Senior Manager

Brent Copen, MPA, brings more than 15 years of nonprofit experience to his role as Senior Manager at La Piana Consulting.   Brent is committed to strengthening the sector by helping nonprofit organizations develop more robust financial management practices.  He has presented hundreds of workshops and trainings nationally to executive directors, board members, funders and future leaders; he has also consulted extensively to a wide variety of nonprofits across sub-sectors.  Brent is a frequent guest lecturer at colleges and universities, including UC Berkeley Haas School of Business and UC Davis Graduate School of Management.  He served as faculty at Teachers College, Columbia University, where he taught courses in resource allocation for nonprofit organizations.

Prior to joining the firm, Brent was the Director of the Western Region at Nonprofit Finance Fund (NFF), where he was responsible for business development, product innovation and management of NFF’s consulting practice in the Western Region.  Before this, Brent was Projects Manager for Youth Treatment and Education Court, a San Francisco-based juvenile drug treatment and education program; he was also a Senior Fellow of the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial.

Brent has served on the executive committee of the board of directors for American Jewish World Service and Avodah: The Jewish Service Corps. He is currently a board member of Catalogue Choice, a Berkeley-based nonprofit that works to reduce the number of repeat and unwanted catalog mailings, and to promote the adoption of sustainable industry best practices. He received a Master of Public Administration degree from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.

Brent lives in Oakland, California with his wife Iara and sons, Isaac and Joshua.  On the weekends, you will likely find him hiking with his family in the Oakland hills.