Ultimate Impact

Program Pilot and History

The initial seed of Ultimate Impact was planted in 2010, when founder Rocky Beach retired from a top club team and wanted to give back to the sport that had helped him in so many personal, social, and professional ways. Through a landscaping project that he led while managing volunteer services for United Way of the Bay Area in 2006, Rocky connected with the Program Director at Hunters Point Family, located at Gilman Playground in Bayview-Hunters Point and launched a youth ultimate team there four years later as a volunteer. 

The youth, ages 6-13, came from surrounding neighborhoods such as Double Rock, Alice Griffith, Oakdale, and Hilltop and all attended a summer and after-school program at Gilman Playground, near the former Candlestick Park in San Francisco. The kids have incredible stories of resilience. “Over the years it has been extremely rewarding to see the group progress, not just in ultimate, but also in life,” Beach says. “It’s exciting to see some of the first-year players already in high school and talking about going to college.”

In June 2016, Rocky decided to dedicate his creativity, time, and passion — along with his entrepreneurial spirit and program knowledge — to launch a youth development program modeled off his experience with youth and ultimate Frisbee.

What is Ultimate Frisbee?

Played with a disc, or Frisbee, ultimate combines the nonstop movement, field spacing, sprinting, and athletic endurance of soccer with the aerial passing skills of football — all in a non-contact format. Players compete on a field with end zones similar to football, in teams of seven on grass and five on sand. Ultimate is a fast-growing sport, with an estimated 5 million current and former players in the US and more than 80K in the Bay Area. Most universities have club teams, and ultimate has been featured in the World Games as a medal sport since 2001, with a future as a possible Olympic event. Ultimate is unique because it is one of the few sports played at a high level in a co-ed format, along with women’s and men’s divisions.

Ultimate Big Night Out!

It’s time to cut loose. Go big and give big at the Ultimate Big Night Out event hosted at the extraordinary Green Room at the San Francisco War Memorial & Performing Arts Center.

Dress to impress: Dig in those closets for your big, bold, and beautiful outfits, and parents, get your babysitter booked.

Have an impact: Purchase a ticket to join the fun and support Ultimate Impact’s work with youth.

Ticket sales go directly to helping expand Ultimate Impact’s mission to empower youth from underrepresented communities to develop confidence, teamwork, and accountability through the sport and community of ultimate.

Event Details
Saturday, December 9th, 6:30pm-10:30pm 
The Green Room, San Francisco War Memorial & Performing Arts Cente

Gala Sponsors

About Ultimate Impact

Ultimate Impact is a youth development organization that uses the team sport of ultimate Frisbee as the framework for providing youth from underrepresented communities with increased opportunities, confidence, communication abilities, and conflict-resolution skills. Through weekly training sessions, peer interaction, and consistent adult mentorship, Ultimate Impact creates a positive environment for youth to have fun, be active, improve athletic skills, and build community.

Our Team

Rocky BEach
Executive Director and Founder

Rocky has a background in entrepreneurship, youth development, nonprofit management, organization building, and coaching. Rocky spent nine years at United Way of the Bay Area, where he built their corporate volunteer program and managed the organization’s largest portfolio as a Director of Development. Rocky also served as the Director of Partnerships and Development for CODE2040, where he grew annual fundraising from $2M to $7.2M by securing partnerships with Apple, Intel, Google, Box, PwC, and other industry leaders.  

In the spring of 2016, Rocky left his leadership role at CODE2040 to launch Ultimate Impact. He has a BA in International Business from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, graduating magna cum laude.  In 2007, the Chamber of Commerce selected Rocky as one of the 50 future leaders of San Francisco through his participation in the Leadership SF program.  He is a member of the Board of Directors for the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition and is also a World Champion Ultimate Frisbee player.  

Jashan Shetty Program Coordinator and Coach

Jashan worked as a software engineer before deciding to make a dramatic change of career towards sports for development. After three years in the corporate sector he moved cities to be  part of the Surat Ultimate Frisbee Association as Head of Development and Coaching. He later joined Yuwa, another non-profit that uses sports and education as a tool to build character, confidence, and courage specifically with girls from impoverished families in rural Jharkhand, India. He joined first as an English teacher and then as Director of Sports Programmes, so he brings a lot of experience working with youth from different cultures and backgrounds. He is currently pursuing his MBA at UC Berkeley while working with Ultimate Impact.

Board of Directors

Katie Berk

Katie is a product manager who's primarily focused on building educational software for students, teachers, and their families to help students be appropriately challenged and supported in service of closing equity gaps and improving whole child outcomes. She most recently led the product management team for the ChanZuckerberg's Education Technology team.

Katie is a life-long lover of more or less all sports. She found Ultimate Frisbee in college where she co-captained Stanford Superfly and was on two national championship winning teams. After college, Katie helped co-found a club team for recent college grads and despite not having played competitively in many years, still surrounds herself with the many lifelong friends (and spouse) she met through the incredible Ultimate community.

