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SF Foundation’s Brantley, A “Catalyst for Change”

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Interim CEO Dee Dee Brantley is leading The San Francisco Foundation in its mission as a “catalyst for change” in the San Francisco Bay Area, where it is making an impact with big ideas, innovative projects and continues to fund local programs that make a difference in the community.

Brantley is the first African American to lead the organization, taking over the helm after former CEO Dr. Sandra Hernández stepped down. With a background in human resources, Brantley has been at the foundation for over a decade and held the position of Chief Operating Officer (COO) before being appointed Interim CEO this month.

She moved to Oakland from her hometown of Ohio to attend Holy Names University where she earned her bachelors degree and MBA. Since then, she has been a longtime Oakland resident and has been married for almost 40 years having raised two sons.

The Post had a chance to sit down with Brantley to talk one-on-one about her career in philanthropy and her vision for the Foundation.

Post: How did you get involved in philanthropy?

Dee Dee Brantley: I actually had a career in the for-profit world, so I’ve seen both sides of the equation, what it’s like to work there versus what it’s like to work in a community-oriented, values-oriented organization.

I was at a point in my career where I actually felt compelled to be in a different environment and not in a for-profit environment any longer, where I felt I could actually make a difference. Fortunately, my sons actually did have some advantages, but even with those advantages, it didn’t stop some of the things that happen to people of color in this society.

Post: And what were some of those experiences that personally affected your sons?

Brantley: The things that come to mind – racial profiling, that’s probably one of the most prevalent.

The other is really around employment opportunities. My background is in human resources and different people that I have worked with, I have personally heard them make statements that they are intimidated or threatened by black males. How do you get in the door and have these opportunities when people who hold the power in the organizations in some of these higher positions are not accustomed to working with people of color, or may feel somewhat intimidated by a certain population?

Almost 2-to-1 of my nephews and my sons have experienced that.

Post: The Foundation has impacted so many communities with social justice, racial discrimination, youth programs, and civic engagement among other issues. What do you see as the most pressing need now?

Brantley: That’s a really difficult question if you say what is the single most pressing need now. From my perspective, there are a lot of needs that have been around forever.

If you think about equity inclusion at the macro level, that’s something that we always strive for. So if you think about pressing issues, I think it depends. If I think about Oakland where I live, one of the things that concerns me the most is the high crime rate and the high crime rate for various populations.

If you think about the changing demographics just in the Bay Area in general, I think the work that we’re doing around immigrant integration is really, really critical because that’s another group of individuals that face barriers in terms of employment. We have to be sensitive about how the world is changing around us.

With our FAITHS program, we’re doing a lot of work in that area and I think that is really a pressing issue.

The Bay Area has tremendous needs around affordable housing and again, that’s a really key focus of the Foundation with our HOPE SF projects, with Great Communities Collaborative, this transit-oriented development work that we’re doing. So affordable housing is really key because we’re going to lose so many people in our communities if they can’t afford to live here.

Post: What is your vision for the organization?

Brantley: My vision is really influenced, most recently, by the great Board of Trustees that I have the privilege of working with right now as we bring in a new leader for the Foundation.

One of the things that is extremely pleasing to me is that we’ve always been on the right path. Our mission is our mission; we’re a catalyst for change. The vision is successfully executing on that mission.

What may change a little bit is how we do the execution, what may change I think in some ways is where particular focus areas might be, because not only do we do all of the work in these core areas but we also position ourselves very well to look at emerging issues as they come.

But in terms of a vision, it’s more around how we do the work differently. One of the big things that’s happening with our Foundation is we’re finding more and more of the work we do – because we’re in it for the long-haul and because we’re dealing with extremely difficult issues – that if they were easy to solve, somebody would’ve solved them by now.

We can’t do it alone, no one can do it alone. So we are doing a lot of work that requires collaboration with other foundations, with other public entities, private entities, corporate entities, so that collectively we can actually make a big impact on some of the big issues that we’re dealing with.

For more info, visit www.sff.org.

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Activism

Oakland Hosts Town Hall Addressing Lead Hazards in City Housing

According to the city, there are 22,000 households in need of services for lead issues, most in predominantly low-income or Black and Latino neighborhoods, but only 550 to 600 homes are addressed every year. The city is hoping to use part of the multimillion-dollar settlement to increase the number of households served each year.

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iStock.
iStock.

By Magaly Muñoz

The City of Oakland’s Housing and Community Development Department hosted a town hall in the Fruitvale to discuss the efforts being undertaken to remove lead primarily found in housing in East and West Oakland.

