Jennie believes that transformational change is rooted in trusting, resourcing, and supporting the leadership and power of Black, Brown and Indigenous communities, including survivors, queer, trans, and gender non-conforming people of color. As a Latinx, Bronx-born, first-generation daughter of immigrants, Jennie has spent decades advocating for survivors of gender-based and sexualized violence in all forms. As a survivor herself, Jennie envisions a future when all communities can lead self-determined lives free of violence, patriarchy, systemic oppression, and economic insecurity. “As funders, we must move resources to organizations led by and for the communities most impacted by racial

   and gender-based structural oppression. These are the communities that have been historically under-resourced, neglected, and exploited. Our shared liberation can only be achieved if we reckon with that reality and begin the work of healing those harms,” says Jennie. As a senior program officer, Jennie leverages an intersectional analysis and commitment to building community power to deploy resources to folks fighting for gender and racial justice. In addition, she actively organizes within the funding community – working to bring values-aligned funders to the table with wisdom, practical resources, and political education.

Jennie holds a BA in Psychology from Brandeis University and an MPA from New York University Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. Her prior positions include director of programs at The New York Women’s Foundation, where she developed girl-led participatory grantmaking programs and oversaw several grantmaking initiatives, including the Fund for the #MeToo Movement and IGNITE! charged with increasing investment opportunities to organizations that center young women of color. She is an alumna of Justice Funders’ Harmony Initiative, currently serves on the steering committee for Funders for Justice (FFJ), and was the co-chair for FFJ’s “me too” in philanthropy strategy group.

Jennie can be found trying her hand at gardening, being a tía to her nieces and nephews, and pretending she’s a contestant on Food Network’s Chopped. 

Naa Amissah-Hammond (she/her/hers) is a Black, immigrant, queer, femme and the Senior Director of Grantmaking with Groundswell Fund, a public foundation that strengthens U.S. movements for reproductive justice and social justice. Naa directs Groundswell’s grantmaking strategy through five funds committed to resourcing gender justice organizers on the ground around the U.S. Prior to joining Groundswell, Naa worked for Funders for LGBTQ Issues, an organization that works side-by-side with funders and movement organizations to mobilize philanthropic resources that enhance the well-being of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer communities. Over the last decade, Naa has worked in philanthropy, development, and grassroots fundraising with several U.S. organizations committed to gender, racial, and economic justice. Naa was born and raised in Zimbabwe, as the child of Ghanaian immigrants. She holds B.A.’s in ‘Social and Cultural Analysis’ and ‘Urban Design and Architecture Studies’ from New York University.

Elizabeth Arndorfer joined the Packard Foundation as a Program Officer in the Reproductive Health Program in January 2017 overseeing grantmaking in the program’s United States subprogram.

Prior to joining the Foundation, Elizabeth worked as a consultant to non-profits and foundations working on reproductive health and rights, sexual and domestic violence prevention, and eliminating exposure to toxic chemicals including the Reproductive Health Technologies Project, Futures Without Violence and Ibis Reproductive Health.

She earned a law degree from the University of California Berkeley School of Law and a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Santa Clara University.

Tesmerelna Atsbeha is a senior program officer on the Women’s Rights team at Wellspring Philanthropic Fund, a private foundation supporting the advancement of Human Rights globally. Her grantmaking portfolio includes supporting Reproductive Rights movements in Latin America and global prevention of Violence Against Women and Girls research and programming. Prior to joining Wellspring, she worked at UN Women in the Health and HIV/AIDS Unit in the Policy Division and at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health as part of the International AIDS Care and Treatment Program (ICAP). She also spent ten years based in Eastern and Southern Africa and Latin America working in Sexual and Reproductive Health and Gender-Based Violence research and service delivery programming with UNDP, The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria and several academic institutions. She holds a BA in International Relations and Community Medicine from Brown University, a MPH from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine; and a MA in Organizational Psychology from Columbia University.

Kiyomi has been involved with movements to end gender- and state-based violence since 2001. Her political home is with queer and trans communities of color and organizing to prevent and respond to intimate partner violence.

Kiyomi is a current board member of Funders Concerned About AIDS and a former board member of Groundswell Fund, Seattle Young People's Project, and API Chaya. She is an alum of Neighborhood Funder's Group Philanthropy Forward and Funders for LGBT Issues’ Grantmakers United for Trans Communities (GUTC) Fellowship. She formerly was a Senior Program Associate

at the Fund for Trans Generations at Borealis Philanthropy, and the Queer Network Program Coordinator at API Chaya. She has lived in Duwamish and Coast Salish’s people’s land (Seattle, WA) since 2005 and is an astrology and WNBA fan (go Storm!)

Alicia Harris is the Reproductive Health, Rights and Justice Program Officer at The Grove Foundation. Previously, she implemented sexual violence prevention education at the University of California, Berkeley. In addition, she has worked with a number of Bay Area organizations focusing on LGBTQ health, reproductive justice and sexuality education. Recently, she served as Co-Chair of the Board of Directors for ACCESS Women’s Health Justice, a non-profit organization dedicated to ending institutional and practical barriers to reproductive health. Alicia earned a BA from Vassar College and an MPH from UC Berkeley.  Alicia is also Manager, Reproductive Justice Program at the Grove Action Fund.

