Cohort 9 (2025-2026)

Madhav Shroff is a Senior Program Officer for Public Policy and Public Affairs at the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation, where he leads efforts to advance equitable policies that improve economic opportunity for Arkansans. He brings experience from his legal career advising start‑ups, small businesses, and venture funds.

At the foundation, Madhav works across sectors to support policy solutions that address systemic barriers, particularly for ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed) families across Arkansas. His work centers on economic equity, access to capital, and public systems change, with a focus on long‑term structural reform informed by both legal training and close collaboration with community partners.

He serves on the boards of City Year Little Rock, the Central Arkansas Library System, the Information Network of Arkansas, and the Bowen School of Law Young Alumni Board. He also chairs the Arkansas Bar Association’s Public Service Academy and serves on its Governance Committee, helping shape programs that support civic leadership and public interest lawyering.

Madhav earned a Bachelor of Science in Biological Sciences from Carnegie Mellon University, a Master of Science in Biomedical Sciences from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, a Master of Public Service from the University of Arkansas‑Clinton School of Public Service, and a Juris Doctor from the UA–Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law.

Ali Anderson is a public health leader, birthworker, and food justice advocate with over a decade of experience working at the intersections of health, healing, and liberation. She is the founder and Co-Executive Director of Feed Black Futures, an organization building power through Black food economies and food sovereignty while addressing the historical harms of incarceration and land dispossession.

As a community organizer and former membership co-chair with Black Youth Project 100 NYC, Ali led direct action campaigns focused on carceral violence, reproductive justice, and environmental justice. She has been a keynote speaker on food sovereignty and food justice at institutions including Harvard School of Public Health, UCLA, and Pitzer College.

Ali is from Southern California and the granddaughter of Jamaican immigrants. She holds a Master of Public Health from Emory University. In 2021, she received the Black Women Green Futures Award, and in 2022, she won the Echoing Green Social Innovation Challenge. A 2023 Echoing Green Fellow, Ali has been featured in TIME and People Magazine. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for Acta Non Verba Youth Community Farm, Sweet Freedom Farm, and SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective.

Theresa Deibele (she/her) is a Director at Occam Advisors, helping foundations design and implement place-based impact investing programs. In partnership with the Oregon Community Foundation, she manages a $33 million portfolio of local investments, over half of which support community wealth building through shared ownership models for housing, businesses, commercial properties, and manufactured housing communities. Theresa was recognized by the Impact Finance Center as a “Who’s Who in Impact Investing” in 2024.

Earlier in her career, Theresa practiced public finance law before pivoting to philanthropy. She joined Meyer Memorial Trust, based in her hometown of Portland, Oregon, where she led its affordable housing program and managed a portfolio of $20 million in program-related investments.

Theresa holds joint degrees in law and public administration (JD/MPA) from the University of Arizona and a BA from Stanford University. She credits her service as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Chad for her commitment to social and economic justice. 

Alexander “Brave Journey” Sterling (he/him) is the CEO and co-founder of Turtle Island Community Capital (TICC), a Native-led CDFI committed to economic sovereignty, climate justice, and cultural revitalization across Indigenous communities. With ancestral roots in the Ramapo Lenape Nation, Cuba and the African diaspora, and a deep commitment to relational finance, Alexander brings two decades of experience in clean energy, community development, and impact investing.

Prior to founding TICC, Alexander ran a private consulting firm in San Francisco and supported renewable energy projects from residential to utility scale in tribal, rural and urban communities. He is a frequent speaker at RE+, SOCAP, and other national convenings on climate finance and Indigenous-led investing.

Alexander is building a capital ecosystem that honors traditional governance, land-based knowledge, and regenerative practices. His leadership integrates policy advocacy, philanthropic engagement, and culturally grounded underwriting to serve first-generation entrepreneurs, tribal nations, and grassroots organizers.

He is a proud father of 3, a student of Munsee and Lenape teachings, and a champion of community resilience. His work has been supported by the Oweesta, Grassroots Fund, and the Center for Indigenous People’s Rights, among others. Alexander holds a degree from the University of Rhode Island and serves on national advisory communities advancing equity in finance and environmental justice.

Miwa Tamanaha’s ancestors first came to Hawaiʻi from Okinawa in the late 1800s to work sugar plantations; she is the fifth generation of her family to call Hawai’i home.

Miwa is the Co-CEO of Hawai’i Investment Ready, a social impact investing intermediary committed to building a just, place-based island economy for Hawaiʻi and its people.

Miwa has worked in environmental justice and community-based economic development initiatives in communities and ecologies from nearshore fisheries in Baja California to parklands in Tanzania, including as the Executive Director of KAHEA: The Hawaiian-Environmental Alliance. Prior to HIR, Miwa served for a decade as co-founder and co-leader of Kuaʻāina Ulu ʻAuamo (KUA), facilitating networks of rural Hawaiian fishers, farmers and families. She continues to serve as a member of the Limu Hui at KUA, a network of seaweed gatherers and growers which she helped to establish in 2014.

An experienced community organizer, network weaver, and organization builder, Miwa is passionate about “the technology of community” — and how our relationships with our places and with each other can make for a better world. She holds gratitude to her many community teachers, including Aunty Puanani Burgess and Uncle Henry Chang Wo, Jr. She considers herself a “recovering economist” — holding undergraduate and graduate degrees in economics from the University of Southern California.

She is also a proud partner, mama, friend, descendant, and aunty.

Aisha T. Weeks is the Managing Director of the Dearfield Fund, a private equity impact fund in Denver, Colorado. The Fund works at the intersection of innovative finance, impact investing, and integrated capital to close the wealth gap. Under Aisha’s leadership, the Dearfield Fund has provided more than $8 million in down-payment assistance to first-time homebuyers and raised $13.5 million in funding—$6.5 million in 2024 alone.

A recognized thought leader in equity lens investing, Aisha has recently spoken at more than 15 national convenings, including the National Community Reinvestment Coalition’s Just Economy Conference, Confluence Philanthropy, and the JP Morgan Chase/Urban Institute Housing Innovation Conference. Her career spans consumer and commercial lending, housing policy, and equitable financial inclusion, with previous roles at Citibank, Cleveland State University, and the City of Cleveland, where she led community reinvestment initiatives.

An alumna of the National Urban Fellows program and the VC Include Fellowship, Aisha was named to the Denver Business Journal’s “Who’s Who in Impact Investing” in 2024. She is committed to building capital systems that work for all, driven by both a moral and economic imperative for equity.