The Guaranteed Income Advisory Group was established by ordinance to advise the Board of Supervisors, the Mayor, and appropriate City departments on various aspects of Guaranteed Income.
Guaranteed Income, also referred to as Universal Basic Income, is an income distribution program that provides individuals with a fixed amount of money each month to cover basic living expenses. The goal of a Guaranteed Income program is to prevent people from becoming poor or remaining in poverty, and consequently to promote a more just society.
The Advisory Group was appointed by the Board of Supervisors and consists of eleven members including people with expertise in economics, finance, political science, or public policy, and with experience researching and analyzing Guaranteed Income programs; people who have personally experienced poverty; people with professional experience service low income communities; and staff from relevant City departments. Together, this group has the knowledge and background to advise City leadership on the principles and impacts of Guaranteed Income.
Gloria Berry
Gloria Berry was born and raised in San Francisco. Gloria is a veteran with thirteen years of service, and spent eight years working at San Quentin, where she was promoted to Sergeant. Gloria held several other jobs including recruiter, teacher aid, Census Bureau partnership department, delivery driver and SRO desk clerk. In 2012 Miss Berry was diagnosed with a chronic incurable blood disease, arrested for possessing marijuana, and lost her home, which led to her being homeless for three years. Elected to the SF Democratic County Central Committee in 2020, Gloria is currently Co-Chair of the Endorsement Committee. She is also the founder of Berry Powerful Ladies, a mentorship program.
Elena Chávez Quezada
Elena Chávez Quezada is Vice President of Programs at the San Francisco Foundation (SFF). In this role, Elena works to ensure that the Program Division advances SFF’s equity agenda through internal collaboration, centering grantees, and engaging key community partners. Prior to this role, Elena was Senior Director of the People Pathway at SFF. She previously oversaw the economic security portfolio at the Walter and Elise Haas Fund, and was a senior program officer at Tipping Point Community. Elena is also Head of Investments at the Chavez Family Foundation (CFF), where she supports her brother in the launch and grantmaking of a new foundation focused on the intersection of immigration, education, and entrepreneurship. Prior to her roles in philanthropy, she managed the California expansion of Single Stop USA and worked on research and policy at the Aspen Institute’s Financial Security Program.
Elena is involved in various local and national organizations/efforts, including Closing the Women’s Wealth Gap Initiative, Immigrants Rising, Concrete Rose Foundation, and Campaign for College Opportunity. Elena received a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University and a master’s degree in public policy from the Harvard Kennedy School, and lives in San Francisco with her husband and two sons.
Sheryl Davis
Sheryl Evans Davis is the Executive Director of the San Francisco Human Rights Commission (HRC). Director Davis previously served as Commissioner between 2011 and 2016, including a tenure as Vice Chair of the Commission. Prior to joining the HRC, Director Davis was Executive Director of Collective Impact, a community-based organization in the Western Addition neighborhood of San Francisco. As Executive Director, she oversaw Mo’MAGIC, Magic Zone, and the Ella Hill Hutch Community Center. Mo’MAGIC, a collaborative of non-profit organizations, addresses challenges facing low-income children, youth and families in the areas of economic development, community health, and violence prevention. Magic Zone provides education and wraparound services to K-12 students and transitional aged youth. The Ella Hill Hutch Community Center provides community-building services and workforce development opportunities to neighborhood residents. During her tenure at Collective Impact, Director Davis forged private and public sector partnerships to provide critical health and social services to historically underserved communities across San Francisco.
Director Davis has also served on the SFPD Fair & Impartial Policing and Community Policing Advisory Committees, Fillmore Community Benefits District, and Redevelopment Agency's Western Addition Citizen Advisory Committee. She holds a BA degree from San Francisco State University and Master's in Public Administration from the University of San Francisco.
Jacob Denney
Jacob Denney is the economic justice policy director at SPUR, a San Francisco Bay Area policy organization dedicated to building a prosperous and equitable region. Jacob works to address the region’s economic inequity and develop an agenda for shared prosperity. Growing up in a working-class Puerto Rican family, Jacob learned early on the importance of creating effective government policy to help build economic security for all people. He previously worked as the director of policy and research at the Insight Center, a national economic and racial justice organization, where he led work on confronting barriers to economic stability for Black people, immigrants, and women across Mississippi.
Formerly, Jacob worked on criminal justice reform research and advocacy at the Pew Charitable Trusts. Jacob also co-founded the Economic Justice Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center, a project aimed at helping people who have been harmed because of their economic status. He began his career working in the Massachusetts State Senate. Jacob received his Master of Public Policy from the Price School of Public Policy at the University of Southern California and his B.A. in political philosophy from UMass Boston.
Amanda Fried
Ms. Fried oversees taxpayer assistance, communications, legislation and financial empowerment initiatives for the Office of the Treasurer & Tax Collector. Ms. Fried joined the organization in October 2014. Prior to joining the Office of the Treasurer & Tax Collector, she served as Deputy Director in the Mayor’s Office of Housing, Opportunities, Partnerships and Engagement (HOPE) for Mayor Ed Lee, as a Senior Advisor to the Mayor in New York City, and as a legislative aide.
Ms. Fried grew up in Philadelphia and earned a B.A. in Political Science and Urban Studies from Stanford University, and an Masters in Public Administration from the New York University Wagner School of Public Service. She lives in San Francisco with her family.
