Eli Lipmen (he/they)

Executive Director
eli [at] movela.org

Eli Lipmen joined the Move LA staff in August 2017 after working on the successful Measure M campaign in 2016. Eli was appointed Executive Director in 2022, having previously served on the Leadership Board for over six years. Eli has dedicated his life’s work to social change, from hunger to human rights to climate change to affordable housing. As a board member of the nonprofit ClimatePlan and co-chair of the South Los Angeles Transit Empowerment Zone (SLATE-Z) Transit Work Group, he is leading efforts in Los Angeles and across California to create more equitable public transportation. As one of five proponents of Measure ULA, Eli led the campaign for funding for affordable housing and tenant protections in the City of Los Angeles. Eli led Move LA’s campaign to successfully make LA Metro's ‘GoPass’ program permanent, providing fare-free transit for 1.3 million K-12 and community college students in LA County. He was honored by the TransitCenter for organizing national advocacy to achieve a more equitable Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the largest national investment in the public transportation system ever.  Eli is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communications, the London School of Economics & Political Science, and the Coro Lead SoCal Fellowship program. Eli’s family of five lives in the City of Los Angeles, where they love to walk, bike, and ride public transit.

Denny Zane (he/him)

Policy Director
dennyzane [at] movela.org

Denny Zane created Move LA in 2007 to bring together business, labor and environmental leaders and community organizations with the goal of raising significant new funding for LA County’s transit system. This coalition, working with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, proved to be a powerful force in getting Measure R, a half-cent sales tax for transit development and operations, on the 2008 ballot and winning over 2/3 Yes vote to secure its passage.  Working with Mayor Eric Garcetti, Move LA expanded this coalition to champion Measure M, another half-cent sales tax measure, which won voter approval in November 2016.  Together these measures are generating nearly $2.5 B each year with the result that LA Metro has embarked on an ambitious build-out of LA County’s transit system. In 2017 Denny worked with Supervisor Mark Ridley Thomas to build a coalition to successfully pass Measure H to provide nearly $600 M per year to fight homelessness in LA County.  In 2019, working with UniteHERE Local 11, SEIU Local 2015 and the LA-OC Building Trades Council, Denny co-convened a coalition of labor, social justice and tenants rights organizations and proposed what became Measure ULA to raise public funds to prevent homelessness and build affordable housing.   LA city voters approved Measure ULA by 58% Yes in November 2022.  Measures R, M, H and ULA are expected to eventually generate close to $4 B per year for public investments in transit and affordable housing in LA County.  While working on Measure ULA, Denny was also working with Nick Josefowitz of SPUR in San Francisco to convene a statewide coalition to sponsor a statewide ballot measure to raise over $100 B to fight for clean air and an end to climate change.  Opposition from Gov. Newsom led to the defeat of this measure, Proposition 30.  

Previously Denny had served on the Santa Monica City Council from 1981 to 1992, including one term as mayor.  During this time Denny was the formulator of most of Santa Monica’s renters’ rights and affordable housing programs, initiated and developed the revitalization program of the Third Street Promenade, wrote much of the land use policy for Santa Monica’s downtown, emphasizing pedestrian amenities, mixed-use development, and effective transit access — before these policies became widely known as “smart growth.” Denny was also executive director of the Coalition for Clean Air in the early 1990s winning approval in Sacramento of the Carl Moyer Program in 1994 to fund development of alternatives to diesel powered trucks, buses and other vehicles.  He began his career working with Tom Hayden and Jane Fonda to create the Campaign for Economic Democracy (CED) and founding Santa Monicans for Renters Rights (SMRR) in the late ’70s, a progressive community coalition that won voter approval of the city’s rent control law in 1979 and has held a city council majority in Santa Monica for more than 30 of the last 40 years.

Marisa Garcia (she/her)

Activism Director
marisa [at] movela.org

Marisa Garcia is the Activism Director at Move LA. Marisa grew up near two busy freeways in a city in Southeast Los Angeles County that is heavily impacted by air pollution, so she is all too aware of the harm that our overdependence on cars has caused Southern California residents. As an asthmatic, reducing the air pollution and traffic congestion that plagues the Los Angeles area by providing people with alternative transportation choices is an issue that is near and dear to her heart. Since joining the Move LA team in 2011 her commitment to helping transform LA County’s transportation system, improving regional air quality, and expanding affordable housing has strengthened. She has led efforts to successfully pass Measure M, Measure H, Measure ULA, and coordinated volunteer signature gathering to help qualify Measure A for the November 2024 ballot.  

