The Durfee Foundation has announced the 2027-2028 recipients of the Stanton Fellowship.
The Stanton Fellowship Program awards six fellows with $100,000 each over two years to think deeply about challenges that face the future of Los Angeles. These six exceptional Los Angeles-based leaders will explore responses to some of LA’s most pressing challenges. The Fellows and their inquiry topics are below.
Eddie R. Aparicio (he/him) is an artist working in the fields of sculpture, installation, and social practice to promote decolonial perspectives through material histories, community building, and cross-species connections. Eddie’s inquiry will consider how arts and culture can be vital tools for healing and rebuilding in communities affected by wildfires and other environmental disasters.
Rémy De La Peza (she/her) is the Founder and Principal of morena strategies, a collaborative community-based lawyering and consulting practice supporting neighborhoods of color through a range of legal, technical, and capacity-adding. Her inquiry explores how to create holistic communities that are socially, economically, and environmentally sustainable for the long term.
Vanessa Delgado (she/her) is the President of Azure Community Development, an affordable housing developer building homeownership opportunities for working families throughout Los Angeles County who have been priced out of the market. Vanessa’s inquiry asks what it would take to disrupt the affordable homeownership model, and what financing, policy, and replicable design are needed to deliver “missing middle” workforce homes at the speed and scale Los Angeles County needs.
Shimica Gaskins (she/her) is the President & CEO of End Child Poverty CA, where she focuses on eradicating child and family poverty and its systemic drivers through policy advocacy and power-building to advance transformational change across generations. Her inquiry examines what it takes to design an equitable recovery when climate disasters disproportionately threaten historically Black and economically diverse communities.
Jessica Meaney (she/her) is the founder and executive director of Investing in Place, where she works to strengthen Los Angeles’s ability to invest in and care for its sidewalks, streets, and parks and other public spaces people rely on every day. She brings research, civic leadership, and a sociological perspective to how public systems shape people’s lives. Her inquiry asks what helps public life thrive.
Derek Steele (he/him) is the Executive Director of the Social Justice Learning Institute, which advances educational equity, youth development, health equity, housing, civic engagement, public policy, and more. His inquiry explores how to redesign the relationships among the government, philanthropic, and nonprofit systems already responsible for taking care of people.
“We are so excited to work alongside these exceptional leaders, who each bring unique experiences and perspectives to their work. Every inquiry in this cohort stands on its own, with the potential to shape how Los Angeles approaches some of its most pressing challenges. Together, we also see real opportunities for collaboration and shared learning at a critical moment in LA’s history,” said Elmer Vivas Portillo, Manager of Learning and Communications.
“Stanton Avery, who founded Durfee with his wife Dorothy in 1960 and for whom the fellowship is named, would marvel at the deep reach and impact each cohort of Stanton Fellows continues to have. Los Angeles is a better place because of these dedicated thought leaders, and we are proud to welcome this new cohort,” said Halina Avery, Board President.
Additional information about the program is available at www.durfee.org/programs/stanton.