Surina Khan is CEO of Women’s Foundation California, where she leads the Foundation’s work to advance gender, racial, and economic justice. The Foundation’s program strategy is focused on building community-based power through investing in nonprofit organizations, training community leaders in policy advocacy, connecting key partners, and mobilizing significant financial resources. For more than three decades, Surina has been a leader in the philanthropic and nonprofit social justice sector starting with local community-based publishing in New England and then shifting to national and global work on an array of social justice issues including gender justice, LGBT rights, human rights, and democratic and civic participation. She served the social justice and philanthropic sector in a variety of ways including previous positions at the Ford Foundation, OutRight Action International, and Political Research Associates.  She serves on several Boards including Funders for Reproductive Equity, Voices for Progress, CalNonprofits, and the American LGBTQ+ Museum. Her previous Board service has included Funders for LGBTQ Issues, Alliance for Justice, La Cocina, and the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice. She is a recognized expert on gender, racial, and economic justice issues and is a frequent commentator on the power of women’s philanthropy.

Latisha Latiker is the Director of Grants Programming for the Women’s Foundation of Mississippi. In this role she works on grantmaking, advocacy, and engagement activities for the Foundation. A native of Tulsa, Oklahoma, she earned her B.A. and M.A. in Political Science with an emphasis in public policy and public administration from Oklahoma State University.

While at Oklahoma State, Latisha worked as a Political Science Instructor and received numerous awards and honors including the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship for outstanding graduate students. Prior to joining the Women’s Foundation, Latisha served as Regional Program Officer for the Children’s Defense

Fund’s Southern Regional Office where she worked on advocacy initiatives that addressed the needs of children and families, paying particular interest to economically vulnerable families.

Latisha is married to Dr. Tony Latiker and they are the proud parents of one son, Qadre; as well as aunt and uncle to numerous nieces and nephews. Latisha is active in her church and serves as a Sunday school teacher. Latisha is also an active member of the Jackson (MS) Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. She enjoys reading, traveling, and watching sports with her family.

Ellen Liu is a second generation Taiwanese immigrant born in New York City who is passionate about building power to create a safer, more just world. Ellen brings over 15 years of experience in grantmaking, capacity building, policy advocacy, and organizational development in support of social justice organizations both in the US and internationally. As Vice President of Grantmaking and Capacity Building, Ellen leads Ms. Foundation’s grantmaking and capacity building programs to strengthen women and girls of color-led organizations and leaders, and to advocate for greater funding for women and girls of color-led movement building, organizing, and advocacy work.

Prior to joining Ms., Ellen was Program Officer at the Open Society Foundations’ Public Health Program where she worked with health and human rights organizations in Central and Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and East and Southern Africa to strengthen protections for people living with HIV and AIDS and TB, people with mental disabilities, ethnic minorities, and people in need of palliative care. She currently serves on the Women of Color Working Group of Funders for Reproductive Equity, the board of The Brush Foundation, and the steering committee member of the Asian Women Giving Circle. She is the proud mom of a young bi-racial son.

Maria Miranda is a Senior Program Officer at the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation. Maria’s grantmaking focuses on national policy, reproductive justice and BIPOC-led organizations. Their interests are in organizational health, institutional networks, coalitions, and policy. Their most recent past role was as the Foundation’s Strategic State Advisor for Ohio and Pennsylvania where they worked on state-level movement building and policy development. This work
included building state networks, centering abortion at progressive tables, introducing racial equity measures, and refining partnership practices. Prior to joining the Foundation, Maria worked as a development officer, program manager, volunteer coordinator, public health advocate, and community organizer. They also lecture on women & gender studies and nonprofit management.

Maria has a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Eastern Michigan University. They earned their Master in Public Administration and Certificate in Nonprofit Management from Villanova University, and completed an Advanced Certificate in Public Policy at Northwestern. They are the recipient of Planned Parenthood of Greater Cleveland’s (now Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio) Volunteer of the Year Award, New Voices for Reproductive Justice’s Ambassador Award, and Greater Cleveland Community Shares’ Distinguished Activist of the Year Award.

Elisa Slattery is part-time faculty with the Bard Globalization and International Affairs Program.  Most recently, she was a Senior Program Officer with the Open Society Foundations’ Women’s Rights Program, where she focuses on sexual and reproductive rights. Prior to joining Open Society, Elisa was a consulting researcher at Amnesty International, where she documented human rights violations stemming from Ireland’s highly restrictive abortion law. She previously worked with the health law program of the International Development Law Organization in Rome. Elisa also served as the regional director for the Africa program at the Center for Reproductive Rights, where her work focused on promoting reproductive rights through national, regional, and international accountability mechanisms and addressing the intersection of HIV and reproductive rights. Elisa has worked as a consultant on workers’ rights issues in Kenya, conducted comparative legal and human rights research on the rights of incarcerated parents at the Brennan Center for Justice, and researched the impact of welfare reform on families with disabilities at the University of North Carolina’s Frank Porter Graham Child Development Center. Elisa holds a JD from Columbia Law School and a MA in history from Duke University.