San Francisco Community Land Trust transitions from a traditional single Executive Director model to a Co-Directorate — a shared leadership body of five directors working together to strengthen organizational resilience, sustainability, and democratic decision-making.
Why We Made This Change
Many mission-driven organizations are vulnerable to what happens when a single leader departs — institutional knowledge walks out the door, momentum stalls, and staff are left to rebuild.By distributing authority across five directors with complementary expertise, SFCLT is better positioned to manage leadership transitions, sustain institutional knowledge, and make decisions that draw on a broader range of experience.
This transition reflects the organization’s commitment to practicing the same principles of shared power and democratic governance that define the community land trust model itself. It also formalizes a reality already present within the organization: staff beyond the Executive Director have long held significant responsibility and authority.
Key Benefits of the Co-Directorate Model
How the Co-Directorate Works
The Co-Directorate is made up of five directors, each responsible for a distinct area of the organization’s work:
Together, the Co-Directors oversee the full range of SFCLT’s work — including staff management, fundraising, acquisitions, asset management, legal compliance, and program development. They make decisions by consensus where possible and by majority vote when necessary.
Accountability & Governance
Board Oversight
The Co-Directorate operates under the oversight of both the full Board of Directors and the Executive Management Team (EMT), which comprises the board’s four officers: President, Vice President, Secretary, and Treasurer.
The EMT has met weekly with SFCLT staff since the organization’s early history. The new bylaws formalize that longstanding practice, giving the EMT explicit authority over day-to-day operational and personnel matters on behalf of the board.
All existing board powers are fully retained — including the authority to hire, evaluate, and remove directors.
The Founding Co-Directors
The founding slate of Co-Directors was recommended by the Executive Director and confirmed by the full board at the 2026 Annual General Meeting. This diverse leadership team brings a wealth of experience and commitment to SFCLT’s mission to create and preserve permanently affordable housing across San Francisco.
Saki Bailey is the Executive Director of the SFCLT. Saki has fifteen years of experience in nonprofit management and program development roles, as well as, in facilitation, teaching and training. Saki holds a J.D. and a PhD in law and legal theory, her research focused on the legal regulation around CLTs, Co-op formation, and incorporation. She is a published author on real estate law, property law, community land trusts, and the commons with three books and several articles published by both academic and non-academics publishers and journals translated into multiple languages. Saki is also a licensed attorney and advocates for policies which advance community land trusts and other shared equity housing models. Prior to coming to SFCLT, Saki worked on real estate finance and policy work, and in that capacity developed the City of Berkeley’s first pilot “Small Sites” project, as well as, the first drafted TOPA legislation in the state (tenant opportunity to purchase act)- serving as a template for other TOPA movements in California. Saki currently serves on the Advisory Council of SB555, the state commissioned social housing study, and is a member of the subcommittee of the Community Ownership for Community Power Fund charged with designing financial products for what is expected to be a $100mm fund for community ownership projects across the state.
Kyle Smeallie is the Policy Director for the San Francisco Community Land Trust. Prior to joining SFCLT, Kyle served for four years as Chief of Staff for San Francisco Supervisor Dean Preston, where he specialized in affordable housing and anti-displacement policy. In 2020, Kyle helped pass Proposition I, a transfer tax increase on the highest-valued properties in San Francisco, and he worked to ensure the funds – more than $300 million to date – were directed to creating permanently affordable housing. In addition to affordable housing advocacy, he crafted more than a dozen anti-eviction laws since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, and helped ensure full funding for the Tenant Right to Counsel program. When he’s not working on housing policy, Kyle and his wife enjoy parenting their puppy Stuart, who is a socialist.
Teresa Wang is the Deputy Director. Born in San Francisco and raised in the Bay Area by immigrant parents, she possesses a strong dedication to utilizing her abilities to benefit the community. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in Hospitality from San Francisco State University. With over a decade of experience in event planning, Teresa’s most recent role was as a member of the development staff at the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, where she orchestrated fundraising events for the Northern California Chapter, a position she held for more than seven years.
Sarah has spent over a decade working on affordable housing issues, entering the nonprofit sector with a community organizing and advocacy background and learning the ropes of housing policy, project development, resident support, nonprofit operations and more along the way. Since moving to the Bay Area from Washington, DC in 2019, she has been rooted in the Community Land Trust world, most recently serving as Stewardship and Policy Director at the Northern California Land Trust. The extremity of the housing affordability crisis in the Bay Area has highlighted for Sarah how crucial it is to decommodify housing, and she is equally as passionate about how we do this work as equitably and sustainably as possible. Sarah has a Master’s in International Peace and Conflict Resolution from the American University. She loves the sound of the ocean and the bustle of the city.
Emily Silagon, a Bay Area transplant of 12 years, is a licensed architect by schooling (and seven exams), a construction project manager by profession, and a strategist by nature. Since 7 years old she has wanted to pursue design and construction, and has been passionately learning and growing in that direction ever since. Emily graduated from California College of the Arts in San Francisco, and worked for several years in an architectural firm prior to transitioning into the construction management realm. As both an architect and construction manager she has sought work with a social impact, and brings that empathy and enthusiasm to SFCLT, along with her unique design and construction knowledge. Emily also brings two years of experience in establishing operational standards and building infrastructure for the construction management department at Mosser Companies, where her focus was preparing the company platform for sustainable growth. This balance of industry knowledge and operational prowess will be leveraged to elevate the Construction Management department within SFCLT.
