Silicon Valley

Aarti Chandna is an impact and angel investor focused on early-stage ventures driving social change, and she mentors social entrepreneurs. She serves on SV2's Investment Committee, is on the leadership team for MIT Solve's Innovation Future Fund, and is an Investment Advisor/LP at Symphonic Capital as well as an LP at Black Opal Ventures and Impact First. She previously held IT executive roles at companies including Oracle, Hitachi, Coherent, Autodesk, and Nikon, and holds a B.S. in Mathematics from Bombay University and an M.S. in Computer Science from Case Western Reserve University.

Bill Brownell is a business leader focused on directing philanthropy and impact capital toward social problems. He serves as Board Treasurer, Partner, and Investment Committee Member at SV2, which supports San Francisco Bay Area nonprofits and social enterprises, and sits on the Board of Schwab Charitable. His prior business roles include Chief Strategy Officer at Hewlett Packard, Senior Vice President at Cisco Systems, and senior partner at The Boston Consulting Group; he holds an MBA from Stanford GSB, an MPP from Harvard's Kennedy School, and a BA from Stanford University.

Brittny Bottorff is an attorney, mediator, and strategic advisor who joined SV2 as a Partner in 2024 and serves as Partner Champion for Oasis Legal Services. She is a Partner at Insight Counsel LLP, advising nonprofits, government agencies, and companies on legal, strategic, HR, and conflict management matters, and also acts as General Counsel to a California-based multi-site company. Her practice draws on nonviolent communication, relational mediation, and community facilitation, and she holds a J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law.

An SV2 partner who values how the grant rounds make him more intentional about the organizations he chooses to fund or volunteer with.

Catherine Crystal Foster advises families and funders on philanthropic strategy and grantmaking. Her background includes leadership at Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, founding a Silicon Valley-focused philanthropy innovation initiative, directing a family foundation, scaling an education nonprofit, authoring welfare legislation for the District of Columbia, and directing a national children's policy advocacy program. She serves as a community volunteer and board member supporting Bay Area nonprofits.

Celeste Ford is the Board Chair and Founder of Stellar Solutions, Inc., an aerospace engineering company she founded in 1995 and led as CEO until 2018, serving defense, intelligence, commercial, civil, and international clients. She launched Stellar Ventures in 2022, where she is General Partner, to invest in space technology companies. She holds a BS in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Notre Dame and an MS in Aerospace Engineering from Stanford University.

Youth development grant round co-leader and partner champion to MyPath.

Cindy Lang is a fundraiser and connector who coordinates engagement and strategic conversations in the Bay Area and internationally, with particular familiarity with Brazil's business culture and language. She serves on the boards and advisory bodies of several social-impact organizations, including Action for India, Sustainable Conservation's Advisory Board, and Stanford's IRiSS Advisory Board and Center on Poverty and Inequality, and has advised Embrace and mentored at the Miller Center GSBI. She holds a BA in French and English Literatures from Stanford University and an MBA in Sustainable Management from Presidio Graduate School, and is a certified diversity and life coach.

Clara Roa is the Chief Development and Operations Officer at the Hispanic Foundation of Silicon Valley, a role she has held since 2018, and serves as SV2 Board Chair. She has over 15 years of experience in nonprofit management and fundraising in the Bay Area, including roles at Life Moves, Vascular Cures, and the Pacific Stroke Association. She holds a Master's in Public Administration and Nonprofit Management from New York University's Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Policy and a BA in Modern Languages from Pontificia Universidad Javeriana.

David Dill is a Community Investment Officer at Boston Private Bank & Trust, where he oversees community outreach, donations, and investments supporting programs for low- and moderate-income communities and individuals in the Bay Area. He previously held roles across the public and private sectors in economic development, community revitalization, and corporate finance. He joined SV2 as a partner in 2019 and holds an MBA from Indiana University and a BS in Public Policy, Planning & Development from USC.

