Our People

Core Team | Board of Directors | Gender-Based Violence Advisory Committee | Power of Policy Advisory Committee | Advisors and Partners

CORE TEAM

Joy Anderson

Joy Anderson is a prominent national leader at the intersection of business and social change, whose insights and experience have helped shaped hundreds of ventures as well as the movements of impact investing and gender lens investing. She is founder and president of Criterion Institute, the leading think tank on using finance as a tool for social change, which demonstrates new possibilities through its groundbreaking research, innovative trainings, convenings and institutional engagement. In recognition of her leadership, Anderson was listed in Fast Company’s 100 Most Creative People in Business.

Joy was co-founder of Good Capital with Tim Freundlich and Kevin Jones in 2006. She formerly served as faculty on leading social innovation award programs, including Unreasonable Institute and Echoing Green, advising the next generation of leaders in impact investing. As chair of the board of directors of Village Capital and through involvement in Investor’s Circle, she was actively involved in shaping early stage social investments. And through her role in developing and leading Structure Lab© workshops she has helped over 300 organizations think through their legal and financial structures.

Joy has appeared on Bloomberg and CNN, and her thought leadership has been published in ImpactAlpha and Conscious Company, among other outlets. She is the author of “A Blueprint for Women’s Funds on Using Finance as a Tool for Social Change,” published in 2017 in partnership with Global Fund for Women and Ms. Foundation, following the 2015 publication of “Gender Lens Investing in Asia,” jointly released with USAID, and Criterion’s “The State of the Field of Gender Lens Investing.”

Joy’s intellectual interests draw on her research for her Ph.D. in American History from New York University. Her dissertation examined prison reform in the 1830s and how individuals and organizations in democracies claim expertise in order to shape public institutions.

She currently lives with her husband and daughter in a Connecticut apple orchard, and can be found in the fall pressing cider and boiling apple syrup.

Phyllis Anderson

Phyllis Anderson joined Criterion Institute in January 2014 to lead and support the 1K Churches movement, which seeks to engage 1000 churches of all denominations across the country in a process of reflecting on the relationship between their faith and the economy through Bible study and the experience of investing in a micro-business in their community.

She lives now in Sonoma, California, having recently retired as President of Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary in Berkeley. She served for nine years as the first female president of a Lutheran seminary in the United States.  She is an ordained minister in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) who has served as pastor of a rural parish in Iowa, as assistant to the Lutheran Bishop in Iowa, as Director of Pastoral Studies and Assistant Professor of Theology at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, and as Director for Theological Education in the Churchwide Organization of the ELCA. She worked with many denominations as the Associate Dean and Director of the Institute of Ecumenical Theological Studies at the School of Theology and Ministry at Seattle University, an ecumenical theological school within a Jesuit Catholic university.

She holds a B.A. from Sacramento State University; an M.Div. from Wartburg Theological Seminary; and a Ph.D. from Aquinas Institute of Theology.  Her areas of specialty are ecclesiology and ecumenics.  She is married to the Rev. Dr. Herbert Anderson, Professor Emeritus of Pastoral Theology at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago and Research Professor of Practical Theology at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley. They have two children: Joy Anderson of Haddam, Connecticut, and Joel Anderson of Leiden, the Netherlands.

Carolyn Burns

Carolyn Burns is an impact investor and gender-lens technical assistance practitioner who has spent the bulk of her career supporting economic development projects based in Emerging Markets. Her professional experience includes direct and fund-of-funds investing, designing and operationalizing blended finance initiatives and coaching others on climate and social inclusion mainstreaming activities. She is adept at building non-traditional partnerships (i.e. across government agencies, investment professionals, academics, grassroots and international non-profit organizations etc.), applying finance to solve for social justice-linked challenges and managing the complete project lifecycle. She is energized by researching and constructing systems-level solutions which build a more equitable future for everyone, everywhere.

Carolyn has previously explored how finance can be a tool for social change through her work at the Equality Fund, the world’s largest feminist platform, Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA), an economic development organization focused on creating agribusiness solutions to global poverty and Sarona Asset Management, an international ESG and impact focused asset manager.

Carolyn holds an Honours Bachelor of Political Science from Western University and a Master of Science in International Management from the Ivey Business School. She is certified in Responsible Investing Essentials by the UN Principles for Responsible Investing and Fundamentals of Alternative Investments by the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst Association.

