T’wina Nobles | CEO

T’wina (she/her/hers) is the inaugural CEO of the Black Future Co-op Fund, and a founding architect. She leads the Fund in service of our mission to ignite Black generational wealth, health, and well-being across Washington. T’wina is also senator for the 28th Legislative District of Washington state. 

Growing up, T’wina and her family faced many challenges, including homelessness, which led T’wina to move into foster care at the age of 15. T’wina was determined not to become a statistic, and applied her passion, energy, and hard work to graduate high school and go on to become an educator. She believes strongly in giving back to the community that helped her succeed.  

Most recently, she was the president and CEO of the Tacoma Urban League, where she led programs to strengthen and support the local African American community in social equality and economic independence. Previously, T’wina worked as an instructor for Metropolitan Development Council’s College Bound program at Stadium High School and Lincoln High School in Tacoma, as well as served as a PTA leader and a school board member. She also co-founded Ladies First, an in-school and after-school program dedicated to empowering young women and building positive self-esteem. She attended the University of Puget Sound, where she earned her undergraduate degree and a Master of Arts in Teaching.

T’wina and her family live in Pierce County. In her free time, T’wina enjoys lazy days with family, running environmental justice camps for her mentorship group, outdoor adventures in our state parks, and reading inspirational nonfiction.

Shona Carter | Director of Partner Engagement & Investment

As director of partner engagement & investment, Shona (she/her/hers) brings a community-centered and racial equity focus to growing trusting partnerships and leading development in order to resource and further the mission of the Black Future Co-op Fund. Her personal mission is to understand and effectively address the complexities of and barriers to creating a socially just and sustainable community. She has more than 20 years of philanthropic experience, having served as vice president of community engagement and strategy at the Community Foundation for Southwest Washington; senior donor relations officer at The San Francisco Foundation; advancement officer of corporate partnerships at the Foundation of City College of San Francisco; and associate program officer of the Clorox Company Foundation at the East Community Foundation.

She co-founded the Southwest Washington Equity Coalition, a cross-sector collaborative of community leaders and organizations seeking to advance racial equity through policy advocacy, institutional change, and fostering an inclusive culture in southwest Washington. She also serves as a member of the Philanthropy Northwest Board of Directors, Clark County Public Health Advisory Council, and I5Bridge Replacement Equity Committee, as well as volunteers for Live Free, a gun violence prevention and decarceration organization. 

Shona has a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley, and an MBA in corporate social responsibility from Mills College. She lives in Vancouver, Washington, with her partner Kelvin and dog Hobbes. Outside of work, she likes to travel, hike, camp, craft, write, and dabble in photography. 

Lanessa Cerrillo | Administrative Associate

As the administrative associate, Lanessa (she/her/hers) provides day-to-day organizational and operational support for the Black Future Co-op Fund. With a strong passion for community building, she aims to create inclusive environments and equitable opportunities for Black and Brown people. Lanessa identifies as Black, Mexican, Filipina and Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and values the ancestral knowledge and guidance she has gained from all the strong women who raised her. She says her cultural background and community-centered upbringing have greatly influenced her work. 

Most recently, Lanessa was a program director for Project Girl Mentoring Program, a nonprofit organization that provides mentoring services to young girls of color. Lanessa participated in the program as a young teen, and was overjoyed to serve the community that once served her. Prior to that, she taught at the Experimental Education Unit at the University of Washington. She is a proud UW alum, where she earned a bachelor’s in education. 

Lanessa currently serves on the board of the Indipino Community and Vicinity, a family nonprofit dedicated to raising awareness of the history of the Indipino community of Bainbridge Island. She is also a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. In Lanessa’s spare time, she enjoys reading, traveling, being outdoors, and spending time with her friends and family.

Stephen Robinson | Director of Community Engagement & Learning

Stephen (he/him/his) leads the Black Future Co-op Fund’s community listening, engagement, and learning endeavors to build a powerful network of Black people, groups, and organizations across Washington’s 39 counties. As a half Black man, he has always played the role of a bridge and a community builder. He will use these talents collaboratively with nonprofits and community leaders to drive positive change and resource redistribution to further Black liberation. Since 2014, he served as a senior philanthropic advisor and a scholarship program manager at Seattle Foundation, and before that as a community development project manager at LDA Struga, a regional United Nations Development Programme office in Macedonia, where he was a Peace Corps volunteer.

He has been a longtime volunteer with the Pride Foundation, in both their grant and scholarship programs. He is a board trustee for the Friends of Educational Opportunity Program at the University of Washington, an advisory to the Office of Minority Affairs & Diversity that promotes academic excellence for underrepresented students impacted by educational and economic injustices. Stephen is also a teaching assistant for a Bastyr class called "Spiritual identity,” and is apprenticed to the medicine woman who teaches the course.

A chartered advisor in philanthropy (CAP), Stephen has a bachelor’s in religious studies from Humboldt State University and an MPA from the University of Washington. He lives in Rainier Beach, and when he’s not working, you can find him knitting, listening to books while walking around Seward Park, or making bolo ties out of buffalo teeth.