️Webinar: Giving with Purpose: Elevate Your Impact and Build Your Legacy

Grace Cadiz, EdD is a visionary philanthropy leader and first-generation Filipina American who brings both lived experience and strategic expertise to her work advancing economic mobility through education.

At Atlassian Foundation, she directs a multimillion-dollar global education portfolio that empowers hundreds of thousands of young people in historically marginalized communities worldwide. Grace’s innovative approach to trust-based philanthropy has transformed how corporations and communities collaborate, bridging community solutions to capital while centering restorative and regenerative practices.

A former educator herself, Grace represents Atlassian Foundation — a founding member of Pledge 1%, which has inspired thousands of companies to integrate giving into their business models.

Her perspective spanning education, corporate philanthropy, and social justice makes her a powerful advocate for reimagining philanthropy as a tool not just for charity, but for dismantling systemic barriers and creating a more equitable world where everyone has the opportunity to thrive. 

Leela de Souza Bransten (she/her) is a member of Making Waves Education Foundation’s Board of Directors.

She recently concluded a decade of service as the Chief Development & Marketing Officer at College Track, a national organization serving students from low-income communities to graduate from college and to thrive in careers where people of color have been historically underrepresented.

Prior to College Track, Leela held several positions in the private sector in strategy, marketing, communications, and sales. In addition to working at Genentech and McKinsey & Company, she was appointed to serve as a White House Fellow in the Clinton Administration. In the first chapter of her career, Leela was a principal ballet dancer with Hubbard Street Dance Company.

As a first-generation college graduate, she graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Chicago with a BA in Biopsychology and earned her MBA from Stanford University Graduate School of Business.

While at Stanford, Leela was an academic tutor and mentor for middle school students in the I Have a Dream program in East Palo Alto. This work led to a 25-year relationship with four siblings, three of whom are now first-generation college graduates.

Enrique Romero (he/him) is a Wave-Maker alumni who is thrilled to serve on the Making Waves Education Foundation Program Advisory Board as well as the Making Waves Academy Board because it provides him with an opportunity to recycle his success.

He is passionate about education equity, education policy, higher education, and college access that specifically seeks to create opportunities for historically marginalized student groups.

Enrique currently works at Social Policy Research Associates, where he engages in mixed-methods research and evaluation focused on equity, education, and social change projects. Prior to his current position, he was a Program Officer for the Fulbright Commission in Mexico (COMEXUS), where he managed the Fulbright-García Robles Mexican Graduate Studies Program in collaboration with Mexican and U.S. government stakeholders, including the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs and the U.S. Embassy in Mexico. He was also a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant in Mexico that supported the English department at Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) in Mexico City.

Enrique received his Ed.M. in Education Policy and Management from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and his B.A. in Sociology and Spanish from Pitzer College.

With 25 years of experience in nonprofit development, community outreach, and philanthropic advising work, Kristen Turek (she/her) has a deep passion for philanthropy and holds a wealth knowledge related to grant making, fundraising, foundation governance, and organizational development.

Kristen is a Senior Advisor in the Family Office of Philanthropy at the Marin Community Foundation, building upon her long standing role managing the Philanthropic Advising team as a Senior Director. Her career has included work at the Seva Foundation, a nonprofit primary focused on preventing and treating blindness in India and Nepal, and the Community Foundation for Southwest Washington, where she partnered with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to address intergenerational poverty in the state of Washington.

She has a deep commitment to creating strong partnerships with both donors and nonprofits that enable a profound and personal connection to the impact they are creating.

Kristen earned her bachelor’s degree from Radford University in Virginia, her Chartered Advisor of Philanthropy accreditation from The American College, and a Women in Leadership certification from Cornell University.