Karla,

Founder & Managing Partner

Karla Monterroso is an author, founder, and coalition architect dedicated to strengthening the leadership of multiracial multicultural institutions across sectors. As Founder and Managing Partner of Brava Leaders, she advises leaders and visionaries - from academics and artists to nonprofit executives and social justice advocates - on navigating power dynamics and bridging institutional divides.

With more than two decades of experience scaling social enterprises, Karla champions multiracial institution building as essential to a healthy democracy. Her work challenges conventional management theories that reinforce homogeneity, offering frameworks built for integrated organizations.

Previously, as CEO of Code2040, she grew its community from 25 to 3,000 while dismantling structural barriers in tech. She also expanded infrastructure and volunteer networks at Health Leads and College Summit, building systems to support underinvested communities.

Karla’s current work explores how power is defined, distributed, and practiced in multicultural institutions. She is writing her first book, How to Share Power, drawing on the lessons of leaders who must both advance their missions and design new systems, policies, and cultures for multiracial democracy.

A Long COVID survivor and contributor to The Long COVID Survival Guide (2022), she also served on the Advisory Panel for the Patient-Led Research Collaborative and the board of One Degree. A proud USC alum, Karla spends her free time gardening, playing Dungeons and Dragons, and being bossed around by her pets, Moxie and Felix.