Sasha Werblin currently works as a Special Projects Manager on the Executive Staff Team at Self-Help Federal Credit Union, a community development financial institution with 17 branches across California. As a member of the Executive Staff Team, Sasha has worked on cross-functional teams and led a variety of projects from producing a video highlighting the history and impact of the West Oakland branch to updating the credit union’s checking account products in California and Illinois. She was recently assigned to help build Self-Help’s California real estate development strategy and team. In this new capacity, Sasha manages Self-Help’s first two real estate projects in Modesto and Oakland. Both projects will install a new flagship branch, credit union office space, a community center, and fair market office space for non-profits.
Prior to joining Self-Help, Sasha directed the economic equity program at the Greenlining Institute. In this role, Sasha was the bridge between local constituents, banks, and national policymakers toward improving access to credit and supplier contracts for minority businesses, people of color, and low-wealth individuals. She did this through organizing, facilitating, and advocating to collect market intelligence, communicate systemic barriers, and methodically address these complex issues to reach solid, sustainable solutions.
Sasha is an advocate at heart. She takes her commitment to overcoming systemic inequities to every institution and project in which she invests. Given the ebb and flow of the real estate market and its impact on pricing, and therefore access to office space and housing—it was important that she shift her lens to this critical industry. She is especially interested in how urban planning, development, and real estate drive much of our economy and our lived experiences. She understands that the impact of these drivers often depend on who is, and perhaps more importantly, who is not, at the table.
Sasha is a Board Member of the Oakland Community Land Trust, the Greenlining Institute and Chairs the Greenlining Academy Alumni Association. She received her BA in Sociology and Psychology from Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts and is an MBA candidate at Mills College in Oakland California.
Sasha is proud Oakland native who still lives, works, and worships in her hometown. She enjoys estate sales, thrifting, and exploring the beauty that is California.
Email: swerblin@self-helpfcu.org