Our People

Moy Eng’s career encompasses four decades of experience as a grantmaker, consultant and senior executive. She is known for her visionary ability to identify and support progressive ideas to advance social change. Her work has impacted areas as diverse as arts and culture, renewable energy, lesbian and gay rights, immigrant rights, and international human rights. As CAST’s founding CEO, she has led the organization since it was born from a $5 million, five-year seed grant from the Rainin Foundation in 2013.

Moy’s background in philanthropy began at the Mertz-Gilmore Foundation where her support of research and advocacy helped shape policies on immigration reform and gay and lesbian rights in the military. In the 2000s, she directed the arts program at The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, where she commissioned landmark research, invested in public funding for arts education, and funded affordable performing arts spaces.

Moy has been honored for her work by the World Affairs Council, the California Arts Council, and the San Francisco Unified School District. Moy served on the board of the Stanford Jazz Workshop, advisory councils for the Northern California Community Loan Fund and Living Jazz, and is a Senior Fellow of the American Leadership Forum/Silicon Valley. In 2021, Moy joined the board of the Kenneth Rainin Foundation, and is also a board member of SPUR (San Francisco Bay Area Planning and Urban Research Association).

Moy received her BA in Theater Arts at Rutgers University and MA in Arts Administration at New York University. She is also a practicing artist—a poet, vocalist and composer. In 2019, she released The Blue Hour, a debut album in collaboration with Grammy-nominated composer and co-producer Wayne Wallace. She was a featured performer at the 2022 Monterey Jazz Festival.

Carolyn has more than fifteen years of experience working in real estate development and finance for nonprofit mission-driven organizations, first in affordable housing in the Bay Area, and then in charter school finance and development across the United States. The throughline of all her work has been a belief in the importance of improving experiences, outcomes, and life options for historically underserved communities. Carolyn was instrumental in designing and implementing the Dreaming Spaces program in Oakland, and along with Tyese Wortham will lead the program expansion into San Francisco. Carolyn has a B.A. in Economics from Yale University and a Master in City Planning and M.S. in Real Estate Development from MIT.

Catherine brings 15 years of experience to CAST working in nonprofit arts administration, finance, and operations. The underlying values of her work have always been to promote equity, increase access for under-represented communities, and center artists’ stories. Before CAST, Catherine provided workforce development services for refugees at the International Rescue Committee and served as Gallery and Exhibitions Manager at Oakland’s Creative Growth Art Center, the world’s oldest and largest art studio for adults with disabilities. In her six years there, she stewarded acquisitions to the Brooklyn Museum, the MoMA, and the Smithsonian. Catherine received her BFA from New York University in Studio Art and Journalism, where she first established a niche for working in arts nonprofits; the most notable being White Columns, where she oversaw the finance, operations, and development of New York’s oldest alternative art space. Though her first role at CAST similarly focused in finance and operations, Catherine is excited to bring her background in fine arts, design, and curation to help shape CAST’s narrative this time around. An East Bay native and a trained painter/printmaker, Catherine channels her creativity these days into baking and random DIYs.

A San Francisco native and an active member of its arts community as both a performer and an administrator, Ellen is passionate about the long-term health of the Bay Area’s vibrant cultural fabric. She has previously served as an assistant for the Admissions Department of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, the Development arm of the Bay Area Vocal Academy, and the vocal ensemble Clerestory. Ellen found her way into Arts Administration through her training as a classical soprano; as a soloist, she has most recently performed with the San Francisco Symphony, Opera San Jose, and Opera Saratoga, as well as throughout the Baltics, Germany, and France.

