EFC Board Leadership

Eva Camp also serves on the Board of Full Circle Fund. A mother of three children, she dedicates her time to improving education. She currently leads the Parents Association with over 600 volunteers and serves on the Board of Trustees at Head-Royce, her children’s school. She also serves on the Board of National Equity Project (formerly BAYCES), which coaches people to become the leaders who deliver on the promise of a quality education for every child in America. Eva worked for more than 10 years at Microsoft, marketing some of the company’s most successful products, including Word, Office and consumer titles. Her last role there was Director of Market Planning and Analysis for Microsoft’s line of home products. Other highlights at Microsoft include helping lead the turnaround in the company’s Japanese application software business during a 3 year stint in Microsoft’s Far East region and leading the first worldwide launch of Microsoft Office in over 25 languages. Prior to Microsoft, she worked in product management at Proctor & Gamble. Eva has a BA from Harvard University.

Eva is a member of the Executive Committee and serves as Board Chair.

Click here to email Eva Camp.

Nick Driver is the co-founder of Clear Thinking, a non-profit dedicated to supporting schools and organizations with their governance, programmatic, financial and operational needs. Nick’s motivation to be a school advocate and leader grew out of his research into the experiences of countless students that have not been given an adequate education. His professional and personal goal is to help schools and the public school system reach the point where every child is able to master their learning in a challenging and rewarding way, so that they graduate from high school with the skills, mindset, and agency necessary to thrive as adults. Nick currently serves as Superintendent at Griffin Technology Academies. 

Nick has led Education for Change Public Schools, a six-school charter management organization in east Oakland, for the past 9 years as Board Chair and 10+ years as board member. Nick is also the Chair of its Executive Committee.

Click here to email Nick Driver.

Mike currently provides financial consulting services to non-profit and educational organizations. He has served as CFO at the Center for Youth Wellness, Reading Partners, and Aspire Public Schools, and has also filled interim roles at several other nonprofits. Mike began his career in the tech sector and then made the move into nonprofits in 2004. Mike lives in Oakland with his wife and two daughters. 

Mike is the current Finance Committee Chair.  Click here to email Mike.

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Lauren has nearly two decades of leadership experience in fundraising, philanthropy, and advocacy from several well-regarded education nonprofits including the Breakthrough Collaborative, Hiller Aviation Museum, and the YMCA. She is currently the executive director of Acterra: Action for a Healthy Planet, a Bay Area climate action organization. Her expertise lies in team building, infrastructure, and program design. Her passion is building capacity and finding resources for her teams to be successful in their own areas of expertise. Lauren is an alumna of New York University, where she received her master’s degree in Fundraising and Philanthropy, and the University of California–Davis with a Bachelor's in International Relations with a focus on African-American Studies. She is currently an EMBA student at Quantic University. Lauren is a trained Climate Reality Project leader and is a Senior Fellow for the nationwide Environmental Leadership Program.

Click here to email Lauren

Damon Grant has been working in Oakland public schools for the past 15 years as an English teacher and, currently, as the co-principal of Oakland Unity Middle School.  She has two children who attend EFC schools and is a resident of East Oakland. 

Click here to email Damon.

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Valia Almendarez has 4 kids, of which 3 have graduated from Oakland schools. She is participating in the board to become more knowledgeable of what is happening in her son's school and to be able to give feedback as a parent. She currently work full time as a Certified Medical Assistant. She has been working as a Medical Assistant for the past 16 1/2 years. She has always worked in community clinics because she likes to be able to help as many people as she can from my community. She is also a part time student. She is trying to get her bachelor in science in nursing. She really likes what she does and she is trying to advance her career to be able to better help patient's. 

Click here to email Valia

Erika Cisneros has been a proud resident of Oakland, California, for 32 years. A graduate of Fremont High School, she went on to earn an Associate of Arts degree in Radio/TV Broadcasting from Chabot College.

With a deep commitment to public service, Erika has dedicated her career to uplifting her community. She previously served as an Assistant to Oakland City Councilmember Noel Gallo (District 5) and currently works at the Oakland Public Library, while also supporting OUSD District 5 Representative Patrice Berry.

Beyond her professional roles, Erika has been an active volunteer with numerous East Bay nonprofit organizations, including The Unity Council’s De Colores Head Start, Lighthouse Community Charter School (as a co-founder parent), the Oakland Police Department Citizens Academy, the Spanish Speaking Citizens Foundation (as an ESL instructor for parents and children), Brown Girls Surf, Oakland Parks & Recreation Aquatics, and Oakland School Board campaigns.

As a dedicated mother, Erika takes great pride in her two daughters—one serving as a Juvenile Correctional Officer for San Mateo County Probation and the other currently a high school senior.

Erika’s passion for community development continues to inspire her future goals. She hopes to pursue a Bachelor’s degree in Community Leadership from San Jose State University, further strengthening her ability to advocate for education equity and build stronger, more inclusive communities in Oakland.

Click here to email Erika.

