{"id":576275,"date":"2026-02-09T00:09:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T00:09:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/576275\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T00:09:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T00:09:10","slug":"prebys-foundation-recognizes-5-local-nonprofit-leaders-with-100000-grants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/576275\/","title":{"rendered":"Prebys Foundation recognizes 5 local nonprofit leaders with $100,000 grants"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Brandon<\/a>Brandon Steppe of The David\u2019s Harp Foundation is one of the 2026 Prebys Leadership Awards recipients. (Photo courtesy of teh foundation)<\/p>\n

The Prebys Foundation has honored five San Diegans whose contributions advance the arts, support civil rights, empower youth and support minority groups with 2026 Prebys Leadership Awards<\/a> and $100,000 grants.<\/p>\n

The annual awards announced Feb. 3 recognize local leaders whose commitment to community and collective action is creating a lasting impact across the region. <\/p>\n

\u201cMeaningful change is driven by people who are deeply rooted in their communities. These leaders are all in for San Diego County \u2014 showing up day after day, building trust, and bringing people together to tackle real challenges close to home,\u201d\u00a0said Grant Oliphant, president and CEO of the foundation. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re proud to honor these leaders for what they represent to our region and for the more vibrant future they\u2019re helping create for everyone who calls San Diego home,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Each honoree will receive $100,000 to continue advancing long-term impact in the communities where they serve. The five recipients are:<\/p>\n

Carmen M. Chavez<\/strong>, executive director of Casa Cornelia Law Center<\/a>. This San Diego\u2013based nonprofit public-interest law firm is committed to delivering justice with compassion through quality pro bono legal services for survivors of human and civil rights violations. Chavez began her journey with Casa Cornelia more than 24 years ago as a volunteer attorney and has dedicated her career to advancing human rights and due process for immigrant communities throughout the San Diego region. <\/p>\n

Caroline \u201cCara\u201d Dessert<\/strong>, CEO at The San Diego LGBTQ+ Community Center<\/a>. The center is the largest service provider for LGBTQ+ people in the San Diego binational border region. Dessert is a queer Latina attorney with over 20 years in social justice leadership. Her efforts have more than doubled the organization\u2019s funding, allowing for the expansion of direct services and advocacy for the community across seven locations.<\/p>\n

Renato Paiva<\/strong>, CEO at Access Youth Academy<\/a>. The academy\u2019s\u00a0mission is to transform the lives of underserved youth by academic enrichment, health and wellness, social responsibility and leadership through the sports of squash and pickleball. Paiva has established the academy as a premier\u00a0urban squash and youth development program. Under his leadership, the academy has won 15 national squash titles, its students have achieved a 100% college graduation rate, and they have secured over $15 million in scholarships.<\/p>\n

Brandon Steppe<\/strong>, founder and director of The David\u2019s Harp Foundation<\/a>. The foundation is dedicated to empowering teens and transitional age youth who are justice-involved, experiencing homelessness, or in foster care with music and other creative tools, trusted guidance, and pathways into the local creative economy. Steppe\u2019s passion for music began when he was just 9 years old and carried over through his college days, and finally to his father\u2019s garage where he built his first recording studio. That has now grown to be a youth-powered organization serving more than 500 San Diego youth every year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ethan van Thillo<\/strong>, founder and executive director of Media Arts Center San Diego<\/a>. For over three decades, van Thillo has shown innovation by creating community media programs that are evolving with the times. Through MACSD, he has founded youth and community focused programs like the California Digital Story Station initiative, Frontera Filmmakers and the Digital Gym community technology center. Additionally, he has been a pivotal force in positioning San Diego as a worthy destination for Latino artists by founding the San Diego Latino Film Festival.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Prebys Foundation<\/a> said the awards, now in their third year, reflect the foundation\u2019s belief that investing in people builds a more vibrant San Diego. The five awardees were chosen among a pool of more than 200 applicant submissions. <\/p>\n

READ NEXT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brandon Steppe of The David\u2019s Harp Foundation is one of the 2026 Prebys Leadership Awards recipients. (Photo courtesy…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":576276,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,15422,7799,15418,7585,250139,3549,7264,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-576275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-america","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-grants","tag-leaders","tag-nonprofits","tag-prebys-foundation","tag-prebys-leadership-awards","tag-san-diego","tag-sandiego","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116037770641053047","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=576275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576275\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/576276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=576275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=576275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=576275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}