Deb Dauber is a strategist with more than fifteen years of experience advising private and public sector clients. She runs a solo consulting practice, Dauber Consulting, focused on strategic planning for for-profit and non-profit organizations, and serves as a Director for the Dauber Foundation and as a member and former chair of the Women's Catalytic Fund. She holds a PhD from UC San Francisco, a Master of Public Health from UC Berkeley, and undergraduate degrees in Chemistry and Cellular and Molecular Biology from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Deepti Sharma is co-founder of an online platform connecting government, the private sector, and academia to collaborate on global challenges. She has more than 15 years of experience in business strategy and operations, including federal government consulting for defense and civilian customers where she implemented governance frameworks and risk-management methodologies. She mentors social entrepreneurs through the Miller Center at Santa Clara University and holds a Master of Engineering from Cornell University and a Bachelor of Engineering in Mechanical Engineering from Mumbai University.

Diana Bersohn is a former Managing Director at Accenture, where she worked for over 30 years on technology strategy and business transformation for global organizations. She holds an MBA from NYU Stern and a BA from Cornell University. She serves on several nonprofit boards, including Cal Performances, and previously spent nine years on the board of a nonprofit focused on advancing women in technology.

Diane Dittmar works as a developer of affordable housing serving formerly homeless individuals, low-income households, and households with disabilities.

Elaine Lum MacDonald focuses on applying private-sector skills to help social enterprises increase their societal and environmental impact. She was previously CEO of the Knowledge Impact Network (KIN) and Executive Director of Harvard Business School Community Partners of Northern California, and earlier founded a strategic marketing consultancy, held a marketing role at the Clorox Company, and worked as a management consultant at The Monitor Group. She holds an A.B. from Harvard College and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Gatanya Arnic has more than 19 years of experience in leadership development, healthcare, and the nonprofit sector. She serves as Executive Director of the Center for Youth Wellness, a program of Safe & Sound, where she is also Chief Strategy Officer, and previously spent three years at a senior housing organization in Chicago. She holds a B.S. in Community Health from Illinois State University, is pursuing an MBA, and has been a LeadingAge Leadership Fellow and a 2021 Gratitude Network Fellow.

Grace Mah has served on the Santa Clara County Board of Education since 2007 and holds several civic roles, including Board President of Stevenson House, a low-income senior housing program in Palo Alto, and co-founder of the Strong Start Coalition of Santa Clara County. She has 18 years of high-tech industry experience in project management and sales. She holds a B.S. in Engineering and Applied Science from Caltech and an M.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from UC Berkeley, and is pursuing a Public Leadership Credential from the Harvard Kennedy School.

Partner champion to The Jose Valdes Math Institute.

Partner champion to LegalEase and Parent Voices Oakland.

Partner champion to MyPath.

Partner champion to Fortitude Careers.

Youth development grant round co-leader.

Kelly Pope is a social entrepreneur and strategic advisor who concentrates on early childhood (ages 0-5) learning and their families, advising early-stage edtech startups on business models, design thinking, and technology implementation. She previously spent 25 years as a software technology executive, leading cross-functional teams building products spanning medical diagnostic software, consumer video games, and web-based educational curriculum. She holds a B.S. in electrical engineering/signal processing from U.C. Davis and was among the first women to attend the U.S. Air Force Academy.

Partner champion to Brightline Defense Fund.

Partner champion to Multicultural Institute.

Partner champion to Learning Home Volunteers.

Meg Bannick has been part of the SV2 community since 2019, participating in immersion trips and grant rounds, including co-leading the "Reimagining Education Equity in the COVID Recovery" grant round. She focuses on volunteer leadership in literacy programs and nonprofits, supporting first-generation college-bound youth and the farmworker community, including work with a farmworker organization in Watsonville. She holds a master's in education from Lesley University and a bachelor's from Bowdoin College.

Mica Eades Mayo is an operations and finance executive with over twenty years in the technology sector, having worked at ServiceNow, Juniper Networks, Oracle, and Sun Microsystems. At ServiceNow she led the lead-to-cash digital transformation during a period when the company grew from $2B to $10B ARR. She earned an MBA in Finance from Cornell University and co-founded Untapped Investing, which focuses on closing funding and wealth gaps for people of color and women as founders and funders.

Partner champion to Climate Resilient Communities.

