GivingTuesday Team and Board

Asha Curran

Bidemi Adedire

Bidemi Adedire is a Communications and Idea Strategist who views herself as a perpetual learner. She holds the belief that ideas and creativity are the driving forces behind the world. Bidemi’s area of expertise lies in utilizing digital tools to facilitate effective communication, platform building, and delivery of audience-focused solutions.

Birce Altay

Birce holds a bachelor’s degree in English Linguistics and a master’s degree in Social Projects and NGO Management. In the beginning of her career, she focused on communications, especially within the social sector. Now she has over 8 years of experience in philanthropy, research on individual giving and tools & mechanisms to enhance giving culture. She coordinated GivingTuesday Turkey and currently co-chairs the Cultures of Giving Working Group under WINGS and is a member of the PEX (Philanthropy Europe Exchange) Core Team. She is an avid learner.

Cherisse Faith Beh

A former journalist and creative head, Cherisse now puts the skills she has picked up over the years in encouraging people to give back and to build positive attitudes towards people with intellectual disabilities at Special Olympics Asia Pacific. Her current remit includes building regional brand awareness through campaigns, donor stewardship as well as digital fundraising – serving 35 countries in the areas of communications capacity building and marketing resources. She is currently a member of AmCham Singapore’s Social Impact Task Force. Previously she was at National Volunteer & Philanthropy Centre as Assistant Director, Marketing & Communications and Mission Head for Giving Week, a nationwide initiative which is part of the global Giving Tuesday Movement. She was also involved in the marketing of NVPC’s key initiatives in building capacity and capability for corporates and nonprofits.

Shareeza Bhola

Shareeza Bhola has more than twelve years of experience in strategic communications, public and media relations, thought leadership, messaging development, and branding for social impact organizations and leaders. Shareeza was previously Senior Director of Communications at The Public Theater, Director of Public Relations and Social Media at the Ad Council, Deputy Director of Communications at Change.org, and Associate Director of Messaging at GLAAD. She earned her Master’s degree at New York University, completing her studies with a thesis focused on LGBT history and activism in the United States.

Outside of work, Shareeza spends her time reading, cooking, and practicing yoga. She’s also a proud Global Citizen Year Academy mentor.

Jesse Bourns

Jesse Bourns has deep expertise in technology and applying it to solve real-world business problems—with a focus on the social sector and international development. Jesse has an extensive background in technology, startups, and the social sector—including information architecture, open data, user experience, software development, business analysis, and change management. He specializes in complex, long-term systems and the design of effective governance for those systems.

In his work as COO of Ajah and the co-founder of Powered by Data, Jesse consults with institutions and collaboratives on how to design and deploy technology to support their strategies.

Staci Bruce

Staci Bruce is an administrative and non profit professional who has developed an extensive background in marketing and community service. Staci holds a MBA in Marketing and through her previous jobs in the field, she found that her talent for working with people and event planning could connect with her love of community service.  Staci previously served as the Director of Volunteer Services at The Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York.  There, she oversaw the mobilization, recruitment, and maintenance of the volunteer program for over 90 Catholic Charities agencies in 60 different regions.  Her swan song was to oversee a three-day playground build in The Bronx, with over 500 volunteers.

In alternate worlds Staci has been a: detective, veterinarian, nutritionist, the pre-Terry McMillian, farmer, hippy (or hippy farmer), comedian, music video producer, and an American Ninja Warrior. If not traveling to Jamaica to visit family, she fosters kittens from the ASPCA and refuses to become a cat lady.

Staci is based in New York City, United States and believes apple pie can be eaten any time of the day.

Gabrielle Campeau

Gabrielle Campeau helps coordinate GivingTuesday’s data projects and figure out out-of-the-box solutions to turn the movement’s ideas into reality. With a background in library management and information science, Gabrielle has embraced her technical affinities in her work at GivingTuesday and now uses her skills to bring accessible and actionable insights to people who want to do good in the world.

