Alex Lofton, a proud product of Bellevue Public Schools in his native Washington state, believes in the productive potential of design, compassion, and digital technology. He worked as a member of Barack Obama's field team in 2007 and 2008, managing hundreds of paid staff who organized thousands of volunteers for the then-Senator's successful presidential primary and general election campaigns. Alex then served as a Founding Regional Director of Organizing for America – the political mobilization wing of the Democratic National Committee – until 2010. Alex has since served in leadership positions at numerous social enterprises and technology start-ups in D.C., London, and San Francisco. Alex got his start in real estate at developer Forest City, and he holds a B.A. from Northwestern University and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Alex resides in San Francisco with his husband, and he spends his decompression time outdoors, on the dance floor, or playing the “funcle” (fun-uncle) role.

Alie Kelley is a former educator who is driven to find innovative solutions that remove barriers and open doors for greater social mobility and equity. Alie has a background in strategic philanthropy and education with a B.A. from Stanford University and an M.Ed. from Loyola Marymount University. After building an academic program for strategic philanthropy at Stanford GSB, she joined Teach for America as a Special Education teacher in Richmond, CA. As an educator Alie worked for both district public and charter schools. She transitioned out of the classroom into a program development and instructional coach role at Summit Public Schools as a member of their research and development team. Alie loves the Bay Area and has called it home for 12 years. She supports the local community and builds capacity of nonprofits as a member of the Full Circle Fund.

Andrew Ho is a software engineer who loves working on products that empower and create opportunities for others. He is a proud Bay Area native who is passionate about finding ways to give back to his community. He’s worked at companies of all sizes — before joining Landed, he worked at a small fin-tech startup and a large e-commerce company. Andrew holds a B.S. from UC Berkeley.

Angela Kearns (Angie), has been coined the Prosperity Queen since entering her real estate career in 1998. Her mission in life is to connect her clients to prosperity while purchasing or selling their homes.

Born in Philadelphia, PA, Angie relocated to Metro-Atlanta, where she became a radio personality covering various topics on love, self-love, and healing from emotional chaos. Known for interviews with celebrities and professionals who have mastered their craft, her radio talk show offered advice and impactful epiphanies. Surprisingly, not being a fan of sports at all, she also had a popular sports talk show.

Think Angie would stop at real estate and radio? Think again. Her first success as an entrepreneur was in 1994 with a daycare center in Smyrna, GA called Teach Me Write Preschool. Today, you can find Angie impacting the lives of many through her speaking engagements for adults and high school teens. Angela is also the mother of two daughters who have inherited her tenacious trailblazing attributes.

Angie believes this is a great life, and you should make every day a great day; the choice is yours!

As the daughter and sister of educators, Anne was drawn to Landed's overall mission and is thrilled to be the team's first recruiter.

Known amongst her friends as a match-maker, Anne decided to pursue a recruiting career, and in 2005 was hired as a junior recruiter by a small retained search firm. While there, Anne found her passion and has never looked back. Anne eventually decided to go in-house in 2012 and has built teams for TIAA, Virgin America, Virgin Orbit, and Twitter.

Anne is a mom to two boys, wife of an architect, and daughter of legendary parents. Always curious with a steep growth mindset, Anne loves tech, travel, fitness, sports, and building human connections and trusted long-term relationships.

Annie Vasishta is an educator, community organizer, and most of all, a student of life. Since moving to the United States from Punjab, India at a young age, Annie connects her roots from her motherland to the community of South Hayward, where she grew up. Growing up as a low-income, first-generation woman of color, Annie finds it important to give back to the community that raised her. Vasishta believes the youth are our future and the best way to love her community is to serve the youth, which led her to be an AmeriCorps Member with City Year in Boston, work at Teach For America Bay Area, and work as an Urban Leaders Fellow with the City of Oakland.

Growing up en la frontera de California, Azul realized that to create healthy communities, we must create social mechanisms that promote equitable power building and intergenerational wealth for all. Educators play a huge part in this! Azul is excited to be supporting the homeownership goals of educators throughout the West Coast. Azul is committed to building strong client relationships rooted in program education, honesty, personal agency, and equity.

