Shawn Escoffery is the Executive Director of the Roy and Patricia Disney Family Foundation, where he leads a team committed to social justice and addressing the historical inequities that plague many lower-income communities. Since joining the Foundation 2018, Shawn has led the organization through a strategy revisioning process, created a fellowship for someone who was formerly impacted by the Justice System, and launched an Impact Investing portfolio with a 10% carve-out of the endowment. The Foundation now focuses on Criminal Justice Reform, Environmental Justice, and Affordable Housing Preservation with a trust-based approach that is centered in place and emphasizes lasting partnerships as well as capacity building. With assets exceeding $120 million, Shawn oversees a $5 million annual grantmaking budget and is responsible for sourcing impact investments ranging from $250,000 to $1 million aimed at advancing racial and gender equity. Prior to joining RPDFF, Shawn directed the Inclusive Economies portfolio at the Surdna Foundation – a nationally focused family foundation with over $1 billion in assets. In this role, Shawn worked to support the development of robust and sustainable economies that include a wide range of businesses, equitable economic policy, and access to quality jobs. Shawn managed a $9.5 million annual grantmaking budget and an impact investing portfolio over $10 million. As an urban planner with over 20 years of experience, Shawn has worked on community economic development and affordable housing projects across the country. Shawn holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and English Literature from Rutgers University and a Master’s of City Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He also holds certificates in Communications and International Relations, Urban Redevelopment, and Effective Leadership from Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Duke University, respectively. Shawn currently sits on the board of directors of The Funders Network and Hispanics in Philanthropy.

At CSUN, Lily was a student organizer. She co-founded Revolutionary Scholars and Revolutionary Scholars Project, the precursor to CSUN’s Project Rebound, which she helped establish and manage. Her organizing efforts significantly contributed to the program’s statewide expansion, enhancing support for formerly incarcerated students across California. In her community work, Lily has been a dedicated organizer with various entities, including A New Way of Life and All of Us or None, where she played a key role in several policy efforts, including the successful campaign to pass the Ban the Box legislation in Los Angeles County. Lily serves on the Huntington Library Family Advisory Council and is a NRCAT U.S. Prisons Program Advisory Council member. She is also a 2024 Rockwood Leadership Institute Higher Education in Prison Fellow.

Frida Hatami joined the Roy and Patricia Disney Family Foundation in 2015 as its first Grants Manager. She has been instrumental in overseeing the effort to formalize processes and procedures, and to develop a state-of-the-art grants database. She is responsible for working with grantee partners, grantseekers, and Foundation staff to manage the grantmaking processes. Frida is also responsible for leading the Foundation’s emerging Environmental Justice portfolio, including identifying new partnership opportunities with organizations on the frontline of environmental fights and addressing capacity challenges of the field. Frida brings many years of experience in both philanthropy and the nonprofit sector, including her previous role at Annenberg Foundation, where she helped streamline the Foundation’s responsive grantmaking process and managed a $5.0M portfolio of several grants. She also spent time at the California Endowment, a $6.0B healthcare conversion foundation, and with Jewish Family Service of Los Angeles providing support to two major programs Family Violence Project and At Home Services. Frida holds a Master’s degree in Public Health from California State University, Northridge.

Clara Steele serves as Program Officer at the Roy and Patricia Disney Family Foundation, where she supports and guides the Foundation’s programmatic strategies. Raised in Altadena, CA, Clara was inspired to work in the social sector after her mother, Nancy Steele, founded Arroyos & Foothills Conservancy (AFC) to preserve land in her neighborhood. The work of AFC showed the power of nonprofits to address hyper-local community issues. Before joining the Foundation as a Program and Operations Associate in 2017, she was Senior Program Manager at Best Buddies International. This organization empowers student leaders to engage their communities to eliminate the social segregation of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Clara was an Exponent Philanthropy Next Gen Fellow, a Women’s Foundation California Policy Institute (WPI) Fellow, and currently serves on the Los Angeles Steering Committee of Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy (EPIP). In her free time, she enjoys powerlifting, traveling, and teaching people about honeybees through her family’s beekeeping business, Chaparral Mountain Honey Co. She received her BA in History from Occidental College and graduated with honors from Case Western Reserve Weatherhead School of Management with a Master of Science in Organization Development and Change Management. Additionally, she received a Professional Mastery in Leadership and is a member of Beta Gamma Sigma, an International Business honor society.