Introducing Sylvia
Sylvia is a tenacious strategist for social change who brings 20 years of experience on both sides of the capital equation: navigating where capital comes from and where it needs to go. She has raised millions of transformative funding for social justice movements and deployed investments to back impact-driven solutions. This frontline perspective fuels her mission at Rebel For Good: to catalyze capital for good and lead this next era of impact by helping leaders and organizations use their power for good.
As an award-winning human rights lawyer turned investor, Sylvia has dedicated her career to empowering underserved and underinvested communities. Known for her ability to bridge communities and capital, she connects values to investment strategies and is trusted by a growing network of next-gen capital allocators who are reimagining how capital can be used as a force for good.
Throughout her career, Sylvia has co-founded a human rights organization for North Korean human rights, led the Orange County expansion of Asian Americans Advancing Justice by more than tripling its operational budget, and successfully launched the country’s first National Asian American Community Foundation (now known as Asian American Futures) raising more than $1.1 million within its first 8 months.
Before founding Rebel For Good, Sylvia was a Partner at La Piana Consulting where she led the firm’s growth and innovation efforts and built a new practice area working with social impact startups and venture capital funds to develop their impact frameworks. Sylvia is also the co-founder of a women-led impact fund where she conceived and executed on a mission to unleash the power of technology for good while securing the fund’s first institutional investor.
Sylvia is also the founder of Rebelle, a growing community and movement of women redefining power with love. Rebelle was born from Sylvia’s own journey of learning to lead from love after years of navigating exhaustion, burnout, generational trauma, and systems never designed for women like her. Through curated gatherings, leadership experiences, and her Queen-Making methodology, Rebelle helps women return to themselves, reclaim their power, and rise together.
Recognized as an expert in rights-based advocacy, strategic planning, and capital strategy, Sylvia now works with mission-driven leaders, enterprises, and organizations to build the ecosystems they need – not only to unlock sustainable capital but to turn it into lasting impact.
Originally from Toronto, Canada, Sylvia began her career practicing criminal law as both a defense attorney and as an Assistant Crown Attorney. Sylvia received her Bachelor’s Degree at Queen’s University, her Juris Doctor from Osgoode Hall Law School and completed her Master of Studies in International Human Rights Law (LL.M. equivalent) at Oxford University.
