Equity & Inclusion Across Los Angeles Commercial Real Estate

Tonja Boykin joined the Weingart Center in 2016 to serve as its Chief Operating Officer. Tonja has 28 years working as a high-performing nonprofit management executive with national and regional expertise in building/optimizing organizational processes, measurement systems, and infrastructure to maximize business results in philanthropy, resident programs and permanent and affordable housing development industries. She is a skilled strategist who transforms strategic plans into workable solutions and benchmarks performance against key operational targets/goals. Tonja is recognized as a national leader in community organizing, program development and strategic initiatives focused on the hardest to serve populations including families, youth, seniors, and individuals experiencing homelessness or at risk of losing their housing. Prior to joining the Weingart Center, Tonja served as the Chief Operating Officer for Skid Row Housing Trust and the Regional Director of Philanthropy for Mercy Housing California. Tonja’s career with Mercy Housing began in 2001 and she served in various regional and national capacities throughout her fourteen year career there. Her early working life began as a program liaison in Mayor Richard Riordan’s office for L.A.’s Best After-School Enrichment program. She was also a Program Director at the Weingart Urban Center YMCA and a Senior Development Associate at Netzel Associates prior to joining Mercy Housing. Tonja studied at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California, Pacific Oaks in Pasadena California, and the Fashion Institute Design and Merchandising in Los Angeles, California.

Damien Goodmon is the Founder and Executive Director of the nonprofit Crenshaw Subway Coalition (“CSC”). As the successor organization to the Citizens’ Campaign to Fix the Expo Rail Line, CSC seeks to empower stakeholder groups in the area of Crenshaw-Leimert Park-Hyde Park and highlight the issues of equitable and community-centered planning and development in the pursuit of racial and economic justice for South Los Angeles. As a result of the organization’s efforts, over $1.5 billion additional dollars have been invested in the mass transit infrastructure of Southwest Los Angeles, including the Leimert Park Village and Farmdale stations and the Crenshaw-LAX light rail line. At 21, Mr. Goodmon was named to the national staff of the Wesley Clark for President 2004 campaign, where among other duties he was responsible for supervising the development of over 400 student-community groups across the U.S. as the National Student Coordinator. In that role, Mr. Goodmon devised and executed the campaign’s campus outreach strategy, which emphasized improving traditional student outreach by utilizing interactive technologies, such as the internet, as a communication and organizational tool, and youth marketing tactics proven outside the political realm. After the 2004 election, Mr. Goodmon served as the Senior Communications Advisor and National Spokesman for StopJohnRoberts.com, a media campaign and grassroots network of activists organized to oppose the nomination of John Roberts to the United States Supreme Court. Mr. Goodmon has been a guest lecturer on issues of transportation, environmental justice, social activism and housing justice at the University of California Los Angeles, University of Southern California and California State University-Los Angeles. He is a lead subject of the award-winning documentary Beyond the Echo of the Drum, which premiered to standing room only audiences at the prestigious 2013 Cannes Film Festival Short Film Corner in France. Damien Wesley Clark Goodmon is a graduate of Loyola High School and studied at the University of Washington, where he was a player on the nationally ranked Huskies football team. A fourth-generation Angelino and descendant of Charles and L.M. Blodgett, Mr. Goodmon currently lives in Leimert Park, where he is former Co-Chair of the community's neighborhood council. His family has lived in South Central Los Angeles for over 110 years. He is the author of the Get LA Moving plan. He has been trained by the Midwest Academy, Camp Wellstone, and 21st Century Democrats. He is a recipient of the 2008 LAUSD Trailblazer Award for “championing the rights of the masses of all American children,” the 2012 New Frontier Democratic Club Community Service Award, the 2013 Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Greater Los Angeles Drum Major for Justice Award, the 2013 Black Women for Wellness Soldier Award, and the 2017 L.A. Urban Policy Roundtable Spirit of King Award. He was honored by LA Weekly in their 2009 LA People issue, received the Issues Advocate of the Year award in 2010 by the Urban Issues Forum, and was recognized as one of L.A.s’ 100 Most Influential African-Americans by the Los Angeles Wave Newspapers in 2013. For his many local and national pursuits for social change, Mr. Goodmon has been profiled in local and national media outlets, including CNN, NBC and the Los Angeles Times. He has authored opinion editorials for the L.A. Daily News, L.A. Business Journal, KCET, Los Angeles Wave, Our Weekly, Los Angeles Sentinel, PACE News, LA Watts Times, and Inglewood Today. Transportation reporters have noted, “[T]here is no doubt he changed the debate on routing and grade-crossings in Los Angeles, perhaps for years to come.” And after the successful No on Measure J campaign in 2012, a noted political commentator declared him a “brilliant policy analyst and strategist.” From 2011 - 2014, Mr. Goodmon served in the public sector as a staff assistant to two Board Members of the second largest school district in America (Los Angeles Unified School District) with review responsibility of facilities and procurement matters.

Jason Riffe is the Corporate & Community Partnerships Manager for SoLa Impact, a family of real estate funds. SoLa Impact is the largest Section 8 landlord in Los Angeles County and is committed to investing and remaining in some of LA’s most blighted communities. A professional fundraiser for eight years, Jason has been successful in securing over $70MM in public and private capital for community and economic development initiatives. Jason focuses on creating strategic partnerships that work to improve quality of life for lower income residents of South Los Angeles. Jason is an Avant-Garde patron and member of the Legacy Circle, Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Jason is an honors graduate of Morehouse College and Union Theological Seminary, Columbia University.