Nancy Heinen is a corporate lawyer and former senior executive who most recently served as Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of Apple, Inc. After a 25-year career in corporate and law firm roles, she now works on philanthropy and social justice, with a focus on access to quality education and economic opportunities for disadvantaged women. She serves on advisory boards including the UC Berkeley Center for Law, Business, and the Economy and has been a member and former Board Chair of SV2.

Partner champion to Navajo Power.

Rekha Pai Kamath is an adjunct instructor at MIT I-Corps and an investor focused on technology and applied generative AI in emerging markets, climate technology, and gender equity initiatives. She brings experience in product development, marketing, product management, and strategy from her background as a Silicon Valley technology operator, and currently works as an impact investor through Silicon Valley Social Venture Fund, Toniic, and Fast Forward. Her investment interests center on supporting tech and social entrepreneurs with strategies that benefit under-resourced and disenfranchised communities.

Rita Mancera Hernandez was born in Mexico City and raised in Baja California Sur, and began nonprofit work as a teenager, including time with the YMCA of Mexico and the Latin American and Caribbean Alliance of YMCAs. She joined Puente in 2006 and has served as its Executive Director since January 2016, working on immigration legal services, adult education, youth leadership, economic development, and affordable housing. She holds a master's degree in Education from Universidad YMCA in Mexico City and is a fellow of the American Leadership Fellowship Education Class of XVIII.

Rolland Janairo has been Executive Director of the Silicon Valley Urban Debate League since 2018. He graduated from Brown University and earned a Master's degree in Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and previously held roles at Jumpstart for Young Children, Life is Good Playmakers, and as Chief Operating Officer at World Savvy. He focuses on education and supporting students, and also serves on the boards of the Thrive Alliance of Nonprofits of San Mateo County and the California Association of Urban Debate Leagues.

Shalyn Eason has been a Partner at SV2 since 2012, where she has served on the Board of Directors, been a Core Team Member for the Community Initiative, and co-led Grant Rounds focused on Economic Opportunity and the Environment. She works as a consultant to foundations and nonprofits, and previously held roles in Program Finance at the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and in strategy and operations management consulting at Deloitte Consulting. She holds a bachelor's degree in Public Policy from Stanford University and an MBA from Harvard.

Partner champion to Multicultural Institute.

Susan Eliot has over 25 years of experience in product management, business development, and marketing across technology companies and mission-driven organizations, including roles at Netscape, Yahoo, Realtor.com, VolunteerMatch, and Benetech. She joined the Silicon Valley Social Venture Fund (SV2) in 2022 and has taken part in multiple grant rounds, currently serving as Partner Champion for ALAS. She holds an A.B. in Diplomacy and World Affairs from Occidental College and an MBA in Marketing and Entrepreneurship from Babson College.

Susan Flierl has 30 years of experience in the software industry, working on product strategy and business transformation for global supply chain solutions at Accenture and Oracle, including time in Germany. She most recently served as Product Strategy Director at Oracle, leading global development for its cloud warehouse management solution, and over her career built and scaled enterprise SaaS portfolios and worked on M&A integration and go-to-market strategy. She holds a B.S. in Engineering from Princeton and an M.S. in Materials Science & Engineering from Stanford.

A Partner quoted describing the experience of collaboratively evaluating and making values-aligned impact investments through SV2.

Werner Goetz joined SV2 as a Partner in 2018 and focuses on impact investing, helping evaluate startups in areas such as renewable energy generation and social impact in sub-Saharan Africa. He is a Partner Leader for SV2's Impact Investing Working Group. He spent over 25 years in Silicon Valley engineering and senior management roles, including work on LED lighting technology, and now runs Goetz Technology Consulting. He holds a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Erlangen in Germany.

Zelica Rodriguez-Deams has nearly two decades of experience in the non-profit sector, working in community organizing, advocacy, research, and program strategy. She serves as Director of Thriving Communities with Sobrato Philanthropies and previously directed Santa Clara County's Office of Immigrant Relations, held leadership roles at SOMOS Mayfair, and led policy and organizing work at SIREN. She holds a Master's in Political Science from San Francisco State University and a bachelor's degree in Sociology and Latin American and Latino Studies from UC Santa Cruz.