A diverse national team, growing every year.

Damali is a native of Oakland, California. Prior to joining FUSE, she’s held roles in the non-profit sector focusing on K-16 education, civic engagement, and leadership development at City Year, Making Waves Foundation, Leadership for Educational Equity and in higher education at Saint Mary’s College of California and UC Berkeley. She holds two Master’s Degrees: one from the University of Utah and the other from Saint Mary’s College of California.

On her downtime, she enjoys hiking, vinyasa yoga, rejuvenating trips to the California mountains and coasts and watching scary movies.

Dan Houston leads FUSE’s efforts to build and maintain systems and programs to assess and increase the impact of FUSE Executive Fellows and Alumni in their work with government partners through the country. Dan oversees the continued enhancement, design, and ongoing maintenance of evaluation tools and strategies to collect, track, and analyze timely and relevant data about the fellowship program and its projects.

He previously served as Co-CEO of In-Powered by One Significant Act, wherein he designed and evaluated mindfulness-based programs in schools, juvenile justice centers, and minimum-security corrections facilities in the Greater Houston Area. Dan has also conducted research aimed at evaluating stress markers that account for resilience – specifically, Heart Rate Variability (HRV) and cortisol production – through a specialized breath work protocol. Dan also founded a mindfulness-based consulting company that supported health providers with training, certification, and coaching related to resilience-based services for their employees and clientele. Prior to joining FUSE, he passionately served as a Careers Manager for One Refugee, an organization focused on serving students of refugee background with college matriculation, academic success, graduation, and workforce development.

Loren Nadres is a mission-driven professional with over 15 years of experience in public policy, urban development, and inclusive economic development, of which over ten years are at leading global institutions such as the World Bank, International Finance Corporation (IFC), and the United Nations. She has traveled to nearly 80 countries, survived triathlons, and climbed Mt. Everest Base Camp.

Loren has served at senior levels of government, including at the NYC Mayor’s Office for International Affairs, major city agencies such as the NYC Economic Development Corporation, and as a Cabinet Member leading economic development for the Mayor of Stamford, CT.  In addition, she also serves as an Advisor and Contributor to the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative’s “City Leader Guide on Equitable Economic Development: Navigating Inclusive Growth, Racial Justice & Economic Resilience,” which helps city leaders across the United States translate commitment into action. Previously, she has worked at a startup tech company and an international development consulting firm. 

Loren also has an entrepreneurial streak. She is the co-creator of HerVenture.org, an award-winning interactive mobile app for women entrepreneurs to start and grow their businesses on the go. She was also part of the scale-up team at World Bank Group IFC’s Small Business Toolkit program. This interactive online training platform reached and built the capacity of over 30 million small businesses across 18 languages in 30 emerging markets. 

Loren is a Senior Advisor for the Mandela Institute for Humanity and a Fellow at the Disruptor Foundation. She is also a member of the Global Entrepreneurship Network’s Startup Nation Policy Group, a forum of community leaders worldwide working on advancing inclusive economic development. 

Loren completed a Harvard University Kennedy School of Government’s Executive Education for Emerging Leaders. She holds a Master of Arts from Georgetown University and a Bachelor of Arts from George Mason University. She participated in Georgetown’s Graduate Business Summer Program in International Management at Oxford University. In addition, she was a Fellow in the Asia Pacific Leadership Program at the East-West Center based in Hawai’i. Loren immigrated from the Philippines, and she speaks Tagalog.

Hyma Menath has over 25 + years of experience in institutional systems change work in Educational Publishing (Macmillan, Pearson) Tech (SAP, VISA,) and more recently in local government (San Jose, San Bernardino).

Hyma was part of the 2019 FUSE Fellowship cohort. As a FUSE Executive Fellow and subsequently, as a consultant, she has combined results-based systems change work with explicit racial equity and community organizing principles to advance equitable outcomes in public agencies. That means moving organizations from thinking and feeling that racial equity is critical to their work to behavior and institutional change that shows impact and also recognizes our shared humanity.

She is based in the SF Bay Area with her husband and her daughter. She enjoys reading, yoga, traveling around the world marveling at the human spirit, and experiments with diverse cuisine – in pursuit of happiness!

Connie Murphy serves as FUSE’s Vice President of Philanthropic Partnerships. In this role, she leads strategies to secure transformational funding and build philanthropic partnerships essential to FUSE’s mission of increasing local government effectiveness and improving communities.

With more than 25 years of experience in the nonprofit sector, Murphy has devoted her career to advancing equity, access, and opportunity through innovative leadership and strategic collaboration. Throughout her career, she has secured more than $100 million in catalytic funding, including multi-year commitments and seven-figure gifts from high-net-worth individuals and foundations across education, healthcare, community-based services, and mental health initiatives.

