Crystal Hayling (she/her) has brought to the Libra Foundation a fresh vision of philanthropy that rejects business as usual and is responsive to the needs of frontline communities. Along with a team that reflects the diversity of the grantees Libra serves, she has built strong relationships of trust with POC-led organizations working actively across the spectrum of racial and social justice issues. In 2020, in the face of multiple historic crises impacting frontline communities, she worked with the Libra Board to double the grantmaking total, putting the foundation in the vanguard of change. In September 2020, she joined together a group of 12 foundations to found the Democracy Frontlines Fund, a new aligned giving strategy to meet this moment with $36 million in unrestricted, multi-year support for an exemplary slate of Black-led organizations.

Feeding her interest in equitable health care, Crystal was CEO of the Blue Shield of California Foundation where she spearheaded work to achieve universal health coverage. She was also part of the founding team at The California Wellness Foundation where she led a groundbreaking initiative to shift youth violence prevention from a criminal justice issue to a public health effort.

She has served on the boards of the Center for Effective Philanthropy, Northern California Grantmakers, Asian Venture Philanthropy Network, and Grantmakers in Health. Most recently Crystal was appointed by Governor Jerry Brown to serve on the California State Board of Food and Agriculture. She has also lived and worked in China and Mexico.

Born and raised in Florida, Crystal is a graduate of Yale University and Stanford’s Graduate School of Business. She and her husband live in the Bay Area with their two teenage sons.

Taneeza Islam moved to Sioux Falls with her family in 2012. In 2013 she was awarded a Bush Foundation Leadership Fellowship and started her private immigration law practice. In 2017 she co-founded and started the work of SD Voices for Peace and SD Voices for Justice. SDVFP is an education, legal service, advocacy and rapid response organization lifting the voices of immigrant, refugees and Muslims in South Dakota. In three years SDVFJ has led the effort in defeating 83% of bigoted bill proposed during legislative session in Pierre, SD. In less than three years, their team has grown to 12 staff! Taneeza launched SDVFPs legal services program in November 2019 where they provide the states only free legal service to children in immigration court AND domestic violence survivors who are immigrants.

In response to COVID-19 Taneeza led the effort to create the SD Immigrant Fund which SD Voices for Peace staffs and administers in partnership with the SD Dream Coalition. To date she has led the effort to raise $938,000 for the fund which will reach close to 3000 immigrant led households across the state. In response to the murder of George Floyd and the national movement which has sprung into action, Taneeza led the effort in partnering with 24 leaders of color and allies to create the SD Justice and Equity Coalition which is focusing their work on community safety and justice reform in SD.

Taneeza is a member of the South Dakota Advisory Committee on the US Commision on Civil Rights and sits on the City of Sioux Falls Digital Equity Task Force. Taneeza has spoken at TedxUSD "When Social Justice Work Meets Entrepreneurship" and TEDxBrookings "Imported Hate: When Islamophobia Meets Rural America." SDVFP is a recipient of the JMKaplan Innovation Prize winner of 2019, Bush Foundation Community Innovation Recipient in 2020, and in October 2020, Taneeza received national recognition "Muslims Making Change" for her COVID-19 efforts in SD by Muslim Advocates.

Beery joined Proteus Fund in August 2008. She began as a one-woman grants management shop, and has stewarded that function through exponential growth over the last decade. She now oversees our grants management team and directs our fiscal sponsorship and donor advised fund programs.

Beery started her career as the Baltimore City Immigrant Program Coordinator out of the Mayor’s Office of Community Investment. In this capacity, she piloted the City's immigrant outreach program and developed and instituted its language access policy. She also previously worked in the International Trade & Investment Office of the Maryland Department of Business & Economic Development and served as the Associate Editor of the University of Arizona’s Global Water News Watch.

Beery was a 2014-15 Community Fellow at the Institute for Nonprofit Practice. She has served on various boards and advisory committees, most recently the Steering Committee of PEAK Grantmaking’s New England chapter and the Waltham Dual Language Leadership Team.

She holds an MA in Latin American Studies from the University of Arizona, and a BA in International Relations and Cultural Anthropology from James Madison University. She is a southern transplant to Massachusetts, and lives outside of Boston with her family.

