Jessica San Luis

Executive Director

Jessica is a Bay Area native and the daughter of hippie radicals. Jessica grew up immersed in the civil rights movement, raised by parents who were at the forefront of the Free Speech Movement and the Anti-War Movement. Jessica and her family were no strangers to poverty and she learned early on how to build a community to better support all of its members. Jessica earned her Bachelor's Degree from San Francisco State University, and spent more than two decades working as a legal advocate for immigrants, the indigent and the impoverished. Jessica raised three children of her own, and took in several more who enriched her life as well as theirs. Jessica has experienced homelessness firsthand, as a single parent struggling to support a growing family in one of the most expensive places in the world. She brings an enormous amount of functional knowledge, empathy and compassion to Small Axe Foundation.

Jesse Z. Seligson

Jesse was born in the Southern US in a tiny town during an epic blizzard. He traveled with his parents through dozens of small towns and states as a child as they moved. He was influenced by the labor and immigration work of his parents and community. His experience during this time was shaped by houselessness/homelessness and poverty. After living in the Midwest and rural South, his family moved to California.  Jesse grew up in the Bay Area and participated in the Bay Area political music scene, which created music for social and economic justice. This included protests, direct actions, mutual aid, and fundraisers for various events to support environmental and social justice, homelessness, poverty, and LGTBQI rights. During this period, he worked as performer and organizer for various Bay Areas coalitions and organizations.  Jesse graduated from San Francisco State University with degrees in sociology and ethnic studies. He graduated from New York University in 2014 after earning an interdisciplinary degree in humanities and social thought. Jesse is a lifelong advocate and organizer around the issues of poverty, homelessness/houselessness, undocumented students, immigrant and refugee labor rights, assistance for separated families, and for a radically inclusive political process for all people migrating and immigrating.  

Ana-Isabel Gonzalez

Vice President of the Board