CCF Staff

Cynthia Carey-Grant, Executive Director
Cynthia Carey-Grant is a committed social, economic and environmental justice advocate whose life's work has focused on improving the status of women, people of color, and the empowerment of the politically disenfranchised. Cynthia has more than 25 years of grassroots organizing, policy development, fundraising, management, legislative advocacy and electoral strategy experience focused on culturally diverse community-based organizations. Cynthia has served in leadership roles in several organizations with missions dedicated to positive social change, including Executive Director of Changemakers, a public foundation committed to social change philanthropy; founding Board Chair of Californians for Justice, a statewide grassroots organization that builds the power of politically-marginalized communities; and Executive Director of the California Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League. Cynthia served most recently as the Western Region Field Manager for Planned Parenthood Federation of America. Cynthia is a proud family member of three living generations of feminist, pro-choice, activist African/Amer-Indian women. She has three adult children and two grandchildren. She loves to travel, cook southern cuisine, and haunt flea markets for unusual cultural objects of art and rare books.

Sue Hutchinson, Senior Program Officer
Sue Hutchinson has been with Common Counsel Foundation since 1997. She serves as a program officer with the Penney Family Fund, the Victor & Lorraine Honig Fund, and the Abelard Foundation. In addition to grantmaking, Sue also serves as the outreach and selection coordinator for the Windcall Resident Program, a reflective retreat program for social change organizers and activists. She participates in grantmaker affinity groups such as the Neighborhood Funders Group, the National Network of Grantmakers and the Funders Collaborative on Civic Participation. Sue has served on the grantmaking committee of the Funders Collaborative on Youth Organizing, and she has 24 years of non-profit experience including grassroots organizing in racially diverse low-income communities, strategic planning and nonprofit and business management. Sue previously worked with the Center for Third World Organizing, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, the Applied Research Center, Californians for Justice, and Fern Tiger Associates. She attended Swarthmore College and holds a BA with Honors in Community Studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz. She is also a musician, songwriter, performer, meditator and avid fiction reader.

Luke Newton, Program Associate
Luke Newton joined Common Counsel in 2007 and coordinates the Acorn Foundation, the Grassroots Exchange Fund, the Mesa Refuge, and other Common Counsel programs. Born and raised in the Pacific Northwest, Luke came to California in 1999 to pursue environmental studies at the University of California Santa Cruz, where he focused on community-centered environmental solutions and sustainable agriculture. In 2002 he received a special award for combining his academic work with active support for the Indigenous Gwich'in Nation in their fight to prevent oil development on the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and he has since traveled to Alaska numerous times to support related Indigenous rights and environmental justice efforts. In 2003 he worked as a consultant to coordinate the establishment and operation of the Fund for Indigenous Rights and the Environment, a small foundation dedicated to helping Indigenous community organizations in Alaska to protect the traditional lands, subsistence economies, and associated Aboriginal rights that are essential to sustaining their communities. Prior to joining the staff of Common Counsel, Luke served as the Events and Fellowships Coordinator at San Francisco State University in the Division of Graduate Studies. He has also participated in volunteer work to support human rights for communities impacted by war and conflict in the middle east. Luke has avid personal interests in gardening, music and songwriting, handcrafts such as pottery and lutherie, and outdoor activities such as river kayaking, back-country skiing, and cycling.

Holly Fincke, Windcall Director
Holly Fincke has worked for and with social justice organizations for over 25 years as staff, Board member and volunteer activist. She has served as Director of Resource Development for Bay Area organizations such as the Mission Housing Development Corporation, the Northern California Coalition for Immigrant Rights and the Women's Building, working with each of these organizations as they made key organizational and programmatic transitions. She has been a consultant to numerous social justice and social service organizations and has served on many Boards, including that of Common Counsel where she was one of the first community members to sit on the Board. Holly was a Windcall resident in 2003 after co-leading a successful effort to win tenant protections in Oakland, California.

Nguyen Louie, Office Manager
Nguyen Louie joined the Common Counsel Foundation team in June of 2007. She was born and raised in Oakland, California. She graduated from Oakland Technical High School and Brown University. She worked at California Tomorrow, promoting equity and diversity among funders, technical assistance providers and community leaders as well as affirming home language and multiculturalism in early childhood development centers. She worked for four years to help build up the institutional core of the Women of Color Resource Center, with the goal of amplifying the voices women and girls, who are most impacted by war, social inequities and welfare deform. Nguyen also worked at Asian and Pacific Islander American Health Forum. She supported advocacy and leadership development programs which highlighted and addressed the ramifications of Domestic Violence, HIV/AIDs, Chronic Diseases and Cancer Survivorship among Asian American and Pacific Islander communities. Nguyen is also a visual artist, and she enjoys laughing with friends and family, watching movie marathons, sharing poetry among sisters of color, and basking in the beauty of life.

Pam Carr, Mesa Refuge Site Manager

Pam Carr has been the hands-on site manager of the Mesa Refuge since 1998. She has lived in Pt. Reyes Station with her husband and two daughters in since 1989. Pam graduated with a B.A. in Communications from Sonoma State University in 1987. She has been an active parent -volunteer at West Marin School and helped develop the schools recycling and garden programs. She has received grant funding through the Marin Community Foundation to conduct several environmental projects, including the teaching of a special course on "Marine Debris". In her free time she is an avid swimmer and gardener.

Our thanks to Common Counsel Foundation Board Chair George Wells for taking staff portraits.