Marilia Bezerra

Marilia Bezerra is the founding partner of CARE Enterprises Inc., a for-profit subsidiary of CARE focused on creating gender justice through impact investment, and serves as Director, Global Philanthropists Circle at Synergos, a community of leading philanthropic families and social investors using their time, influence, and resources to fight poverty and social injustice.

Previously, Marilia founded and lead Aldeia Works, a boutique consulting firm focused on supporting philanthropists, corporations, and nonprofits in the creation of meaningful social impact. She helped develop partnerships and managed the rapid growth of Purpose.com, a company using new media to deploy the collective power of millions of citizens and consumers to help solve some of the world’s biggest problems. In her years as a member of the executive leadership at the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), where she had the pleasure of working with President Clinton, she took a central role in building the organization from its start-up phase to the successful catalyst for action and global convening body it later became. Marilia also served as the business and financial manager for AEA Consulting, a management consulting company with a client base of leading nonprofit cultural organizations.

Marilia received a Master of Science degree “with distinction” in global affairs from New York University in 2007 and a law degree from the Federal University of Ceará in 1996. While a law student, she founded the Andanças Art School, an institution dedicated to providing art education and bridging the gap between children from the most privileged areas and children in the slums of her native Fortaleza.

Olga Byrne

Olga Byrne has over 15 years of experience supporting and advocating for the rights of immigrants in the U.S. in the context of program development, policy, advocacy, and legal services. As Director of Immigration for the International Rescue Committee (IRC), Olga oversees immigration legal services across IRC’s network of 24 U.S. offices and co-leads a Task Force of experts overseeing IRC’s response to the humanitarian crisis at the U.S. southern border. Prior to joining IRC, Olga was a senior researcher at Human Rights First, where she conducted research and fact-finding on policy issues impacting asylum seekers and refugees in the United States. Prior to that, Olga taught a course on child migration and launched a project at Fordham Law School’s Feerick Center for Social Justice to improve policy and practice impacting immigrant children and families. Olga was a U.S. Fulbright-Schuman Scholar in 2011-2012 in the European Union, where she researched policies impacting unaccompanied and separated children. From 2006 to 2011, Olga worked at the Vera Institute of Justice on national programs aiming to increase access to legal services for adults and children in U.S. immigration custody. Olga graduated from Cornell University in 2001 and Fordham Law School in 2004.

Sarah Costa

Sarah Costa is the Executive Director of the Women’s Refugee Commission (WRC), a leading global organization advocating for the rights and protection of women, children, and youth displaced by conflict and crisis. Under Sarah’s leadership, WRC has expanded its ability to ensure refugees’ right to sexual and reproductive health care, right to safety from gender-based violence, and right to economic and social empowerment.

Sarah has more than 25 years’ experience in the fields of women’s rights, reproductive health, gender, and youth development, as well as global philanthropy. Throughout her career, she has worked in partnership with those closest to the issues, from government officials to local women’s organizations.

Before joining WRC in 2010, Sarah served as regional director of the Global Fund for Women, a grant-making organization that supports women’s rights organizations working on economic security, health, education, and leadership. Previously, she was a program officer for the Ford Foundation in Brazil and New York, developing and managing international and national programs on gender, sexuality, reproductive health, women’s rights, HIV/AIDS, and health policy.

During her tenure as a professor of women’s health at the National School of Public Health, Brazil, Sarah was active in the national women’s movement, serving as a member of the Advisory Committee to the National Council on Women’s Rights. She also served on the boards of several women’s organizations. She is a member of World Learning’s Global Advisory Council. Sarah holds a master’s degree in medical demography from London University and a PhD in social medicine from Oxford University.

Abigail E. Disney

Abigail E. Disney is a filmmaker, activist and the Emmy-winning director of The Armor of Light. As president and CEO of the documentary production company Fork Films, she produced the groundbreaking Pray the Devil Back to Hell and co-created the subsequent PBS series Women, War & Peace. She is also the co-founder and chair of Level Forward, a new breed storytelling company focused on systemic change through creative excellence, balancing financial and social returns. The companies and stories that have the most meaning for Abigail are the ones that foster human understanding. She has executive produced and supported over 100 documentary films through Fork Films’ funding program. She also created the nonprofit Peace is Loud, which uses storytelling to advance social movements, and the Daphne Foundation, which supports organizations working for a more equitable, fair and peaceful New York City.

Shirin Ebadi

Shirin Ebadi received the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts to promote human rights in Iran. She is the first Iranian and Muslim woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.  Shirin was one of the first female judges in Iran and the first Iranian woman to achieve Chief Justice status. She was dismissed from this position after the Islamic Revolution in 1979.  After obtaining her lawyer’s license in 1992, Shirin took on many controversial cases defending those subjected to human rights abuse and political dissidents and, as a result, has been arrested numerous times. She has written and published 14 books, including Until We Are Free: My Fight For Human Rights in Iran (2016) and continues to work for human rights while in exile from Iran.