Mihika Chanchani

Annie Collins

Annie is a Data Analyst with the GivingTuesday Data Commons team. Prior to GivingTuesday, Annie spent several years in data management and research roles within the Canadian charitable sector. She utilizes this experience alongside her academic background in mathematics and statistics in hopes of supporting data-driven philanthropy worldwide.

Davide Cymbalist

With a background in emergency response and passion for social science research, Davide draws on his management experience to further the strategic goals of GivingTuesday through bridging the gap between data and action. Excited about the application of technology and data-driven insights to the social sector, Davide is committed to strengthening the footprint of the GivingTuesday Data Commons in democratizing access to social sector data and delivering evidence-based best practices to see a better-performing and more resilient nonprofit ecosystem.

Prior to finding himself in social sector tech, Davide has previous experience in the language industry, emergency response, and stone farmhouse restoration

Priyanka Dutt

Priyanka is a seasoned social impact leader, with over two decades of experience in the private and social sectors in India, using the power of media and communication to deliver social impact. She was previously the Country Director at BBC Media Action, India, where she provided strategic and operational leadership to the organization’s India country programme. A communication specialist, Priyanka now focuses on social and behavior change communication. She has worked extensively on maternal and child health, reproductive health, nutrition, WASH and HIV. Prior to joining the nonprofit sector, Priyanka produced and directed entertainment television shows for channels such as BBC World, ESPN, and the Star Network. She has a Master’s degree in Film and Television Studies from the University of Warwick.

Priyanka lives in New Delhi, India, and loves road trips, dogs, and dancing.

Anita Gallagher

As leader of #GivingTuesday México since 2014, known locally as #UnDíaParaDar, Anita has worked with a broad coalition of social impact and philanthropy organizations to strengthen the culture of giving in Mexico through innovation and collaboration. Between 2019-23, Anita served as a global leader representative on the GivingTuesday board.

In her previous roles, she was the executive director of a charitable organization and founded  InnovaSocial, a successful social impact consultancy specializing in strategic planning, digital communications and crowdfunding for nonprofit initiatives across Mexico and Latin America.

Based in Quintana Roo, Anita is active in local and national civil society networks, and as a bassoonist, was a founding member of her city’s local symphony orchestra.

Odessa Guindon

Odessa comes from the SaaS startup world and thrives on fostering collaboration to create impactful software products. With an academic background in international relations and public policy, she is passionate about humans and loves diving deep into problems. Before finding her happiness in the software world, she has had many past lives, from policy analyst and French teacher to blueberry farm crew supervisor.

Odessa is overseeing the improvement and continuous development of Giving Tuesday’s Data Commons portfolio of digital products to provide meaningful experiences to their users.

Odessa is based in Montreal and loves being in nature, traveling, and learning new languages.

Madelaine Hardy

Madelaine supports GivingTuesday’s country leaders and develops strategies to inspire more coalitions and collaborations worldwide. Madelaine was born and raised in Panama and is a recent graduate of Fordham University where she received her BA in International Studies with minors in Humanitarian Studies and Anthropology. Madelaine gained experience in both state and grassroots level work through her positions at Plan International, the Permanent Mission of Panama to the United Nations, Independent Diplomat (a global diplomatic advisory firm), and Women Deliver. Madelaine brings her advocacy savviness, international experience in humanitarian localization, as well as fluency in English, Spanish, and French, to GivingTuesday.

Samir Khan

Samir oversees GivingTuesday’s research, data, and academic partnership initiatives, supporting the work of the team in creating new initiatives, developing approaches for understanding problems and research approaches, and interpreting findings for actionable insights.  He is passionate about helping the social sector better tackle the pressing challenges and navigate social, economic, and technological change. Before joining GivingTuesday, Samir had a long career in program evaluation, policy analysis. organizational learning, and strategy, having worked in the fields of workforce development, education, and civil society strengthening.

