Adeline is one of three Managing Director at Fondation CHANEL, an international corporate foundation focused on improving conditions for women and girls. She backs corporate initiatives like diversity, sustainability, and employee engagement. Before joining Fondation CHANEL, she spent over a decade working with the UN, governments, and NGOs in social justice, global maternal and child health, and health economics.

Aside from her role, she is on the Steering Committee of the CARE Fund and the Board of the Hopital Albert Schweitzer in Haiti. Adeline holds a Masters in Public Health from Harvard and a Bachelors of Arts in Cultural and Social Anthropology with a minor in Feminist Studies from Stanford. She resides in Brooklyn, NY, with her family.

Angelika is a passionate and collaborative international social justice leader with over 20 years of experience in bridging international funding and human rights and social justice organizing through thought leadership, strategic interventions, direct grantmaking, donor advice and advocacy, long-term programs and project design, participatory action research, convenings, and more. With strong roots and expertise in women, adolescents, youth, and LGBTQIA+ movements, Angelika centers the impacted communities' needs, voices, and expertise, serving as a bridge and relationship builder between diverse funding sectors and organizers.

Angelika worked for flagship institutions like the Global Fund for Women as Regional Program Director for Europe, Caucasus, and Central Asia and then for the Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID), where she led the research on Where is the Money for Women’s Rights and served as the Program Director for AWID’s International Feminist Forum in Brazil, in 2016. Angelika is a co-founder of FRIDA: The Young Feminist Fund, and most recently of CEECCNA (Central Eastern Europe, Caucasus, and Central Asia) Collaborative Fund, which was established after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 to mobilize and distribute resources for and by intersectional social justice movements across the CEECCNA Regions. She also has a consulting practice, which you can learn about at angelikaarutyun.com.

Caroline Kouassiaman is the Executive Director for Initiative Sankofa d’Afrique de l’Ouest. Caroline has 15+ years of diverse professional experiences in philanthropy, human rights activism, social justice and education to ISDAO. Previously Caroline was Senior Program Officer at the American Jewish World Service (AJWS), managing the sexual health and rights grants portfolio in West and East Africa. While at AJWS, Caroline was involved with ISDAO throughout the first four years of its journey, where she contributed to resource mobilization, communications and outreach to other funders and activists, and developing ISDAO’s programs, initially as a member of the Brain Trust and later of the Interim Governing Body.

Prior to joining AJWS, Caroline was the Program Officer for Sub-Saharan Africa at the Global Fund for Women, where she coordinated grantmaking to over 100 women’s rights organizations in Sub-Saharan Africa annually, from 2011-2014. She serves as an advisor to the Queer African Youth Network.Caroline is a queer Pan-African feminist of Ivorian and African-American heritage, and has lived in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and Uganda. She holds a B.A. in Economics and Diplomacy & World Affairs from Occidental College, a Master of Public Administration degree and a master’s in international relations from the Maxwell School of Syracuse University (US).

Caroline works for a world where LGBTQI persons – in their full and beautiful diversity – have the opportunity, autonomy and resources to live full, healthy and violence-free lives on their own terms.

French version:

Caroline Kouassiaman est heureuse d’apporter son expérience professionnelle diverse de plus de 15 ans dans les domaines de la philanthropie, de la défense des droits humains, de la justice sociale et de l’éducation à l’ISDAO. Elle rejoint l’ISDAO depuis l’American Jewish World Service (AJWS), où elle occupait le poste de responsable de programmes chargée du portefeuille des subventions sur la santé et les droits liés à la sexualité. Lorsqu’elle était à AJWS, Caroline était impliquée au parcours de l’ISDAO pendant ses premiers 4 ans, en apportant sa contribution à la mobilisation des ressources, à la communication, à la sensibilisation des autres bailleurs de fonds et activistes, et à l’élaboration des programmes de l’ISDAO. Initialement, elle était membre du Groupe d’experts et finalement membre du Groupe de gouvernance intérimaire.

Avant de rejoindre AJWS, Caroline était chargée de programmes pour l’Afrique subsaharienne au Fonds mondial pour les femmes, entre 2011 à 2014. Elle coordonnait l’octroi de subventions à plus de 100 organisations des droits de femmes en Afrique subsaharienne par an. Elle est conseillère de Queer African Youth Network.Caroline est une femme queer, féministe et panfricaine d’origine et de nationalité ivorienne et américaine. Elle a vécu au Burkina Faso, au Cameroun, en Côte d’Ivoire, au Ghana, et en Ouganda. Elle est titulaire d’une licence en économie, en diplomatie et affaires internationales d’Occidental College. Elle est également titulaire d’une maîtrise en administration publique et une maîtrise en relations internationales de Maxwell School de l’université de Syracuse aux États Unis.

Caroline travaille pour un monde dans lequel les personnes LGBTQI, dans leur belle et pleine diversité, ont l’opportunité, l’autonomie et les ressources les permettant de mener des vies pleines, saines et à l’abri de la violence comme elles le veulent.

Chivuli Ukwimi is an African trans activist and an international development and public health specialist with extensive experience in program development, grant making and philanthropy. She is the current deputy director of the International Trans Fund (ITF). Chivuli has also managed multiple grant making and philanthropy portfolios within various public and private foundations.

Chivuli is a current board member of IRANTI and Astraea Lesbian Foundation, and has previously served as a founding board member of African Men for Sexual Health and Rights (AMSHeR) and board chair for Dignitate Zambia.

