Programs

Development and Communications

Administration

The Executive Management Team:
Kavita N. Ramdas President and Chief Executive Officer
Deborah Holmes Vice President, Communications
Dale Needles Chief Operations Officer
Shalini Nataraj Vice President, Programs
Lanell Dike Acting Vice President, Development

Program Team: Angelika Arutyunova, Mehdi Boubiya, Jess Celentano, Erika Guevara-Rosas, Dianne Gallo, Betsy Hoody, Devi Leiper, Muadi Mukenge, Anasuya Sengupta, Maame (Alice) Yelbert-Obeng, Zeina Zaatari

Development and Communications Team: Suzanne Allcroft, Sarah Costa, Lillian Cincone, Rachel Humphrey, Heather Masaki, Kelly McVicker, Dharna Obermaier, Laura Shapiro, Christine Ahn, Caitlin Stanton, Jenifer Wanous, Amelia Wu

Administration Team: Annalisa Synnestvedt, Mia Briones, Sarah Chester, Sheila Corwin, Diana Di Battista, Mykkah Herner, Fennis Ho, Karen Ishimaru, Lilian Loyola, Eryn Mathewson, Melissa Nunan-Lew, Randy Trigg, Orion Trist, Wendi Deetz

Kavita N. Ramdas (President and CEO) has served as president and CEO of the Global Fund for Women since 1996. She has dedicated herself to empowering women worldwide with the financial resources to increase girls’ access to education, defend women’s right to health and reproductive rights, prevent violence against women and advance women’s political participation, as well as other vital issues. Kavita has served on the boards of the Women’s Funding Network, the Women’s Rights Prize of the Gruber Foundation and the Ethical Globalization Initiative. She is the recipient of numerous philanthropic and leadership awards, including most recently, the Haridas and Bina Chaudhuri Award for Distinguished Service presented by the California Institute of Integrated Studies (CIIS). Kavita recently joined the Global Development Advisory Panel of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Advisory Panel of the Asian University for Women and the board of trustees of Princeton University. Read More

Programs

Shalini Nataraj (Vice President, Programs) comes to the Global Fund from the Reebok Human Rights Program, where she served as Associate Director of the Award Program. Shalini previously worked for the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee as the acting director of international programs. Shalini began her social justice work in the US in the context of community development issues in rural Tennessee. She serves on the board of Grassroots International, Grantmakers Without Borders, and is on several other boards and committees. Shalini was part of the Newsweek magazine's 2007 Women and Leadership Advisory Committee. She is a founding member of the Alliance for a Secular and Democratic South Asia and the Boston Coalition Against Trafficking and Slavery. She continues to be actively involved with the Burma democracy movement. Shalini earned a Masters in international development at Long Island University, New York and a BS in Madras, India. Shalini, who speaks French, Tamil and Hindi, was born in India.

Angelika Arutyunova (Regional Director for Europe and the Former Soviet States), was born and raised in Uzbekistan. After obtaining a Finance Diploma and the Bachelor's of Arts in English Language, Angelika came to the United States where she earned a Master's of Science in International Development at Oklahoma State University. Before her move, Angelika participated in international debating championships including the World Universities Debating Championship in Glasgow in 2001, and presented papers at international conferences on democracy and women’s rights in Central Asia. Her work experience in Uzbekistan includes coaching debating to high school and university students in her hometown of Samarkand, interning with the Commercial Service of the United States Embassy in Uzbekistan, and volunteering with non-governmental local women's organizations to conduct reproductive health seminars. Angelika joined the Global Fund for Women in 2003 as a Program Associate for Europe and CIS, the Middle East and North Africa. In 2004 Angelika planned and co-lead the Global Fund’s first Advisor and grantee Forum in Central Asia bringing together 45 participants from eight countries. In 2006, under Angelika’s leadership Global Fund for Women had first grantee and advisor meetings in the Caucasus bringing together women from Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia bridging ethnic and national tensions and misunderstandings. Angelika also planned and organized the first GFW LGBTIQ meeting in the entire ECIS region in 2006. Currently, Angelika serves on the Steering Committee of the Grantmakers East Forum, an Affinity Group of the European Foundation Center. Angelika is also active in the Armenian Diaspora in the United States working on the lobbying for Turkish recognition of the Armenian Genocide.