Sam Feder

Cited by Indiewire as one of the “exciting trans filmmakers shaking up Hollywood” Sam Feder’s award-winning documentaries center the intersections of race, class, gender, and conflict within the queer and transgender community seeking to connect transgender struggles and liberation to the context of the present and legacy of the past. Sam’s current film, Disclosure: Trans Lives On Screen (executive produced by Laverne Cox), examines the images of trans people that permeate popular culture and the ideologies behind them. Sam’s last feature, Kate Bornstein is a Queer and Pleasant Danger, was named one of the best documentaries of 2014 by The Advocate, won the James Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism, and multiple international best feature film awards. Sam’s work has been made possible with support from The Ford Foundation Just/Films, Fork Films, California Humanities, The Jerome Foundation, The MacDowell Colony, and Yaddo Artist Residency.

Pam Foster

Pam Foster serves as Chief Operating Officer of Co-Impact, a global philanthropic collaborative focused on systems change efforts aiming to improve the lives of millions of people in low- and middle-income countries by advancing education, improving people’s health, and providing economic opportunity so that all families, no matter where they live, have a more hopeful future. In that role, Pam provides strategic leadership across the organization focusing primarily on operations, governance, and compliance. Prior to joining Co-Impact in 2017, Pam served in various roles over 20 years for The Rockefeller Foundation, most recently serving as Managing Director, Program Operations, and Associate General Counsel. In between two stints at the Foundation, Pam was an associate with the Wall Street law firm Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen and Hamilton, where she specialized in ERISA, employment and executive compensation.

Pam is Chair of the Board of Directors of Safe Passage Project, a NYC-based 501(c)(3) organization providing legal representation for unaccompanied minors in immigration court, Vice Chair of the board of Philanthropy New York, and a member of the Advisory Board of the Center for Effective Philanthropy. Pam received a bachelor’s degree with honors from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, and a JD, summa cum laude, from New York Law School, where she currently serves as on the Board of Trustees and as President of the Alumni Association.

Ruchira Gupta

Ruchira Gupta is an Emmy-winning journalist, who founded the Indian anti-trafficking organization, Apne Aap (www.ApneAap.org), that has helped more than 20,000 girls, women, and their family members exit systems of prostitution. Her journey began as a journalist when she made the Emmy-winning documentary, The Selling of Innocents. With the help of the documentary, Ruchira testified to the U.S. Senate for the passage of the first Trafficking Victim Protection Act and the UN for the passage of the UN Protocol to End Trafficking in Persons. In India, she led survivors of prostitution to get the first law on sex-trafficking passed after the 2012 Delhi gang rape case. She sits on the board of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women, Coalition to Abolish Prostitution, The Listen Charity, and the Global Fund to End Modern Slavery. Ruchira is a visiting professor at New York University and Distinguished Scholar at the University of California, Berkeley. Her work will be archived at Stanford Library. She dreams of a world in which no human being is bought or sold.

Sarah Haacke Byrd

Sarah Haacke Byrd is the Executive Director for Women Moving Millions. Sarah is responsible for building strategy and scale around WMM’s mission for greater impact in gender equality. For two decades, Sarah has been building, guiding, and leading non-profit organizations in Boston, Washington, D.C., and New York. She most recently served as Managing Director of actress Mariska Hargitay’s Joyful Heart Foundation with a mission to transform society’s response to sexual assault, domestic violence, and child abuse. Sarah brings to WMM extensive experience in financial and operational management, strategy, fundraising, external affairs, and program. She shares a deep personal commitment to our space and has been described as a “joyful warrior” going to battle for women and girls every day. Sarah is a graduate of the University of Minnesota and holds a Masters in Positive Organizational Development and Change Management from Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University.

Sarah Henry

Sarah Henry is the Director of Global Programs within the Department of Pediatrics and Executive Director for the Gender Equality Center of Excellence at Stanford University. In this new role, she will be taking on a broader leadership role within the lab and also be working cross-university to build out a Gender Equality Center of Excellence. Sarah has been serving as a Program Director for the last three years developing a portfolio on Gender Equality, primarily with the development of a Lancet Series on Gender Equality, Norms, and Health. She has also been seconded to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation as a thought partner to advance thinking around how to strategically and intentionally incorporate a gender equality perspective across the foundation. Sarah has more than 15 years of experience working in global health with a focus on maternal, newborn, and child health. Sarah previously worked at Global Partnerships as the Director of Health Services responsible for building and managing a portfolio of initiatives in Latin America to help microfinance institutions (MFIs) and cooperative partners build on their credit delivery channels to provide essential health services with fully sustainable, scalable business models. Sarah also served as the Executive Director and Dominican Republic Country Director at World Connect, a Boston-based NGO dedicated to improving the health and well-being of women and children.

Taryn Higashi

Taryn Higashi is the Executive Director of Unbound Philanthropy. She was hired as Unbound’s first staff member in 2008 and, under Taryn’s leadership, Unbound has grown into a significant actor in the fight for immigrant and refugee justice, with offices in New York and London. Taryn is a strong advocate for investing in immigrants’ leadership, for using an intersectional approach to understand complex problems and develop more thoughtful strategies for investing in narrative and culture change, and for collaboration. Unbound is a member of several collaboratives, including two that Taryn co-founded, the Pop Culture Collaborative (PCC) and the Four Freedoms Fund. Prior to working at Unbound, from 1997 to 2008, Taryn managed the migrant and refugee rights portfolio at the Ford Foundation and served as Deputy Director of the human rights unit from 2001-2008. She has received numerous awards, including the Robert V. Scrivner Award for Creative Grantmaking from the Council on Foundations, which she shared with Geri Mannion of the Carnegie Corporation of New York for their creation of the Four Freedoms Fund; a 40th Anniversary Community Change Champion Award from the Center for Community Change; and a Human Rights Visionary Award from the Border Network for Human Rights. She serves on the Board of the International Refugee Assistance Project, as the Chair of the Advisory Board of the International Migration Initiative of the Open Society Foundations and on the Steering Committee of the Asian Women’s Giving Circle. She is a former Co-Chair of the Board of Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees. She resides in New York City with her husband and son.

