Founding Executive Director

Emma Mayerson

Director of Programs

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.

Director of Operations & Membership

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 managing the organization’s operations. 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.

Ms. Chou has a strong passion for supporting children, youth, and marginalized communities. She has years of experience in the nonprofit sector, both in direct service and in management and administration. This includes mentoring children, supporting residents at a homeless shelter, developing the digital strategy for a large international NGO, consulting local nonprofits, and leading awareness campaigns on human trafficking.

In 2012, Ms. Chou earned her 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.

Ms. Chou also holds a B.S. in Management Science/Economics from the University of California, San Diego. A Bay Area native, she enjoys cooking, the outdoors, art and design, traveling, and learning languages.

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.

Program Coordinator

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.

Communications Coordinator

MD Spicer-Sitzes

MD Spicer-Sitzes (spy-sare sites) joined Alliance for Girls staff in May 2019 providing communications support to build strategies that amplify the experiences and expertise of girls and their champions, equip girls’ advocates and educators to better serve girls, lead collective advocacy and action towards systemic change, and support organizational development. Before becoming a staff member, MD was a proud Alliance member for two years. As a non-binary queer identified person, MD loves how the AFG definition of “girls” refers to gender expansive youth (cis girls, trans girls, non-binary youth, gender non- conforming youth, gender queer youth and any girl-identified youth).

MD is a veteran volunteer with Building Allies, an organization that trains people in positions of power to become Active Allies to transgender and gender expansive people. MD has an elevated passion for supporting LGBTQ+ youth in general, volunteering and facilitating in various LGBTQ+ accepting spaces such as The LGBT Center in San Diego and PRIDE Seattle. MD is a trained Be Body Positive facilitator, and has developed two workshops; ‘Queer Bodies’ and ‘Queer Fertility’. MD also has a passion for building economic and wellness equity in marginal communities. In 2014, MD co-founded the L.A. Coop Lab, an organization building capacity for worker ownership in Los Angeles. Other collaborations held by MD in the past include; The Arizmendi Association, Mandela Grocery Cooperative, the Food Chain Workers Alliance, The Urban Environmental Policy Institute, Restaurant Opportunities Center (ROC-LA), and NARAL.

MD holds a master’s degree in Urban Sustainability, the study of people and the planet, and a bachelor’s degree in Urban Communities and the Environment. MD also enjoyed studying queer theory, education and psychology in college. MD spent over 15 years in the restaurant industry before an academic pursuit, and held roles such as: busser, prep cook, bartender, manager and professional server. MD worked for dozens of chefs in 9 cities across the United States, from diner-style cafes to the Grammys. MD has developed a unique perspective of worker equity and food justice issues from these dynamic industry experiences.

MD loves planting, growing and making food for friends and family, hiking the forests of the Bay area, storytelling that encourages justice and contributing to systems change work. MD believes that effective communications can elevate and amplify experiences in order to change systems for the better. MD has an awesome wife named Cathy and they enjoy life together in Richmond, along with a rambunctious bunny rabbit named Bowie.