Staff
Joo Hee Pomplun joined the Alliance staff in May 2017. Joo Hee was formerly the director of policy and advocacy at Asian Economic Development Association (AEDA) where they worked with Asian communities along the Central Corridor and the Bottineau Transitway to open greater opportunities for wealth building via entrepreneurship, individual financial capabilities development, social lending, and governmental policies and practices.
Joo Hee founded and organized the Health Equity Working Committee, a coalition of community-based organizations serving and led by Asian, African, African American, Latinx, American Indian, LGBTQ, and ally communities seeking accountability of government to advance health equity. They also served as the executive director of the Minnesota Asian/American Health Coalition. Joo Hee has a bachelor’s degree in women’s studies, a master’s degree in public health, and is a certified massage therapist. Their strengths and interests are in the intersection of community development, racial equity, and spiritual health.
Owen Duckworth joined the Alliance staff in May 2012 as a coalition organizer and later led the Alliance’s Coalition Organizing team. The Alliance created his new role in August 2025, Field Building and Impact Strategist, to reflect our commitment to field-building and capacity-building among the organizations we work with.
Raised in a multi-racial immigrant family, Owen developed a deep interest in how race and power have shaped people and communities. He has a passion for dismantling racism in systems of housing, public transit, and economic development throughout the Minneapolis-St. Paul region and beyond. In more than a decade at the Alliance, he has helped to build and grow Equity in Place, a BIPOC-led housing justice coalition, and has been connected to significant wins on housing investments and tenant protections in the region and the state.
Owen is a co-founder and current board member of MidWest Mosaic (formerly MidWest Mixed) an organization that supports mixed-race people and transracial adoptees to build culture and move in solidarity across liberation struggles. He was a 2023 Bush Foundation Fellow and serves as a Community Advisory Board member of the Mapping Prejudice Project. He is also a longtime hip-hop music head, producer, and record collector with a deep belief in the power of music, art, and culture to ground, connect, heal, and politicize people and communities.
David Trinh joined the Alliance staff in February 2025 as the Operations Coordinator. He brings a passion for public health, grassroots capacity-building, economic development, and education. He has managed funds from contracts and grants from the Minnesota Department of Health, Human Services, Natural Resources, Hennepin County, and City of Minneapolis, on initiatives ranging from mental health advocacy, to sustainability, environmental preservation, economic development, and education. He specializes in data, logistics, public programming, and operational strategy, while always staying grounded in a commitment to equity, representation, and building spaces where every voice is valued and heard.
David reflects, “I am a strong advocate for AAPI representation in data and policymaking, ensuring that our stories, struggles, and successes are accurately represented. We deserve to see ourselves reflected in the systems that shape our lives, and I am committed to making that a reality.” As a first-generation American, David sees how public programs, advocacy, and policy change can transform lives. His experiences navigating these systems have fueled his commitment to ensuring that organizations—especially those serving historically underrepresented communities—have the tools to continue their vital work.
Charlie Barba-Cook
Coalition Organizer
charlie@thealliancetc.org
Charlie Barba joined the Alliance staff in September 2024. She is the coalition organizer for the Business Resource Collective.
Charlie’s dedication to supporting underrepresented groups spans multiple fields. For nearly 20 years, she worked in the field of disability, and she has been a community organizer for decades across many cities. Her work includes founding multiple organizations and organizing protests, vigils, and community events in LGBTQ+ spaces, as well as collaborating with mutual aid groups supporting the Black Lives Matter movement. She is also the development coordinator for the MN Vixen women’s tackle football team, where she advocates for elevating women’s sports and increasing access for female and minority gender athletes.
As a Business Resource Coalition Organizer at The Alliance, Charlie is deeply aligned with the organization’s mission of building collective power and promoting equity in the Twin Cities’ small business ecosystem. Her extensive background in grassroots organizing and building supportive networks for marginalized communities enables her to lead with the inclusive, equity-driven approach that lies at the core of The Alliance’s work. Charlie’s commitment to racial and economic justice reflects The Alliance’s vision of a vibrant and thriving region where communities, especially those historically underserved, are prioritized and empowered to succeed.
Charlie can be reached at charlie@thealliancetc.org. She’d also be happy to share her love of playing football, cooking spicy dishes, and adventuring in the winter!
Ricardo PerezRicardo Perez joined the Alliance staff in July 2019. Ricardo was born and raised in Mexico and moved to the United States in 2004. Ricardo has more than 10 years of experience working in the non-profit sector alongside community on issues that disproportionately impact immigrants and people of color.
Most recently, Ricardo helped to lead the Suburban Hennepin Housing Coalition which, with the help of organized community, was able to pass ordinances in multiple cities to protect and produce unsubsidized housing; and create tenant protections.
Ricardo is an alumni of CURA’s Neighborhood Now program and the Wilder Foundation Community Equity Pipeline cohort. Ricardo loves his family, art and the resiliency and creativity of humanity.
Juan Luis Rivera-Reyes joined the Alliance staff in August 2022. He will be the coalition organizer for Equity in Place.
Juan Luis (he/him) grew up in many neighborhoods throughout St. Paul, and has had the opportunity to call Los Angeles and Phoenix home, as well. Having the opportunity to live and learn in so many diverse neighborhoods, he learned the importance of having a community and being committed to your community.
In his work he makes it a point to establish real relationships with individuals, amplify their stories, needs, and humanity. Life is complicated enough; low-weath, BIPOC, queer, immigrant, disabled, and working people should not have to constantly fight systems of exploitation and oppression in their daily lives.
Genevieve Roudané joined the Alliance staff in November, 2024. Her work is rooted in the intersection of communications and social justice, supporting communities organizing for collective liberation through the development of creative narrative strategies.
Originally from Saint Paul, she is a white, queer, radical visual artist, graphic designer, and filmmaker. She directed the award-winning documentary film Las Chunta and has illustrated several books. For nearly a decade, she worked with indigenous collectives in Chiapas, Mexico and Central America, facilitating popular education workshops and building regional community film and radio networks. Since returning to live in the US, she has worked as a labor and tenant organizer on campaigns that fought for diverse goals, from combatting wage theft with undocumented laborers, to building tenant unions and helping pass rent stabilization in Saint Paul. She was part of the Flats to the Future campaign, weaving together storytelling, research, basebuilding, and advocacy to demand justice for those forcibly displaced from Saint Paul’s West Side due to inequitable industrial development.
Her commitment to racial, economic, and environmental justice in the Twin Cities is also personal: as a neighbor raising a multiracial family in South Minneapolis, she wants to see a future where everyone has safe and affordable housing, access to public transit and a healthy environment, and the resources to thrive.
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