Norel Knowles
Norel Knowles is a 19 year resident of Treasure Island and has grown up in generational poverty. As a Black gay man, Norel has spent his entire life seeing and experiencing financial and economic struggles faced by low income and low wealth peoples. Norel has worked with MyPath for the past 5 years which has helped him put into context redlining, the racial wealth gap and the barriers that youth and young adults face financially and economically. MyPath has given him a platform to address these issues at a policy level. Currently, Norel is working on an Economic Bill of RYTS (Real Youth Troubles and Solutions) for youth, with recommendations including a guaranteed income paired with financial education.
Jim Pugh
Jim Pugh is a co-director of the Universal Income Project, a nonprofit devoted to the expansion of economic security and human dignity through the implementation of a universal basic income in the United States. He is also the founder and CEO of ShareProgress, and previously served as the Director of Analytics and Development for President Obama’s Organizing for America. Jim has a Ph.D. in distributed robotics from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Bina Shrimali
Bina Patel Shrimali manages the community development research team at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, which conducts research on the structural barriers to economic opportunity for low-income communities and communities of color. In this role, she provides guidance for the department’s research agenda and publications that advance racial equity, healthy and resilient communities, a thriving labor force, and inclusive financial systems.
Prior to joining the San Francisco Fed, Dr. Shrimali worked at the Alameda County Public Health Department where she launched projects focused on economic development to improve health and reduce disparities for young children and families, several of which have been nationally recognized and duplicated in other parts of the country. She led the implementation of a national neighborhood-based project in East Oakland called Best Babies Zone.
Dr. Shrimali received her Doctorate in Public Health, Masters in Epidemiology and Biostatistics, and BA in Economics and English, all from UC Berkeley.
Susie Smith
Susie directs Agency-wide services in the areas of strategic planning, performance measurement, government and legislative affairs, communications, and interdepartmental initiatives. Prior to joining the Agency, she worked in the San Francisco Office of the Controller’s City Performance Unit, where she managed analysts and provided technical assistance and research to CIty managers to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of various public services.
Roberto Vargas
Roberto Ariel Vargas, MPH is the Associate Director for Community Health Planning & Policy Development, and Economic Inclusion. Roberto participates in—and sometimes leads—multi-stakeholder health initiatives that provide opportunities for UCSF to leverage its research and science expertise and resources. Roberto also helps disseminate evidence-based practice nationally, leveraging the experiences of UCSF’s research, science and public health partnerships to inform health initiatives broadly. Roberto has focused in recent years on building partnerships for the reduction of cancer and metabolic disease disparities, including in the development of policy, systems and environmental change.
He loves this work because he is passionate about health and social equity, sees tremendous value in partnering academia with community, for the benefit of both, and toward more equitable health outcomes.
Shirley Yee
With over two decades of experience addressing social and economic systemic inequities throughout the Bay Area, Shirley Yee is the Economic Justice Director at MyPath, a San Francisco based non profit working to transform systems and policies to create new financial capability and economic inclusion pathways with and for BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) youth from low income and low wealth communities. MyPath plays an active leadership role in the emerging guaranteed income (GI) movement. In addition to being a partner in two GI pilot programs, the only GI pilots in the country focusing on youth transitioning into adulthood (Santa Clara County with youth exiting the Foster Care System and San Francisco with pregnant and parenting young mothers), MyPath also actively participates in the GI Learning Circle (National) coordinated by the Economic Security Project, and the California Statewide GI Convening (State) bringing together GI pilot programs and policy advocates across the state. Growing up bisexual in the Midwest working in her parents' Chinese restaurant from 7th-12th grade, Shirley is the daughter of immigrant parents (from China and Japan) and grew up within a cross class experience and is committed to addressing racial inequity across the state of CA.
Meeting #1 - Friday, April 16 at 1:00 p.m.
Now is the Moment: Guaranteed Income and Economic Security
Agenda | Minutes | Video
Meeting #2 - Friday, May 14 at 1:00 p.m.
What we know about Guaranteed Income
Agenda | Minutes | Video
Meeting #3 - Friday, June 11 at 1:00 p.m.
Economic Insecurity, Safety Net, and Future of Work
Agenda | Minutes | Video
Meeting #4 - Friday, July 9 at 1:00 p.m.
Developing Criteria for a Potential Guaranteed Income Pilot
Agenda | Minutes | Video
Video about Designing the Abundant Birth Project
Meeting #5 - Friday, August 13 at 1:00 p.m.
Beyond Cash - Considering Longer-Term (and Radical) Solutions
Agenda | Minutes | Video
Meeting #6 - Wednesday, October 27 at 2:00 p.m.
Where Do We Go from Here? Recommendations and Reflections
Agenda | Minutes | Video
Meeting #7 - November
Review draft report and recommendations
Cities
Chicago Resilient Task Force
Mayor's For A Guaranteed Income
- University of Pennsylvania Center for Guaranteed Income Research - Learning Agenda
- Guaranteed Income Program Design Considerations
National League of Cities
Newark Guaranteed Income Task Force
Stockton
Institutions
Jain Family Institute
Stanford Basic Income Lab
- Healthy Communities and Universal Basic Income: A Conceptual Framework and Evidence Review
- What We Know About Universal Basic Income: A Cross-Synthesis of Reviews
- Universal Basic Income: What's in a Name?
Stockton Economic Empowerment Demonstration
The Institute on Race and Political Economy, The New School
Stimulus Checks Substantially Reduced Hardship, Study Shows - New York Times
A San Francisco Experiment Will Give Some Pregnant Women $1,000 a Month. Could Other Cities Be Next? - Time
S.F. supervisors considering studying universal basic income program - San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco supervisors vote to consider universal basic income program - ABC 7 News
SF to consider universal basic income program - KCBS Radio
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