Our Mission
“The Advocates seek to help keep Black people and immigrants in our historic neighborhood and find strategies and actions to slow and reverse the rapid displacement of diverse populations from all of San Francisco, along with the displacement of the working class of all ethnicities from the City. Our environmental advocacy is tightly woven with our workforce and economic development interests, in the hopes of keeping a diverse Bayview Hunters Point.”
J. Michelle Pierce
Executive director
Has 20 years of experience working in sustainability and social justice. While with the San Francisco Department of the Environment, she helped small to medium-sized businesses design sustainability/responsibility programs while maintaining or improving business viability. Programs spanned water use reduction as well as water quality improvement, energy efficiency improvement, toxic use and/or waste reduction and/or recapitalization with. Some projects of note are the Custodial Green Cleaning Program and the Healthy Nail Salon Program. She is particularly adept at cultural competency and policy design, both of which were nurtured and polished while completing the Global Partners MBA Program
Tony Kelly
Development Director
Is a veteran project creator and manager, with extensive experience as a manager and director in the arts, public policy, community organizing, and client-side construction management. Prior to working at the Advocates, he volunteered on numerous public-service initiatives in Southeast San Francisco and Bayview-Hunters Point for almost 20 years, serving on advisory committees and task forces for the City’s Mayor, the Port, and the Board of Supervisors.