Shruti Garg’s passions and purpose were tied to philanthropy before she even knew it: “My first internship was at a local foundation supporting immigrant communities here in LA. I didn’t know what philanthropy was, and I didn’t understand that the work that I enjoyed doing was through philanthropy.”
Maya Thornell-Sandifor has been bridging different worlds since she was a child. “I’m a preacher’s kid, so my dad was very politically active in the faith community since I was a little girl. He would take me on marches and to political organizing events, and it was bred into me that change isn’t fixed. You have to participate in the system if you want things to be different.”
Before racking up impressive credentials in public policy training and public health training, Marj Plumb learned how to do it by herself. Coming from a family of seven siblings, helmed by a teamster father and a mother who worked as a waitress, she was the only one of their children to go to college. “I wasn't raised in a family where knowing how to do stuff was handed down,” Marj explained. So before she could understand how grassroots groups can identify and pull levers of power to improve systems, she started a career in advocacy by first just getting into the room.
