Our Vision of Leadership

Dear Friends,

How do we build a deep bench for leadership collaborative leadership? As the pandemic forces us to re-think everything we do and how we do it, leadership at all levels becomes even more important. Over a year ago, EBALDC started thinking about an organizational restructure plan that would offer more opportunities for growth and leadership for our talented staff. The plan is designed to support strong, collaborative decision-making that’s fully oriented around our vision for Healthy Neighborhoods and the four pillars and five goals of our strategic plan. Through a deliberate and thoughtful process, we solidified our vision of leadership at EBALDC that involves:

• Centering people as our greatest asset.  
• Structuring ourselves to fully address the four pillars and five goals of our strategic plan. 
• Addressing the need for both leadership and management. 
• Achieving clarity for everyone about decision-making and leaders’ accountability. 
• Setting clear expectations that our leaders will be strong collaborators, and act and speak from a place of equity.
• Establishing clear pathways for professional growth for all staff and across all departments.

Our leadership vision was crucial as we kicked into high gear to develop our COVID-19 response that anticipated and addressed numerous issues affecting our staff, residents, commercial tenants, and the neighborhoods in which we belong. That means:

• A cross-departmental operations team was set up to provide guidance and processes during the COVID-19 pandemic;
• Our onsite property management team took the lead to ensure that our residents are safe in their homes;
• Our resident services team anticipated youth and senior residents needs and put together care packages and organized meal deliveries;
• Our Volunteer Income Tax Assistant (VITA) program team figured out how to continue to prepare taxes so that low income people can access their CARES Act distribution;
• Our financial counseling at SparkPoint Oakland developed processes to INCREASE their services as thousands of Oaklanders experience job loss; and
• Our communications team initiated and developed our COVID-19 Resources pages on our website.

Over the past few months, I have been awed by how our teams have thoughtfully taken on the challenges of navigating these difficult times. I am humbled by leadership at all levels. I am especially thankful for the strategic leadership provided by our new Executive Leadership Team:

Charise Fong COO and EVP of Programs

Claire Crouse CFO

Felicia Scruggs EVP of Property Operations

Jason Vargas EVP of Real Estate Development

Lanetha Oliver EVP of Internal Operations

Jill Kunishima SVP of Resource Development & Communications

Our diverse Executive Leadership Team is working to ensure that our diverse communities continue to be inclusive, with opportunities for low income people. They are maintaining our healthy neighborhoods approach as the pandemic reshapes our world. Together, we continue to forge the partnerships and collaborations with other organizations that are required to help all of us come out of this crisis stronger than before. The EBALDC team is an inspiration to me. Please join me in thanking them!

In Community,

Joshua Simon

CEO