Ricardo Garcia Acosta

Ricardo Garcia-Acosta is a Selection Panel Appointee. His term ends on October 16, 2025.

Ricardo Garcia-Acosta has worked with high-risk, systems-impacted youth and young adults for the past 20 years. He is a National thought leader on Crisis Response and Community Intervention Strategies as well as Care Management frameworks rooted in traditional healing practices that seek to reduce gun violence and build community peace. 

After many years of working in San Francisco, where he helped lead the City’s Street Outreach and Crisis Response Initiative for 8 years, he returned to his home city of Oakland, and began working with Youth ALIVE! in 2014. There, he would manage nationally recognized programs that focus on hospital response to shooting victims and supporting young people and their families as they work through the trauma of a homicide. 

In 2016, he would become the City of Oakland’s first Violence Prevention Liaison, working crucial lines of communication between the City’s Community-Based efforts, the Mayor’s Office, and the Oakland Police Department. 

His passion for collective healing, self-determination and community empowerment, continue to guide his commitment to build systems that best support youth and families impacted by violence. Mr. Garcia-Acosta now serves as the Director of Community Peace Initiatives for CURYJ (Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice). 

He is also a member on the UCSF Police Department’s Community Safety Board, while also continuing to work on a broad spectrum of projects focused on building trust between Community and Law Enforcement throughout the San Francisco Bay Area.

October 16, 2023 – Appointed as an Alternate Commissioner by the Selection Panel. 

May 8, 2024 - Elevated to Commissioner during a Special Meeting to replace exiting Commissioner Jesse Hsieh. Serving remaining term until 10/16/2025.

July 11, 2024 - Elected Vice Chair during Regular Meeting

October 18, 2024 – Assumed the position of Chair following the departure of Chair Emerita Marsha Carpenter Peterson.