Oakland ULF Bios
City of Oakland Appointed Officials
David Silver, Director of Education
David works in partnership with students, families, educators, community organizations, philanthropy, the city, Oakland Unified School District (OUSD), and Mayor Schaaf to realize a vision of educational equity for all students in Oakland. As Director of Education for Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, David helped to launch and lead the Oakland Promise, a cradle-to-career initiative with the goal of dramatically increasing the number of college graduates from Oakland within a decade and instilling a college-bound identity in all students. The City of Oakland, OUSD, East Bay College Fund, the Oakland Public Education Fund, and other implementing partners, champions, and ambassadors work together to realize the Mayor and Superintendent’s bold vision of every Oakland public school student graduating high school with the expectations, resources, and skills to complete college and be successful in the career of his or her choice. As the leader of the Oakland Promise, David set it up for success and it is now transitioning out of the City of Oakland to become its own nonprofit. As the Mayor’s Director of Education, David will now focus his efforts on making Oakland an educator-friendly, supporting OUSD with teacher recruitment and retention, and increasing access to high quality early childhood education for Oakland’s youngest students. He graduated summa cum laude from UCLA with a B.A. in Sociology and earned his M.ED from Harvard University. David lives in Oakland with his wife and young son.
Kyra Mungia,
Deputy Director of Education
Kyra Mungia is a passionate education advocate, committed to changing systems to improve outcomes across Oakland, particularly for students who are traditionally marginalized. She is an energetic, metric-driven team player with strong organizational skills and experience in leveraging available resources. As a former Oakland public school teacher, Kyra saw firsthand how under-resourced and underserved communities - most often communities of color - are treated. Those disparities are what drove her to take a more systems-level approach as an Education Project Director in the Office of Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, where she leads early childhood education, collective impact, and teacher recruitment/retention efforts. 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, and running into friends at Lake Merritt. Other hobbies include breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Peter Radu, Policy Director of Homelessness
Peter Radu served as the Homeless Services Coordinator for the City of Berkeley, where he led the opening of the STAIR Center. He holds master’s degrees in Social Welfare and Public Policy from UC Berkeley and a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Stanford University.
“I am honored to serve my neighbors in Oakland and humbled by the challenge we face,” Radu said. “Solutions will not appear overnight, but we will work with urgency every day to create new pathways to housing for all unsheltered residents.”
Urban Leaders Fellowship
Angela Thai, Regional Director, ULF Oakland
Angela Thai was born and raised in the Bay Area and is excited to be Oakland’s Regional Director. She received her B.S. in Public Health at the University of California, San Diego. After learning about health and educational disparities, she became eager and excited to come back to Oakland. She became a Project Coordinator for a non-profit, FACES for the Future Coalition, a high school pipeline program supporting underrepresented students into the healthcare field. In her role at FACES for the Future, she saw the way education served as an intervention and a solution for many public health issues that Bay Area youth faced. This brought her to begin exploring the intersection of the public health and education sector through policy. She is currently a graduate student at Marquette University pursuing a Master’s degree in Education Leadership and Policy.
ULF Oakland 2020 Fellows
Ajeya Woods is a 2nd-year law student at Pepperdine Caruso School of Law in Malibu, CA, and is looking forward to applying what she’s learned about legal research and writing to this summer’s policy initiatives. In her previous position as a Teach For America Corps Member, she taught 7th-grade ELAR for two years at a charter school in West Dallas. While she thrived in a servant leader position and saw scholars grow by an average of three grade levels, the policies and/or lack thereof on a charter, local, and state level continued to hinder scholar’s growth both within the classroom and in their personal lives.
Originally from Portland, OR, growing up Ajeya saw firsthand how educational opportunities differ depending on zip code. During high school, Ajeya traveled 12 miles daily to attend a school that offered AP courses, bilingual education, and nationally recognized legal competitions. As a corps member, Ajeya saw families make even longer daily trips after concluding that charter schools held the key to their child’s future that neighborhood schools could not provide. Ajeya is committed to helping communities of color maintain agency within the public education system and streamline resources to families to ensure scholar success not only within the classroom but also within their communities.