Joshua is dedicated to building vibrant, healthy neighborhoods that are affordable for all. Prior to becoming Executive Director for the East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation, Joshua was Director of Real Estate Consulting at the Northern California Community Loan Fund, where he helped nonprofits to plan and finance their facilities. From 1994–2006, Joshua worked as a Senior Project Manager and Director of EBALDC’s Real Estate Development Department, overseeing the development of major mixed-use complexes that combine affordable rental apartments with community and retail facilities benefitting the broader community. Throughout his career, Joshua has been an active civic leader, serving 13 years as School Board member for Emeryville Unified School District and on committees that address education facilities and affordable housing, and is Vice President of Emeryville’s Redevelopment Successor Agency Oversight Committee. Joshua holds a B.A. in Architecture from UC Berkeley and M.S. in Real Estate Development from MIT.

Layne is the newest addition to the CAST team. She graduated from UC Davis in 2022 with degrees in Art Studio and Design. Layne’s experience includes gallery/art museum work such as the Manetti Shrem Museum of Art and the Kadist San Francisco gallery in the Mission District. She also has a network of relationships in the publication industry from her experiences working with GRØSS Magazine and CRISIS Magazine. Outside of CAST, she is a practicing artist and freelance graphic designer. She prioritizes social justice, political activism, and aesthetic quality in all facets of her work Contact Layne at ltakahashi@cast-sf.org

For over a decade, Matthew’s work has been fueled by a desire to be of service to others through a lens of creativity and leadership. Working in training and development for retail artists with MAC cosmetics, he successfully centered client and community needs for budding and senior make-up artists while supporting prestigious cosmetic events in Northern California. Inspired by community impact through artistry and intergenerational engagement at these events, Matthew would make a career shift to more mission-centered work that addressed the needs of older adults (Institute on Aging), the LGBTQIA+ community (Openhouse), as well as communities facing space insecurity. Using knowledge from his time in client experience and administrative support, Matthew has developed organizational-specific fundraising opportunities and events with unique touch points that bridge real-life community needs to institutional and community engagement. Matthew’s approach to working within the nonprofit sector pulls from his admiration for self-expression through art and fashion, his appetite for travel, and lastly, a desire to uplift others.

Mauricio is originally from Peru and has 5 years of experience working in finance. While working at Arup, he was involved in financial consulting for infrastructure development projects in Latin America which were worth more than $2.6Bn and also held a finance management position at JLL supporting the Leasing and Capital Markets groups. Additionally, he has extracurricular work experience in community development projects in Nicaragua and King City, California. Mauricio recognizes the power of art to build and thrive communities which is his main motivation to join CAST. He obtained a B.A. in Economics from UC Davis.

Owen has more than seven years of nonprofit finance and operations experience as Administrative Director at the Jewish Film Institute, presenter of the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, the largest Jewish Film Festival in the world. While at JFI, Owen also worked closely with the board and management of the 9th Street Film Center, an innovative organization that provides offices and screening facilities to film nonprofits along a cooperative model. Before returning to Columbia University for his Master’s degree in Arts Administration, Owen had a ten-year career in the for-profit film business in New York, most recently as COO and Line Producer for Stick Figure Productions, overseeing the finance and production of documentary films including the HBO series “Family Bonds” and the film “loudQUIETloud” about the band Pixies.

At Boys & Girls Clubs of San Francisco, Patricia served in multiple roles as Clubhouse Director, Area Director and Director of the Citywide Creative Arts over the span of 14 years, working across the city with youth, families and a broad range of community stakeholders in providing direct services and strategic leadership for program development and community/civic engagement. She serves on the Board of the Arts Education Alliance for the Bay Area and was previously part of the San Francisco Human Rights Commission Working Group for Equity in Arts. An alum of A PLACE OF HER OWN (PLACE), she volunteers as a resource/mentor for their programs, designed to help heal communities of color from chronic heartache to resilience, aiming to grow confidence, self-agency, compassion and leadership, specifically amongst womxn of color, within their families, communities and beyond. In the Fall of 2020, Patricia was selected as the lead Artist for the Community Artist Intern Program through Southern Exposure and in collaboration with Mission Girls, and was the lead facilitator in adapting PLACE Curriculum for BIPOC middle and high school young womxn. As a Creative/Visual Artist, she honors and engages traditional culture, family, and community as part of her social practice with the aspiration for personal and ancestral healing.

