Board and advisors
As an organization in transition, we are pleased to have a board of directors who are leading us in building up our organization, as well as advancing the next phase of employee ownership as a means of economic empowerment and wealth-building. Our board membership will continue to grow with industry and field leaders dedicated to our work and mission.
The members of our advisory council provide unique insights and strategies to foster deep impact, achieve employee ownership at scale, and provide for ongoing organizational sustainability.
Current Board of Directors
Evan Edwards
Evan Edwards
Board President and CEO of Project Equity
Evan has over 20 years in business startups, executive leadership and business development. He served as the former Executive Director at YMCA Corporation of Los Angeles where he increased investment in low-resourced urban YMCAs. Prior to his appointment to CEO in October, 2021, Evan had served as Project Equity’s Director of Strategic Partnerships and Business Engagement since 2017, during which time he led us in forging partnerships including city and county localities, government agencies, other nonprofit organizations, and business associations in California and beyond.
James Alva
James Alva
Adelante Partners Inc.
James is the Founder & CEO of Adelante Partners Inc., a nonprofit and philanthropic consulting firm rooted in its values of diversity, equity and inclusion. The Company’s team of experts provides services across six major practice areas with the goal of helping its mission-driven clients to unlock their growth potential. Previously, he served on the executive team at Citigroup and led the corporate philanthropy team across the Southwestern United States. James has served on the Boards of Directors for 14 nonprofits. He currently serves on the board of SoCal Grantmakers. He co-created the Avanzar Nonprofit Board Leadership program in partnership with the Orange County Community Foundation, which trains Latinos to serve on nonprofit boards.
Eric Weaver
Eric Weaver
City First Enterprises
Eric brings over three decades of experience in community economic development and community development finance. In 1992, he founded what is now the nation’s leading small and microbusiness lending CDFI, Opportunity Fund — now Acción Opportunity Fund. When Eric stepped down as CEO in 2017, Opportunity Fund had more than 100 employees and a small business loan portfolio of over $100 million under management. Eric currently serves as a Senior Advisor at City First Enterprises in Washington, DC. He is also providing consulting services and executive coaching to organizations. Previously, Eric worked as a community organizer and project manager for an affordable housing nonprofit in DC and as a relief worker in El Salvador.
Advisory Council
John Sweeney
John Sweeney
The Sweeney Firm
John E. Sweeney, the son of a lawyer, has been fighting for justice for his clients for four decades. He is a nationally-known trial lawyer. The driving force in his career has been to protect the rights of average citizens against the wrongs of large corporations and public entities.
After graduating from the University of Southern California and California College of Law in the 1970s, he was hired at the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office by then Assistant District Attorney Johnnie L. Cochran, Jr. When Mr. Cochran left the District Attorney’s Office to reestablish his private practice, Mr. Sweeney joined him where they worked on some of the largest civil rights cases in U.S. history.
In the early 1980s, Mr. Sweeney founded The Sweeney Firm in Beverly Hills, California, and has specialized in serious personal injury and civil rights cases. Mr. Sweeney has had over 200 jury trials over the course of his career, many resulting in multimillion dollar verdicts for injured individuals.
Mr. Sweeney has many more verdicts and settlements (too many to list) over the million-dollar mark during his remarkable career. Mr. Sweeney is 36th lawyer in the history of the State Bar of California (California Lawyers Association) to be inducted into its Trial Lawyers Hall of Fame.
Mr. Sweeney is in high demand as a speaker on trial tactics and strategy, and the American judicial system.
Mr. Sweeney has appeared on many network television shows including Good Morning America, CNN and many others. Recently, in the case of Donta Taylor v. Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, Mr. Sweeney made international news in exposing the existence of violent gangs within the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. These secret societies’ members receive matching tattoos after committing violent acts against innocent citizens of Los Angeles County. The fallout from this scandal rocked the City of Los Angeles to its core and caused sweeping changes in law enforcement. In 2022, New York Magazine published a 5,000-word intellectual property Article on Mr. Sweeney’s 20-year odyssey in exposing Sheriff’s gangs.
Mr. Sweeney is an avid sportsman, having scaled 19,000-ft. Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Africa, and plays tennis regularly. He is a lifelong member of the venerable Holman United Methodist Church in Los Angeles. He divides his time between residences in Los Angeles and La Quinta, California. For 40 years, he has been married to Cheryl Blanchard Sweeney and they have one adult daughter.
Mr. Sweeney has been invited to fellowship in several invitation only/highly selective Bar societies, and sits on the National Board of Directors for the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA).
Crystal Jones
Crystal Jones
The Huntington - Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens
Crystal credits the success of her 20+-year career in philanthropy to strategy, integrity, and her ability to effectively navigate personal connections and institutional goals to secure not only gifts but more importantly, longstanding, fruitful relationships. Currently, she serves as the Assistant Vice President for Advancement at The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanic Gardens in San Marino, CA. Previously, she served as the Associate Director of Major Gifts at the Los Angeles Philharmonic (LA Phil), after 9 1/2 years at her alma mater, Scripps College in Claremont, CA, where she advanced to the Director of Development and Major Gifts.
Crystal’s fundraising career has included a variety of non-profit and academic institutions, including UCLA, the California Community Foundation, and Smith College. A California native and graduate of Scripps College, she completed a 6-year term as a Board of Trustee in 2008 for her alma mater. Crystal maintains a deep commitment to social justice values, and she needs to work at an organization that values the excellence that occurs when there is a healthy representation of races, ethnicities, and gender expression.
Before a career in the non-profit sector, Crystal spent 8 years in the entertainment industry in public relations and artist management. In addition to her Bachelor of Arts degree from Scripps College, she has a Masters in Philanthropic Studies from the Lilly School of Philanthropy at Indiana University.