In 2017 Ajeya received her Bachelor’s in Communication from the University of Oregon’s Robert D. Clark Honors College where she spent the majority of her time working on a thesis exploring the impact linguistic policies in classroom settings have on second language acquisition. When she is not studying or sleeping, Ajeya enjoys spending time with family, thrift shopping, or planning an adventure for the next break from school.
Asma Afzal is a first year MPP student at the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago. Originally from Pakistan, Asma has previously worked with the health departments in the provinces of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to increase access and quality of primary healthcare to underserved communities. She has worked to increase children’s access to basic immunization, improve skilled birth assistance for delivering women, and increase access and quality of care at primary care facilities. Asma strongly believes in removing structural barriers that low income communities and communities of color face to access basic necessities. She loves learning from her team to collaboratively figure out new approaches to these existing problems.
As a policy student, Asma is also interested in visualizing data and spatial relationships. She is learning R and GIS mapping that allows her to play with data and see how it can be useful in addressing policy problems.
Outside of work, Asma loves all things Lin Manuel Miranda. In her free time, she tries to improve her cooking skills and talks to friends and family back home.
Brieanna Gabrielle Martin is a proud native San Franciscan from the Ingleside district who recently graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, with a degree in Political Science. During her undergraduate career, Brieanna sought opportunities to promote socioeconomic justice and equity. As a senior, she interned for the KAWL radio station where she produced a live radio show on lack of representation among University professors and its effects on the student population. She recruited renowned professors of color from across the country, and her fellow peers of color. Her determination to positively impact underserved communities has crossed over into several states such as Alabama and Washington D.C. In Alabama, Brieanna taught 7th grade English Literature; however, to ensure her students were critically questioning and analyzing the institutions around them, she infused a social justice curriculum into her classroom.
As an individual who also enjoys international relations, travelling, and learning more about her Mexican identity, one of Brieanna’s most memorable experiences was conducting research in Mexico. To respond to the administration’s recent propagation of anti-immigrant and anti-Latinx sentiment, she interviewed dozens of migrants, refugees, and deportees to share their story on how such negative sentiment was affecting their perception of America and their migratory trajectory. When she wasn’t doing research, Brieanna explored the food and natural wonders Mexico City and Chiapas had to offer.
Currently, Brieanna works in San Francisco’s Chinatown in the social service sector, serving families seeking resources in childcare and financial assistance. Her work has strengthened her drive to enter the field of public policy to bring about systemic change as she believes great policies can improve the living conditions of those in need. She is extremely excited to serve as an Oakland Urban Leaders Fellow so that she may better understand what constitutes the development and implementation of great policy.
Bryant Duong is a graduate student at San Francisco State University, studying Public Finance in the Public Administration program. He is also working as a Research Assistant with United States Geological Survey’s Resilience project to study recent disruptions caused by Public Safety Power Shutoffs (PSPSs) and assess vulnerable communities’ earthquake-readiness. In his previous position as a community advocate at Chinatown Community Development Center, he was unanimously appointed by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to the Citizen’s Advisory Committee for the Central Market & Tenderloin Area. As the committee’s Vice Chair, he collaborated with Twitter, Microsoft, Spotify, and other community technology companies to serve the children living in the Tenderloin by partnering with neighborhood schools. As the younger sibling in an immigrant/single-mother & low-income household, Bryant is well aware of the burdens produced by income inequality and believes that a child residing in the most underserved neighborhood of a city deserves the same opportunities to succeed as a child residing in the wealthiest neighborhood of that city. Outside of work, he enjoys lifting weights as a method of selfcare and is interested in developing his Afro-beat & Bachata dance skills. When he is not trying to stay active, he enjoys traveling and attending music festivals. He has attended Coachella six years consecutively and has most recently traveled to Cabo and Spain earlier this year. Please feel open to inquire about joining him at Korean BBQ if you are interested in witnessing an adult-human eat as much as a baby elephant.
