Founding Executive Director

Emma Mayerson

Advocacy Manager

Haleema Bharoocha

Haleema Bharoocha joined Alliance for Girls’ staff in June 2019, as the Advocacy Manager to build out a girl’s policy agenda and mobilize alliance members for gender justice.

Haleema is a sociologist, public servant and change maker driven by her commitment to the collective liberation of all people. Uplifted by generations of women of color in her family, Haleema centers her work in compassion, justice, and service. Following the teachings of the Quran which says “stand firm in justice even against yourself and your parents,” Haleema speaks truth to power, practices freedom, and decolonizes her mind.

She believes in the power of people to make systematic change. Outside of Alliance for Girls, Haleema is a consultant and trainer, facilitating equity-focused workshops for advocates on topics including bystander intervention, Islamophobia, racial equity, and gender justice and has trained over 500 people.

Haleema currently serves on the SheLelectricity Youth Leadership Council where she supports the development of digital ecosystems for girls of color, a Board Member of the Muslim Democrats PAC of Alameda County that civically engages the Muslim community and holds public officials accountable, and a self defense trainer at Malikah, a nonprofit that builds safety and power for all women. She is also a 2018-19 Women’s Policy Institute Local Fellow on the Alameda County Criminal Justice team.

Haleema studied Sociology at Seattle University, where she founded the Gender Justice Center, a student-led community center serving gender non-conforming, trans*, and female-identifying students, which provided trauma-informed healing circles, access to lactation facilities, non-binary sex education, and a free community food and hygiene pantry. Her work was featured in the Seattle Times #UsToo highlighting the voices of Muslim women of color. Her views have been shared in Teen Vogue, and Gizmodo and other media outlets.

Prior to her time in Seattle, she interned at the Council on American Islamic Relations and at the Juvenile Justice Courthouse in Santa Clara County where she served as an analyst for the Gender Responsive Task Force.

Outside of organizing and social justice work, you can find Haleema at her local CrossFit gym where she does weightlifting or at the beach drinking coffee.

Director of Programs

Holly Joshi

Holly first joined Alliance for Girls (AFG) as a member in 2016 and was a key partner in our work to create more supportive schools for girls at Oakland Unified School District, including the creation of a student-led, victim-centered sexual harassment policy, which the school board passed unanimously in 2017. She joined Alliance for Girls staff in September 2020. In this role, she provides research, advocacy, development, and programming support and strategy to the organization. She oversees the organization’s youth participatory action research and evaluation efforts, including the research associated with the Meeting Girls Needs Initiative and the Young Women’s Initiative. She also works in partnership with member organizations and young women in implementing the Young Women’s Leadership Board, a leadership development program for young women of diverse backgrounds. In addition, she supports AFG’s advocacy efforts, working to build out a girls policy agenda and mobilize Alliance members for gender and racial justice.

Holly has been a dedicated public servant, community leader, and justice advocate for the past 15 years. She is a lifelong learner who is passionate about impacting issues of racial and gender equity and social change. Her professional experience is diverse and includes leadership positions within government and non-profit agencies. She is a skilled strategist, organizational change leader, relationship builder, fundraiser, public speaker, and national trainer. She has worked at the forefront of the local and national anti-trafficking movement for over a decade. Before coming to AFG, she served as the executive director of M.I.S.S.S.E.Y., a non-profit serving survivors of sex trafficking and as a senior researcher at Bright Research Group, a research and design firm where she focused on centering the voices of marginalized communities in government and philanthropic public safety, community health, and youth development efforts.  Holly serves on the board of directors at Bay Area Women Against Rape and on the advisory board of the criminology department at Holy Names University.

Holly holds a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from California State East Bay, a master’s degree in leadership for social justice from St. Mary’s College of California, and is currently a doctoral candidate expecting to earn her Ed.D in 2021. She has deep roots in and deep love for Oakland and is endlessly inspired by her 94-year-old grandmother’s spirituality, compassion, and tenacity. Outside of work you can find her running, hiking, biking, and occasionally stopping to smell the poppies all over the Bay Area.

Director of Membership Services

Kailin Chou

Kailin Chou joined Alliance for Girls’ staff in July 2014, providing broad support for leaders of girl-serving organizations, managing membership engagement and outreach, developing Alliance for Girls’ communications, and coordinating services and resources among members and the community. Since joining, Alliance for Girls has become the largest alliance of girls’ organizations and champions working collectively to effect powerful change for girls, young women, and their communities.