A West Chester, PA native and Temple University grad, Kadida Kenner was most recently a writer, producer, and director for college sports television programming in Charlotte, NC. Energized by the 2016 elections, she decided to take a hiatus from TV production, and return to campaign work as a field and digital organizer for the NC Democratic Party’s coordinated campaign. Following the elections, Kadida moved back to Pennsylvania and currently lives in Harrisburg while working as the director of campaigns for the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center (PBPC). The We The People – PA (WTP-PA) campaign and the Why Courts Matter – PA (WCM-PA) campaign are both led by PBPC. We The People is a nonpartisan campaign that aims to make state government work for all of us. The agenda was created from the ground up by people who came together in meetings and town halls across Pennsylvania. WCM is a non-partisan coalition of organizations and advocates working to ensure our federal courts are filled with diverse, independent, well-qualified, mainstream jurists who are dedicated to fairness and impartiality, and keeping with the core constitutional values of liberty, equality and justice for all.

Winona LaDuke is a rural development economist working on issues of economic, food, and energy sovereignty. She lives and works on the White Earth reservation in northern Minnesota, and leads several organizations including Honor the Earth, Anishinaabe Agriculture Institute, Akiing, and Winona’s Hemp. These organizations develop and model cultural-based sustainable development strategies utilizing renewable energy and sustainable food systems. She is an international thought leader in the areas of climate justice, renewable energy, and environmental justice. She is also a leader in the work of protecting Indigenous plants and heritage foods from patenting and genetic engineering. She has authored six books including; Recovering the Sacred, All our Relations, Last Standing Woman, The Winona LaDuke Chronicles, and her newest work To Be a Water Protector.

Carin Mrotz is Jewish Community Action's Executive Director. On staff since 2004, she has worked on campaigns for immigrant and workers’ rights and played a key role in JCA’s work to organize the Jewish community in support of marriage equality in 2012, and she founded and staffed Indie Jews, an initiative to organize and mobilize Jews outside of congregations.

Carin has served as a consultant to nonprofit organizations, providing support in fundraising, program evaluation, and organizational development. She has worked as a trainer, curriculum designer, and college instructor, and spent 5 years in senior leadership roles in private career colleges. Recently, she helped found an organization that organizes parents and community members to advocate for students in North Minneapolis public schools. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Religion and a master’s degree in Public Administration and writes about parenting, politics, and sometimes food for multiple publications. She is on the Board of Directors of Shir Tikvah (Minneapolis).

Estevan is a Program Officer with the Piper Fund, where he oversees grant making to support state and municipal money in politics reform. Before joining Proteus Fund, he helped lead the successful Honest Elections Seattle campaign of 2015—the historic initiative to create and implement the nation’s first democracy voucher program, which provides adult residents with four $25 coupons to contribute to qualified candidates of their choice.

Estevan comes to Proteus Fund from Seattle’s nonprofit sector. He previously worked as Development Director for Arts Corps and Social Justice Fund NW, and as Executive Director of the Youth Media Institute. He is passionate about youth engagement, community organizing, and the diffusion of power. Estevan previously served as president of the Washington Bus Education Fund and currently serves on the board of Rainier Valley Corps. In 2015, he was named democracy volunteer of the year by Fix Democracy First. He holds a BA in Political Theory from the University of Puget Sound, and he is thrilled to call Seattle home (especially in the summer).

Bea Yeh Ogden moved to Portland, Oregon from San Francisco, CA in 1999 to attend Reed College. She graduated in 2003 with a BA in English after completing her thesis exploring poetry written by Chinese immigrants while detained at the Angel Island Immigration Station from 1910 – 1940. After pursuing educational and professional experiences in Medical Anthropology and Veterinary Medicine, Bea decided to found a non-profit art organization called Cloud.Break. The mission of Cloud.Break is to curate sanctuary: to create unique art worlds in unexpected places where healing and dialogue can occur. Bea is an artist, environmentalist, non-profit administrator, curator, and event producer: she has worked for the Portland Institute of Contemporary Art, the Lake Oswego Festival of the Arts, and, most recently, the Pacific Northwest College of Art. Bea completed her MS in Arts Administration and Museum Studies from the University of Oregon after completing her thesis exploring how museum exhibitions can create transformative educational experiences for visitors.

Social justice, empowered healing, and community fortitude are intertwined in all the work Bea undertakes including event production. As the APANO Community & Event Space Manager, Bea will bring her experience to co-create and lead a space that courageously imagines a just and equitable world where community is celebrated, and sanctuary is everywhere.

