Leah Bass-baylis

(she/her)

Board Member

Dr. Leah Bass-Baylis was the founding Principal of Valley Region #12 elementary school. Under her leadership, a partnership with Carlos Santana’s Milagro Foundation was forged and the school was renamed Carlos Santana Arts Academy. Throughout her career she has been a strong proponent of the arts. June 2019, she retired from this position.

Prior to joining Carlos Santana Arts Academy, Leah was the Principal of CHAMPS, Charter High School of The Arts, Multimedia and Performing and served as an Assistant Principal at Robert A. Millikan MS and Performing Arts Magnet where she founded the dance program. In 1998, Dr. Baylis was promoted to the position of Dance Coordinator and eventually Dance Specialist for Los Angeles Unified School District. She was the first to hold this position and was a member of the LAUSD Arts Education team that created a blueprint for comprehensive elementary arts programs throughout Los Angeles. She directly supervised dance instruction in 180 elementary schools and coordinated dance activities at all grade levels.

Leah has a B.A. from Spelman College, an M.A. degree from Teachers College, Columbia University, and an M.S. from Pepperdine University. In 2020 she received her Ed.D in Educational Leadership and Organizational Change from Rossier School of Education, University of Southern California. Prior to her career in education, Ms. Bass-Baylis enjoyed a career as a dancer/ singer/ actress and choreographer, completing national and international tours of numerous musicals including Arms Too Short To Box With God, Guys, & Dolls, Ain’t Misbehavin’, Little Shop of Horrors, Timbuktu, The Wiz, Black Nativity, and Carmen Jones. She was also dance captain for the Broadway production of The Tap Dance Kid where she coached tap impresarios, Harold Nicholas and Savion Glover. She is currently the director of E.A.T.S., Education and Arts Teaching Solutions and Interim Principal at Debbie Allen Middle School

Sarah Culberson

(she/her)

Board Member

Sarah Culberson is a philanthropist, actress, author, educator, and former CONTRA-TIEMPO company member. She earned her MFA at The American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco and then joined the Los Angeles acting community. Sarah has acted on stage as well as in films and TV, including appearances in Strong Medicine, All of Us,Boston Legal, The Secret Life of the American Teenager, and the filmAmerican Dreamz. Sarah danced as part of the CONTRA-TIEMPO company from 2005-2007 and still continues to perform as a guest artist.

Jonathan Lowe

(he/him)

Board Member

Jonathan Lowe is a marketing executive and innovator, with over 20 years of experience overseeing marketing, media buying, brand and business development, digital media, event production, and promotional merchandise for some of the world’s most iconic sports teams, live events, and venues.

Prior to founding his full-service marketing agency Spark & Sway, in December 2020, Lowe served as CMO of the LA Auto Show. Before joining the LA Auto Show, Lowe enjoyed an 18-year run with AEG, the world’s leading sports and live entertainment company. Lowe held several senior-level positions during his tenure at AEG, including Senior Vice-President of Marketing and Senior Vice-President, Business Development, and Brand Strategy for the LA Kings/AEG Sports.

Lowe currently serves as an Adjunct Professor at the University of San Francisco’s Graduate Program in Sports Management. Additionally, he serves on the Advisory Board of the LA Kings as well as the Argyle Executive Forum CMO Advisory Board.

Daniel Penilla

(he/him/él)

Board Member

Daniel is a creative, Liberatory coach, producer, and lover of stories, driven to find ways of bringing joy, love, healing, and liberation to our communities. Daniel believes that creativity and social action are essential to creating the type of communities that we all deserve to live in.  Daniel is Latine, Mexican born in the United States, and currently lives on the unceded territory of the Tongva/Gabrielino peoples.

He has held leadership roles in the for-profit and non-profit sectors for over 15 years. Daniel was the Associate Artistic Director and Ensemble member of Cornerstone Theater Company where he created and led events bringing together artists, activists, thought leaders, and community members. His roots are in theater and as an actor, he trained at Circle In The Square Theatre School in NYC and was a member of the LAByrinth Theater Company’s first Intensive Ensemble. He is also an alum of artEquity’s National Facilitator Training program. Most recently he played Luis in the award-winning short film (Soon to be feature film) La Serenata, directed by Adelina Anthony & written by Ernesto Javier Martínez. 

He is the founder of (presente) coaching and supports folks in being grounded in their present and highest SELF so that they can share their strengths and gifts with their communities.  He received liberatory coaching certification through Coaching for Healing, Justice, and Liberation (CHJL).  Along with working as an independent coach, he also works with Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy (CAUSE), the New Breath Foundation, and is currently an ensemble coach with MAP fund- Scaffolding for Practicing Artists (SPA).

Daniel loves to create spaces for individual and collective grounding and alchemy, especially with BIPOC, othered, and marginalized peoples and communities. In addition to his work in the arts and as a coach, he is a producer and founder of presente nomad creating and facilitating events with a focus on social justice and community impact at small and large scales.

