Our Story
Founded in 2017, Synergía – Initiatives for Human Rights was established with the intention of minimizing costly organizational infrastructure in favor of maximizing the funding we can allocate to programmatic work – including increasing the funding we can provide to our partners.
Prior to its creation, the Synergía team first began to form beginning in 2007 – and was originally hosted as a specific program within a number of larger international human rights and international development organizations. Now as a cross-regional organization with staff based in Argentina, Italy, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Paraguay, Turkey, and the United States of America, our team carries over 75 years’ collective experience in advancing human rights movements around the world.
Staff
Stefano Fabeni
Executive Director
Stefano Fabeni (LLM, JD) is the Executive Director of Synergía – Initiatives for Human Rights. In this role, Stefano has overall responsibility for ensuring our work advance’s the organization’s mission and he supports our partners by providing capacity strengthening support and strategic guidance in the areas of human rights advocacy.
Prior to his tenure with Synergía, Stefano served as the Executive Director of Heartland Alliance for Human Needs & Human Rights’ Global Initiatives for Human Rights unit and – prior to this – as the Director of the LGBTI Initiative of Global Rights – Partners for Justice.
Stefano served as the Italian member of the European Group of Experts on Combating Discrimination on grounds of Sexual Orientation. He was the conceiver, coordinator and director of the Center of Research and Legal Comparative Studies on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity’s (CERSGOSIG) EU-funded project CERSGOSIG-InformaGay. He has served for several years as a pro bono legal advisor and consultant of the New Rights Department of the Italian national trade union Confederazione Generale Italiana del Lavoro.
Stefano has served as a consultant and legal expert for members of the Italian Parliament, institutions, consultancy firms, and NGOs across Europe, as well as for the World Health Organization. He also served as a member of the Commission on LGBT rights of the Italian Ministry of Equal Opportunity. Stefano is also the editor and author (together with Maria Gigliola Toniollo) of the book La discriminazione fondata sull’orientamento sessuale – L’attuazione della direttiva 2000/78/CE e la nuova disciplina per la protezione dei diritti delle persone omosessuali sul posto di lavoro.
Stefano serves as board director of the International Lesbian and Gay Law Association (ILGLaw) and AKAHATÁ – equipo de trabajo en sexualidades y genero and is member of the advisory committee of The Initiative for Strategic Litigation in Africa.
Stefano holds a laurea in giurisprudenza (JD equivalent) from the University of Torino and a Master of Laws (LLM) from Columbia University School of Law (New York, NY, USA) where we was recognized as the James Kent Scholar.
Stefano Fabeni
Executive Director
Deniz Inal
Program Officer
Deniz Inal is Synergía’s Program Officer, ensuring adequate support across the entire team in the areas of program management, administration, and other functions as needs arise. Prior to her tenure with Synergía, Deniz worked as humanitarian affairs officer and advocacy manager with Médecins Sans Frontières in Chad, Haiti, and Uganda, focusing on responding to epidemics, sexual and reproductive health needs, and access to safe water.
Deniz has extensive experience in forced migration through her work with the International Catholic Migration Commission in Turkey where she was in charge of interviewing a range of individuals seeking resettlement – including unaccompanied minors, survivors of torture and sexual and gender-based violence, and LGBTIQ people.
Deniz also served as a project assistant for Middle East programs with Heartland Alliance International (HAI). As a component of this role, Deniz served as the main coordinator between HAI and the Global Initiatives of Human Rights team on a project addressing both immediate and long-term protection needs of Iranian LGBTIQ asylum seekers in Turkey. Prior to this, Deniz was an intern with the Helsinki Citizens Assembly – Refugee Advocacy and Support Program based in Turkey and an intern with the Association Africaine de Défense des Droits de l’Homme in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Deniz holds a BA in Anthropology from the University of Chicago (Chicago, IL, USA) and an MPH from the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health (New York, NY, USA). She serves on the board of directors of Refugee Solidarity Network, where she continues her engagement in refugee rights advocacy.
Deniz Inal
Program Officer
Maria Gigliola Toniollo
Senior Advisor
Maria Gigliola Toniollo serves as Synergía’s Senior Advisor. In her capacity, she supports the organization’s programming globally, with particular focus on shrinking civic spaces, on freedom of religion and belief, and the issue of separation between state and churches.
Prior to her engagement with Synergía, Maria Gigliola established and served for almost thirty years as the head of the New Rights Department of the national Secretariat of the Italian largest trade union Confederazione Generale Italiana del Lavoro (CGIL). During her tenure with the CGIL, she has mostly focused on the issue of the relations between the State and the Catholic Church. In this context, priority was given to the recognition of human rights and fundamental liberties that have been traditionally opposed by the Catholic hierarchies, namely the human rights of LGBTI individuals, sex workers, sexual and reproductive rights.
Due to her commitment in favor of the rights of trans individuals and sex workers, Maria Gigliola was awarded honorary membership to the trans organizations Movimento Italiano Transgender (MIT), Crisalide AzioneTrans, and Associazione Libellula, as well as to the Italian sex workers group Comitato per i Diritti Civili delle Prostitute.
Maria Gigliola served as the Chairperson of the Commission on the Right to Gender Identity of the Ministry for Equal Opportunity and as a member of the Commission on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity of the same ministry. She has been member of the national board of the Radical Party and in 2006 run for a seat in the Senate for the Rosa nel Pugno Party.
Maria Gigliola serves in the editorial board of the magazine “Non credo – Il primato laico del dubbio” (I don’t believe – The secular primacy of doubt) and is author of countless articles for a number of magazines and publications. She is editor and author of the books La discriminazione fondata sull’orientamento sessuale – L’attuazione della direttiva 2000/78/CE e la nuova disciplina per la protezione dei diritti delle persone omosessuali sul posto di lavoro (together with Stefano Fabeni) and La familia omogenitoriale in Europa. Diritti di cittadinanza e libera circolazione (together with Alexander Schuster).
Maria Gigliola is member of the Board of the Associazione Radicale Certi Diritti and collaborates with the Consulta Italiana di Bioetica. She holds a degree in Economy from the University of Genova.
MARIA GIGLIOLA TONIOLLO
Senior Advisor
Marcelo Ernesto Ferreyra
Latin America and Caribbean Coordinator
Marcelo Ernesto Ferreyra is an Argentinian feminist activist who has been supporting the defense of sexual rights and reproductive rights since 1987. In his role as Synergía’s Latin America and Caribbean Coordinator, he leads the development, implementation, and evaluation of our strategy in Latin America and the Caribbean. Marcelo also plays a central role in our work promoting separation between Church and State globally. Beyond his direct role with Synergía, Marcelo serves as a board member of AKAHATÁ – equipo de trabajo en sexualidades y genero and and an advisor to MamaCash.
An architect by training, Marcelo’s first engagements in sexual rights and reproductive rights activism included serving as a member of Comunidad Homosexual Argentina, Gays por los Derechos Civiles in Argentina, and as the president and director for Latin America and the Caribbean of Interpride. Marcelo also was a founder of the Coalition of LGBTTTI Organizations working at the OAS – in which Synergía continues to participate as the coordinating member.
Prior to Synergía, Marcelo worked as the Latin America and Caribbean Coordinator for Heartland Alliance for Human Needs & Human Rights’ Global Initiatives for Human Rights; as the Coordinator of the Program for Latin America and the Caribbean at the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC); and as the Coordinating Member of the Collegiate Coordination of the Campaign for an Inter-American Convention on Sexual Rights and Reproductive Rights.