Before joining Landed, Azul worked in the affordable housing non-profit sector. To date, Azul has supported 21 families in purchasing their first home using public downpayment assistance programs throughout the greater Bay Area. Azul also spearheaded the development of the Artist’s Access Affordable Housing program at Mission Economic Development Agency, facilitating over 25+ workshops and providing tailored one-on-one coaching sessions to over 150 artists in San Francisco. Azul has an extensive background in grassroots organizing and has volunteered for campaigns such as Bernie Sanders 2016, Fight for 15, Yes on Prop 10, Cat Brooks Oakland and LGBTQIA+ rights.

Azul holds a B.S. in Community and Regional Development with an emphasis in Global Communities from UC Davis.

Emily Baker was born and raised in Denver, Colorado. She has her BA in Classics and MA in Education from the University of Colorado. After a brief foray in the publishing world, Emily found herself in the classroom teaching 4th grade and then Middle School English. While the everyday joys of teaching were incredibly rewarding, Emily was forced to pursue other careers in light of the financial realities of being an educator. Eventually, she made the difficult decision to leave teaching officially and pursue Real Estate. Emily did the bulk of her Real Estate work with teachers, including working as a Landed Partner agent since their expansion to Denver. It was through this partnership that Emily realized she wanted to work with Landed in a full-time capacity. Today, Emily is so excited to be starting her career with Landed and truly achieve her goal of making a difference in the lives of educators!

Emily Eshman is a former educator who is dedicated to ensuring all children, regardless of their background, have access to a high-quality education – which starts with great teachers. She began her career as an elementary school teacher with KIPP public schools in Washington, D.C. teaching kindergarten, first grade, and special education. Making the move back to the best coast, Emily was a founding first grade teacher at the first KIPP elementary school in the Bay Area. Emily holds a bachelor’s degree from Duke University.

Grace Sakurada is a business operations professional who is passionate about building systems and processes that scale. Born and raised in Hawaiʻi, she grew up humbled by the hard work of her teachers and believes in the importance of giving back to the community. Prior to joining Landed, she worked at MuleSoft, a B2B Saas company that went public in 2017 and was acquired by Salesforce in 2018. Outside of work, Grace enjoys going to farmer markets, borrowing excessive amounts of books from her local library, and swimming. She holds a B.S. in Marketing from Santa Clara University.

Ian Magruder is a former startup executive and campaign director who is dedicated to bringing people together to improve communities. Prior to Landed, he led the Business Development team at Organizer, a mobile field management app used by nonprofits, schools, unions, and political campaigns for community organizing. Ian is active in the Bay Area community and spent two years at Co-Director of the San Francisco New Leaders Council, training the next generation of young professionals seeking to create social change. He is also engaged in policy as a Truman National Security Partner and a former Public Policy and International Fellow at Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School. Ian graduated magna cum laude in Political Economy from UC Berkeley as a Regents’ and Chancellor's Scholar.

Jaimelynne Cruz is a former elementary school educator and real estate investor. She graduated from the University of California, Irvine with degrees in economics and sociology. She has a graduate degree in education and an MBA from the University of Hawaiʻi, Manoa. Previously, Jaime spent some time in Chicago as a Teach for America Corps Member. As a teacher, she taught at Chicago Public Schools, Kamaile Academy, and Kamehameha Schools. She was also an instructor for Johns Hopkins University School of Education for several years. In her free time, she loves to travel, hike, and swim in the ocean.

Jay Plant is a former organizer who is dedicated to bringing people together to advocate for fairness and economic opportunity in their communities. Prior to working at Landed, Jay worked on President Barack Obama’s 2008 and 2012 campaigns and served in the Obama Administration as Senior Analyst in the White House Office of Correspondence. In addition to political advocacy work, Jay has also worked at organizations that advocated for health care, gun safety, and renewable energy. Originally from Northeast Ohio, Jay has proudly visited all 48 of the contiguous states in the U.S. and is excited to visit Hawaii and Alaska in the next few years. He is a new California resident and has enjoyed most enjoyed hanging out in Golden Gate Park and at Ocean Beach with his corgi, Lady Bird.