Maria Hinojosa

As a reporter who was the first Latina in many newsrooms, Maria Hinojosa dreamt of a space where she could create independent, multimedia journalism that explores and gives a critical voice to the diverse American experience. She made that dream a reality in 2010 when she created Futuro Media Group, an independent, nonprofit organization based in Harlem, New York City, with the mission to create multimedia content for and about the new American mainstream. As the Anchor and Executive Producer of the Peabody Award-winning show Latino USA for NPR, as well as Co-Host of In The Thick, the Futuro Media’s new political podcast; Maria has informed millions about the changing cultural and political landscape in America and abroad. She is a new contributor to the long-running, award-winning news program CBS Sunday Morning, and a frequent guest on MSNBC. Throughout her nearly 30-year career as an award-winning journalist, Maria has reported for PBS, WNBC, and CNN, and anchored the Emmy Award-winning talk show Maria Hinojosa: One-on-One.

Jessica Houssian

Jessica Houssian fell in love with feminism as a little girl and has focused her career on advancing women’s equality ever since. Jessica is a Senior Advisor at Women Moving Millions, a global community of women philanthropists who invest boldly with a gender lens. Prior to her work with WMM, Jessica was a partner at Inspired Philanthropy Group – a boutique consulting firm supporting individual philanthropists and corporations to help create authentic, effective impact. Jessica holds a B.A. in Women & Gender Studies (Bates College) and an M.Sc. in Fundraising & Grantmaking (New York University), and currently serves on the Board of Directors of Landesa, RefugePoint and as Co-chair of The Houssian Foundation. In 2019, Jessica co-founded the Equality Fund, a Canadian-led collaboration that combines international feminist philanthropy and grant-making with an innovative investment arm, delivering new momentum for women’s movements and supporting the advancement of gender equality globally.

Deborah Jackson

After two decades raising capital for clients in the public and private markets at Goldman Sachs and a boutique firm, Deborah Jackson decided to focus on investing and supporting early-stage women founders in tech. She has invested in over 40 early-stage companies focused on hardware, SAAS, mobile-first, drug discovery, and health care technology and she now invests in the Plum Alley companies, adding to her portfolio.

In 2012, Deborah became an entrepreneur and co-founded a mobile tech accelerator and launched her company, Plum Alley, to advance women entrepreneurs. Since it was founded, Plum Alley has served over 1,500 women founders of companies in accessing new capital through increased sales via e-commerce and with crowdfunding. In 2016, Plum Alley broadened its strategy to invest in companies with women founders in the STEM fields given her expertise and the desire to activate more investors. Andrea Turner Moffitt joined the team at that time as a co-founder of Plum Alley Investments.

Deborah funded the company for the first years, and in late 2017, closed a seed round with prominent women and men across several industries. Plum Alley has opened the door for over 500 new investors as of August 2019 and given them a high-level way to direct a portion of their investable assets to women founders in the STEM fields who are leading the way in transformative technologies that will improve our future.

Carol Jenkins

Carol Jenkins is Co-President and CEO of the ERA Coalition and the Fund for Women’s Equality, sister organizations dedicated to the passage and enactment of the Equal Rights Amendment. Comprised of over 100 national and local organizations across the country, the Coalition works on federal legislation and advocacy in states.

Carol was the founding president of The Women’s Media Center, a nonprofit created in 2004 by Gloria Steinem, Robin Morgan, and Jane Fonda to increase coverage and participation of women in media.

A women’s rights activist, author, award-winning documentary producer, and Emmy Award-winning former television journalist, Carol hosts the three-time NY Emmy-nominated interview show, Black America, on CUNY TV, now entering its fifth season.

With her daughter, Elizabeth Gardner Hines, Carol is co-author of Black Titan: A. G. Gaston and the Making of a Black American Millionaire (2004). A biography of her uncle, a successful Alabama businessman and civil rights activist, the book won the Best Non-Fiction Award from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association.

As a pioneering African American television reporter, Carol was an anchor and correspondent for WNBC TV in New York for nearly 25 years. She reported from the floor of the national presidential conventions and, from South Africa, she reported on the release of Nelson Mandela from prison.

As past chair and current board member of Amref Health Africa/USA, an arm of the largest health NGO in Africa, Carol is engaged in efforts to support health programs for African women and girls. Her other board work includes the Feminist Press at CUNY, the Veteran Feminists of America, The Steering Committee of the Gloria Steinem Chair at Rutgers University, the Anne O’Hare McCormick Journalism Scholarship Board, the Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance, and Certified Humane.