Mehdi Boubiya (Program Associate for the Middle East & North Africa) was born in Casablanca, Morocco. He graduated from Portland State University with a BA in Political Science, and a minor in International Studies. While pursuing his studies at PSU, Mehdi worked as a Counselor Assistant at the school’s International Admissions Office, and as the Coordinator of the Organization of International Students. As part of his senior thesis, Mehdi volunteered at the Portland International Community School, mentoring, and tutoring refugees and immigrants from war-torn areas in the world, and developing projects that aimed to improve their educational experience. Mehdi was also a member of the International Cultural Service Scholarship Program at Portland State University for three years. As part of that program, he worked to promote the understanding of Arab and Berber cultures in the Portland, Oregon area, through public speaking, and events organization. Mehdi joined the Global Fund for Women because he deeply believes in the necessity and the urgency of advancing women’s rights throughout the world, and especially in the Middle East and North Africa region. He speaks Arabic, French, English, and conversational Spanish. 

Jess Celentano (Program Associate for Africa) holds a BA from Bates College in Anthropology with a concentration in Gender Studies and West African Economics and a minor in French. She was introduced to the Global Fund for Women while conducting thesis research on microfinance with women-led NGOs in Senegal. Jess began her non-profit career teaching at a literacy rights program in Oakland and interning for a fair-trade wholesaler in San Francisco and Guatemala.  Born and raised in New Hampshire, she is an active volunteer at the International Development Exchange (IDEX) and is an enthusiastic supporter of the Bay Area Slow Food Movement.  She speaks conversational French.

Erika Guevara-Rosas (Regional Director for the Americas) earned both a Master's degree in Women's Studies and a graduate diploma in Migration and Refugee Studies from York University, and holds a Law Degree from Universidad de Londres. Since 1999, she has been developing a comprehensive international experience in the field of human rights in different countries in the Americas, including Mexico, Ecuador, Canada, Colombia, Peru, Panama and Venezuela. Erika comes to the Global Fund with significant experience with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, where she served as a Protection/Legal Officer for seven years in different countries, working mainly in border areas with war-affected populations. She has also worked for non-profit organizations in Mexico (Sin Fronteras) and Canada (SAVIS), coordinating projects to promote and protect the rights of refugee and migrant women. She has written several articles on refugee and gender issues.  At the Global Fund for Women, as the head of the Americas Program, Erika is responsible of leading the development of a long-term vision and action plan to achieve a high-impact regional grant-making program to promote women’s human rights and, to influence transformative social change and women’s abilities to achieve economic independence, political participation and social action. Erika was born and raised in Mexico. She is fluent in Spanish and English and conversational in Portuguese.

Dianne Gallo (Program Associate for the Americas) earned her BA in English and American Literature and Spanish Language and Literature from Brandeis University.  She spent six months living in Buenos Aires, Argentina, studying at local universities in conjunction with Butler University's Cooperating Programs in the Americas.  Her professional background includes experience as an English teacher at Colegio Publico Federico Garica Lorca in Alcala de Henares, Spain, and as a teacher at Nature Nurture Adventure in San Francisco.  Dianne also served as Workshop Coordinator and Facilitator at Leah's Pantry, Inc., a San Francisco non-profit organization.  There, she facilitated bilingual nutrition and cooking workshops for children, teens, adults and senior citizens in San Francisco, and coordinated program logistics for over 70 nutrition education workshops serving over 700 low-income individuals throughout California.  Before joining the Global Fund, Dianne assisted IDEX's Latin America Program with the translation of reports from grantee partners. She is fluent in Spanish. 

Betsy Hoody (Program Associate for Europe and the Former Soviet States) graduated from the University of Chicago with a BA in Political Science and Russian Civilization.  Prior to joining the Global Fund, she worked in Russia with a Global Fund grantee that provides advocacy and support services to domestic violence survivors.  She is deeply committed to advocacy against gender-based violence and is a certified medical advocate for sexual assault survivors.  She speaks Russian and English. 

Devi Leiper (Program Associate for Asia/Oceania) was raised in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. She has a Bachelors degree in Politics and International Relations from the University of Manchester in England, and a Masters in International Development and Management from Lund University, Sweden. As part of her Master’s program, she received a grant to work and study in Kampala, Uganda, where she helped establish Uganda’s first sex worker-led organization, WONETHA (Women’s Network for Human Rights Advocacy). During this time, she wrote her thesis on the relationship between sexuality and development, using the specific case of sex workers in Kampala. Her undergraduate dissertation offers a feminist critique of the current universal human rights framework and what this means for the issue of domestic violence in Cambodia. Devi’s exposure to non-profit work began in Cambodia, where she has worked and volunteered with local organizations targeting various issues including corruption, rural housing, flood relief, and sex work.

