Our Team
Dr. David C. Turner III – Senior Advisor
Dr. David C. Turner III joins the ABMoC team as a Senior Advisor, working with the team to further develop internal infrastructure and on campaigns to uplift community schools, transform school discipline, and decriminalize youth and communities of color. Prior to joining the ABMoC team in an official capacity, Dr. Turner was a partner with the Alliance as the manager of the Brothers, Sons, Selves Coalition in Los Angeles, a part of the inaugural ABMoC Data Fellowship with the Tableau foundation, and as a staff member with the Social Justice Learning Institute in Inglewood, CA, his hometown.
Dr. Turner brings years of experience to the team, having successfully co-led and supported campaigns to reinvest resources from carceral institutions to life-sustaining ones, driven large-scale participatory action research projects, and worked to change youth and education policy at both the local and state levels. Notable campaigns include the movement to reallocate school police dollars to a Black student achievement plan in LAUSD, eliminating willful defiance for grades K-8 at the state level, and working to collect and analyze over 24,000 surveys as a member of the Research team with Black Lives Matter-Los Angeles and the People’s Budget LA Coalition.
Dr. Turner holds a Ph.D. in Education from UC Berkeley, a Master’s in Education from the University of Pennsylvania, and a BA in Africana Studies from CSU Dominguez Hills. He also holds an appointment with the Department of Social Welfare as an assistant professor of Black Life and Racial Justice at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs. When he’s not organizing, teaching, or writing, you can catch him and his wife at the latest Marvel movie premiere, trying to keep his blood pressure down while watching Lakers games, or somewhere near a basketball court.
Eric Morrison-Smith – Executive Director
Eric Morrison-Smith is the Executive Director for the Alliance for Boys and Men of Color (ABMoC). He formerly was the Policy Director for the Alliance and supported the network’s operations and communications. As the Executive Director, Eric works to center directly-impacted people and grassroots organizations to translate their vision and aspirations into structural change and works with network partners to build power to abolish systems of oppression and transform the material conditions of Black people, Indigenous people, and people of color.
Eric has worked at PolicyLink, San Diego Workforce Partnership, and RISE San Diego, where he focused on strategy, communications, and youth organizing for policy and system change efforts. He currently sits on the boards of Mid City-CAN and Center for Policy Initiatives and the Policy and Advocacy Committee for Catalyst San Diego. In his free time, he loves to read, work out, cook/eat good food, and will watch anything and everything comics-related.
Gustavo López – Research Director
Gustavo leads the research, evaluation, and data work for the Alliance for Boys and Men of Color (ABMoC). Prior to joining ABMoC, Gustavo led the research agenda for the Southern Border Communities Coalition of Alliance San Diego, focusing on migration and border policies. He guided the development and launch of the Border Lens data portal, which aggregates economic and demographic data on the border region. Gustavo also worked as a research analyst at the Pew Research Center where he focused on demographic and survey research. He holds bachelor’s degrees in economics and political science from Purdue University, and a master’s of public policy degree from UC San Diego’s School of Global Policy and Strategy. He lives in San Diego and enjoys running, adding to his growing collection of plants, and baking.
Jordan Thierry – Consultant
Jordan Thierry is the Founder and Creative Director of Dream Chase Media LLC, a multimedia production company that uses culture, creativity and community as inspirations for compelling storytelling. His first feature film, THE BLACK FATHERHOOD PROJECT received wide community acclaim for its breakdown on the history of the Black family. Jordan is a graduate of University of Oregon and Howard University, and has worked as an educator, philanthropic consultant, lobbyist, and independent filmmaker. He is a proud board member of the Los Angeles Black Worker Center and author of A KIDS BOOK ABOUT SYSTEMIC RACISM.
Laura Baeza – Policy & Organizing Manager
Laura is the Policy and Organizing Manager for ABMoC. Laura has been a part of the ABMoC network for many years through her previous role at Mid-City CAN, where she organized youth. Most recently, Laura worked with the ACLU of San Diego and Imperial County and helped to pass the PrOTECT ordinance, Measure B, and focused on engaging Central San Diego Leadership engagement and statewide policing and education equity campaigns.
Laura also has deep experience working on grassroots and labor campaigns, including organizing fast-food workers in the Fight for $15 and handling worker grievances and contract negotiations with AFSCME and Multnomah County workers.
Laura is a Chula Vista native who has spent most of her childhood living in Tijuana, Mexico as a cross-border student. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Political Science from UCLA, and in her free time, Laura loves to travel to Mexico, read, watch Shark Tank, and walk around SD with her family and pup Mia.
Sally Ching – Policy Director
Sally is the Policy Director for the Alliance for Boys and Men of Color (ABMoC). Driven by a commitment to advancing equity, justice, and people-powered policy, she served in a range of roles that allowed her to uplift and center historically marginalized communities. Prior to joining ABMoC, Sally led state-level advocacy efforts on education policy and immigrants’ rights policy as a Legislative Advocate for ACLU California Action. She also served as the California Policy Manager at the Southeast Asia Resource Action Center, where she led the organization’s legislative advocacy efforts in California.
She holds a Master of Public Policy degree from the USC Price School of Public Policy and a B.A. in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley. In her free time, Sally enjoys playing pickleball, hiking, trying new recipes, and overanalyzing movies.
Sybil Grant – Deputy Director
Sybil is the Deputy Director of the Alliance for Boys and Men of Color team, working with youth and community leaders to remove barriers to opportunity and enact policies that advance racial, gender, and economic justice. Sybil also helps to lead our work to end cycles of violence by centering healing, community-based prevention and divesting from punishment systems. With more than 15 years of experience working on electoral, labor, and issue campaigns, Sybil is passionate about transforming our schools, health, justice, and economic systems through community-led solutions. She lives in Los Angeles and welcomes all conversations about dogs, plants, and why LA is not a desert.