Marcelo Ferreyra
Latin America/Caribbean Coordinator
Mike M. Mavoka
Senior Accountant
As Synergía’s Senior Accountant, Mike M. Mavoka oversees the day-to-day finance and accounting activities, ensuring full compliance of our financial transactions. Mike holds both a BS and MA in Accounting and Financial Management from the University of Maryland (USA).
Mike brings over seven years’ experience in finance and accounting for non-profit organizations with proven expertise in managing a range of accounting principles and practices. Prior to his role with Synergía, he was a Senior International Accountant at the National Democratic Institute.
Mike M Mavoka
Senior Accountant
Mahmud Yusuf
Africa Administrative Assistant
As Synergía’s Africa Administrative Assistant, Mahmud Yusuf brings with him over five years’ experience in supporting the management and operations of private and non-profit organizations. Linked to his professional experience, Mahmud is passionate about finding ways to support non-profit organizations in their work that addresses the needs of marginalized communities and those working or living in contexts of conflict
Mahmud began his career in non-profit management as an intern and later as the Africa Administrative Assistant for Heartland Alliance for Human Needs & Human Rights’ Global Initiatives for Sexuality and Human Rights. During his tenure, Mahmud managed day-to-day managerial and administrative aspects of various human rights projects.
Mahmud holds a National Diploma (ND) in Management Studies and a Higher National Diploma (HND) in Production and Operations Management from the Kaduna Federal Polytechnic (Kaduna, Nigeria). Mahmud is also a seasoned fashion designer.
Mahmud Yusuf
Africa Administrative Assistant
Matthew French
Director of Programs
As Synergía’s Director of Programs, Matthew French not only supports our team in the day-to-day management across all our thematic areas of work, but also leads our movement strengthening and security and protections programs. Additionally, Matthew oversees our grantmaking portfolio and the internal monitoring and evaluation of our work.
With over 10 years’ experience in international LGBTI human rights work, Matthew’s work has supported over 100 LGBTIQ activists and organizations across Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and the Pacific. Matthew has also mobilized over $20 million from existing and new donors interested in supporting international LGBTIQ human rights initiatives.
Prior to serving in his current role, Matthew served as the Director of Programs of Heartland Alliance for Human Needs & Human Rights’ Global Initiatives for Human Rights, before which he supported the foundation of the Arab Foundation for Freedoms and Equality – a Beirut-based organization supporting gender and sexuality-based movements across the Middle East and North Africa.
Matthew holds a BBA in economics from Loyola University Chicago (Chicago, IL, USA), with minor concentrations in English Literature and International Studies.
Matthew X French
Director of Programs
Mirta Moragas Mereles
Director of Policy and Advocacy
Mirta Moragas Mereles serves as Synergía’s Director of Policy and Advocacy. In this capacity, she is responsible for our work supporting and defining goals and scope of domestic, regional, and global policy and advocacy interventions; overseeing implementation of legal strategies; and developing and implementing global, regional and domestic advocacy strategies; overseeing implementation of legal strategies; and developing and implementing projects at the intersections movement and other movements and/or human rights areas.
Mirta is a Paraguayan lawyer, feminist activist, and human rights advocate. She graduated from the National University of Asunción (JD equivalent), received an LLM in International Legal Studies from American University Washington College of Law (Washington, DC, USA) with specialization in human rights and gender, a Master in Assessment of Public Policies from the International University of Andalucía, Spain, and two postgraduate Diplomas in Human Rights and Women from the University of Chile.
For several years, Mirta has served as the Regional Coordinator of the Campaign for an Inter-American Convention on Human Rights and Reproductive Rights, a network of feminists and LGBTIQ organizations that promotes a binding instrument on sexual rights and reproductive rights in the Inter-American system for the protection of human rights. At the domestic level, she coordinates the advocacy team of the Network Against All Forms of Discrimination, a network of Paraguayan organizations that promotes a bill against all forms of discrimination in Paraguay.
Moreover, Mirta has experience collaborating with shadow reports process at the UN for several Committees such as the UN Committee on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), UN Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (CESCR), the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), the UN Human Rights Committee (HRC), and the Universal Periodic Review (UPR). She also works as a litigator and researcher in issues regarding gender, sexuality and human rights.
Mirta Moragas Mereles
Director of Policy and Advocacy
Zaharadeen Gambo
Africa Coordinator
Zaharadeen Gambo serves as the Synergía Africa Coordinator, leading the development, implementation, and evaluation of our strategy in Africa. Zaharadeen brings with him over 15 years’ experience in human rights and development work – including particular focus on sexuality and human rights, democracy and governance, voter protection, and capacity strengthening with community and faith-based organizations across Anglophone West Africa – including Nigeria’s six geo-political zones.
Prior to joining Synergía, Zaharadeen served as the Africa Coordinator for Heartland Alliance for Human Needs & Human Rights’ Global Initiatives for Human Rights; a Senior Program Officer for the International Foundation for Elector Systems; and as a Program Officer with Global Rights – Partners for Justice in Nigeria.
Zaharadeen holds an MA International Affairs and Diplomacy and a BA in History and Development – both from Ahmadu Bello University (Zaria, Nigeria).
Zaharadeen Gambo
Africa Coordinator
Varyanne Sika
Associate Director of Policy and Advocacy
Varyanne Sika is the Associate Director of Policy and Advocacy at Synergía – Initiatives for Human Rights. She is responsible for supporting Synergia’s goals and scope of global, regional, national policy and advocacy interventions with particular reference to the African system of protection of human rights and work in Africa.
Varyanne is a feminist activist, researcher, and human rights advocate with 10 years experience in the rights sector. Throughout her work, Varyanne has conducted regional research in Africa and produced various reports and book chapters and papers on ranging topics including violence against women, and sexual politics and rights. She has supported women’s organizations in East, West, South and Central Africa in their advocacy work through capacity strengthening activities geared towards incorporating research and knowledge production in advocacy projects and campaigns. Prior to her current role at Synergía, Varyanne managed research and knowledge production at the Coalition of African Lesbians in Johannesburg where she established and run the regional Pan-African organization’s first advocacy research department. Varyanne has experience working at the UN through the Human Rights Council in Geneva, and working at the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights. She is committed to influencing human rights advancements through advocacy and policy research as well as through human rights-based programming that focuses on strengthening the work of national organizations.
Varyanne holds a BA in Sociology and Political Science from the University of Nairobi and a MA in Development Studies from the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Nairobi.
Varyanne Sika
Associate Director of Policy and Advocacy
Stefano Fabeni
Executive Director
Stefano Fabeni (LLM, JD) is the Executive Director of Synergía – Initiatives for Human Rights. In this role, Stefano has overall responsibility for ensuring our work advance’s the organization’s mission and he supports our partners by providing capacity strengthening support and strategic guidance in the areas of human rights advocacy.
Prior to his tenure with Synergía, Stefano served as the Executive Director of Heartland Alliance for Human Needs & Human Rights’ Global Initiatives for Human Rights unit and – prior to this – as the Director of the LGBTI Initiative of Global Rights – Partners for Justice.
