Our Board of Directors
Dr. Renato Almanzor
Renato Almanzor is a transformation catalyst, whose experience emerges from 30 years developing leaders committed to transformative social change. As a leadership development expert, he delivers university courses, programs, keynote addresses, and seminars on issues related to leadership, equity, and organization design. His work has been dedicated to supporting leaders working with and in low-income communities and communities of color. He has a PhD and MA in organizational psychology, an MS in counseling, and BA in psychology, as well as certifications in coaching and Zumba Instruction. He serves on the Boards for East Bay Meditation Center and the Oakland Peace Center.
Norman Bardsley
Norman Bardsley grew up in a small town near Manchester in northern England, among a family with four generations of members of a small church affiliated with the Disciples of Christ. He was educated in mathematics and physics at Cambridge and Manchester Universities and came to the US in 1968. The three major phases of his career were as a Professor of Physics at the University of Pittsburgh, a research manager at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and as a consultant on lighting and electronic displays to the US Display Consortium, the US Department of Energy and the International Solid-State Lighting Alliance. He is a member of Lafayette Christian Church and chairs the Economic Justice Task Force of the Multi-faith ACTION Coalition in Contra Costa County. Norman has three children, five grand-children and one great grandson, scattered around the US and UK.
Anne Carrabino
Anne Carrabino is the Executive Director and Founder of Invision Institute, a social invocation incubator which offers trauma-sensitive trainings and organizational development resources to youth and community development programs, faith-based groups and school systems. She has over 25 years experience working with community change/advocacy initiatives in the United States and internationally. Anne is a member of the Sisters of Social Service, a women’s religious community committed to social justice. She is a graduate of UC Berkeley and has an MPA from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. In her free time she loves to write, watch sports, go for walks at the beach, be with friends, and play the flute.
Rev. Dr. Monica Cross
Rev. Dr. Monica Joy Cross serves as Pastor at First Christian Church of Oakland in Oakland, Ca., Associate Minister at Tapestry Ministries in Berkeley, Ca., and Director of Women’s Ministries in the Northern California Nevada Region of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). She is a Transformational Leader Fellow of the Sojourner Truth Leadership Circle of Auburn Seminary in New York, City, NY, and Founder of Global Prayer Network. Her activist organizing work includes, Laney Teach In/Poor People's Campaign League of Revolutionaries for a New America, and work with the National Center for Transgender Equality. She has authored: Reflections of a Prophet Without Honor - a book of reflections which emerge from her life with God; Authenticity and Imagination in the Face of Oppression - Autobiographical, it addresses gender, race, religion, sexuality, and strategies towards liberation, and has a Blog entitled: The Transgender Scholar. While being a native of Southern California Monica currently makes her home in Richmond, California.
Jim Mitulski
Reverend Jim Mitulski has been a pastor and community organizer for almost 40 years, in New York City, San Francisco, Berkeley, Denver, Dallas, Atlanta and Boston. He is currently the interim pastor of Island United Church in Foster CIty, co-president of the Peninsula Mutlifaith Coalition, and an active member of the NAACP San Mateo Branch. Jim brings many years of LGBT and HIV/AIDS activism to the OPC board. Jim has done non-profit development and fundraising for several religious, educational, political and arts organizations and has helped establish community centers in several cities. Jim is a resident of Oakland, California.
Don Stump
Don retired in 2020 after having worked 42 years at Christian Church Homes in Oakland where he served as a small site manager in 1979, and ultimately retired as President/CEO. CCH is proud of the long used tagline, “CCH – building more than a home.”
Don completed his undergraduate degree at Phillips University in, Oklahoma and his master's degree from Oklahoma State University. He is also a Certified Property Manager. He has taught many workshops, seminars and classes on affordable housing and has received multiple honors including the National Affordable Housing Management Association’s (NAHMA) “Pioneer in Affordable Housing” and the Affordable Housing Management Association’s (AHMA) coveted “Pamela E. Stroud” award for leadership in the field.
Don has lived in senior housing as a child and has held nearly every level of job within the company. He enjoys a unique background and an unusual ability to blend the multiple disciplines required to effectively operate a broad and diverse organization.
Angela Urata
Angela Urata has worked in nonprofit administration and finance for over two decades. She has run the back-end of international development organizations and nonprofits that provide social emotional learning tools for youth. She has helped to launch a nonprofit that provides medical aid in dying. She serves on the board of a senior center, where she teaches yoga. She is a writer, a storyteller and dancer, and loves the thrill of improvisational performance. She believes that through movement and story embedded in the body, we reclaim, reconstitute and restore our banished and exiled selves. You may find her running in the streets in Oakland or foraging in some green place.
In Memoriam
Karen Barrett
Karen was on our board for five years but supported the vision of the Oakland Peace Center before it even officially existed. Karen was deeply committed to the thriving of Black lives in Oakland and the Bay Area, a deep believer in immigration justice, LGBTQ+ justice and an end to homelessness, and a passionate worker for ending violence in our community. Karen was on our board for five years but supported the vision of the Oakland Peace Center before it even officially existed. Karen was deeply committed to the thriving of Black lives in Oakland and the Bay Area, a deep believer in immigration justice, LGBTQ+ justice and an end to homelessness, and a passionate worker for ending violence in our community.