Tyese brings extensive nonprofit administration experience to her role, spanning education, family literacy, youth development, and the arts. Prior to CAST, Tyese honed her social justice lens as a grantmaker in Cultural Equity Grants at the San Francisco Arts Commission, and as a presenter and producer of culture-specific artist populations with the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival. A 2014 Emerging Arts Professionals MADE award recipient, Tyese has been recognized for her expertise as a panelist, consultant, facilitator, and advisor for various Bay Area arts organizations, including Silicon Valley Creates (formerly Arts Council Silicon Valley), and the Isadora Duncan Dance Awards, and was an Association for the Performing Arts Professionals Fellow 2018-2020. At CAST, Tyese was instrumental in designing and implementing Keeping Space–Oakland, an artist-driven peer knowledge exchange forum for artists and arts groups representing Oakland’s diverse arts ecosystem. Tyese facilitates CAST’s Cultural Space Ambassador network, which is included in the planning and execution of Dreaming Spaces.

Yi has more than seven years of design and construction experience within retail, hospitality, offices, campuses, and more. Yi has an education in Architecture and City Planning from UC Berkeley and is also a visual artist with a studio in West Oakland, where he paints, sculpts, and contemplates our environment while reusing often-wasted materials. Having lived in China, Maryland, and LA, Yi has found a home and community here in the beautiful and vibrant Bay Area.

Daniel Hernandez is a real estate developer, planner, project manager, and founder of PROYECTO. With over 25 years of experience, Daniel’s portfolio includes a broad range of project types in urban places – from San Francisco to New York – in for-profit, non-profit, and public sectors. He has been in leadership positions throughout his career, and managed all phases of project development, from programming, planning, analysis and financing, through construction and asset management.

Daniel returned home to California in the Spring of 2017, after a successful 18 year career in New York City, to be near his family in the Santa Barbara area, and continues his work as a dedicated urban development practitioner in San Francisco and Santa Fe, NM.

As the founder of Proyecto, Daniel is more than a project manager. He works closely with his clients to understand their goals so that, together, they create a viable vision and feasible development strategy. He becomes a partner and close colleague with his clients to establish a clear pathway and governance structure for progressing a project to a successful completion.

Daniel is committed to building the civic buildings and places in cities that strengthen neighborhoods and stabilize communities. His work builds on place-based assets to create value and place-making solutions.  Daniel has a solid background in affordable housing development, public-private partnerships, and large-scale mixed-use development, and applies these skills to manage the development of arts and education facilities.

Ventura Partners has decades of experience developing and managing nonprofit commercial properties. Drawing on its broad background in real estate development, the firm offers expertise in the financing, construction, renovation and conversion of retail, office and special use properties. Its ability to develop and implement unique management and tenant support structures has allowed Ventura Partners to successfully address the challenges of redevelopment projects and those catering to arts groups, nonprofits and small businesses. Its strategy focuses on long-term financial health based on a strong tenant mix, sustainable lease structures, and professional systems to control capital and operating budgets. Ventura Partners has brought its expertise to a number of projects for arts organizations and venues within the context of urban economic development. In addition to its work with CAST, Ventura Partners has been providing real estate development, leasing and operations consulting for the City of San Francisco’s work with Lennar Urban on the Hunters Point Shipyard Artists’ Studios and MACLA’s (Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana) acquisition and development of its facility for artists and creative entrepreneurs in downtown San Jose. Kim Frentz Edmonds is the Principal and Founder of Ventura Partners, which established its San Francisco office in 2003.

