Officers

All of our officers are democratically elected by the SF Berniecrats' membership.

Co-Chairs: Brett Wilkins & Zoe Kelman
Membership Coordinator: Adam Kim
Elections & Endorsement Coordinator: Laura Goldin
Events & Fundraising Coordinator: Toby Sachs-Quintana
Treasurer: Mary Leatherman
Community Outreach Coordinator: Winnie Porter
Moderator: Allyson

Brett Wilkins

Co-Chair
Brett is a journalist and essayist who writes for Common Dreams. His work, which focuses on issues of war and peace and human rights, has recently appeared at Salon, Truthout, Counterpunch, and elsewhere, including on the websites of progressive members of Congress including Barbara Lee, Ro Khanna, and Elizabeth Warren. He is a member of Collective 20, an international socialist/activist writer's group whose members include Medea Benjamin and Noam Chomsky. Brett is also a board member of the nonprofit advocacy group Ethics In Tech.
Born in Dallas, Texas, Brett grew up in New Jersey. After graduating high school, he moved to Florida, where he ran Division I collegiate cross-country and majored in political science at tiny Jacksonville University—at the same time as Kimberly Ellis! Since then, he has lived in Alabama, West Hollywood, Australia, Brazil, and Italy before moving to San Francisco in 2006. When not writing or railing against humanity's interminable injustices, Brett enjoys traveling, reading, collecting antiquarian books, and in one of his remaining guilty American pleasures, San Francisco Giants baseball. He is a proud Blaxican and District 5/Alamo Square/Lower Haight/Fillmore resident.

Zoe Kelman

Co-Chair

Born in Manchester, England, Zoe channels her mother’s compassion for those oppressed, overlooked, underprivileged people who are underrepresented in society. Zoe’s grandfather in England was blacklisted by employers for his efforts to organize labor, so this trait runs deep in her family roots.

It's no surprise then that Zoe strongly advocates for better public education, greater compassion for the incarcerated, environmental justice, and other causes that benefit the underrepresented in society. She spent her formative years in New Jersey, graduating with a BE in Chemical Engineering and a Master's in Environmental Engineering.

She’s worked in industry for large corporations but returned to public service, working at the NJDEP and EPA. In her role with the government, she forced management to recognize that cleaning up Superfund sites shouldn’t be a matter of convenience for corporations who prefer to avoid accountability but rather a responsibility to serve those whose health and well-being suffered on account of their profiteering. Ultimately, she chose the role of whistleblower and suffered the consequences. Her whistleblowing was instrumental in holding companies like Honeywell and PPG Industries accountable for over $1Billion in cleanup costs for chromium sites in Jersey City, NJ. This led her to roles on the boards of two NGOs including Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) and National Disease Cluster Alliance (NDCA). She worked closely with Charlie Smith in Idaho to establish Trevor’s Law, named for cancer survivor Trevor Schaefer of Boise, which was included in the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) reform bill signed by President Obama in 2016.

Since moving to San Francisco in 2008, Zoe has continued her activism, advocating for Bernie Sanders’ run for president in 2012 and more recently for former San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin’s election campaign as well as opposing his recall.

Her passion for rescuing unwanted dogs and cats matches her protecting the underserved in society. Since childhood, Zoe has always adopted from rescues and supported no-kill shelters. Since childhood, she’s never lived anywhere without the trusted companionship of several dogs and cats.

Adam Kim

Adam Kim

MEMBERSHIP Coordinator
Hailing from the north suburbs of Chicago, IL, Adam first moved to California in 2008 to work in tech and engineering. But 2016 changed everything: we got an inexperienced idiot in office, but also a certain Bernard Sanders opened Adam's eyes to the huge gaps in progress even in our own San Francisco and how possible it was to accomplish this. Wanting to start making big changes fast, Adam joined the San Francisco Berniecrats in 2017 to find allies and even ran for District 4 Supervisor in 2018. This is Adam's second term as membership coordinator and third on the board. When he's not trying to expose conservatives masquerading under names like "liberal" or "moderate", he's retaking space in his backyard for indigenous flora and fauna away from the invasive ones.
Laura Goldin Photo

Laura Goldin

ELECTIONS & ENDORSEMENTS COORDINATOR
Laura’s activism was initially inspired more than 70 years ago, in utero, when her parents were engaged in organizing efforts which led to their being blacklisted shortly after her birth during what Pete Seeger called the Frightened Fifties. She’s been protesting for justice all her life, first being taken to demonstrations and marches, later dragging her own children to vigils, demonstrations and marches. Her activism has included too much time on Boards and drafting mostly unsuccessful legislation. In 2012, dissatisfied with the Democratic incumbent’s unwillingness to stand for the people over corporations, Laura advocated a Bernie Sanders run for president. Besides working on Bernie’s campaigns, in 2021-2022, virtually every Sunday, Laura could be found tabling to oppose the recall of San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin and fighting for other justice issues. For more years than she can count, Laura has authored a voters guide, “How I Will Vote.” In her spare time, Laura can be found knitting, reading, cooking and baking (cookies for volunteers!), playing with her dog, enjoying her garden, and teaching her granddaughter fighting words. Free Palestine!
Toby

Toby Sachs-Quintana

tech COORDINATOR
Toby grew up in Albuquerque, New Mexico and always wanted to make an impact on climate change. He worked as an engineer on solar panels, high efficiency windows, and now batteries. Toby moved to the Bay Area for school and happened to watch at a Noam Chomsky film at the Roxie which kicked off his long journey to understanding the connections between environmental justice, healthcare, economic justice, and racial justice. He's volunteered for Dean Preston, Chesa Boudin, Measures K and L. He loves reading and basketball.

Mary Leatherman

Treasurer

Mary grew up on a dairy farm in rural Ohio and immediately moved to San Francisco in 1975 after receiving a Bachelor of Science in Social Work from Ohio State. She funded her education by working at a drag strip, a sewing factory, Rubbermaid and a zoological library.

She never worked in social work, but instead began working in accounting. She had the honor of working as the Financial Manager for the first organic produce distributor which is women owned and operated and where famers were valued. She also worked as Accounting Manager for an engineering firm specializing in energy engineering and program management, involving contracts with the City and County of San Francisco, including the Department of the Environment.

Along with her best friend, she listened to Bernie on the Thom Hartmann radio show every Friday for many many years and visualized what it would be like to have a President that values the earth and every living thing on it and does not lie. Mary had never officially joined an organization or group until Bernie announced he was running for President in 2016 and was very excited for his 2020 run.

Winnie Porter

COMMUNITY OUTREACH Coordinator

Immigrated from Peru at the age of 6. Retired public school teacher. Activist her adult life. Mother of two humans, three dogs. Joined the Berniecrats as a result of deep depression over the 2016 election. Currently a student at CCSF just for fun. Loves to read, walk her dogs, travel, hang out with her granddaughters, work in her garden, share a meal with friends, paint/draw and just about anything that she could not do when she was working full time, raising her kids.

Allyson

Allyson Eddy Bravmann

Moderator
Allyson’s activism in San Francisco began almost as soon as she arrived, volunteering for Tom Ammiano’s write-in campaign for mayor in 1999.  Allyson served for several years n the steering committee of the League of pissed off voters, and on Dean Preston’s first campaign staff in 2016.A long time advocate for fully funded, racially just and equitable public education, Allyson plotted with a group of similarly committed public school advocates to found the SF Education Alliance in 2022.  In her less overtly political moments, Allyson spends time making things with thread, staffing for her four cats and being the mom of a tenth grader.
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