Prior to joining FUSE, Murphy served as Director of Philanthropy at the Alliance for Decision Education, where she launched and scaled the development program and secured leadership funding for pivotal research-based initiatives and innovative educational programming. Previously, as Chief Development Officer and EVP for Partnerships at Learning Ally, she spearheaded transformative fundraising strategies that secured close to $50 million for national education reform initiatives. Murphy’s approach to philanthropy centers on building trust-based relationships, developing sustainable revenue models, and aligning funding strategies with organizational goals to drive measurable impact.

A passionate advocate for civic innovation and social equity, Murphy brings deep expertise in cross-sector collaboration and systems building to her role at FUSE. She holds a BA in Communications from Temple University and serves on the Board of Gemma Services, where she chairs the Governance Committee. She lives with her husband and two sons in Lansdale, PA, just outside of Philadelphia.

Erika leads marketing and communications at FUSE, where she transforms complex government challenges into compelling narratives that resonate with diverse audiences. She specializes in data-driven storytelling that acknowledges how lived experiences shape information reception, ensuring all communications are inclusive and impactful.

With over 20 years of visual communications expertise and 12 years of nonprofit leadership, Erika excels at translating data and policy into accessible resources that empower communities. Her approach centers on building sustainable relationships where all stakeholders feel heard, respected, and valued.

Prior to FUSE, Erika founded and operated ErikaWorks, LLC, partnering with nonprofit organizations to strengthen community engagement through evidence-based communication strategies. Her experiences at Austin Recovery and Center Stage Texas deepened her understanding of trauma-informed messaging, helping organizations connect more authentically with their audiences.

Erika holds a Fine Arts degree from California College of the Arts, blending creative vision with analytical skills to develop communications that honor diverse perspectives. Her work focuses on nurturing meaningful connections that create lasting positive change in cities and communities nationwide.

Brandon Starling comes to FUSE from Out Teach, a national teacher-development nonprofit, where he served as the Director of Education Partnerships. At Out Teach, Brandon focused on developing and building partnerships with districts and schools to create unforgettable learning experiences to unlock student performance. Brandon graduated Cum Laude from Howard University with a Bachelors of Science Degree in Psychology, and immediately went into teaching. Brandon has over 15 years of experience serving in education, nonprofits, and workforce development programs. His passion is to serve people, especially those from underprivileged backgrounds, by giving them the opportunity to lead successful and accomplished lives. Brandon is an activator, achiever, and an agent of change who thrives in diverse and challenging environments that allow him to strategically communicate and develop simple solutions to complex and/or multi-tiered problems.

In his free time, Brandon enjoys working on a good jigsaw puzzle, sports, and spending time visiting family and friends. Brandon’s young Daughter is the absolute apple of his eye and he enjoys spending every minute that he can with her.

Eldrin L. Deas is a consultant and currently serves as Vice Chair of the FUSE Board of Directors. Previously, as Engagement Editor at LinkedIn, he ensured that professionals on the world’s largest professional networking platform got the right content at the right time. He also served as Curation Lead at Twitter, where he drove the development of frameworks to track and evaluate content while improving guidance and training in pursuit of accuracy, impartiality, and fair representation—focusing on increasing healthy conversation and maintaining and building trust in curation.

As Principal Consultant and Global Director of Research and Impact at Yardstick Management, Eldrin led a diverse portfolio of inclusion and belonging, strategic design, research, talent, community outreach, and partnership/network-building projects.

Prior to joining Yardstick, Eldrin worked as a consultant with state and local leaders to develop and advance visionary, practical ideas to dramatically improve K-12 education. Dr. Deas is a member of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) and is a Founding Member of the Global Implementation Society (GIS). He currently serves on the editorial board of The Urban Review: Issues and Ideas in Education and as Board Director of Espacio en Blanco in Monterrey, Nuevo León (Mexico).

He previously taught high school math in DeKalb County, Georgia and developed state math assessments at American Institutes for Research in Washington, D.C. While serving as Analyst for District Supervision and Support at the Connecticut State Department of Education, he led the development, implementation, and analysis of school improvement initiatives in priority school districts across the state.

Eldrin holds a B.S. in Mathematics from Morehouse College, an M.S. in Social Foundations of Education from Georgia State University, and a Ph.D. in Education; Culture, Curriculum, and Change from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Jeff Hebert is a national expert in resiliency, redevelopment, equitable and inclusionary growth, and economic development. A city planner by training, his forward-looking and holistic design approach helps urban communities better adapt to changing environments and economies.