Muadi Mukenge (Regional Director for Sub-Saharan Africa) brings a background of women's health, African politics and economic development in Africa and frequently advises donors on their Africa programs.  She presents often, including at international conferences and media outlets such as NPR and Pacifica Radio Affiliates.  She has contributed to several articles on women's rights and African development and regularly writes opinions pieces.  Since joining the Global Fund in 2004, Mukenge has increased support in the areas of conflict-prevention, economic policy advocacy, empowerment of rural women, and expansion of grants to French-speaking countries.  She has stewarded the deepening of support to the women's movement in the Great Lakes Region (DRC, Burundi, CAR), and facilitated GFW grantee convenings in DRC on ending sexual violence and advancing women's rights. Prior to joining the Global Fund in 2004, she served as Program Officer for Africa at the Pacific Institute for Women's Health, where she managed training and evaluation projects, and managed the Pacific Institute's grant-making program and communications initiative.  At Coro Southern California, a leadership training institute, she produced communications materials and managed alumni fundraising campaigns.  From 1993-1997, Mukenge worked at the African Studies Center at UCLA, where she assisted research initiatives, organized international conferences and the teacher training program, and produced research publications on political transition in Africa.  Mukenge holds a Master's Degree in African Studies from UCLA. She is fluent in French and is originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo.  Mukenge is active in volunteer organizations focused on African immigrant rights, foreign policy toward Africa, and promotion of human rights in the Congo. 

Anasuya Sengupta (Regional Director for Asia/Oceania) spent her childhood in north Karnataka, an arid and resource-poor region of southern India, and returned here after her undergraduate degree in Economics (Honors) from Delhi University. She served as a Program Officer at Samuha, an organization working with village women on issues of livelihoods security. From 2001 to 2007, Anasuya headed a UNICEF (India) partnership with the Karnataka State Police, and was responsible for designing and implementing a state wide system of police response to issues of violence against women and children. Over the same period, she served as Program Associate with Gender at Work, an international knowledge network for gender equality, and advised the Young Women and Leadership/Young Feminist Activism Program of the Association for Women's Rights in Development (AWID). She is actively involved with Development Alternatives for Women in a New Era (DAWN), a global South network of women's activists, working across Asia-Pacific, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. Anasuya founded the White Ribbon Campaign for Peace (India), and has been part of national and regional networks against religious and cultural fundamentalisms. She co-edited and contributed to Defending Our Dreams: Global Feminist Voices for a New Generation (AWID and Zed Books, 2006), arguably the first international anthology of young feminist analyses. Anasuya holds an M.Phil in Development Studies, as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, and is currently completing her doctoral dissertation in Politics from Oxford, as a Visiting Scholar at the University of California, Berkeley. She speaks English, Hindi, Kannada, Bengali, Tamil and Malayalam, and is challenged by yoga, while sustained by poetry, theatre and music.

Maame (Alice) Yelbert-Obeng (Program Associate for Sub-Saharan Africa) earned her MA in International Policy Studies with an emphasis on international norms, human rights, justice, and gender and development from the Monterey Institute of International Studies, and a BA in French and Spanish from Luther College in Iowa. Prior to the Global Fund, she interned with the UNICEF in Ghana working with the Sector for Rights Promotion and Protection for Women and Children. She also worked with World Savvy (formerly Project Spera) to integrate global issues into the curriculum for a network of Bay Area educators. Maame has consulted with the Global Education Partnership to enable Internet access to students in rural areas in East Africa. She has also designed a program to link African and American students. She has studied in Guatemala and France, where she taught English, and is a graduate of the Global Women’s Leadership Network’s Women Leaders for the World (2009) program. Maame was born and raised in Ghana. She is fluent in French, Spanish and Ghanaian languages (Twi, Fante and Ga).

