Event Program

Michael Tubbs, Founder
Stacey Rutland, Founder
Daniel Enemark, PhD., Chief Economist
Khea Pollard, Director of Economic Mobility and Opportunity
Dana Toppel, LCSW, MBA, CEO Designate/Chief Operating Officer

Michael Tubbs, Founder

Michael Tubbs is the Founder of EPIC; the Founder of Mayors for a Guaranteed Income; and the Special Advisor to California Governor Gavin Newsom for Economic Mobility and Opportunity. In 2016, he was elected Mayor of Stockton at 26-years-old. He was the city’s first African-American Mayor, and the youngest Mayor of any major city in American history. As Mayor, Tubbs was lauded for his leadership and innovation. He raised over $20 million dollars to create the Stockton Scholars, a universal scholarship and mentorship program for Stockton students. Additionally, he piloted the first mayor-led guaranteed income pilot in the country.

Under his leadership, Stockton was named an “All-America City” in 2017 and 2018 by the National Civic League. The city saw a 40% drop in homicides in 2018 and 2019, led the state of California in the decline of officer involved shootings in 2019, and was named the second most fiscally healthy city in California. Additionally, it was recognized as one of the most fiscally healthy cities in the nation and was featured in an HBO documentary film, Stockton on My Mind.

Tubbs has been named a fellow at the Harvard Institute of Politics and The MIT Media Lab, a member of Fortune’s Top 40 under 40, a Forbes 30 under 30 All Star Alumni, the Most Valuable Mayor by The Nation, the 2019 New Frontier Award Winner from the JFK Library, and the 2021 Civic Leadership Award winner from The King Center. Prior to his tenure as Mayor, Tubbs served as a council member for the City of Stockton District 6, a high school educator, and a fellow for the Stanford Design School and the Emerson Collective.

On November 16, 2021, Tubbs released The Deeper The Roots: A Memoir of Hope and Home published by the Flatiron Books imprint, An Oprah Book. The book relates Tubbs’ story of growing up in poverty but lays his vision for leadership and policy that is more empathetic and responsive to people who are struggling.

Stacey Rutland, Founder

Stacey (she/her) first landed in the classroom, then in user-experience product agencies, and eventually to the non-profit space. Her passion for economics and human-centered program design brought her to the basic income community where, in early 2019, she began to work with organizations across the basic income ecosystem. Stacey’s focus on collaborative coalition-building and the fostering of a thriving grassroots movement for basic income led her to create Income Movement.

Daniel Enemark, PhD., Chief Economist

Dr. Daniel Enemark is Chief Economist at the San Diego Regional Policy& Innovation Center (PIC). He leads an interdisciplinary team of research scientists assessing regional challenges and identifying policy and investment priorities. Daniel is a leading voice advocating for a more equitable labor market in San Diego, sharing economic analysis through public presentations and media engagements.

Daniel brings15 years of experience as an academic, consultant and executive, most recently as Chief Economist at the San Diego Workforce Partnership. At the Partnership he helped design and evaluate programs, advocated for policy reforms to reduce racial inequity and produced actionable research for the region’s anchor institutions. Daniel led research behind San Diego County’s plan to expand the behavioral health system and collaborated with peers at MIT and Duke University to develop innovative financial tools for addressing the nation’s debt crisis.

Daniel has published peer-reviewed scholarship on policy analysis, behavioral economic and econometrics, including in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, and taught these subjects to Ph.D. students at the University of California, San Diego and the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business. For five years he managed an interdisciplinary lab, overseeing software programmers, translators, graduate students and undergraduate assistants, and conducted over 100 human-subject experiments in Southern California and Sub-Saharan Africa.

In his community, Daniel has served as a math tutor for refugee students at Crawford High, as an alternative caregiver for foster youth, and has provided pro bono consulting for nonprofits. He has a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley and a master’s degree and Ph.D. from the University of California, San Diego.

Khea Pollard, Director of Economic Mobility and Opportunity

Khea Pollard has several years of experience fostering collaboration, facilitating dialogue, and implementing policy to make improvements in health, human service, and criminal justice systems. Her skills include facilitating interagency communication, generating solution-focused dialogue, project management, and strategic planning.

Prior to joining San Diego for Every Child, Pollard was a Justice Program Manager for the National Association of Counties, serving County governments across the United States. Her work focused on the intersection of behavioral health, criminal justice reform, and racial equity, supporting counties to make evidence-based policy changes, providing trainings, implement quality assurance practices, and facilitate multijurisdictional information sharing to reduce the number of individuals with mental illness in county jails.

Locally, Pollard served as the Health and Human Services Policy Advisor and Community Representative to Supervisor Greg Cox at the County San Diego, advising on issues pertaining to children and youth, education, child welfare, juvenile justice, safety net and eligibility programs, behavioral health, and probation.

She enjoys supporting community-based organizations, currently serving as the Youth Prioritization Mentor for San Diego Youth Will. She has worked on numerous nonprofit consulting projects in the areas of finance, board development, strategic planning, policy, civic engagement, human resources and more. Pollard is also a proud Alumna of the RISE Urban Leadership Fellowship Program and a small business owner.

A native San Diegan, Pollard graduated from the University of San Diego (USD) with a B.A. in English, a B.A. in Ethnic Studies, and a Master’s degree in Nonprofit Leadership and Management.

Dana Toppel, LCSW, MBA, CEO Designate/Chief Operating Officer

As Chief Operating Officer, Dana Toppel provides overall leadership for the impact-driven, multi-service organization with the bold vision of building a stronger, healthier, more resilient San Diego. Dana joined JFS in 2009 as director of older adult services, served as the divisional director of clinical services in addition to the chief program officer prior to assuming the role of chief operating officer in 2015.

With almost two decades of experience working with a variety of populations in both direct service and management capacities, Dana has a proven track record of program development, revenue generation, change management and leading strategic, innovative, high-impact organizations. Prior to joining the JFS team, Dana worked as a director, consultant, and therapist for the San Diego LGBT Community Center, University of California at San Diego, and San Diego Youth & Community Services.

Dana is dedicated to advancing equity and participates in local, regional, and national conversations to advance efforts related to inclusive leadership, professional training, and ensuring access to opportunity for all. Currently she also serves as Chair of San Diego for Every Child, as a Commissioner on the California Commission of Aging and is the Founder of Make Work Work For Moms.

In 2016, Dana was recognized as one of San Diego’s “100 Most Influential Leaders”, as an “SD Metro Mover and Shaker”, and by Assemblywoman Shirley Weber as a “79th Assembly District Woman of the Year”. In March of 2019, she was recognized by Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins as a Women’s History Month Honoree.

A native of Madison, Wisconsin, Toppel holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin and a master’s degree in social work and a master’s degree in business administration from San Diego State University. She is a licensed clinical social worker in the state of California.