About Us
Empower Oakland is a volunteer-led organization of 150+ Oakland residents with a wide range of political affiliations and opinions. For many of us, this is our first foray into politics — and it’s none of our full-time jobs. We’ve collectively spent hundreds of hours building Empower Oakland. Nearly everyone associated with Empower Oakland is a volunteer, and we have no full-time staff.
We do this because we believe Oaklanders deserve to be well-informed about local elections and because we are committed to a better future for Oakland. Learn more about our mission and values.

A packed house at our Voter Guide kickoff event in 2024!
Our Team
We’re volunteer-led. It’s amazing what you can achieve in a short amount of time with a group of highly motivated people who know how to get sh*t done!
Our volunteers work in education, technology, non-profits, media, development, government, and other sectors. This diverse pool of people and skills enables Empower Oakland to achieve our mission of educating voters and supporting worthy candidates and causes almost entirely through the efforts of volunteers. We’re juggling family and work; squeezing in Empower Oakland during evenings and weekends. We are united by a love for Oakland and a desire to see Oakland thrive.
Empower Oakland Team Members
Gagan Biyani
Gagan Biyani was born and raised in Alameda County (Fremont, CA) and graduated from UC Berkeley. He has lived in the Bay Area for 32 years and has founded multiple businesses in the Bay Area, including Udemy, Sprig and Maven.
After spending 5 years outside the Bay, he and his wife decided to settle down in Oakland because they love the people, culture, weather, location and food. He's passionate about bringing his digital marketing experience to help Empower Oakland with its mission to educate Oakland voters.

Gagan Biyani
Executive Director
Reze Wong
Reze Wong manages the Empower Oakland newsletter. He’s currently an operating partner at Khosla Ventures, where he helps startup founders with communications and messaging.
He moved to the East Bay more than 15 years ago, and has lived across Oakland for more than a decade, including in West Oakland, Lake Merritt, and Rockridge. Reze graduated from UC Berkeley.

Reze Wong
Communications Lead
Arielle Fleisher
Arielle Fleisher is a transportation strategist with a unique combination of public health, design thinking, and urban planning expertise. With extensive experience in public policy across the private, public, and non-profit sectors, Arielle is dedicated to improving government by bringing innovative approaches and diverse skill sets to government practices. Her primary focus is on transportation, and she has worked tirelessly to improve the quality of the Bay Area's transportation system, including initiatives to make Oakland’s streets safer.
A committed community leader, Arielle recently ran for the Alameda County Democratic Central Committee. Though she didn't win, the experience underscored for her the importance of civic and community engagement. She's also the founder of the Pandemic Mom's Club, a neighborhood group that blossomed from offering support to new mothers at the height of the pandemic into a vital source of connection and resources. Arielle serves on the Steering Committee for UCLA’s Center of Excellence on New Mobility and Automated Vehicles and is an ITS Senior Fellow at ITS Berkeley.
Arielle’s strength lies in her ability to bring people together to tackle complex challenges and drive meaningful change. She is excited to bring her policy expertise and passion for improving government practice to Empower Oakland.

Arielle Fleisher
Policy Lead & Endorsement Committee
Jacob Klein
Jacob Klein is an edtech product leader and entrepreneur, who co-founded and led the learning games studio Motion Math (acquired by Curriculum Associates). He currently serves as head of product for TeachFX, building an AI coach to help teachers, and earned a BS and MA from Stanford.
Born in Oakland, Jacob loves hiking with his wife and kids and volunteering in Oakland parks. He served as a Regional Field Director on the 2008 Obama campaign, volunteered for the launch of Swing Left in 2016, and is excited about Empower Oakland's mission to improve our city for everyone.

Jacob Klein
Marketing Lead & Endorsement Committee
Kim Ayers
Kim Ayers is an experienced product development and marketing leader. She helps guide social media and community outreach for Empower Oakland.

Kim Ayers
Community Lead 2024 – current
Ben Gould
Ben Gould is President and Co-founder and EcoDataLab, and the 2025 campaign leader for Empower Oakland.

Ben Gould
Campaign Lead 2025
Teresa Starkey
Teresa Starkey is an brand and strategy consultant, who has guided Empower Oakland's efforts in these areas since 2024.

Teresa Starkey
Brand Lead
Chris Hadley
Chris Hadley is a startup founder and consultant, and leads Empower Oakland's website operations.

Chris Hadley
Marketing Lead
Isaac Abid
Isaac Abid is the founder and managing partner of Lakeside Group, an Oakland based real estate company focused on commercial investment opportunities across Northern California.
Alongside his work at Lakeside Group, Isaac has an eye towards increasing safety and vibrancy in Oakland, CA, his hometown. This includes starting the Downtown Partnership and the Northlake District, as well as sitting on the board of the Oakland School for the Arts.
Isaac graduated from Columbia Business School with an MBA in Real Estate Finance, as well as a Masters of Science in Urban Planning. Isaac also has a BA in Political Science from UCLA.