Zeina Zaatari (Senior Program Officer for Middle East and North Africa) earned her PhD in Cultural Anthropology with an emphasis in Feminist Theory from the University of California at Davis. She earned an MA in Anthropology at Iowa State University and a BA in Sociology at the American University of Beirut. Zeina conducted fieldwork with women’s groups and women activists in South Lebanon detailing their life histories and the ways they negotiated their work in civil society of a post-war country. Prior to joining the Global Fund for Women, she had been teaching courses on women of the Arab and Muslim worlds, on gender and sexuality as well as religion and society at the University of California at Davis. She has delivered lectures and presentations on women and war, Arab women’s movements, scholarly activism, and Arab American feminists. Zeina published a Report on Women’ s Freedom in Lebanon (Freedom House) and recently authored a report on Advancing Women’s Rights in Conflict Zones in the Arab World (in Arabic) published by the UNESCWA. Zeina is a founding member of the Radical Arab Women’s Activist Network, the National Council of Arab Americans, and Sunbula: Arab Feminists for Change in the Bay Area, California. She served on the board of Partnership for Immigrant Leadership and Action (2006- 2007) and is one of the producers of the radio show, Voices of the Middle East and North Africa, on KPFA 94.1. Zeina was born and raised in South Lebanon. She speaks Arabic, French and English.

top  

Development & Communications

Deborah Holmes (Vice President, Communications) has a BA in Journalism from the University of Nebraska - Lincoln.  Deborah has more than 30 years experience in media, healthcare, executive relations, internal/external communications, special events, and not-for-profit.  As Senior Vice President at Fleishman Hillard International Communications, Deborah served a variety of clients the retail, healthcare, pharmaceutical, public health and technology sectors. In addition to serving as Global Co-Chair of the Multicultural Practice group, Deborah was also member of the firm’s Global Healthcare and Sustainability practice groups where she helped guide award winning programs and initiatives.

Prior to Fleishman-Hillard she served as Director of Public Relations and Marketing for Truman Medical Centers, an academic health system in Kansas City, Missouri. An accomplished television news reporter and analyst for more than 30 years, Deborah has worked for local and international news organizations. She has received numerous awards for investigative reporting and documentaries.  Deborah is conversant in French.

Lanell Dike (Acting Vice President, Development) is a seasoned fundraising professional with over twelve years direct experience in the non-profit field. From 1999-2007, she conceived of and expanded the Global Fund’s individual donor program. Applying her passion for building community and relationships, she increased our support base from 3,500 people to more than 20,000 who contribute over $5 million annually. In November 2007, Lanell left the Global Fund to develop her practice and skill as an artist. She also provided fundraising consulting services to nonprofits and maintained a fundraising blog called Know Abundance. Prior to the Global Fund, she worked with City Year and Community Enterprises. Lanell graduated from UC Santa Cruz with a degree in Community Studies and History.

Sarah Costa (Director of Special Projects and New York Representative) For the past twelve years, she has worked as a Program Officer at the Ford Foundation, managing programs on sexuality and reproductive health, HIV/AIDS and women's rights. She created Ford's first reproductive health program in Brazil, which supported many groundbreaking research, public education and policy initiatives. Prior to joining Ford, she was a Professor at Brazil's largest medical foundation where she taught and conducted research on women's health policy and social development. She served on the Board of the Funders Network on Population, Reproductive Health and Rights. She was also a member of the Advisory Committee to the National Council on Women's Rights in Brazil, served on the boards of several women's NGOs and was a Technical Advisor to the state government of Rio de Janeiro. Sarah was born and raised in England where she earned a Master's Degree in Demography from London University and a Ph.D. in Social Medicine from Oxford University. She has published numerous papers and articles on women's health and reproductive rights in both English and Portuguese. 

Lillian Cincone (Special Projects Assistant) has a BA in psychology and an MA in the social sciences with an emphasis on women's studies. Her Master's thesis on sex tourism to Thailand has been published. She works with the International Women's Studies Institute, an organization that provides summer overseas travel/study programs for women to Greece, Israel, Kenya, Turkey, Australia, the Baltics and Spain. She served as a board member and PAC member of the California State National Organization for Women.

Rachel Humphrey (Director of Philanthropic Partnerships) has over 12 years experience in the nonprofit sector. Prior to joining the Global Fund for Women in 2003, Rachel worked at Yosemite National Institutes, Wu Yee Children's Services and the American Himalayan Foundation. She earned a Master of Nonprofit Administration degree from the University of San Francisco, where she completed a thesis on barriers to international giving by US-based foundations. Rachel graduated Magna cum Laude from Bowdoin College with a BA in Anthropology and Asian Studies and a minor in Women's Studies. In addition to her management, facilitation and fund-raising skills, Rachel is a certified leadership coach and yoga instructor. Rachel has traveled throughout the Himalaya and has advised and volunteered for numerous Tibetan support groups. She used to speak a little Spanish, Nepali and Tibetan.