Stefano served as the Italian member of the European Group of Experts on Combating Discrimination on grounds of Sexual Orientation. He was the conceiver, coordinator and director of the Center of Research and Legal Comparative Studies on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity’s (CERSGOSIG) EU-funded project CERSGOSIG-InformaGay. He has served for several years as a pro bono legal advisor and consultant of the New Rights Department of the Italian national trade union Confederazione Generale Italiana del Lavoro.
Stefano has served as a consultant and legal expert for members of the Italian Parliament, institutions, consultancy firms, and NGOs across Europe, as well as for the World Health Organization. He also served as a member of the Commission on LGBT rights of the Italian Ministry of Equal Opportunity. Stefano is also the editor and author (together with Maria Gigliola Toniollo) of the book La discriminazione fondata sull’orientamento sessuale – L’attuazione della direttiva 2000/78/CE e la nuova disciplina per la protezione dei diritti delle persone omosessuali sul posto di lavoro.
Stefano serves as board director of the International Lesbian and Gay Law Association (ILGLaw) and AKAHATÁ – equipo de trabajo en sexualidades y genero and is member of the advisory committee of The Initiative for Strategic Litigation in Africa.
Stefano holds a laurea in giurisprudenza (JD equivalent) from the University of Torino and a Master of Laws (LLM) from Columbia University School of Law (New York, NY, USA) where we was recognized as the James Kent Scholar.
Stefano Fabeni
Executive Director
Marcelo Ernesto Ferreyra
Latin America and Caribbean Coordinator
Marcelo Ernesto Ferreyra is an Argentinian feminist activist who has been supporting the defense of sexual rights and reproductive rights since 1987. In his role as Synergía’s Latin America and Caribbean Coordinator, he leads the development, implementation, and evaluation of our strategy in Latin America and the Caribbean. Marcelo also plays a central role in our work promoting separation between Church and State globally. Beyond his direct role with Synergía, Marcelo serves as a board member of AKAHATÁ – equipo de trabajo en sexualidades y genero and and an advisor to MamaCash.
An architect by training, Marcelo’s first engagements in sexual rights and reproductive rights activism included serving as a member of Comunidad Homosexual Argentina, Gays por los Derechos Civiles in Argentina, and as the president and director for Latin America and the Caribbean of Interpride. Marcelo also was a founder of the Coalition of LGBTTTI Organizations working at the OAS – in which Synergía continues to participate as the coordinating member.
Prior to Synergía, Marcelo worked as the Latin America and Caribbean Coordinator for Heartland Alliance for Human Needs & Human Rights’ Global Initiatives for Human Rights; as the Coordinator of the Program for Latin America and the Caribbean at the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC); and as the Coordinating Member of the Collegiate Coordination of the Campaign for an Inter-American Convention on Sexual Rights and Reproductive Rights.
Marcelo Ferreyra
Latin America Caribbean Coordinator
Matthew French
Director of Programs
As Synergía’s Director of Programs, Matthew French not only supports our team in the day-to-day management across all our thematic areas of work, but also leads our movement strengthening and security and protections programs. Additionally, Matthew oversees our grantmaking portfolio and the internal monitoring and evaluation of our work.
With over 10 years’ experience in international LGBTI human rights work, Matthew’s work has supported over 100 LGBTIQ activists and organizations across Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and the Pacific. Matthew has also mobilized over $20 million from existing and new donors interested in supporting international LGBTIQ human rights initiatives.
Prior to serving in his current role, Matthew served as the Director of Programs of Heartland Alliance for Human Needs & Human Rights’ Global Initiatives for Human Rights, before which he supported the foundation of the Arab Foundation for Freedoms and Equality – a Beirut-based organization supporting gender and sexuality-based movements across the Middle East and North Africa.
Matthew holds a BBA in economics from Loyola University Chicago (Chicago, IL, USA), with minor concentrations in English Literature and International Studies.
Matthew French
Director of Programs
Zaharadeen Gambo
Africa Coordinator
Zaharadeen Gambo serves as the Synergía Africa Coordinator, leading the development, implementation, and evaluation of our strategy in Africa. Zaharadeen brings with him over 15 years’ experience in human rights and development work – including particular focus on sexuality and human rights, democracy and governance, voter protection, and capacity strengthening with community and faith-based organizations across Anglophone West Africa – including Nigeria’s six geo-political zones.
Prior to joining Synergía, Zaharadeen served as the Africa Coordinator for Heartland Alliance for Human Needs & Human Rights’ Global Initiatives for Human Rights; a Senior Program Officer for the International Foundation for Elector Systems; and as a Program Officer with Global Rights – Partners for Justice in Nigeria.
Zaharadeen holds an MA International Affairs and Diplomacy and a BA in History and Development – both from Ahmadu Bello University (Zaria, Nigeria).
Zaharadeen Gambo
Africa Coordinator
Deniz Inal
Program Officer
Deniz Inal is Synergía’s Program Officer, ensuring adequate support across the entire team in the areas of program management, administration, and other functions as needs arise. Prior to her tenure with Synergía, Deniz worked as humanitarian affairs officer and advocacy manager with Médecins Sans Frontières in Chad, Haiti, and Uganda, focusing on responding to epidemics, sexual and reproductive health needs, and access to safe water.
Deniz has extensive experience in forced migration through her work with the International Catholic Migration Commission in Turkey where she was in charge of interviewing a range of individuals seeking resettlement – including unaccompanied minors, survivors of torture and sexual and gender-based violence, and LGBTIQ people.
Deniz also served as a project assistant for Middle East programs with Heartland Alliance International (HAI). As a component of this role, Deniz served as the main coordinator between HAI and the Global Initiatives of Human Rights team on a project addressing both immediate and long-term protection needs of Iranian LGBTIQ asylum seekers in Turkey. Prior to this, Deniz was an intern with the Helsinki Citizens Assembly – Refugee Advocacy and Support Program based in Turkey and an intern with the Association Africaine de Défense des Droits de l’Homme in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Deniz holds a BA in Anthropology from the University of Chicago (Chicago, IL, USA) and an MPH from the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health (New York, NY, USA). She serves on the board of directors of Refugee Solidarity Network, where she continues her engagement in refugee rights advocacy.
Deniz Inaz
Program officer
Mike M. Mavoka
Senior Accountant
As Synergía’s Senior Accountant, Mike M. Mavoka oversees the day-to-day finance and accounting activities, ensuring full compliance of our financial transactions. Mike holds both a BS and MA in Accounting and Financial Management from the University of Maryland (USA).
Mike brings over seven years’ experience in finance and accounting for non-profit organizations with proven expertise in managing a range of accounting principles and practices. Prior to his role with Synergía, he was a Senior International Accountant at the National Democratic Institute.
Mike M. Mavoka
Senior Accountant
Varyanne Sika
Associate Director of Policy and Advocacy
Varyanne Sika is the Associate Director of Policy and Advocacy at Synergía – Initiatives for Human Rights. She is responsible for supporting Synergia’s goals and scope of global, regional, national policy and advocacy interventions with particular reference to the African system of protection of human rights and work in Africa.
