“Like a lot of children raised by immigrant working class parents, I witnessed the daily sometimes nasty, sometimes dangerous injustices my parents tolerated to get food on the table and maintain a roof over our heads. This in combination with watching César Chávez and Dolores Huerta and other ‘60’s activists on TV and then participating in anti-war and reproductive justice activities awoke in me a life-long need to address the inequalities faced by so many in this most powerful and richest country in the world.”

Belma González is a certified coach. She provides assets-based coaching to individuals working in the nonprofit sector, especially social justice activists. She is certified through the Coaches Training Institute and has worked with diverse clients all over the US on leadership enhancement, change management, transitions and work/life balance. As a founding member of Prism Coaching, a coaches of color consortium, Belma is committed to utilizing the assets of race, class and culture in her coaching practice and to advancing cultural awareness in the coaching sector. Belma also partners with Leadership That Works, an accredited coach training school, to provide coach training workshops for nonprofit direct service providers, community leaders and those seeking to become certified coaches (especially people of color working in/with nonprofits).

Belma has been selected to coach participants in sixteen leadership development programs including several UCSF Center for the Health Professions’ leadership development programs, New Generation Leaders of Color (through CompassPoint Nonprofit Services), Horizons Foundation’s Rickey Williams Leader Fellowships, Rockwood Leadership Institute Fellows and Haas Jr. Fund’s Flexible Leadership Awardees.

Belma has over twenty-five years of experience working in the nonprofit sector. She worked with the Center for Collaborative Planning’s Women’s Health Leadership, a leadership development program with over 350 grassroots, primarily women of color, participants. Prior to WHL, Belma worked at Women’s Needs Center, a free clinic serving low-income, uninsured women in San Francisco. She began at WNC as a volunteer and remained nineteen years serving in various staff capacities, including Executive Director. Raised in San José, California, Belma is a bicultural/somewhat bilingual Chicana.

Belma lives in Oakland, California.