Our team

Meet the team
behind Alta Futures.

Jessica Sieja

Founder + Principal

I lead Alta Futures by setting strategy, building partnerships, and mobilizing capital to support bold leaders tackling climate, democracy, and community challenges.

Andrew Sieja

Co-Founder

I support the team at Alta Futures however they need me: deploying capital, making connections, building community, and ensuring our impact has the greatest reach. 

Peter Riley

Chief of Staff

I support our Founder & Principal, and connect our team by guiding strategy and leading operations to deliver on Alta’s mission to create a stronger society for future generations.

Shawn Gaines

Marketing and Communications

I make sure the communities we serve are informed and welcomed into our work, amplifying the great ways our partners and grantees are building a better future.

Maki Tazawa

Program Director, Climate

I lead Alta Futures’s climate strategy to back creative and bold charitable efforts to prevent the worst of climate change.

Heather Davis

Operations Associate

I support Alta Futures’ work to transform bold ideas into collective action by managing grants, organizing events, and coordinating our team.

Coming Soon

Program Director, Democracy

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Strategic Advisors

From its earliest days, Alta Futures has benefited from the insight and leadership of individuals in the impact sector. Their counsel and experience have played an important role in shaping Alta’s mission, approach, and growth. Their perspective continues to inform our strategic direction. 

Sarah Berghorst

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Charlie Brown

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Contact Us
Contact Us

Jessica Sieja

Jessica is Alta Futures' Founder + Principal

As Founder and Principal of Alta Futures, Jessica Sieja leads the organization’s strategy and investments across climate, democracy, and community. She serves Alta Futures by setting long-term vision, shaping the portfolio, building partnerships with peer funders, and convening collaborators across sectors. Through this work, she deploys creative capital in underfunded and overlooked areas to help bold ideas move from concept to impact.

A builder at heart, Jessica is most energized working with small, experimental teams where creativity, curiosity, and execution come together. Her career has spanned startups, technology, media, and philanthropy, beginning with producing a weeklong innovation conference and later selling enterprise consulting services for Microsoft SQL Server. Across roles, she has been drawn to environments where good questions, close collaboration, and learning in motion are essential.

Jessica’s commitment to community has been a consistent throughline in her work. She previously served on the board of WBEZ, Chicago’s public radio station, and was co-chair of OneGoal Chicago, an organization that partners with high schools to help students graduate with a clear postsecondary plan and the support to carry it forward. She continues to invest in community-focused initiatives and hosts regular community conversations at the Alta Futures office in the West Loop.

What’s something you’re most looking forward to in the future?

I’m most looking forward to seeing the kind of humans our kids grow up to be. They inspire me every day, and I hope our work at Alta Futures contributes to their flourishing.

Andrew Sieja

Andrew is Alta Futures' Co-Founder

Andrew is the founder and CEO of OnDean, a platform deploying economic, human, industry, and social capital toward interests in technology, investing, philanthropy, and motorsports. As part of that, Andrew co-founded Alta Futures with Jessica with a goal of building an enduring organization that brings bold ideas in underfunded and overlooked areas from concept to impact through creative capital.

Prior to OnDean, Andrew founded Relativity (formerly kCura), an e-discovery software company that today is used by thousands of organizations around the world to organize data, discover the truth, and act on it. As CEO for nearly two decades, Andrew helped grow Relativity into one of the world’s leading legal technology platforms. Now as a board member, Andrew works with Relativity’s leadership team to help the company grow, thrive, and serve the industry.

Andrew is also a husband, father, and avid motorcycle enthusiast. Growing up as a child of Polish immigrants, he had a nomadic childhood, attending 11 different grade schools and high schools in Detroit and Chicago, while also spending a considerable time in communist Poland, which has greatly shaped his worldview. Andrew is driven by curiosity, the fun of work, and the belief that there is potential in all of us to do great things.

What’s something you’re most looking forward to in the future?

I just love building things: teams, businesses, whatever. I’m always looking forward to what we can create next.

Peter Riley

Peter is Alta Futures' Chief of Staff

Peter is the Chief of Staff at Alta Futures. In this role, he oversees strategic alignment across the platform and leads internal operations. Peter also helps lead the organization’s strategic grantmaking in support of thriving communities in Chicago and Big Sky.

Peter brings over a decade of multi-disciplinary experience serving the public and private sectors. Prior to joining Alta Futures, Peter was a Corporate Attorney at Sidley Austin LLP, where he helped lead and execute mergers & acquisitions with an aggregate transaction value of over $15 billion. Before that, Peter worked as a Public Education Consultant at District Management Group, where he advised public school districts of up to 350,000 students on strategic planning, resource allocation, and academic return on investment. He also worked as an Investment Banking Analyst at TD Securities (formerly Cowen & Company) where he advised companies on mergers & acquisitions, equity, and debt financing transactions.

