Governance

Rebecca Fox is Astraea’s VP, Programs and has been a long-time supporter of Astraea and grassroots, feminist LBTQI movements. In her previous role, Rebecca was the Senior Program Officer on the SOGIE team at Wellspring Philanthropic Fund. In that position, she coordinated grantmaking on a variety of issues related to increasing the rights of and improving the lived experiences of LGBTI people. Formerly, she was Executive Director of the National Coalition for LGBT Health and an adjunct professor of human sexuality at George Washington University. Rebecca currently serves on the Steering Committee on the International Trans Fund and was previously board chair at Funders for LGBTQ Issues. Rebecca’s other board membership experiences include those of Choice USA, Generations Ahead, and Jews for Racial and Economic Justice. She lives in Brooklyn, NY with her partner, Meghan, and her not quite feral cat, Birdie Noodle. She is a women’s record holder for powerlifting in New York State.

As the Vice President of Grants, Programs, and Communications at Horizons Foundation, Francisco oversees all of the foundation’s grantmaking, programmatic strategies, and communication activities. His 25 plus years of experience in government, philanthropy, academia, nonprofit organizations, and community activism have blended scientific expertise, commonsense public health experience, research, organizational re-engineering, and grantmaking. Francisco’s career includes bilingual clinical practice in behavioral medicine with a special focus on chronic diseases. He has co-authored a bimonthly newspaper column on health, written numerous research articles, and produced research reports. He has also served on numerous community-based organization boards and museum advisories. Francisco holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in clinical psychology from Boston University, along with B.S. in Psychology and B.A. in philosophy from the University of California, Davis.

Nicky has more than twenty years of experience raising awareness about, commitment to, and resources for human rights and social justice. She has demonstrated success in managing growing human rights foundations and building programmatic collaborations that advance the human rights of women, girls, and LGBTQI people globally. Prior to joining FJS, Nicky worked for ten years as the executive director of Mama Cash in the Netherlands, where she oversaw one of the largest public funds that supports the rights of women, girls, and trans people. For ten years prior to that, she served as the vice president of development and communications at the Global Fund for Women. Nicky has served on numerous Boards, including OutRight Action International, the Women’s Funding Network, the European Foundation Centre, Prospera–the International Network of Women’s Funds, and Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations. She has a master’s degree in urban affairs from Hunter College and a bachelor’s degree in history and French from the University of Oxford, Somerville College. Nicky grew up in Scotland, but also finds home in France, the Netherlands, and the United States.

Neville served as the inaugural executive director of the Southern Africa Trust, an independent regional funding agency dedicated to promoting policy engagement between governments and non-state entities for poverty alleviation in Southern Africa. Additionally, he holds positions such as a member of Global Citizen’s global policy committee, a member of the Africa policy advisory board for Bono’s ONE campaign, a senior fellow at the Synergos Institute, and the chairperson of community shareholding trusts associated with solar and wind renewable energy projects in South Africa. Neville was also part of the founding steering committee of the African Grantmakers’ Network (AGN), chaired the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA), chaired the Open Society Foundations’ Africa advisory committee, served as a trustee at the International NGO Training and Research Centre (INTRAC), and previously worked at Oxfam in media and advocacy and at the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC) coordinating social and economic justice programs. Currently, Neville holds the position of Chief Executive Officer at The Other Foundation.

Nina Spataru works as a Programme Officer from the International Human Rights Programme at Oak Foundation.