In 2021, the city was awarded $14 million out of a $24 million legal settlement from a lawsuit against paint distributors for selling lead-based paint that has affected hundreds of families in Oakland and Alameda County. The funding is intended to be used for lead poisoning reduction and prevention services in paint only, not water or other sources as has been found recently in schools across the city.

The settlement can be used for developing or enhancing programs that abate lead-based paint, providing services to individuals, particularly exposed children, educating the public about hazards caused by lead paint, and covering attorney’s fees incurred in pursuing litigation.

According to the city, there are 22,000 households in need of services for lead issues, most in predominantly low-income or Black and Latino neighborhoods, but only 550 to 600 homes are addressed every year. The city is hoping to use part of the multimillion-dollar settlement to increase the number of households served each year.

Most of the homes affected were built prior to 1978, and 12,000 of these homes are considered to be at high risk for lead poisoning.

City councilmember Noel Gallo, who represents a few of the lead-affected Census tracts, said the majority of the poisoned kids and families are coming directly from neighborhoods like the Fruitvale.

“When you look at the [kids being admitted] at the children’s hospital, they’re coming from this community,” Gallo said at the town hall.

In order to eventually rid the highest impacted homes of lead poisoning, the city intends to create programs and activities such as lead-based paint inspections and assessments, full abatement designed to permanently eliminate lead-based paint, or partial abatement for repairs, painting, and specialized cleaning meant for temporary reduction of hazards.

In feedback for what the city could implement in their programming, residents in attendance of the event said they want more accessibility to resources, like blood testing, and information from officials about lead poisoning symptoms, hotlines for assistance, and updates on the reduction of lead in their communities.

Attendees also asked how they’d know where they are on the prioritization list and what would be done to address lead in the water found at several school sites in Oakland last year.

City staff said there will be a follow-up event to gather more community input for programming in August, with finalizations happening in the fall and a pilot launch in early 2026.

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Alameda County

Oakland Begins Month-Long Closure on Largest Homeless Encampment

At 8 a.m. sharp, city workers began piling up trash and dismantling makeshift homes along the nearly five-block encampment. City crews blocked off streets from 14th Ave to 17th Ave, between E. 12th and International Blvd, due to the Safe Work Zone Ordinance that was passed by the city council in 2022 to protect workers from harassment during cleanings, according to a city spokesperson.

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The City of Oakland began sweeping their largest homeless encampment on E 12th St. Monday morning. Advocates claim that the city has not done its due diligence with providing ample resources or outreach for residents at the encampment. Photo by Magaly Muñoz.
The City of Oakland began sweeping their largest homeless encampment on E 12th St. Monday morning. Advocates claim that the city has not done its due diligence with providing ample resources or outreach for residents at the encampment. Photo by Magaly Muñoz.

By Magaly Muñoz

The City of Oakland began a three-week-long breakdown of the largest homeless encampment in the city on E. 12th Street on Monday morning. Residents and advocates said they are devastated about the displacement of dozens of people.

At 8 a.m. sharp, city workers began piling up trash and dismantling makeshift homes along the nearly five-block encampment. City crews blocked off streets from 14th Ave to 17th Ave, between E. 12th and International Blvd, due to the Safe Work Zone Ordinance that was passed by the city council in 2022 to protect workers from harassment during cleanings, according to a city spokesperson.

Jaz Colibri, one of the many advocates at the closure, said the encampment sweeps were “intense and terrifying” to witness. They claimed that several residents, many of them non-English speakers, had not been aware that the sweep was happening that day because of a lack of proper communication and outreach from Oakland.

Colibri added that the city had done a Census “many months ago” and “had not bothered to count people since then”, meaning dozens of individuals have missed out on housing and resources in the last few weeks because the city doesn’t offer outreach in multiple languages.

“Basically, [Oakland] dropped the ball on actually getting to know everybody who lives here and then creating a housing solution that meets everyone’s needs,” Colibri said.

City spokesperson Jean Walsh told the Post that notices of the closure operation were posted in Spanish and Chinese prior to Monday, but did not clarify if outreach was done in those languages as well.

Nearly a dozen Oakland police vehicles, California Highway Patrol officers, and Oakland Public Works staff were gathered along E 12th waiting for residents to pack up their belongings and move away from the area.

Advocates said residents “felt unsafe” due to the hefty law enforcement presence.