Active in his Chicago community, Peter currently serves as a Community Representative on the Local School Council of his neighborhood public school and an Advisory Board Member of LiftUp Enterprises. Peter holds a Bachelor of Arts from Harvard University as well as an MBA and J.D. from Northwestern University.

What’s something you’re most looking forward to in the future?

I love hiking, camping, backpacking and the outdoors; I am excited for a future when I can bring my now 2-year old son and soon-to-be joining us daughter with my wife and I to backpack in the National Parks.

Shawn Gaines

Shawn leads Marketing and Communications at Alta Futures

Shawn supports the Alta Futures team with strategy planning, marketing execution, and communications with stakeholders ranging from grantees to funding partners to the community. Shawn collaborates with the team to ensure the way we show up helps progress the work we do.

Alongside his work at Alta Futures, Shawn leads marketing for the legal tech investment organization OnDean Forward and national motorcycle racing team OrangeCat Racing. Prior to this work, Shawn led marketing at fast-growing tech companies, all with significant exits. He worked at e-discovery software company Relativity for nearly 10 years, helping to grow their marketing team from three to 90+ employees. After that, Shawn transitioned to CMO at HR tech startup Able, where he successful rebranded and grew demand gen to position them for a strategic acquisition. Most recently, Shawn was CMO at Sertifi, a hospitality tech company that became part of global payments network Flywire in early 2025.

Shawn has lived in Chicago for 20 years, where he stays involved in the local community, his kids’ school, and nonprofit work, most recently serving as chair for 826CHI, which provides free writing and art workshops to amplify the voices of Chicago’s youth. Shawn holds an MBA from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management, and he has three boys who are growing up too fast.

What’s something you’re most looking forward to in the future?

We try to do a handful of 1:1 parent / kid days each year, and I’m always looking forward to that focused time with each of them.

Maki Tazawa

Maki is Alta Futures' Progam Director, Climate

Maki is the Climate Program Director at Alta Futures. She is an intersectional climate leader and writer dedicated to advancing collaborative systems solutions, especially for nature. Maki takes a collaborative approach and is committed to bridging sectors by bringing together philanthropy, nonprofits, researchers, and innovators to drive meaningful impact.

Before joining Alta Futures, Maki managed the philanthropic strategy at the Grantham Foundation and Trust, led natural capital and circular economy investing at the CREO Syndicate, and worked with founders at the Techstars Sustainability Accelerator in partnership with The Nature Conservancy. She began her career managing international conservation and sustainable development programs at Audubon across Latin America and the Caribbean.

Beyond her roles, Maki is deeply engaged in the broader climate and environmental community. She serves on the Advisory Council of the DC Environmental Film Festival, where she supports the use of storytelling and the arts to inspire public awareness and action on environmental issues. She serves on other boards, contributing her perspective and leadership to organizations working across narrative change, civil society organizing, and public policy. Through her professional and board service, Maki continues to champion creative and inclusive solutions to the climate, biodiversity and pollution crises.

Maki completed a graduate program at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies focused on impact investing, sustainable food systems, and social innovation. She holds an undergraduate degree from the George Washington University in International Affairs and Environmental Studies.

What’s something you’re most looking forward to in the future?

I'm looking forward to taking a family trip to Japan in 2026.

Heather Davis

Heather is Alta Futures' Operations Associate

Heather is the Operations Associate at Alta Futures, where she helps advance the organization’s mission by managing grants administration, coordinating team operations, and leading the planning and execution of events that bring partners and communities together. In this role, she supports the operational engine of the platform, ensuring that the systems, details, and relationships that support Alta Futures’ work function with clarity, care, and alignment.

Heather brings over five years of experience as an Executive Assistant, with a focus on supporting senior leaders and streamlining organizational operations to maximize impact. Her background spans strategic administrative support, community building, and mentoring. She holds a Certificate of Leadership from Highlands College and is a Certified Life, Health, and Wellness Coach, in which she coaches and guides others toward holistic well-being.

Originally from Alabama, Heather has called Austin, Texas, and now Bangor, Maine, home, where she lives with her two sons. She currently serves on the board of Bangor Beautiful, a local nonprofit dedicated to bringing public art to the community, and has contributed to initiatives centered on youth, education, and neighborhood well-being. Heather is passionate about creating thoughtful experiences and gatherings, professionally and personally, that help people transform and grow together and enable meaningful ideas to move into action.

What’s something you’re most looking forward to in the future?

I’m eager to continue turning vision into action and impact at Alta Futures. Personally, I’m excited to pursue the goal of running a marathon, deepen my love of art, and make lasting memories through new adventures with my sons.

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