Isaac Abid
Endorsement Committee
Derreck Johnson
A third generation Oaklander, Derreck was raised by a single mom in West Oakland’s Acorn housing projects, one of our most underserved neighborhoods. His mom worked up to three jobs so he could have a better life. She taught him to work hard and selflessly for others, take pride in his community, and keep his word.
Growing up, Derreck saw people rise in the most inspiring ways and fall most tragically. Thanks to his strong extended family and community, Derreck would go on to high school, then Fisk University where he was a member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, which promoted brotherhood, service, and community advocacy. After graduation, he came home determined to serve the community that made him who he is. Today, he’s a successful entrepreneur making an incredible difference for Oakland.
In 2004, Derreck opened Home of Chicken and Waffles in Jack London Square. The restaurant would become a pillar of the Oakland community, a way to help Oaklanders who hadn’t been as lucky as Derreck had. While over the years, Derreck has created hundreds of jobs, he’s most proud of the fact that 70 percent of Home of Chicken and Waffles employees were formerly incarcerated people, folks who nobody would give a second chance until Derreck did. Derreck finds nothing more inspiring than helping turn someone’s life around, and seeing them get that first paycheck, that first apartment, or even that college degree.

Derreck Johnson
Endorsement Committee 2025
Raul Maldonado
Raul Maldonado is a Senior Data Analyst at Autodesk, where he develops data models and delivers insights for internal teams across sales, customer success, and developer experience. Previously, Raul worked in data analytics roles at Google and MobileIron, focusing on business intelligence and automation. .
Based in Oakland, Raul is deeply involved in local housing and transportation advocacy. He co-leads East Bay YIMBY, working to advance policies that support diverse, dense housing and tenant protections. A strong supporter of sustainable and equitable transportation, he is an advocate for urban biking and safer streets. He is a member of Empower Oakland’s endorsement committee and is committed to building a more inclusive and accessible East Bay.

Raul Maldonado
Endorsement Committee 2025
Mathew Barnes
Mathew Barnes is an experienced brand leader and designer. Mat helped with visual design for the Empower Oakland website and other materials for the 2024 election.

Mathew Barnes
Visual Design and Branding 2024
Emily Wasserman
Emily Wasserman is a consultant and operations leader. She helped lead Empower Oakland's field operations for the 2024 election.

Emily Wasserman
Field Operations Lead 2024
Matt Cobos
Matt Cobos is a digital media and advertising leader. Matt guided Empower Oakland's advertising strategy for the 2024 election.

Matt Cobos
Digital Campaign Lead 2024
Stephen Salinas
Stephen Salinas is an operations leader for Snowflake and an executive coach. He was an outreach volunteer for Empower Oakland in the 2024 election cycle.

Stephen Salinas
Volunteer 2024
Loren Taylor
Loren Taylor is the founder of Empower Oakland, a former city council member, and a 2025 candidate for mayor.

Loren Taylor
Empower Oakland Founder (on leave)
Join Us!
Want to help bring competent leaders and common sense solutions to Oakland?
First, we recommend you subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on social media to get our updates and learn about opportunities to get active as a voter and community member. And please tell friends and family about us!
Next, there are many ways to support our mission:
- Amplify our efforts as a volunteer: Volunteers support in-person events and digital efforts. They run sign-in tables, take photographs and videos, create content, and represent Empower Oakland at community events. They are also vocal champions of Empower Oakland, spreading the word about our mission, newsletter and voter guide in their local networks.
- Become a core team or committee member: If you are able to dedicate a minimum of 5 hours a week to Empower Oakland, we would love your help! Some areas of need include policy research, news analysis, fundraising, design, content creation, community outreach, and event planning and execution.
- Donate to help us reach further: Please consider donating to Empower Oakland Committee, the campaign arm of Empower Oakland. Since most of Empower Oakland is volunteer-led, this enables us to use your capital in the most efficient way possible – not on headcount, but on direct outreach to Oaklanders.
Want to help bring competent leaders and common sense solutions to Oakland? Join our volunteer team.
Our History
Loren Taylor founded Empower Oakland in 2023 with a mission to inform and mobilize voters around the core issues that matter most to Oaklanders: public safety, housing, thriving businesses to fuel a thriving economy, clean and well-maintained public infrastructure, and the city budget.
The first year of Empower Oakland included public forums, speaker events, voter mobilization, and a slate of recommended candidates for the Alameda County Democratic Central Committee ahead of the 2024 primary election. In the summer of 2024, new leadership joined Empower Oakland and a core team of volunteers was established.
In September 2024, Empower Oakland 2.0 launched with a greatly expanded base of volunteer support and a wildly exciting and successful 2024 Voter Guide kickoff event.
Prior to launching his 2025 campaign for mayor, Loren stepped down from Empower Oakland, and our organization does not coordinate with his campaign. Our core team, endorsement committee, and programming evolves every year, but our mission remains the same – to build the future we all deserve, with safe and clean streets, thriving families and businesses, and effective local government.