Shomari Carter - Executive Director

Shomari Carter is a lifelong Oakland resident dedicated to creating and maintaining vibrant communities. Shomari began his career volunteering countless hours for various community organizations, including McClymonds High School, the West Oakland Job Resource Center, and the North Oakland Senior Center. This service led to a role with the City of Oakland as a Community Capacity Builder. Shomari managed a series of events focusing on community empowerment and violence prevention. Following work with the City of Oakland, Shomari accepted the position of Community Engagement Associate for the Office of Supervisor Keith Carson. As a Community Engagement Associate, Shomari managed programs that served the diverse populations of Alameda County, ranging from disaster preparedness to reentry services to housing and homeless services. Shomari has also held positions as an art instructor, branding specialist and entrepreneur. Shomari currently serves on the board for SPAAT (Student Program for Academic & Athletic Transitioning) and the Oakland Museum of California. Shomari holds a B.A. in sociology from Saint Mary’s College of California, graduating Cum Laude.

I'm committed to maximizing the quality of life for Oakland's low-income residents-people of color.

-Shomari-

Charla Montgomery - Managing Director

Charla Montgomery brings over 20 years of corporate business operations and management experience. Her extensive and varied business background includes program administration, process improvement, operations infrastructure design, and implementation, employee training and development and event management.

As Managing Director, she successfully applies her passion and experience to assist in the management and development of the organization’s administration, programming, personnel, and fiscal well being. While her primary business skills and endeavors have been in the “for-profit” industry, over the years she has continued to stay connected to community enrichment programs supporting adult education as well as cultural and artistic awareness projects.

Charla is an effective project thought partner who enjoys serving as a reliable ‘sounding board’ during idea discovery, a supporter of viewing situations from various perspectives and a promoter of innovative thinking. She also supports the Oakland-based nonprofit organization "Leaders Are Readers" as a member of the Board of Directors.

Davina Gibson - Operations Lead

Davina is a well-cultured professional, gifted with an engaging personality and passion for tackling the ongoing needs of the communities we serve. Her experiences traveling to over 15 countries have colored her perspective on the value of community, and our roles as individuals in it.
Prior to joining OCCUR, Davina worked as an office manager at a large San Francisco based financial firm, where she developed and expertise in identifying administrative challenges and developing solutions. While she excelled in this role, her passion to serve the people of her community brought her back to Oakland to OCCUR.

EXPERT PROGRAM CONSULTANTS

Denise Deluca - Consumer Outreach Specialist

Denise provides essential expertise in community outreach, organizing and program promotions. Denise utilizes her keen ability to identify community challenges as well as determine the applicable programs/services that meet the needs of the communities we serve.

Darrah Montgomery - Operations Support Specialist

Darrah is a tenured professional specializing in project and operations administration. Darrah's experience includes, contracts management, policies and procedures development and workflow analysis. She enjoys community engagement activities and providing support as an innovative thought partner.

Olivia Cueva - Director

Olivia Cueva is the Director of the David E. Glover Center where designs, develops, and manages the creative technology programming and operations. She founded a creative technology design studio at the center which trains youth in providing consulting services to small and corporate businesses around the Bay Area. Originally from Berkeley, she received her Masters from the Interactive Telecommunications Program at NYU Tisch in New York where she invented products ranging from wearable technology, augmented reality apps, video games, and interactive installations. She has over 10 years experience working in non-profit community organizations that focus on media and youth development.

Zahra Syed - Program Administrator

Zahra is a photographer and writer by craft. She has worked in STEM and arts focused youth development and education for the past decade. She loves to work with young people, empowering them to build a good world and happy, useful lives. In life, work and artmaking Zahra likes to play, organize, tinker, be scrappy and problem solve creatively. At the David E. Glover Emerging Tech Center, Zahra is part of the data & evaluation, outreach and operations teams.

Jorge Flores - Office Manager

Jorge Flores came to the center as a student of humble beginnings, identified and inspired by past director David E. Glover. He has gone on to become the center’s Office Manager and Spanish-language Computer Basics Instructor. You can also find him in the community raising awareness about our upcoming classes. Mr. Flores is passionate about empowering East Oakland residents through computer skills acquisition for workplace success.

TECH EXPERT CONSULTANTS

Thomas Washington - Computer Basics Instructor

Thomas Washington brings over 17 years of experience in creating customized software training modules designed to fit the learning needs of individuals and/or group clients.

Although Mr. Washington has delivered training services for many years to various age groups, his personal goal is to support educational projects that address the needs of the senior community and become an active participant in bridging the digital gap between generations.

Jobari Alli - Video Game Design Instructor

Jabari Alii is a game developer who began his journey as a video game composer and sound designer. Over the years he has worn many hats including audio director, educator, project manager, graphic designer, writer, web designer, gameplay programmer, and much more. He works in both Unreal and Unity game engines and has gained notice for his upcoming game Planet Rise. With a focus on youth and community Jabari can be found teaching Unity at David E Glover Center and Piano at Notes Music Academy. And he is most notably known for his role as gaming director of AfroComicCon where he brings a fun and inclusive experience of gaming and nerd culture to groups of all ages.

Tara Morris - Animation Instructor

Tara is an animator who also paints, edits videos, surfs occasionally, and loves music. She works with a variety of analog and digital techniques to create moving pictures and is beyond excited to share these skills with her class this fall. She is originally from Toronto but now lives and works in Oakland.