Catherine Meyer-Meckler taught first grade for four years at a Title I school in the Fruitvale neighborhood of Oakland. This experience informed her desire to pursue a career in education policy. Catherine is passionate about solving the larger systemic issues that contributed to the inequities her students faced in the classroom. She has a particular interest in access to high quality early childhood education for underserved students in the Bay Area.
Prior to teaching, Catherine was an Operations Manager at Lemlem, a social enterprise that supports artisans in Ethiopia. Catherine graduated from Duke University with a major in International Development and Women’s Leadership.
Catherine resides in Oakland with her wife and her dog Rue. She is very excited to serve as an Urban Leaders Fellow to deepen her knowledge of education policy in Oakland.
Cheyda Arhamsadr is a Californian, born and bred, currently pursuing her Masters in Public Policy at UC Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy. Cheyda has a background in philanthropy oriented towards social justice and spent three years at the Liberty Hill Foundation in Los Angeles, gaining experience in grantmaking and program management, with a focus on youth and housing justice. In her time at Liberty Hill, she facilitated the distribution of over $4.5 million in funding to grassroots organizations in LA County.
In 2016, Cheyda received her Bachelor’s in Public Health Policy from the University of California, Irvine, where she served as a student advocate through her involvement with the campus newspaper and multiple student orientation and immersion programs. Nowadays, as she progresses through her MPP at Cal, Cheyda has an immense interest in carceral policy and has committed to approaching all issues through a racial equity lens; she is excited to learn more about local governance and the power of inside-outside strategy as an Urban Leaders Fellow this summer.
Originally from Anaheim, CA, Cheyda resides in North Berkeley with her partner and cat, and spends her free time cooking, playing with her niece and nephew, and trying to find decent Persian food in the East Bay.
Ilana Peterson is a Bay Area native. She attended high-school in Oakland. Her undergraduate degree is from UC Berkeley in forestry and natural resource management. That led to a career working for the National Park Service and East Bay Regional Park District with roles in environmental education, outdoor recreation programming, and park operations. She is passionate about promoting the many mental, physical, and social health benefits of outdoor activity. She recently completed a Master of Public Health degree at San Francisco State University, with an emphasis on Community Health Education. Her time in the MPH program broadened her interests beyond just outdoor programming. She is now interested in working on programs and policies aiming to reduce the educational achievement gap, though with a particular focus on equitable access for all youth to participate in a broad range of experiential learning programs.
Ilana is currently working with a newly formed non-profit, the Youth Transportation Organization (YOOTS). Their mission is to eliminate transportation as a barrier to accessing programming to help close the “experience gap”, so that all youth, regardless of background or socioeconomic status, have the chance to participate in whatever activities inspire them. She’s developing skills in grant writing and conducting community needs assessments.
Ilana is an avid open water swimmer in the San Francisco Bay, an aspiring classical guitarist, and enjoys cooking and gardening.
Jeremy Brooks, (He, Him, His)
Jeremy is a recent graduate of the University of California, Berkeley. He obtained a BA in Social Welfare and minors in Dance Performance Studies and Public Policy.
Born in Berkeley, Ca and raised in Deep East Oakland, Jeremy has been instilled with resilience to face adverse conditions. He has always been considered exceptional and bright. But he believed that his peers were also. He became deeply aware that many students shared similar obstacles: violence, food deserts, poverty, and inadequate educational systems. These are some of the experiences attributed to East Oakland. I realized that not every student is blessed to have various systems of support to navigate such a toxic environment. The spark in his consciousness began during his high school experience at Castlemont, where he began challenging his perceptions of society and the world with a more critical lens. Because of this newly developed critical analysis, Jeremy found himself interested in advocacy and pathways for reigniting agency in the lives of those deprived of it most. This motivated him to become interested in social work and policy because he knew these were ways to directly affect the lives of people who are historically and presently marginalized, disadvantaged, and hopeless.