Varyanne is a feminist activist, researcher, and human rights advocate with 10 years experience in the rights sector. Throughout her work, Varyanne has conducted regional research in Africa and produced various reports and book chapters and papers on ranging topics including violence against women, and sexual politics and rights. She has supported women’s organizations in East, West, South and Central Africa in their advocacy work through capacity strengthening activities geared towards incorporating research and knowledge production in advocacy projects and campaigns. Prior to her current role at Synergía, Varyanne managed research and knowledge production at the Coalition of African Lesbians in Johannesburg where she established and run the regional Pan-African organization’s first advocacy research department. Varyanne has experience working at the UN through the Human Rights Council in Geneva, and working at the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights. She is committed to influencing human rights advancements through advocacy and policy research as well as through human rights-based programming that focuses on strengthening the work of national organizations.
Varyanne holds a BA in Sociology and Political Science from the University of Nairobi and a MA in Development Studies from the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Nairobi.
Varyanne Sika
Associate Director of Policy and Advocacy
Mirta Moragas Mereles
Director of Policy and Advocacy
Mirta Moragas Mereles serves as Synergía’s Director of Policy and Advocacy. In this capacity, she is responsible for our work supporting and defining goals and scope of domestic, regional, and global policy and advocacy interventions; overseeing implementation of legal strategies; and developing and implementing global, regional and domestic advocacy strategies; overseeing implementation of legal strategies; and developing and implementing projects at the intersections movement and other movements and/or human rights areas.
Mirta is a Paraguayan lawyer, feminist activist, and human rights advocate. She graduated from the National University of Asunción (JD equivalent), received an LLM in International Legal Studies from American University Washington College of Law (Washington, DC, USA) with specialization in human rights and gender, a Master in Assessment of Public Policies from the International University of Andalucía, Spain, and two postgraduate Diplomas in Human Rights and Women from the University of Chile.
For several years, Mirta has served as the Regional Coordinator of the Campaign for an Inter-American Convention on Human Rights and Reproductive Rights, a network of feminists and LGBTIQ organizations that promotes a binding instrument on sexual rights and reproductive rights in the Inter-American system for the protection of human rights. At the domestic level, she coordinates the advocacy team of the Network Against All Forms of Discrimination, a network of Paraguayan organizations that promotes a bill against all forms of discrimination in Paraguay.
Moreover, Mirta has experience collaborating with shadow reports process at the UN for several Committees such as the UN Committee on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), UN Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (CESCR), the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), the UN Human Rights Committee (HRC), and the Universal Periodic Review (UPR). She also works as a litigator and researcher in issues regarding gender, sexuality and human rights.
MIRTA MORAGAS MERELES
Director Of Policy And Advocacy
Maria Gigliola Toniollo
Senior Advisor
Maria Gigliola Toniollo serves as Synergía’s Senior Advisor. In her capacity, she supports the organization’s programming globally, with particular focus on shrinking civic spaces, on freedom of religion and belief, and the issue of separation between state and churches.
Prior to her engagement with Synergía, Maria Gigliola established and served for almost thirty years as the head of the New Rights Department of the national Secretariat of the Italian largest trade union Confederazione Generale Italiana del Lavoro (CGIL). During her tenure with the CGIL, she has mostly focused on the issue of the relations between the State and the Catholic Church. In this context, priority was given to the recognition of human rights and fundamental liberties that have been traditionally opposed by the Catholic hierarchies, namely the human rights of LGBTI individuals, sex workers, sexual and reproductive rights.
Due to her commitment in favor of the rights of trans individuals and sex workers, Maria Gigliola was awarded honorary membership to the trans organizations Movimento Italiano Transgender (MIT), Crisalide AzioneTrans, and Associazione Libellula, as well as to the Italian sex workers group Comitato per i Diritti Civili delle Prostitute.
Maria Gigliola served as the Chairperson of the Commission on the Right to Gender Identity of the Ministry for Equal Opportunity and as a member of the Commission on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity of the same ministry. She has been member of the national board of the Radical Party and in 2006 run for a seat in the Senate for the Rosa nel Pugno Party.
Maria Gigliola serves in the editorial board of the magazine “Non credo – Il primato laico del dubbio” (I don’t believe – The secular primacy of doubt) and is author of countless articles for a number of magazines and publications. She is editor and author of the books La discriminazione fondata sull’orientamento sessuale – L’attuazione della direttiva 2000/78/CE e la nuova disciplina per la protezione dei diritti delle persone omosessuali sul posto di lavoro (together with Stefano Fabeni) and La familia omogenitoriale in Europa. Diritti di cittadinanza e libera circolazione (together with Alexander Schuster).
Maria Gigliola is member of the Board of the Associazione Radicale Certi Diritti and collaborates with the Consulta Italiana di Bioetica. She holds a degree in Economy from the University of Genova.
MARIA GIGLIOLA TONIOLLO
Senior Advisor
Mahmud Yusuf
Africa Administrative Assistant
As Synergía’s Africa Administrative Assistant, Mahmud Yusuf brings with him over five years’ experience in supporting the management and operations of private and non-profit organizations. Linked to his professional experience, Mahmud is passionate about finding ways to support non-profit organizations in their work that addresses the needs of marginalized communities and those working or living in contexts of conflict
Mahmud began his career in non-profit management as an intern and later as the Africa Administrative Assistant for Heartland Alliance for Human Needs & Human Rights’ Global Initiatives for Sexuality and Human Rights. During his tenure, Mahmud managed day-to-day managerial and administrative aspects of various human rights projects.
Mahmud holds a National Diploma (ND) in Management Studies and a Higher National Diploma (HND) in Production and Operations Management from the Kaduna Federal Polytechnic (Kaduna, Nigeria). Mahmud is also a seasoned fashion designer.
Mahmud Yusuf
Africa Administrator Assistant
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Staff Bio: Paragraph 2 Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.
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Staff Name
Staff Title
Staff Full Name
Staff Position
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Staff Name
Staff Title
Board of Directors
Kerry Ashforth
Director, Secretary
Kerry Ashforth has worked for over 25 years to protect and promote the human rights of gender and sexual minorities, including by increasing resources dedicated to supporting transgender and intersex communities and issues. Most recently, he managed the Global Equality Fund (GEF), a public-private partnership housed at the US Department of State. With more than 20 government, corporate, and NGO partners, the GEF supports advocates and allies dedicated to protecting and defending the human rights and fundamental freedoms of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) persons around the world.
Prior to his work with the GEF, Kerry served as a grants and knowledge manager at the Arcus Foundation, and as an international philanthropy and CSR associate at American Express.
Kerry’s work as a community organizer started in Massachusetts, through then-Governor William Weld’s Safe Schools Program, where he facilitated anti-homophobia and anti-transphobia trainings for thousands of students and faculty members at schools across the state. He also served as Student Pride Coordinator at GLSEN, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, helping to strengthen a national network of student activists.
Kerry recently completed a sabbatical year, where he studied professional pastry arts at the International Culinary Center. He holds a B.M. in Music Theory and Composition from New York University, and a M.S. in Organizational Change Management from The New School University.
Kerry Ashforth
Director, Secretary
Funmi Iyanda
Director
Funmi Iyanda is a multi-award winning Nigerian Journalist, entrepreneur, Writer, cultural figure, Film and Television producer.