Tawakkol Karman

Tawakkol Karman was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011 in recognition of her work in nonviolent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights to full participation in peacebuilding work in Yemen. Among Yemen’s opposition movement, she was known as “mother of the revolution” and “the iron woman.” Upon being awarded the prize, Tawakkol became the first Yemeni, the first Arab woman, and the second Muslim woman to win a Nobel Peace Prize. Her peace activities are centered around democracy, freedom and human rights, the fight against extremism and militarism, and the protection of children and women during wars and armed conflicts.

Kathryn C. Kaufman

Kathryn C. Kaufman has built a career serving both the public and private sectors, with a focus on pursuing how governments can support private industry to spur economic growth and stability. She currently serves as Managing Director, Global Women’s Issues. Kathryn is responsible for leading OPIC’s 2X Women’s Initiative, a top priority for the Administration.

Before joining OPIC, Kathryn was a founding partner at New Magellan Ventures (NMV), a venture capital and project development firm in Washington, D.C., where she oversaw the development of the company’s largest portfolio project, Texas Central Railway. Prior to joining NMV, Kathryn was a defense policymaker in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, serving as a Country Director for China and Taiwan on the Asia Pacific desk in the Secretary’s policy office. She also served in the United States Embassy Beijing, both in the Foreign Commercial Service Office and also in the Ambassador’s office as control officer for the Presidential Delegation to the 2008 Summer Olympic Games.

With an educational background in national security policy, Kathryn has worked on Capitol Hill and in the White House in the Office of Political Affairs. She is an active board member for College Bound and the American Institute Foreign Study board. ​​​​​​​

Elaine Kwon

Elaine Kwon is a prize-winning concert pianist, martial artist, and Lecturer in Music at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), whose diverse talents have placed her in a category of her own. Dr. Kwon performs globally as a soloist and chamber musician and has been broadcast on TV/radio in the U.S., China, and Bulgaria. She appeared as a soloist with numerous orchestras including the National Music Festival Symphony, Toronto Philharmonia, and Slovak Sinfonietta, among others. She headlined 7 sold-out benefit concerts at Carnegie Hall, collaborating with artists such as Questlove (The Roots) and David Bryan (Bon Jovi). She was featured on the Oprah Winfrey Show, StarTalk with Neil DeGrasse Tyson, and dozens of magazines, videos, ads, and books. Elaine holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree, and is the co-founder of the immersive music pairing series, Savor Your Senses®. She makes her home in New York City, where she continues to explore ways to express her passion for music, martial arts, creative performance, and optimal living.

Jordyn Lexton

Jordyn Lexton is the founder and CEO of Drive Change, an organization dedicated to creating thriving employment opportunities for formerly incarcerated young adults in the hospitality industry. After teaching English on Rikers Island for three years and witnessing the traumatic effects of adult jail on youth, Jordyn came up with the concept of Drive Change in 2012. Jordyn entered the re-entry field to work at esteemed organizations including CASES and the Center for Employment Opportunities, as well as for Governor Cuomo’s Work for Success program. Jordyn also spent seven months working as a manager on the Kimchi Taco Truck to learn the food truck business. Jordyn holds a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from Wesleyan University and a Master in Education from Pace University. Jordyn is a 2015 Echoing Green Fellow.

Pat Mitchell

Pat Mitchell is the co-founder, curator, and host of TEDWomen. Throughout her career as a journalist, Emmy-winning producer, and groundbreaking executive, Pat focused on elevating women’s stories and increasing their representation everywhere. She is chair of the Sundance Institute and the Women’s Media Center and a trustee of the VDAY movement, the Skoll Foundation, and the Acumen Fund. Pat is an advisor to Participant Media and served as a congressional appointment to The American Museum of Women’s History Advisory Council. She is the author of Becoming a Dangerous Woman: Embracing Risk to Change the World.

Tulaine Montgomery

Tulaine Montgomery is an accomplished social entrepreneur, educator, and community organizer. She is a Managing Partner and member of the Executive Team at New Profit. A member of the founding team that launched New Profit, Tulaine provides strategic and financial support to many of our nation’s most promising social innovations. Tulaine leads New Profit’s Inclusive Impact, a comprehensive, sector-wide systems change strategy designed to increase investment and capacity building support for leaders of color. Additionally, Tulaine is a member of New Profit’s Systems Solutions team and serves as a lead spokesperson for New Profit at a time of growing dialogue in philanthropy about the unprecedented opportunities and challenges facing the sector. She is Host and Executive Producer of “What Had To Be True”, New Profit’s podcast and an online forum for conversations with “America’s Problem Solvers”- the grounded visionaries and practical idealists working hard to make things better.

Darnell L. Moore

Darnell L. Moore is Head of U.S. Strategy and Programs at Breakthrough. He is the author of the 2019 Lambda Literary Award-winning memoir, No Ashes in the Fire: Coming of Age Black & Free in America, which was listed as a 2018 NYT Notable Book and a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Readers pick. In addition, he is the co-managing editor at The Feminist Wire and an editor of The Feminist Wire Books (University of Arizona Press series). Moore is also a writer-in-residence at the Center on African American Religion, Sexual Politics and Social Justice at Columbia University and a 2019 Innovation Fellow at the University of Southern California Annenberg Center.

