Program & Speakers

Director
California Office of the Small Business Advocate

Tara Lynn Gray was sworn in on April 26, 2021, as the 5th Director of the California Office of the Small Business Advocate. She serves as the voice for California’s 4.2 million small businesses in the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development.

Under Director Gray’s leadership, the California Office of the Small Business Advocate focuses on helping to bring about Governor Newsom’s California for All vision through further development of the state’s small business ecosystem and by ensuring that questions about equity and inclusion are the starting point for all of the state’s small business programs.

Gray’s first model of economic development was learned in her grandmother’s beauty shop. Her grandmother instinctively understood that her patrons needed credit as well as beauty services and she let them pay after services were rendered. This way, she kept the money circulating in the Black community and built a community of trust. She also imbued her granddaughter with her sense of compassion and indelible determination.

Running her own business for two decades, working with two small business development centers, and running a business association and a foundation has given Director Gray the requisite experience and expertise to advocate for small businesses.

Immediately prior to her appointment by Governor Newsom, Director Gray led the Fresno Metro Black Chamber of Commerce (FMBCC) and Chamber Foundation (FMBCF) as CEO. In her adopted city of Fresno, Director Gray engaged, educated, and empowered small businesses across California’s Central Valley. At the same time, she became deeply engaged in community service, leading the initiative “Betting Big on Small Businesses Owned by Women and People of Color” on behalf of the DRIVE Investment Plan, with the goal of increasing economic mobility for entrepreneurs in disinvested neighborhoods.

Closing opportunity gaps, the role of women and BIPOC business leaders, and diversity in procurement opportunities are recurrent themes in her advocacy work. She has also led green economy initiatives, employment and training programs, and working to advance electric vehicle ownership.

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President and Chief Executive Officer
Edison International

Pedro J. Pizarro is president and chief executive officer of Edison International, the parent company of Southern California Edison (SCE), one of the nation’s largest electric utilities. Edison International is also the parent company of Edison Energy, a portfolio of competitive businesses providing commercial and industrial customers with energy management and procurement services. He is a member of Edison International’s board of directors.

Pizarro served as president of SCE from October 2014 through May 2016, when he was elected president of Edison International. He was elected chief executive officer in October 2016. Previously, Pizarro was president of Edison Mission Energy (EME) and chaired its board of directors from 2011 until the sale of its assets to NRG Energy in April 2014. EME, a subsidiary of Edison International at the time, was an independent power producer that owned, leased, operated and sold energy and capacity from electric power generation facilities and engaged in hedging and energy trading activities in competitive power markets. Pizarro joined Edison International in 1999, moved to SCE in 2001 and progressed through several leadership roles before joining EME.

Before his work at Edison International and SCE, Pizarro was a senior engagement manager with McKinsey & Company in Los Angeles, providing management consulting services to energy, technology, engineering services and banking clients. There, he developed corporate strategy, handled mergers and acquisitions and oversaw operational and organizational engagements.

Pizarro earned a Ph.D. in chemistry from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and held National Science Foundation and Department of Defense graduate fellowships. He earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Harvard University.

Pizarro was elected as chair for the Edison Electric Institute in June 2023 and serves on the boards of Electric Power Research Institute, Caltech and 3M. He served on the boards of the Analysis and Resilience Center for Systemic Risk, Argonne National Laboratory, Electric Power Supply Association, California Power Exchange, Colburn School, House Research Institute, Southern California Leadership Council and Western Energy Institute.

Pizarro serves on the Electricity Subsector Coordinating Council, which is the principal liaison between the federal government and the electric power industry to prepare for and respond to national-level disasters or threats to critical infrastructure. Pizarro represented the electric industry on the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board (SEAB) and co-chaired the SEAB Innovation Working Group. Pizarro also served on California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Task Force on Business and Jobs Recovery.