For nearly a decade, Jeff served Mayor Mitch Landrieu and the City of New Orleans in many capacities, including as the First Deputy Mayor & Chief Administrative Officer, Chief Resilience Officer, Executive Director of the New Orleans Redevelopment Authority, and as the Mayor’s “blight czar.” In these roles, he managed the day-to-day operations of City Hall, tackled the crippling blight issues plaguing New Orleans, refocused more than $250 million in place-based investments, and oversaw the city’s development portfolio and the Office of Resilience and Sustainability.

Some of Jeff’s most notable accomplishments include the redevelopment of the former World Trade Center, the new terminal at Louis Armstrong New Orleans Airport, Lafitte Greenway linear park, the award-winning Resilient NOLA comprehensive resilience strategy, and the $141 million National Disaster Resilience Competition award, as well as the city’s historic riverfront revitalization projects, Bike Share program, green infrastructure program, and its first climate action plan.

Today, Jeff serves as President of HR&A Advisors, a leading national consulting firm providing services in real estate, economic development, and public policy. Previously, Jeff served as the Director of Planning for Concordia, where he directed community revitalization projects in the Bay Area and Texas, as well as the $2 billion Schools Master Plan in New Orleans. Following the devastation from Hurricane Katrina, Jeff was appointed the Director of Community Planning for the Louisiana Recovery Authority, where he directed the state’s long-term recovery strategy. Jeff began his career working with community development organizations in New York City and Philadelphia.

Jeff is also an adjunct faculty member at the Tulane University School of Architecture and a trustee of the Louisiana Children’s Museum in New Orleans. He holds a bachelor’s degree from New York University, a master’s degree in City Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and is a graduate of the Achieving Excellence in Community Development program at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, where he was a Ford Foundation Fellow.

Lenny Mendonca was the Chief Economic and Business Advisor to Governor Gavin Newsom of California and Chair of the California High Speed Rail Authority. He is a Senior Partner Emeritus of McKinsey & Company and a Lecturer on Inequality at the Stanford Business School.

He founded McKinsey’s U.S. state and local public sector consulting practice and oversaw its knowledge development. He also chaired the McKinsey Global Institute and the Firm’s communications, including the McKinsey Quarterly. He served for a decade on the McKinsey Shareholder Council (its Board of Directors) and retired from McKinsey in 2014.

He is the Chair of Fidelity Charitable and Vice-Chair of Western Governors University. He was the Chair of New America, Children Now, co-Chair of California Forward, and co-founder and Chair of Fusecorps. He was the Vice-Chair of Common Cause. He is the Chair Emeritus of the Bay Area Council and their Economic Institute, and was vice-chair of the Stanford GSB Advisory Council. He was a trustee at the Committee for Economic Development. He has served on the boards of UC Merced, The Educational Results Partnership, The College Futures Foundation, California Competes, The Opportunity Institute, Commonwealth Club, National Association of Nonpartisan Reformers, Measures for Justice, Rebuild Local News, and The Guardian.org. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He served on the Board of Trustees for Junior Statesmen of America, and the Advisory Boards of Y Analytics, QB3, the Haas Center at Stanford, Third Sector Capital, The CA Community College Chancellor’s Office, and the Public Policy Institute of California.

He received his MBA and certificate in public management from Stanford. He holds an AB, magna cum laude, in economics from Harvard.

He lives on the Half Moon Bay coast with his wife, Christine. They raised their two daughters, Allie and Rebecca, there and are the founders and owners of the Half Moon Bay Brewing Company and The Inn at Mavericks. He is also the Founding Chair of the Coastside News Group (Half Moon Bay Review and Pacifica Tribune).

Miguel Solis serves as President of the Commit Partnership, the nation’s largest educational collective impact organization with over 200 institutions (including 15 school districts and eight higher-ed institutions educating over 790,000 students), focused on improving post-secondary completion and economic mobility levels across the North Texas region. Since 2009, Solis has served the residents of Dallas in the areas of education, housing, and transportation. Miguel began his professional career in Dallas as a teacher and later, special assistant to the Superintendent in the Dallas Independent School District; co-founded the non-profit Latino Center for Leadership Development; and ran the urban policy think tank Coalition for a New Dallas. In 2013, Miguel was elected to the Dallas ISD Board of Trustees at the age of 27. During his tenure, he has also served as the Board President and Vice-President, making him the youngest person ever to hold these roles. 

As Dallas ISD Trustee, Miguel’s efforts included drafting and unanimously passing the district’s first early childhood education policy; a ban on out-of-school suspensions for the district’s youngest children which is now state law; a comprehensive racial equity policy and department; and helping to create the district’s revolutionary teacher excellence evaluation, support, and pay system among other initiatives. During his decade of service to the district, Dallas ISD underwent a monumental transformation, which saw the number of its improvement-required schools significantly reduced and its innovative concepts used as models for other districts across Texas and the nation. 

Miguel graduated from Lamar University with a Bachelor of Arts in History and Harvard University with a Master of Education in Education Policy and Management.