The Collective
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A-dae Romero-Briones
A-dae (Kiowa/Cochiti) was born and raised in Cochiti Pueblo, New Mexico and comes from the Toyekoyah/Komalty Family from Hog Creek, Oklahoma on the Kiowa side. Mrs. Romero-Briones works as Director of Programs-Native food and Agricultural Program for First Nations Development Institute and Co-founder/director of the California Tribal Fund. She is formerly the Director of Community Development for Pulama Lana’i. She is also the co-founder and former Executive Director of non-profit for Cochiti Pueblo, New Mexico. Mrs. Romero-Briones worked for the University of Arkansas’ Indigenous Food and Agricultural Initiative while she was getting her LLM in Food and Agricultural Law. She wrote extensively about Food Safety, the Produce Safety rule and tribes, and the protection of tribal traditional foods. A U.S. Fulbright Scholar, Ms. Romero-Briones received her Bachelor of Arts in Public Policy from Princeton University, and received a Juris Doctorate from Arizona State University’s College of Law, and LLM in Food and Agricultural Law from the University of Arkansas. President Obama recognized Adae as a White House Champion of Change in Agriculture. She formerly sat on the National Organic Standards Board (2016-2021) and the Sustainable Ag and Food Systems Funders Policy Committee and a steering committee member for the Funders for Regenerative Agriculture. She is a member of the California Foodshed Funders group. And board member at the California Institute for Rural Studies.
Mariela Cedeño
Mariela is the product of her Venezuelan birthplace, El Salvadoran roots, and Bay Area upbringing. For the past 15 years she has cultivated local economies and resilient food systems, and catalyzed new models of investment and economic opportunity that center and uplift BIPOC entrepreneurs, farmers, and community-based organizations. Prior to Manzanita, Mariela was the Interim Executive Director of Mandela Partners – an Oakland based non-profit organization that works to increase access to healthy food, good jobs, and ownership opportunities. In a decade at Mandela Partners, Mariela seeded and grew economic development projects, wealth building initiatives, entrepreneurship programming, and non-extractive capital resources. Mariela holds a wide breadth of experience in community rooted economic development, small business advising, alternative capital, financial planning, non-profit management, and much more.
She is the chair of the Equitable Food Oriented Development Collaborative’s Community Investment Committee, on the Olamina Fund Community Advisory Committee, on Nonprofit Finance Fund’s Care Fund Advisory Committee, on California Farmlink's Board of Directors, and part of the Firebrand Stewardship Trust. Mariela is a current Institute for the Future fellow, and is also a former Common Future fellow, NALCAB Colegio alumni, and Kiva fellow. She also proudly serves Somos Famila as the Board Treasurer.
Anthony Chang
Anthony Chang is the son of Chinese immigrant small business owners and has spent 20+ years working in economic opportunity and environmental sustainability in communities of color. Prior to Manzanita Capital Collective, Anthony helped start and build Kitchen Table Advisors (KTA), a nonprofit that fuels economic viability and thriving livelihoods for a multi-racial next generation of sustainable small farms and ranches. During his last couple years at KTA, he participated in POC-led collaboratives stewarding and governing their own capital (such as The People's Land Fund, Equitable Food Oriented Development Collaborative, and the LIFE / Open Letter group); worked with foundations on aligning grants and investments with their values; and facilitated integrated capital and technical assistance for farmer owned food hubs for food and land justice projects. Prior to Kitchen Table Advisors, he spent 15+ years channeling capital to small business owners while in leadership roles at community development financial institutions (CDFIs) like Accion Opportunity Fund and California FarmLink. Anthony also is a Castanea Fellow; previously served on the board of RSF Social Finance; and currently serves on the board of Common Future and steering committee of the Fondo de Solidaridad de Mountain View.