Innovative Solutions in San Francisco: Examining a Case Study and the India Basin Equitable Development Plan

Jacqueline Flin was born in San Francisco, CA at the Presidio. She was raised with two brothers, by a active unionist father and an mother who immigrated from the Philippines and served in the U.S. Coast Guard. She received her B.S. degree in Cellular Biology from the University of California at Davis.  

Flin began volunteering for the A. Philip Randolph Institute San Francisco as a youth leader participating in efforts to educate low-income communities about local elections and voting initiatives. She was then hired as a receptionist at the California Labor Federation, an organization dedicated to promoting and defending the interests of working people and their families for the betterment of California’s communities. After a brief career in the biological science field, in 2009, she returned to San Francisco in a leadership role as the Executive Director of the A. Philip Randolph Institute San Francisco.  

In the time she served as Executive Director, she has expanded the organization’s capacity to offer public services that include: Workforce Development, Youth Career and Leadership Development, and Equity Development Strategies. She established public and private partnerships that support invest directly in the Bayview Hunters Point. She has a network of relationships with City and County departments, unions, local businesses, community based organizations, service providers, and residents. She is committed to building the community through organizing and leadership.  

Phil Ginsburg is the general manager of the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department. With more than 4,100 acres and over 220 parks under its jurisdiction, the Recreation and Park Department stewards some of the most spectacular public spaces in the world, including Golden Gate Park, Coit Tower and the Palace of Fine Arts. Under Phil’s leadership, San Francisco became the first City in the United States where 100% of its residents live within a ten-minute walk of a park. Phil has led his organization through transformational improvements to the public realm and he has made equity and increasing access to public recreation and to nature, the department’s primary objective. Phil has built a financially sustainable model for San Francisco’s park system through ballot advocacy, the strategic use of public-private partnerships and philanthropy, creative revenue strategies, technology and administrative efficiencies. During his tenure, San Francisco has been consistently ranked one of the nation’s top five park systems. In 2019, Phil was appointed to the California State Parks and Recreation Commission by Governor Gavin Newsom.

Dr. Maria Su is the Executive Director of the San Francisco Department of Children, Youth and Their Families (DCYF). Maria was appointed by Mayor Gavin Newsom to lead DCYF in 2009. DCYF grants out approximately $70M each year for services that support children and youth from birth to age 24 and their families. Prior to DCYF, Maria held senior management and executive positions at the Vietnamese Youth Development Center in San Francisco’s Tenderloin District and at SF General Hospital-UCSF. She currently serves as a Commissioner on the San Francisco First 5 Children and Families Commission, is the Co-Chair of the Juvenile Justice Coordinating Council. Maria is a member of the San Francisco Re-entry Council, the Workforce Investment Act Youth Council, and the San Francisco Childcare Planning and Advisory Council. Maria earned her B.A. in Psychology from Boston University and her doctorate in Clinical Psychology from Alliant International University-CSPP.