Todd Ching

Todd Ching (he/him) has over 15 years of experience in nonprofit technology and database work. At Criterion, he manages the technology platforms, working closely with the operations team since he joined the team in 2019. Todd also works closely with the Convergence team, architecting and managing the technology stack for the event since it’s all-digital format began in 2020.

Todd is the founder and principal consultant at Data Rabbit Solutions, a technology consulting startup in the Boston area. His previous work experience includes time in the impact investing sector at Root Capital, and in the political sector as the IT Director for Elizabeth Warren’s 2018 senate campaign and in the same role for the Warren for President Exploratory Committee. Todd holds a BA from Boston College in Political Science and History.

 

Debbi Evans

Debbi Evans is a writer, editor and strategic communications professional with a broad creative skillset developed during a 15-year career across media and sectors including finance, non-profit, technology, property and advertising. She first became interested in social change communications when she launched a print magazine, events series and global network designed to challenge traditional media representations of women and has worked in gender lens investing communications since 2015, when she was Creative and Digital Lead at Women Effect, a pilot community for gender lens investors now housed at Wharton Social Impact Initiative. She joins Criterion following a role as Head of Creative and Communications for GenderSmart (now 2X Global). Debbi is based in Valencia, Spain.

 

Melanie Hilton

Melanie works in the Translation Program, where she focuses on using finance as a tool to advance transformative gender equality outcomes. Melanie specializes in feminist lens programing, policy analysis and strategy development to address violence against women and girls in peace and conflict environments, gender responsive governance, and security sector reform. As a gender trainer, Melanie is skilled in developing and using participatory approaches that build trust and facilitate dialogue between a range of local actors and public service systems.

With experience leading gender-responsive interventions, Melanie managed programs that increased urban safety and access to justice for women and girls in Zimbabwe, Myanmar, Bangladesh and Kenya. In Ghana and Nigeria, she worked with faith-based groups to address social and cultural normative structures that discriminate against women and girls. In Myanmar, she undertook a gender needs assessment within Rohingya communities, researched the gender inclusivity of peace agreements, and served as a consultant for U.N. Women’s peace, security, and migration programs. As ActionAid Myanmar’s women’s rights advisor, she managed multi-donor projects and provided technical support for the Building Resilience and Adaptation to Climate Extremes and Disasters consortium. Melanie also worked to support women’s political leadership in Kenya, extend civil family law to Muslim women in Nepal, and trained India’s administrative officers on inclusive governance strategies and rural development. As Assistant Professor at the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration ‘s Center for Rural Studies she led assessments of land reform policies that specifically target members of India’s schedule caste and tribe communities and facilitated consultative forums with India’s National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development to streamline loan processes for small holder farmers and women’s self-help groups.

Melanie is a graduate of Muskingum University and, as a recipient of Rotary International’s Ambassadorial Scholarship, earned a Master’s in Global Politics and Law from the University of Sheffield. While a student, Melanie interned with the U.N. International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague, the U.S. Federal Judicial Center in Washington, D.C., and served as a fellow at the Former U.S. Senator John Glenn Institute for Public Policy.

Kierith Jones

Kierith joined Criterion Institute in 2021 to help lead the process standards program to support gender equality and address power dynamics in innovative finance. In addition, she provides strategic and operational guidance to entrepreneurs, social enterprises and non-governmental organizations. She also advises individual investors seeking a better understanding of financial markets and looking to transition to values-aligned investing across asset classes.

She is a veteran community organizer with decades of experience leading LGBTQ+, reproductive rights, voting rights and election protection initiatives. She is also a Pro Bono Arbitrator for the City and County of San Francisco, Department of Supportive and Transitional Housing and a member of the Board of Directors of the Women’s Reproductive Rights Assistance Project (WRRAP), the largest independent abortion fund in the United States. Formerly, she was a member of the Board of Directors of The Empire State Pride Agenda.

Previously, Kierith was an international corporate finance and governance attorney, first for Cleary Gottlieb (NY and Paris) and later, Wilson Sonsini (Silicon Valley), where she spent over a decade representing multi-national institutional investment firms and corporations on complex financial transactions, mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance and regulatory compliance matters. She also regularly advised Boards of Directors of public, private and nonprofit institutions.

