Who We Are

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Brenda Tafoya has been actively engaged in affordable housing and community development for over 15 years and brings over 20 years of experience in the non-profit sector.

She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology from the University of California, Riverside.

Her experience encompasses work with community land trusts, asset and property management, and providing resident and social services for tax credit, HUD programs, and Section 202 properties for the elderly, families, and veterans.

Through her efforts to ensure housing retention and advocate for tenants, she has determined that community input is essential for creating the best affordable housing through social housing initiatives.

Brenda currently serves as the Executive Director of El Sereno Community Land Trust and holds the position of Director of Housing and Program Operations for Thrive Santa Ana CLT.

Additionally, she is a mother, a radio host, and a DJ at KQBH-LA 101.5 FM community radio station in Boyle Heights, where she interviews bands, DJs, comedians, and local artists.

DIRECTOR OF OPEN SPACE

Chayo is an indigenous mother of three from the Binizáa (Zapotec) peoples. She stewards a collective of BIPOC homeschoolers/unschoolers rooted in land stewardship and reconnecting with the land as a way of learning and healing.

As Director of Open Space at El Sereno CLT she activates open spaces to support children, families, and the community at large.

ASSET & PROPERTY MANAGEMENT AMERICORP FELLOW

Isaac is a first-generation Chinese American who immigrated from Taiwan to the San Francisco Bay Area where he grew up, though he now lives in Los Angeles. His connection to El Sereno began with community talking circle at Eastside Cafe, and workshops at the El Sereno Community Garden.

Isaac's journey to community land trusts and housing justice was given a boost with training in the humanities. Isaac studied Political Science and Economics at University of California San Diego, and Law at Loyola. Thereafter, he worked as a school teacher before moving into small business management and consultancy while volunteering on various service committees and with environmental and social service nonprofits.

Although the Bay Area land of the Oholone and Miwok remains a spiritual home, Isaac enjoys learning to travel throughout this land and seeing it from the indigenous perspective. He also studies baking and ancestrally-informed diets for health.

DIRECTOR OF STRATEGY & EDUCATION

Linda Quiquivix (Quiqui) is a geographer, author, and popular educator of Maya–Mam roots whose work bridges intellectual inquiry and strategy with grassroots liberation. She brings a decolonial and land-based perspective to struggles for autonomy and the defense of life.

After earning a BS in Business Administration and Information Systems and an MA in Geography from the California State University Northridge, she earned a PhD in Geography from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and held a postdoctoral fellowship in Critical Global Humanities at Brown University.

Quiqui left academia in 2014 to walk alongside communities organizing from below and toward the common, facilitating popular education in public parks, farms, gardens, bicycle shops, and living rooms. Her scholarship on Palestine, Chiapas, Indigenous struggle, and anti-capitalist resistance informs a broader commitment to justice across geographies.

She works closely with Community Land Trusts and other autonomous formations that seek to decommodify land and return it to collective stewardship. Her approach is rooted in accompaniment and solidarity, drawing from frameworks like Critical Cartography, Zapatismo, and decolonial praxis. She sees CLTs as possible tools that, when accompanied with a strategy outside of empire, can help heal relationships to land, memory, and to each other.

ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES & REAL ESTATE ADVISOR

Jordan was born and raised in the City of Orange to immigrant parents, his father from Zacatecas, Mexico and his mother from Vancouver, Canada.

He graduated from California State University, Fullerton with his bachelor's degree in Business Administration with a concentration in economics.

His first job after graduating was with a consulting firm, RSG, Inc., where he spent 3 years as an analyst helping cities and counties across the state overcome challenges related to affordable housing, community development, real estate, and fiscal health.

Jordan joined the City of Pico Rivera's Community Development Department as an Economic Development Analyst where he led the City's efforts to sell and acquire 5 surplus properties and a number of other Community Development related initiatives.

After 2 years at the City of Pico Rivera, Jordan was hired by THRIVE Santa Ana in the spring of 2024 Community Land Trust to be the organization's first full-time Executive Director. In his first year with the organization, Jordan grew staff from 2 to 4 full-time employees, led the first democratic board election where 3 new directors were elected, organized a 2-day board retreat and strategic visioning session, and implemented various systems to improve its financial health and sustainability.

Jordan currently lives in Torreon, Coahuila, Mexico where he plans to open his own business. He loves coffee, anime, ceramics, walking, traveling, and spending time with his wife, 2 dogs (great dane & blue heeler), and cat.