José Corona, as the executive director of Inner City Advisors, provides strategic leadership and direction to the organization. He has worked in business and community development for over ten years.

Prior to Inner City Advisors, Jose served as development director for five years at Mission Economic Development Association (MEDA), a San Francisco-based non-profit organization that provides micro enterprise business technical assistance and neighborhood planning services to small businesses. Before working in the non-profit sector, Jose also worked in Corporate Retail Operations and Human Resources at Macy’s.

Jose sits on various economic development boards. He serves as the secretary of the Board of Directors of Asian Neighborhood Design and sits on the Bay Area Business Advisory Board of Directors of the Consulate General of Mexico in San Francisco. Jose is also a member of Board of Directors of the YMCA of The East Bay and OBDC Small Business Finance. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree from UC Davis, and Entrepreneur Management Development Certification from the UCLA Anderson School of Management.

When he is not busy doing community development work, he enjoys coaching and playing soccer.

Jenna Payne, Program Manager
jennainnercityadvisors.org

As the Program Manager for Inner City Advisors, Jenna is responsible for the management of ICA’s advisory and education programs for ICA Portfolio Companies and for the coordination of business advisor resources. 

Prior to joining Inner City Advisors, Jenna spent six months working in the rainforests of Brazil as a photo journalist documenting organic coffee farmers for TransFair/FairTrade.  Before traveling abroad, Jenna served as the Program Director for the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) for the Bay Area, where she worked to develop and deliver entrepreneurship education programs to students from low-income communities in order to help them develop their own businesses plans and further their entrepreneurial creativity.

Jenna has been in the field of community and economic development for the past nine years. After receiving her BA in Urban Studies and Planning from UC San Diego, she worked for four years with the small community of Davenport, California to design and open an after school teen center for local youth.  She has her bilingual teaching credential and has taught both Jr. High and High school in Santa Cruz County.

Jenna loves to travel and has visited communities all over the world.  She has spent over two years in South America, where she learned both Spanish and Portuguese.  Outside of work, Jenna spends her time dancing, climbing hills on her bike, and working in the garden.