Arts and Culture for Social and Racial Justice

Debrah Giles is a philanthropic and non-profit management professional that serves as a Program Director for the East Bay Community Foundation in Oakland, CA. She specializes in supporting initiatives within EBCF that foster education, youth development, and arts and culture.  In her role, she leads the foundation’s program strategy and grantmaking focused on arts and culture for social and racial justice, serves as the Senior Program Officer for the Clorox Company Foundation’s Responsive Grantmaking Program, and continues to lead the work that focuses on boys & men of color.

Before joining the East Bay Community Foundation, for nearly 15 years, Debrah worked for Sun Microsystems in their Global Community Development Group (Foundation). At Sun Microsystems, she managed all aspects of their national and regional grant-making programs and develop strategies to improve their grant-making procedures. During her tenure with Sun, she also developed and guided major funding programs, including their international disaster relief program, multi-year educational grants, and global gift matching programs.

Debrah received her bachelor’s degree in Business Management from St. Mary’s College. She is a native of Oakland.

Melody Rooshen is a Program Manager for Community Investments and Partnerships (CIP) team at EBCF. She is interested in advancing social change by bridging her two worlds of tech and non-profit together to center and uplift BIPOC communities.

Currently, in her role, she strategically focuses on identifying the needs and gaps in our grantmaking by building authentic relationships with our community thought partners. Her role intersects arts and culture for racial and social justice and supports our corporate partnership’s grantmaking.

Melody received her bachelor’s degree in history from the University of California, Riverside. Her personal interests include ambitiously binge-watching Netflix, getting that 12-step skincare regimen down to a tee, and drinking chai with her loved ones. Melody lives in the East Bay with her partner and toddler.