Officers

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

Co-Chairs: Janelle Jolley & Joshua Rudy Ochoa
Membership Coordinator: Adam Kim
Communications Coordinator: Brett Wilkins
Elections & Endorsement Coordinator: Laura Goldin
Events & Fundraising Coordinator: Toby Sachs-Quintana
Treasurer: Mary Leatherman
Recorder: Julie Pitta
Community Outreach Coordinator: Winnie Porter
Tech Manager: Steven Mazliach

Janelle Jolley

Co-Chair

Janelle Jolley originally hails from the Washington, D.C. metro area, but has called San Francisco home since early 2016. It wasn't until Janelle left her job in tech, that she had the time and energy to become immersed in her community, politically. She became a Super Volunteer with the Bernie Sanders primary campaign in 2020 and had the time of her life! She got to work alongside such committed, passionate people in solidarity for a better future for us all. She is now host of What's Left To Do? as she explores how activists/organizers/everyday people are continuing the pursuit of building leftist political power, post-Sanders.

Joshua Ochoa

Joshua Rudy Ochoa

Co-Chair
Born in Orange County, CA and raised by his mama and brother in a working-class family, Joshua grew up familiar with the struggles that working people constantly experience (housing insecurity, economic insecurity, mental health issues, etc.). Joshua identifies as Bisexual, Latinx, Native American, and Jewish.Joshua moved to San Francisco in 2017, attends San Francisco State University, and considers himself a “reborn SF native”. Joshua continues to be significantly involved in student government and advocacy for college students locally / statewide, especially on the issues of basic needs, college affordability, and empowering voices. He joined the San Francisco Berniecrats in 2018, and was elected to serve as the Election & Endorsement Coordinator in 2021. Now as co-chair, Joshua will continue to fight to expand our organization, connect with different campaigns, and ensure we’re supporting campaigns that are true to our progressive values!
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 the second time Adam will be serving as a Berniecrats officer, and his goal is to keep San Francisco well-informed on the elections we'll be facing in 2022 to truly be a progressive city, not only by reputation but by action.

Brett Wilkins

Communications Coordinator
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.
Laura Goldin Photo

Laura Goldin

ELECTIONS & ENDORSEMENTS COORDINATOR
Laura’s activism was initially inspired 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.
Toby

Toby Sachs-Quintana

EVENTS & FUNDRAISING 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.

Julie Pitta

Julie Pitta

RECORDER
Julie Pitta is a former staff writer for the Los Angeles Times and senior editor at Forbes Magazine. She is a neighborhood activist and an officer of the San Francisco Berniecrats. You may reach her at . Follow her on Twitter @juliepitta.

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.

Steven Mazliach

Steven Mazliach

Tech Manager
While studying at UC Santa Cruz, Steven helped organize Slugs for Sanders, a student group supporting Bernie 2016, and took an active role in the city-wide ‘Berniecrat’ organization, Santa Cruz 4 Bernie. During this time, he organized tens of phone-banking  and outreach events on campus and took a group trip with other passionate students to canvass for Bernie in Reno, Nevada during the primaries. He also helped flip several city council seats in Santa Cruz to progressives that year with the ‘Brand New Council’ campaign, by participating canvassing events, doing outreach, and by running their social media. After moving to San Francisco in 2017, he has become deeply involved in San Francisco progressive politics; volunteering for Jane Kim’s mayoral campaign, Prop C, and supporting the progressive ADEM slates in AD17 and AD 19, to name a few. He looks forward to continuing to build progressive power in San Francisco and elsewhere.
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