Libia Bianibi (she/her)
Deputy Director
Libia Bianibi is a nonprofit worker focused on building resilient organizations. Her career has been in the arts sector where she prioritized advancing racial equity, ethical cultural exchange, and economic justice to contribute to the broader transformation of the sector. She believes in using organizational design to bridge the gap between symbolic values and daily practices of nonprofit organizations as well as recognizing finances as a space of action to advance equitable practices. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of Chicago United for Equity and has held appointments in the Equity Advisory Committee for the City of Chicago and in the Advisory Committee for We Will Chicago. She holds a BA in Art History from Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico City, a MA in Arts Administration & Policy from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and is currently working towards a MS in Accounting from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Originally from the Zapotec community of Juchitan, Oaxaca she is now based in Chicago, land of the Odawa, Ojibwe, and Potawatomi Nations. Contact: @email.

Jennifer Caster (she/her)
Operations Manager
Jennifer Caster has been engaged with the BEA as an independent contractor, Administrative Assistant, and most recently as Program Manager. Her work has included logistic support for virtual meetings and - with the support of dozens of grantees - the production of the Grantee Spotlight Series (with more to come!).  Jennifer is a proud member of Actors Equity Association (AEA) and previously traveled the country working as a Stage Manager for various venues. A Midwesterner at heart, Jennifer now lives in Central New York. 
Contact: @email

Danielle Freire (she/her)
Development Director
Danielle has dedicated her career to ensuring success for nonprofit missions she cares about. During her time on fundraising teams both big and small, she’s recognized the value of maintaining seamless operations to increase efficiency and ultimately raise the resources needed to advance a variety of missions. Above all else, Danielle’s commitment to social justice enables her to authentically promote programs that empower families and highlight the voices of marginalized communities. Danielle most recently served as Associate Director of Development for Circle for Justice Innovations (CJI), a national grassroots grantmaker whose mission is to end the mass criminalization and incarceration of communities of color. She’s excited to continue her work in service of grassroots organizations and champion authentic collaboration through BEA. Danielle received her BA in Political Science from New Jersey City University and MS in Nonprofit Management from the New School.
Contact: @email

Kara Rubio (she/her)
BEA Fund Program Manager
Kara joined BEA in 2023 as the BEA Fund Program Manager. Kara brings her experiences as a public health and nonprofit professional working at the intersection of health equity and environmental justice to this role. Most recently she served as the Public Health in Philanthropy fellow at The Pittsburgh Foundation, a community foundation, and as the Healthy Schools PA Program Manager with the environmental health and justice nonprofit Women for a Healthy Environment. As a public health professional working in philanthropy, her hope is to do work that results in a multi-generational investment for healthier, more environmentally just communities. She strongly believes that the best way to realize this investment is to continue to build and support grassroots movements and their leaders, because those closest to the issues hold the knowledge that can bring us authentic and sustainable solutions.

Originally from the island of Guam, Kara currently lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania which is located on the historic lands of the Adena, Hopewell and Monogahela peoples, and is a central part of the Appalachian region.
Contact: @email

Linda Saleh (she/her)
Executive Director
Linda is a black East African activist currently based in New York City by way of Toronto. For 13 years, she has organized and been active across gender, reproductive, and youth justice movements; her goal always is the leadership of those most affected by injustice, the radical reimagining of societies, and the collective liberation of her communities. 

Most recently, Linda co-founded Feminist Solutions towards Global Justice, a feminist consulting practice that supports organizations’ strategy development, policy advocacy, and research efforts. She has significant experience engaging with global policy processes and has published several resources to support grassroots and national-level activism. Before this, Linda served as the Executive Director of a global youth-led human rights organization for four years. She holds degrees from Queen’s University and the London School of Economics and Political Science and has previously served on the board of the New York Abortion Access Fund.  She can often be found happily getting lost in nature with her heart dog Maple. 
Contact: @email

Tab Skervin (they/them)
Director of Member Engagement and Organizing
Tab Skervin is a black, queer, Jamaican campaigner and organizer currently residing in occupied Lenapehoking and black-liberator lands (so-called Philadelphia). Tab has dedicated over a decade to direct action campaigning, movement-building, and grassroots organizing on various social justice issues, including climate justice, student power, cooperative housing, human rights, and abortion liberation. Their work in these areas is based on a commitment to a future where black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPoC) can live with dignity, autonomy, and liberation from white supremacist capitalism and its extractive industries. Thanks to Tab’s organizing background and anchoring in cooperative principles, they bring a unique approach to facilitation that prioritizes deep collaboration to reach tangible outcomes, decisions, and priorities. They have also applied their experience to build structures that foster healthy and active participation within large decision-making bodies.

Before joining BEA, Tab was the organizer for the Climate and Environmental Justice Department of the Action Center on Race and the Economy (ACRE), where through coalition, they worked with both grassroots and national organizations to uplift and advocate for the needs of frontline partners, identify points of collaboration and opportunities for resource sharing.

When Tab is not taking on power holders, Tab enjoys working with textiles, studying plant medicine, and engaging in other practices that heal their ancestral ties through (re)connection to the Land.
Contact: @email

Markeya Thomas (she/her)
Communications Director
Markeya Thomas is a professional communicator, having spent several years working on climate and environmental issues.

She has worked on projects for major climate moments including: NCA, Lancet, and IPCC reports, science attribution study releases, breaking news on extreme weather, and tracking the long term impacts of environmental racism, just transition, and climate reparations for recovery.

She is passionate about a world where climate and environmental justice is a part of the plan for community safety. In the US, your zip code determines your life expectancy, access to resources, and quality of healthcare. Environmental racism is slow violence with long term consequences against communities restricted by racist housing policies that impact where and how we live. Environmental issues intersect with many social justice issues and must be addressed in order to truly experience liberation. 

She is excited to join BEA and looks forward to pushing the needle in how not only we speak about climate and environmental issues, but how funding local organizing is the key to real environmental solutions. 
Contact: @email