Diego Bravo
Program Director, Ready to Rise
From a young age, I was taken in and brought up by leaders who honor their work through a generational promise to their communities - to create a world that is just and kind to those that live like us, our friends, neighbors, families, and our people. No one knows our needs and ways of being better than we do, and when we harness the power of culture and community practice, we heal, disrupt systems of oppression, and create beautiful and healthy lives for our young people.
As the Program Director of Ready to Rise at the Liberty Hill Foundation, Diego works with government, foundation, and dedicated community-based organization partners to expand opportunities, resources, community-defined practices, and enrichment services for thousands of young people across LA County. The goal of Ready to Rise is to build a system that replaces the traditional and harmful structures of punishment and incarceration with emerging best practices centered in healing, learning, and opportunity.
Diego was born and raised in Oakland, California, where, before joining Liberty Hill, he worked for a community-based organization called Safe Passages for eight years, leading resource development and policy advocacy. Diego has also served as a committee member for the CDPH California Reducing Disparities Project, successfully advocating to state partners, policy stakeholders, and elected officials for the inclusion of community-defined evidence practices in state legislature and statewide funding opportunities. Additionally, he served as the Principal Investigator for the project's local evaluation of community-defined evidence practices among African American youth in Oakland, working with program staff and the Psychology Applied Research Center at Loyola Marymount University to evaluate the project through culturally-driven and responsive research methods. Diego holds a B.A. in Cultural Anthropology from UC Santa Cruz and a Master of Public Policy (MPP), Equity Policy emphasis, from UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs. Diego loves all things writing, reading, empowering the people, and our great beautiful outdoors.
- dbravo@libertyhill.org