Kelsey Kramer

Kelsey has boomeranged back to the GivingTuesday team to manage the diverse array of partners that power the work of the Data Commons. She connects data and research partners, movement leaders, and strategic collaborators to build new initiatives and support ongoing research at GivingTuesday. With 10 years of experience at nonprofits and technology companies large and small, Kelsey brings a passion for creating lasting social impact through partnerships, innovation, and the democratization of technology. Outside of work, Kelsey can be found walking – either with her dog, hiking outdoors or exploring a new neighborhood in New York where she’s based.

Victoria Leonhardt

Victoria Leonhardt supports U.S. based Community Campaign Leaders. She has over a decade of experience in capacity building, including strategic planning, board development, civic engagement, event management, volunteer recruitment, and campaign coordination.  Victoria was previously an Associate at Grow & Lead: Community and Youth Development. She attended Northern Michigan University where she earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing. She holds a Certified Nonprofit Professional credential from the Nonprofit Leadership Alliance and is an alumni of the American Express Leadership Academy. Victoria is a member of Batchewana First Nation. 

Victoria lives in Marquette, Michigan and she loves snow.

Kavita Mathew

Kavita is the Senior Advisor for the GivingTuesday India Hub. She was formerly the India representative for the world’s first and largest nonprofit crowdfunding platform – GlobalGiving.  She helped GlobalGiving increase its reach and impact in India, drawing from her experience of working with multiple nonprofits in the country. Before discovering her passion for making the world a better place, Kavita spent a couple of years with Goldman Sachs, where she found her love for spreadsheets and data. She then earned her stripes at a community-led nonprofit organization called Dream A Dream and later took to consulting to widen the impact of her work. Outside of work, she finds other ways to stay stimulated by playing fundraising consultant to nonprofits, being a sounding board to her start-up stage entrepreneurial friends and eating lots of dark chocolate. Her passion for child rights also led her to complete her Post Graduation in ‘Child Rights Law’ from the National Law School of India University, Bangalore. Kavita works remotely from the coastal city of Visakhapatnam, India.

Marc Maxmeister

Marc Maxmeister helps organize and convert the world’s generosity data into meaningful insights into how giving works, and what organizations can do to improve the lives of people served. He brings context from mixed methods field research in Africa, rigor from his PhD work as a molecular neuroscientist, and engineering from past AI-driven startups and nonprofits.

Ragini Menon

Ragini has a decade of applied research experience in the Indian social sector. She has worked as nonprofit teams and as a consultant to co-develop programs, design measurement systems, and foster spaces for collective learning and growth. Her work has spanned multiple cause areas, with a particular focus on early childhood development, education, and women’s rights. She holds a BA in International Studies and Journalism from American University. Ragini is also a photographer and trained dancer, and resides in the tropical haven of Goa, India.

Richa Chopra Mistry

Richa is a seasoned finance professional with over 14 years of combined experience in finance, shipping, and banking industries. With over ten years of working exclusively in the nonprofit sector, Richa is proficient in managing global accounting operations, applying extensive technical expertise to develop policies, scale accounting systems, and mentor high-performing finance teams along with facilitating external audits and annual tax filing.

 Before joining Giving Tuesday, she worked for Global Fund for Children, an international nonprofit based out of Washington, DC. As the head of finance, she was responsible for and specialized in managing the quarterly and annual financial reporting process, managing and overseeing all investments’ related activities, auditing financial data for accuracy and compliance with GAAP for home and international offices.

Richa has a master’s in accounting and is a licensed CPA in the state of Maryland. She believes in leveraging technology, staff trainings, and partnering across the organization to create strong financial systems and processes.

Outside of work, she loves spending time with her family and enjoys traveling.

Edward Moore

In his role as Data Analyst, Edward is passionate about applying data-driven insights to the generosity ecosystem. Edward brings a unique perspective to GivingTuesday’s data team through his previous experience in civil engineering, where he collaborated on some of Toronto’s most high-profile construction projects. 

Edward is based in New Brunswick, Canada and loves baking seasonal treats for his friends and family.