Kierith is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, L’Université Paris, La Sorbonne and New York University School of Law. She is a member of the Bar of the State of New York.

Julia Lukomnik

Julia Lukomnik (she/her) leads Criterion’s Programs Operations Teams, where she focuses on standardizing processes to increase efficiency and ensure that the way work gets done aligns with Criterion’s values.

Outside of Criterion, Julia runs VAPA Consulting, a feminist consulting firm that blends social science, participatory research, contemplative practice, and facilitation to help mission-driven organizations achieve positive and durable systems change. She has advised various national and international foundations and think tanks, as well as the United Nations Development Programme and the Uruguayan Ministry of Social Development.

Julia’s background is in philanthropy, action research, non-profit program development, coalition building and community organizing. Prior to founding VAPA Consulting, Julia was a Senior Program Officer at the Open Society Foundations (OSF), where she focused on the nexus between sexual and reproductive health, human rights, and social inclusion for seven years. While at OSF, Julia worked with civil society organizations across East Africa, Southern Africa, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia. Julia also led the drive to unionize OSF’s U.S. offices and bargain its first contract, the most progressive in U.S. philanthropy.

Julia holds a postgraduate degree in health policy and administration from El Centro Latinoamericano de Economia Humana, a BA in sociology and global health technology from Rice University, and a GenderPro certificate from George Washington University.

Christina Madden

Christina Madden joined Criterion Institute in 2017 with more than a decade of experience in nonprofit development. She took an interest in finance as a tool for social change while working at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs, where she developed lesson plans on “creative capitalism,” assisted with a Workshops for Ethics in Business series, and contributed articles on related topics to the Carnegie Council’s publications. Since then Christina has worked as a consultant to social entrepreneurs and impact investors, as well as government projects in Southeast Asia, West Africa and Latin America dealing with the impact of trade and investment on economic and social development. Her research on these topics has been published in a number of outlets including Foreign Affairs, The Asia Times, World Politics Review and a book she co-authored, entitled Perspectives on Peacekeeping and Atrocity Prevention. Christina received her B.A. in political science and international affairs from the George Washington University and is certified by UN-Habitat and Soliya in Cross-Cultural Dialogue Facilitation and by the United States Institute of Peace in Conflict Analysis and Conflict Negotiation. She is an active member of Women In International Security, Carnegie New Leaders and Women Investing for Sustainable Economies.

Arianna Muirow

Arianna Muirow is a mission-driven professional with more than a decade of career experience in research, communications, advocacy, and program development. Arianna has a Masters in Regional Planning from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, focused on creating healthy and resilient regional food systems that bridge the rural-urban divide. In 2017 she completed a Doctorate of Philosophy in Geography at the University of Washington, where her dissertation discussed the intersections ofsocial movements, sustainable and equitable food systems, and new technologies. Arianna was a 2018 Henry M. Jackson Leadership Fellow and a 2016 Leadership Fellow with the Washington Center for Women and Democracy. Arianna is a strategic facilitator and coalition-builder aiming to advance goals of justice and equity who believes in the power of story telling for social change.

David O’Leary

David O’Leary is a wealth management expert, impact investment professional, public speaker, and writer. David spends his time as Founder & Principal of Kind Wealth, a holistic wealth management practice helping next generation changemakers (entrepreneurs, business owners, athletes, academics, etc.) manage their money in a way that matches their values. David also produces and hosts The Impact Investing Podcast and is a frequent speaker at conferences and in the media (The Globe & Mail, The Toronto Star, BNN Bloomberg, CNBC Africa, etc.).

Previously, David was Managing Director of Origin Capital, the impact investing division of World Vision Canada. Prior to that he co-founded Eden Valley Partners, an advisory practice managing discretionary portfolios and providing financial planning to high net worth Canadians. David spent the first 13 years of his career with Morningstar in both Canada and South Africa in a variety of Director level roles where he specialized in Investment Manager Research.

David holds a BA in English Literature from the University of Toronto, an MBA from the Rotman School of Business, the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation, and the Qualified Associate Financial Planner® (QAFP) designation. He is also working toward the Certified Professional Impact Analyst (CPIA) designation at Queens University.