Luma Mufleh

Empowering refugee children is personal for Luma Mufleh. The daughter and granddaughter of Syrian refugees, Luma grew up in Amman, Jordan, where she was one of the only Arab students in her class at an American school, and one of the only girls who played on her soccer team. As a young adult in a country where being gay was considered a crime, Luma came out to her parents and was disowned. Eventually granted asylum in the U.S., Luma navigated the broken immigration system to build a life for herself, finishing college, opening a coffee shop, and coaching soccer. Through the nonprofit she founded in 2006, Fugees Family, Luma has helped nearly 1,200 vulnerable refugee children from more than 22 countries. At their Fugees Academy schools, the U.S.’s first network of accredited school for refugees, students learn, heal, and grow through a unique educational model and required participation in playing and coaching soccer. With a growing network of schools, Luma is empowering refugee children to use their voices to reclaim and tell their own stories – shifting the narrative around refugees away from the current fear-mongering frame to one of courage, resilience, and creative potential.

Bradley Myles

Bradley Myles serves as CEO of Polaris, a global leader in the fight to eradicate human trafficking and to restore freedom to survivors. Since 2002, he has devoted himself to combating human trafficking and modern slavery on a local, national, and global scale.  Bradley’s early efforts focused on directly serving survivors, researching local human trafficking markets, and helping to build Washington DC’s first-ever Human Trafficking Task Force. Under his leadership, Polaris has worked to strengthen the U.S. national movement against human trafficking through policy advocacy, passing over 90 new laws in nearly all 50 states, and through a wide range of training and capacity-building programs.  He also helped launch Polaris’s operation of the United States National Human Trafficking Hotline (1-888-373-7888), a 24/7 operation that has now identified and responded to more than 50,000 cases of human trafficking nationwide, received calls directly from over 10,000 survivors, and formulated a unique typology of the 25 major types of human trafficking that exist in the present-day United States. This hotline and data hub model is now regarded as one of the best-functioning anti-trafficking hotlines in the world and has become a focal point of Polaris’ growing national and global programs.

Bradley is currently focusing his efforts on Polaris’s future strategy for the next decade, which includes working towards better anti-trafficking hotline coverage globally to build a stronger safety net for all 25 million victims of human trafficking worldwide, strengthening partnerships with the world’s leading technology companies, and undertaking new data-driven intervention efforts targeted towards eliminating specific types of modern slavery in the U.S. and around the world.  Bradley holds degrees in Psychology and Political Science from Stanford University. He is the 2017 recipient of the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship.

Jacqueline Novogratz

Jacqueline Novogratz is the founder and CEO of Acumen. Acumen is changing the way the world tackles poverty by investing in companies and leaders with character, competence, and moral leadership. Acumen invests pioneering philanthropic capital in sustainable businesses addressing the toughest problems of poverty. Under Jacqueline’s leadership, Acumen has invested $115 million in 113 companies providing critical goods and services to more than 270 million low-income people across Africa, Latin America, South Asia, and the United States. Acumen also has launched KawiSafi, an impact fund focused on off-grid solar in East Africa and is in the process of building several other for-profit facilities.

Acumen also cultivates a new kind of leader through its Fellows Programs and +Acumen, its online school for social change. To date, the organization has built a corps of 500+ Fellows. More than 450,000 individuals from 192 countries have taken +Acumen’s online courses. Acumen is now reimagining a global university designed to integrate the transformational depth of its fellowships with the scale of +Acumen to equip thousands of young changemakers with the tools and ecosystem to lead in today’s world.

Jacqueline sits on the board of the Aspen Institute. Her best-selling memoir The Blue Sweater chronicles her quest to understand poverty and bring dignity to the poor. In 2017, Forbes listed Jacqueline as one of the World’s 100 Greatest Living Business Minds.

Neera Nundy

Neera Nundy is the co-founder of Dasra, a strategic philanthropy foundation that for 20 years has been driving collaborative action to accelerate social change in India. Dasra’s global network extends to over 250 Dasra Giving Circle members that have supported NGOs at scale. Neera leads Dasra’s field-building platforms in the areas of adolescents, urban sanitation, and access to justice. In 2016, she launched the $50M 10to19 Adolescent Collaborative, a high-impact collaborative funding platform that unites funders, technical experts, government stakeholders, and social organizations to focus on key outcomes for adolescent empowerment. Similarly, in 2018, Dasra formed the Urban WSH Collaborative in partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Neera is also responsible for initiating the Dasra Social Impact Leadership Program with Harvard Business School, a first-of-its-kind executive education program for social sector leaders in India. This program has supported over 300 social sector leaders.

Neera has been critical to establishing partnerships with global leaders in development that include Azim Premji Philanthropic Initiatives, Children Investments Fund Foundation, Harvard University, Omidyar Network, Stanford PACS, Skoll Foundation, Tata Trusts, and USAID. She is on the global board of The Hunger Project and Disha Seema Centre – IIT Kharagpur; strategic and investment committees of Mann Deshi, Educate Girls, and the Education Alliance.

