John Pineda is a proud father of 6 children. Born in Salinas and raised in Greenfield, he is an original MILPA co-founder. Mr. Pineda humbly and effectively serves as MILPA’s Deputy Director by supporting organizational operations, training, and management. His passion is working with formerly incarcerated individuals and system-impacted youth using La Cultura Cura – an indigenous cultural healing philosophy.

Mr. Pineda also brings his unique skills of technical assistance and capacity-building to work in partnership with the Vera Institute of Justice on Restoring Promise: A Young Adult Prison Reform Initiative. Through this role, he directly challenges mass incarceration and ethnic/racial disparities using a healing-informed cultural approach.