Markie Morrison

Markie brings with her a background in nonprofit and education and has a passion for mentoring and empowering young people. Her prior experiences include college access, higher education admissions, youth leadership development, and educational outreach. Markie currently lives in North Carolina and enjoys spending her free time traveling, reading, and practicing yoga.

Nthanze Musyoka

With a wealth of experience in project management and MLE, Nthanze has dedicated 8 years to working within the social, health, and creative sectors. During this time, she collaborated with various NGOs and companies, contributing to the support, creation, management, and leadership of projects and programs aimed at empowering women, girls, and adolescents through research and the development of communication assets.

Nthanze is a feminist and an advocate for social justice. She enjoys stories, along with hiking. She holds a Master’s degree in Public Health and a Bachelor’s degree in Biology. Additionally, she is a beneficiary of the Women Techsters Fellowship, a program by Tech4Dev, where she is training to become a product manager.

Catherine Mwendwa

Formerly a GivingTuesday global leader for Kenya and program manager for the East Africa Philanthropy Network, Catherine has worked in the philanthropy sector for over 8 years driving conversations, research, and action in philanthropy policy and knowledge management and fundraising. She currently provides research, learning and stakeholder engagement expertise at Wasafiri Consulting, a global consulting partner. She is also a Senior International Fellow of the Centre of Philanthropy and Civil Society, Graduate Centre, City University of New York.

Esteban Oyarzo

Esteban Oyarzo is an architecture graduate and visual arts teacher from Chile. He’s got a master’s degree in political communication and public affairs and more than 15 years of experience in nonprofit and public service organizations. His work focuses on the coordination and execution of projects in the fields of educational innovation, childhood policies, and volunteer work. Since 2014, he has supported GivingTuesday in Latin America, known locally as #UnDíaParaDar. Esteban is based in Santiago, Chile and loves sad songs with upbeat music

Matt Price

Matt brings decades of experience as a teacher, researcher, and activist to his work at GivingTuesday. He enjoys solving problems that require deep understanding of empirical and philosophical complexity, technical acumen, and attention to processes. He works with team members across GivingTuesday to help improve workflows and data management, to learn what is and isn’t working in their core responsibilities, and to adopt record-keeping practices that support our mission. Before joining GivingTuesday, Matt taught history, philosophy, and a range of other disciplines at the university level for almost three decades, introducing pioneering methods in fields as diverse as digital humanities and outdoor education.

Woodrow Rosenbaum

As Chief Data Officer for GivingTuesday, Woodrow has been instrumental in shaping the global generosity movement and has led ground-breaking research and analysis of individual giving behaviors. He leads the GivingTuesday Data Commons, bringing together a coalition of more than 1,000 collaborators coordinated through eight working groups as well as data teams in 50 countries to understand the drivers and impacts of generosity to inspire more giving of all types. Woodrow brings expertise in moving markets and transforming audiences from passive participants to active and vocal ambassadors. Woodrow is also the founder of With Intent Strategies, an international agency specializing in brand reimagination.

Woodrow is a member of the Generosity Commission Research Task Force, is a past Co-Chair for Global Impact Canada’s Board of Directors where he now serves as strategic advisor, and was previously a Fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard Kennedy School.

Brandon Salesberry

After serving numerous organizations as a financial and operations manager in a full-time role (most recently for Organizing for Action, a grassroots and issue advocacy organization based in Chicago), Brandon saw an opportunity to grow his work and serve multiple organizations at the same time. Realizing that many of his previous employers would have benefitted from a part-time or short-term CFO, he formed the Salesberry Group to provide other organizations that opportunity. He has more than 15 years of experience in all levels of operations, finance, administration, facility, IT and volunteer management. 

Ali Samani

Ali Samani analyzes datasets from across GivingTuesday Data Commons projects to generate reports that provide up to the minute insights to the entire social sector.

With a role that entails continuous problem-solving, Ali constantly draws on his unique intersection of interests and experiences when scoping out a project or implementing technical solutions. From his education in psychology to his multi-year role as director for a Canadian nonprofit, Ali strives to use his diverse skill set in service of the social impact sector and GivingTuesday’s goals to increase generosity broadly.