Elena, a dedicated feminist and advocate for women's human rights, initially trained as a sociologist, has made significant contributions to various national and international human rights organizations. Her extensive professional background includes impactful roles at institutions such as the Norwegian Human Rights Fund, the Latin American Institute for Alternative Legal Services (ILSA), and Centro de Cooperación al Indigena (CECOIN).

Elena has actively engaged in research, particularly on the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1325, contributing valuable insights through collaborations with institutions like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology / ICAN. Since 2011, Elena has served as the Executive Director of the women's fund in Colombia Fondo Lunaria, and is also part of the coordination team of the On the Right Track collaboration. 

A pan-African feminist with roots in Cameroon, Françoise Moudouthe is passionate about supporting African feminist movements to thrive. That commitment has guided her career choices for over a decade. Early in her career, Françoise supported The Elders in setting up Girls Not Brides, the global civil society partnership to end child marriage, and spearheaded its growth in Africa, both on the coalition-building and the regional advocacy fronts. She later founded Eyala, a bilingual platform that amplifies the voices and lived experiences of African feminists and provides them with learning and solidarity spaces. 

In January 2021, Françoise became the CEO of the African Women’s Development Fund, a feminist fund that resources, strengthens and upholds women’s rights and feminist organisations and movements across Africa. Françoise is a former Board member of the Malala Fund, Womankind Worldwide and WATHI Think Tank, and a current Board member of the Equality Fund and Prospera.

Hilary Pennington serves as Ford's Executive Vice President of Programs. In this capacity, she oversees our global programs, collaborating closely across various initiatives and offices to ensure strategic, meaningful, and globally aligned grantmaking. Additionally, she is responsible for supervising the foundation's BUILD program and the Office of Strategy and Learning. Before taking on her current role, Hilary held the position of the foundation's Vice President for Education, Creativity, and Free Expression.With expertise in postsecondary education and intergenerational change, Hilary became part of the Ford Foundation in 2013.

Prior to joining, she worked as an independent consultant, counting the Next American University project of the New America Foundation and Arizona State University among her clients. Hilary also led the Generations Initiative, a project funded by national foundations aimed at developing effective responses to the significant demographic shifts occurring in the United States.

Jac Sm Kee is a feminist activist working at the intersection of internet technologies, social justice and collective power. Jac’s activism includes sexuality and gender justice, feminist movement building in a digital age, internet governance, open culture and epistemic justice.

Jac is located within these movements at hyperlocal, networked and global levels. Jac is the co-funder and cartographer of Numun Fund, a fund dedicated to advocate and provide resources around feminist tech. 

Matthew (Matty) joined as Director of the Global Philanthropy Project in 2015, leading the efforts of an organization internationally recognized as the primary thought leader and go-to partner for philanthropic and development coordination of global LGBTI work. Founder and Principal of the Paris-based Lafayette Practice, Hart has previously served as Senior Strategist for Europe for Funders Concerned about AIDS and National Director for Public Engagement at Solutions for Progress, a US-based social enterprise.

Hart also serves as the President of the Board of Directors of the Calamus Foundation (DE), and has previously served as a member of the Mediterranean Women’s Fund, The Civil Marriage Collaborative, a board member of Funders for LGBTQ Issues, Philadelphia Cultural Fund, Philadelphia’s Sustainable Business Network, and The Leeway Foundation; and the community funding board of Bread & Roses Fund. A Jonathan Lax Academic Fellow. Hart helped found the Susan Treadwell Memorial Fund and Fellowships at Ariadne. Hart received degrees in Urban Studies and Cultural Anthropology from Temple University.

Monica Aleman is the International Program Director for Gender, Racial, and Ethnic Justice International at Ford Foundation. In her role, she's crucial to the foundation's efforts against gender-based violence, structural inequalities, and in expanding philanthropy's global impact. Before joining Ford in 2011, Monica served as the Executive Director of the International Indigenous Women’s Forum and founded the Indigenous Women’s Fund. She also played a key role at MADRE, a women's rights organization, as program and policy director.

Monica's expertise extends to coordinating the International Youth Summit for the World Conference Against Racism at the United Nations and consulting for various organizations, including the United Nations Permanent Forum.

Sarita Gupta serves as the vice president of U.S. programs at the foundation, where she supervises the organization's domestic initiatives encompassing Civic Engagement and Government, Creativity and Free Expression, Future of Work(ers), Technology and Society, Disability Rights, and Gender, Racial, and Ethnic Justice. Bringing over two decades of experience to the Ford Foundation, Sarita has dedicated her career to enhancing people's capacity to unite and enhance their workplaces, communities, and lives by devising solutions to address their challenges.

She possesses extensive knowledge in policy advocacy, organizing, and fostering collaborations within the workers' rights and care movements. Her leadership roles include serving as the Executive Director of Jobs With Justice and Co-Director of Caring Across Generations, establishing her as a recognized authority on economic, labor, and political issues impacting working individuals.

Sohela Nazneen brings 17 years of experience to her work on gender and development issues. Her research is centered on gender and politics, the feminist movement, women’s empowerment, and violence against women in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Prior to her tenure at IDS, Sohela served as a faculty member in the Department of International Relations at the University of Dhaka.

She also held a position as a Research Fellow at the BRAC Institute of Governance and Development, BRAC University, in Bangladesh. During this time, she worked as a consultant, designing gender and development interventions, conducting program evaluations, and analyzing gender policies for organizations such as FAO, UNDP, SDC, Irish Aid, The Asia Foundation, The McArthur Foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, among others.