Melani O’Leary

Melani O’Leary is a dynamic social change leader with over 15 years of experience in research, program design and management, advocacy, and communications in the not-for-profit international development and humanitarian sector. Melani has spent the last 15 years of her career on efforts to address the power dynamics and inequalities that systematically hold individuals back from reaching their fullest potential. She holds Masters degrees in Nutrition and Public Health and BSc degrees in Health Sciences and Psychology. Melani has a consistent track record of and passion for partnership and convening people to drive social change. Her work in research and advocacy has been translated into content for diverse audiences – from podcasts and blogs, academic journals, and media. She has a proven track record of working at grassroots, national, and global levels for multi-tier advocacy efforts to prioritize social change issues.

Susie Pan

Susie is a startup operator, product leader, and ecosystem builder. Most recently, Susie was the Director of Ventures at Coralus (formerly known as SheEO), a radically generous community supporting women + non-binary people working on the World’s To-Do List. In her role, she supported 120+ Ventures across 5 countries with their fundraising needs by helping them thrive in the ecosystem on their own terms. Prior to Coralus, Susie was an early-stage startup PM and operator, having joined as the first 10 employees 3 times to help companies get to product-market fit. In September 2020, Susie quit her job, packed up her life in Canada, and jumped on a 1-way flight to New Zealand to take some time to deeply reflect on what’s next. Transitioning out of sabbatical, she decided to dedicate the next chapter of her career to helping build a more inclusive and accessible entrepreneurial ecosystem, especially for non-traditional founders.

Rachel Pereyra

Rachel Pereyra (she/her) has over 10 years of experience in operations and financial services. At Criterion, she works closely with the finance and operations teams to oversee organizational budgets and support our funder relations. Rachel is also the founder of Mastermind Business Services, an operations support agency and consulting firm based out of Austin, Texas. Her previous work background includes leadership time in large retail organizations like Addidas Group and ToysRUs, as well as, in the consumer lending and private wealth management spaces.

 

 

Jinita Prasad

Having worked in the private sector for more than 15 years, Jinita moved from mainstream finance to development finance, using her strong business and technical skills to implement development programs that support social enterprises and SMEs.

She currently serves on the board of VB Holdings Ltd, a publicly listed company in Fiji.

Based in Sydney, Jinita’s professional network within the private and public sector across the Pacific remains strong, enabling her to identify opportunities and risks for clients and stakeholders.

Jinita has previously served as the CEO for South Pacific Stock Exchange playing a critical role in developing Fiji’s capital markets. Given her passion for women’s economic empowerment and SME development, Jinita also served as the vice president for Women in Business Fiji and was an executive for the Suva Chamber of Commerce and Industry for a number of years.

Jinita holds a BA in Accounting and Financial Management from University of the South Pacific (USP) and a graduate diploma from Financial Services Institute of Australasia in Applied Finance and Investment and was and a co-facilitator for MBA Finance Class at USP.

Deanna Salpietra

Deanna has over 15 years of experience working in international development for a wide variety of public and private clients, such as USAID, DFID, the UN, Nike Foundation and Mastercard Foundation. Her work has focused on poverty reduction through economic growth, which has led her to work primarily on private sector development, financial inclusion, and impact investment programs. She has expertise in program design, management and monitoring and evaluation; and takes a results-based management approach to all three. She has lived and worked in the US, UK, South East Asia, and the South Pacific.

Deanna holds a BA in International Business from Loyola University New Orleans; and a MSc in Local Economic Development from The London School of Economics.

Pranay Samson

Pranay Samson is passionate about utilizing finance as a tool to enable social change, having worked at the intersection of development and finance for over a decade. He previously led the Impact Partners team at the Impact Investment Exchange (IIX) in Singapore, a pioneer in gender lens investment through exchange tradeable blended finance instruments. He has expertise across renewable energy, sustainable agriculture, health, education and waste management, having worked with over 40 impact-focused enterprises on their growth strategy and associated investment from impact investors.

Pranay previously worked at Development Alternatives Group in India, incubating and scaling social enterprise models that were aimed at reversing rural migration patterns. He started his career at HSBC specialized in international banking, executing deals with Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) and Private Equity funds investing in India. He holds a PGDM from the Management Development Institute, Gurgaon, and is a qualified architect, with a Bachelor of Architecture from the School of Planning and Architecture in Delhi. He was also part of the inaugural cohort of the Social Impact Leadership Program conducted by Dasra and Harvard Business School in India.

