Board of Directors
Emiliano Lopez
Our Board President, Emiliano Lopez, is a formerly incarcerated justice advocate and artist based in Los Angeles, CA. He is the Founder of Project Protocol, a mobile app for people navigating reentry to rate and review their parole officer. Emiliano currently serves as Communications and Data Manager for Initiate Justice Action, a 501c4 that mobilizes the political power of people impacted by incarceration to advance progressive policies in California.
Emiliano previously worked as a production assistant at Lightbox Ent., We Rise 2019, and was a freelance photographer for Big Bowl of Ideas at SEIU Unions for all Summit. Emiliano also worked as a placement coordinator for the Amity Foundation, housing people coming out of incarceration, and was a program associate for Defy Ventures. While incarcerated, Emiliano completed paralegal training helping the Spanish speaking population obtain access to the courts.
Kevin Waters
My name is Kevin C. Waters and I grew up in Gardena, California with my two sisters and one brother. Unfortunately I was introduced to the gang lifestyle at a very young age. This introduction pulled me away from magnet programs, friends and even family members. The attraction and immersion in such a negative lifestyle led me to a life of crime and eventually a 41-year to life prison sentence by the age of 18. I was blessed to use my incarceration wisely getting a degree and several certification. I was also able to connect with my humanity through various programs like Hospice and Victim Impact. Programs like these and many others have helped me to have healthy relationships with my family, friends and future wife. It has also led me to Co-found the Dream Live Hope Foundation, which focuses on supporting returning citizens and those who have been system impacted. My life is blessed, my mind is at peace, and my faith is stronger than ever!
Katharine DeShaw
Katharine DeShaw is a dynamic, results-oriented leader, consultant, public speaker, author, and teacher in philanthropy and non-profit management. A successful fundraiser and grant maker with expertise in start-up organizations, she is skilled in delivering nine-figure fundraising campaigns and developing intentional grantmaking programs in the arts, health, and social justice.
She has proven experience working with international leadership in entertainment, philanthropy, technology, business, and politics. NationBuilder will publish a memoir about her life in philanthropy in 2022 featuring a forward by Darren Walker, President of the Ford Foundation.
Her active consulting career includes working with clients across the country in the arts, environment, human services, social justice, and philanthropy sectors. Katharine has held senior leadership positions at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures (where she recently completed its $388M campaign), United States Artists; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), the Walker Art Center of Minneapolis, and Gay Men’s Health Crisis in New York City. From 2014-2019 she served on the faculty of the Getty Leadership Institute and designed its fundraising curriculum.
M. Eliot Spearman, Sr.
He is a visionary who believes in encouraging and guiding those who want to help themselves. While working in the public sector he used his scholastic knowledge as a classical school criminologist to understand how one's family, environment, socioeconomic status, education, and ideologies can predispose one to criminality. He uses his influence to provide hope and self redemption to those wanting to make positive changes in their lives by leaving a life of criminality.
Claire Ortiz
Claire is founder of Claire Ortiz Innovation Lab, a “product Intelligence agency” and product-to-consumer innovation incubator. With a secret sauce for creative disruption, Claire’s consistent ability to turn idea’s into GODs (goods of desire), has garnered her a reputation as a proven industry ‘game changer’.
For more than 25 years, Claire’s entrepreneurial edge and business acumen have transformed unknown businesses & revamped existing yet struggling brands into consumer-relevant revenue generators.
Claire has built infrastructure and led teams in startup environments and global corporations.