BIPOC Leaders Growing Nonprofit Power Together: Grant Writing Dos & Don’ts

Additional Information

Friday, October 27, 2023 | 9:00 -11:00 am

Facilitated by Sunshine Muse, our Learning Hub program BIPOC Leaders Growing Nonprofit Power Together serves as a support group for new and aspiring BIPOC nonprofit leaders will focus on the foundational and evolving knowledge needed to successfully run a sustainable organization from the ground up. This is one of five drop-in sessions and you are able to register for as many as meets your interest and need. This session features guest speaker Maya Alvarez.

About Sunshine Muse

With over 25 years of academic and professional training, and a lifelong commitment and passion for social justice and equity, Sunshine Muse brings a unique perspective and expertise to facilitation and program design for community, higher ed, health systems and social services.

Muse has been a New Mexico resident since 2010 and has been the executive Director of Black Health New Mexico since 2018. Black Health New Mexico is a Black women-led nonprofit focused on shifting paradigms to help create a world where public health is more effective, people are more thoughtfully engaged, and history is not forgotten.

Originally from New York City, Muse grew up marinating in the American Cultural Melting Pot and the gender, cultural, language, economic, and ethnic inequities within it.

Muse has co-authored legislation, worked as the director of sexual misconduct education and adjudication at an Ivy League university, served as an instructor in the School of Nursing at Columbia University, designed curriculum for the department of probation in New York, and served as the educational coordinator of a violence intervention program at the (then) largest social service agency in the country.Her first love is facilitation and favorite strategy is love.

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Mayra Alvarez was appointed to the Covered California Board of Directors by Governor Newsom on March 24, 2023. Ms. Alvarez is currently the president of The Children’s Partnership, a nonprofit advocacy organization working to advance child health equity, where she has served since 2015. Appointed last month by Governor Newsom, Ms. Alvarez succeeds Dr. Sandra Hernandez following Dr. Hernandez’s appointment to the Health Care Affordability Board.

Prior to her work at The Children’s Partnership, Ms. Alvarez completed a series of assignments at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of President Barack Obama’s administration. She served as the director of the State Exchange Group for the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services from 2014 to 2015, and led the team responsible for supporting states in the establishment of Affordable Care Act marketplaces including Covered California.

Ms. Alvarez also served as the associate director for the HHS Office of Minority Health from 2013 to 2014, where she led the coordination of their work related to the Affordable Care Act, community health workers, and language access. From 2010 to 2013, Ms. Alvarez served as director of public health policy in the Office of Health Reform at HHS where she was responsible for implementation of the public health, prevention, and health care workforce policy provisions in the Affordable Care Act.

During her career, Ms. Alvarez has also been called on to serve by federal and state leaders. In 2021, she was named by President Joe Biden to the COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force. In 2019, she was nominated by Gov. Gavin Newsom to serve on the First 5 California Commission and the Early Childhood Policy Council and in 2017, by then-Attorney General Xavier Becerra to serve on the California Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission.

In addition, Ms. Alvarez was a Legislative Assistant for U.S. Senator Richard J. Durbin from 2007 to 2010 and for U.S. Congresswoman Hilda L. Solis from 2006 to 2007. Ms. Alvarez was a Legislative Fellow for Barack Obama from 2005 to 2006 when he was a U.S. Senator.