The executive director of a 45-year-old Tenderloin nonprofit, who last week announced the organization’s abrupt closure, is seeking to transfer over $2 million in leftover funds to her own nonprofit, according to newly released state filings.
The Bay Area Women’s and Children’s Center is shuttering after decades in the Tenderloin, Mission Local reported Thursday morning. Executive director Erica Burrell announced the news after this reporter began inquiring about the nonprofit’s status, and amid questions about its financial difficulties and absence from the neighborhood.
Now, a letter filed with the state attorney general’s office that was made public this week shows that Burrell, the center’s leader since 2023, has sought to transfer the bulk of the organization’s remaining assets — $2.27 million at the time — to the Empathy Library, a nonprofit of which she is the CEO.
The filings show that the board voted unanimously in September to dissolve the nonprofit and transfer the assets. Burrell is listed as a board member at that time.
This, for legal professionals, was problematic.
Alexis Levy, an attorney who advises nonprofits, said Burrell “absolutely should” have recused herself from any such vote.
“All of these things at minimum are unethical, whether they’re illegal is another question,” Levy said. “I would never do any of those things, as a nonprofit or as an attorney.”
“Every nonprofit must have a conflict of interest policy,” said another legal observer, who added that nonprofit board members have a legal “duty of loyalty” to the organization. “If you’re on the board of one nonprofit, you’re dissolving it and transferring the money to another nonprofit — you at least have to recuse yourself.”
Even Burrell’s physical presence at the vote would be a “red flag,” the observer said.
Additionally, Burrell misrepresented when she was on the board.
When Mission Local on May 29 asked Burrell about the apparent closure, she initially declined to comment. Within days, however, she revived the organization’s dead website with a 4,000-word announcement making its closure official.
In that statement, she said she was voted onto the board as its president only in late May 2026, “to ensure continuity and accountability” as the organization closed down.
But the nonprofit’s September 2025 “plan of dissolution” shows Burrell already listed as a board member at that time, and appears to indicate that she okayed the plan — her signature appears alongside those of four other board members.
Burrell, on the revived website, also pledged that the remaining assets would go to a nonprofit with a similar mission, “so there is peace of mind in that.”
The Bay Area Women’s and Children’s Center, once a fierce advocate in the Tenderloin, suddenly closed after paring back its presence and services in the neighborhood in recent years. Former board members, many of whom said they were pushed out, raised concerns about the future of millions of dollars in assets.
Burrell insisted that she did not know where the nonprofit’s money would end up in an 11-minute video she recorded of herself and shared this week in response to this reporter’s questions.
Burrell did not respond to further requests for comment for this article.
“I fucking knew it,” said Jeanne Comaskey, formerly the chair of the nonprofit’s board, when told of the filings. Comaskey and other former board members and employees said they had filed a complaint with the attorney general’s office.
“We knew something really shady was going on. She’s taking money from the women and the children of the Tenderloin,” Comaskey said. “When people donate, that’s what they want to donate to — not Erica the Teacher Lady.”
Burrell runs a website and social media account called the Teacher Lady where she shares children’s books she has written and illustrated. The Empathy Library, Burrell’s nonprofit, accepts donations to send free, diverse books to children around the country.
The Bay Area Women’s and Children’s Center has closed its popular school dental clinic and its longtime resource center in recent years and had seemed to be winding down, but Tenderloin leaders were left puzzled: There was no closure announcement, and little said.
Burrell, in a video statement sent to Mission Local explaining the closure, said the nonprofit’s funds must “go through multiple approvals before [they] can be distributed.”
“I cannot guarantee that one organization or another is going to get this much or that much,” she said. The board had, nine months earlier, already voted to send the funds to Burrell’s organization.
It is unclear how similar the Empathy Library’s mission is to that of the Bay Area Women’s and Children’s Center, which provided clothing and food for decades in the Tenderloin, spearheaded the creation of its only public elementary school, and sponsored various charity events in the neighborhood over decades.
The Empathy Library is registered in Berkeley and was initially created in 2023, records show. The purpose of the corporation is to “increase access to quality education to children and families from low-income backgrounds.”
But it has no focus on the Tenderloin. According to the plan submitted by Burrell to the state, the Empathy Library “directly aligns” with the purpose of the women and children’s center “while offering a sustainable, independent platform not confined by Tenderloin-specific restrictions or [school district] policies.”
The Empathy Library is also listed as an education nonprofit, while the Bay Area Women’s and Children’s Center is listed as a “human services” nonprofit providing “services to promote the independence of specific populations.”
“I hope the [attorney general’s] office can … stop it,” said Diane Van Stralen, a former employee at the Bay Area Women’s and Children’s Center for some 25 years. She hopes that the money would instead be directed “to Tenderloin kids and families.”
The nonprofit’s dissolution has not yet gone through. The attorney general’s office response from May 29 shows that the Empathy Library was not registered with the California attorney general’s Registry of Charities and Fundraisers and therefore could not be named as the “recipient” for the shuttered nonprofit’s assets. The office requested additional documentation.
Burrell took over the Bay Area Women’s and Children’s Center as director in 2023 when the organization was struggling to recover from the pandemic and the retirement of its founding director, Midge Wilson. But while they were initially impressed by Burrell’s credentials, former longtime board members said they were forced out of the organization.
An entirely new board of directors was voted in 2024. Within days, former board chair Christina Huizar said she and her fellow members received letters from a lawyer on Burrell’s behalf, ending their tenure.
Burrell denied playing any role in their removal.