Our Team

Tash (she/they) is a queer, gender-nonconforming, community organizer and circlekeeper working to build racial and economic justice. For over 10 years, they’ve been organizing to reduce jail populations, stop jail expansions, and redirect resources out of carceral budgets and into life-affirming solutions.

Tash is trained in restorative justice, mediation, and various conflict resolution techniques. They believe that we must build cultures and practices that move beyond punishment if we are to meaningfully break cycles of violence and create a world rooted in shared prosperity.

Prior to joining Restore Oakland in 2019, Tash served as a Senior Organizer and Advocate at the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, a founding partner of Restore Oakland. They proudly serve on the board of the REAL Peoples Fund.

Tash was born and raised in the Bay as a child of Vietnamese refugees. Their dedication to dismantling systems of domination is fueled by the deep ties she has in her community and her broader vision of liberation. They love noodles, backpacking, and nerding out over music and poetry.

Debbie (she/her) is an experienced finance, operations, organizational development,  and human resources management professional with a deep commitment to social justice and dismantling systems that disseminate economic injustice. Debbie brings over 20 years of experience working with mission-based organizations dedicated to community building and advancing a more just and equitable society to her role as Managing Director. 

A native New Yorker, Debbie relocated to the Bay Area in 2009. She comes to the organization with many years of experience in the non-profit sector working in Human Services as a Program Director and Learning and Development Coordinator with Housing Plus Solutions in Brooklyn, New York as well as, Economic and Workforce Development as the Director of Finance at Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center in San Francisco. 

Prior to joining Restore Oakland Inc as a staff member, Debbie was the Director of Finance and Operations at the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, a founding partner where she helped manage a $22M capital campaign and helped the launch of Restore Oakland.

In her leisure time, she enjoys gardening, the beach, hiking, wine tasting, and exploring all that northern California has to offer.

Jessie (they/them) is a community advocate, food entrepreneur, and queer creative based in Oakland, Ohlone Land. Raised in the Bay, by way of Naperville, Illinois, they are a second-generation Vietnamese of the diaspora. Jessie began their career in economics and has spent the past decade cooking and sharing Vietnamese food. They are passionate about the heart-centered experiences of community building as opportunities for awareness, connection and care.

Kari (any pronoun) is a queer, Black organizer and facilitator who brings her training in policy advocacy and social work to the movements for prison-industrial-complex abolition and Black liberation. Kari has roots in rural North Carolina, Uganda, and Finland, and has been cultivating a home in the Bay Area over the last six years.

Before joining Restore Oakland, Kari provided advocacy and support to incarcerated Californians fighting for resentencing and release, and worked with unhoused folks and low-income families to access housing and vital services. They hold an MSW/MPP from UC Berkeley, and are passionate about liberatory approaches to healing and mental healthcare. On good days, Kari may be found reading in the sun, dancing to live music, homemaking with their partner, and tending to plants.

Natalya (they/them) is a queer lifelong student, multi-media artist, and scholar-organizer devoted to Black feminist movement building, centralizing the heart of their work in prison-industrial-complex abolition. A child of Tanzanian and Malawian immigrants, Natalya came from Michigan and Texas before finding their way to the Bay seven years ago.

Natalya’s journey before joining Restore Oakland Inc. brought them to guide transitional-aged youth into becoming leaders in the struggle for free college; community alternatives to police; and corporate polluter accountability. They also co-designed and founded the NET Growth Movement Guaranteed Income Program for former foster youth (aged 21) in Alameda County. Having further provided in-custody resources and familial support to incarcerated parents, Natalya facilitated reunification to system-impacted families.

Natalya holds an honors BA in Political Science and Sociology from the University of San Francisco where their organizing journey catalyzed. They led direct actions advocating for issues such as Cops-Off-Campus as well as participated in acclaimed panel discussions and workshops, such as examining reparations for descendants of enslaved Africans with Dr. Cornel West.

On good days outside of work, Natalya is sunbathing in the grass while immersing in their latest novel; catching a good sweat in dance class; writing a burst of couplets at the beautiful sights of everyday life; and being in community with their best friends.

Zoe (she/her) is an organizer, designer, and researcher committed to storytelling and collaborative design processes to address social problems. At the heart of her process is curiosity and a fierce commitment to inclusive design. Originally from the East Coast, Zoe has been living and organizing in Oakland for the past 10 years, and has deep relationship with the Bay.

Zoe has a background in architecture, anti-prison organizing, and restorative justice facilitation.  Working with Decarcerate Alameda and California Coalition for Women’s Prisoners, she has been supporting community-based movements towards liberation for over a decade. This work has led her to shift her design focus towards communications design for political organizing, and she recently graduated from California College of the Arts with a Master’s in Interaction Design. 

Carlus “Ray” (he/him) is a Richmond native who currently resides in the South Bay. He is a business owner and a Restorative/Transformative Justice circle keeper.

He holds a weekly ‘Citizens Circle’ with formerly incarcerated and never incarcerated individuals. Ray has facilitated community building circles at Stanford University as well as given a speech on prison abolition for a Cops off Campus rally, also at Stanford University.

Ray knows the fundamental problems of the US prison system from the inside and is able to counteract this well functioning system with a humane approach to crime and conflict through this work that he does. He is a formerly incarcerated individual who spent 27 years as a resident of the California Department of Corrections.