One of the ways he cultivated his passion for advocacy and supporting people with exercising their agency, has been college advising in the high school setting. Beginning his junior year in college, Jeremy has served his East Oakland community by returning to his alma mater HS, Castlemont. There, he worked as a college advisor via the East Bay Consortium of Educational Institutions. In this role, he advised a cohort of high school seniors and supported them in accessing information about college. He also assisted students with their college application process, as well as filling out their FAFSA or California Dream Application. Overall, he served as a source of knowledge to the students as an active college student attending a four-year institution. He recently finished his second year, and is looking forward to finding opportunities to influence and implement policy and training to benefit disadvantaged educational spaces.
Currently based in Oakland, California, Leangelo works as an 8th Grade Science, Technology, Engineering, and Design (STED) Teacher at Roosevelt Middle School, a proud district school. He believes that all students deserve to have equitable access to the knowledge, tools, and resources that allow them to achieve their own personal definitions of success.
Leangelo is also currently serving on the Board of Directors of the East Coast Asian American Student Union (ECAASU) as the Senior Conference Liaison. Before, he worked at the Asian & Pacific Islander American Scholarship Fund (APIASF) as a Program Assistant for their Gates Millennium Scholarship. Prior, he was an intern for the Conference on Asian Pacific American Leadership (CAPAL) and Congressman Mike Honda (D-Silicon Valley). In his free time, Leangelo loves to cook, wander big cities, and indulge in his most recent TV obsession, like Steven Universe and How To Get Away With Murder.
Maryruth Belsey Priebe is an aspiring policy specialist working at the intersection of women, peace, and security (WPS) and environmental sustainability. She focuses on deep research to filter for compelling methods to empower women in peacebuilding and as environmental entrepreneurs, and then uses that knowledge to design and implement precise, effective policies. As a writer, Maryruth also uses storytelling to excite people about how including women in the economy could add $28 trillion to global growth (26%) and having women at the peace table would result in treaties that have a 35% higher chance of lasting 15+ years. Maryruth has studied psychology, religion, and sustainability, and is currently a Harvard International Relations graduate student. As a business owner, she has professional experience in project management, corporate communications, and higher education, and has taken part in cross-cultural exchanges to Asia, Eastern Europe, South Africa, and Nicaragua. Maryruth is thrilled to be part of the Urban Leaders Fellowship Program as she works with organizations to develop policies and programs that deliver real tangible change in Oakland, CA.
Meg Wallace is a Bay Area native passionate about pursuing a more equitable future through a combination of systemic change and direct service with marginalized communities. As an undergraduate, Meg studied Biology, Sociology, and Psychology, with a particular focus on childhood development. Meg acquired experience with issues related to mental health, housing, food insecurity, and social determinants of health through her work with nonprofits and Georgetown’s Center for Social Justice in Washington, D.C.
Meg applied her love of working with youth and her drive to promote positive outcomes for underserved communities through Teach For America as a 5th grade teacher in Richmond, California. In the classroom, Meg accelerated student growth through strategic planning and a focus on social-emotional support; additionally, Meg took on leadership roles as a Math Teacher Leader, member of the Culture and Climate team, and coach to first year teachers. Concurrently, she explored the potential for policy to create a lasting positive impact while earning her Masters in Urban Education with a concentration in Education Policy and Administration. This year, Meg is transitioning out of the classroom to pursue her doctorate in Clinical Psychology at the PGSP-Stanford PsyD Consortium in order to serve youth from marginalized communities as a clinician.
In her free time, Meg loves to run, spend time with her friends and family, and play hearts!
Megan Nemire, MA LPC (she/they) is a Disability and Neurodiversity advocate, Art Therapist, and former Research Coordinator. With extensive analytical, mental health, research, and advocacy experience and skills, Megan is poised to support the most marginalized people through policy change and social action.
Megan is a Licensed Professional Counselor (Colorado, 2017) with over 14 years of direct mental health and health care experience with youth and adults. They received a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Studio Art from Michigan State University (2010), and the Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology: Art Therapy from Naropa University (2014).
Starting as a therapeutic intern for a group of artists with disabilities, Megan excelled at utilizing artists’ strengths to support them through challenges. She became an Art and Play Therapist over time and for years. Yet as a systemic thinker, with a talent of creative problem-solving and inclination toward inclusivity, Megan was always moving toward a career in policy, program development, and change.