Jessica Schneider

A founding member of the GivingTuesday team, Jessica Schneider now serves as Chief Operating Officer, and is focused on establishing and scaling systems that balance the long-term sustainability of the organization with the movement’s culture of innovation and adaptability. She was previously director of strategy and collaboration at 92nd Street Y’s Belfer Center for Innovation & Social Impact, where she oversaw a portfolio of programs that included GivingTuesday, WomeninPower Fellowship, and Social Good Summit. Jessica has also held positions at Rent the Runway, General Assembly, and the Paley Center for Media. 

Kait Sheridan

Kait Sheridan manages the community of Global Leaders for GivingTuesday. Kait first joined 92nd Street Y’s Belfer Center for Innovation & Social Impact team in 2013, where she worked on GivingTuesday, the Social Good Summit, 92Y Fellowship programs, and other strategic initiatives. In 2016, Kait’s personal life took her to the UK and then Asia, where she continues to work on GivingTuesday with a focus on expanding the Global Leader community. She has worked on a number of award-winning social media campaigns, leadership programs, and strategic initiatives with NGOs around the globe. Kait lives in Hong Kong and she loves trail running

Parsa Torabian

Parsa Torabian works on transforming data into actionable insights. He brings his training as an electrical engineer and computational neuroscientist to drive decision-making in the non-profit sector. His work focuses on sector-wide research, technology, and data infrastructure.

Sila Unver

In addition to an academic background in international development and management, Sila brings many years of experience in the nonprofit sector, mainly in Canada and in the Middle East. Through these different experiences in the sector, she has realized the power that data can have to help organizations doing good do more good. She brings her passion for data and project management to GivingTuesday and oversees multiple data research projects aimed at improving the effectiveness of nonprofits’ social impact.

Heeral Vasa

Heeral Vasa is the Digital Communities Consultant for GivingTuesday’s India Hub.

João Paulo Vergueiro

João Paulo (JP) Vergueiro directs GivingTuesday’s Latin America + Caribbean Hub.  Since 2014 had led Dia de Doar, the local version of GivingTuesday, an inspiring movement that is engaging more Brazilians every year. He is formerly the CEO of ABCR, the Brazilian Fundraisers Association and he regularly speaks at conferences including AFP Icon, the Central and Eastern European Fundraising Conference, the Non-Profit Technology Conference, and WINGS Forum. In Brazil , João Paulo is a professor and PhD candidate. He volunteers for a number of organizations and designs the monthly newspaper in his parish.

JP is based in São Paulo, Brazil. Loves playing board games and traveling.

Lexa Wilson

Lexa ensures the smooth execution of GivingTuesday’s large portfolio of data and technology initiatives. As Technology Manager at GivingTuesday, Lexa transforms ideas for harnessing the power of data and tech tools into achievable action plans. Coordinating with data scientists, developers, and fellow research enthusiasts, she supports GivingTuesday’s efforts to break down barriers to collaboration on social research initiatives. With a background in international relations and economics complemented by experience developing and managing non-profit projects and programs, Lexa is passionate about strategic and right-fit approaches to learning and impact measurement in the non-profit sector. Through her work at Ajah, a global consultancy focused on data and technology in the public and social sectors, she has become an advocate for better data collection and management practices.

Brittany Witham

Brittany contributes to building GivingTuesday’s data infrastructure and collaborates with external partners to bring new data insights to light. Originally from Melbourne, Australia, she earned an M.A. in European and Russian Affairs at the University of Toronto before pivoting to programming, and is fascinated by what data science can contribute to our understanding of society. She explores this through her work at GivingTuesday and her startup, Geopolitica Technologies, and is currently based in Montréal. 

Chris Worman

Chris has spent more than 20 years working at the intersection of philanthropy, technology, and community organizing.

