Supporters
Staff, Board and Supporters
Bolstered by a diverse staff and board with experience ranging from sociology and housing development to volunteerism and community organizing, SOMCAN is well-equipped to provide the SoMa communities with the knowledge, resources and direction they need to navigate the complex paths of city policies and legislature.
Staff | Part-Time Staff | Board Members
Staff
Angelica Cabande, Organizing Director
Angelica provides support and guidance to the growing staff of organizing leaders, advancing the mission of SOMCAN and ensuring coordination between the different programs and campaigns within the organization. She also continues to develop the capacity of residents to become engaged in issues of land use, healthy livelihood and community planning in SoMa. Born in the Philippines and immigrated to the U.S. at the age of eight, Angelica has been an organizer for over nine years and has worked with residents in the Trinity Plaza tenant struggle, Rincon Hill/SoMa Stabilization Fund mitigation fight and Bessie Carmichael School expansion. She is an emerging artist/poet/photographer, and has read at several events including Commemoration of the I-Hotel and her poetry/writing has appeared in different magazines including Tea Party and Maganda magazine. She seeks to ensure art and community organizing is intertwined in her life at all times.
Jasen Ildefonzo, Membership Coordinator
A lifelong San Franciscan, Jasen is the father of three beautiful RockStar children, Amihan, Kali and Malaya. He and his wife Rachel are now raising their own family here in his beloved city. Jasen and his family have been growing and organizing together since 1996. Jasen is a member of the PTA at Bessie Carmichael Elementary School, founder of the C33ActionNetwork, guitar/vocals for a Political SF based band DiskarteNamin and is a founder of Filipino Community Center in the Excelsior!
Mai Doan, Youth Organizer
Mai has her B.A in Women and Gender Studies from San Francisco State University, with a focus on transnational feminism. She has over four years of practical experience working with various non-profits tutoring, counseling and facilitating workshops with marginalized populations, including underserved youth and women of color. She has a California State Certification as a Domestic Violence Counselor, ventures out to open mic shows and seeks to take down borders with words and organizing. She is currently SOMCAN's youth organizer, with over a year of experience, and has a passion to empower youth with a holistic approach to support and education that targets all systems of oppression.
Part-Time Staff
Lorraine Deguzman, Fund Development
has her B.A. in Anthropology and Feminist Studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Lorraine has facilitated creative writing workshops for incarcerated women in the Santa Cruz County jails and worked as an after school program leader, teaching creative writing and art in Oakland. Through her experiences working in the social justice sector and through her personal experiences as a daughter of Filipino immigrants, Lorraine believes in the importance of words, art, and activism in empowering marginalized communities. Lorraine works as SOMCAN’s fundraiser, organizing fundraising events, communicating and engaging with donors, and grant writing. Lorraine also currently does fundraising and grant writing for the Coalition on Homelessness, a nonprofit in the Tenderloin that does community organizing around homeless issues in San Francisco.
ldeguzman@somcan.org
Jesus Perez, SoMa Family Outreach Worker
Jesus Perez's organizing history can be traced back to working as a laborer alongside his family in Central and Southern California. Jesus works hard to connect all families—especially immigrant families—to the different city programs that they can utilize. He builds their leadership capabilities to ensure that their voices are heard, and that they are also part of the decision making processes that affect their families. Jesus has mobilized a significant Latino contingent, and maintains connections among the many ethnic groups in the SoMa.
Juvy Bulacan-Barbonio, SoMa Family Outreach Worker
Juvy is a dedicated licensed social worker with over ten years of experience, including experience working with the refugee populations in the Philippines. Juvy works to ensure that the delivery of services to low-income individuals and groups is efficient and effective. By day, Juvy is the Activities Coordinator for Canon Kip Senior Center. At night, she works with SoMa Filipino families to connect them to various city programs and builds parents' leadership skills so that they may engage fully in civic life, raising their voices and becoming part of the decision making that affects their family's livelihood.
Board Members
Christopher Punongbayan, Esq., Chair
Christopher Punongbayan is the Deputy Director of the Asian Law Caucus, the oldest Asian American civil rights organization in the country. He serves as vice-chair of the San Francisco Immigrant Rights Commission and is chair of the board of SOMCAN. Chris has a diverse background in direct services, community organizing, policy advocacy and nonprofit management. He is a graduate of UCLA School of Law and Brown University.
