Board of Directors

Nathan is an attorney, founder, and Managing Partner at Grizzly Peak Advisors, a business advising firm, where he coaches and mentors business owners and executives. Nathan also volunteers as a mentor for small business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs through SCORE East Bay. He is the former founder and CEO of Critical Pass, a leading educational company that he led from inception to its acquisition in 2022. During his legal career, Nathan has worked as a litigator at Cooley LLP in San Francisco, where he focused on internet privacy litigation. He also clerked for the Hawai’i State Judiciary. Prior to law school, Nathan worked as an advocate for medical and mental health care for California prisoners.

Nathan was born and raised in Oakland, CA, where he currently lives with his wife and son. Nathan holds a JD from the University of California, Davis and a BA in Political Science and American Culture Studies from Washington University in St. Louis.

Anthony brings wide-ranging consulting, tax, and accounting experience as a partner at the Henry Levy Group, an Oakland based CPA Firm. His clients are small businesses, real estate investors, and individuals with international tax exposure.

He is a co-editor of a respected reference book on international accounting standards and a regular speaker for international tax and accounting professional audiences. Anthony and his wife, another East Bay native, are Oakland residents and the parents of two young children.

Anthony serves on the board of Oakland Field of Dreams, the Rockridge District Association, and Bananas, Inc.

Julia Forte Frudden is a long-time education and social justice advocate. Julia is currently the Senior Project Manager and Evaluator at the Child Care Law Center, a non-profit law firm with the mission to make child care a civil right, where she focuses on helping family child care providers enforce their housing rights and works on state legislative and budget advocacy campaigns. In 2019, as Director of Community Advocacy at the Law Center, Julia co-led the legislative campaign to pass Senate Bill 234, the Keeping Kids Close to Home Act, which increased protections for and removed barriers to family child care businesses. Julia has experience in qualitative and quantitative research, as well as project managing early care and education evaluation and research projects. Additionally, she previously taught first grade. Ms. Forte Frudden received her master’s degree in Public Affairs from the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and her bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Pepperdine University.

As a proud parent and Oakland native, who has lived in Alameda County all of her life, Noni brings a wealth of experience to the BANANAS Board. She currently works as a certified HR Generalist at Liberty Group and Parent Advocacy Coordinator at Parent Voices of Oakland. Noni holds a BA in Forensic Psychology and an MBA in HR Management, both from Southern New Hampshire University. Her advocacy extends further, as she co-chairs the Alameda County Early Care and Education Planning Council, which advises and makes recommendations to policymakers to ensure families have quality child care.

Nancy is a child care provider, child care advocate, and a proud member of SEIU Local 521. Nurture, care, and educate is the philosophy behind Nancy’s mission whether she is serving children in her family day care, Lil Nancy’s Primary Schoolhouse in West Oakland, supporting parents in raising their children, or advocating for other child care providers. Her passion is to advocate for child care providers, fight for better wages and overall respect for the profession, and push policymakers to fix California’s inequitable child care system. Harvey feels that by being on the Board for BANANAS, she can better represent child care providers and make their voices heard. She loves BANANAS wide array of programs and is extremely fond of parent and provider workshops. In her free time, Harvey goes out for nature walks, indulges in interior design showcases, and spends time with her three children.

Priya Jagannathan is the Director of Oakland Starting Smart and Strong (OSSS), an early childhood collaborative that aims to ensure every child has access to high quality early learning experiences that support healthy development. She currently serves on the City of Oakland Head Start Advisory Board and recently joined the City of Alameda’s Social Services and Human Relations Board.

Before joining Oakland Starting Smart and Strong 4 years ago, Priya held a variety of roles at the City of Oakland’s Human Services Department, including managing the City’s violence prevention investments and planning Head Start child development and family services.

Prior to her work with the City, Priya held leadership roles in nonprofit and public agencies in Oakland and San Francisco, including Alameda Alliance for Health, Planned Parenthood Golden Gate, and Glide Foundation. She has a strong commitment to the equitable distribution of resources throughout the community, and supporting high quality programs and strategies serving children and families.

Priya has a master’s degree in Public Health from UC Berkeley and a bachelor’s degree from UCLA. She was born in India, raised in New Jersey and California, and has lived in the Bay Area the last 25 years.