Our Staff

Patti Chang, CEO is the former President and CEO of the Women’s Foundation of California which funded over 1100 organizations throughout California as well as internationally.  Patti has served as a Commissioner on the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom and the San Francisco Commission on the Environment.  She was the President of the San Francisco Commission on the Status of Women where she chaired taskforces on Sexual Harassment, Sexual Assault, and Domestic Violence.  She served as the board chair of the Women’s Funding Network and the Women’s Institute for Leadership Development working on human rights.  She currently serves on the boards of the Women’s Media Center and YES! Magazine.Patti was instrumental in passing the Convention to Eliminate all forms of Discrimination Against Women, making San Francisco the first city to adopt an international treaty. 

Through her work at the Women’s foundation and through numerous boards on which she has served, Patti has worked to end discrimination based on race, class, gender, national origin and sexual identity.  Her passion lies in finding solutions to the economic, social and political barriers faced by low-income individuals, particularly women and girls.  Patti received her B.A. and J.D. from Stanford.  She is originally from Hawaii. 

Denise Albano, President, is the former Executive Director of several nonprofit organizations that provide services to marginalized youth and families.  Her heart, passion and advocacy lie with “at risk” and homeless youth to whom she provided model services through Larkin Street Youth Services and Youth Uprising in California.  She de eloped a continuum of services including housing, medical and mental health services, HIV programs, educational and vocational services and economic development programs for youth.  Denise was the Executive Director of the Richmond YMCA in San Francisco and was also with the San Francisco Children and Families Commission.  Prior to that she developed and ran residential services for youth transitioning out of the juvenile justice system and with youth in the mental health system in Hawaii.  She also developed and implemented counseling and substance abuse prevention programs for at risk youth in the New York City public schools system.

Denise has served on several Boards in San Francisco including: the Mayor’s Office Task Force on Ending the Sexual Exploitation of Youth and Edgewood Center for Families, Youth and Children. She received her B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley and her M.A. in Psychology from New York University.  A native of Hawaii, Denise is a triathlete and a USA Triathlon certified coach.

Ayesha Wagle, CFO, is also currently a Senior Vice President at MicroCredit Enterprises, where she is responsible for the organization's global microfinance portfolio.  She oversees all due diligence, risk management and structuring of transactions related to the organization's microfinance partners.

Ayesha began her microfinance work in 2007 at Mann Deshi Mahila Sahakari Bank, a women's cooperative bank in rural Maharashtra, India.  As Maharashtra's largest microfinance institution, Mann Deshi is a pioneer in financial and non-financial services for 140,000 of India's poorest women.  Following her work at Mann Deshi, she worked with Grameen Foundation's Capital Markets and Advisory Committee, assisting with the organization's Growth Guarantees fund.  Prior to her work in microfinance, Ayesha was an Associate with the Fixed Income Division of Morgan Stanley in New York.  Through her work over the last 5 years in microfinance, she has committed herself to bringing access to financial services, something she views as a basic human right, to the world's poor and underserved.

Ayesha earned her B.A. in economics and international relations from the University of Pennsylvania, and an M.A. in international economics from the John Hopkiins School of Advanced International Studies. Ayesha is orginally from Washington, DC.