Bernadette Sy, Treasurer
Bernadette Sy founded the Filipino-American Development Foundation/Bayanihan Community Center in 1997 and is the current Executive Director. She primarily works in the South of Market neighborhood and sits on several nonprofit boards in SoMa, including the Veterans Equity Center, Tenant and Owners Development Corporation, South of Market Community Action Network and the Alexis Apartments of St. Patrick's Parish. She is a resident of San Francisco, married, and a mother of two teenage boys.
Jeanne Batallones, Secretary
Jeanne was a core student organizer in the campaign to establish the Asian American Studies major at San Francisco State University and the first Pinay to graduate in the major. In '97, Jeanne developed the Veterano Project — a student—run, oral history project documenting the experience of Filipino World War II veterans. Since graduating, Jeanne has spent the last 10 years organizing in the South of Market Filipino community. She was a co—founder of the SF Veterans Equity Center (VEC) and the founding Director of the South of Market Community Action Network (SOMCAN). Jeanne recently obtained her M.S. in Counseling from San Francisco State, currently works as a Counselor at City College of San Francisco and is a Lecturer in the Asian American Studies Department at San Francisco State.
TC Duong
Currently TC Duong serves as the Program Manager for Asian Pacific Partners for Empowerment Advocacy and Leadership (APPEAL). In this role TC manages the technical assistance program in Minnesota, providing cross-cultural organization development and leadership training to community organizations in Minnesota. Prior to coming to APPEAL, TC was the Community Resources Program Manager for the National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development (National CAPACD) managing National CAPACD's technical assistance program and working on policy initiatives related to affordable housing, fair lending and education. TC Duong was also the Project Manager of the Southeast Asian American Advocacy Initiative at the Southeast Asia Resource Action Center (SEARAC). As Project Manager, TC provided technical assistance and support to Southeast Asian Mutual Assistance Associations and monitored policy and legislation affecting the Southeast Asian American community.
Diana Lee
Diana is the Vice President, Programs, at the National Community Development Institute (NCDI). A native of Oklahoma, Diana has worked for equal access to health, education, social and legal services for youth and adults living with sickle cell and other special health care needs for over seventeen years. One of California's first state-certified sickle cell counselors, Diana served as the co-founder and past Executive Director of the Sickle Cell Community Health Network of Northern California. Prior to joining NCDI, she was an active advocate on behalf of children and adults with a broad range of disabilities and special health care needs, serving as a consultant-trainer for the California Department of Education, assisting parent groups, schools and professionals around California to build effective partnerships through trainings, one-on-one consultation, technical assistance and publications.
Since joining NCDI in 2003, Diana has served on many projects, including coordinating the training programs for consultants and organizational leaders serving diverse communities around the country. Diana manages a variety of capacity efforts across the country for individuals, organizations and neighborhood/community projects while continuing her volunteer work on the governing boards of nonprofits and as a family advocate. An alumnus of the LeaderSpring (formerly Eureka Communities) Fellowship for nonprofit directors, Diana holds a B.S. in Health Science with an emphasis in Community Health Education from San Francisco State University.
Terrence Valen
Terrence "Terry" Valen has served as the Organizational Director of the Filipino Community Center (FCC) in the Excelsior neighborhood of San Francisco, California for the past three years. More than 12,000 mostly recent immigrant Filipinos live in the Excelsior neighborhood and more than 40,000 Filipinos live in the city of San Francisco -- one of the gateway cities for many Filipinos coming to the United States. The FCC has developed youth and student, women's and immigrant working family programs to support the needs of and organize community members to address their rights and welfare as an empowered community. The FCC, as part of the National Alliance for Filipino Concerns in Northern California (NAFCON-NorCal), has developed a specific program to promote Immigrant Rights locally in the "Sanctuary City" of San Francisco, uniting Filipino immigrant community organizations across the Northern California Bay Area and nationally as part of NAFCON. Terry has a B.A. from Duke University in Environmental Science and Policy and his Masters in Public Health (MPH) from the UCLA School of Public Health with a specialization in Environmental Health Sciences.
April Veneracion
April is the former Director of SOMCAN. April has over ten years of policy and program development experience working specifically with low-income and people of color communities. April's experience includes designing, implementing and evaluating technical assistance and capacity building programs in neighborhood and community development, and she brings technical expertise in the areas of urban planning and housing. April has a B.S. from the University of California, Riverside in Sociology and Administrative Studies and a Masters in City Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is currently Legislative Aide for San Francisco Supervisor Chris Daly.