Board of Directors

Tiana Patterson (she/her): Chair, Vice President of Social Impact and Wealth Equity at Elevation Community Land Trust, former Legal Director for Elevation Community Land Trust, former state and local policy program officer for Enterprise Community Partners in Denver.  Prior to her work for housing justice in Colorado, Tiana worked as a policy fellow for Unite for Reproductive and Gender Equity in Washington, D.C., and as a law clerk for the Illinois State Attorney’s Office in Cook County, Ill. Tianapat@gmail.com.

Ken DeLay (he/him): Vice Chair, interim treasurer, former Executive Director of the Colorado Association of School Boards.  Prior to his selection in 1999 to lead the state’s 178 school boards, Ken built one of Colorado’s leading school law firms, Semple, Miller, DeLay & Mooney. Born and raised on a ranch in Montana, he received his Bachelor’s degree in economics, with honors, from North Carolina State University.  Ken earned his Juris Doctorate from the University of Colorado. kendelay@comcast.net.

Chris Watney (she/her): Member, therapist and executive coach. Chris also served as the president and CEO of the Colorado Children’s Campaign, former spokesperson for U.S.  Attorneys General Janet Reno and John Ashcroft, including serving as the spokesperson for the Justice Department at the Oklahoma City bombing trials. chris@peopleandpossibilities.org

Judith Marquez (she/her/ella): Member, current Grant Manager for the Chinook Fund where she supports applicants and grantees in building capacity for social change. Known for her leadership as a community organizer spearheaded the win for a comprehensive paid family and medical leave program in Colorado as the state director of 9to5 Colorado. Judith is the daughter of Mexican immigrant parents and roots her work in her family’s and community’s struggle for justice. For the past decade, she has served on the front lines as a community organizer, leading and participating in multiple campaigns to protect workers and immigrant communities. Judith is passionate about bringing an anti-oppression and intersectional frame into her work, recognizing that all our struggles are intimately connected, and our liberation is bound to each other. judith.marquez.co@gmail.com.

Felicia Griffin (she/her): Member, current co-director and co-founder of Transformative Leadership for Change; more than 21 years in nonprofit leadership, social and economic justice work, and fundraising. Felicia is the former Executive Director of United for a New Economy in Denver, Deputy Director for the Partnership for Working Families (PowerSwitch), Development Director for two different State Priorities Partnership organizations in NM and CO. Felicia currently serves on the Board of Restaurant Opportunities Centers United and CFI, and has recently completed a fellowship at Cornell University’s National Labor Leadership Initiative (NLLI) and is a current Build the Bench fellow for Rutgers University’s Center for Innovation in Worker Organization (CIWO). She has completed the Coaching for Healing, Justice and Liberation coaching program and is also the President of Sweet Magnolia Consulting. felicia@transformativeleadershipforchange.org. 

Harsha Sekar (he/him): Member, is a Partner at the law firm of Michael Best & Friedrich LLP, where he chairs the firm’s global Debt Finance practice.  Harsha has extensive experience representing local governments in Colorado in connection with capital raises to finance infrastructure projects. He has testified as an expert witness before both the Colorado General Assembly and the Colorado Senate and routinely serves as a panelist at national and state conferences of various industry organizations. Since 2020, Harsha has represented the State of Colorado in connection with the formation and capitalization of the State’s CLIMBER Loan Fund, which seeks to deploy $250 million in capital to Colorado small businesses. Harsha supports a number of Denver-area nonprofit organizations and has served on multiple boards. hasekar@michaelbest.com.

Meredith Moon (she/her): Member, currently serves as the Chief Economist and Director of Economic Competitiveness at the Metro Denver Economic Development Corporation after working for the State of Colorado since 2017. She first served as an economist for Legislative Council Staff, where she contributed to the quarterly economic and revenue forecast and performed fiscal analysis on tax-centric legislation and ballot measures. In 2021, she transitioned to the Governor’s Office of State Planning and Budgeting as Chief of Fiscal Strategy, where she led the office’s efforts on the $700 million Colorado Recovery Plan and on Senate Bill 21-260, which overhauled transportation finance in the state. She was promoted to Deputy Director and led on FY 2022-23 budget development and then headed up the Governor’s quarterly economic and revenue forecast and economic development team. Prior to moving to Colorado in 2015 to pursue her Master’s in International Economics at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver, she worked in Hispanic-focused marketing and advertising in Dallas, Texas. meredithamoon@gmail.com.

Felisa Gonzales (she/her/ella): Member, is a Senior Learning and Evaluation Officer at the
Colorado Health Foundation. She graduated from The Colorado College with a BA in
Neuroscience, a minor in Spanish, and a certificate in International Relations in 2001. Felisa
obtained a PhD in Applied Social Psychology from the George Washington University in 2013, and
an MPH in Epidemiology from the University of California Berkeley in 2014. She has more than 10
years of experience conducting research on health disparities affecting populations of color. She
has been involved in primary data collection efforts with trauma-exposed Latina immigrants,
Latina mothers, Latino men who have sex with men, and Latino adolescents to better understand
their mental, physical, and sexual health needs. She has also conducted secondary research on
disparities in cancer screening, treatment, and survivorship as a Cancer Prevention Fellow at the
National Cancer Institute. felisa@gmail.com.