February 2022 Newsletter
Meet Our New Team Member, Brianna Rogers!
Brianna Rogers recently joined ReWork the Bay as an Associative Initiative Officer. While our small and mighty team tends to do a little bit of everything to support our work, Brianna’s primary focus will be leading our efforts to implement three projects underway and soon-to-launch:
- Building Worker Power through Workforce Development
- Improving Job Quality for Frontline Workforce Providers
- Community-Centered Economic Planning
She brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to this role and we’re thrilled by all the possibilities that her presence will bring to our work.
We sat down with Brianna to get to know her more and have the chance to introduce herself to you—in her own words. Be sure to watch Brianna’s “Meet the Team” video and learn why she loves the Bay Area, what influences her approach to work, and why the Bay will always be home.
What excites you most about joining the ReWork the Bay team?
If I had to pick one or two, it would be just the fact that I’m joining a smaller team of people who are really doing the work. After grad school, I said that I was no longer going to be taking jobs where I was exchanging time for money. It has to be meaningful. The ReWork the Bay team is really doing the real work to make sure that good quality, sustainable jobs are available in the Bay Area, and that we have access to those jobs. So, I’m excited to bring my efforts to the ReWork the Bay team and join the efforts of the larger initiative.
What led you to this career?
Being a system-impacted Black woman living in the Bay Area led me to this career. The sector of philanthropy where you have access to power, big decisions, and big funding that can make a big impact in the world is everything to me. In my grad program, I had an opportunity to be a National Urban Fellow. They placed me in a fellowship in New York City with the Andrus Family Fund and that’s where I got my first taste of philanthropy. I wanted to start my career in philanthropy here in the Bay Area, and I knew that I wanted to come specifically to the San Francisco Foundation. So, when I got the job offer, I immediately took it.
I always knew that I was going to vow to serve others to help others in some capacity. I studied rhetoric at UC Berkeley and public policy at Georgetown University. I always knew that I was going to be using the power in my voice, to empower other groups of people that didn’t necessarily have access to the language. And, so, philanthropy and working for Rework the Bay is a great intersection of both. And I’m excited to be here.
If you could write a book about your life, what would the title be and why?
If I was to write a book about my life, it would probably be a series. The title would be: “Keep Your Fork, the Best is Yet to Come.”
Just think about your family dinner, right? Your granny comes from the back and she’s like, “Baby, keep your fork.” Now, when your granny told you to keep your fork, you knew something better was coming. My life has always been one that was useful whenever I kept my fork because I knew something better was coming. You look at my life now and think, “Oh, my god, she seems so amazing.” And I am. But, there’s so much that I come from and so many experiences that I’ve dealt with. Everything from being born into a low-income household with a single parent to experiencing the foster care system in high school to experiencing being incarcerated to formerly incarcerated. And then pressing restart and starting at Berkeley City College, transferring to UC Berkeley and Georgetown, and now at The Foundation. So, the title of my book would be “Keep Your Fork, the Best is Yet to Come”. Because there’s always something coming.
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