staff

Artist in Residence

Beckie Uta Masaki (she/her/hers) is a founding member and Artist in Residence at Resonance Network. She has lent her leadership, grace, and vision to the core team; co-facilitates our Mending the Arc practice spaces; and holds our weekly Tai Ji practice. At NSAC, Beckie will be co-leading our Mending the Arc practice, and leading a walking tour to @cameronhousesf.

Beckie lives/works by and for race + gender justice for 40 years, through an intersectional approach that builds the power of the margins and is marked by collective power, collaboration, creativity, and love.  She is part of an interconnected network of intergenerational, diverse leaders in a new era of shared leadership, shared power, and co-creation. In 1980’s, she was founding Executive Director and co-lead in one of the first programs in the nation that could meet the language and cultural needs of Asian survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, and trafficking, Asian Women’s Shelter (AWS) in San Francisco.  

Beckie has been a co-founder and staff of a national cultural resource center, Asian Pacific Institute on Gender Based Violence. Emanating from her role as a cohort 1 movement-maker in the Move to End Violence (MEV), Beckie currently co-leads the Communities/ Building the Power of the Margins and Mending the Arc practice groups as part of Resonance Network.  She also currently continues her work as a founding elder in Gathering Strength, immigrant + refugee anti-violence advocate network, and she comes full circle to provide Tuesday weekly support group for residents at Asian Women’s Shelter. Beckie has extensive experience in providing multilingual, multicultural services to domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking survivors and their children, innovative program development, prevention, community building, policy and institutional advocacy, training, technical assistance, and cultural change work.

Director of Resource Mobilization

LaToya (she/her) is a social science researcher and an advocate for fair and just policymaking that truly values the voices of those who are the most often marginalized. She has nearly 20 years of experience evaluating, developing, and resourcing justice programs and initiatives to support justice-involved youth and adults in connecting to opportunities to that support their journey toward thriving. LaToya believes that by centering and uplifting the voices and perspectives of those who are most often “othered” by society, together we can develop strategies that ensure that all people are able to blossom into their best selves. She looks forward to a future where all people have an opportunity meet their basic needs without feeling forced to make unimaginable choices based on disparities in the resources available to them.

LaToya currently lives in the District of Columbia metro area. When she’s not busy keeping up with her family, she is making candles and creating ceramic art as a meditative practice.

Program Director

Kassamira (she/her) is an artist, facilitator, healer, organizer, and advocate with a decade of experience in social justice movements. Using an intersectional framework, she explores ways to practice reimagining a world free from violence. Kassamira combines her creative art practice with her commitment to ending violence against black women and girls to create trauma-informed, survivor-centered healing spaces.

Most recently, Kassamira served as the project manager for the “Black Freedom Beyond Borders: Reimagining Gender Anthology.” In collaboration with Wakanda Dream Lab and Resonance Network, the anthology explores the theme of gender liberation and encourages black folks from across the diaspora to practice imagining the liberated world we wish to create. In 2018, she developed the Youth LEADS initiative, a nationwide project to engage young people in honest discussions around their experiences with gender-based violence and solutions for creating change. She published the “Youth LEADS: Cultivating Young Leaders in the Fight to End Gender-Based Violence” report and has presented her work at several conferences, including the 68th annual United Nations Civil Society Conference and the National Conference on Domestic Violence. She graduated magna cum laude from Santa Clara University with a B.S. in Political Science, Ethnic Studies with a minor in Gender Studies.

Program Manager

Yesenia (they/them) lives and learns in East Oakland || Huichin, with family roots stretching back to the 70’s. The Pacific Ocean links their folks along the lands of California, México, Tonga, and back. Their experiences as a youth organizer, data nerd, ops wizard, plant guardian, and culture worker form a spider’s web pattern, weaving space for healing and thriving.

They believe that in our bodies and communities, we already hold the answers we seek, and as a budding historyan, they are dedicated to recording and sharing those recipes. Along their path, they’ve come to consider ruby-throated hummingbirds and redwoods as mentors. Yesenia is grateful to contribute to Resonance Network as Program Manager. 

Project Manager

Megan (they/them) is a fierce advocate for effective policymaking to build an impact economy. A firm believer that economic inequalities affect women more, thus, more women need to participate in politics and spaces that promote women’s roles in democratic advocacy since politics largely determines how resources are distributed. 

Megan is a policy and governance practitioner with a project management background. They have hands-on experience in strategic planning, project design, implementation, and tracking results. Megan leads cross-functional strategic projects to impact while applying skills gained from different engagements. Before joining Resonance, Megan worked with both private sectors and NGOs, including as an administrator at DBK Publishing Co., and project manager at Wisconsin Right to Life et al. Megan has championed the rights of women and children through working with organizations such as Action for Human Rights and Women Aid Foundation through the formulation of grants/project proposals. In collaboration with Badili Africa, Megan participates in the ongoing Feminizing Political Spaces campaign.  

Digital Manager

Lola Ibrahim (she/her) is the Digital Manager at Resonance Network. Prior to joining Resonance, she served for over two decades in various capacities in the the nonprofit sector, including social justice philanthropy, community organizing, youth work, and arts-based activism.

Lola holds a B.A. in International Relations from the Schar School of Government and Policy at George Mason University, and a Masters in Government from Harvard University—where she researched the relationship between urbanization and democracy in the African context.