Desa Philadephia

(she/her)

Board Member

Desa Philadelphia is a Writer, Editor and Communication Strategist. She works in the Office of Communication & PR at the USC School of Cinematic Arts. She began her career in media as a reporter with the PBS NewsHour and Time Magazine, before working in strategic communication roles with U.N. Global Pulse and other non-profits, and as a freelance journalist. She graduated from City College of New York with a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature (Journalism minor) and also earned a master’s degree in Public Diplomacy from USC. She is interested in multiculturalism and globalism and explores these themes in her work. She is on LA Metro’s Westside/Central Service Council and the Communication and Policy Committee for Downtown Women’s Center. She is the author of the book 111 Shops in Los Angeles That You Must Not Miss, which offers a journalistic look at the city through its retail culture. She is currently developing a podcast about migration.

Vivian Rodriguez

(she/her)

Board Member

Vivian is an an Artist and Community Volunteer and Organizer. She is a first generation Latina, born and raised in Glassell Park, Los Angeles and is the first female in her family to attend college. She has worked as a graphic designer and has been self employed running an invitation business for special events and an eco-friendly gift company. For the past 20 years she has also been involved in numerous non-profit organizations, including Homeboy Industries, Dolores Mission at Proyecto Pastoral, Kidspace Museum and Foothill Family Services. Vivian attended UC Berkeley and graduated from UC Santa Barbara with a BA in Political Science/International Relations. She studied Graphic Design at UCLA and Studio Art at Art Center. She is currently scheduled to start a Masters Program in Marriage and Family Therapy with specialized training in Art Therapy at Loyola Marymount University in the Fall 2021.She lives in Pasadena with her husband Rey Rodríguez and her two boys Diego and Pablo. Together they share a passion for social justice, travel, art, dance and music from around the world.

Francisca Sánchez

(she/her)

President

Francisca Sánchez is a poet, “word weaver,” long-time educator, and former English Learner. After a long career in education, Francisca has returned to her passion, poetry and the arts. She has been writing poetry for five decades, but only within the last decade has she begun to take her poetry public. In 2013, she published When I Dream/Cuando Sueño, the adaptation of one of her poems into a bilingual children’s book, illustrated by her son, Nicolás Sánchez, a visual artist. When I Dream/Cuando Sueño was selected by the New York City Public Schools as book of the month. Currently, she is working on two new books, both adaptations of her poetry: We Were There When and We Dance, We Dance, We Dance. 

Francisca is also CEO of Provocative Practice™, an educational consultant organization. She retired several years ago as Associate Superintendent for Educational Services with Hayward Unified School District. She has served in a variety of leadership, administrative, and teaching positions at the district, county office, regional, and state levels, including as Chief Academic Officer for San Francisco Unified School District and Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum & Instruction with the San Bernardino County Office of Education. She also served two terms as president of the California Association for Bilingual and recently served on the Executive Board of the National Association for Bilingual Education. She was selected as a Senior Fellow with the Education Trust West, and is president of her local CABE chapter. In addition to her work with CONTRA-TIEMPO, she serves on the boards Scaling Student Success, and the East Side Education Foundation, and is president of her local CABE chapter.

In recognition of her continuing contributions to education, she was awarded a Presidential Excellence Medallion from CSU, San Bernardino in 2002, named as 2002 Inland Empire Educator of the Year, and inducted into the East Side Union High School District Hall of Fame in 2003. Francisca has been named to a number of influential national and state task forces and served for many years as a member of the state-wide Curriculum & Instruction Steering Committee, where she was the chair for the Visual and Performing Arts Subcommittee. She was selected as the recipient of ACSA’s 2005 State Valuing Diversity Award and CABE’s 2006 Vision Award.

Five years ago, she created MOSAAIC, an intensive Arabic language, arts, and culture summer program for students, mostly Latino, in her community of Patterson, CA, and directs this program each summer. The program is an opportunity for youth to experience language, culture, and the arts beyond their local community.

Francisca graduated magna cum laude from Mount Holyoke College, completed her M.A. at San José State University, and completed her doctoral studies (ABD) in Sociolinguistics at Stanford University.

Kat Yalung

(they/them)

Vice-President

Kat Yalung is passionate about learning from every encounter, empowering the disadvantaged through entrepreneurship, and evangelizing true social innovation through human centered design. Kay has 9 years of startup and tech sector experience from SF to LA Tech! Prior to that, 10 years nonprofit experience in hospital, university, government & international development. She is building meaningful bridges in the public, private and tech sphere to mobilize change! Kat served as a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Nicaragua 2008-2011 (4 years training trainers, spearheading National Business Plan Competitions & implementing Entrepreneurship Education in all Nicaraguan schools) and attended American University, Washington Semester Program: International Environmental Studies.