Marisa recently graduated from Coro’s Women in Leadership Cohort, and TransitCenter’s Emerging Leaders BIPOC Cohort. She looks forward to continuing to work towards helping to improve the world around her, and seeing what the future holds for communities like the one where she grew up.

Monica Ballesteros (she/her)

Manager
monica [at] movela.org

A lifelong LA county resident, Monica resides in the small town of Whittier with her two adult children Annie and Alex. Annie was diagnosed with asthma at a young age and it greatly affected her life. When the children were small, one of their favorite things to do was hop on the public bus and just ride it to see where it took us. To this day Alex still likes to ride public transit for fun. Monica knows all to well the effects of air pollution and how it can hinder every day activities for those with respiratory ailments; as well as the need and want for safe, accessible public transportation.  For these reasons working with Move LA seemed the obvious choice for a new career path and she is proud to be part of the team

Kathy Ramirez (she/her)

Organizer
kathy [at] movela.org

Growing up in an unincorporated community in South Los Angeles near busy freeways, she witnessed the negative health impacts of air pollution on her family and community members' chronic conditions. Kathy is passionate about working with impacted communities to help create racial equitable solutions. This can be reflected through her experience working with grassroots organizations as canvasser on issues of tenant protection rights and environmental protections to name some. Additionally in her role as Western Regional Redistricting Coordinator at Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), where she co-led redistricting educational outreach efforts across the West Coast, both at the statewide and local government level. Kathy is a graduate from the University of California San Diego. She is excited to join the Move LA team and its communities. 

Rani Narula-Woods (she/her)

Daniel Tabor – President (Former mayor of the City of Inglewood) • Antonio Sanchez – Vice President (IBEW-NECA Local 11)
Joan Ling – Treasurer (UCLA) • Marlene Grossman – President Emeritus (MoveLA) • Michael Schneider (Infrastrategies LLC)
• Allan Marks (Milbank) • Sergio Rascon (LiUNA Local 300) • Anne-Marie Otey (LA/OC Building Trades)

Allan Alexander – Attorney and former mayor of Beverly Hills
Antwon Ali – JP Morgan Chase • Chris Chavez – Coalition for Clean Air
Darrell Clarke – Friends 4 Expo and Sierra Club
 Patrick Duan – BYD • Matthew Gaines – International Union of Operating Engineers, Local 12
Victor Griego – Water Education for Latino Leaders

Rosalba Gonzalaz – Lee Andrews Group • Marlene Grossman – Move LA
David Jacot – Los Angeles Department of Water & Power • Kat Janowicz – 3COTECH
Tyler Byrd  – Ironworkers Local 416 • Mark Kempton – Kempton Strategies • Joan Ling – UCLA

 Allan Marks – Milbank • Frank Martinez – Southern California Association of Nonprofit Housing
Wally Marks – Walter N. Marks Realty Inc. • Andres Molina – Los Angeles County Democratic Party
Bryn Moncelsi – Climate Resolve • Paul Moreno – Ironworkers Local
Hilary Norton - FastLINKDTLA/CA Transportation Commission

Francisco Oaxaca - L.A. Care Health Plan • Francine Oschin – Valley Industry and Commerce Association
Nailah Pope Harden – ClimatePlan • Geoffrey Danker - Southern California Gas Company
Joyce Perkins – Co-Founder & Board Member, Los Angeles Neighborhood Initiative
Sergio Rascon – LiUNA Local 300 • Antonio Sanchez – IBEW-NECA Local 11 

Mike Schneider – Infrastrategies LLC • Adam Smith - Southern California Edison
Michael Soloff - Munger Tolles & Olson, LLP • Daniel Tabor – Former mayor of the City of Inglewood
Lisa Trifiletti – Trifiletti Consulting • Kimberly Yu – AECOM • Yvonne Wheeler – LA Federation of Labor
Tunua Thrash-Ntuk - President and CEO, the Center by Lendistry