GivingTuesday Team and Board

Asha Curran

Asha Curran is CEO of GivingTuesday, and co-founder of the global generosity movement. She was formerly Chief Innovation Officer and director of the Belfer Center for Innovation & Social Impact at 92nd Street Y, where GivingTuesday was founded. She is the recipient of the 2015 Social Capital Hero Award, and was named a 2016 Woman of Influence by New York Business Journals and a 40 Over 40 Women to Watch honoree. Asha serves as Chair of the board of directors of Guardian.org, a nonprofit dedicated to advancing civil discourse and issues-driven journalism at The Guardian and elsewhere; and on the board of directors of the Scout Film Festival, which amplifies the work of teen filmmakers. She is a Fellow at Stanford University’s Digital Civil Society Lab within the Center for Philanthropy and Civil Society. She was named to the Nonprofit Times’ Top Fifty Power and Influence list in 2019.

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. 

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.

Celeste Flores

Celeste Flores supports and mobilizes GivingTuesday’s network of 250+ Communities across the United States. This includes engaging with leaders on growth of their local movement, developing collaborations, as well as activating new community campaigns including diverse communities, causes and all voices. Celeste is a strategist focused on social good and community-led campaigns with decades of experience in activating a vision, engaging cross-sections of a community, building partnerships to expand impact and sustainability, and engage more people in giving.  Celeste has also held leadership positions at I Live Here I Give Here, Foundation For the Carolinas, University of Virginia Darden School of Business, Texas Children’s Hospital, United Way in Houston and Accenture. 

Charlotte Arnø Storebakken

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.

Dr. Corneil Montgomery

Dr. Corneil Montgomery is an accomplished, energetic, and mindful community affairs, corporate social responsibility, philanthropy, and sustainability executive with over 10 years of leadership experience at top fortune companies, global NGOs, start-up organizations, and consulting firms. Prior to becoming an independent social impact consultant in 2021, Corneil led a global team responsible for the corporate giving, foundation, employee engagement, and social responsibility initiatives at Bank of the West, BNP Paribas for three years. From 2017-2018, Corneil helped to launch Toyota’s award-winning mobility program to bring affordable and sustainable mobility options to vulnerable communities and everyday people with limited transportation access. Additionally, he has developed and led global community, youth, and sustainable development initiatives; and consulted NGOs, government, corporate, and grassroots organizations and coalitions on game-changing social impact solutions for nearly a decade.

Corneil earned a Doctor of Philosophy in Public Policy and Administration with a specialization in Sustainable Communities from Walden University. He also has his Master of Arts in Teaching and Bachelor of Science in Management. When Corneil is not laser focused on changing the world, he enjoys the performing arts, fashion, fitness, traveling, and spending time with his family on the east coast. He currently resides in Los Angeles, CA.

Dante Plush

Dante Plush works on GivingTuesday’s youth engagement strategy, empowering young people across the globe to take action on important social issues. He develops programs and campaigns that engage GenZ in leveraging the GivingTuesday movement to activate for their communities. A teacher and stand-up comedian, Dante is dedicated to combating the countless barriers that at-risk students face to getting a quality education. He has a Master’s degree in Educational Technology and is a member of the junior board for the Renaissance Youth Center.

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.

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.

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. 

João Paulo Vergueiro

João Paulo is the CEO for the ABCR, the Brazilian Fundraisers Association. He has been a member since 2009 and has seen the sector grow rapidly. Since 2014 he has been leading Dia de Doar, the local version of #GivingTuesday, an inspiring movement that is engaging more Brazilians every year. 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 alongside volunteering for a number of organisations and designing the monthly newspaper in his parish.

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 currently lives in Hong Kong.

Kathleen Murphy Toms

Kathleen Murphy Toms leads digital strategy for GivingTuesday. Kathleen studies the use of digital tools within social movements, particularly their use in shifting power, creating mass mobilization,  and achieving global equity. Kathleen has coached thousands of social impact leaders and grassroots organizers from nearly every continent on how to not only generate funds for their causes but to inspire and mobilize groundswell movements to create systemic change. She is an adjunct faculty member at The Heyman Program for Fundraising and Philanthropy in The Center for Global Affairs at New York University where she teaches social changemakers how to develop innovative content marketing and digital strategies to activate and engage new audiences.

Kavita Mathew

Kavita is a part of GivingTuesday’s team in India and heads Programs and Partnerships for the movement in the region. 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.

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.

Madelaine Diaz

Madelaine supports GivingTuesday’s programs. 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.

Nasra Ismail

Nasra A. Ismail brings over 10 years of international development experience in Africa and Asia to her role as Senior Director, Global Strategy & Operations. In this role, Nasra leads GivingTuesday’s overall strategic direction for Global Hubs, with a particular commitment to strengthening its support to grassroots movements, proximate leaders, and partnerships.

