Trishala has been a social worker, community organizer, funder and advocate before joining CGRE. As the Director of National Programs, Trishala oversees implementation of the funding strategy with national organizations, and in support of the state based portfolio. Trishala spent the last 25 years with organizations such as the Audre Lorde Project, the Arcus Foundation, Caring Across Generations, and Thousand Currents.

Trishala is a graduate of the University of North Carolina - Greensboro, with a BSW and a minor in Religious Studies, in particular liberation theology. Her education has included work in movements for racial and economic justice, LGBTST liberation, immigrant rights, and ending state violence. She is currently serving on the boards of the Just Beginnings Collaborative and Resource Generation. As a former doula, she is also a student of healing justice movements. She is guided by dystopian science fiction, poetry and all things shark and cephalopod related.