Tia Subramanian

Tia Subramanian has over a decade’s experience in philanthropic strategy, impact investing, communications, content development, research, writing, editing, and marketing, as well as professional and personal experience with a range of gender equity initiatives. She developed an interest in using finance as a tool for social change in her six years at Arabella Advisors, a philanthropic advisory firm, where she helped to found the firm’s impact investing practice. At Arabella, she worked with investing and philanthropic strategy experts to design innovative investment vehicles that address systemic barriers to women’s access to health care and capital. Tia excels at partnering with teams to parse expertise, guide research, and translate it into content that speaks to diverse audiences. Her work on social sector issues has appeared in publications such as the Stanford Social Innovation Review. She is also an experienced facilitator who has run trainings on communications and equity issues. Earlier in her career, Tia worked for a variety of media outlets on both the business and editorial sides. She spent two years in business development at The New Yorker and Condé Nast Portfolio magazines and worked as an editor at two London-based startup websites.

Tia is a longtime advocate for reproductive justice, currently serving on the board of the DC Abortion Fund. She has a BA in English and Psychology from Amherst College and an MA in English from the University of Virginia.

 

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BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Joy Anderson

Teresa Younger

Teresa C. Younger has served as President and CEO of the Ms. Foundation for Women, the oldest women’s foundation in the United States, since 2014. Under Teresa’s leadership, the Foundation launched #MyFeminismIs, a multimedia campaign sparking a national conversation on feminism; funded a groundbreaking report on the sexual abuse to prison pipeline; joined leading women’s foundations at the White House to announce a $100 million funding commitment to create pathways to economic opportunity for low-income women and girls; and led a campaign to hold the NFL accountable for violence against women.

A noted speaker, advocate, and activist, Teresa has been on the frontlines of some of the most important battles for women’s health, safety and economic justice. She was honored by Planned Parenthood Federation of America as a Dream Keeper, given Liberty Bank’s Willard M. McRae Community Diversity Award, and named one of the “50 Most Powerful Women in Philanthropy” by Inside Philanthropy. A graduate of the University of North Dakota, Teresa currently serves on the board of several philanthropic and advocacy organizations and initiatives, including: Grantmakers for Girls of Color (G4GC), Black Funders for Social Justice, the ERA Coalition, ACLU Awards Committee (2017), Essie Justice Project (Board Member), Funders for Reproductive Equity (FRE) (Board member) and Philanthropy New York (Board Member).

In addition, Teresa serves on the following boards and committees: the Ethel Walker School (Trustee), The Women’s Building (Advisory Committee), Women’s Campaign School at Yale (Board Member), the NYS Council on Women & Girls (Steering Committee), and Girl Scouts USA (Board Member).

Younger previously served as the executive director of the Connecticut General Assembly’s Permanent Commission on the Status of Women and as executive director of the ACLU of Connecticut – making her the first African American and the first woman to hold that position.

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GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE ADVISORY COMMITTEE

 

Geeta Aiyer

Geeta Aiyer combines over 30 years of experience in finance, with passion for environmental and social justice. Under her leadership, Boston Common has built a strong investment record, and meaningfully improved the policies and practices of portfolio companies through impactful, proactive Shareowner Engagement. The firm is a “Best for the World” honoree within the global B Corp community.

In 2016, Geeta was honored by Investment News, as an Innovator whose new ideas and tools have propelled the industry forward. The 2017 UN Global Compact Report on Business Impact on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) featured Geeta as a leader in the financial sector. Geeta is the recipient of the Joan Bavaria Award at the CERES conference in 2015 for Building Sustainability into the Capital Markets and the SRI Service Award (2013), recognizing leadership and innovation in SRI (Sustainable, Responsible, Impact) investing.

Before Boston Common, Geeta was President of Walden Asset Management, and has worked at US Trust Company (Boston) and Cambridge Associates. She received her MBA from Harvard Business School; BA (Hons) and MA degrees from the University of Delhi, India. She is a Chartered Financial Analyst.

Geeta serves on the Board and Investment Committee of NRDC. She is also on the board of the Better Future Project in Massachusetts. She is co-founder and board chair of DAWN Worldwide, an NGO addressing gender-based violence. Geeta has previously served on the boards of the Sierra Club Foundation, and YW Boston. From 2015-2017, she served on the Board of UN PRI.

