturday school programming, STEM experiences, in-school mentorship, and strong community engagement, UEA is a reliable partner in the elementary school space. He is a leading advocate for recruiting more men of color into the classroom. Prior to moving to San Francisco, Randy spent 5 years working to lift up social justice through education in D.C. and California.
Randy is an active member of the New York State Bar Association, holds a Juris Doctor degree from the American University Washington College of Law, and received his Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Michigan.

Randy Seriguchi

Christina Sutherland Mockler has an extensive background in organizational development, nonprofit management and fund development gleaned from more than thirty years in nonprofit leadership and philanthropy. Before founding Sutherland Strategies in 2002, Chris served as Chief Operating Officer and Vice President of Programs and Donor Services for the East Bay Community Foundation, Vice President of Programs for the former Peninsula Community Foundation (now part of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation) and as an Executive Director of multiple nonprofits. Chris brings expertise in nonprofit management, donor services, grantmaking, and strategy and organizational development. A leader in the community foundation field for nearly thirty years, Chris has also served as an advisor to CFLeads, the thought leader among community foundations on the discipline and practice of community leadership.
Chris holds a Bachelor of Arts in History (social history, focusing on the history of poverty in the U.S. and Latin America) from University of California, Los Angeles. She has lived in Oakland for twenty-five years and is the proud mom of two OUSD (Oakland Tech) graduates.

Chris Sutherland

Dominica Henderson is a public servant who has worked throughout the Bay Area to improve housing policy and create affordable housing opportunities for those in need. As the Chief Social Impact Officer for the Oakland Housing Authority, Dominica leads OHA’s operational teams, whose primary focus is to deliver impactful housing subsidy programs and resident services to over 17,000 households in Oakland. Dominica also heads OHA’s policy planning and government relations efforts and for the past ten years as the Director of Planning, Implementation, and Compliance was responsible for ensuring the Authority’s programmatic compliance with federal, state, and local regulations. With over 20 years of experience in housing policy, Dominica has worked to develop innovative strategies that transform the physical and social conditions of public housing and create healthy and thriving communities.
Dominica earned her undergraduate degree from Wellesley College and holds a Master’s degree in Public Policy and Urban Planning from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

Dominica Henderson

Josh is a longtime private investment professional and Managing Partner of Batchery.com, a startup accelerator based in Berkeley that serves companies in the pre-seed stage. Josh also has extensive non-profit Board service in local service agencies and also some national Board service experience. He has been an entrepreneur in the ultimate frisbee world, a long time, part-time preschool teacher and has a more than 30 year Aikido practice.

Josh Langenthal

Paul Carney is the CFO/COO at Merritt Capital. Paul first joined Merritt as a board member in 2018. At the end of 2021, bringing over 20 years of experience in affordable housing finance along with a background in financial and organizational management in both the nonprofit and corporate sectors, Paul joined the Merritt staff as CFO/COO.
Prior to joining Merritt, Paul served as the CFO for Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation in San Francisco. He was responsible for risk management, finance, and asset management.
Paul has also worked for Devine & Gong, Union Bank, JP Morgan Chase, CBRE Capital Markets and HUD.
He holds an MA in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School and his bachelor’s degree is from Stanford. Paul currently serves onthe board of Building Futures.

Paul Carney

Co-Founder

Chan U Lee was the co-founder of TRiO Plus, along with Kyra Mungia. As President & CEO of Devine and Gong, Inc., Chan U Lee is actively involved in affordable housing finance and development, including notable projects such as the multi-phase Hunters View Public Housing revitalization, the development of the award-winning Holly Park, High Point, and Rainier Vista HOPE VI communities. Chan U has also been instrumental in gathering support for TRiO+ among property owners and managers. Over a multi-decade career, Chan U has worked with tax exempt bond and tax credit regulations, financial structuring of mixed income and public housing projects, and was instrumental in the $50 million effort to preserve Kukui Gardens, the largest affordable housing project in the state of Hawaii.

TRiO Plus Advisory Board

Buck Bagot | Housing Advocate

Dan Leibsohn | Executive Director, Community Development Finance

David Silver | Director of Workforce, California Volunteers Fund

Dwayne Marsh | President & CEO, Northern California Grantmakers

Gloria Bruce | Program Director, Housing Security & Public-Private Partnerships, Crankstart Foundation

Gustavo Ontiveros | OUSD Teacher

John Kevlin | Partner, Reuben, Junius & Rose, LLP

Juma Crawford | CEO of Oakland Fund for Public Innovation

Kevin Kelley | Founder & Executive Director, Oakland Lacrosse Club

Lindsay Barenz | President, Oakland Roots

Noni Ramos| CEO, Housing Trust Silicon Valley

Patrice Berry| Chief Impact Officer, Ending Poverty In California

Phong La| Alameda County Assessor

Sarah Glasband | OUSD Talent and Co-Founder of the Teacher Residency Program

Zac Unger | President, International Association of Firefighters, Local 55

Zaia Vera | OUSD Co-Founder of the Teacher Residency Program

TRiO Technical Advisory Council

Jorge Lerma | Latino Education Network

Cynthia Adams | Oakland NAACP

Patricia Wells | Oakland Housing Authority

Geriel Delgado | OUSD Teacher