Dr. Raphael J. Sonenshein, Ph.D.

Dr. Raphael J. Sonenshein is the Executive Director of the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation. Previously, he served as the executive director of the Pat Brown Institute for Public Affairs at Cal State LA. He received his B.A. in public policy from Princeton and his M.A. and Ph.D. in political science from Yale. He is a nationally recognized expert on racial and ethnic politics, on California and Los Angeles, and on charter reform. His book Politics in Black and White: Race and Power in Los Angeles (Princeton, 1993) won the American Political Science Association’s 1994 Ralph J. Bunche Award. Dr. Sonenshein served as Executive Director of the Los Angeles (Appointed) Charter Reform Commission that led to the city’s first comprehensive charter reform in 75 years, described in his book The City at Stake: Secession, Reform, and the Battle for Los Angeles (Princeton, 2004). He has since guided successful charter reform commissions in a half dozen cities. His third book is Los Angeles: Structure of a City Government (2006, League of Women Voters, LA). All three books received significant grant support from the Haynes Foundation.

Dr. Sonenshein received a Wang Family Excellence Award as one of the four most outstanding Cal State faculty members. He was a co-recipient of the Haynes Foundation Research Impact Award and received the Harry Scoville Award from the American Society for Public Administration SoCal Division. Dr. Sonenshein was the fall 2008 Fulbright Tocqueville Distinguished Chair in American Studies at the University of Paris VIII. In 2022-3, he joined a multi-university collaborative of six scholars supported by philanthropy in the Los Angeles Governance Reform Project, to make recommendations for better governance at LA City Hall.

Tiann Ortiz

Tiann Ortiz serves as the Operations & Grants Manager for the Haynes Foundation, where she advances the Foundation’s mission through leadership in operations, grants administration, and organizational strategy.

Now in her second year with the Foundation, Tiann has grown from Executive Assistant to a multifaceted management role that bridges strategic operations and executive partnership. In addition to overseeing the Foundation’s grantmaking systems and internal processes, she continues to serve as a trusted advisor and executive support to the Executive Director.
Tiann brings over 20 years of progressive experience in philanthropy and executive support. Before joining the Haynes Foundation, she served as Grants Manager at the Specialty Family Foundation, managing a robust portfolio of grants focused on housing and homelessness in Los Angeles. Earlier, she held senior roles at Johnson & Johnson SLC and Neutrogena Corporation.