Los Angeles Mayor Taps the Talents of a UCLA Anderson Alumna

For Sonya Blake (’92), helping entrepreneurs and small businesses survive and succeed has been the path to a life well-lived. As president and CEO of the Valley Economic Alliance (also called “The Alliance”), a nonprofit organization catalyzing positive impact, Blake’s daily mission is to serve the business, workforce and community development needs of the greater San Fernando Valley.

Founded in 1995 to help Valley communities recover from the devastating 1994 Northridge earthquake, The Alliance today engages and energizes private-public collaborations and resources to raise the standards of living and economic vitality across the five-city region. For Blake, who became president and CEO in 2020, the organization is a perfect place to leverage her passion for doing good by empowering the creative impulse in entrepreneurs and small businesses, and helping to make positive changes in livelihoods and communities. Plus, it is a role in which she can leverage her MBA skills daily to run an effective and financially stable nonprofit organization.

“This type of work is not a typical MBA career. But I know I am unquestionably a more effective leader thanks to my Anderson training,” Blake says. “Community organizations need leaders who are also incisive executives. When considering a career path such as mine, it is important to know yourself and be aware of the things that make you feel challenged, excited to go to work every day and fulfilled at day’s end. I realized at an early age that a career helping people maximize their potential and gain economic self-sufficiency would be the most important driver in my career journey.”

Blake with Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who spoke at the Valley Economic Alliance’s “Our Region, Our Future” summit

Blake is the daughter of immigrants who grew up in Connecticut. “I learned two of the most important things about myself during my junior high school summer job,” she says of a summer spent working on a tobacco farm. “First, I realized that for many of the adults working on the farm — predominantly of African American and Puerto Rican descent — this was going to be their career for life, just like it was for my dad. I became deeply aware of the wealth and opportunity gaps that can block the path to economic stability, self-sufficiency and fulfillment. Second, I realized that because I lived in two worlds — an African American home life in a predominantly white school and social context — I could be a bridge between different communities and socioeconomic contexts. From that moment on, I realized that I cared much more about making a big impact than making a big income,” Blake says.

Blake’s long-held dream was to run her own art gallery, building on her undergraduate degree in art history. She wanted to be taken seriously as a management executive who could run an economically viable gallery, and UCLA was her top choice when she was considering graduate business education. At the time, what was then the Graduate School of Management had a top arts management program (CicLAvia co-founder Aaron Paley [’85] and chef, restauranteur and radio host Evan Kleiman [’80] are also alumni). But Blake gravitated to a nonprofit focus and set her sights on managing tax-exempt social impact organizations, leading her to a career in economic development.

Post-Anderson, a series of roles helped her develop an expertise in all aspects of small business development — programmatic, policy/legislative and regulatory. She has served as a director in the Los Angeles Mayor’s Office of Economic Development, authoring wide-ranging economic programs for the city’s small businesses. She chaired the Small Business Task Force in California’s Office of the Governor and advised state leadership on legislative and regulatory matters affecting the state’s four million small businesses. She has served as president and CEO of the National Association of Women Business Owners’ Los Angeles Chapter. In 2010, she produced a PSA to benefit the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles that was nominated for a daytime Emmy award.

Blake found that what kept her passionate about each of her roles was her fascination with the fundamental human impulse of creativity and how she could empower it by bridging the creative impulse with finance and commerce. “That childhood awareness of wanting to help people create satisfying, self-sustaining lives has driven my interest in helping entrepreneurs and small business owners monetize their own creativity,” Blake says.

As CEO of The Alliance, Blake is responsible for operating the strategic vision she co-creates with her board of directors. This includes strategic planning and budgeting, directing the program-oriented work of The Alliance, fundraising, hiring the right people and ensuring appropriate operational resources such as facilities and technology, and, of course, evaluating and reporting on the organization’s accomplishments. The Alliance’s work cuts across four major areas: economic development; education and workforce development; creating livable and sustainable communities; and marketing the San Fernando Valley’s five core cities served by The Alliance, Burbank, Calabasas, Glendale, Los Angeles and San Fernando.

Blake (center) was nominated for a daytime Emmy for producing a Legal Aid Foundation PSA

“I use my MBA skills every day,” Blake says. “The skills I depend on most are strategic thinking and analysis, consciously managing risk, understanding and formulating financial statements, business writing and working in teams. Anderson taught us how to think and gave us the necessary tools to apply that thinking to the organizational challenges we face as executives. I use SWOT frameworks extensively to assess current and future programs. My Anderson experience also taught me how to evaluate risks and tradeoffs. For example, I very consciously manage our budgets conservatively, but am willing to take more risks in going after new funding sources. My Anderson training built my skills in creating budgets and forecasting, and in managing The Alliance’s financial profile.”

Leveraging Anderson’s nonprofit management program jumpstarted her career. Today, Anderson’s specializations in real estate, entrepreneurship and marketing all build the technical skills needed by future leaders of community-oriented organizations like Blake’s. “It is very satisfying to know that The Alliance positively and directly affects people who need access to business development, skill-building and financing resources they otherwise would not have discovered. At the end of the day, I feel good that my role helps people leapfrog out of generations of poverty and brings economic investment into Valley communities that sorely need it.”

Blake’s career in small business development earned her a place on Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass’ transition advisory team in the first 100 days of Bass’ administration. Blake will focus her collaboration-building talents on addressing Mayor Bass’ priorities to create safe and economically vibrant communities. Blake’s leadership of The Alliance was also noticed by the small business planning committee preparing for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. As part of the working group, Blake will help ensure that small, local and underrepresented businesses have equitable access to 2028 Olympics contract opportunities.

Blake’s career trajectory illustrates how the nonprofit sector can benefit from leaders equipped with top-notch business skills, and she encourages Anderson MBA candidates and graduates to explore opportunities in the sector.

“While it is true that the nonprofit sector doesn’t pay as much as traditional MBA sectors like finance or consulting, roles in nonprofit accounting and fundraising command slightly higher salaries than the programmatic areas and are perfectly suited to exercise management training,” she says. And to build long-term financial health, people who know they are more motivated by cause-oriented careers can put the power of compound interest to work for them. “Start saving and investing early in your nonprofit career and you will be able to build an adequate nest egg while you enjoy a gratifying and fulfilling profession,” Blake advises.

“Deciding to work in nonprofits comes down to knowing who you are and what you value most. For me, making an impact was always the number one priority.”