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Author and Editor
Hyphen

Lisa Lee Herrick is the daughter of Hmong refugees, and she is an award-winning Hmong-American writer, illustrator, and producer based in California. Her creative nonfiction is honored in the Best American Essays (2020; 2021) and Best American Food Writing 2020. In May 2021, Lisa was awarded a PEN America Emerging Voices Fellowship and paired with best-selling Hmong American writer Kao Kalia Yang as her mentor. She was announced as a finalist for the Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing that same year. She is working on her debut book—a memoir—which explores contemporary issues affecting the Hmong in diaspora.

Lisa is also the co-founder of Fresno’s LitHop literary arts festival, which she started with her husband, California Poet Laureate Lee Herrick. This season, the all-day literary festival will take place on Saturday, October 16. She is Editor-at-Large for Hyphen magazine. She is a regular contributor to several literary magazines and advises nonprofit organizations in media strategy and community outreach. She has been featured in and/or appeared on PBS, NPR, FOX, ABS-CBN, The Fresno Bee, the Houston Chronicle, and others.

She has a B.A. in Comparative Literature from the University of California, Davis

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President and Chief Executive Officer
Southern California Edison

Steven Powell is president and chief executive officer of Southern California Edison, one of the nation’s largest investor-owned electric utilities, safely delivering reliable, clean and affordable power to more than 15 million people in a 50,000-square-mile service area spanning Central, Coastal and Southern California. He is a member of SCE’s board of directors.

Previously, Powell served as executive vice president, Operations, where he led many of SCE’s operations groups — including Transmission & Distribution, Customer Service, Safety, Security, and Business Resiliency, and Operational Services.

Powell has held a variety of positions of progressing responsibility since joining the company in 2000, including senior vice president of Strategy, Planning and Operational Performance, where he developed SCE’s longterm strategy, identifying and executing strategic projects, prioritizing technology development, integrated resource planning and driving operational improvements. He has also held leadership positions in resource planning and strategy, gas and power procurement and SCE’s plug-in electric vehicle readiness efforts.

Powell serves as chair of the Research Advisory Committee for the Electric Power Research Institute, co-chair of the Edison Electric Institute Wildfire Task Force and is a representative for the Southern California Leadership Council, the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce CEO Council, Western Electric Industry Leaders and is on the California Science Center Foundation board of trustees.

He has a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles and received his MBA from UCLA Anderson School of Management.

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Program Executive Director
American Friends Service Committee (AFSC)
Pan Valley Institute (PVI)

Myrna is a popular educator, participatory researcher, and cultural organizing practitioner who has dedicated her experience fostering the Central Valley’s immigrants into active citizens and social actors. She has advocated and organized for immigrants and indigenous rights, focusing on strengthening women’s leadership.

In 1998, Myrna was hired by the American Friends Service Committee as a program director to establish the Pan Valley Institute (PVI), based in Fresno. The original vision was that PVI would promote a popular education approach inspired by the example provided by education pioneers Miles Horton and Paulo Freire. With the addition of PVI, AFSC saw an opportunity to enhance its long-standing organizing and advocacy program work with immigrants and refugees living in California’s Central Valley.

During her 20 years working In the Central Valley, Myrna has embraced and incorporated the pedagogy of Horton and Freire and, in collaboration with community partners, expanded their vision and approach. As the director of PVI, Myrna has organized several residential gatherings that have provided tools for immigrants and refugees to strengthen their collective leadership. Besides bringing together community activists, Myrna also included immigrant cultural leaders and encouraged a powerful synergy of immigrant civic, political, and cultural leadership. This synergy broadened immigrant action across the Valley to have stunning, nationally recognized displays, performances, and celebrations of diverse immigrant cultures, including visual and performing arts, crafts, rituals, and annual festivals that deepened the solidarity, pride, and confidence of and among immigrant communities. Her leadership is of a kind that encourages the leadership of others and instills in them the ability to apply that approach to yet more generations of emerging leadership.

As an immigrant herself, born to humble beginnings in Tuxpan Michoacán, Mexico, Myrna understands the plight of those seeking a new and better life in the United States.

She has been actively involved in several United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) conferences to advance democracy and civic engagement programs for migrants and has served on numerous non-profit boards. She has collaborated in participatory research projects to understand the opportunities and challenges of Latino civic participation. She attended the University of Bucharest, Rumania, where she studied philosophy and sociology.

