Team
Frank Liu
Founder
Reconciling his own multi-layered identities ignited Frank's passion for justice-focused brand identity work. An immigrant from Taiwan, his love for visual communications came out of necessity when he made drawings to communicate with other kids in middle school because he did not speak English.
Similar to Frank’s own experience, every organization has a unique set of complex identities. Unifying them into a singular, unique, and authentic identity is what fuels Frank.
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Frank is an award winning creative strategic thinker with over 35 years of experience. He has done work for for-profits and nonprofits including Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Chase, American Express, Microsoft, KinderCare, Robin Hood Foundation, Fountain House, SAGE, Breaking Ground, CUNY (City University of New York), NYC Affordable Housing, New American Leaders, FIT (Fashion Institute of Technology, Easterseals, Women’s Democracy Lab, ParentChild+, NPR, Womankind, to name just a few.
As the founder of the Dinner Guys Giving Circle, he and his friends fund under-resourced AAPI LGBTQ+ organizations. He was named by AAPIP (Asian American Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy) as one of the top 25 Leaders in Action.
He studied at Cornell University and School of Visual Arts. He is a former board member of the Stonewall Community Foundation. He currently serves on the Board of SeaChange Capital Partners. He has exhibited his art globally and is an avid lover of contemporary art.
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Dr. Yasmene Mumby
Strategy. Storytelling.
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Purpose-driven teams invite Dr. Yasmene Mumby and her firm, The Ringgold, to consult and collaborate on their communications and equity initiatives. She reserves select space to coach (mostly) women in leadership roles who want to thrive yet are burning out, stretched thin, and producing from a place of force instead of creating from a place of ease.
Dr. Mumby writes about leadership, culture, and wellbeing. She co-authored “Empowering School Leaders to Thrive” with the Principal Impact Collaborative. The research focused on holistic leadership development and the conditions school leaders need to manage their wellbeing. Her piercing essay Amplify Black Voices: Yoga, you can do better is assigned reading in several yoga teacher trainings. She created the NPR hosted audiodocumentary, Higher Purpose, about an organization that supports people with legal system records to gain livable wage employment in Baltimore. Her sound art piece Ahimsa is an audiomemoir on yoga, wellness, and Black Lives. Creative Capital featured her upcoming audio project Daughters of the Yam and the Mothers they Become on their On Our Radar list.
She began her career teaching over 14 years ago in her hometown, Baltimore. Frustrated by the inequities impacting the achievement and wellbeing of students and teachers every day, she channeled her deep grief in schools as a trained Organizer through the Industrial Areas Foundation. Yasmene led numerous advocacy and organizing victories with over 3,000 parent, teacher, and student leaders, from securing filtered lead-free water for students to organizing teachers in an unprecedented contract negotiation to stopping $150 million in operational budget cuts to securing up to $1 billion to rebuild schools.
Yasmene's completed over 1500 hours of training in vinyasa, meditation, yin, and prenatal yoga and teaches with HealHaus and Ompractice.
A graduate of the McDonogh School, Yasmene earned her Bachelor’s in International Studies and Master’s in Teaching from the Johns Hopkins University, a JD from University of Maryland School of Law and a Doctorate in Education Leadership from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Thomas Palatucci
Strategy, Operations, and Finance
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Thomas started his career in banking and rose to the position of Vice President, Office of the Chief Financial Officer, at Citicorp/Citibank, N.A. After 10+ years in the for-profit sector, Thomas decided to apply his business skills in the non-profit world, initially at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. Over time, his role expanded to include clinical operations and Thomas eventually served as administrator for several ambulatory care sites in the New York metropolitan area. In this capacity, his responsibilities included budgets, new programs and facilities, human resources, legal affairs, and regulatory compliance.
Thomas has served as the Chief of Administration for Columbia Health at Columbia University in the City of New York, the Chief Operating Officer at The Bronx Defenders, and the Vice President of Operations at Planned Parenthood Mid-Hudson Valley, based in Poughkeepsie, New York.​
In addition to a Batchelor of Arts from Rutgers University, Thomas holds
a Master in Business Administration from Columbia Business School, Columbia University, and a Certificate of Health Care Management from New York University’s School of Continuing Education. Thomas is a member of the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM).
Jennifer Vale
Account and project management
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With extensive experience in advertising and marketing, Jennifer has led account management teams at agencies including Grey, Earl Palmer Brown, Chinnici, and o2kl. Clients included Chase and Keyspan Energy. Nonprofit experiences include the Advertising Council, NYC Take Steps for Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation of America, and the Food Justice Team at Temple Shaaray Tefila.
Jennifer has a BA in International Studies from Emory University. She currently serves on several committees at her synagogue and is a former Executive Council Member for NYC Take Steps for Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation of America (CCFA). Jennifer is in the process of completing her Project Management Professional (PMP) Certification.
Larenz Brown
Writing. Strategy.
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Larenz is a a lifelong writer, a proponent of human-centered design, and a believer in the power of a sociological approach to identify and solve organizational problems. He has experience building brands from the ground up, b2b and b2c marketing, diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) leadership, internal comms strategy, and organizational design. He has worked at innovative tech companies including Openbox, Rhino, and MANTL.
He also headed up DEIB committees at Rhino and MANTL and built out DEIB programming and initiatives. Larenz truly understands the power of combining storytelling with products that truly democratize access to essential resources.
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Larenz graduated from New York University with a degree in sociology and creative writing. He’s an experimental poet, a dog person, a secret cat person (as of recent), an avid reader, and a soccer fan. When he’s not working, he’s spending time with family and friends and writing silly
little poems about life’s big things.
Alex Morse
side•sea - Our Digital Agency Partner
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Alex is the CEO and Co-Founder of our digital agency partner, side•sea. We collaborate on website design and development, fundraising strategy, and software and app development.
Alex has 13+ years of experience in business development, leadership, and event production & marketing. In late 2012, Alex helped launch a nonprofit, and shortly thereafter, developed and co-founded a fundraising application called Hopsie that today helps over 1200 organizations fund-raise online worldwide. In 2015, he launched side•sea, a full service digital agency serving nonprofits. Since 2012, Alex has dedicated himself to innovation in the nonprofit sector, with a heavy emphasis on leveling the playing field between non & for-profit organizations.
Craft & Commerce - Our Integrated Marketing and Media Partner
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Craft & Commerce is a modern digital marketing and paid media agency serving nonprofits and purpose-driven organizations, with a track record of delivering smarter, more agile campaigns that yield meaningful, measurable outcomes.
At C&C's core, they turn the knobs and pull the levers that power campaign success. But what’s mission critical in today’s dynamic, evolving media landscape isn’t just knowing how to push the buttons, it’s knowing when and why to push them, and which ones to push next. That is what truly sets them apart, and is the beating heart of the work that they do. Their clients have referred to them as a “force multiplier”— not simply an agency resource, but a strategic thought partner and dot connector in navigating the modern marketing era.
Brand Justice and C&C have partnered on many successful projects and we always deliver on our clients' "desired outcomes".
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