OneCal Foundation Directors & Staff

Erin Kilmer-Neel
Program Officer

Erin is passionate about supporting local independent businesses and artists since these groups greatly improve the economic health and quality of life of our communities. To that end, she co-founded Oakland Unwrapped!, serves on the board of directors for the American Independent Business Alliance (AMIBA), and is the co-Chair of the Board of the Oakland Merchant Leadership Forum (OMLF).
Erin is a graduate of MIT's Master of City Planning program, where she worked with several community development and economic development corporations and developed neighborhood revitalization plans, performed neighborhood economic analyses, and conducted research on various community economic development topics. Her first job after leaving MIT was Program Manager at California Resources and Training (CARAT), an Oakland-based non-profit dedicated to improving the quality of training and consulting provided to small businesses throughout California.

Before MIT, Erin spent several years working in technology training, instructional design and graphic design, most recently as Manager of Web Information Design at Oracle Corporation. There, she managed a team responsible for developing technology training for Oracle's sales force. She also worked in Oracle's Media Training Solutions group as a Project Manager. Prior to Oracle, Erin was a Software Trainer with New Horizons Computer Learning Centers and an Instructional and Graphic Designer with Educational Management Group in Scottsdale.

Her passion for community development arose out of the juxtaposition of her life in Northern California and the lives she observed in her travels through Southeast Asia. Her ardent belief in the social, economic, social, and political impact of community ownership and control of resources strengthened during her time as a volunteer in Thailand, where she helped build grassroots, community-owned eco-tourism villages.

She is head over heels in love with her husband Beau Kilmer.