2026 Summit Program & Guide

Edward Garcia is Co-Organizing Director and Development Director at Our Bronx and President of the Bronx Community Land Trust. For more than a decade he has organized tenants and helped develop community-controlled housing strategies that move residents from organizing toward ownership and long-term stewardship.

Assemblymember Marcela Mitaynes represents New York’s 51st Assembly District. A longtime tenant organizer, she is the Assembly sponsor of the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA), which would create new pathways for tenants to cooperatively purchase their buildings and preserve permanently affordable housing.

Melissa Marquez has been at the forefront of cooperative and community development efforts in Rochester and in state and national leadership roles for more than 30 years. She recently retired after 20 years as CEO of Genesee Co-op Federal Credit Union.

Tori Kuper is Director of the School for Democratic Management at the Democracy at Work Institute, where she develops training, educational programs, and practical tools for worker cooperative managers and technical assistance providers. She has more than 15 years of experience supporting worker cooperatives and democratic workplaces.

Todd Arena is Visiting Assistant Professor of Law and Director of the Community Economic Development Clinic at Albany Law School. He joined the clinic as a staff attorney in 2019 and provides pro bono representation to people and groups in low-income Capital Region communities forming cooperatives, small businesses, and nonprofit organizations and navigating financing and community-development work.

So Smart (they/them) is an activist and community organizer working at the intersections of Blackness, fatness, gender, sexuality, and ability. They bring more than 15 years of nonprofit experience in outreach, power building, community education, and engagement.

amani Olugbala/Amani O+ (they/them/Stardust) is a Brooklyn-born facilitator, cultural worker, raptivist, and co-founder of Rested Root. Their facilitation draws from Black Queer feminist traditions, abolition, disability justice, healing justice, and conflict transformation.

Emmanuel Pardilla (he/ello) is a Bronx-born cooperator, Membership Director for the New York City Network of Worker Cooperatives, and a volunteer tenant organizer in Mott Haven with the South Bronx Tenants Movement. He is passionate about building working-class protagonism and cooperative power in Black and Brown communities.

Eric Greenberg was the sole owner and manager of Green Mountain Graphics from 1992 to 2022, when he sold the company to its employees and helped form a worker-owned cooperative. He holds a BA from Antioch College and an MBA from Baruch College.

Jim Welch is mostly retired from a career in information technology. At More Trees Arborist Collective he serves as financial manager and occasional field worker. He is also one of the founders of Transition Troy.

Shelley Miller has more than 25 years of experience across business, law, nonprofit administration, and education. She leads ICA Group’s New Ownership Opportunity team and works with business owners on employee and cooperative ownership transitions.

Patrick Harris Jr. co-founded and operates Collectiveffort, an MWBE-certified creative agency in Troy, NY. He works at the intersection of media, marketing, business management, and cooperative ownership and writes the “Made By Many” column in Metroland Now.