Katie is excited to support Ultimate Impact to help bring the sport of Ultimate Frisbee to more kids and communities and is especially energized by Ultimate Impact's approach of broadening access to sports and using them as a venue for the development of a broad set of life habits and skills.

Courtney Keating

Courtney is a mom of two energetic boys, who love any and all reasons to run, jump and play. In addition to parenting, Courtney has spent her career in Finance and is currently a Director within PwC’s Finance Transformation practice, helping CFOs and Finance Leaders solve complex problems. Her career has taken her to Seattle, Amsterdam, and back to her hometown of Portland, OR, where she currently resides. 

While she admittedly gets the “yips” while throwing a frisbee, Courtney is passionate about the power of play, and its long lasting positive influence on children’s lives and ability to bring communities together. She is thrilled to be a part of the Ultimate Impact team!

Jennifer Scarlett, DVM

Scarlett was introduced to Ultimate just before entering Peace Corps Morocco—and was hooked. For the next two years she carried a disc and enticed kids in her village and visiting Peace Corps colleagues to practice throwing. On returning to the States, Scarlett played with teams in Washington DC, Tennessee and eventually the Bay Area. Although her teams did not win the US National Championships, she won indelible memories, lifelong friendships and a passion to share the generative lessons embedded in Ultimate to youth through Ultimate Impact. Scarlett is a veterinarian and President of the San Francisco SPCA.

Sandy Jen

Sandy is a long-time entrepreneur and most recently co-founded Honor in 2014, a company focused on transforming home-based care for older adults. She currently spends most of her time working with product and engineering to further the mission of changing the way we care for our aging loved ones. An innovator at heart, she also co-founded Meebo, a consumer internet company focused on instant messaging in 2005, which was acquired by Google in 2012. She loves to mentor young entrepreneurs and is active in the women in tech circles. Sandy discovered Ultimate after college and the sport has led her to love the spirit of the game and cherish the decade-long friendships she’s made along the way. Now a mother of two children and a frisbee-loving dog, she’s excited to share her love of Ultimate in a way that helps the future generation.

STEVE MOONEY

The summer of 1979 changed Steve’s life when he spent it at UC Berkeley taking a class in black-and-white photography and playing ultimate with The Flying Circus of San Francisco. Little did Steve know at the time how much these two events would shape his career and life—first, by inspiring him as a photographer and marketer, and second, by exposing him to high-level ultimate with the Circus. Steve went on to enjoy a long career in marketing, which includes years as a multimedia producer, and later as a creative and managing director at the brand experience agency Jack Morton Worldwide. Steve also had the privilege of leading numerous exceptional ultimate teams, winning seven National Championships and three World Championships with the Rude Boys and Death of Glory. Steve and Mary live in Brookline, and have two children, Ben and Nicole.

Steve is excited to join the Ultimate Impact Board after six years on the USA Ultimate Board. Boston is a hotbed of both ultimate and nonprofit organizations, where Steve has learned about how teams and organizations succeed. He looks forward to sharing his perspective and supporting Ultimate Impact as it continues to grow in the Bay Area, the place where it all began for him.

Rachel Dyke

Rachel is a logistics and energy expert who has worked for several high-growth companies in finance, operations, growth, and product. She currently works for a trucking fleet electrification company and loves solving problems related to the energy transition. She's based in Berlin, Germany for a few years but was previously in the Bay Area after growing up near Washington DC. 

Rachel played many youth and college sports before finding Ultimate at the end of college. She played on Stanford Superfly and then club for several years. She is forever grateful for Ultimate and believes youth sports are a critical part of communities and kids' development!

Program Advisory Council

Dion-Jay (DJ) Brookter

Dion-Jay (“DJ”) Brookter, Executive Director of Young Community Developers Inc. (YCD) & San Francisco Police Commissioner. YCD is a 501(c)(3) non-profit community-based service education, training, and employment placement service provider to San Francisco’s underserved (Bayview/Hunter’s Point) community residents. In 2018, YCD served 1,040 customers and secured placement for 443 program participants across several industry sectors. Mr. Brookter’s extensive public and private experience includes Exec. Director of the Southeast Community Facility and management positions within World Savings and Fresno Career Development Institute. Mr. Brookter serves on San Francisco’s Police Commission; he holds a B.S. in Speech Communication (Utah State Univ.) and an MBA from the Univ. of Phoenix.

