About Us

Dr. Nadine Burke Harris is an award-winning physician, researcher, and public health leader who has spent her career on the front lines of some of our world’s most pressing public health challenges. As California’s inaugural Surgeon General, Dr. Burke Harris successfully launched a first-in-the-nation statewide effort that has trained more than 45,000 primary care providers on how to screen for Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and respond with trauma-informed care.

Today, she serves as Chief Impact Officer for ACE Resource Network, a national organization advancing a bold vision to make the prevention, early detection, and evidence-based treatment of toxic stress a standard part of healthcare practice in the United States.

Beyond her professional achievements, Dr. Burke Harris is an avid gardener and finds joy in engaging her four boys in garden adventures. She shares her passion for growing fruits, vegetables, and flowers with her Instagram followers, often showcasing her grand floral arrangements, fresh harvests, and aromatic essential oils she distills from her bounty. She describes her time in the garden as the ultimate stress buster.

Parker has spent the past 32 years working in philanthropy and nonprofit cause-related work. During that time, he has served in a variety of capacities, from grassroots organizer and non-profit executive director to business leader and grantmaker. His expertise spans a broad range of issues, from early childhood development and education reform to environmental protection and social and economic justice.

Working with dozens of different foundations, from small family foundations to some of the nation’s largest foundations, such as the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Parker has helped shape their strategic plans, giving priorities, communications strategies, and supporting their priority grantees. Parker enjoys working with philanthropists and nonprofits to help them take their nascent ideas or programs, develop an appropriate plan for growth, and nurture the model into a successful vehicle for positive social change. Currently, Parker is managing two different funder collaboratives with 20-30 foundations in each, providing strategic counsel and planning as well as facilitation and guidance.

While serving as Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer of Fenton Communications, the nation’s largest public interest communications strategy agency, he successfully led the firm-wide transformation from a traditional PR firm to an integrated communications company.

Early in his career, he co-founded UPNET, the Utah Progressive Network, bringing together leaders in the environmental, labor, LGBT, women’s, and social justice movements to more effectively organize for progress across their respective issues.

He designed and managed a national fellowship program for the Public Interest Research Groups, annually recruiting, training, and managing approximately 25-30 young organizers to advocate for environmental protections in states across the country.

All of these experiences have made him comfortable with change and exploring new ideas and strategies to help philanthropic and nonprofit leaders find ways to accelerate progress toward greater social impact.

Parker is a graduate of Stanford University with a B.A. in U.S. History. When not working, he enjoys open-water swimming, surfing, skiing, hiking, and helping his young daughter with her dance routines.

Elizabeth Cushing is the CEO of Playworks, a national organization leveraging the power of play to transform children’s well-being. Recognizing that play is vital in learning to relate to each other, Cushing works to ensure all kids have equitable access to a safe and healthy recess experience at school every day. Elizabeth joined Playworks in 2004 and was named CEO in 2020. During her tenure, she has played a lead role in designing Playworks’ national scaling strategy, growing from a San Francisco Bay Area focus to a national organization reaching nearly 1 million children every year. For more than 30 years, Elizabeth has served in leadership roles in nonprofit organizations focused on youth development, children’s advocacy, and women’s issues. Elizabeth is a product of Oregon public schools, Stanford University, and the Coro Fellows Program in Public Affairs.

The first film Ali directed and produced was award winning Close to Home. Close to Home premiered at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival and aired on Discovery Health Channel. As a survivor of child sexual abuse, Ali was able to use extreme sensitivity and empathy when working with the subjects in Close to Home. Ali also co-directed and produced The Third Monday In October, a feature documentary that followed the presidential elections of 12- year-old kids vying to lead their middle school student councils in the midst of the 2004 national Presidential election. The Third Monday In October won several major film festival honors, aired on the Sundance Channel, and was part of President Obama’s Inaugural Youth Events in DC in 2009 and 2013. In recent years, Ali has directed three films for Marion Wright Edelman’s Children’s Defense Fund, featuring Beat the Odds scholarship recipients. Before becoming a filmmaker, Ali co-founded the Mark McGwire Foundation for Children. Ali spent five years with the foundation, four as the Executive Director, where she executive-produced and co-wrote their acclaimed Public Service Announcements, «Think Again» and «Help.» Ali served on the National Board of Prevent Child Abuse America and, in 2004, joined Respect Group, Inc. as Creative Advisor and Board Member. Ali holds a BA from UCLA, where she was a varsity volleyball player. Ali resides in Los Angeles with her husband, James, and their three young children.

Sarah Marikos, MPH, is an epidemiologist with a background in public health and an understanding of health inequities and their root causes. As the Executive Director of ACE Resource Network, Sarah led the launch of NumberStory.org, the first national public awareness and education campaign on Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), childhood trauma, and other forms of childhood adversity that increase the risk for poor health outcomes and educational challenges. Sarah has a master’s in public health in epidemiology from San Diego State University; two bachelor’s degrees in Interdisciplinary Studies and Geography from UC Berkeley; and is also a Human Impact Partners’ health equity fellow.

Aarti Shahani is an award-winning journalist and bestselling author. She spent her 20s organizing immigrant prisoners, then, in 3 years flat, pivoted to business journalism. She enjoyed a meteoric rise at NPR as Silicon Valley correspondent, leading the network’s coverage of Google, Meta/Facebook, Uber, and many others. On her hit podcast Art of Power (a co-production with WBEZ), Aarti sits down with luminaries to ask: how does power work in the real world? How has your exercise of power transformed you? Her eighth guest is a guy from Hawaii named Barack Obama. Aarti’s first book, Here We Are (Macmillan), chronicles her unlikely journey from an undocumented child in Queens, New York, to a national voice on the frontlines of the most powerful industry on earth.

Aarti regularly hosts Forum, the Bay Area’s leading live daily news show (KQED/NPR).  Her reporting has received an Edward R. Murrow Award, an Investigative Reporters & Editors Award, and an award from the Society of Professional Journalists. Her very first newsroom was ProPublica. She’s had the honor of guest-hosting All Things Considered and CNN’s Amanpour & Co.

Aarti graduated from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government with a full scholarship from the university and additional support from the Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans. She completed her bachelor’s degree in anthropology at the University of Chicago. She was among the youngest recipients of the Charles H. Revson Fellowship at Columbia University. She is an alumna of The Brearley School, which she also attended on a full scholarship.

Aarti lives in San Francisco with her partner and son.