Adisa Banjoko aka “The Bishop” is a respected disruptor in the space of education innovation. Starting out as arguably the first writer to cover Eazy E and NWA while still in high school. He went on to write for early rap publications like The Source, Rap Pages and Vibe among others. Adisa wrote some of the earliest articles connecting Hip-Hop to Eastern philosophy and martial arts. His lectures at Harvard, Stanford, Brown, Oberlin, and the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. have given people completely new perspectives on the potential of intercultural communication in the space of education and nonviolence. His work with his non-profit, Hip-Hop Chess Federation, has been covered by Forbes, Black Enterprise, Good Morning America, and Rolling Stone. In 2014 the World Chess Hall of Fame in St. Louis asked him to advise and train their curatorial team about chess and Hip-Hop for the record breaking Living Like Kings exhibit. In 2016 he released the first textbook and workbook on Hip-Hop and Chess entitled Bobby Bruce and the Bronx: The Secrets of Hip-Hop Chess. 2017 saw Adisa serve as Head Chess and Jiu-Jitsu Instructor at Zaytuna College in Berkeley, CA. Adisa Banjoko is a brown belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu at Heroes Martial Arts in San Jose, under Alan “Gumby” Marques. He also authored two books purely on jiu-jitsu techniques called The Iron Hook Scroll and The Cloud Scroll respectively. In 2018 Adisa served as Guest Curator for Respect:Hip-Hop Style and Wisdom at the Oakland Museum of California which brought more than 100,000 attendees. His weekly podcast Bishop Chronicles is produced by PharcydeTV and can be heard on www.bishopchronicles.com, Spotify, iTunes and Mixcloud. He currently lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Joe Clark is a retired business manager. After growing up in Ohio, he started his business career in Chicago. Corporate relocations took him to Florida, Texas, New Jersey and, 23 years ago, to Livermore, CA. He and his wife of thirty years have two grown children and a dog. Joe divides his time between outdoor activities (bicycling, hiking, swimming and kayaking) and working for several local non-profits that provide or support human services, most recently including The Taylor Family Foundation, Livermore Valley Winegrowers Foundation, and Turning Wheels for Kids.
For nearly two decades, Eric Dillie has served both public and private school communities. Eric began his career teaching middle school social studies and coached football, basketball, and track in Texas. Since 2009, he has been a school administrator in both Texas and California. Currently, Eric works for the Key Educational Group and serves multiple schools in California, Colorado, and Texas. He is a member of the Rotary Club of Livermore Valley, as well as the Director of Education for the Livermore based non-profit “Rising Young Leaders”. Eric holds a M.Ed. in Educational Administration from the University of North Texas and a B.A. in Social Science Education from the University of Northern Iowa. Eric and Kala Sanchez Dillie have been married since 2006 and have one daughter
Martijn Hoppenbrouwers moved from the Netherlands to the USA in 2005 has has been part of the Livermore community since 2008. He works for one of the city’s largest employers (Topcon) and has a great interest in the well-being of our community and everyone in it.
Partners for Change is his first go at giving back and making a positive impact beyond the minimum, and therefore he is very appreciative of this opportunity to serve. Martijn holds an MBA from the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley.
Go Bears!
The Reverend Kathy La Point-Collup joined the Asbury UMC staff in July 2018. Pastor Kathy has also served United Methodist Churches in Elk Grove, Sutter Creek, Linden and Modesto–all in California. She experienced a call to ordained ministry in High School and completed her B.A. at University of the Pacific in Stockton, Ca and Masters of Divinity at Drew University School of Theology in Madison, New Jersey. Throughout her ministry Kathy has had a passion for small group ministry, mission trips, preaching, walking with people through difficult times, justice ministries and helping the church be in service to the local community. Kathy was primary organizer in the NetworX program in Elk Grove and is delighted to be volunteering with Partners for Change.Kathy is married to Steve Collup who is a retired helicopter and airplane mechanic. In her free time, Kathy enjoys traveling, snorkeling, walking, reading, going to movies/live theater and baking/gourmet cooking.
Susan Munkner is a Sr. Mortgage Loan Officer with 17 years in the industry helping families gain financial stability through home ownership. She grew up in Livermore and is living there now with her husband and children. Currently she also serves as the Treasurer for Women’s Council of Realtors Alameda County and as the Co-Chair for the Affiliate Committee at Bay East Association of Realtors. She has a B.S. from CSUEB with a focus on Finance, and came to Partners for Change hoping to use her background in lending with her degree studies to support socially economically challenged families. When not working she enjoys camping and boating.
Arturo (Art) Rosas is a Police Officer with the Livermore Police Department. Art has worked in the field of Law Enforcement since 1999, beginning his career with the San Francisco Sheriff’s Department, spending 5 years with the East Bay Regional Parks Police Department and most recently working in Livermore since 2005. Having grown up in Albany California, Art attended the University of California, Davis as an undergraduate. He received his Masters in Leadership from Saint Mary’s College of California, and is currently working toward a PhD in Transformative Studies from the California Institute of Integral Studies. Art and his wife of 20 years have two school-aged children and two dogs. When not working, Art spends his time coaching basketball, mentoring undergraduates at Las Positas College and volunteering for organizational groups in search of empowering the disenfranchised.
Sara Subbiondo, Executive Director. Sara earned her PhD in Transformative Studies from the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco, California where she focused on the concept of sustainably flourishing and the factors that must be in place for a community to move from discourse to action. A teacher for the past 24 years, Sara has taught everything from preschool to graduate school and everything in between. Before coming to Partners, Sara was also the co-founder and Academic coordinator for a non profit called Breakaway College Access Project. Dedicated to increasing the college bound rates for local soccer players, Breakaway had 100% of its students enrolled in a post secondary pathway with some of them now playing professionally after attending college. Sara currently divides her time between Partners for change and the Livermore Joint Unified School District where she works as a Program Specialist for the YouthBuild grant. She is trilingual, in Spanish, Italian and English and loves to travel.