Launching her career into journalism with sport and political reporting, she covered the 1995 all Africa games, the 1998 super world cup and the 1999 female Football world cup, the 2000 and 2004 Olympic game which held in Sydney and Athens. Apart from covering sports, she served as the only female and the youngest person on the board of the Lagos Football Association between 1999 and 2003 advising the city governing body. From covering sport, she simultaneously edited and directed Good Morning Nigeria, a national magazine breakfast show broadcasting nationwide covering topics such as culture, fashion, politic, and social development. Further, as a journalist she wrote the the most critically acclaimed and popular weekly culture and political satire column. She also contributed to magazines and newspapers such as Farafina Magazine, PM News, The Punch, Daily Trust and Vanguard Newspapers. Apart from her columns in these national newspapers and magazines, she regularly shared her opinion on national issues, fashion, lifestyle, music and film through blogging.
Funmi is known for independently producing and hosting Nigeria’s most popular and groundbreaking talk show New Dawn, which ran nationally for eight years with unprecedented and yet unsurpassed ratings. She is a graduate of the University of Ibadan and holds a certificate in Global Leadership and Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School. She is also an honorary fellow of the University of Cumbria UK, a BBC 100 women to watch and a UN women global equality champion.
Her shows have been syndicated across Africa, including the genre bending well received Talk with Funmi (TWF), an audacious socio-reality documentary television series. Funmi, along with a 30-man crew embarked on a harrowing but fulfilling road journey around Nigeria, capturing the people and conversations of the country. The result was a thought-provoking, illuminating and entertaining journey into the life of Nigerians. Further, she produced and presented a string of International critically acclaimed productions including My Country Nigeria, a 3-part series commissioned by BBC, and nominated for “Best News Documentary” at the 2011 Monte Carlo TV Festival. She is also the producer and host of BANFF nominated chopcassava.com, a gritty and innovative web series documenting the 2012 Nigerian fuel subsidy protests.
An innovator in her industry, Funmi has won tremendous recognition for her pioneering work as a journalist, entrepreneur, an advocate of women, children and sexual monitories. She’s named one of Forbes 20 Power Women in Africa. Funmi is a member of several global networks including Aspen Institute’s Global Leaders Network, Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum and a fellow of the Desmond Tutu Leadership Programme. In addition, she served and currently serving on several Boards of organisations including but not limited to; Farafina Trust, Action Aid Nigeria, Positive Impact Youth Network, African Leadership Institute, and The Sole Adventurer, an Art Foundation.
She is executive director at OYA Media, a Lagos and London based media production company established to produce and facilitate transformative Films and TV shows from Africa for cinema, television and the web.
Over the years, she has successfully managed several media companies in addition to her own shows, produced numerous TV documentaries, shows, events and special communications projects with clients across spectrum of government, corporations and socio development. She is considered as one of the most skilful interviewers in the business. Described by Ram Kool Haas as one of the best interviewers whose skills was without equivalence in his experience.
She is the founder and board member of Change-a-Life foundation, a social intervention project birthed on her show New Dawn. Over the years, Change-A-Life has evolved into an independent charity affecting the lives of women and children. She is also founder of Oya Media Initiative’s upcoming School of Imagination and Creativity.
Funmi is also the Producer of Walking with Shadows a groundbreaking feature film adapted from Jude Dibia’s award winning novel tackling issues of identity and the universal search for love and self-acceptance. The movie had its world Premiere with BFI London Film Festival 2019 and AFRIFF 2019 and carrying on its successful conquest of Europe and America.
She has a dedicated production team based out of Lagos gathering and developing content – first out of Nigeria and the rest of Africa as well as provide space for the exchange of talent and experience.
Funmi is in partnership with the Swedish Film Board and the MACARTHUR Foundation.
Funmi Iyanda
Director
Macarena Sáez
Director
Macarena Sáez is the Faculty Director of the Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law and a Fellow in the International Legal Studies Program at American University Washington College of Law (AUWCL). She teaches in the areas of Gender and Sexuality, Family Law, Comparative Law, and International Human Rights. Her main areas of research are the role of sexual orientation and gender identity in family law, and comparative regulations of sex as an economic activity.
Macarena is a founding member of the Network of Latin American Scholars on Gender, Sexuality and Legal Education ALAS, an organization that provides training to law professors in Latin America on mainstreaming gender and sexuality perspectives in legal education. She is also member of Libertades Públicas, an organization that promotes civil liberties in Latin America. With this organization she was one of the lead counsels for the victims in the first case on sexual orientation before the Inter American System of Human Rights Karen Atala and daughters v. Chile.
Macarena Saez has also taught feminist jurisprudence and human rights in different universities of Latin America and Europe. Saez has given her expert testimony on issues of sexual orientation and gender identity before the Constitutional Court of Colombia and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and has written extensively on women and LGBTQ rights. She holds a law degree from the University of Chile School of Law and an LL.M. from Yale Law School.
Macarena Sáez
Director
Sokari Ekine
Director
Sokari Ekine is a Nigerian British feminist photographer, educator, and writer. She has worked in Africa, Europe, the Caribbean and the US. Her work focuses on decolonization, sexuality, and African spirituality. Sokari is one of the first African women to blog; Black Looks which includes a ten year collaborative archive on LGBTIQ+ Africa. She has worked in adult education; as editor and columnist for international online magazines; published in academic journals on gender, militarization and LGBTIQ+ politics and contributed to four ground breaking publications on Africa including co-editing the Queer African Reader.
In 2013 she received the International Reporting Fellowship from John Hopkins to report on health justice in Haiti. During the fellowship she began her journey as a photographer, exploring Haitian Vodoun, and creating the photo essay “Spirit Desire”. In 2017 she received a grant from the Global Arts Fund for her visual documentary, “The Vernacular of Freedom, and the Politics of Rescue in Queer Futures” which contemplates the centrality of spiritual practice for LGBTIQ+ Kenyans. She is the 2019 recipient of the Monroe Fellowship from the Center for the Gulf South in New Orleans for support of her photo essay “Altars: Black Ecologies of the Spirit”.
Her work has been exhibited widely including at AfroFutures during Art Basel; PhotoVille, New York; in Brazil and Germany. Her photography is housed in the Caribbean collection of the Amistad Research Center, and at Xavier University both in New Orleans.
Sokari Ekine
Director
Rev. Dr. Sid L. Mohn
Director
Rev. Dr. Sid L. Mohn is the President of IMPACTO Consulting, where his work focuses on building the leadership and impact of non-governmental organizations. Prior to his work with IMPACTO Consulting, Sid served for 35 years as President of the Chicago-based Heartland Alliance for Human Needs & Human Rights, a non-profit organization headquartered in the United States with programs both in the US and in over 20 countries around the world.
During his career, Sid has focused on providing for immediate needs and advancing human rights of vulnerable populations including persons experiencing homelessness, persons in extreme poverty, persons with HIV, refugees, LGBTIQ populations, and persons experiencing violence.
Sid has served as Vice President of the Geneva-based International Social Service, Chair of the Washington, DC-based National Immigration Forum, the Illinois Governor’s Commission on the Elimination of Poverty, and the City of Chicago Human Relations Commission. Sid also is ordained within the United Church of Christ.
Rev. DR. Sid L Mohn
Director
Jeffrey Green
Director, Assistant Treasurer
Jeff Green is the Vice President of Finance. He received his B.S. from the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign and his M.B.A. from the University of Chicago. Jeff brings more than 30 years of experience in financial management including 20 years of executive experience as a CFO working in manufacturing and distribution.
Jeff serves on the Board at AIDS Foundation Chicago (AFC) whose mission is to create equity and justice for people living with and vulnerable to HIV and related chronic diseases. Jeff also serves as Board Treasurer for Synergía – Initiatives for Human Rights which is a newly formed nongovernmental organization to address human rights violations motived by one’s sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expressions across Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, and the Middle East.