Neera holds a Master in Business Administration from Harvard Business School and is an Indian Leadership Initiative Fellow with Aspen Anantha Institute. She is a recipient of the Canadian Governor General’s Medallion for her dedication to addressing India’s critical development challenges and has been awarded the Forbes Philanthropy Award 2014, as a Crossover Leader. Neera lives in Mumbai, India with her co-founder and husband, Deval Sanghavi and their three sons, Ayush, Laxman, and Akbar.

T Ortiz

T Ortiz, A.K.A. Withelma “T” Ortiz Walker Pettigrew, is a Professional Orator, Human Rights Activist, and Motivational Personality. Currently, T holds two major roles: The Anti-Trafficking & Exploitation Coordinator at Baltimore Child Abuse Center in Baltimore, Maryland, USA and Founder of TalkWithT.com consulting. In this Capacity, T is a leading force in advocating for the civil and social rights of all people, with expertise in highlighting the intersectionality between the child welfare system and domestic human trafficking. She utilizes professional and personal experiences to emphasize the importance of self-agency and empowerment while overcoming adversity. In 2014, T was named one of TIME Magazine’s “100 Most Influential People in the world”, a TIME Magazine “30 under 30” in 2013, and a U.S. GLAMOUR Magazine “Woman of the Year” in 2011. Her advocacy has influenced many organizations including The United Nations, Google, The U.S. Congress, The White House, The American Bar Association, The Aspen Institute, MSNBC, and The Johns Hopkins Institution. Notably, she has lead a TEDx talk on Exploring Sexuality after Trauma and successfully petitioned the Associated Press to utilize practices conscious of survivor trauma and circumstance, such as the application of proper language in addressing child victims of sex trafficking. Additionally, she has embraced body positivity while having the opportunity to model for Swimsuits For All alongside International Supermodel Ashley Graham. T is a recent Magna Cum Laude graduate from Morgan State University with a degree in Strategic Communication.

Cecile Richards

Cecile Richards is a national leader for women’s rights and social and economic justice, and a co-founder of Supermajority — a new organization fighting for gender equity. She is also the author of the New York Times bestseller Make Trouble and former President of Planned Parenthood Federation of America and Planned Parenthood Action Fund. For 12 years, Cecile worked to increase affordable access to reproductive health care and to build a healthier and safer world for women and young people. After starting her career as a labor organizer, working with women earning the minimum wage, she went on to start her own grassroots organizations and later served as Deputy Chief of Staff to House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi. In 2011 and 2012, she was named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people in the World. Richards is a frequent speaker and commentator on politics and progressive issues. She and her husband, Kirk Adams, have three children and live in New York City and Maine.

Shaun Robinson

Shaun Robinson is an Emmy Award-winning journalist, TV host, producer, author, and philanthropist who is dedicated to the empowerment of girls and young women around the world. She is President and Founder of the S.H.A.U.N. Foundation for Girls which supports grassroots nonprofits servicing girls in the areas of (S)TEM, (H)EALTH, (A)RTS, (U)NITY, and (N)EIGHBORHOODS.

Shaun is known to millions around the country from her work as host of the entertainment show, Access Hollywood, interviewing the biggest stars in Hollywood and covering the red carpet for the Oscars, Emmys, Golden Globes, and Grammys. As an actress, she has appeared in TV and film roles in Bruce Almighty, America’s Sweetheart, Dr. Doolittle 2, Law & Order, Real Husbands of Hollywood, Last Man Standing, Monk, The Bold Type, and, most recently, as business mogul Kris Kensington on BET’s hit drama series, Games People Play. Her production company, RobinHood Productions, creates television, film, and digital content. Shaun is the executive producer of the upcoming Lifetime movie series, The Seven Deadly Sins.

Shaun is the author of Exactly As I Am: Celebrated Women Share Candid Advice with Today’s Girls on What it Takes to Believe in Yourself, a book for teen girls on building self-esteem. She is also the recipient of Dove’s Real Beauty Award.

Shaun sits on the Advisory Board of the United Nations Foundation’s adolescent girls campaign Girl Up and served on the national board of Girls, Inc. Shaun is from Detroit, Michigan and a graduate of Spelman College in Atlanta.

Favianna Rodriguez

Favianna Rodriguez is an interdisciplinary artist, cultural strategist, and activist. Her work and collaborative initiatives address gender equality, racial justice, immigrant rights, and climate change. Favianna works with cultural movements around the United States bringing together the powerful intersection of art, entertainment, social justice, and cultural equity. Most recently, she has been collaborating with women in the entertainment industry to design timely initiatives addressing equity and inclusion, including 5050by2020.com. She is the Executive Director of CultureStrike, a national arts organization that engages artists, actors, writers, and producers in immigrant rights. In 2012, she was featured in a documentary series by Pharrell Williams titled “Migration is Beautiful” which addressed how artists responded to failed immigrant policy in the United States. In 2016, she received the Robert Rauschenberg Artist as Activist Fellowship for her work around mass incarceration. In 2017, she was awarded an Atlantic Fellowship for Racial Equity for her work around racial justice and climate change. Favianna lives and works in two California culture capitals: the Bay Area and Los Angeles.

In addition to being an innovative leader in the cultural sector, Favianna also has helped build The Lab, a co-working space in the heart of Downtown Oakland that’s focused on racial justice, culture change, and climate justice. She brings expertise in designing co-working spaces that foster collaboration, innovation, and friendship.

