Cohort 8 (2024-2025)

Susie Lee is a mission driven investor at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. She is responsible for developing and coordinating strategic investment activities that address the root causes of racial inequity and reduce the racial wealth gap to improve the lives of children and families. Her work includes implementing programmatic and investment activities to increase social impact; ongoing analysis of solutions and trends; monitoring contractual and investment compliance; developing relationships within the field; fostering alliances with community, corporate and philanthropic partners; and supporting the overall direction and implementation of the foundation’s strategic framework.

Prior to joining WKKF, Susie worked as an investment consultant and venture partner enabling entrepreneurs, families, and foundations to align their money with mission by sourcing, making, and managing impact investments. Previously, she was the chief investment officer at RSF Social Finance from 2016-2019 where she led strategy, execution, and growth of innovative, integrated capital financing of for-profit companies and nonprofit social enterprises. She led teams that deployed ~$60 million annually in direct loans, growing loan portfolios to over $130 million and stewarded $70 million in Donor Advised Fund assets fully invested for impact. Prior to this, she served as a principal at the Skoll Foundation; Principal at TBL Capital and Partnership Capital Growth Advisors & Investors (PCG); director at IGNIA Partners; summer associate, Bay Area Equity Fund at JP Morgan; associate venture capital at Community Technology Fund, Boston University Endowment; and private equity analyst at TAG Venture Partners in Boston. Lee has also worked at Google, Stanford and served as an AmeriCorps Entrepreneur Corps Fellow at New Sector Alliance.

Susie holds a Bachelor of Arts in history from Columbia University and attended the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania where she completed core coursework in the MBA program.

Sooni Gillett is a is a serial social entrepreneur with 15+ years’ experience in the education, environment, and health impact sectors. She helped co-found and leads Stanford’s Emergence Accelerator Program at the School of Medicine to drive systemic change in societal health through preventative and inclusive innovations. 

Her work spans across the Bay Area, Latin America, Asia, and Africa, where she has designed and scaled innovative programs and organizations to support locally led solutions and move capital towards meaningful impact. Her passion lies in providing individuals and organizations with the tools and resources they need to align their values with impact and champion solutions to social, environmental, and economic challenges.

As the Director of Programs at Emergence, Sooni supports next generation impact innovators and cultivates relationships with capital networks to scale high impact initiatives to improve societal health. Previously, she founded ConnectED, a social impact organization that partners with indigenous leaders in Central America to tackle education challenges. Her earlier work involved innovation in food systems in the Bay Area and at the Postharvest Technology Research Center, where she supported farming communities in Asia and Africa.

Sooni holds a Master’s in International Development and Ecology from UC Davis and a Bachelor’s in International Relations from San Jose State, along with certificates in Nonprofit Management, Tropical Agricultural Food Systems, and Entrepreneurship in Emerging Economies. She lives in Santa Cruz, CA, with her husband and two sons, enjoying nature and creative projects in her free time.

Sharon Kennedy Vickers is a technology leader with nearly three decades of experience dedicated to harnessing technology for societal betterment. Driven by a life’s purpose to help people gain access to the resources they need to fulfill their potential, Sharon believes that technology can create shared abundance and free people to contribute at higher levels to society. She is committed to leveraging innovative solutions that empower individuals and communities, ensuring technology serves as a catalyst for positive change and collective prosperity.

Sharon is the CEO of Software for Good, an agency that builds technology that enables companies, nonprofits, and government agencies to solve some of the world’s toughest problems by understanding the human needs of the people and communities it will touch. 

Prior to this role, Sharon was appointed by Mayor Melvin Carter to serve residents in the City of Saint Paul and the national civic technology community, as Chief Information Officer (CIO). As CIO, she was responsible for ensuring the city used data and technology to create a more welcoming, just, and inclusive Saint Paul.

She is a champion for tech equity and an inclusive digital economy. Sharon is co-founder of Techquity.MN, Code Switch, a civic hackathon. Sharon is also a fourth-generation farmer. She and her eleven siblings own and operate HK Farm, an 1100-acre homestead in Tattnall and Candler counties Georgia. They grow and make healing hemp products and raise beef cattle; and inspire, educate and empower people to love and respect the land and animals.

Sharon holds a Bachelor of Arts in African American Studies and Political Science from the University of Georgia, and Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Clayton State University.

Sarah Christiano is a marketing and strategic communications consultant committed to using the power of storytelling to affect social change. She partners with nonprofits, foundations, and social enterprises advancing economic justice, with much of her recent work focused on supporting the communications efforts of businesses that employ people historically excluded from the labor market. Previously, Sarah worked at the venture philanthropy REDF, the nonprofit legal advocacy group Equal Rights Advocates, and as a political communications consultant at Fenton Communications. 

Sarah holds a BA in Government from Georgetown University. She lives in the Bay Area with her husband and daughter and in her free time enjoys playing tennis, reading, traveling, and exploring all that the Bay has to offer. 

Pooja Mehta, the daughter of Indian immigrants, was born and raised in Minnesota. She studied finance and economics at Boston College, reconnected with her roots through community work in rural Rajasthan, and pursued law in DC on a social justice scholarship. 

As a child welfare attorney, restaurant owner, and workforce development advisor, Pooja witnessed poverty’s devastating effects and how employment and entrepreneurship can drive economic mobility. 

Drawing from her family business experience and its sale, Pooja founded The Marigold Effect, a firm dedicated to closing opportunity and wealth gaps. Her work explores strategies for reducing racial wealth disparities within frameworks of inclusive capitalism, the solidarity economy, and regenerative economics.

Pooja is Of Counsel at a solidarity economies law firm, mentors entrepreneurs, and serves as a board member of a nonprofit advocating for change to the juvenile legal system. She finds joy in concerts, cooking, photography, and hiking.

Nyia Hawkins is an impact strategist, storyteller, and investment professional working at the intersection of economic justice, arts, and culture. She serves as the Investment and Portfolio Coordinator at Chordata Capital, where she focuses on values-aligned investment strategies to support non-extractive finance and community wealth-building initiatives. Her work emphasizes investments that help create equitable financial systems that center justice, empower marginalized communities, and build community wealth.

She is also an Impact Strategist for AmbitioUS at the Center for Cultural Innovation (CCI), where she supports innovative models and partnerships advancing financial self-determination for artists, creative entrepreneurs, and cultural communities historically excluded from wealth-building opportunities. AmbitioUS is a time-limited, pooled research and development fund bridging institutional funders, private philanthropy, and grassroots economic changemakers.

Nyia is the creator, host, and producer of The Soul of Capital podcast, available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts and created in collaboration with the Center for Cultural Innovation. The podcast introduces listeners to alternative economic models and the changemakers leading them. With nearly 20 years of experience in journalism, including a decade focused on business and economics, Nyia brings her storytelling expertise to the world of impact investing and philanthropy. She holds an M.A. in Broadcast Journalism from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism and a B.A. in American Studies from the University of California, Berkeley.