Jess Zhao loves her day job: helping educators buy homes. She believes that our communities will be happier and healthier when all humans have access to transformative opportunities like education and homeownership. Prior to joining Landed, Jess started her career in management consulting at Monitor Group, where she focused on helping nonprofits and foundations explore new models to increase access to financial and educational opportunities. Her experience spans stints at edtech media company EdSurge and College Track, a national program that empowers students from underserved communities to graduate from college. She is a proud Northwestern alum, where she graduated with a degree in Economics and Psychology, and a love for cities.

Jesse Vaughan believes in the power of building wealth to help people free themselves from fear. Money may not buy happiness, but confidence that one can feed and house their family is vital to feeling secure. Prior to returning to his home state of California, Jesse was based in Yangon, Myanmar where he helped to arrange $300M of social impact investments. Jesse holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics from New York University, and in 2018, he was listed in Forbes 30 Under 30.

Joe Akanesuvan is a recent graduate with a passion for programming and data science. Before Landed, he was a backend engineer intern at an LA-based startup that helps connect people from local communities. Joe holds a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Statistics from the University of California Davis and is originally from Bangkok, Thailand.

Jonathan Asmis is a former strategy consultant and engineer who expects more from finance. His experience includes stints at Accenture – where he worked on projects across health, nonprofit, and retail industries – as well as Tesla Motors and Sanofi Pasteur. Jonathan holds master’s and bachelor’s degrees in Engineering from the University of Toronto as well as an MBA from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business.

Kathryn Rees is a lifelong learner and educator who is passionate about building healthy, inclusive communities. Before joining Landed, she taught middle school math in Baltimore through Teach for America. She has also worked in policy and communications—first, as an intern with the Obama White House Domestic Policy Council and, later, as a consultant at RALLY, a social impact strategy, and communications firm. Kathryn holds a B.A. in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University.

Kay brings a robust background in the field of education, having held roles in K-12, HigherEd, advocacy, and policy. As a proud first-generation college graduate, she naturally gravitated towards mission-centered roles focusing on educational equity. Before starting a new chapter in Colorado, Kay enjoyed a stint in ed-tech where she fell in love with the speed of innovative work. (If you can dream it, you can build it!) Just before joining the Landed team, Kay completed a one-year term in philanthropy as a fellow at The Denver Foundation, via Education Pioneers. Though Denver is now home, Kay is originally from the East Bay, CA and holds two B.A.s from UC Berkeley in Sociology and Mass Communications. As a new Denverite, she recently completed a certificate in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) from the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado, Boulder. When she's not online, you can find her trying to visit every coffee shop in town, likely after a yoga class.

Lauren Guite is a former teacher and proud daughter of an educator. She taught for four years at Viejo Elementary, a Spanish-English dual immersion school in Orange County, near where she grew up. After exiting the classroom, Lauren attended graduate school and simultaneously interned at New Profit and EdVestors, both Boston-based education-focused nonprofits. Most recently, she worked in sales and operations at Freckle Education. Lauren’s proudest professional accomplishment is helping to create a 10,000 square foot organic garden from the ground up at Viejo. She holds a B.A. in Psychology and Spanish from UCLA, an M.A.T. from UC Irvine, and an Ed.M. from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Maria Maxfield has been a real estate agent in the Bay Area for over 15 years and has assisted many first-time homebuyers in navigating the homebuying process. Her experience in real estate includes working as a real estate appraiser and loan officer. Prior to becoming a realtor, she worked as a graphics/production manager for an investment company that was a leading manager of emerging businesses (women/minority-owned and small firms) where she developed a wealth of knowledge in customer service and marketing. Maria graduated from San Francisco State University with a degree in business. She grew up in the Philippines and has called the Bay Area home for over 36 years.