Sonia Urzua has worked in Bay Area community planning for more than 20 years. She currently works as the Assistant Planning Director for the City of Lafayette where she supervises the department’s work analyzing developing city-wide land use policy and preparing and evaluating environmental impact reports. She enjoys volunteering her time in support of education-related organizations. 

Sonia earned her B.A. in History from UC Berkeley, an M.A. in Urban Planning from UCLA, and her J.D. from the University of Wisconsin School of Law. She lives in Alameda with her three children.

Click here to email Sonia.

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Niloy Gangopadhyay has spent the last twenty-plus years combating the inequities in public education. He has served as a system, school, and non-profit leader. He currently serves as the Senior Director of Advancement & Engagement at Envision Schools. Previously he served as the Executive Director of Special Populations at the Texas Education Agency, where he led the state’s programming for highly mobile and at-risk, English learners, and gifted & talented students. Before that, he was the co-founder and executive director of Success Preparatory Academy, a K-8th grade charter school in the Treme/Bienville Corridor for ten years. Before moving to New Orleans, he was the founding principal of Cleveland Lighthouse Community School. He also served as the Director of Special Projects at Excellence Charter School of the Uncommon Schools network in Brooklyn, New York. His initial entry into urban education was as a 2002 Teach For America (TFA) corps member in San Jose, California where he taught 4th grade. He received his B.A. in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley, and an Ed.M. from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Click here to email Niloy.

NAME PRONUNCIATION: Stephisha (Stef-e-sha) Ycoy (E-coy)-Walton

Stephisha Ycoy-Walton appreciates the connection between strong leadership, mentorship, and community collaboration for the benefit of all community partners. Stephisha is a retired professional athlete and active community leader. She is also a licensed investment advisor who holds seven licenses across Insurance, Investments & Mortgages, and she is now a Board Director for Education for Change (EFC) Public Schools in Oakland, CA. Stephisha was born in the city of Vallejo, CA, to two teenage parents, Cyntheny and Stephen Walton. Stephisha was raised in Vallejo from 1987 to 2005. She would then leave to Oregon State University after being awarded an athletic scholarship. She received her Bachelor of Science from Cal Poly Pomona University (2012), while serving as the captain of the women’s basketball team (2007-2010). After college, she played basketball professionally for 2 years in Europe (Luxembourg and Montenegro). While playing her last season in Puerto Rico, she was accepted to medical school while also being recruited to work as a financial services professional. Currently, Stephisha is an active member of the Family Leadership Council for EFC, member of the Parent Leadership Council at Cox Academy and Regional Vice President of a highly sought after financial firm. In this space she has been able to positively impact the lives of hundreds of individuals and families by helping them set and meet their financial goals. At the start of the pandemic, Stephisha and her wife, Viveca, established Playbook Series Inc., a nonprofit organization with a mission to improve and enhance academic achievement through the implementation of leadership training and college preparation. Playbook Series Inc. aims to increase the probability of success for scholar-athletes by helping them and their parents become better prepared for the recruiting process and journey to college as a scholar-athlete. Stephisha & Viveca enjoy raising their son with the belief that, “Everyone has a purpose in life and that purpose is to positively impact the lives of those around you.” We do this by tightening the threads between financial literacy and college access points. We focus on foundational leadership principles in school, and we provide accessible high-quality public school education for special education students, homeless students, LGBTQIA students and English Language Learners.
Click here to email Stephisha.

Chris Campbell has always been inspired to use his skills in finance and accounting to support organizations that work towards making a positive social change. He has both public and private accounting and financial analysis experience with a strong focus on the nonprofit sector. Chris started his career at Ernst & Young where he worked on financial statement audits for both start-up and multinational organizations. Following his public accounting work, Chris joined the education nonprofit College Track as a Finance Manager. While there, Chris worked on forecasting, budgeting and financial planning, and analysis tasks supporting College Track’s multiple sites across the United States. Following that opportunity, Chris worked at EdTec where he supported Charter Schools in the San Francisco Bay Area with their financials and budgets. After that role he served as the Financial Controller at the National Equity nonprofit PolicyLink and currently serves as the Director of Financial Planning and Analysis at the children’s literacy organization, Reading Partners based in Oakland, CA.  Chris earned his bachelor’s degree in Business Administration: Finance from Saint Mary’s College of California and he also holds a Master’s degree in Accounting and a Master’s of Public Administration. 
Click here to email Chris.

Kimberly Ovalle is a mother of one proudly raised in Oakland. She has long been passionate about equitable access in education and empowerment of at risk youth. Her journey and involvement started 23 years ago as a founding member of ASCEND’s first ever 2nd grade class. With her mother’s volunteer work, further involvement in OCO and using her own bilingual skills she was a student representative for charters at a young age. It was that community involvement, parent leadership, and school activism that she strived to find again in her daughter’s education, and that’s she’s very proud to have found within Learning Without Limits. As a charter alumni herself, Kimberly understands the strength in community and the power in standing on the shoulder of those that came before us. 
Click here to email Kimberly.