Tia has been active in community organizing, issue advocacy, and nonprofit development for social, cultural, and environmental justice for over three decades. She serves as the CEO of the Seventh Generation Fund for Indigenous Peoples, the oldest Native identity-based philanthropic, advocacy, leadership development and capacity building organization that supports community generated strategies for Native Peoples’ cultural revitalization, movement building, self-determination, and Re-Indigenization. A mother and grandmother, writer and cultural artist, Tia is a recognized expert on the protection of Water as a sacred element for Indigenous Peoples’ cultural and spiritual sustainability; in Indigenous women’s leadership, and on the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

She earned a BA in Law & Society from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and an MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University, Los Angeles. She and her husband, Christopher Peters, live in the far north in California redwood country, where they have created the Red Deer Center for Indigenous Thinking, Creating, and Being. Part of the NFG and Aspen Institute’s Philanthropy Forward 2019-2020 cohort focused on supporting grassroots power building for racial equity and social justice, Tia also serves on the board of Tools and Tiaras and is honored and thrilled to join the Proteus Fund board of directors, Spring 2020.

Over her career, she served on the board of directors for Native Americans in Philanthropy, the Paul Robeson Fund for Independent Media, and the Resist Fund, and on the Advisory Boards of Youth United for Community Action, the A:shiwi A:wan Museum and Heritage Center in Zuni, and the Women’s Building of New York. Tia has received the honor of a Louis T. Delgado Distinguished Grantmaker Award from Native Americans in Philanthropy; a Center for Civic Partnerships Executive Leadership Fellowship; a Silver Cloud Award for Indigenous Peoples’ international diplomacy, and a Shannon Institute Leadership Fellowship.

Joseph Phelan (he/his) is a creative strategist grounded in modern social movements for justice and liberation. With over two decades of experience – from big-puppet strewn direct actions in the ’90s global justice movement, to the multi-racial hip-hop beat infused mobilizations against police brutality at the City University of New York, to the deep power building organizing of the Miami Workers Center and Florida New Majority – Joseph finds inspiration in the simple moments of a shared story and excitement in big strategy. He is the co-founder and director of ReFrame. You can find him on Twitter @JTPspeaks.

Jill spent ten years working as the public relations manager for Dr. Hauschka Skin Care, a premier international brand whose mission is "to support the healing of humanity and the earth". Her leadership role in the development and execution of national philanthropic partnerships between Dr. Hauschka Skin Care and organizations such as Farm Aid and Heifer International shaped her passion to use her professional talents and energy to make the world a better place.

In 2009, Jill began her journey with Proteus Fund, where she currently serves as Chief Operating Officer. Jill plays a key leadership role in implementing and monitoring strategies and processes across the organization. She works in partnership with the President and Boards of Directors to guide, implement, and assess the organization’s overall strategy and operations. The areas in which she provides strategic vision and direction include organizational oversight and coordination, risk management, human resources, and information systems. She oversees the organization’s grants management function as well as our fiscal sponsorship, Donor Advised Fund, and family foundation management services.

Leah Pryor-Lease is the Program Director of the Rights, Faith, and Democracy Fund at Proteus, where she leads efforts to support state-based cross-movement work to build a united front for LGBTQ and reproductive justice, and their allies in the faith community.

She began her professional life working for over a decade in the nonprofit and public sectors at organizations such as The Hetrick-Martin Institute, Harvard University, and the New York City Department of Education, where she oversaw a broad range of community partnership and external relationship work. After moving to Colorado, Leah served as the Strategic Partnerships Officer with the Gill Foundation, then as Program Officer with Voqal, a philanthropic fund dedicated to advancing equity for those who are the least well off politically, economically, and socially.

Leah holds a bachelor’s degree from Brandeis University. She lives in Denver with her family, where she serves on the Denver LGBTQ Commission and the boards of ProgressNow Colorado, New Era CO, and the Movement Advancement Project.

Shannan Reaze is the Executive Director of Atlanta Jobs with Justice (Atlanta JwJ, a coalition of labor unions, community groups, faith based organizations, student organizations, and individuals that leads and supports campaigns for economic and social justice in our workplaces and in our communities.

Atlanta Jobs with Justice is dedicated to fighting for the right to organize, defending public services, protecting workers’ rights, enacting progressive legislation, struggling for dignity and respect inside and outside the workplace, acting in solidarity across struggles, and developing transformative approaches to organizing.