Shelley Trott is Chief Program Officer for the Kenneth Rainin Foundation, serving on the Foundation’s executive and leadership teams. In this role, she advances organizational strategy, supports a diverse grantmaking portfolio, and fosters collaboration, evaluation and learning, and impact. Before holding this position, Shelley was Director, Arts Strategy & Ventures, leading the Foundation’s strategic direction for the arts. Shelley joined the Foundation in 2009 as one of its first employees and has played an integral role in the evolution of its three program areas. Her past work as a dance and media artist has informed her entrepreneurial and collaborative approach. Under Shelley’s leadership, the Rainin Foundation’s Arts program established a reputation for taking smart risks and gained national recognition for its visionary work. She regularly speaks about the important role the arts play in innovative place-based approaches to enriching neighborhoods and communities. In 2014, Shelley was awarded the Council on Foundation’s prestigious Robert Scrivner Award for Creative Grantmaking for her work with CAST. Shelley earned a BA from Wesleyan University and an MFA from California Institute of the Arts. She is Board President of Immersive Arts Alliance and co-produces the annual Bay Area International Children’s Film Festival.

Brady Forrest runs Highway1, a hardware accelerator in San Francisco. He also co-founded Ignite, a global talk series that has spread to over 200 cities around the world. Thousands of Ignite talks can be found online on just as many topics, and Ignite holds quarterly events in San Francisco. Previously, Brady chaired 20-plus events in the United States and Europe at O’Reilly Media. He’s been attending Burning Man since 2000 and has been a part of several large art projects such as the Heart Phoenix, the Temple of Shame and the Gravity Bowl. He speaks at events around the world on hardware, the Ignite community, and big art at Burning Man. He has a B.S. in Industrial Management Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Deborah Cullinan is one of the nation’s leading thinkers on the pivotal role artists and arts organizations can play in shaping our social and political landscape, and has spent years mobilizing communities through arts and culture. She joined Stanford University in early 2022 as the first full-time vice president for the arts. Previously, she was CEO of Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA), where she launched several bold new programs, engagement strategies, and civic coalitions. Prior to joining YBCA in 2013, she was the executive director of San Francisco’s Intersection for the Arts. She is a co-founder of CultureBank, and recently served as co-chair of the San Francisco Arts Alliance, vice chair of the Yerba Buena Gardens Conservancy, and secretary of the Community Arts Stabilization Trust. She was the inaugural National Field Leader in Residence at Arizona State University’s National Accelerator for Cultural Innovation and a former innovator-in-residence at the Kauffman Foundation. She served on Mayor London Breed’s San Francisco Economic Recovery Task Force and also on Governor Gavin Newsom’s Task Force on Business and Jobs Recovery. Her passion for using art and creativity to shift culture and advance equity and justice has made her a sought-after speaker at events and conferences around the world.

By day, Imaan is an engineer at Arup where he contributes his thought leadership to the design of complex buildings and infrastructure. By night, he is the founder and Executive Director of The Omni Movement, an endeavor to make social partner dance accessible to all. At CAST, he eagerly brings both professions together to support space-making for artists in the Bay Area.

Steven H. Oliver is President of the award-winning construction and development firm Oliver & Company based in Richmond, CA, which has built over a thousand buildings in the Bay Area, including the California College of the Arts in Oakland and San Francisco, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, and the Charles M. Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa. A well-known arts philanthropist, advocate, and civic leader in the Bay Area, Mr. Oliver is the former Chairman of the Board of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Currently, he is serving as Chairman of the Board for the United States Artists. Mr. Oliver has also served as chairman of a division of the National Endowment for the Arts and has served on the boards of numerous arts organizations, including the California College of the Arts, Mills College Art Museum, the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Artists’ Legacy Foundation, and Community Arts Stabilization Trust (CAST). Oliver and his wife, Nancy, are respected collectors of contemporary art. They display one of the nation’s most renowned private collections of site-specific art at their northern California home, Oliver Ranch.

Tim Van Loan is an entrepreneur and technologist who loves to create stories that inspire people to action. Through his time at companies like Salesforce and the startups he’s created, Tim has worked to support the growth and success of colleagues, community and customers alike. Being a passionate San Franciscan, painter and dancer he cares deeply about actively supporting local artists and helping them thrive here in the Bay Area. Beyond his work at CAST he has also helped contribute to the community through his time on the Commonwealth Club INFORUM’s board of directors.