People

Rudy joined the pro–housing movement after he and his husband faced housing insecurity in 2020. He quickly became engaged with his local YIMBY Action chapter, Peninsula for Everyone, by working to get endorsed candidates elected. In December of 2020, he officially joined YIMBY Action as staff and built YIMBY Action’s Marketing and Communications Department. His strategy elevated the YIMBY movement by growing and diversifying its membership as well as increasing small dollar donations. In 2021, Rudy served on the Redistricting Commission for San Mateo County and chaired the Redistricting Commission for Redwood City. His work led to the protection of two majority-minority districts in RWC. Rudy has a degree in International Agriculture and Rural Development from Cornell University and now serves as a Redwood City Planning Commissioner.

Vincent has been a housing activist since 2014. He founded of CoderPad, a tool for remote, skills-based job interviews for programmers, and is now effectively retired.

Sasha works with organizations working on LGBT issues and HIV/AIDs advocacy, as well as housing. Sascha is a programmer, and has built data visualizations to show the potential for zoning changes to allow homes near transit and jobs. Sascha believes there’s a lot of opportunity in merging the power of policy makers, grassroots organizers, and folks with tech and data skills to make cities welcoming again. Sasha is currently focused on personal projects, and was formerly the CTO of the home buying site Redfin.

Parag Gupta is the Chief Program Officer at Mercy Housing, the largest US nonprofit affordable housing provider for families, seniors, and people with special needs. Providing affordable housing is the first step, and Parag oversees the wrap-around support provided to Mercy Housing’s residents. Parag has worked in coffee, education, solid waste, sanitation, and other industries with a focus of empowering communities across the world. He returned to San Francisco Bay Area to stand with folks seeking to make the community more inclusive. He lives in San Francisco with his wife and daughter where he attends public meetings and informs neighbors of pro-housing and pro-transportation initiatives.

Jeff has been active in housing policy debates for years, making the case for greater housing production and a revamped social safety net. He periodically writes about housing policy and politics. Jeff was formerly Vice President of Product at Postmates, an on-demand logistics platform. He now works at Hover, a technology firm that builds products for the home construction industry.

Jane has been a YIMBY since 2016, when she helped found the chapter Grow the Richmond. In addition to serving on the YIMBY Action board, she serves on the boards of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition and the SF LGBT Center. She also serves on the Citizens’ General Obligation Bond Oversight Committee. Professionally, Jane is a Financial Crimes Investigator at Stripe, where she conducts anti-money laundering Investigations. Prior to that, she worked in the same capacity at Wells Fargo.

In 2018, Nick fundraised to help Josh Harder (D) flip the CA-10 US House seat. Energized by this win, he turned his attention closer to his home of San Francisco. Having built a factory in the city, Nick knew firsthand the punishing impact of the local building regulations, and the burden that expensive housing and limited transit put on his production staff, not to mention most residents of the city. He got involved with YIMBY Action after seeing them effectively build a movement to make change. Nick brings his deep network in the tech and manufacturing communities into the movement to make better, more affordable, and equitable cities across America.

Anthony has been a leader in the pro-housing movement in Los Angeles since 2018, most recently serving as Director of Policy and Research at Abundant Housing LA. His work on housing reform has appeared on the op-ed pages of the Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, and Streetsblog. Anthony is a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Chicago MBA program. He is founder and CEO of Revival Homes, a startup that matches homeowners to financing and contractors for ADUs.

Andrea is a current Board Member of YIMBY Action, and joined the YIMBY movement when she was a council member in the city of Clarkston in 2017. Andrea is a campaign manager and political consultant who wants to help elect more pro-housing leaders across the country. She graduated from Georgia Southern with a Bachelor’s Degree in Communications and a degree in Visual Art.

Laura Foote became a housing activist in 2014, when she became one of the key founders of the YIMBY movement. As a Founder and the Executive Director of YIMBY Action, Laura has grown the organization into a thriving grassroots political organization with tens of thousands of activists. As of 2022, YIMBY Action has nearly 40 chapters in cities across the country. Laura is widely recognized as an authority on effective housing activism in the US. Her work building the YIMBY movement has been covered in Forbes, The San Francisco Chronicle, The New York Times, the book Golden Gates, and more. She holds a B.A. in Economics from Hamilton College.—