The Economic
Primer
Unlocking the Capital Communities Deserve
FORMAT
Cross-Sector Leadership Convening
LOCATION
Los Angeles, California
SECTORS
5 Represented
ENTITY
Parity Solutions
The Under-Discussed Truth
Pension capital is one of the largest pools of institutional capital in the country — and it was built on the contributions of working people. But the communities those workers come from rarely have visibility into where those dollars are invested, or influence over whether they’re invested in ways that strengthen local economies.
The Intervention
The Economic Primer was designed to close that gap — not with advocacy, but with education. A working room, a cross-sector table, and a structured conversation that gave participants the literacy to act on the power they already hold.
The Gap
Elected officials, labor leaders, philanthropic executives, and community advocates often hold seats at tables adjacent to these systems — but without the technical fluency to understand how allocation decisions are made, where the leverage lives, or how to use the influence they already have.
AT A GLANCE
5
Sectors Represented
LA
Location
1
Organizing Question
Who Was in the Room
- Government & Elected Leadership
- Organized Labor at Scale
- Frontline Labor Power
- Regional Economic Strategy
- Institutional Philanthropy
- Private Capital & Wealth Management
Inside
The Primer
The Economic Primer was not a conference. It was not a panel. It was a structured working session designed to produce fluency — a room where the people who shape institutional systems and the people those systems are meant to serve could sit together and actually understand the mechanics of the capital connecting them.
The format was intentional. Participants weren’t passive. The session moved through the mechanics of pension capital allocation — who makes decisions, at what stage, with what criteria, and where external stakeholders can intervene.
THE PARITY THESIS
The Economic Primer is how Parity Solutions and Webb Investments build that fluency — one cross-sector room at a time.
Who was in
The Room
Nora Vargas — Government / Elected Leadership
Former San Diego County Supervisor. Brought the perspective of regional elected leadership — how institutional capital decisions land in the lives of constituents.
Yvonne Wheeler — Organized Labor at Scale
President, LA County Federation of Labor. Representing the federation that collectively bargains for hundreds of thousands of workers whose retirement security depends directly on pension allocation decisions.
David Huerta — Frontline Labor Power
Los Angeles Labor Leader. Grounded the conversation in the frontline reality — the workers whose futures are held inside pension systems they rarely have visibility into.
Steven Chung — Regional Economic Strategy
Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation. Provided the regional economic development lens — how institutional capital flows and where it currently lands.
Miguel Santana — Institutional Philanthropy
President & CEO, California Community Foundation. Brought the philanthropic capital perspective and the role of the social sector in shifting institutional investment logic.
Why This Is
Parity Work
Capital Alignment
Returning visibility — and leverage — to the communities pension systems were designed to protect.
Community Engagement
Civic, labor, and community leaders in rooms where decisions are demystified from the inside.
Cross-Sector Infrastructure
Building relationship infrastructure that makes coordinated action possible.
Execution Excellence
Concept to convening — a cross-sector room that rarely sits together, producing lasting fluency.
"The power is already here. What communities lack isn't access to capital — it's the fluency to claim the capital they already own."
Engage Parity Solutions
Cross-sector convening design · Institutional capital strategy · Civic and philanthropic leadership development · Community-centered economic development strategy