Malika Redmond is the co-founder and executive director of Women Engaged an initiative based in Atlanta, GA, that works to inspire Black women and young adults to become impactful leaders, key decision-makers and effective agents for social change through voter engagement and reproductive justice advocacy and leadership development. Malika has worked for 20 years both nationally and internationally managing projects that focus on women's human rights, racial justice, and youth empowerment. She founded the International Black Youth Summit in 1994, and was one of the youngest national field organizers for the 2004 March for Women’s Lives an event that brought nearly 1 million participants to the National Mall.

Malika is the proud board Chair of the ProGeorgia Civic Engagement Table and her awards include the 2016 distinguished Rockwood Fellow for Leaders In the Reproductive Health, Rights, and Justice field,"Stand Up for Reproductive Justice" award by Feminist Women's Health Center, "Legends in the Making" award by Planned Parenthood, SE, and a nominated "ChangeMaker" for the 2016 United States of Women conference. Her writings are featured in Truthout, PRA, The Women’s Health Activist, and AlterNet. Malika holds a BA from Spelman College and MA from Georgia State University.

Elizabeth Reiner Platt (Liz Platt) is the Director of the Law, Rights, and Religion Project at Columbia Law School. Before joining Columbia, she was a Staff Attorney at MFY Legal Services Mental Health Law Project. After graduating from New York University School of Law, she was a Carr Center for Reproductive Justice Fellow at A Better Balance. During law school, Liz worked with the Urban Justice Sex Workers Project, New York Civil Liberties Union, and Brennan Center for Justice. In 2013, she published Gangsters to Greyhounds: The Past, Present and Future of Offender Registration, 37 N.Y.U. Rev. L. & Soc. Change 727 (2013).

Julia Reticker-Flynn joined Proteus Fund in 2019 as the Program Officer for the Right to Protest with Piper Fund. She supports state groups defending protest rights and coordinates the Protect Dissent Network, a coalition of 20 national organizations united in defense of freedom of assembly. Prior to joining the Proteus Fund, Julia served as the Director of Youth Organizing & Mobilization at Advocates for Youth for nearly a decade where she oversaw a team of talented organizers, visionaries, and activists boldly championing young people’s sexual health and reproductive rights. She is deeply invested in driving campaigns that employ culture shift, policy advocacy, and grassroots mobilization to create change. During her time at Advocates she trained thousands of young people on grassroots organizing skills, mobilized tens of thousands to take action on federal policy initiatives, and launched one of the first national storytelling campaigns to destigmatize abortion. Julia served on the Board of Directors of Nurses for Sexual and Reproductive Health for five years. She earned a Masters in Public Administration from George Washington’s Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Administration and a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service from Georgetown University.

Nick Robinson is a Legal Advisor at the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law (ICNL), where his work focuses on the organization’s U.S. Program. Nick’s research and expertise centers on the regulation of the freedom of assembly, how laws aimed at curtailing foreign influence can impact civil society organizations, and civic space in a time of rising global authoritarianism. His research has been published in a number of academic journals and he is regularly quoted or cited in leading news outlets.

Prior to joining ICNL, Nick was a lecturer and fellow at Yale University, where he taught both human rights and professional responsibility. He previously was a post-doctoral research fellow at the Center on the Legal Profession at Harvard Law School. Before that, Nick spent seven years in South Asia. He served as a clerk to Chief Justice Sabharwal of the Indian Supreme Court, worked at Human Rights Law Network, taught at law schools in India and Pakistan, and was a senior fellow at the Center for Policy Research. Nick holds a J.D. from Yale Law School and a B.A. from the University of Chicago. He is a member of the New York State bar.

Led by the communities it serves, PANA raises refugee voices to increase their visibility and impact in the region. PANA does this by bringing hundreds of impacted residents to meetings with their political representatives to voice their experiences and change policies that affect them and their economic, educational, health, and housing needs. PANA also engages youth leaders from diverse backgrounds in work on issues they identify as critical and trains them to contact and turn out thousands of new and inconsistent voters each election cycle. And, because the communities PANA serves are so deeply impacted by 45’s detrimental policies, it works with national partners to push back on these policies and provide support to communities directly affected by his Muslim Ban, including nationals from Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen.

As Executive Director of PANA, Ramla Sahid has overseen the organization’s growth and prominence as it has skyrocketed in a few short years to become one of San Diego’s most important civic engagement and advocacy organizations. Ramla has received numerous awards for her work with PANA including the “2017 Women of the Year Award” by Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, “2017 Global Citizen Award” from the United Nations Association of USA, the “Muslim Community Champion Award” by the Islamic Center of San Diego, and was named the “2017 Voice of the Year “by the Voice of San Diego. She regularly speaks at conferences on the power of building and leveraging community voices to achieve equitable outcomes for families.