S. Mona Sinha

S. Mona Sinha is a passionate advocate for the rights of women and girls.  She has parlayed a career in finance (Morgan Stanley), marketing (Unilever) and restructuring (Elizabeth Arden/Unilever) to work at the intersection of social change and women’s leadership.  Mona works with organizations to develop capacities to uplift women and girls across different sectors.

She is co-founder of Raising Change, which coaches mission-driven organizations to raise resources for social change. She is also co-founder of the Asian Women’s Leadership University Project in Malaysia that develops women’s leadership capacities in Asia. She is currently the Board Chair of Women Moving Millions.  She also serves on the boards of the ERA Coalition (working to ratify the constitutional amendment on Equal Rights), Breakthrough (shifts culture norms to end violence against women), and CHIP (Center for High Impact Philanthropy at UPenn).  She is on the Advisory boards of the Museum of Natural History (sponsors science education for inner city girls), Apne Aap International (works to end sex trafficking), Columbia Business School Tamer Center Social Enterprise Program (building awareness of social justice in future business leaders), Women Creating Change at Columbia University (ensuring that curriculum reflects all diverse voices), and Columbia Global Mental Health program (promoting mental health as integral to overall healthcare around the world).  She is a trustee emerita of Smith College, her alma mater.

Mona is an active financial investor in women led businesses. She is also an avid collector of South Asian art. She has a BA in Economics and Art History (magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa) from Smith College and an MBA in Finance and Marketing (Beta Gamma Sigma) from Columbia University.

In April 2019, Mona was honored by Breakthrough with a Lifetime Impact award. In 2018, Smith College honored her with the Exemplary Leadership in Development award for spearheading the largest capital campaign at a women’s college.  In 2017, Mona was awarded The Last Girl Champion award by Gloria Steinem on behalf of Apne Aap. In 2015, she received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, which is presented annually to US citizens whose accomplishments in their field and service to the world are cause for celebration.

Carol Smolenski

Carol Smolenski is Executive Director and one of the founders of ECPAT-USA, a children’s rights organization that has worked for the protection of children from commercial sexual exploitation since 1991. She is one of the country’s most widely recognized experts on the issue of child sex trafficking.  At ECPAT-USA, she has developed projects against the trafficking of children in New York City, Mexico, Belize, and Brazil. ECPAT’s Tourism Child-Protection Code of Conduct was expanded under her leadership such that every large hotel chain in the United States has signed on as a member, as have two of the biggest airlines, Delta and American.  Hundreds of thousands of people are being trained every year using ECPAT-USA’s training content.

Carol has been named a subject matter expert on sexual exploitation of children for the Department of Health and Human Services Family and Youth Services Bureau and the Runaway and Homeless Training and Technical Assistant Center. She is a member of the National Advisory Committee on the Sex Trafficking of Children and Youth in the United States which was created by federal law to advise the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Justice. She is a member of the Board of Trustees of ECPAT International. She has presented expert testimony in venues ranging from the New York City Council to the United States Congress to the United Nations.

Carol has a Master’s degree in Urban Planning from Hunter College and an M.Phil. degree from Columbia University.

Gloria Steinem

Gloria Steinem is a writer, political activist, and feminist organizer. She was a founder of New York and Ms. magazines, and is the author of My Life on the Road, Moving Beyond Words, Revolution from Within, and Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions, all published in the United States, and in India, As If Women Matter. She co-founded the National Women’s Political Caucus, the Ms. Foundation for Women, the Free to Be Foundation, and the Women’s Media Center in the United States. As links to other countries, she helped found Equality Now, Donor Direct Action, and Direct Impact Africa. For her writing, Steinem has received the Penney-Missouri Journalism Award, the Front Page and Clarion awards, the National Magazine Award, the Lifetime Achievement in Journalism Award from the Society of Professional Journalists, the Society of Writers Award from the United Nations, and the University of Missouri School of Journalism Award for Distinguished Service in Journalism. In 1993, her concern with child abuse led her to co-produce an Emmy Award-winning TV documentary for HBO, Multiple Personalities: The Search for Deadly Memories. In 2013, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama. In 2016, she and Amy Richards co-produced a series of eight documentaries on violence against women around the world for VICELAND.