Originally from Chicago, Jeff has lived and worked in California, Quebec, and Washington.
Jeffrey Green
Director, Assistant Treasurer
Tracy Robinson
Director, Vice-Chairperson
Tracy Robinson is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Law, The UWI, Mona, Jamaica where she teaches undergraduate courses in Constitutional Law, Commonwealth Caribbean Human Rights Law and Family Law. She joined Mona Law in 2011 after teaching for a decade and a half at the Faculty of Law, UWI, Cave Hill. She is a co-founder and co-coordinator of the Faculty of Law, The University of the West Indies Rights Advocacy Project (U-RAP). Her research, professional work and public service have focused on constitutional law, human rights and issues of gender and sexuality. She has also authored and co- written many regional expert reports on the law related to gender, sexuality and human rights in the Caribbean and has been involved in legal and policy reform aimed at furthering gender equality and children’s rights in the Caribbean.
Robinson was a member of the Inter-American Commission (IACHR) between 2012 and 2015 and served in various positions at the IACHR, including as its President between 2014 and 2015, its Rapporteur on the Rights of Women and its first Rapporteur for the Rights of LGBTI Persons. She also served as a member of the Technical Advisory Group to the Global Commission on HIV. She is a Commissioner on the Independent Review of Equity and Health Inequalities in the Americas, initiated by PAHO/WHO in 2016. She also serves as an external adviser on the Governing Council of the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF).
Tracy Robinson
Director, Vice-Chairperson
Dea Guerra
Director, Treasurer
Dea Guerra is a Finance and Accounting Consultant for the DLC Group with over 30 years of experience. She brings significant international experience and has consulted Fortune 500 companies across the CPG, Technology, Retail, and Media industries. Her areas of expertise lie in technical accounting and process improvement, implementing accounting tools to maximize efficiencies and controls within organizations. In her Controllership roles, Dea has published financial statements prepared under Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) and has experience with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).
Prior to being appointed to Synergía’s Board of Directors in 2020, Dea began her relationship with Synergía as a pro-bono accounting advisor upon its formation in 2017.
Dea received her BBA in public accounting from Loyola University of Chicago (Chicago, IL, USA) and is a licensed C.P.A.
DEA GUERRA
Director, Treasurer
Cynthia Rothschild
Director, Chairperson
Cynthia Rothschild is an independent activist and consultant with a focus on United Nations advocacy and policy, sexual rights, HIV/AIDS, and women human rights defenders (HRDs). A human rights, women’s rights, and sexual rights activist for over 20 years, she is the author of Written Out: How Sexuality is Used to Attack Women’s Organizing; the co-author of Strengthening Resistance: Confronting Violence Against Women and HIV/AIDS, and Amnesty International’s Crimes of Hate, Conspiracy of Silence: Torture and Ill- Treatment Based on Sexual Identity.
Most recently, Cynthia edited Gendering Documentation: A Manual for and about Women Human Rights Defenders. In 2011 and 2015, Cynthia consulted with the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), where she made significant contributions to the UN’s two groundbreaking reports on discrimination and violence based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
For over two decades, Cynthia has worked with activist networks and non-governmental organizations within and outside the US, including the Center for Women’s Global Leadership (where she was the Senior Policy Advisor), and a number of local, regional, and global women’s and reproductive rights groups and HIV/AIDS service organizations. As a trainer and facilitator, Cynthia has also supported NGOs inside and outside the US in organizational development projects.
Cynthia has worked at the United Nations Development Fund for Women (now UN Women) with a focus on HIV/AIDS and the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women.
While helping to build Amnesty International USA’s first LGBTI program in the 1990s, she played a leading role in coordinating Amnesty’s movement-wide international development on sexual orientation and gender identity through the mid-2000s. She also served on AI USA’s Board of Directors from 2001 – 2006. She is now on the Advisory Committee of Human Rights Watch’s LGBT Rights Program, and recently served on the Board of the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice.
Cynthia’s UN advocacy is driven by commitments to stronger policy and promoting progressive and feminist activism at the UN Human Rights Council and the UN Commission on the Status of Women. She’s also helped to build civil society networks focused on UN reform of its “gender architecture,” and UN projects related to HIV/AIDS and rights of young people.
Cynthia Rothschild
Director, Chairperson
Kerry Ashforth
Director, Secretary
Kerry Ashforth has worked for over 25 years to protect and promote the human rights of gender and sexual minorities, including by increasing resources dedicated to supporting transgender and intersex communities and issues. Most recently, he managed the Global Equality Fund (GEF), a public-private partnership housed at the US Department of State. With more than 20 government, corporate, and NGO partners, the GEF supports advocates and allies dedicated to protecting and defending the human rights and fundamental freedoms of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) persons around the world.
Prior to his work with the GEF, Kerry served as a grants and knowledge manager at the Arcus Foundation, and as an international philanthropy and CSR associate at American Express.
Kerry’s work as a community organizer started in Massachusetts, through then-Governor William Weld’s Safe Schools Program, where he facilitated anti-homophobia and anti-transphobia trainings for thousands of students and faculty members at schools across the state. He also served as Student Pride Coordinator at GLSEN, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, helping to strengthen a national network of student activists.
Kerry recently completed a sabbatical year, where he studied professional pastry arts at the International Culinary Center. He holds a B.M. in Music Theory and Composition from New York University, and a M.S. in Organizational Change Management from The New School University.
Kerry Ashforth
Director, Secretary
Sokari Ekine
Director
Sokari Ekine is a Nigerian British feminist photographer, educator, and writer. She has worked in Africa, Europe, the Caribbean and the US. Her work focuses on decolonization, sexuality, and African spirituality. Sokari is one of the first African women to blog; Black Looks which includes a ten year collaborative archive on LGBTIQ+ Africa. She has worked in adult education; as editor and columnist for international online magazines; published in academic journals on gender, militarization and LGBTIQ+ politics and contributed to four ground breaking publications on Africa including co-editing the Queer African Reader.
In 2013 she received the International Reporting Fellowship from John Hopkins to report on health justice in Haiti. During the fellowship she began her journey as a photographer, exploring Haitian Vodoun, and creating the photo essay “Spirit Desire”. In 2017 she received a grant from the Global Arts Fund for her visual documentary, “The Vernacular of Freedom, and the Politics of Rescue in Queer Futures” which contemplates the centrality of spiritual practice for LGBTIQ+ Kenyans. She is the 2019 recipient of the Monroe Fellowship from the Center for the Gulf South in New Orleans for support of her photo essay “Altars: Black Ecologies of the Spirit”.
Her work has been exhibited widely including at AfroFutures during Art Basel; PhotoVille, New York; in Brazil and Germany. Her photography is housed in the Caribbean collection of the Amistad Research Center, and at Xavier University both in New Orleans.
Sokari Ekine
Director
Jeffrey Green
Director, Assistant Treasurer
Jeff Green is the Vice President of Finance. He received his B.S. from the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign and his M.B.A. from the University of Chicago. Jeff brings more than 30 years of experience in financial management including 20 years of executive experience as a CFO working in manufacturing and distribution.