Megan worked in many roles: as a Therapist in an underfunded middle school health clinic, she provided therapy, case management, and comprehensive evaluations for highly at-risk youth and their families. In another role, Megan conducted emergency psychiatric evaluations and crisis counseling to community members, learning of the cyclical complexities of homelessness and psychiatric hospitalization. In inpatient care, she provided therapeutic attendance and art therapy groups. For five years, Megan provided in home therapeutic care for autistic and Neurodivergent families.
When tasked to both coordinate and manage a state-funded medical research study on her own, Megan became a Data Manager, a Program Manager, a Regulatory Compliance Specialist, a Intern Team Leader, a Recruiter, Respiratory Test Administrator, Visit Coordinator, Sponsor Liaison, Financial Purchaser, Mentor, and Biospecimen Processor. She is dedicated to goals aligned with human rights, and detail-oriented.
In recent years Megan focused on anti-racism and anti-ableism trainings, both on learning and unlearning. They are a passionate advocate for human rights. Megan also identifies as a multiply-Neurodivergent and Disabled visual Artist. Across all mediums of art and counseling, and public health work, Megan explores the experiences of regulating pain, and finding creative solutions.
Born and raised among the strawberry fields and coastline of Oxnard, CA. Michaela Perez is a first-generation Master of Public Health student at San Francisco State University. Her work encompasses addressing the economic and social conditions that influence health outcomes. Michaela understands that education and economic opportunities are indicators of health outcomes and seeks to reduce income inequality through policy development. She previously coordinated the Opportunities for All initiative in collaboration with San Francisco Mayor London Breed, to address economic inequality by ensuring that all young have access to employment opportunities. Michaela also led a $17million National Institute of Health grant, to increase diverse representation in STEM fields. She has collaborated and fundraised with international health programs, Global Brigades, where she supported under-resourced communities in Central America. In the future, she plans to work on Global Health initiatives to support disadvantaged populations and ensure that all people have access to education and economic mobility opportunities. During her free time Michaela enjoys hiking, being immersed in nature, and trying new foods.
Nicole Ubinas just completed her first year as a doctoral student in African Diaspora Studies at UC Berkeley. Before arriving to the Bay Area in August, Nicole was an English Teaching Assistant at a university in the Dominican Republic through the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program. She received her bachelor’s degree from Brown University in Africana Studies and Latin American and Caribbean Studies.
Growing up in New York City, Nicole felt and witnessed the consequences of gentrification and the displacement of Black and brown residents. Her personal experience with housing insecurity and its impacts on her education deepened her commitments to housing justice and organizing around issues concerning race, displacement, and education. Nicole’s work is deeply rooted in a commitment to advancing racial and economic justice and empowering poor and working-class people, immigrants, and communities of color. She recently interned at Causa Justa Just Cause, a grassroots organization advocating for immigrant rights and housing rights, where she learned about transformative organizing, housing justice, and coalition building.
Nicole is excited to be a part of the Urban Leaders Fellowship so she can apply her theoretical understandings of policy and social justice towards designing and implementing tangible solutions to systemic challenges in Oakland. When she’s not fighting for racial justice, Nicole enjoys dancing bachata and merengue, cooking Dominican food, and reading fantasy books.
Townes Bouchard-Dean is a Knoxville, TN native who moved to San Francisco after attending college at the University of North Carolina. After studying Public Health and becoming more interested in and passionate about social determinants of health, Townes joined Teach For America, leading him to SF. He taught High School Science for 3 years, a transformative experience that left him feeling both rewarded and frustrated every day. While Townes loved teaching, it often felt reactive, as though the most impactful interventions for his students should have either occurred at age 3 or through sweeping changes to the built environment around them. Townes grew as a leader and problem-solver while teaching, taking on roles as the 9th Grade Chair and Science Department Lead while earning his MA in Education Policy. These experiences, matched with the quantitative skills and passion for public health he developed in college, have led him to transition out of the classroom and pursue roles in policy and practice that attempt to alleviate the root causes of educational and health inequities.