Consulting Principal, Forell/Elsesser Engineers Inc
I have had a 42 year career in the practice of structural and earthquake engineering and am passionate about worldwide seismic risk reduction. While participating in a post-earthquake reconnaissance trip to Wenchuan, China, I met Elizabeth Hausler, founder and CEO of Build Change. It is now an honor and privilege to serve on the Build Change Board of Directors, advancing earthquake-safe housing and schools in the developing world.
My entire adult life has been dedicated to social justice, human rights, and economic development. I am the immediate past chair of The San Francisco Foundation, a community-based foundation serving the greater SF Bay Area and focused on racial and economic inclusion. I am deeply involved with an SFF Initiative, Hope SF, which is the rebuilding 5 public housing neighborhoods in San Francisco. It is not just the bricks and mortar rebuilding, but the wrap-around, place-based social services in community health, economic mobility and education that will serve to break the multi-generational cycle of poverty for those residents.
For 30 years I have been a trustee of two family foundations, the Friedman Family Foundation, and along with my wife, Paulette Meyer, Faultline Foundation. The focus of both are anti-poverty and systemic change, with an emphasis on economic development, micro-enterprise development, social justice, LGBT rights, and economic equity for women and girls. Most think the name Faultline Foundation is because of my being an earthquake engineer. But the name is symbolic, as just as with an earthquake fault, there is a very fragile line between poverty and economic self sufficiency.