Elmaneca Cabrera

Head Counselor in San Francisco Unified School District. Elmaneca is an experienced School Counselor with a demonstrated history of working in the education management and systems. She is skilled in Student Development, Tutoring, Youth Development, Academic Advising, and Curriculum Development. Elmaneca has developed a strong sense of PBIS systems and is skilled in restorative practice emphasizing most importantly in relationship building. She is a strong community and social services professional with a Master of Arts (M.A.) in Education and PPS Credential focused in Counseling Psychology from University of San Francisco and Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in Child & Adolescent Development (Research & Public Policy) from San Francisco State University. Elmaneca joins the Ultimate Impact Advisory Council highly recommended by one of the founding Developing Leaders, as his favorite guidance counselor.

Ed Center

Ed Center is passionate about ending poverty through education and equity. From running a student support center in the basement of Balboa High School, to leading philanthropic initiatives in education, his career has always focused on helping low-income students thrive. Ed excels in partnership development, guiding teams through change and growth, and supporting multi-faceted groups to focus on equity. He is an expert at helping organizations move from planning to action, and facilitating difficult conversations. Ed brings innovation, thoughtfulness and play to all who work with him. He plays and coaches soccer, is obsessive about watching raptor birds in the wild, and hosts an annual Spam cookoff competition. He lives with his husband and two sons in San Francisco.

Ka’Tina (Tina) Jackson

Tina Jackson is currently a literacy specialist with Hunters Point Family helping San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) students with reading and writing skills. She is also working as an intern for SFUSD's Early Education Department. Tina focuses on the development of preschoolers from zero to four. She is enrolled in a Bachelor of Social Work program at SF State University and applying for a Masters in Social Work program (MSW) in the fall. Tina has been part of the Ultimate Impact community as a former after-school program liaison and curriculum development specialist for youth K-5th grade at Ultimate Impact partner programs. A proud mom and San Francisco native, her son has been part of Ultimate Impact since the beginning.

Aasha Joshi

Aasha’s work is guided by three questions: What’s being done? Is it working? And how can we make it work better? For 15 years, she has been advising, designing, conducting, managing, and integrating robust research and evaluation in organizations so that they can improve their processes, services, and products to meet their goals and make a positive difference in people’s lives. Aasha earned her PhD in Social Psychology from the University of Cambridge (UK), studying social interactions and knowledge sharing, and is a co-founder of Clarity Writing and Research, a company formed with a commitment to helping people achieve better outcomes in the education and social sectors.

Anthony Wagner

Anthony Wagner is a cognitive neuroscientist who focuses on how humans learn and remember. As a Professor and Chair in the Department of Psychology at Stanford University, he leads the Stanford Memory Lab. His group's research examines the psychological and brain processes that govern learning and memory, and that support the achievement of one’s goals. As an undergraduate at UCLA, he was introduced to ultimate; he won a US national championship 28 years later (great grandmasters division). Anthony is honored to contribute to Ultimate Impact’s mission, including by drawing on the science of learning to foster individual and group growth on and off the field.

Molly Wertz

Molly Wertz is a seasoned social sector leader who uses her deep grounding in relationship and faith in the power of the human spirit to inspire teams and individuals to bring their most authentic selves to their mission toward a more just society. For over 30 years, she has dedicated herself to addressing inequities in opportunity and disparate outcomes for marginalized people as an educator, philanthropy professional and non-profit leader. She is known for creating spaces where participant and client voices inform programs and practices, while staff and leadership embrace both high standards and deep connection. As Founder of Tandem, Partners in Early Learning, Molly fostered broad collaboration with policy makers, advocates, families, and ECE providers, to build an equity-focused and impactful organization renowned within the Bay Area early childhood education arena. Molly is currently providing consulting and coaching services to non-profits with a focus on health, education, housing and the environment.

Rachel Williams

Rachel Williams is a Bay Area native with more than 20 years of experience in Silicon Valley. Her experience spans human resources – recruiting, strategic employee relations and engagement, organizational change, culture & learning development, inclusion programming and implementation. Rachel is currently the Head of Equity Inclusion & Diversity at X - the moonshot factory. X creates novel technology solutions to address the world’s most challenging problems. Prior to X, Rachel was the first Global Head of Diversity & Inclusion at StubHub and was the first Head of Diversity & Inclusion and Corporate Recruiting at Yelp. Rachel is passionate about developing unique programming to help build a culture of openness and belonging that embraces diversity as a dimension of a company’s overall talent strategy. In addition to her roles within various corporations, Rachel lends her time to advise organizations dedicated to the improvement of diversity, equity and inclusion including Kapor Capital empowered group Diversity Advocates and Village Capital. Rachel has spoken on her work and thought leadership at numerous conferences and universities like: Tech Inclusion Conference, SXSW, the White House, North Carolina A&T, Harvard Business School, Stanford Business School, Northwestern Kellogg School of Management and MIT Sloan. Rachel graduated from UC Berkeley (Go Bears!) and enjoys spending time with her more than 300 family members whenever she can.

Newsletter Sign-up

We’re excited to celebrate another great summer with two free ultimate Frisbee camps. Your child can participate in one. Please fill out the form below and select the camp that is easiest for you.