One city worker, who was picking up debris near 16th Ave, said, “They’ve known we were coming for a long time now” in reference to resident confusion about the sweeping.

The state doubled down on its requirement to get cities and counties to deal with their homelessness crisis at a press conference Monday afternoon. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office released a “model ordinance” that is intended to provide a starting point that local municipalities can use to build from and adjust in creating their own policies on encampments, if they haven’t done so yet.

Newsom said “No more excuses, time to deliver” after the state has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into solving the issue.

Oakland was awarded a $7.2 million grant from the state in 2024 to close long-standing encampments in the city, including camps at Martin Luther King, Jr. and 23rd Street, and Mosswood Park.

Residents at these encampments were offered wraparound supportive services, temporary shelter, and eventually will be transitioned to permanent supportive housing, according to a city statement from last year.

Residents who accepted housing at these three encampments were moved into newly acquired property, formerly the Extended Stay America Hotel in West Oakland, which will first serve as interim housing for up to 150 individuals and couples in 105 units, and in the coming year, will be converted into 125 units of permanent housing.

Walsh said as of May 2, “32 residents of the recently closed Mosswood Park encampment moved into the Mandela House program” and as of May 12, “41 residents of the East 12th Street encampment have already accepted offers to move to the Mandela House.” The city will provide final numbers of how many accepted and moved into housing after the closure operation is over.

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Activism

BOOK REVIEW: The Afterlife of Malcolm X

Betty Shabazz didn’t like to go to her husband’s speeches, but on that February night in 1965, he asked her to come with their daughters to the Audubon Ballroom in New York. Did Malcolm X sense that something bad would happen on that night? Surely. He was fully aware of the possibility, knowing that he’d been “a marked man” for months because of his very public break with the Nation of Islam.

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Book Cover of the Afterlife of Malcolm X. Courtesy of Simon & Schuster.
Book Cover of the Afterlife of Malcolm X. Courtesy of Simon & Schuster.

By Terri Schlichenmeyer

Author: by Mark Whitaker, c.2025, Simon & Schuster, $30.99, 448 pages

Who will remember you in fifty years’ time?

A handful of friends – at least those who are still around – might recall you. Your offspring, grandkids, and greats, maybe people who stumble upon your tombstone. Think about it: who will remember you in 2075? And then read “The Afterlife of Malcolm X” by Mark Whitaker and learn about a legacy that still resonates a half-century later.

Betty Shabazz didn’t like to go to her husband’s speeches, but on that February night in 1965, he asked her to come with their daughters to the Audubon Ballroom in New York. Did Malcolm X sense that something bad would happen on that night? Surely. He was fully aware of the possibility, knowing that he’d been “a marked man” for months because of his very public break with the Nation of Islam.

As the news of his murder spread around New York and around the world, his followers and admirers reacted in many ways. His friend, journalist Peter Goldman, was “hardly shocked” because he also knew that Malcolm’s life was in danger, but the arrest of three men accused of the crime didn’t add up. It ultimately became Goldman’s “obsession.”

Malcolm’s co-writer for The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Alex Haley, quietly finished the book he started with Malcolm, and a small upstart publishing house snatched it up. A diverse group of magazines got in line to run articles about Malcolm X’s life, finally sensing that White America “’needed his voice even more than Blacks did.’”

But though Malcolm X was gone, he continued to leave an impact.

He didn’t live long enough to see the official founding of the Black Panther Party, but he was influential on its beginning. He never knew of the first Kwanzaa, or the triumphs of a convert named Muhammad Ali.

Malcolm left his mark on music. He influenced at least three major athletes.

He was a “touchstone” for a president …

While it’s true that “The Afterlife of Malcolm X” is an eye-opening book, one that works as a great companion to the autobiography, it’s also a fact that it’s somewhat scattered. Is it a look at Malcolm’s life, his legacy, or is it a “murder mystery”?

Turns out, it’s all three, but the storylines are not smooth. There are twists and tangents and that may take some getting used-to. Just when you’re immersed, even absorbed in this book, to the point where you forget about your surroundings, author Mark Whitaker abruptly moves to a different part of the story. It may be jarring.

And yet, it’s a big part of this book, and it’s essential for readers to know the investigation’s outcome and what we know today. It doesn’t change Malcolm X’s legacy, but it adds another frame around it.

If you’ve read the autobiography, if you haven’t thought about Malcolm X in a while, or if you think you know all there is to know, then you owe it to yourself to find “The Afterlife of Malcolm X.”

For you, this is a book you won’t easily forget.

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