Martin Bouroncle leads finance and accounting at Landed. Prior to joining our team, Martin worked in finance at RealtyShares, Pacific Gas & Electric Company, and Bloomberg LP. At RealtyShares, he focused on managing the company’s investment capacity and providing insight into the company’s operations. Outside of work, he enjoys soccer, tennis, skiing, biking, camping, and making coffee. Martin holds a B.A. from Bowdoin College and is originally from Arequipa, Peru.

Norma Hilary Gibson is a former educator who believes that teaching and learning don’t stop inside the classroom. She began her career as a high school Special Educator with Denver Public Schools through Teach for America and later transitioned to teaching middle school English with Denver School of Science and Technology. Since leaving the classroom, she has continued to work with social impact organizations including the Connecticut Mental Health Center Foundation, Yale University’s Office of Strategic Analysis, and Simplifi (now Summer). Norma holds a B.A. from Wheaton College (IL), an M.Ed. from University of Colorado, and an MBA from Yale School of Management.

Ramon Quitales is a software engineer dedicated to building solutions that touch people’s lives. He began his career in materials and physical chemistry research at the University of Auckland in New Zealand. It was here that he grew his passion for programming by automating certain chemical discovery processes through the development of algorithms and simulations. Prior to joining Landed, Ramon was a data and research engineer for a New Zealand based startup that created gas sensors to minimize fruit wastage in the apple, cherry, and kiwifruit industries. He was also an Insight Data Engineering Fellow as well as a software engineer at SRI International, where he worked on computational solutions to assist in brain development research.

Ryan Delaney is a lawyer with a passion for innovation and democratizing access to financial products.

Prior to joining Landed, Ryan was general counsel at a fintech startup, and before that he was an associate at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP in Palo Alto, CA, where he focused on startups and capital markets. Before going to law school, he was an early member of another startup, Main Street Hub. Ryan holds a JD and LLM from Cornell Law School and a BA from Stanford.

Shannon McQueen is an educator and advocate. She has a Masters degree in education and has been an administrator and teacher in public, refugee magnate, private, and international schools. Shannon was most recently the Regional Coordinator at Denver Public Schools. Originally from Colorado, Shannon attended Emerson College in Boston where she majored in Political Communications. She interned at the British Parliament and worked on several campaigns including the Obama campaign, where she met her husband at a Caucus training.  

Shannon feels honored to have worked with individuals from across the globe. She is inspired by teachers who dare to stand up for themselves and make changes in their own lives, even when change is challenging. Shannon wants to improve the lives of teachers in ways that are culturally responsible, fair, and empowering.

Siobhán Cronin is a software engineer with a passion for data engineering, mathematics, and evolutionary computing. She began her career studying how humans learn at Harvard University & Harvard Medical School, and now explores the frontiers for how computers and humans can learn together. Before joining Landed she worked as a software engineer for two San Francisco-based startups, Avisell and Uncountable, and was a 2018 Insight Data Engineering Fellow. She is also a guest researcher at Slow Research Lab and a youth engineering mentor at dev/Mission.

Tiffany Testa is a former senior litigation defense paralegal and the happy spouse of an educator. She spent a decade working in fast-paced large national law firms, where she honed her keen eye for detail and organization on key federal and state actions such as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, Freedom Industries MCHM chemical spill disaster, and various Federal Black Lung litigation matters. Seeking greater personal fulfillment from her career, she left the litigation world in 2017 to pursue an opportunity with Landed that allows her to combine her passion for supporting those employed in education with the sense of excitement and personal pride that only a startup can bring. A fiercely proud native West Virginian, she holds a degree in Multidisciplinary Studies with concentrations in History, Communication Studies, and Professional Writing & Editing from West Virginia University.

Winston Lofton is the son of a teacher and grew up in Bellevue Public Schools (in Washington state). Winston came to Landed after organizing in New York and New Jersey, where he worked with hundreds of teachers, school staff, and others on issues related to affordable housing and education. He seeks to work alongside other people to make meaningful improvements in their lives and communities. Winston has a background in leadership development with a B.A in Sociology from Stanford University.