Jeff serves on the Board at AIDS Foundation Chicago (AFC) whose mission is to create equity and justice for people living with and vulnerable to HIV and related chronic diseases. Jeff also serves as Board Treasurer for Synergía – Initiatives for Human Rights which is a newly formed nongovernmental organization to address human rights violations motived by one’s sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expressions across Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, and the Middle East.
Originally from Chicago, Jeff has lived and worked in California, Quebec, and Washington.
Jeffrey Green
Director, Treasurer
Dea Guerra
Director, Treasurer
Dea Guerra is a Finance and Accounting Consultant for the DLC Group with over 30 years of experience. She brings significant international experience and has consulted Fortune 500 companies across the CPG, Technology, Retail, and Media industries. Her areas of expertise lie in technical accounting and process improvement, implementing accounting tools to maximize efficiencies and controls within organizations. In her Controllership roles, Dea has published financial statements prepared under Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) and has experience with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).
Prior to being appointed to Synergía’s Board of Directors in 2020, Dea began her relationship with Synergía as a pro-bono accounting advisor upon its formation in 2017.
Dea received her BBA in public accounting from Loyola University of Chicago (Chicago, IL, USA) and is a licensed C.P.A.
DEA GUERRA
Director, Treasurer
Funmi Iyanda
Director
Funmi Iyanda is a multi-award winning Nigerian Journalist, entrepreneur, Writer, cultural figure, Film and Television producer.
Launching her career into journalism with sport and political reporting, she covered the 1995 all Africa games, the 1998 super world cup and the 1999 female Football world cup, the 2000 and 2004 Olympic game which held in Sydney and Athens. Apart from covering sports, she served as the only female and the youngest person on the board of the Lagos Football Association between 1999 and 2003 advising the city governing body. From covering sport, she simultaneously edited and directed Good Morning Nigeria, a national magazine breakfast show broadcasting nationwide covering topics such as culture, fashion, politic, and social development. Further, as a journalist she wrote the the most critically acclaimed and popular weekly culture and political satire column. She also contributed to magazines and newspapers such as Farafina Magazine, PM News, The Punch, Daily Trust and Vanguard Newspapers. Apart from her columns in these national newspapers and magazines, she regularly shared her opinion on national issues, fashion, lifestyle, music and film through blogging.
Funmi is known for independently producing and hosting Nigeria’s most popular and groundbreaking talk show New Dawn, which ran nationally for eight years with unprecedented and yet unsurpassed ratings. She is a graduate of the University of Ibadan and holds a certificate in Global Leadership and Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School. She is also an honorary fellow of the University of Cumbria UK, a BBC 100 women to watch and a UN women global equality champion.
Her shows have been syndicated across Africa, including the genre bending well received Talk with Funmi (TWF), an audacious socio-reality documentary television series. Funmi, along with a 30-man crew embarked on a harrowing but fulfilling road journey around Nigeria, capturing the people and conversations of the country. The result was a thought-provoking, illuminating and entertaining journey into the life of Nigerians. Further, she produced and presented a string of International critically acclaimed productions including My Country Nigeria, a 3-part series commissioned by BBC, and nominated for “Best News Documentary” at the 2011 Monte Carlo TV Festival. She is also the producer and host of BANFF nominated chopcassava.com, a gritty and innovative web series documenting the 2012 Nigerian fuel subsidy protests.
An innovator in her industry, Funmi has won tremendous recognition for her pioneering work as a journalist, entrepreneur, an advocate of women, children and sexual monitories. She’s named one of Forbes 20 Power Women in Africa. Funmi is a member of several global networks including Aspen Institute’s Global Leaders Network, Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum and a fellow of the Desmond Tutu Leadership Programme. In addition, she served and currently serving on several Boards of organisations including but not limited to; Farafina Trust, Action Aid Nigeria, Positive Impact Youth Network, African Leadership Institute, and The Sole Adventurer, an Art Foundation.
She is executive director at OYA Media, a Lagos and London based media production company established to produce and facilitate transformative Films and TV shows from Africa for cinema, television and the web.
Over the years, she has successfully managed several media companies in addition to her own shows, produced numerous TV documentaries, shows, events and special communications projects with clients across spectrum of government, corporations and socio development. She is considered as one of the most skilful interviewers in the business. Described by Ram Kool Haas as one of the best interviewers whose skills was without equivalence in his experience.
She is the founder and board member of Change-a-Life foundation, a social intervention project birthed on her show New Dawn. Over the years, Change-A-Life has evolved into an independent charity affecting the lives of women and children. She is also founder of Oya Media Initiative’s upcoming School of Imagination and Creativity.
Funmi is also the Producer of Walking with Shadows a groundbreaking feature film adapted from Jude Dibia’s award winning novel tackling issues of identity and the universal search for love and self-acceptance. The movie had its world Premiere with BFI London Film Festival 2019 and AFRIFF 2019 and carrying on its successful conquest of Europe and America.
She has a dedicated production team based out of Lagos gathering and developing content – first out of Nigeria and the rest of Africa as well as provide space for the exchange of talent and experience.
Funmi is in partnership with the Swedish Film Board and the MACARTHUR Foundation.
Funmi Iyanda
Director
Rev. Dr. Sid L. Mohn
Director
Rev. Dr. Sid L. Mohn is the President of IMPACTO Consulting, where his work focuses on building the leadership and impact of non-governmental organizations. Prior to his work with IMPACTO Consulting, Sid served for 35 years as President of the Chicago-based Heartland Alliance for Human Needs & Human Rights, a non-profit organization headquartered in the United States with programs both in the US and in over 20 countries around the world.
During his career, Sid has focused on providing for immediate needs and advancing human rights of vulnerable populations including persons experiencing homelessness, persons in extreme poverty, persons with HIV, refugees, LGBTIQ populations, and persons experiencing violence.
Sid has served as Vice President of the Geneva-based International Social Service, Chair of the Washington, DC-based National Immigration Forum, the Illinois Governor’s Commission on the Elimination of Poverty, and the City of Chicago Human Relations Commission. Sid also is ordained within the United Church of Christ.
Rev. Dr. Sid L. Mohn
Director, Assistant Treasurer
Tracy Robinson
Director, Vice-Chairperson
Tracy Robinson is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Law, The UWI, Mona, Jamaica where she teaches undergraduate courses in Constitutional Law, Commonwealth Caribbean Human Rights Law and Family Law. She joined Mona Law in 2011 after teaching for a decade and a half at the Faculty of Law, UWI, Cave Hill. She is a co-founder and co-coordinator of the Faculty of Law, The University of the West Indies Rights Advocacy Project (U-RAP). Her research, professional work and public service have focused on constitutional law, human rights and issues of gender and sexuality. She has also authored and co- written many regional expert reports on the law related to gender, sexuality and human rights in the Caribbean and has been involved in legal and policy reform aimed at furthering gender equality and children’s rights in the Caribbean.
Robinson was a member of the Inter-American Commission (IACHR) between 2012 and 2015 and served in various positions at the IACHR, including as its President between 2014 and 2015, its Rapporteur on the Rights of Women and its first Rapporteur for the Rights of LGBTI Persons. She also served as a member of the Technical Advisory Group to the Global Commission on HIV. She is a Commissioner on the Independent Review of Equity and Health Inequalities in the Americas, initiated by PAHO/WHO in 2016. She also serves as an external adviser on the Governing Council of the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF).
