Meet Our Team > Helen Chin
Helen Chin (she/they), Emergent Strategies and Systems Change Advisor, is a connector, a builder, and an emergent strategist embracing the possibility and hope of progressive transformative change. For Cities & People, Helen plays a critical role in our governance work and is a treasured facilitator deeply grounded in emergent theory and systems transformation. Helen teaches all who work with her that in our inextricably interconnected systems, where our individual well-being is dependent on our collective human and planetary well-being, we must pursue right relationship with each other and with our planet in order to move toward a multi-racial democratic future together. Helen supports individuals and organizations in building and rebuilding the foundations of trust and connection so together we can create sustainable futures where all people thrive, are free from harm, and experience peace and well-being.
Born in San Francisco, Helen is a first-generation daughter of Burmese-born immigrant parents of Chinese descent. The story of her family’s immigration to the United States is tied to the geo-political events that took place across the globe in the last two centuries. She is profoundly aware that our stories, experiences, and histories do not take place in isolation and as such, all our lives and futures are deeply interconnected.
With close to 20 years of experience in the public and nonprofit sectors, she weaves together the connections between root causes and systemic harms, builds bridges, and seeks healing for the traumas caused by oppression and dominant culture. She most recently served as a public administrator for a local government agency in Southern California, leading the development of systems of care to address the generations of harm inflicted upon working class, poor people, immigrants, Black, Brown, Indigenous, AAPI, and communities of culture. Prior to serving in local government, she worked at the RAND Corporation and as a direct service provider to people experiencing homelessness.
In 2021, Helen was appointed to the Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations and serves on the LA vs. Hate Subcommittee. She also served as a steering committee member for the Government Alliance on Race and Equity, supporting a national network of government entities working to achieve racial justice. Most recently she completed East Bay Meditation Center’s Practice in Transformative Action (PiTA 9) Program, which imbues justice practitioners with the technology to nurture hearts, minds, and bodies for healing and collective liberation.
She loves deep conversations, gardening, sci-fi, throwing pottery, watercoloring, and delights in birdsong.
Education
Antioch University Los Angeles
Master of Arts, Urban Sustainability
University of California Los Angeles
Bachelor of Science, Biology
Minor: Political Science
Affiliations
Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations, Member, Member of the LA vs. Hate Subcommittee
Government Alliance on Race and Equity Steering Committee, Member
“In the poetics of struggle and lived experience, in the utterances of ordinary folk, in the cultural products of social movements, in the reflections of activists, we discover the many different cognitive maps of the future, of the world not yet born.”