Team

JESSICA GARZ (SHE/HER)

FOUNDER & DIRECTOR

Jessica Garz’s primary goal is to support groups —including those belonging to government, philanthropy and civil society—to have policies, practices and cultures that take an active position towards social and racial equity. 

As the founder and director of RAE Consulting, Jess’s practice is informed by a decade of work as a grantmaker—first, with the New Orleans-based, artist-focused Transforma Projects and then as a Senior Program Officer in the arts and culture program at the Surdna Foundation—and influenced by an amazing set of colleagues, peers and friends across the U.S.

Over the years, together with others, including many artists, community organizers and funders, Jess has designed and built new organizations and initiatives, including the New York City Neighborhoods First Fund, the Greater New Orleans Funders Network, the Amplify Fund at the Neighborhood Funders Group and SOURCE Studios; and she has refined the strategies and operations of existing organizations, both as in-house staff and as an external advisor.  Jess currently serves on the Board of Directors at Design Futures and Sankofa Research Institute.

Recognizing that social and racial justice organizations must embody their values to realize truly equitable outcomes, Jess leads and facilitates processes such that group culture is built and nurtured alongside the development of strategy and policy. She draws expertise from the diverse roles she’s played over the years in private spaces like board rooms, classrooms and yoga studios, and in the public realm of community meetings, conference stages and editorial pages.

Jess holds a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture from Washington University in St. Louis and a Master’s of City and Regional Planning from MIT with a concentration in Housing, Community and Economic Development; is a certified yoga instructor; and loves to learn with students of art ages. After decades of moving around the country, Jess now lives in the neighborhood where she was born and raised in Philadelphia, PA.

Sinéad López (SHE/HER)

SENIOR CONSULTANT

Sinéad López (she/her) has seven years of experience as a social justice grantmaker mobilizing over $60M for historically marginalized artists, storytellers, journalists, cultural strategists, faith leaders, organizers, and movement-builders who are leading progressive change domestically and abroad. Most recently, Sinéad served as Senior Program Associate at the Nathan Cummings Foundation. There, she interim managed the Voice, Creativity & Culture: Arts & Culture portfolio; supported partnerships in the Voice, Creativity & Culture: Religious Traditions & Contemplative Practices and Israel-Palestine portfolios; and advanced strategic planning in service of racial, economic, and environmental justice.

Sinéad believes narrative and culture are necessary sites of transformation for expanding imagination and for realizing new political possibilities. She is interested in the role of philanthropy in building long-term progressive power and infrastructure that align in theory and practice with collective social justice visions and values. Her professional roots first grew in the cultural sector, and she has worked at organizations such as the Surdna Foundation, Ballet Hispánico, the Dittmar Memorial Gallery, and the Smithsonian Institution. Field service includes volunteer leadership on the boards or steering committees of Critical Minded, the Mosaic Network & Fund, S.O.U.R.C.E. Studio, and the NY Chapter of Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy.  

Sinéad is currently the Lisa Ellen Goldberg Fellow in Philanthropy & Public Service at NYU Wagner, where she is a full-time MPA candidate studying Public & Nonprofit Management & Policy and specializing in Advocacy & Political Action. She holds a B.A. with honors in Art History from Northwestern University.

jillian yum (SHE/HER)

intern, ASSOCIATE

As an individual and a participant in academic, working, and social spaces my ultimate goal is to de-platform privilege. Right now, I am committed to the anti-racist process of questioning my participation in white supremacy and its disenfranchisement. My work as a college student is to identify how best to leverage my privilege into transformative praxis. 

I was born and raised in Philly, a city marked by segregation, a legacy of school closures, and the enduring effects of racialized redlining and gentrification. I’m inspired by the city’s spirit and invested in its struggle. I’ve spent my life in three gentrified or gentrifying neighborhoods, where I’ve learned and grown. I’ve lived on the lines, which, on the macro level between neighborhoods, divide our municipality, and on the micro level between class and race, divide Philadelphians. In recent years, I have volunteered and worked for several political campaigns, talking to Philadelphians, at polling stations and at their doorsteps about the issues closest to them.

As an intern of RAE, I provide general support with administrative needs. I have also written stories about organizations and participated in meetings and conferences. I am absorbing everything I can!

In Summer 2020, I graduated from Germantown Friends School and I currently am continuing my education at Tufts University in the School of Arts and Sciences.