Rosenberg Foundation Announces Christina “Krea” Gomez, a Leading Youth Justice Strategist and Organizer, as Senior Program Officer
SAN FRANCISCO (July 17, 2023) — The Rosenberg Foundation today announced the appointment of Christina “Krea” Gomez, who has spent more than 20 years as an organizer for racial justice in California and across the country, as Senior Program Officer.
“I am thrilled to welcome Krea to the Rosenberg Foundation team,” said Tim Silard, president of the Rosenberg Foundation. “Anyone who has known Krea in her decades of experience in this work knows that she is a force of nature who is deeply grounded in community. We are fortunate to have her trusted leadership, strategic brilliance, and get-it-done energy to fuel our work to change the odds for Californians.”
As Senior Program Officer, Krea’s work will include supporting the Foundation’s Leading Edge Fund and its current and alumni fellows. The Leading Edge Fund seeds, incubates and accelerates bold ideas from the next generation of progressive movement leaders in California. Krea will also play a leadership role in the Foundation’s criminal legal system, youth justice, and farmworker and Indigenous justice funding strategies, deepening partnerships with leaders and organizations on the front lines of fighting for change.
“I am so excited to join the Rosenberg family,” said Gomez. “For almost 90 years, Rosenberg has been instrumental in supporting racial and social justice organizations in the Bay Area and beyond to improve outcomes for young people, migrant workers, families and more. It is an honor to be part of this legacy and to use the power of philanthropy to continue my life-long work of seeking justice.”
Most recently, Krea was a Leading Edge Fellow with the Rosenberg Foundation and also served as a Strategic Program Advisor to shape the fellowship program. As a Leading Edge fellow, Krea’s work focused on replacing punitive and dehumanizing systems with a comprehensive new architecture that provides young people with the support and resources they need to address their trauma, heal and thrive.
Krea believes in community-initiated solutions. She began her journey in community work at Young Women’s Freedom Center as a youth more than 27 years ago. As a member of the Center’s leadership team, over the last three decades, she helped build the Center Into one of the preeminent justice reform organizations in the state, one that raises up movement and community leaders, changes the narrative about systems-impacted people, and transforms programs, practices and systems.
Krea is a founding member of the Sister Warriors Freedom Coalition, the largest member-led coalition organizing formerly incarcerated and systems-impacted women and trans people of all genders to end mass incarceration and win justice, opportunity, and self-determination.
She also has served as Dean of Students & School Culture at the North Oakland Community Charter School (NOCCS). In her role as Dean, she revamped the Community Action Learning (CAL) program from a civic engagement elective to a comprehensive middle school capstone program that engaged youth in ethnic and cultural studies, social justice and community organizing projects in their North Oakland community and beyond. While at NOCCS, she was the recipient of the 2015 Teachers 4 Social Justice Award.
Krea also served as a Regional Program Manager at the W. Haywood Burns Institute, where she co-managed the Community Justice Network for Youth (CJNY), a national network of over 140 organizations working to reduce racial disparities in the juvenile justice system.
An Indigenous mother of six, she lives in Oakland with her family.
About the Rosenberg Foundation:
The Rosenberg Foundation is an independent, grantmaking foundation committed to ensuring that every person in California has an equal opportunity to participate fully in the state’s economic, social, and political life. Created in 1935 through the bequest of California business leader Max L. Rosenberg, the Foundation has provided more than 3,000 grants totaling more than $85 million to regional, statewide and national organizations advocating for social and economic justice. For more information please visit www.rosenbergfound.org.