The James Irvine Foundation Celebrates 2026 Leadership Award Recipients, 20th Anniversary of Investments in Innovative, Effective Leaders in California
SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 18, 2026 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- The James Irvine Foundation today announced the recipients of its 2026 Leadership Awards: eight Californians with promising approaches on issues including youth mentorship and mental health, civic engagement, higher education research, housing, and homeless services. Each recipient's organization (see below) will receive a $350,000 grant to increase their impact.
"This is my favorite time of year at the Irvine Foundation," said Don Howard, President and CEO of The James Irvine Foundation. "Each year the Leadership Award recipients represent what works, what's possible, and what is so special and promising about California — a state facing significant challenges but also full of creative, dedicated leaders who are solving problems."
2026 marks the 20th year of The James Irvine Leadership Awards, which has invested over $35 million in 138 leaders working on a range of pressing issues throughout the state. Funds have helped to expand recipient organizations and seed innovative approaches.
Meet the 2026 Leadership Award Recipients:
Celina Alvarez (Executive Director) | Los Angeles | Housing Works of California: Alvarez worked on L.A.'s Skid Row and learned the unsustainable weight on staff working on the front lines of poverty, mental illness, trauma, and homelessness. Under her leadership, Housing Works shifted to a trauma-informed framework where worker well-being is essential to effective services. Her team serves 1,400 people each year across 11 sites, has seen a 97% retention rate for people in supportive housing, and she helped launch a certificate program in homeless services at Santa Monica College.
Darla Cooper (CEO/Executive Director) | San Rafael | The Research Planning Group for California Community Colleges: Cooper is a former student counselor turned researcher who has applied a student-centered and equity lens to The RP Group's research so that "students' demographics do not predict their postsecondary success." The nonprofit studies the experiences of California's 2.1 million community college students and explores how systems fail students. Their research has led to policy changes that increased enrollment, and The RP Group works with community colleges to improve campus decision-making.
Adrianne Hillman (CEO) and Erin Garner-Ford (Chief Strategy Officer) | Goshen | Salt + Light: Hillman and Garner-Ford are reimagining how rural communities respond to homelessness, showing that dignity-centered, supportive housing truly changes lives. They have helped 250 people move into stable homes (about 20% of Tulare County's homeless population), and their "Neighborhood Village" is California's first rural, permanent supportive housing community, with 53 homes in a walkable, connected neighborhood with on-site services and case management.
Chris Chatmon (CEO) | Oakland | Kingmakers of Oakland: Chatmon's understanding of family, community, and youth development was shaped as an adopted child and from working in the school system, where he saw the systemic barriers Black boys faced — and their potential. He founded Kingmakers of Oakland (KOO) to affirm young people and have them shape programs through their leadership. KOO offers mentorship, leadership training, literary initiatives, and culturally responsive curriculum that is now an approved CSU and UC prerequisite elective. In KOO Labs, youth gain skills in animation, music production, and media.
Lian Cheun (Executive Director) | Long Beach | Khmer Girls in Action: Lian Cheun spent her first years in a refugee camp after her family escaped Cambodia. In Oakland, she saw peers get swept up in gang violence and the justice system, and these experiences drove her to give voice to Southeast Asian girls and youth who feel powerless. She has turned Khmer Girls in Action into a pillar of youth organizing, including co-governing Long Beach's participatory budgeting process. KGA blends cultural reconnection, organizing skills, and youth-driven programs to build a generation of confident, civically engaged changemakers.
Virgil Moorehead Jr. (Executive Director) and Amy Mathieson (Program Manager) | McKinleyville | Two Feathers Native American Family Services: Moorehead and Mathieson are transforming youth mental health care in Humboldt County by co-designing programs with youth with the belief that culture is central to prevention, intervention, and healing. The organization has grown from one therapist to now delivering 7,900 counseling sessions annually to 280 youth across 12 school districts. Their ambassadors program integrates clinical care with traditional cultural practices and paid workforce development, which has led to alumni securing jobs, higher education, and leadership roles in their communities.
Representatives of the Foundation will join California policymakers, Leadership Awards alumni, and elected officials to honor the 2026 Award recipients at a reception in Sacramento on February 23. More information about the work of this year's recipients is available at IrvineAwards.org. Photos and video of the recipients are available here.
About The James Irvine Foundation
The James Irvine Foundation is a private, nonprofit grantmaking foundation dedicated to expanding opportunity for the people of California. The Foundation's focus is a California where all low-income workers have the power to advance economically. Since 1937, the Foundation has provided more than $2.92 billion in grants to organizations throughout California. The Foundation ended 2025 with $3.6 billion in assets and provided $160.2 million in grants. For more, please visit www.irvine.org.
About the Leadership Awards
The James Irvine Foundation Leadership Awards recognize diverse leaders whose innovative solutions to critical state challenges improve people's lives, create opportunity, and contribute to a better California. The Foundation provides each recipient's organization with a grant of $350,000 to support their work benefiting the people of California and helps recipients share their approaches with policymakers and peers. Since 2006, the Foundation has recognized 138 individuals and leadership pairs. Find stories, videos, and more information on the 2026 recipients and Awards alumni at IrvineAwards.org.
Media Contact
Yianni Kazanis, Mozaic Media & Communications on behalf of The James Irvine Foundation, The James Irvine Foundation, 1 (916) 505-1891, [email protected], www.irvineawards.org
SOURCE The James Irvine Foundation
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