Director
Our Team
Mike Gibson
Michael Gibson is a Coach and Consultant with over twenty-five years of experience in Violence Prevention, Workforce and Leadership Development, Transformative Mentoring, and Juvenile Justice.
As an Oakland native, Mr. Gibson is familiar with the unique experiences of youth and young adults in the Bay Area. He provides technical assistance and training to community-based organizations and foundations focused on improving equitable outcomes for underserved communities.
Mike currently serves as the Executive Program Director for Alameda EMS Corps, a nationally recognized program that prepares young men of color for careers in health and public safety. Over 265 young men from underserved communities have graduated and diversified the EMS workforce.
Mr. Gibson is a graduate of Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia and received a master’s degree in Public Administration with a concentration in Public Management and Policy Analysis from the California State University, East Bay. He also received a Professional Coaching for Life and Work certificate from University of California, Davis, and a Professional Coaching Credential from the International Coach Federation.
As an Oakland native, Mr. Gibson is familiar with the unique experiences of youth and young adults in the Bay Area. He provides technical assistance and training to community-based organizations and foundations focused on improving equitable outcomes for underserved communities.
Mike currently serves as the Executive Program Director for Alameda EMS Corps, a nationally recognized program that prepares young men of color for careers in health and public safety. Over 265 young men from underserved communities have graduated and diversified the EMS workforce.
Mr. Gibson is a graduate of Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia and received a master’s degree in Public Administration with a concentration in Public Management and Policy Analysis from the California State University, East Bay. He also received a Professional Coaching for Life and Work certificate from University of California, Davis, and a Professional Coaching Credential from the International Coach Federation.
Alex Briscoe
Director
Alex currently severs as the Executive Director of the California Children’s Trust (CCT). Prior to forming the CCT, he served as Chief Executive of the Alameda County Health Care Services Agency, one of California’s largest public health systems.
In his twelve years with the agency, he oversaw a budget of over a billion dollars that included one of the nation’s highest volume 911 systems, multiple general acute care hospitals, public health services, and more than $200 million in child and adolescent mental health services and contracts.
Before joining Alameda County, Alex was the director of the Chappell Hayes Health Center at McClymonds High School in West Oakland, a satellite outpatient center of Children’s Hospital and Research Center. His work there has helped define the nexus of public health and public education.
He has designed and administered mental health and physical health programs and services in child serving systems, including home visiting programs, programs for medically fragile children, and clinical and development programs in child welfare, juvenile justice, and early childhood settings.
Alex has served on the Alameda County First Five Commission, The Alameda Alliance, and The Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and The Uninsured, along with other public and private boards and commissions.
He is a mental health practitioner specializing in adolescent services and youth development. He has advised or collaborated with a number of local and national foundations including The Atlantic Philanthropies, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, The Annie E. Casey Foundation, The California Endowment, and most recently with Tipping Point Community. He has specialized in Medicaid policy and administration, emergency medical services, youth voice and crisis counseling, and safety net design and administration.
In his twelve years with the agency, he oversaw a budget of over a billion dollars that included one of the nation’s highest volume 911 systems, multiple general acute care hospitals, public health services, and more than $200 million in child and adolescent mental health services and contracts.
Before joining Alameda County, Alex was the director of the Chappell Hayes Health Center at McClymonds High School in West Oakland, a satellite outpatient center of Children’s Hospital and Research Center. His work there has helped define the nexus of public health and public education.
He has designed and administered mental health and physical health programs and services in child serving systems, including home visiting programs, programs for medically fragile children, and clinical and development programs in child welfare, juvenile justice, and early childhood settings.
Alex has served on the Alameda County First Five Commission, The Alameda Alliance, and The Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and The Uninsured, along with other public and private boards and commissions.
He is a mental health practitioner specializing in adolescent services and youth development. He has advised or collaborated with a number of local and national foundations including The Atlantic Philanthropies, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, The Annie E. Casey Foundation, The California Endowment, and most recently with Tipping Point Community. He has specialized in Medicaid policy and administration, emergency medical services, youth voice and crisis counseling, and safety net design and administration.
Hannah Camarata
Director
Hannah is a multi-disciplinary artist who has spent years cultivating and growing communities for creators and change makers via events, co-living, travel, and collaborative experiences. As curator, performance artist and facilitator she embraces and weaves together the subtle sensual elements of life as magnets to help people connect deeper with themselves, and ultimately do the work they are here to proclaim.
Jeff Metcalfe
Director
Jeff Metcalfe currently works as an Account Vice President at Ravel, a strategic consulting company that applies human centered design to problem solving in the public and private sector.
He has helped design and implement programs that create career paths for underserved, system-involved youth and worked on revenue maximization initiatives that have generated millions in increased annual revenue for safety net and child-serving systems in California and New Mexico.
He has helped design and implement programs that create career paths for underserved, system-involved youth and worked on revenue maximization initiatives that have generated millions in increased annual revenue for safety net and child-serving systems in California and New Mexico.
The Public Works Alliance relies on contractors who provide specialized expertise in social justice, Medicaid finance consulting, communications and design, and administrative support. Two key suppliers include: Optumas Services for Medicaid finance consulting, and Ravel LLC for administrative and communications support.