Pan Valley Website | AFSC Website | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | YouTube

Director of Student Access and Support
California State University, Bakersfield

Darius G. Riggins is the Director of Student Access and Support at California State University, Bakersfield. His 26-year career working as a student affairs officer has afforded him to work for five California State University (CSU) campuses (Northridge, Pomona, San Bernardino, Channel Islands, and Bakersfield). He enjoys assisting anyone to gain access to higher education by way of the CSU.

His professional experience includes Residential Life, Academic Advising and Outreach and Recruitment. He has a passion for all issues affecting the Black community and loves teaching and engaging in Black History, as well as other social and political constructs pertaining to the whole of the African diaspora around the world, but particularly, the United States.

Riggins received his Bachelors in Pan African Studies and a master’s in educational psychology from California State University, Northridge. He is currently working on his educational doctorate in Educational Leadership at California State University in Bakersfield and is expected to complete in Fall 2023.

California State University, Bakersfield (CSUB) is home to the Roadrunners and is centrally located on a 375-acre site in the southern San Joaquin Valley— moving forward at lightning speed and championing intellectual progress. CSUB continuously rises in national rankings for its economic value and commitment to student success. Its students are brilliant and increasingly diverse.

The university serves more than 11,000 students at either the main campus in Bakersfield or at CSUB Antelope Valley, and counts approximately 60,000 alumni from its four schools:

1. Arts and Humanities
2. Business and Public Administration
3. Natural Sciences, Mathematics and Engineering
4. Social Sciences and Education

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Artist/Designer/Entrepreneur/Adjunct Professor/Speaker/Consultant
Ziang Enterprises, LLC

Born in Luang Prabang, Laos, Ziang Her emigrated to the United States with her family after the end of the Vietnam War and has made the Central Valley her home. As an artist and business owner, Ziang uses her experience to educate and empower artists and business owners with the necessary tools to succeed. Ziang has been an adjunct professor at California State University, Fresno, a guest speaker and a consultant to small business through the California Hmong Chamber of Commerce, the Central California Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, the Fresno Arts Council and Central California Asian Pacifi¬c Women's non-profi¬t group. She recently joined the Clovis Community College's Asian American Advisory Committee to further equitable opportunities and accessible tools and resources for Asian American students.

Ziang has exhibited with the Hmong40 Story travelling exhibit and Celebrate Hmong. Recently Ziang was the 2022 recipient of the Business Salute to Dr. King and Things That Matter Awards from the Fresno Metro Black Chamber of Commerce and 2022 Ambassador of the Year Award from the Central California Chamber of Commerce.

When not working, Ziang spends her spare time with Sally, her Mini-Rex Hotot rabbit, and tending to her growing collection of house plants.

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Government Relations Manager
Southern California Edison

Aaron Thomas is a Government Relations Manager and Tribal Nation Liaison for Southern CA Edison. Aaron aspires to be an effective team member by communicating with elected city and tribal nation leaders about their energy services, infrastructure and enjoys receiving their feedback.

Aaron has previously worked in diverse capacities in various industries such as: tribal government, tribal casinos, education, and philanthropy.

Aaron earned his Master of Business Administration degree at Washington State University in 2013 and continues to learn his craft while working at Southern CA Edison as this is a new career for him.

Aaron is an enrolled member of the Lummi Nation in Washington State. He is also a published author of seven books and a budding screenwriter.

Chief Executive Officer
Trifecta Development and Consultation, LLC

Alondra Williams-Vasquez is the CEO of Trifecta Development and Consultation Company, LLC (Trifecta DCC) and holds her bachelor’s in business administration, her MBA in Community Economic Development, and is currently obtaining her real estate broker's license for the state of California.

Trifecta DCC specializes in offering consultation services for land, business, and community development. Additionally, it excels in construction project management, ensuring a seamless journey from project inception to occupancy.

With over two decades of experience, Trifecta DCC has been instrumental in assisting small, Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC)-owned nonprofits and businesses in expanding their operations, achieving their objectives, and amplifying their influence.

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