After several years working with large American nonprofits, Chris joined Peace Corps and landed in Romania where he founded several social enterprises and Romania’s first community foundation. While building a national platform to support the development of future community foundations, Chris increasingly found himself needing access to technology and brought TechSoup into the country. Over the next several years, Chris led TechSoup’s design of large, multi-national civic tech engagement programs; the organization’s marketing communications group; and, until October 2021 served as TechSoup’s Vice President for Alliances and Program Development. During the pandemic Chris cofounded Connect Humanity, a fund for digital equity, to spur philanthropy’s engagement in digitalization and ensure communities around the world have access to the combination of knowledge and finance they need to come online on their own terms.

Chris has consulted for numerous large foundations, taught masters level programming at the University of Vienna School of Economics, and is a proud father.

Zilun Lin

Asha Curran

Laurence D. Belfer

Laurence D. Belfer is the CEO of Belfer Management LLC, where he oversees the investing and philanthropic activities of the firm and its affiliates.

He is Chair Emeritus of 92NY, where he founded the Belfer Center for Innovation and Social Impact (BCISI). He serves on the Board of #GivingTuesday, the global generosity movement that was created at BCISI. At the Harvard Kennedy School, Laurence is Chair Emeritus of the Dean’s Council and serves on the Executive Board as well as on the International Council of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. Prior Board service includes Morgan Stanley’s Institute for Sustainable Investing, UJA Federation of NY, HELP USA and the Asia Society Policy Council.

Laurence is a graduate from Harvard College and Columbia Law School and is a Henry Crown Fellow at The Aspen Institute.

Jeffrey L. Bradach

Jeff Bradach is the co-founder and former managing partner of The Bridgespan Group, a global nonprofit organization that collaborates with mission-driven leaders, organizations, and philanthropists to break cycles of poverty and dramatically improve the quality of life for those in need. Bridgespan collaborates with social sector leaders to help scale impact, build leadership, advance philanthropic effectiveness, and accelerate learning, helping them to achieve breakthrough results in addressing society’s most important challenges and opportunities.

Jeff has served on numerous nonprofit and for-profit boards, including PolicyLink and Liberation Ventures, and he recently served as board chair of Independent Sector. Prior to co-founding Bridgespan, Jeff taught at Harvard Business School, where he was a member of the Organizational Behavior and the Social Enterprise Initiative faculty. Jeff began his career at Bain & Company. He is a graduate of Stanford University and received his MA in sociology and PhD in organizational behavior from Harvard University.

Cecilia A. Conrad

Dr. Cecilia Conrad is the founder and chief executive officer of Lever for Change and a senior advisor at the MacArthur Foundation. Lever for Change connects donors with problem solvers to find and fund bold, effective solutions to accelerate social change.

So far, her team has influenced over $2.5 billion in grants and provided support to more than 500 organizations. Before founding Lever for Change, Conrad led the MacArthur Fellows program. In 2023, The Nonprofit Times named her to its Top 50 Power & Influence List and Inside Philanthropy named her one of the 50 most powerful women in philanthropy. In 2024, the Chronicle of Philanthropy listed her as one of 16 People to Watch in 2025. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.

Conrad is an emerita professor of economics with Pomona College, joining the faculty in 1995 and retiring in 2013. At Pomona, she also served as vice president for academic affairs and dean of the college, and later as acting president. In recognition of her academic research and advocacy around racial and gender equity, Conrad received the National Economic Association’s Samuel V. Westerfield Award and the National Urban League’s Women of Power Award.

Gibril Faal

Professor Gibril Faal is a multi-disciplinary business and development executive. He is the co-founder and director of GK Partners specialising in socially responsible business models, sustainable development and programme implementation. He is a visiting professor in practice at the London School of Economics (LSE), Firoz Lalji Institute for Africa (FLIA). He is also a council member of Carnegie African Diaspora Program and

Consultant to the African Union Commission on innovative, development and diaspora finance. He serves as a technical expert and special adviser to development institutions and governments across the world. In the early 2000s, he was one of the small team of experts that worked on a Department of Trade and Industry project to develop UK’s social enterprise business support, legal and financing structures. In 2003, he founded RemitAid™ as a mechanism to transform remittances into a sustainable form of development finance.

