Joseph Tomás McKellar
Executive Director at PICO California
Joseph Tomás McKellar is Executive Director of PICO California, the largest faith-based organizing network in California, whose mission is to catalyze faith-based and spiritually-centered people power in California to create systemic change for the most vulnerable so that all Californians can belong and thrive.
In his role, Joseph provides strategic leadership to 10 multi-faith, multi-racial community organizations representing 450,000 Californians, and accompanies a talented staff team running power-building and leadership programs for 2,500 grassroots volunteers.
He also helps lead PICO’s Faith Votes campaign, dedicated to significantly expanding the California electorate to include millions more young voters, low-income voters, and voters of color around a vision for a State of Belonging.
Joseph guides PICO’s statewide campaigns to transform the criminal justice system, protect and promote immigrant families, increase affordable, family-sustaining housing, advance structural tax reform, and create an inclusive economy.
Joseph founded and directed Faith in New York and Faith in the Valley in California, which are members of the Faith in Action National Network. Joseph previously worked as aCommunity Organizer in San Diego and Orange County, as an Assistant Teacher with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps in Boston, and as a Prison Minister in San Diego.
As a first-generation college graduate, Joseph earned a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish and Political Science, with a minor in Biology, from the University of San Diego. Joseph is a Fellow of the inaugural class of the Aspen Institute’s Civil Society Fellowship, and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network. Joseph also serves on the Board of Directors of the Jesuit Volunteer Corps and the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation.