The Executive Management Team:
Kavita N. Ramdas President and Chief Executive Officer
Dale Needles Chief Operations Officer
Shalini Nataraj Vice President, Programs
Jennifer Weber Vice President, Development
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. Kavita recently joined the Global Development Advisory Panel of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation 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.
Ashley Allen (Program Associate for the Americas) earned a BA in Spanish language and literature from Wellesley College and a minor in women's studies with a concentration in the literary and cinematic representations of women of color. Prior to coming to the Global Fund for Women, Ashley worked for a number of nonprofit organizations focusing on the rights and civic participation of women and children. Ashley is from the US and has spent time in Costa Rica and Mexico. She speaks English and Spanish, and has studied Mandarin Chinese.
Angelika Arutyunova (Program Officer for Europe and the Former Soviet States), ethnically Armenian and a native of Uzbekistan, received her Master of Science in international development from Oklahoma State University. Angelika's experience includes participating in international debating championships and presenting at the international conferences on democracy and women's rights in Central Asia and volunteering with non-governmental women's organizations in Samarkand. In 2004, Angelika planned and co-led the Global Fund's first advisor and grantee forum in Central Asia, bringing together 45 participants from eight countries. In 2006, Angelika organized a series of national fora in the Caucasus and the Balkans, and the first ever regional convening of women's rights groups in the Caucasus as well as the regional meeting of feminists in the Balkans.
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 (Program Officer for the Americas) was born in Mexico City. She earned both a Master's degree in Women's Studies and a graduate diploma in Migration and Refugee Studies from York University, and has a law degree from Universidad de Londres. Erika comes to the Global Fund with significant experience with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, where she has served as a Protection Officer in Ecuador, Venezuela, Peru and Panama, 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. She is fluent in Spanish and English.
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.
Elaine Sihoatani Howard (Program Associate for Asia and Oceania) earned her MA (Hons) in International Development Studies from the University of Auckland (New Zealand), and her BA in Anthropology from the University of California at Berkeley. Prior to joining the Global Fund, she was Director of the Tonga National Youth Congress, the umbrella organization for youth groups in the Kingdom of Tonga. She also served as the Chairperson of the Commonwealth of Nations’ Regional Youth Caucus (South Pacific), a body of young leaders from 14 countries who advocate on behalf of youth inclusion in public policy. In this position, she was also the only woman to serve on the Executive Committee of Pan-Commonwealth Youth Caucus, an advocacy body of young leaders from 53 countries. Elaine has traveled extensively throughout the Pacific Islands, and is the first Pacific Islander to ever work at the Global Fund.
Bessma Mourad (Program Associate for the Middle East and North Africa) graduated from University of California at Santa Cruz with a BA in Environmental Studies and a minor in Legal Studies. Following graduation, she interned for the Development Review Commission in Micronesia, where she worked on biodiversity and sustainability in Kosrae, and then joined the Center for Environmental Health in Oakland, California as the Development Manager. She is a member of the Bay Area Arab Women's Collective, the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, and Sunbula: Arab Women for Change. Bessma is of Lebanese origin, raised in California, and speaks Arabic.
Muadi Mukenge (Senior Program Officer for Africa) brings 13 years of program management and communications experience applied in the non-profit sector and academia. Prior to joining the Global Fund in April 2004, Mukenge served as Program Officer for Africa at the Pacific Institute for Women’s Health, where she managed training and evaluation projects in reproductive health and women's empowerment, and managed the Institute’s grant-making program and communications strategies initiative in several African countries. Mukenge holds a Master’s Degree in African Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles. 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, African development and human rights, and foreign policy toward Africa, and has contributed to several articles on women's rights and African development.
Loveline Afor Tangwan (Program Associate for Africa) was born and raised in Cameroon. She earned a double BS in Women and Gender Studies/Sociology and Anthropology from the University of Buea, Cameroon, and a Training of Trainers diploma at the International Labour Organisation. Prior to joining the Global Fund, she worked with Solidarity Health Foundation Buea, NW Provincial Special Fund for Health and the Women's Empowerment Centre Cameroon. She is a member of several associations in Cameroon that promote the education of youth and the equality of women.
Dechen Tsering (Program Officer for Asia & Oceania) earned a Masters degree in international public health from Tulane University and a Bachelor of Arts in environmental science from Antioch University. Prior to joining the Global Fund, Dechen worked with the Seva Foundation in California, which strives to improve health care in the Global South through a holistic approach. At the Seva Foundation, she focused her program work on India, Nepal and Cambodia. In addition, Dechen has worked for the Trace Foundation, which promotes the cultural continuity and sustainable development of Tibetan communities within China, and has a strong activist background. She is fluent in Tibetan, Hindi, Nepali, Newari and English.
Alice Yelbert-Obeng (Program Associate for Africa) earned her MA in international policy studies with an emphasis on international norms, human rights and justice from the Monterey Institute of International Studies, and a BA in French and Spanish from Luther College. Prior to the Global Fund, she interned with UNICEF in Ghana. She also worked with Project Spera to integrate global issues into curriculum for a network of Bay Area educators. Alice consulted to Global Education Partnership developing innovative programs in Africa and between African and American students. She studied in Guatemala and France, where she taught English. Alice 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 the Middle East & 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. She has delivered several presentations on women and war, Arab women's movements and Arab American feminists, and has recently authored a report on women's freedom in Lebanon. Zeina is a founding member of the Radical Arab Women's Activist Network and the National Council of Arab Americans. She also is part of the collective Sunbula: Arab Feminists for Change in the Bay Area, California. She acts as project coordinator for the Defense of Civil Rights in Academia, a project of the National Council of Arab Americans. She currently serves on the board of Partnership for Immigrant Leadership and Action. Zeina was born and raised in South Lebanon. She speaks Arabic, French and English.
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Development & Communications
Jennifer Weber (Vice President, Development) comes to the Global Fund with over 12 years of experience in the non-profit sector, including healthcare, higher education and secondary education. Jennifer was instrumental in the recent success of a six-year $300 million comprehensive campaign at Children’s Hospital in Seattle, WA, where she served as Senior Director of Development for Major Gifts. Prior to her time at Children’s Hospital, Jennifer worked at the University of Washington in Seattle and at Menlo School in Atherton, CA. Jennifer holds a BA in English Literature from Occidental College and an MA in Educational Administration from San Jose State University.
Jennifer’s involvement in the women’s movement goes back many years. Her decision to join the Global Fund is fueled by her deep desire to advance equality for women and girls around the world. Jennifer looks forward to increasing the money available to women’s human rights organization – both by increasing the assets the Global Fund for Women uses for grantmaking and by influencing other foundations to increase funding to women and girls worldwide.
Suzanne Allcroft (Development Assistant) earned her BA from UC Berkeley in Development Studies with a focus on Latin American political economy and a minor in Spanish. Prior to the Global Fund, she interned at TransFair USA, where she gained experience in non-profit fundraising as well as researched the impact of Fair Trade on the working conditions of female laborers. She has tutored girls in BUILD, a literacy program for children in Richmond and worked at Peace Action West, an advocacy group for peaceful U.S. foreign policy. She was born in Los Angeles and has lived in Mexico and Spain.
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) earned her 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. She earned a BA in anthropology and Asian studies, with a minor in women's studies, from Bowdoin College. Before joining the Global Fund, Rachel worked at Yosemite National Institutes as Grants Manager, at Wu Yee Children's Services and at the American Himalayan Foundation. Rachel has traveled throughout the Himalayas and has advised and volunteered for numerous Tibetan support groups.
Karen Ishimaru (Communications & Information Associate) 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.
Heather Masaki (Administrative Associate to the Vice President of Development) was born and raised on the island of O’ahu. She graduated with highest honors with a BA in Women’s Studies and a minor in Religious Studies. While at university, she led an active feminist organization on campus and 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. Prior to joining the Global Fund, Heather worked with the National Radio Project in Oakland, where she currently serves as a member of the Executive Board, and she has also interned for 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.
Erin Oglesby (Development Associate for Individual Giving) earned her BA in political science with a minor in international relations from San Francisco State University. Before joining the Global Fund, Erin worked as the Volunteer and Donations Coordinator at the International Rescue Committee in San Francisco where she was committed to assisting and empowering refugees resettling in the Bay Area. Erin also interned with the Department of State at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations in New York and at the Oakland Asian Cultural Center. Erin grew up in Arizona, Hawaii and California and has traveled throughout Mexico and Europe.
Preeti Mangala Shekar (Communications Associate) is a feminist
journalist and activist from India, and a radio producer with KPFA 94.1
FM for Women's Magazine, a diverse
feminist show that prioritizes the voices and perspectives of women of
color in the US and around the world. As a radio producer, Preeti
focuses on the devastating impact of globalization and international
development on women in the global south. Preeti holds a Masters degree in Women's
Studies and a post-graduate diploma in print journalism from the Asian College of Journalism, in Chennai, India.
Sande Smith (Director of Public Education) has ten years experience in communications and public relations for non-profit organizations and corporations. As a public relations professional, she has gained coverage for her clients in local and national publications such as the Contra Costa Times, Forbes and USA Today. She has worked as a writer with organizations such as Marin Abused Women's Services, the Nationwide Women's Program of American Friends Service Committee and the Free Library of Philadelphia. Sande has authored books about Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X, and co-authored a book profiling women of the 20th century. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Portuguese and Brazilian studies from Brown University.
Caitlin Stanton (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 (Events Officer) brings a passion for event planning with over six 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 is actively on the pursuit of examining her white supremacist conditioning with the support of "The UNtraining", an antiracist group, which she has been apart of for over two years. She received her BA in Community Studies from the University of California Santa Cruz.
Annie Wilkinson (Development Associate for Philanthropic Partnerships) received her BA in human biology in 2006 from Stanford
University with a concentration on women's health and human rights and
a minor in African Studies. For her thesis research, she worked with a
Global Fund grantee group of women lawyers to examine the political
context surrounding women's rights legislation in Uganda, for which she
received an award from the Feminist Studies Department at Stanford.
Before joining the Global Fund, she interned with Pact in Dar es
Salaam, Tanzania. Annie grew up in Montana and has also
lived and studied in Sweden, Uganda, and Tanzania. She speaks
conversational Swedish, Spanish, and some Swahili.
Kate Zondervan (Development Assistant, New York) earned her BA in art history from Oberlin College. After graduating, she spent a few years in the high art world of auction houses in Cleveland and San Francisco. Upon moving to New York, Kate discovered that her true calling was in helping women find empowerment through their reproductive health choices. Prior to joining the Global Fund, Kate worked at the Center for Reproductive Rights. She is a birth doula and is pursing a Masters degree in midwifery.
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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.
Arnetra Burnett (Receptionist/Administration Assistant) earned a BA in fashion design from Academy of Art University. When not at the Global Fund she works with a bridal designer creating non-traditional wedding gowns with unconventional materials, and also creates one of a kind jewelry for bridal collections. Arnetra shows her passion for women in art by volunteering with GenArt.
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 (Office Manager) 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.
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.
Annalisa Synnestvedt (Finance Officer) earned her BA in Women’s Studies from Temple University in Philadelphia and is currently finishing her Master’s degree in Women’s Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. 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 speaks conversational Spanish.
Randy Trigg (Research Analyst) 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.
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