Heather Masaki (Development Associate for Major Gifts) was born and raised on the island of O'ahu. She graduated summa cum laude in Women's Studies and Religious Studies from San Diego State University, where she was selected as the Women's Studies Outstanding Graduating Senior. While at university, Heather led an active feminist organization on campus and has traveled twice to India and once to Turkey as part of a feminist travel study group focused on the international women's movement and women-led NGOs. An avid supporter of progressive media and social justice, Heather previously worked with the National Radio Project in Oakland, where she currently serves as a member of the Executive Board of Directors. Heather is also passionate about reproductive justice and has interned at NARAL Pro-Choice California. 

Kelly McVicker (Development Officer) graduated from Duke University with a degree in Comparative Area Studies and a certificate in Film and Video. While at Duke, Kelly served as music editor for the university's arts and entertainment magazine and wrote for the Raleigh-based newspaper The News and Observer. Kelly began her non-profit career at the Pacific Institute for Women's Health in Los Angeles, where she managed their award-winning media campaign, "Emergency Contraception: Because $#*! Happens." Born and raised in Kansas, Kelly has studied in Spain and traveled throughout Latin America and Europe. She speaks fluent Spanish and conversational Italian.

Dharna Obermaier (Annual Giving Manager) holds a BA in Psychology from Dominican University. Prior to joining the Global Fund’s development team in 2008, Dharna managed annual fund development, direct marketing and online fundraising at Seva Foundation in Berkeley. Her non-profit experience also includes grant writing at Hospice By The Bay and program evaluation and development for Marin County’s Division of Aging. Dharna’s commitment to women’s human rights dates back to serving as a book buyer for a women’s bookstore collective in northern Europe.  She has been a practitioner of yoga and other meditation in movement forms for many years. Born and raised in Germany, she has lived in Andorra, UK and India and traveled extensively in Europe and Asia.

Laura Shapiro (Web Communications Officer) has been designing and building for the web since 1996, primarily for non-profit organizations and educational institutions in San Francisco. She led Mother Jones through two redesigns in her six years there. Her roots are in feminist theater, and prior to her work on the web she directed plays, stage managed, administered, and fundraised for dozens of non-profit theaters in the bay area, including the Brava Theater Center and the Working Women Festival.

Christine Ahn (Communications and Research Analyst) is a policy analyst with expertise in globalization, philanthropy and Korea. She is the editor of Shafted: Free Trade and America's Working Poor (Food First Books, 2003) and a contributing author to The Revolution Will Not be Funded (South End Press 2007). Ms. Ahn has been interviewed on CNN/Headline News, NBC Today Show, Al-Jazeera, Voice of America, and National Public Radio, and has published widely in mainstream and alternative press, including The International Herald Tribune, Asia Times, San Francisco Chronicle and TomPaine. She is a co-founder of the Korea Policy Institute and Korean Americans for Fair Trade and former director of the peace program at the Women of Color Resource Center, where she produced the anti-militarism fashion show and documentary, "Fashion Resistance to Militarism " now on display at the International Museum of Women. She has worked with the Institute for Food and Development Policy/Food First, Legal Aid Society of DC, Bread for the City, and the American Civil Liberties Union.  She is a fellow at the Oakland Institute and a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies’ Foreign Policy In Focus. Ms. Ahn holds a master’s degree in public policy from Georgetown University.

Caitlin Stanton (Senior Development Officer) has worked with the development team at the Global Fund for five years and traveled on behalf of the Global Fund in Ethiopia, Kenya and Mozambique. Previously, she worked with the Mills College CARES (Community Action, Reciprocal Education, and Service) Center, implementing community service and service-learning programs. She has interned at the East Bay Institute for Urban Arts and in the Oakland Public Schools. She has studied in Okinawa, Japan and Cape Town, South Africa where she researched the impact of the arts in social change movements. Caitlin holds a BA in dramatic arts from Mills College in California.