Kailin has a strong passion for supporting children, youth, and marginalized communities. She has more than a decade of experience in the nonprofit sector, both in direct service and in management and administration. This includes mentoring children, supporting unhoused people at emergency shelters, developing the digital strategy for a large international NGO, consulting local nonprofits, and leading awareness campaigns on human trafficking.

Kailin has a Masters in Public Administration from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, with concentrations in Nonprofit Management and International Development. Her studies culminated in a consultancy for the Community Alliance for Safety and Peace, an alliance of over 30 stakeholders in Monterey County working together to reduce gang violence in Salinas and its surrounding areas. She also holds a B.S. in Management Science/Economics from the University of California, San Diego.

A Bay Area native, Kailin enjoys cooking, the outdoors, art and design, traveling, and learning languages.

Data Activist

Livier Gutiérrez

Livier Gutiérrez joined Alliance for Girls’ (AFG) staff in December 2017 as the director of programs. In this role, she provides research, development, and programming support and strategy to the organization. She oversees the organization’s youth participatory action research and evaluation efforts, including the research associated with the Meeting Girls Needs Initiative and the Young Women’s Initiative. She also works in partnership with member organizations and young women in implementing the Young Women’s Leadership Board, a non-profit board development program for young women of diverse backgrounds. Livier Gutiérrez has worked on the intersection of research, practice, and philanthropy as it pertains to preventing community violence for over a decade. Prior to joining AFG, she worked as a researcher at the National Council on Crime and Delinquency, a research and policy organization, and as the director of the violence prevention department at Enlace Chicago, a community-based organization in Chicago’s Little Village community. Her violence prevention work has focused on undocumented and (im)migrant communities, justice-involved youth, and the intersection of violence that occurs at home and on the streets. Livier has a background in research, evaluation, and collective strategies, including leading and evaluating collective impact efforts and providing direct, mental health and restorative justice services at schools with youth and families in Chicago, Illinois and the San Francisco Bay Area. Ms. Gutiérrez earned her Master’s degree in social work from the University of Chicago, with a concentration in violence prevention research, policy, and practice. Her Master’s thesis explored girls’ involvement and association with gangs and resulted in a curriculum for girls at risk of becoming associated and involved with gangs. Ms. Gutiérrez also holds a B.A. in sociology and social welfare from the University of California, Berkeley. Ms. Gutiérrez’ professional mission is to support service providers and community members by better bridging research and practice to create systemic change for individuals in all points of the gender spectrum.

Program Manager

Nakia Dillard

Nakia Dillard joined Alliance for Girls in February 2019 as the Program Coordinator. Her role supports AFG’s systems-change work to build the capacity of girl-serving organizations and school systems to better meet the expressed needs of girls. She also serves as a liaison between representatives from the school districts, schools, community organizations, and middle- and high-school age girls throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. Her role assists the ongoing research and implementation directly associated with the Meeting Girls Needs Initiative, the Young Women’s Initiative, and the Young Women’s Leadership Board.

Nakia brings over a decade of experience working to advance the health, leadership, and social and emotional wellbeing of young people in the Bay Area. Her professional background in youth development work includes the areas of public health, social justice, workforce development, literacy, personal development and self-care. She has worked in partnership with various community-based organizations, youth centers, schools, county departments and young people. Girls and young women’s self-empowerment has been at the core of Nakia’s values and work for many years.

Although Nakia is new to the Alliance for Girls team, she is not new to the organization. After starting her own girls’ empowerment program (Y-LEAP) a few years into her journey she was introduced to Alliance for Girls and soon became a member. She participated in former Women of Color Executive Director meetings, she attended and was a guest presenter during previous Alliance for Girls Annual Conferences, and has maintained a long-standing relationship with the organization.  

In 2012, Nakia earned a Bachelor of Science in Community-Based Health Education at San Francisco State University. She is the recipient of the OUSD Outstanding Service Award, 2009, and San Francisco State University’s Zoe Clayson Social Justice Award, 2012. She has served and continues to serve as a life coach and mentor to women and girls. Personally, Nakia enjoys spending time in nature, expressing her creativity through crafts/jewelry making, and practicing self-care.