Meet the Founders

Susun Kim is the Executive Director of the Contra Costa/Solano Family Justice Centers, where she leads five sites across Richmond, Concord, Antioch, Fairfield, and Danville. An immigrant from South Korea who arrived in Queens, New York at age 17, Susun brings more than 30 years of public service experience as a legal aid attorney, nonprofit leader, and systems change advocate. A graduate of NYU School of Law, she has dedicated her career to supporting survivors of interpersonal violence and advancing trauma-informed, collaborative approaches to justice.

Before joining the Family Justice Centers, Susun served as Managing Attorney at Bay Area Legal Aid. She has since launched numerous initiatives, including the Family Justice Institute, multidisciplinary response teams, restorative justice pilots, and elder abuse prevention efforts. She has served on the faculty of the ABA Commission on Domestic Violence and held key leadership roles as chair of the Contra Costa Alliance to End Abuse and Stand Together Contra Costa, as well as on the Measure X Community Advisory Board.

A founding member of the California Family Justice Center Network, Susun also co-founded the Immigrant Action Network, which is now spearheading the creation of the SAFE Center to uplift and protect immigrant communities. Her visionary leadership has earned widespread recognition, including being named 2020 Woman of the Year for Assembly District 14 and 2021 Woman of the Year for Senate District 7.

Ali Saidi is the Director of Stand Together Contra Costa, the rapid response and immigration legal services program for Contra Costa County. Ali is an immigrant from Iran and a Deputy Public Defender who specializes in the intersection between immigration law and criminal law. For over twenty years, he has been using both litigation and policy advocacy to fight for community-members dehumanized by our systems of mass incarceration and mass deportation. He has taught criminal defense pre-trial advocacy at Berkeley School of Law, and he has practiced criminal defense and deportation defense throughout the Bay Area and before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Ali received his B.A. from the University of California, at Berkeley and his J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School.

Ali has served on the Contra Costa County Measure X Community Advisory Board, the Contra Costa County 2020 Census Complete Count Committee, and the Core Team for the launch of Contra Costa’s Office of Racial Equity and Social Justice. In his free time, Ali is an active participant in immigrant rights and anti-violence advocacy efforts in our community.

Ali is a founding member of the Contra Costa Immigrant Rights Alliance where he serves as Board Director, and Ali is active in the Contra Costa Racial Justice Coalition and the Reimagine Public Safety Contra Costa Campaign. Always making moves, Ali recently co-founded Immigrant Action Network which is launching a new Welcoming Immigrants Support Hub in Contra Costa County called the SAFE Center (Services & Access For Everyone Center).

Board of Directors

  • BOARD CHAIR

    Mahvash Hassan facilitates collaborative equity-centered systems change efforts and advises government agencies and public participation practitioners on equity, inclusion and partnering with communities of color. Her clients include state and local governments, philanthropy and nonprofits.  At the Institute for Local Government, she facilitated multi-stakeholder planning processes to establish local government offices of immigrant affairs and developed curriculum and resources to drive equity, language justice and immigrant civic engagement in California’s communities. In Contra Costa County she partnered with cross-sector partners on Contra Costa Thrives and the Gateways for Growth efforts to embed immigrant inclusion.

    Mahvash’s practice is informed by her lived experience as a brown, Muslim immigrant and projects that aim to center the voices of people of color including immigrants and refugees. Recent projects include: developing a Racial Equity Action Plan and Racial Equity Toolkit for a state agency, leading the COVID 19 African American Education and Outreach Partnership, a national community-centered public-philanthropic project and directing the East Contra Costa STRONG Funders’ Collaborative, a collaboration of ten Bay Area foundations working to increase racial equity, economic justice, and public and philanthropic investments. 

    As a mentor with Oakland Promise, she supports young people thrive in higher education and the career of their choosing. She is the former board chair for Welcoming America and former president and board member of a local community group committed to antiracist education and advocacy. Mahvash holds a M.P.A. from Columbia University and a B.A. in Political Science from Bates College. 

  • Emma R. Paulino is the Director of Leadership Formation for Faith in Action, East Bay, formerly Oakland Community Organizations (OCO). Born and raised in Michoacan and Jalisco, Mexico, Emma began organizing as a youth at her church. In the 1980s, she immigrated to Oakland, where she first became a parent leader, working to improve educational opportunities for students in the city’s “flatlands” and then a staff organizer with Oakland Community Organizations.

    Throughout her more than 25 years of organizing, Emma has worked alongside community members to win local policies and changes on issues concerning education, immigration, illegal dumping, and civic engagement. Emma has also served on Oakland’s Measure N College and Career Commission. In addition to her work with Faith in Action East Bay, Emma is supporting early organizing work in Mexico and parts of Central America with Faith In Action International.

  • BOARD MEMBER

    Dr. Mayra Padilla immigrated from Mexico at the age of five, growing up with a deep understanding of the challenges immigrant families face and the power of community in overcoming them. As a child, she often served as a language bridge for her parents, an experience that shaped her lifelong commitment to equity and inclusion. Her academic journey began at Contra Costa College, continued at UC Davis as a physics major, and culminated with a Ph.D. in neuroscience from UC Berkeley. Today, Mayra serves as the Special Assistant to the Chancellor at 4CD where she continues advancing Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Belonging, and Accessibility (DEIBA) initiatives, including ensuring immigrant rights remain central to the work of California’s community colleges. Professionally, Mayra has continued to champion immigrant communities in Contra Costa County. She served on the Gateways for Growth Advisory Committee, helping the steering committee set direction for a comprehensive language access plan and an inclusive welcoming plan for immigrants. In her leadership role within the Contra Costa Community College District (4CD), she played a key part in passing Resolution No. 1-S, a policy dedicated to protecting the rights of vulnerable students, including immigrants and DREAMers. Mayra also supported the Dreamers Alliance, coordinating "Know Your Rights", UndocuAlly, and other events and initiatives to empower immigrant students.

  • BOARD MEMBER

  • (he/they) is the Executive Director of New Light Wellness serving Southeast Asian communities impacted by deportation across borders and across seas by nurturing trust, collective healing and reunification. Out of transformative Bay Area and statewide organizing, he has helped relaunch Pardon Refugees coalition, build Southeast Asian defense, and lead against deportation to keep families together. His passion is to uncover modalities that decolonize mental health, uplifts ancestral wisdom, and centers intergenerational healing. Elijah volunteers annually with the Oakland Khmer New Year celebration and Pchum Ben Ancestral Holiday in San Francisco. You can find Elijah singing at Oakland Gay Men’s Choir or spending quality time with his siblings and niblings in Minnesota. Elijah is proud to be the first generation to graduate in his family and received a bachelors degree in Ethnic Studies at UC Berkeley.

  • is an immigrant from Mali with a Bachelor’s degree in International Studies from California State University, East Bay, and a three-year degree in Private Law from the University of Fes in Morocco. Since 2019, she has been a vital part of the African Advocacy Network (AAN), where she serves as both Administrative Assistant and Outreach and Education Coordinator. In her work, Mouneissa helps lead efforts to strengthen the African immigrant community through advocacy, education, and empowerment. She is passionate about advancing language access, promoting immigrant rights, and creating spaces where African voices are heard and valued. Her lived experience as an immigrant continues to guide and inspire her dedication to building a more inclusive and equitable community.