Jenifer Wanous (Development Officer of Special Events) brings a passion for event planning with over eight years of experience. She helped coordinated the first ever "International Sex Worker's Seminar" in Bangkok, Thailand, the annual "UNtraining Public Event" as well as numerous events in the entertainment industry and Thanksgiving dinner every year for her family and friends.   She received her BA in Community Studies from the University of California Santa Cruz.  In 2000, she lived in Bangkok, Thailand and interned with former Global Fund for Women grantee, "Empower", who educate and support women involved in the tourist sex industry.  Jennifer has studied Spanish in Central America and has worked with women's health organizations in the region.  Jenifer joined the Global Fund in the San Francisco office and is now living in New York City, as a part of the New York office there.

Amelia Wu (Director of Philanthropic Partnerships) joins the team with passion for fundraising as a vehicle for social change. She has over 15 years of both fundraising and program experience with a range of international nonprofit organizations, including Room to Read, the Asia Foundation, Give2Asia, and six years from 1999-2005 on the Programs side of the Global Fund for Women. Amelia believes that the Global Fund plays a special role in the international women’s rights movement and in the field of feminist philanthropy, which makes it a special place to do fundraising. Drawing on her experience as both a fundraiser and a programmer, she hopes to mobilize networks and resources worldwide to help the Global Fund and the international women’s movement achieve its goals. Amelia graduated with a masters in public policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, where she focused on international development and political economy, as well as a bachelor of arts in economics from Cornell University. She is also the mother of three girls, who keep her centered and motivate her work to make the world a better place for women and girls.

top  

Administration

Dale Needles (Chief Operations Officer) earned a BA in Slavic Languages and Literature from the University of California at Berkeley and an MA in Nonprofit Administration from the University of San Francisco. With 20 years of experience in the nonprofit sector, Dale has been the CFO for the Hispanic Scholarship Fund and the Center for Citizen Initiatives. Dale is also the co-founder of the Fund for International Nonprofit Development, an international nonprofit organization, which provides small grants and management assistance to Russian non-governmental organizations. Dale is from the US and is conversant in Russian and Spanish.

Annalisa Synnestvedt (Finance Officer) did her graduate research in Women’s Studies at UCLA, as well as her undergraduate work in Women’s Studies at Temple University in Philadelphia. At UCLA, she focused her research on the effects of US funding policies on sexual minorities worldwide, and examined the myriad strategies that non-governmental organizations employ to counter these regressive policies.  She has over ten years of non- and for-profit accounting experience, and provides pro bono accounting consulting services to non-profit organizations in the Bay Area.  She speaks conversational Spanish.

Mia Briones (Administrative Assistant, New York) holds a BA in Peace and Conflict Studies from UC Berkeley, with a concentration in young women’s issues in Sub-Saharan Africa. Upon graduation, she lived and volunteered with the Bagamoyo Women’s Development Network in Bagamoyo, Tanzania, where she was able to learn about the economic challenges women’s micro-finance groups face in Tanzania. As an Oakland, California, native, Mia also strongly advocates for social justice and equal opportunities for communities of color in the Bay Area. Her interests lie in exploring the similarities of health issues between young women of color in the United States and young women in Sub-Saharan Africa. As a former Program Assistant, she has recently joined the Development team in GFW’s New York office.

Sarah Chester (Grants Administrator) holds a Bachelor's degree in Sociology from San Francisco State University. After studying in Zimbabwe, she completed a cross-cultural comparative analysis on the AIDS pandemic in San Francisco, California and Harare, Zimbabwe. Before joining the Global Fund, Sarah interned at the California Association of Human Relations Organization where she researched human rights violations throughout California, and worked on monitoring hate crime groups on the internet.

Sheila Corwin (Administrative Officer) holds a teaching credential from Mills College in Oakland, California, and earned her BA in Psychology from the University of California at Santa Cruz. Prior to joining the Global Fund, she worked as an Oakland public school teacher. Sheila brings nearly a decade of management experience, including five years as Director of the South American Explorers, a non-profit foundation in Quito, Ecuador. She is proficient in Spanish.  

Diana Di Battista (Grants Administration Associate) received her BA degree from UC Berkeley in international development studies where she focused on the intersection of human rights law and environmental policy. Diana studied human rights law, Chilean politics and culture, and Latin American colonial history at the University of Chile. Fluent in Italian and Spanish, she also speaks conversational Portuguese and French.