Prof. Faal has previously served as: vice chair of Bond, the network of UK NGOs working on international development; chairman of AFFORD-UK, the pioneering diaspora-development charity; founding director of ADEPT (Brussels); magistrate in Her Majesty’s Court and Tribunal Service; technical expert to the United Nations, World Bank, European Union, University of Oxford,  SDC, GIZ and many development institutions. In 2017, he served overarching expert for the Global Compact for Migration, and has addressed the UN GeneralAssembly several times. In the past 30, he has been appointed to various strategic, development and management boards and panels across the world. In the UK, he was appointed to several public function roles by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Secretary of State for International Development, Home Secretary, and the Lord Chancellor. In 2014, Prof. Faal was appointed OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List for services to international development.

Shamil Idriss

Shamil Idriss is CEO of Search for Common Ground (Search), a global non-profit organization committed to transforming the way the world deals with conflict, away from adversarial approaches toward cooperative solutions.

With 850+ staff working in 32 countries, Search is the largest dedicated peacebuilding NGO and was nominated by the Quakers for the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize. Speaking of Search’s impact in 2016, then-U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said “your work in Burundi helped to prevent genocide…and during the Iran [nuclear] talks, the fresh ideas you provided helped us to achieve a breakthrough.”

Prior to his current role, Shamil was the CEO of Soliya where he led a public-private sector coalition to establish the field of virtual exchanges. In 2005, he was appointed by then-UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan as Deputy Director of the UN Alliance of Civilizations. He served on the Steering Committee of the World Economic Forum’s Council of 100 Leaders, is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders and recipient of the 2015 Open Society Foundation New Executive Award.

Asim Ijaz Khwaja

Asim Ijaz Khwaja is the Sumitomo-Foundation for Advanced Studies on International Development Professor of International Finance and Development at the Harvard Kennedy School and Director of Harvard’s Center for International Development (CID). His areas of interest include economic development, finance, education, political economy, institutions, and contract theory/mechanism design. His research combines extensive fieldwork, rigorous empirical analysis, and microeconomic theory to answer questions that are motivated by and engage with policy. He has been published in the leading economics journals, such as the American Economic Review and the Quarterly Journal of Economics, and has received coverage in numerous media outlets such as the Economist, NY Times, Washington Post, International Herald Tribune, Al-Jazeera, BBC, and CNN. His recent work ranges from understanding market failures in emerging financial markets to examining the private education market in low-income countries. He was selected as a Carnegie Scholar in 2009 to pursue research on how religious institutions impact individual beliefs. Khwaja received BS degrees in economics and in mathematics with computer science from MIT and a PhD in economics from Harvard.

Sara Lomelin

As founding CEO of Philanthropy Together, Sara Lomelin is working to diversify and democratize philanthropy by creating the infrastructure needed for the giving circle model to flourish in ALL communities. Sara’s work provides a platform for different perspectives in the collective giving field—a unique giving model that has given away nearly 1.3 billion dollars in the past two decades and exploded in popularity among diverse audiences in the past five years.

Prior to Philanthropy Together, Sara served as Senior Director of Leadership Philanthropy at Opportunity Fund, now Accion Opportunity Fund, the largest nonprofit small business lender in the US. Previously at the Latino Community Foundation, Sara served as VP of Philanthropy for eight years and created the Latino Giving Circle Network™—the largest network of Latinx philanthropists in the US with 22 circles and 500 members.

Rose Maruru

Rose Maruru is the co-founder and CEO of EPIC-Africa. She is a seasoned global development expert with close to 30 years of experience.

Rose has held several management and leadership roles in various organizations across the world. She served as the Director for Operations at Trust Africa, Senegal, a Partnership Advisor at Oxfam International, UK, a Civil Society Engagement Consultant at the African Development Bank, Côte d’Ivoire, a Bids and Proposal Manager at Population Council, USA, and a Program Manager for Save the Children/USA, working across Egypt, The Gambia, and the USA. She also served as an Advisor for the Coalition for Children’s Rights in Yemen.