Azadeh has worked for a number of years in the U.S. South to protect and defend immigrants and Muslim, Middle Eastern, and South Asian communities. She previously served as president of the National Lawyers Guild and as National Security/Immigrants’ Rights Project Director with the ACLU of Georgia. Azadeh serves on the Advisory Council of the American Association of Jurists and on the Board of Directors of Defending Rights and Dissent. Azadeh has served as a trial monitor in Turkey, an election monitor in Venezuela and Honduras, and as a member of the jury in people’s tribunals on Mexico, the Philippines, and Brazil. She has also participated in international fact-finding delegations to post-revolutionary Tunisia and Egypt as well as a delegation focused on the situation of Palestinian political prisoners. She is the author or editor of several human rights reports, including a 2017 report titled “Imprisoned Justice: Inside Two Georgia Immigrant Detention Centers,” as well as law review articles and book chapters focused on racial profiling, immigrants’ rights, and surveillance of Muslim-Americans. Her writings have appeared in the Guardian, the Nation, MSNBC, USA Today, Aljazeera, and HuffPost, among others. Azadeh received her JD from the University of Michigan Law School where she was Article Editor for The Michigan Journal of International Law. She also has a Master’s in Modern Middle Eastern and North African Studies from the University of Michigan. Azadeh is the recipient of the Shanara M. Gilbert Human Rights Award from the Society of American Law Teachers, the National Lawyers Guild Ernie Goodman Award, the Emory Law School Outstanding Leadership in the Public Interest Award, the Emory University MLK Jr. Community Service Award, the US Human Rights Network Human Rights Movement Builder Award, the American Immigration Lawyers Association Advocacy Award, the Distinguished Leader Award from the Fulton County Daily Report, and the University of Georgia Law School Equal Justice Foundation Public Interest Practitioner Award, among several others. She has also been recognized as an Abolitionist by the Antiracist Research and Policy Center at American University & the Frederick Douglass Family Initiatives, and as one of Atlanta’s 500 Most Powerful Leaders by Atlanta Magazine. In 2016, Azadeh was chosen by the Mundo Hispanico Newspaper as an Outstanding Person of the Year for defending the rights of immigrants in Georgia. In 2017, she was chosen by Georgia Trend Magazine as one of the 40 under 40 notable Georgians.

Melissa Spatz is the director of the Piper Fund, leading Piper’s strategic work to build a healthy democracy that works for all. Melissa brings over 25 years of experience as a community organizer, nonprofit executive, grant maker, and attorney. Prior to joining Piper in 2012 (and assuming the director role in 2014), she directed two award-winning Chicago-based organizations, led national organizing campaigns through the National People’s Action network, and practiced law on behalf of low-income clients in Chicago. Her work has addressed a wide range of issues including democracy, media justice, housing rights, police accountability, health care, and gender justice. Melissa has founded and co-founded numerous projects and organizations, including the Columbia Journal of Gender & Law, the Women’s Rights Project at Human Rights Watch, the Chicago Freedom School, Chicago Youth United, and the Center for Emerging Leadership. A graduate of the Rockwood Leadership Institute’s year-long Selah program, she holds a BA from Swarthmore College and a JD from Columbia Law School.

Larry began his career in public service at the age of 17 with the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). There he fought against the closure of low-income apartment complexes in some of the most marginalized communities within Prince George’s County. He has since worked on numerous electoral and issue-based campaigns around the country. He became Executive Director of Progressive Maryland in 2015 where he continues to grow the organization as the premier progressive force in the state working to build power for working families.

Mara Verheyden-Hilliard is Executive Director of the partnership for Civil Justice Fund. Her practice focuses on complex constitutional rights litigation, particularly in the areas of free speech, assembly or other protected First Amendment activity and also in defense of targeted communities. She has represented numerous activists and organizations challenging violations of free speech rights nationally. Much of her work has focused on the intersection of First and Fourth Amendment rights and law enforcement response to demonstrations. Mara’s litigation, including class action cases over mass arrests and brutality, has resulted in landmark rulings and settlements securing extensive changes in both the law and police practices in the handling of demonstrations to bring law enforcement into compliance with constitutional obligations. She is currently part of the civil legal team bringing constitutional rights litigation in North Dakota to vindicate the rights of water protectors assaulted by law enforcement at Standing Rock. Mara served as co-chair of the National Lawyers Guild Mass Defense Committee for a decade. She is a 1994 graduate of Columbia Law School.