Mykkah Herner (Human Resources Associate) has an MA in Organizational Psychology from the Center for Creative Change at Antioch University Seattle. He strives to sustain and develop internal operations that, mirroring the external, are passionate, thoughtful, and lead to social change.  He received a BA in Psychology and Spanish from Lafayette College in Pennsylvania.  He comes to the Global Fund from Babeland, a feminist adult toy company. After growing up outside of New York City, he’s spent most of his adult life narrowing in on the Bay Area from Seattle and San Diego.

Fennis Ho (Director of Finance and Human Resources) earned her MA in women's studies from San Francisco State University. Her award-winning thesis concentrated on the complex landscape of women's identity using various theories on nationalism, sexuality and ethnicity. She received her BA from the University of California at San Diego with a major in communications and minors in Asia studies and sociology. She was born in Taiwan and speaks English and Taiwanese.

Karen Ishimaru (Information Management Officer) earned her undergraduate degree in East Asian Studies at UC Berkeley and has a Masters in Public Policy from UCLA. She spent a year in Japan studying at the International Christian University and later coordinated an exchange program bringing together nonprofit professionals in the U.S. and Japan. She has worked with various nonprofits in the Bay Area that focus on youth and financial literacy. Prior to joining Global Fund, she worked as a research associate with a consulting firm providing evaluation and information-based services.   

Lilian Loyola (Human Resources Associate) has a graduate and under-graduate degree in Psychology from the National Autonomous University of Mexico. She has experience working as a Cognitive Behavioral Counselor. Lilian volunteers at Upwardly Global where she applies her interviewing skills to help immigrant professionals prepare for the US job market, and has worked in a Benefits Administration company. Lilian is currently also studying a Certificate in Human Resources at UC Berkeley Extension. In her free time, she practices her communication and leadership skills as a member of the San Francisco Toastmasters club. She is fluent in English and Spanish.

Eryn Mathewson (Administrative Assistant) was born in Colorado and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She attended Howard University in Washington, DC, which she often describes as “one of the best decisions I have ever made.”  After earning a BA in anthropology and Spanish at Howard, Eryn interned at an NGO in Peru working on reproductive rights issues with communities in Lima.  Eryn is deeply interested in focusing on the connections between the education and juvenile justice system as a crucial issue of racial justice in the US. She comes to the Global Fund out of her interest in working to improve US foreign relations as a way to promote women’s human rights globally.

Melissa Nunan-Lew (Executive Assistant to the President and CEO) holds a Bachelor's degree in Early Childhood Education from San Francisco State University. Prior to Global Fund for Women, Melissa worked for an International Venture Capital firm bringing over ten years of experience in office management and executive assistance. Melissa is a native of San Francisco.

Randy Trigg (Senior Information Management Officer) received his Ph.D. from the University of Maryland in computer science. He lived and taught in Denmark for three years where he learned the practice of participatory design from its Scandinavian founders. Randy has also lived in Vietnam and Brazil. He was born in the US and speaks English and Danish.

Orion Trist (IT Associate) is an organizer and activist and has led peace projects and marches in Marin County, where he lived for four years before moving to San Francisco in 2009. He loves to gather community into creative spaces and mobilize them to work for positive cultural change. Orion is a proponent of alternative energies like biofuels, with in-depth knowledge of sustainability issues. He runs his own car on waste vegetable oil. He is a certified permaculturist and sits on the board of directors for the Oakland permaculture non-profit Planting Justice. He holds a bachelors degree in Environmental Studies and Geography from the University of Oregon, in Eugene. He is an advocate for Bioregionalism; sustainability based on stewardship of the land and keeping it local. In this vein of minimizing his carbon footprint, he rides his bike to work.

Wendi Deetz (Office Manager) joins the Global Fund after working as the Operations Manager for the National AIDS Memorial, a living tribute to all lives touched by HIV/AIDS. She is a passionate anti-violence activist and self-defense instructor. Since moving to the Bay Area 12 years ago, she has served as a board member and teaching collective member for several feminist, anti-violence organizations. In 2007, Wendi had the life-changing opportunity to travel to Kenya to train self-defense instructors in Nairobi for "I’m Worth Defending," an innovative violence-prevention program that provides resources for survivors. Wendi holds a Bachelor’s Degree in English & Women’s Studies and a minor in Queer Studies from UCLA. Wendi believes it’s incredibly important to be out - as a survivor, a queer woman, and as a white and trans ally. A California native, Wendi lives in Oakland with her five-year-old mutt, Djuna. She speaks Spanish and would very much like to know more than a few phrases in Swahili one day.