Chris Andersen

Chris Andersen has served as InFaith Community Foundation’s Executive Director since its inception in 1995. Since 1995, outright and deferred gifts to InFaith have grown to more than $1 billion, with nearly $18 million annually being distributed to charities and causes worldwide. Prior to InFaith, Chris managed community and nonprofit lending programs, and supervised corporate and private foundations, at First Banks and Marquette Banks. He has helped create six nonprofit organizations and served on the board of 10 more, including Lutheran Services in America and Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services.

Previously, Chris worked as an architect and in real estate development.  He did his undergraduate work at Gustavus Adolphus College and the University of Minnesota and received his MBA from the University of Washington.

Rini Banerjee

Rini Banerjee has been working in the philanthropic sector for the last 17 years. Currently, Rini is a strategic advisor at Columbia University, Mailman School of Public Health. From 2012-2016, Rini served as the first Executive Director of the Foundation for a Just Society (FJS). Rini led the start-up phase of this recently formed private global foundation funding women, girls and LGBT rights work in the U.S., Francophone West Africa, South + Southeast Asia, and Central America.

Before joining FJS, she was a Senior Program Officer at the Overbrook Foundation, where she implemented and oversaw domestic and international grants portfolios in human rights, youth organizing, reproductive rights and justice, human trafficking, and progressive movement building. Previously, she was the Program Director at the New York Women’s Foundation, and held positions at UNICEF, UNDP, and at several community-based organizations working in the women’s rights and social justice fields. Earlier in her career, she worked as a financial analyst for the Investment Division of Citibank/Citicorp in NYC and marketing department at the Samuel Goldwyn Company. She is currently a Trustee of the Mertz Gilmore Foundation and Board member of the Funders for Reproductive Equity. Rini has been involved with co-creating and serving on many steering committees including establishing the newly formed Philanthropy Advancing Women’s Human Rights, Groundswell Fund, and the Funders Collaborative on Youth Organizing. She was the Board Chair of the Asian American/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy (AAPIP) and past board member of South Asian Youth Action (SAYA!). She also co-founded the Asian Women’s Giving Circle in NYC. Rini has a master’s in International Affairs from Columbia University with a concentration in human rights and economic development and a BS in Finance from New York University’s Stern School of Business.

Lori Heise

Lori Heise has over 25 years of experience working in the areas of gender equality, social change and women’s health, first as an activist practitioner, and later as a researcher. Early in her career she founded and led two women’s health organizations—one dedicated to sexual and reproductive health and rights and a second focused on women’s HIV prevention needs. Working to prevent violence against women and girls has been the central focus of her life’s work. She is an internationally recognized expert on the causes and consequences of violence against women and currently serves as co-founder and Technical Director of the Prevention Collaborative, a new global initiative designed to strengthen the ability of key actors to implement cutting edge violence prevention programs informed by research-based evidence, practice-based learning and feminist principles. Recently she joined the Faculty of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, where she conducts research on violence, social norms and intersectional health disparities and serves as Co-investigator on “What Works to Prevent Violence,” a 6 year, multi-million-dollar project to reduce gender-based violence (GBV) in low and middle-income countries. Prior to joining Johns Hopkins, she was a Professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine where she was Co-Director of STRIVE, an international research consortium dedicated to studying the structural drivers of HIV, including gender inequalities, stigma and criminalization, lack of livelihood options and alcohol use and harmful drinking norms.

Lisa Kleissner

Growing up in Hawai’i, Lisa Kleissner learned how to “dance” between the indigenous and western cultures of her Hawaiian father and her Haole mother. The indigenous concepts of reciprocity, abundance and scarcity, and how these concepts play out in a remote island economy, inform her local and global work, both with how she is present in that work and how she influences the investment of her family’s assets. Island economies are the canary in the global coal mine. Our ancestors showed us how to live sustainably on our planet. How can we acknowledge and honor their wisdom in our daily practice?

Organizations Lisa has had a hand in co-creating and/or leading include the KL Felicitas Foundation, Hawaiʻi Investment Ready, Toniic Institute, The Philanthropy Workshop, and Social-Impact International. She is an Advisory Board and Investment Committee member of Aqua-Spark and a board member of Real Good Fish. Her advisory roles include Criterion Institute’s Gender-Based Violence Advisory Committee and the Industree Foundation. In her hometown, she serves as the Treasurer of the Community Association of Big Sur.

