Our Team

Board of Directors

John Newsome

John Newsome is the founder of Public Equity Group, a leading social impact advising leading foundations and nonprofits across the country on strategies to advance racial and economic justice. John has also founded and incubated a number of successful nonprofits, including Fight for a Better America, a federal super PAC that funded successful, grassroots, voter engagement campaigns.

Michaela Leslie-Rule

Michaela Leslie-Rule is a Senior Program Officer at the Gates Foundation, where her work focuses on the impact of cultural narratives on how students experience and learn math in K-12. For over two decades, she has supported communities, non-profit leaders, and philanthropic institutions to advance racial and gender justice by leveraging the power of narrative.

Treasurer

Karen Li

Karen Li is a Research Coordinator with 32BJ SEIU, the largest property services union in the country. She develops and executes campaigns to win for the unions nearly 150,000 members, raising wages and standards for thousands of janitors and security officers across the East Coast.

Secretary

Rhoda Hassan

Rhoda Hassan serves as Counsel at Toast, Inc., where she advises on product development, commercial strategy and regulatory compliance. In prior at Davis Polk & Wardwell and Patterson Bellnap, and Industrious, Rhoda has advised businesses at all stages of development from startups to Fortune 500 companies.