Eric is a nationally-recognized expert on the relationship between hate violence and preserving democratic governance and inclusive societies. His 30 years of leadership includes founding the Community Alliance of Lane County; establishing over 120 task forces in six states through the Northwest Coalition Against Malicious Harassment; supporting immigrant rights advocates as National Field Director for the Center for New Community; serving as The Atlantic Philanthropies’ U.S. Reconciliation and Human Rights Executive and Ford Foundation Program Officer; and volunteer leadership with numerous organizations. Eric’s writings and speeches are widely quoted and credited with key narrative shifts in defense of inclusive democracy.

Tom K. Wong is an associate professor of political science and founding director of the U.S. Immigration Policy Center (USIPC) at the University of California, San Diego. He served as an advisor to the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (WHIAAPI) under the Obama administration where he co-led the immigration portfolio and was recently appointed by Governor Gerry Brown to serve on the State of California 2020 Census Complete Count Committee (CCC). He is also Co-Director of the Human Rights and Migration program. His research focuses on the politics of immigration, citizenship, and migrant "illegality." As these issues have far-reaching implications, his work also explores the links between immigration, race and ethnicity, and the politics of identity. His first book, Rights, Deportation, and Detention in the Age of Immigration Control, analyzes the immigration control policies of twenty-five Western immigrant-receiving democracies (Stanford University Press, 2015). In analyzing over 30,000 roll call votes on immigration-related legislation in Congress since 2005, his second book, The Politics of Immigration: Partisanship, Demographic Change, and American National Identity (Oxford University Press, 2017), represents the most comprehensive analysis to date on the contemporary politics of immigration in the United States.

Wong's research has been used by policymakers both in the U.S. and in Mexico, as well as by organizations that serve immigrant communities. Wong’s research has been used in several federal lawsuits to defend DACA, end family separation at the southern border, and prohibit indefinite child detention, among others. Wong and his work has been covered by The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NPR and major media outlets across the country in hundreds of articles.

He is also on the board of New American Leaders, the California Immigrant Policy Center, and the Partnership for the Advancement of New Americans. Wong also consults on campaigns elections and has run large-scale c3, c4, and independent expenditure campaigns specializing in mobilizing low-propensity voters of color and immigrant communities. He is lead evaluator for the Four Freedoms Fund civic engagement program and lead evaluator for the RISE Together Fund civic engagement program.

Shireen Zaman is the Director of the RISE Together Fund (RTF) at the Proteus Fund, where she leads efforts to mobilize resources to grow promising, innovative, community-based organizations in America’s Muslim, Arab and South Asian communities. The RTF’s support to the field has led to an increase in grassroots leadership, higher levels of civic engagement, diverse coalitions, and coordinated, strategic messaging. In November 2020, RTF was recognized by the American Muslim Community Foundation as an Outstanding Foundation or Grantmaker.

Shireen comes to the RTF having led organizational transformation, resource development, and program management at several nationally recognized nonprofits. Most recently, she was Executive Director at the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding in Washington, DC. In 2013, Shireen was recognized as a White House "Champion of Change" for her work as an Asian American woman leader. She currently serves as an advisor to the Muslim Philanthropy Initiative at the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. She holds a B.A. in Human Development from Boston College and an M.A. from the School of International Service at American University.

Nada Zohdy is the director of the Open Gov Hub, the first meeting place and innovation hub that promotes transparency, accountability and civic participation worldwide, by fostering resource sharing and collaboration across a network of 50 member organizations and 13 global affiliate hubs. She has been a consultant for the World Bank, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the Participatory Budgeting Project, and the Democracy Fund. She was previously the founding program coordinator for civil society partnerships at the Project on Middle East Democracy (POMED), where she created a program to support a dozen local watchdogs and think tanks in democratically transitioning Arab countries in the wake of the Arab Spring.

Over the last decade, Nada has worked with over 100 nonprofits in different capacities (one-on-one and through networks, in the US and internationally). These experiences fuel her passion for social innovation, globally and locally. She often speaks at conferences on issues related to democracy and social entrepreneurship, and her work has been published by the Stanford Social Innovation Review, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and elsewhere. From 2016-2020 she served on the board of Rhize, a nonprofit that coaches people-powered social movements around the world. Zohdy received her master in public policy degree from the Harvard Kennedy School where she was a Pforzheimer Nonprofit Fellow, and was a 2009 Truman Scholar.