When she is not writing, researching coaching or presenting, in order to move the impact agenda forward, Lisa spends time being in a state of awe about how lucky we are to be a part of a growing movement of conscious leaders who envision and are actively building a better world.

Minjung Kwok

Minjung Kwok is Chief Operating and Finance Officer for the Futures Without Violence (formerly Family Violence Prevention Fund), an organization that works to advance the health, stability, education and security of women and girls, men and boys worldwide. Formerly, Minjung served as Associate Chair for Program Development and Strategic Planning in the Stanford Department of Medicine, coordinating program priorities, achieving integration across the diverse mission and divisions in the department, and providing oversight of an array of activities to strengthen primary care practice and education. Prior to that, she held senior management positions at Harvard University and Boston University Medical Center. Ms. Kwok was a member of Human Rights Committee for Vinfen Corporation, a nonprofit human services organization that provide services to adults and children with mental illness, developmental disabilities, and behavioral health disabilities. Her community service includes serving as an Educational Advocate for the Massachusetts Department of Education, representing children in absence of legal guardians; Commission for Housing and Human Services for the City of Sunnyvale; and CEDAW Task Force for the Santa Clara County.

Mendy Marsh

Mendy is an expert in addressing violence against women and girls, as well as promoting their leadership and expertise. Professionally, she has an impressive career, including notable work at UNICEF, where she handled the Global Violence Against Women and Girls in Emergencies portfolio. Mendy has shaped policy, raised millions of dollars, defined cutting-edge interventions to promote the empowerment of women and girls in conflict and disaster contexts, and driven UN entities, NGOs, and research organizations to develop some of the most innovative tools in the sector. While at UNICEF she also drove the creation of a global team of recognized experts that trained and mentored over 3,500 humanitarian actors on preventing and responding to risks of violence against women and girls across 18 countries. Mendy’s work helped UNICEF provide services to 4.6 million women girls in humanitarian settings across 53 countries.

As co-founder and Executive Director of VOICE, her mission is to amplify the voices of women and girls, to ensure that conflict and disaster responses are centered on what they know they need. VOICE is working towards a world in which women and girls are respected leaders in designing and implementing solutions to eradicate violence, both in their communities and within the halls of power. The organization partners with and mobilizes women and girls themselves—a proven but chronically underused resource—to help aid agencies do better.

Mendy has master’s degrees in both Public Health and Social Work from Columbia University, and she is the author of several articles on reproductive health and violence against women and girls, the most recent of which includes her op-ed in Ms. Magazine.

Michael Ring

Michael Ring is an assistant director with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Strategic Initiatives Department.

SEIU represents approximately two million workers in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. SEIU members primarily work in health care, property services and public services. They participate in more than 50 public pension funds and 19 private pension trusts. Together, these funds total more than $1 trillion in assets.

For over 19 years, Michael has worked with SEIU members and leaders as they organize to ensure their retirement plan benefit assets are invested in sustainable and responsible approaches that meet the highest fiduciary standards.

Kyle Wright

Kyle Wright is CEO of Stardust, a family office that oversees a dynamic portfolio of projects, investments, and social benefit ventures.  For nearly a decade, he has lead Stardust’s strategic initiatives, including the organization’s commitment to align its investment portfolio with social justice principles. Kyle is a key advisor to the Stardust Fund, a philanthropic endeavor dedicated to social participation and power of excluded and exploited people. He currently serves on the boards of directors of Texas Civil Rights Project and Transparentem, and is a member of the Houston Area Council on Human Trafficking and Houston College of Law Clinics Advisory Council.  A Texas native, Kyle holds a B.A. in psychology from the University of Texas at Austin and a J.D., cum laude, from South Texas College of Law.

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POWER OF POLICY ADVISORY COMMITTEE

Criterion’s Power of Policy Program aims to leverage existing domestic and global policies to ensure that innovative finance advances social and gender equality. The Policy Advisory Committee shares their knowledge and expertise to support strategic implementation of the Power of Policy program goals and objectives. There is urgency and need right now to embed social finance with feminist campaigns to ensure that policy decisions related to COVID-19 economic recovery adequately address gender equity and power structures. The Committee provides information, advice, and opportunities to build effective and influential government engagement in integrating gender and power lenses to innovative finance in the wake of COVID-19

Joy Anderson
Founder and President, Criterion Institute

Joy Anderson is a prominent national leader at the intersection of business and social change, whose insights and experience have helped shaped hundreds of ventures as well as the movements of impact investing and gender lens investing. She is founder and president of Criterion Institute, the leading think tank on using finance as a tool for social change, which demonstrates new possibilities through its groundbreaking research, innovative trainings, convenings and institutional engagement. In recognition of her leadership, Anderson was listed in Fast Company’s 100 Most Creative People in Business.

