Meet Our Board


William Ortiz-Cartagena (photo,top)
Owner, Cartagena Consulting
William Ortiz-Cartagena, born and raised in the San Francisco’s Mission District, has over 10 years in the hospitality industry enjoying a successful career with Joie de Vivre hospitality. After leaving Joie de Vivre, William founded several companies. He now focuses his efforts in the challenges experienced by underserved communities in San Francisco. William currently serves as a Commissioner on the San Francisco Small Business Commission. 

Vice President

Matthew Haney
President, San Francisco Unified School District


Whitney Jones
Director of Housing Development, Chinatown CDC
Whitney Jones first started in 1992 at Chinatown CDC, a San Francisco-based nonprofit that works in the areas of community planning and engagement; youth and leadership development; and housing development, management and service provision. He was hired as Housing Development Assistant before becoming a Project Manager, then Senior Project Manager, and eventually assuming his current position. Whitney has been involved in the acquisition, rehabilitation and development of over 2,000 units of affordable housing in Washington, D.C. and San Francisco. He is a graduate of LISC’s Housing Development Training Institute and the University of Southern California’s Bay Area Ross Program for Real Estate, as well as the University of Kansas with a B.A. in English, and the University of California, Berkeley with an M.A. in Geography.  He has lived in the Mission District since 1991.


Kavita Gobburi
Loan Officer, Northern California Community Loan Fund
Kavita Gobburi is a Loan Officer at the Northern California Community Loan Fund.  Prior to joining NCCLF in 2011, she worked as a Senior Financial Analyst at Bank of America in New York.  Her experience in finance ranges from management reporting and financial analysis, to strategic planning and small business finance. In addition to her work in financial services, she has held executive positions in the nonprofit sector, addressing social issues including economic and community development, education and civic engagement. Kavita worked as the director of a nonprofit focused on providing access to technology education to disadvantaged youth across the United States. She also has international experience working for a microfinance institution in Bangalore, India. Kavita graduated with an undergraduate degree in Biology from UC San Diego and an MBA from Thunderbird, Graduate School of International Management.

Karling Aguilera-Fort
San Francisco Unified School District
Karling Aguilera-Fort offers a wealth of experience about educational issues, providing invaluable insight for making the Mission Promise Neighborhood a success.

Norma Garcia
Policy attorney
Norma Garcia is an award-winning public policy attorney and consumer advocate, she has led and delivered key initiatives to strengthen the consumer marketplace. Norma has served as co-counsel on high-impact litigation teams protecting consumer rights.

Jabari Herbert
Former Executive Director, Alliance for West Oakland Development
Jabari Herbert has a long history of professional involvement with non-profit organizations working on community development issues. He brings a wealth of expertise to the board.

Kevin Stein
Associate Director, California Reinvestment Coalition
Kevin Stein works primarily on housing issues, including efforts to fight predatory mortgage lending. Kevin was the primary author of CRC’s reports, “Stolen Wealth: Inequities in California’s Subprime Mortgage Market,” which investigated subprime and predatory lending practices in the state, and “Who Really Gets Home Loans? Years Ten and Eleven” and “Who Really Gets Higher Cost Home Loans,” a duo of analyses of home lending that explores the relationship between race and the cost of credit. Before coming to CRC, Kevin was Supervising Attorney at the East Palo Alto Community Law Project and Lecturer in Law at Stanford Law School, working on community economic development issues. Prior to that, he worked at HomeBase, a law and social policy center on homelessness. Kevin is a graduate of the Georgetown University Law Center and Stanford University.
