This episode is to celebrate National Hispanic Heritage Month. We're joined by Cristy Johnston Limon, a Bay Area native and a proud "double-bear," having earned an MBA from the Haas School of Business and a BA in Political Science. She most recently served as the Executive Director of the Center for Social Sector Leadership at Haas and launched her own social impact management consultancy called Proxima Partners, where she is currently serving as a principal. 

Today, Cristy shares her experiences growing up in a San Francisco immigrant community. She talks about going to UC Berkeley in college, eventually getting her MBA at Haas, and using it to scale her impact and advance her career. 

She also shares her involvement in community and economic development efforts, with her values aligned with building the beloved community from an equity and gender-based lens with a bias toward building solutions for the common good.

Episode Quotes:

What inspired her to focus on community and economic development efforts

"So much of what we do does stem from childhood experiences. And, for me, it was seeing this huge contrast between the neighborhood that I would commute to across town on the bus every day to go to school. At a very early age, I became very conscious of inequities. And I think that really helped to form my worldview and to question those inequities and to really try to think about how to close gaps so that other young people growing up in my community who were really smart, really talented, but just didn't have access to AP classes or arts program or after-school enrichment programs. It just seemed like it was a matter of justice and fairness. And I think that runs really deep in our family, this idea of justice."

On starting a nonprofit to support small businesses 

"I found it to be incredibly powerful to be able to help stabilize a small business owner. Because you're not just working with them, you're actually working with the entire family and the community that they employ. And I could see the power of supporting a small business owner. I worked directly with them to help them figure out how to purchase the property that their business was in, for example. And that's one pathway, is to start to stabilize and build assets and wealth, which we know is how so many folks are able to, in one or two generations, go from abject poverty to actually being homeowners and being able to affect generational transfers of wealth, which is how folks are building their family and their impact."

Why she pursued an MBA, and what she appreciates the most about the program

"My first inclination was that, maybe, I could benefit from a little more learning. There's so much that you know, but so much more that you don't know that you don't know. I'm really thankful for those folks in my community who've guided me along the way. When they see potential, they open doors. And I think that's what I appreciated most about the Haas MBA program. As soon as you're in, the whole world is open to you. It's an incredible way to just not meet people that, maybe, you wouldn't otherwise encounter, but really build relationships. It's not just about getting ahead or trying to advance your own work. It really is about getting to know folks and seeing what values you share, what aspirations you share. We have so much more in common than we don't. And so, for me, I think that was really one of the impacts of the program."

Being a student-always

"I really wanted to continue to learn. That's always been innate in my family. From a young age, my father was always instilling in us the need to pursue an education and to continue learning. Everyone says I'm a fast learner, but there's things that you really want to try to learn, like financing and marketing and great leadership. And those are the things that I just had never really had access to before."

On why she continues the fight against generations of marginalization and inequality

"In the 1980s, we saw a wave of Central American refugees who were fleeing ethnic genocide and cleansing from Central America. And here we are, 40 years later, seeing a very similar outpouring of people and these communities are here and getting adjusted to a new country, a new way of life. And that gives me hope. It means that there is an incoming generation of young people growing up in the United States seeing opportunities that they didn't have back home. It's why I work with young people. It's why I'm working in immigrant communities, because there's the ability to shape how these young people and their families are going to engage in a democratic society. It's why I'm working to make sure that they have their basic needs met, so that they can be involved in the political process. And so, that's how I stay inspired, just seeing, again, these new and growing communities across the country of folks who have the same values that we have. They believe in family. Many have a Christian or Catholic background and believe in God. And they pray. And they have this work ethic and this belief in supporting themselves and each other. They believe in education. We believe in higher education as another way to continue to build up and uplift our families and communities."

Show Links:

• LinkedIn Profile
• Proxima Partners

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