Tracy Robinson
Director
Cynthia Rothschild
Director, Chairperson
Cynthia Rothschild is an independent activist and consultant with a focus on United Nations advocacy and policy, sexual rights, HIV/AIDS, and women human rights defenders (HRDs). A human rights, women’s rights, and sexual rights activist for over 20 years, she is the author of Written Out: How Sexuality is Used to Attack Women’s Organizing; the co-author of Strengthening Resistance: Confronting Violence Against Women and HIV/AIDS, and Amnesty International’s Crimes of Hate, Conspiracy of Silence: Torture and Ill- Treatment Based on Sexual Identity.
Most recently, Cynthia edited Gendering Documentation: A Manual for and about Women Human Rights Defenders. In 2011 and 2015, Cynthia consulted with the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), where she made significant contributions to the UN’s two groundbreaking reports on discrimination and violence based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
For over two decades, Cynthia has worked with activist networks and non-governmental organizations within and outside the US, including the Center for Women’s Global Leadership (where she was the Senior Policy Advisor), and a number of local, regional, and global women’s and reproductive rights groups and HIV/AIDS service organizations. As a trainer and facilitator, Cynthia has also supported NGOs inside and outside the US in organizational development projects.
Cynthia has worked at the United Nations Development Fund for Women (now UN Women) with a focus on HIV/AIDS and the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women.
While helping to build Amnesty International USA’s first LGBTI program in the 1990s, she played a leading role in coordinating Amnesty’s movement-wide international development on sexual orientation and gender identity through the mid-2000s. She also served on AI USA’s Board of Directors from 2001 – 2006. She is now on the Advisory Committee of Human Rights Watch’s LGBT Rights Program, and recently served on the Board of the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice.
Cynthia’s UN advocacy is driven by commitments to stronger policy and promoting progressive and feminist activism at the UN Human Rights Council and the UN Commission on the Status of Women. She’s also helped to build civil society networks focused on UN reform of its “gender architecture,” and UN projects related to HIV/AIDS and rights of young people.
Cynthia Rothschild
Director
Macarena Sáez
Director
Macarena Sáez is the Faculty Director of the Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law and a Fellow in the International Legal Studies Program at American University Washington College of Law (AUWCL). She teaches in the areas of Gender and Sexuality, Family Law, Comparative Law, and International Human Rights. Her main areas of research are the role of sexual orientation and gender identity in family law, and comparative regulations of sex as an economic activity.
Macarena is a founding member of the Network of Latin American Scholars on Gender, Sexuality and Legal Education ALAS, an organization that provides training to law professors in Latin America on mainstreaming gender and sexuality perspectives in legal education. She is also member of Libertades Públicas, an organization that promotes civil liberties in Latin America. With this organization she was one of the lead counsels for the victims in the first case on sexual orientation before the Inter American System of Human Rights Karen Atala and daughters v. Chile.
Macarena Saez has also taught feminist jurisprudence and human rights in different universities of Latin America and Europe. Saez has given her expert testimony on issues of sexual orientation and gender identity before the Constitutional Court of Colombia and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and has written extensively on women and LGBTQ rights. She holds a law degree from the University of Chile School of Law and an LL.M. from Yale Law School.
MACARENA SÁEZ
Director
Staff Full Name
Staff Position
Staff Bio: Paragraph 1 Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.
Staff Bio: Paragraph 2 Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.
Staff Bio: Pragraph 3 Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.
Board Member
Director
Staff Full Name
Staff Position
Staff Bio: Paragraph 1 Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.
Staff Bio: Paragraph 2 Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.
Staff Bio: Pragraph 3 Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.
Board Member
Director
Staff Full Name
Staff Position
Staff Bio: Paragraph 1 Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.
Staff Bio: Paragraph 2 Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.
Staff Bio: Pragraph 3 Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.
Board Member
Director
Staff Full Name
Staff Position
Staff Bio: Paragraph 1 Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.
Staff Bio: Paragraph 2 Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.
Staff Bio: Pragraph 3 Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.
Board Member
Director
Former Directors
Victor Madrigal-Borloz
Founding Director (2017-2018)
In late 2017 the United Nations Human Rights Council appointed Mr. Madrigal-Borloz as UN Independent Expert on Protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity for a three years period starting on 1 January 2018. In this capacity, he assesses the implementation of international human rights law, raises awareness, engages in dialogue with all relevant stakeholders, and provides advisory services, technical assistance, capacity-building to help address violence and discrimination against persons on the basis of the sexual orientation or gender identity.
Victor Madrigal-Borloz, a Costa Rican jurist, is a senior visiting researcher at the Harvard Law School’s Human Rights Program. He will be in residence at Harvard Law School from July 2019 to December 2020. Until June 2019 he served as the Secretary-General of the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (IRCT), a global network of over 150 rehabilitation centers with the vision of full enjoyment of the right to rehabilitation for all victims of torture and ill treatment until 30 June 2019.
A member of the UN Subcommittee on the Prevention of Torture from 2013 to 2016, Mr. Madrigal-Borloz was Rapporteur on Reprisals and oversaw a draft policy on the torture and ill-treatment of LGBTI persons. Prior to this he led technical work on numerous cases, reports and testimonies as Head of Litigation and Head of the Registry at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and has also worked at the Danish Institute for Human Rights (Copenhagen, Denmark) and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (San José, Costa Rica).
Mr. Madrigal-Borloz is a founding member of the Costa Rican Association of International Law (ACODI), a founding Board member of the International Justice Resource Centre (IJRC), and a founding Board member of Synergía – Initiatives for Human Rights.
Victor Madrigal-Borloz
Founding Director (2017-2018)
Chris Kwaja
Director (2017-2019)
Chris Kwaja, Ph.D., is a Senior Lecturer and Researcher at the Centre for Conflict Management and Peace Studies, Modibbo Adama University of Technology, Yola, Adamawa State, Nigeria. He is also a Visiting Research Fellow with the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), Abuja, Nigeria. He holds a Doctorate Degree in International Relations and Strategic Studies. Dr. Kwaja was an exchange fellow of Dispute Resolution at the University of Massachusetts, USA and is an alumnus of the Geneva Centre for Security Policy, Switzerland.
Dr. Kwaja has been the recipient of several research awards such as the CODESRIA Governance Institute on Private Military and Security Companies, 2009; United Nations Mandated University for Peace Doctoral Research Award, 2009; as well as the Peace Fellow Award of the West Africa Research Centre, 2010.
From 2011 to 2015, Dr. Kwaja served as the Director General for Research and Planning as well as Honourable Commissioner for Local Governments and Chieftancy Affairs in the Governor’s Office of Plateau State, Nigeria. He has over 50 scholarly publications to his credit in journals, books, monographs series, technical reports, policy, and security briefs among others. His research focuses on the politics of identity in Africa, the privatization of security, democratization, conflict, and peace studies, as well as security sector reform in transition societies.
In 2014, Dr. Kwaja was part of the Humanitarian Assessment Mission of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to Plateau State, which was the first comprehensive humanitarian mission conducted by the NHRC in Nigeria. Most recently, in 2016 he was commissioned as the Zonal Coordinator for the North East region (Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Taraba, and Yobe States), to conduct the National Survey on Small Arms, Experiences of Arms Violence and Perception on Security in Nigeria, by the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) / Presidential Committee on Small Arms and Light Weapons (PRESCOM).
Chris Kwaja
Director (2017-2019)
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