Nwamaka Agbo (she/her) is the CEO of the Kataly Foundation and Managing Director of the Restorative Economies Fund. In her roles, Nwamaka collaborates with the Kataly team to lead the foundation’s day to day operations, while holding the community-centered strategy and vision for the Fund.

With a background in community organizing, electoral campaigns, policy and advocacy work on racial, social and environmental justice issues, Nwamaka is deeply committed to supporting projects that build resilient, healthy and self-determined communities rooted in shared prosperity.

Prior to joining the Kataly Team, Nwamaka built an independent consulting practice guided by her framework on Restorative Economics. As a consultant, she provided technical assistance and strategic guidance to community owned and governed community wealth building initiatives like Restore Oakland, Black Land & Power and others. Her work with these community driven projects led her to providing trainings and advisory services to donors, foundations and impact investment firms including institutions like The San Francisco Foundation and RSF Social Finance. Nwamaka has served as a fellow for the Center for Economic Democracy and the Movement Strategy Center. She proudly serves on the board of Thousand Currents, Restore Oakland, Inc. and Resource Generation.

To relax and unwind, Nwamaka enjoys spending quiet time in her Oakland backyard savoring sips of bourbon.

Jessamyn Sabbag (she/they) is a lifelong resident of the San Francisco Bay Area. With ancestors from Syria, Italy and Germany, she grew up during the imperialist wars in the “Middle East,” and came into her own as an activist and then organizer as she connected the dots between her own family’s trauma from serving in the military and the trauma of her people in the Arab region. After graduating from Brown University in 2001, Jessamyn participated in countless anti-war mobilizations, and became drawn to civic engagement and power-building strategies to advance social justice. 

Jessamyn currently serves as the Senior Director of the Power Pathway at the San Francisco Foundation, where they work to resource and amplify the work of community organizations that are building political power to advance racial and economic justice. Prior to that, Jessamyn ran a consulting business to support organizations to develop their long-term political strategy using the tools of c3, c4s and PACs; design and implement impactful campaigns; and build leadership development programs that engage folks ranging from newer organizers to elected progressive leaders. 

Jessamyn brings a proven track record in providing visionary, strategic, accountable and collaborative leadership from their 12 year tenure at Oakland Rising, where they moved from Field Director to Deputy Director to Executive Director.  She led the organization in developing its collaborative structure to build the capacity and synergy between nine diverse racial, economic and environmental justice organizations, and myriad partners from the community, labor, political and philanthropic sectors. While at Oakland Rising they helped grow their voter base from 1,400 people to over 25% of the city’s electorate, culminating in winning a progressive governing majority on the City Council in 2020, for the first time in about 40 years. Jessamyn is also one of several co-founders of Bay Rising and Bay Rising Action, a regional vehicle to build community control and political power.

Jessamyn is passionate about redistributing wealth, ending the military/police industrial complex, and building beloved community that centers care and belonging, love and liberation. Jessamyn is mama, partner, daughter, sister, friend, neighbor and community member. She loves being in and connecting with nature, plants and animals, and is an avid swimmer and gardener.

Born and raised in Oakland, Joshua Lee has been leading grassroots organizations in the Bay Area for over ten years. A focal point of Josh’s work has been with youth organizing groups in the east bay such as Youth Together and AYPAL: Building Asian Pacific Islander Community Power, centering the voices and leadership of some of the most powerful yet vulnerable populations in the region in BIPOC young people.

Josh is currently a Senior Program Officer at the East Bay Community Foundation for the Community Organizing, Power Building, and Movement Building strategy. He has a MA from the University of Michigan in Higher Education with a focus on Social Justice, and a BA from UC Santa Cruz in American Studies.

Vivian Yi Huang (she/her) currently works at Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN) alongside immigrant and refugee community members to build power and create the world of love and justice we envision. Being from a Chinese immigrant family, she was raised in a culture of loving your people, living in the world of possibility, and the importance of making ideas tangible. Over the past 11 years and now as a Co-Director, Vivian has played a leadership role in strengthening APEN’s organizing and leadership development, advancing our collective strategy for just transition and systemic change, catalyzing innovative models, and deepening our embodiment of feminisms and shared power.

Prior to working at APEN, Vivian spent a decade working on policy, legislative, and budget campaigns, including model policies to improve health care interpretation, $25 million for health disparities in cancer, and a successful effort to support immigrant parents that made a conservative “top bills to kill list.”  She has also been a facilitator, trainer, and teacher with the Women’s Policy Institute, School of Unity and Liberation (SOUL), and San Francisco State University Department of Public Health.

Vivian finds joy in dance parties with her threenager and doggy, somatics and healing, masterpieces by Wong Kar Wai and Octavia Butler, and cake, ice cream, or best of all, the combination.

Alejo (she/ella) is a first generation indigenous Zapoteca from Los Angeles, with over a decade of experience leading worker struggles to secure long-term material gains. Alejo is committed to developing rank-and-file leadership, challenging the boss, and embodying a principled stance that honors the praxis and historical legacy of proletarian struggles.

Some notable parts of Alejo’s organizing trajectory include her role in organizing fast food workers demanding livable wages in Northern California, and currently guiding the coordination of the statewide Safety Net for All coalition, which aims to secure fundamental benefits for immigrant workers historically excluded from government aid programs. She currently serves as the Executive director of TUWU, where she has been building working class power since 2019.