Rose is a board member of the Firelight Foundation and The Accelerator Project. She is also a member of the WINGS steering committee on enabling environment and serves on the editorial board of Alliance Magazine.

Alexander A. Nehme

Alexander A. Nehme is Founder & CEO of arab.org, the recognized reference for MENA civil society and one of the largest communities for Good in the Arab World. He sits on the Board of various organizations and companies, including Nehmeh. With a personal empathy to the entrepreneurial adventure, he is a fan of social & disruptive initiatives and assists in their development. Recently, he spearheaded bringing the Giving Tuesday global movement to the Arab World for the first time.

Hilary Pennington

Hilary Pennington serves as Executive Vice President for Program at the Ford Foundation. In this capacity, she oversees all of the foundation’s programs globally, working closely across programs and offices to ensure strategic, meaningful, and well-aligned global grant making.

Rob Reich

Rob is a Professor of Political Science at Stanford University. Rob is director of the Center for Ethics in Society co-director of the Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society and associate director of the Institute for Human-Centered AI. He is the author of Just Giving: Why Philanthropy is Failing Democracy and How It Can Do Better. His teaching and writing these days focuses on ethics, policy, and technology.

Gretchen Rubin

Gretchen Rubin is one of today’s most influential and thought-provoking observers of happiness and human nature. She’s an unusual combination: a literary writer who explores how we can put transcendent ideas into practice.

She’s the author of five New York Times bestselling books, including the blockbuster #1 New York Times and international bestseller The Happiness Project, as well as The Four Tendencies and Better Than Before. On her top-ranking weekly podcast Happier with Gretchen Rubin, she discusses good habits and happiness with her sister Elizabeth Craft. She is also the founder of The Happiness Project, an ecosystem of products and tools to help people become happier, healthier, more productive, and more creative—including the award-winning Happier™ app, which helps people customize and use habit-tracking tools. She makes frequent appearances in TV, radio, and print, and is in much demand as a speaker. Rubin started her career in law and was clerking for Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor when she realized she wanted to be a writer.

Raised in Kansas City, she lives in New York City with her family.

Jonathan Soros

Jonathan Soros is animated by a foundational belief in every person’s equal right to dignity and opportunity. A devoted spouse and father, he is married with three children and lives in New York City.

Professionally, Jonathan is co-founder of Athletes Unlimited, a pioneering new approach to professional sports leagues. He is also founder and Chief Executive Officer of JS Capital Management LLC, a private family office; founding partner at One Madison Group, a multi-family investment platform that evolved from his work building JS Capital Management; and a Director of the Jennifer and Jonathan Allan Soros Foundation.

Together with his wife, Jennifer, Jonathan is also co-founder of Give Lively LLC, a social enterprise to facilitate philanthropic giving, which she directs. He is a Senior Fellow at the Roosevelt Institute, a think tank based in New York City, and he serves on the boards of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, America’s premier legal organization fighting for racial justice, and GivingTuesday, a global movement that unleashes the power of radical generosity.

Prior to founding JS Capital, Jonathan spent nine years with Soros Fund Management LLC, serving as its President and Deputy Chairman from 2005 to 2011. He is a co-founder of Friends of Democracy PAC, the Fair Trial Initiative, and Victory 2021. He also previously served as co-chair of the board of New America and held several board positions affiliated with the Open Society Foundations.

Jonathan clerked for Judge Stephen F. Williams of the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and is a graduate of Harvard Law School and the John F. Kennedy School of Government. He received his BA from Wesleyan University.

Jeffrey Walker

Jeff Walker is Chairman of New Profit, a social change investment fund and is Vice Chair in the WHO/CHAP Venture focused on front line health. He also currently serves on the boards of the Grammys Music Education Coalition, the African Philanthropy Forum, UVA Center for Contemplative Sciences (where he is chair), Giving Tuesday, the Aspen Management Partnership for Health and the University of Virginia’s Undergraduate Business School, where he was President for ten years.