Board of Directors
Our Board of Directors is comprised of thought leaders in social and environmental justice including:
Dr. Vilna Bashi
Board Member
Dr. Vilna Bashi is the Osborn Professor of Sociology at Northwestern University, and a Faculty Fellow at Northwestern's Buffett Institute of Global Affairs. Prior to joining Northwestern, Dr. Bashi served as a Professor and Chair in the Department of Black Studies at the University of California at Santa Barbara.
She was the 2020 recipient of the Cox-Johnson-Frasier award bestowed by the American Sociological Association for scholarship in service to social justice. Dr. Bashi is the author of The Ethnic Project: Transforming Racial Fiction into Ethni Factions, included in the Zora Canon, a list of 100 of the greatest books ever written by African American women. She is also the author of Survival of the Knitted: Immigrant Social Networks in a Stratified World, which outlines a new model of immigrant networks and shows how transnational networks shaped black migrants’ socioeconomic adaptation in New York, London, Canada, and the Caribbean. She is the editor of Race in Transnational and Transracial Adoption, which engages scholars from both sides of the Atlantic to examine the role that race plays in the adoption process, and co-editor of Dynamics of Inequalities in Global Perspective, which examines how patterns of inequality associated with global capital have been reconfigured in different contexts and have historically produced varied results. Her works in progress include a National Science Foundation-funded study on race and adoption in the U.S. and Europe, and a new book on racial thought.
Dr. Bashi now serves as Chair of the United Nations Committee for the Elimination of Racism, Afrophobia, and Colorism (CERAC) as well as a Board member and UN Representative for the Drammeh Institute, an NGO committed to archiving and producing film footage to educate the world on issues of central importance to the African Diaspora.
She was the 2020 recipient of the Cox-Johnson-Frasier award bestowed by the American Sociological Association for scholarship in service to social justice. Dr. Bashi is the author of The Ethnic Project: Transforming Racial Fiction into Ethni Factions, included in the Zora Canon, a list of 100 of the greatest books ever written by African American women. She is also the author of Survival of the Knitted: Immigrant Social Networks in a Stratified World, which outlines a new model of immigrant networks and shows how transnational networks shaped black migrants’ socioeconomic adaptation in New York, London, Canada, and the Caribbean. She is the editor of Race in Transnational and Transracial Adoption, which engages scholars from both sides of the Atlantic to examine the role that race plays in the adoption process, and co-editor of Dynamics of Inequalities in Global Perspective, which examines how patterns of inequality associated with global capital have been reconfigured in different contexts and have historically produced varied results. Her works in progress include a National Science Foundation-funded study on race and adoption in the U.S. and Europe, and a new book on racial thought.
Dr. Bashi now serves as Chair of the United Nations Committee for the Elimination of Racism, Afrophobia, and Colorism (CERAC) as well as a Board member and UN Representative for the Drammeh Institute, an NGO committed to archiving and producing film footage to educate the world on issues of central importance to the African Diaspora.
Dr. Kofi Taha
Board Secretary
Kofi is the Director of Curriculum & Facilitation at Equity Meets Design (EMD), a think & do tank that builds the capacity of individuals within institutions to design policies and practices for equity and justice. He also is a Visiting Faculty member at Olin College of Engineering where he co-teaches Affordable Design & Entrepreneurship, a senior capstone course focused on community-engaged learning.
Prior to EMD, he was the Associate Director of MIT D-Lab where he developed and tested community-driven innovation practices; co-facilitated village-level technology design workshops in Uganda and Haiti; advised enterprises commercializing social impact products in Ghana and Tanzania; provided support to makerspaces in Brazil, Colombia, and India; and helped lead the International Development Innovation Network, a global community of 1000+ innovators, entrepreneurs, ecosystem builders, researchers, and educators.
Standing on the sacrifices of many, he studied political economy at Columbia University, urban planning at MIT, and education leadership at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Prior to EMD, he was the Associate Director of MIT D-Lab where he developed and tested community-driven innovation practices; co-facilitated village-level technology design workshops in Uganda and Haiti; advised enterprises commercializing social impact products in Ghana and Tanzania; provided support to makerspaces in Brazil, Colombia, and India; and helped lead the International Development Innovation Network, a global community of 1000+ innovators, entrepreneurs, ecosystem builders, researchers, and educators.
Standing on the sacrifices of many, he studied political economy at Columbia University, urban planning at MIT, and education leadership at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
John O. Niles
Board Treasurer
John-O Niles is an international expert in climate change and the global carbon cycle. He led several successful global conservative initiatives, including the Climate, Community and Biodiversity (CCB) Standard; the first Advanced Terrestrial Carbon Accounting Certificate at the University of California San Diego; the Tropical Forest Group; and the Carbon Institute. Over the past 20 years, has published climate change textbooks and peer-reviewed articles on climate change, forestry, climate finance and climate policy. John-O has taught at universities in the United States, Indonesia, Cameroon and the Democratic Republic of Congo. In 2017, he received the 2017 Mulago Award for The Carbon Institute, and he’s been called one of the planet’s “most promising people to deliver bigger, better, and faster conservation and climate solutions”.
John-O now helps lead efforts at Salesforce on natural climate solutions.
John-O now helps lead efforts at Salesforce on natural climate solutions.
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