Amita Swadhin

Amita Swadhin is an educator, storyteller, activist and consultant dedicated to fighting interpersonal and institutional violence against young people. Their commitments and approach to this work stem from their experiences as a genderqueer, femme, queer woman of color, daughter of immigrants from India, years of abuse by their parents, including eight years of rape by their father, and state intervention at the age of thirteen. Amita is a frequent speaker at colleges, conferences and community organizations nationwide, and a consultant with twenty years of experience serving low-income, immigrant and LGBTQ communities of color. They have been publicly out as a survivor of child sexual abuse since they interned at the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Violence Against Women in 1997. In 2016, Amita received a four-year Just Beginnings Collaborative Fellowship, allowing them to launch Mirror Memoirs, a national storytelling and organizing project uplifting the narratives, healing and leadership of LGBTQI+ people of color who survived child sexual abuse, as a strategy to end rape culture and other forms of oppression. The initial archive features stories from 60 survivors across 15 states. In January 2017, Amita testified on behalf of survivors of sexual violence and LGBTQ Americans in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee against Senator Jeff Sessions’ nomination as the US Attorney General. From March 2012 to September 2015, they were the Los Angeles Executive Director of Peer Health Exchange, empowering teens to make healthy decisions. In the fall of 2015, they were the Interim Executive Director of API Equality-LA, building power in the Asian and Pacific Islander community to achieve LGBTQ equality and racial and social justice. Prior to relocating to Los Angeles, Amita was the coordinator and a cast member of Secret Survivors, a theater project featuring child sexual abuse survivors telling their stories, which she conceived for Ping Chong + Co., an award-winning performance company in New York City. Amita is also a published author. Their writing has been featured on The Feminist Wire and The Huffington Post, and in the anthologies Dear Sister: Letters from Survivors of Sexual Violence (AK Press, 2014), Queering Sexual Violence (Magnus Books, 2016), Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good (AK Press, 2019), and the forthcoming Beyond Survival: Strategies and Stories from the Transformative Justice Movement (AK Press, 2020). They hold a Master’s in Public Administration degree from New York University, where they were a Catherine B. Reynolds Fellow in Social Entrepreneurship, and a BS in Foreign Service from Georgetown University.

Lynne Twist

For more than 40 years, Lynne Twist has been a recognized global visionary committed to alleviating poverty, ending world hunger and supporting social justice and environmental sustainability. From working with Mother Teresa in Calcutta to the refugee camps in Ethiopia and the threatened rainforests of the Amazon, as well as guiding the philanthropy of some of the world’s wealthiest families, Lynne’s on-the-ground work has brought her a deep understanding of people’s relationship with money.  Her breadth of knowledge and experience has led her to profound insights about the social tapestry of the world and the historical landscape of the times we are living in. Lynn’s compelling stories and life experiences inspired her best-selling, award-winning book The Soul of Money: Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Life, which has been translated into nine languages.

Lynne’s work as a global citizen encompasses membership in a prestigious group of social profit (nonprofit) boards including the Fetzer Institute, Conscious Capitalism, The Institute of Noetic Sciences, Bioneers, Educating Girls Globally, Youth for Environmental Sanity, Partnerships in Youth Empowerment and Women’s Earth Alliance. She also has served as an advisory board member for the California Institute of Integral Studies, Global Youth Action Network, The International Museum of Women and The Center for Partnership Studies, among others. Lynne is a member in good standing of the Association of Fundraising Professionals, The Social Venture Network, The National Society of Fundraising Executives, The Transformational Leadership Council, Evolutionary Leaders Coalition, The Turning Tide Coalition, and Women Donors Network.

Dan Weiner

Dan Weiner has performed in the Off-Broadway show STOMP as a performer and rehearsal director and recently held the drum chair for the Broadway show “The Cher Show”. He also acted as the house drummer for NBC’s America’s Got Talent for 4 years while the show was based at Radio City Music Hall. He has performed with artists such as Cher, Andrea Bocelli, Josh Groban, Rza (Wu Tang Clan), and Bobby Mcferrin, among many others. Recently, Dan produced an album featuring Neil Sedaka for LML Records and produced a track for Coca-Cola’s 125th Anniversary Celebration. More info is available at www.DanWeinerDrums.com

Jody Williams

Jody Williams received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997 for her work to ban antipersonnel landmines through the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL). She is an outspoken peace activist who struggles to reclaim the real meaning of peace—a concept which goes far beyond the absence of armed conflict and is defined by human security, not national security. Since January of 2006, Jody has worked to achieve her peace work through the Nobel Women’s Initiative and the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots. Her memoir My Name is Jody Williams: A Vermont Girl’s Winding Path to the Nobel Peace Prize was published by the University of California in March 2013.

Jamia Wilson

Jamia Wilson is a feminist activist, writer, and speaker. As director of the Feminist Press at the City University of New York and the former VP of programs at the Women’s Media Center, Jamia has been a leading voice on women’s rights issues for over a decade. Her work has appeared in numerous outlets, including The New York Times, The Today Show, CNN, Elle, BBC, Rookie, Refinery 29, Glamour, Teen Vogue, and The Washington Post. She is the author of Young, Gifted, and Black, the introduction and oral history in Together We Rise: Behind the Scenes at the Protest Heard Around the World, Step Into Your Power: 23 Lessons on How to Live Your Best Life, ABC’s of AOC, and the co-author of Roadmap for Revolutionaries: Resistance, Advocacy, and Activism for All. Learn more at www.jamiawilson.com

Syndee Winters

Syndee Winters is a Grammy nominated Broadway veteran currently starring as Nala in Disney’s The Lion King on Broadway. She’s been in the hit productions, Motown the Musical, Pippin, and showing audiences how to WORK! as all of The Schuyler Sisters in Hamilton. She made her TV debut as “Ms. Smiley” in NBC’s Law & Order SVU “Season 19 Episode 1,” where she interrogated Lieutenant Olivia Benson on her parenting methods. She was last seen on the small screen in NBC’s Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert with EGOT recipient John Legend. Her latest solo album project Lessons: From A Lady inspired by American icon Lena Horne is available now on all digital platforms.