She previously served as Associate Director, working across Programs and Operations at Co-Impact, focusing on organizational structure and team engagement efforts, as well as curating meaningful engagement with feminist leaders and global south advisors. Nasra was also Director of the Somalia NGO Consortium, a network of 80 national and international NGOs working in Somalia engaged in humanitarian relief. She was the Somalia Country Director for Oxfam International and worked with the US government’s Millennium Challenge Corporation in managing public sector programs.  Through both her personal and professional engagements, Nasra puts a premium on gender-inclusive program design and advancing women’s representation and leadership. She continues her pursuit to find core meaning in her work across development, humanitarian, and philanthropic sectors, utilizing her inclusive leadership style and bridge-building skills to arrive at sustainable and long-lasting change in some of the world’s toughest places. Nasra holds a bachelor’s degree from George Washington University and has engaged in multiple professional programs at Harvard, Oxford, and University of California, Berkeley. Nasra is fluent in Somali and English. After living in East Africa for 5 years, Nasra now lives and works from Columbus, Ohio. 

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.

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.

Staci Bruce

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, practicing yoga, and hanging out with her big Queens, New York-based family (13 aunts & uncles, 50+ cousins). She’s also a proud Global Citizen Year Academy mentor.

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. 

Woodrow Rosenbaum

As Chief Data Officer for GivingTuesday, Woodrow has been instrumental in shaping the global generosity movement and has led groundbreaking research and analysis of individual giving behaviors. He leads the GivingTuesday Data Commons, bringing together a coalition of more than 100 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, serves as a Co-Chair for Global Impact Canada’s Board of Directors, and was recently named a Fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard Kennedy School with the Technology and Public Purpose project. 

Z. J. Jallah

Z. J. Jallah is a Senior Business Analyst at Geisinger Health Plan System in Pennsylvania where he supports the Sales, Marketing, Underwriting, and Actuarial departments responsible for half a million customers. Jallah also serves as the Global Leader for GivingTuesday Liberia, and is the founder and board chair of YESLiberia, Inc. a youth-focus organization that provides educational support to students across Liberia.

Amanda Nguyen

Amanda Nguyen is the CEO and founder of Rise, a social movement accelerator. She is a 2019 Nobel Peace Prize nominee and star of the Emmy-nominated documentary “Rise Above.” She penned her own civil rights into existence and unanimously passed the Sexual Assault Survivors’ Bill of Rights, after having to navigate the broken criminal justice system after her own rape. Previously, Amanda was appointed by President Barack Obama to the United States Department of State as his Deputy White House Liaison and served at NASA. 

Anita Gallagher

Anita Gallagher is Director of InnovaSocial, a social impact consultancy specializing in strategic planning and marketing for nonprofits. A respected trainer and mentor, she regularly speaks at nonprofit conferences throughout Mexico. As leader of #GivingTuesday México, known locally as #UnDíaParaDar, she works with a broad coalition of social impact and philanthropy organizations to strengthen the culture of giving in Mexico through innovation and collaboration.

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.

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.

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.

Laurence D. Belfer

Laurence D. Belfer is Chief Executive Officer of Belfer Management LLC, a family investment firm.    

He is Chair Emeritus of the 92nd Street Y, 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 Henry Crown Fellow at The Aspen Institute and is a member of YPO (Metro Chapter).

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, most recently as board chair of Independent Sector. Prior to establishing 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.

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.

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.

Shijuade Kadree

Shijuade Kadree serves as the Director Diversity, Strategy Company at Snap Inc. A former defense attorney with Brooklyn Defender Services, Shijuade has significant government relations, policy, strategic planning and stakeholder cultivation and engagement experience.

Jonathan Soros

Jonathan Soros is Chief Executive Officer of JS Capital Management LLC, a private investment firm, and co-founder of Athletes Unlimited, a new model of pro sports where athletes are decision-makers and individuals are champions in team sports. Together with his wife Jennifer, Mr. Soros is also co-founder of Give Lively LLC, a social enterprise to facilitate philanthropic giving.

Z. J. Jallah

Z. J. Jallah is a Senior Business Analyst at Geisinger Health Plan System in Pennsylvania where he supports the Sales, Marketing, Underwriting, and Actuarial departments responsible for half a million customers. Jallah also serves as the Global Leader for GivingTuesday Liberia, and is the founder and board chair of YESLiberia, Inc. a youth-focus organization that provides educational support to students across Liberia. 

Asha Curran

Asha Curran is CEO of GivingTuesday, and co-founder of the global generosity movement. She was formerly Chief Innovation Officer and director of the Belfer Center for Innovation & Social Impact at 92nd Street Y, where GivingTuesday was founded. She is the recipient of the 2015 Social Capital Hero Award, and was named a 2016 Woman of Influence by New York Business Journals and a 40 Over 40 Women to Watch honoree. Asha serves as Chair of the board of directors of Guardian.org, a nonprofit dedicated to advancing civil discourse and issues-driven journalism at The Guardian and elsewhere; and on the board of directors of the Scout Film Festival, which amplifies the work of teen filmmakers. She is a Fellow at Stanford University’s Digital Civil Society Lab within the Center for Philanthropy and Civil Society. She was named to the Nonprofit Times’ Top Fifty Power and Influence list in 2019.