Joy was co-founder of Good Capital with Tim Freundlich and Kevin Jones in 2006. She formerly served as faculty on leading social innovation award programs, including Unreasonable Institute and Echoing Green, advising the next generation of leaders in impact investing. As chair of the board of directors of Village Capital and through involvement in Investor’s Circle, she was actively involved in shaping early stage social investments. And through her role in developing and leading Structure Lab© workshops she has helped over 300 organizations think through their legal and financial structures.

Joy has appeared on Bloomberg and CNN, and her thought leadership has been published in ImpactAlpha and Conscious Company, among other outlets. She is the author of “A Blueprint for Women’s Funds on Using Finance as a Tool for Social Change,” published in 2017 in partnership with Global Fund for Women and Ms. Foundation, following the 2015 publication of “Gender Lens Investing in Asia,” jointly released with USAID, and Criterion’s “The State of the Field of Gender Lens Investing.”

Chris Eaton
Executive Director, World University Service of Canada

Chris Eaton is the Executive Director of WUSC (World University Service of Canada), a non-profit global development agency that improves education, economic, and empowerment opportunities for youth — with a particular focus on refugees and women. With a diverse background in international development, Chris has worked extensively in Canada, Eastern and Southern Africa and South and Central Asia on market systems development, governance and education programming.

Chris has bachelor’s (1989) and master’s (1991) degrees from the University of Toronto, in international development and political science, respectively. He is the past chair of the International Forum for Volunteering for Development, and a current board member of the Equality Fund – an initiative supported by the Canadian government to galvanize philanthropic and private investment funds in support of gender equality.

Dorothy Nyambi
President and CEO, Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA)

Dr. Dorothy Nyambi is the President and CEO of Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA), a non-profit organization with a mission to create business solutions to poverty around the world. Dorothy is a thought leader in international development, devoted to creating dynamic organizations that respect diversity, equity and inclusion and succeed in times of challenge and change. Dorothy has experience providing knowledge-based, strategic leadership for effective implementation of an organization’s mission and goals. With a 25 + year career in the sector and applied governance experience, Dorothy’s work is founded on and informed by unique life experience and a commitment to authentic leadership. Dorothy has significant and meaningful lived experience in the global south working in a wide range of sectors. She consistently demonstrates an ability to step forward and challenge the status quo, re-imagine and strengthen business processes, challenging old paradigms and programs in support of respectful human-centered design thinking.

Loren Rodwin
Managing Director, United States Development Finance Corporation

Loren Rodwin is a Managing Director for Social Enterprise Finance in the Small and Medium Enterprise Finance Department at the United States Development Finance Corporation (DFC). Mr. Rodwin co-manages a team providing debt financing to financial institutions, financial intermediaries, funds and social enterprises in developing countries and emerging markets. This includes financing for financial access, clean and affordable energy, water and sanitation services, health care, housing, education and enhancing small holder farmer supply chains. He is also part of the DFC team implementing DFC’s gender smart investing program called 2X. Prior to his current position, Mr. Rodwin worked in DFC’s Structured Finance Department where he handled workouts and debt restructurings for a portfolio of distressed loans. In addition, he underwrote debt financing transactions in the financial services, agriculture and mining sectors.

Prior to joining DFC in 2001, Mr. Rodwin worked as a Senior Financial Analyst at K&M Engineering and Consulting Corporation focusing on private power transactions. Mr. Rodwin began his career at the Chase Manhattan Bank, where he worked as a Credit Analyst, Credit Auditor, Financial Institutions Credit Officer in the Tokyo Branch, and a Client Service Officer underwriting real estate finance transactions.

Mr. Rodwin is a graduate of Brown University, the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, and the Johns Hopkins University Carey School of Business.

Teresa C. Younger
President and CEO, Ms. Foundation

Teresa C. Younger has served as President and CEO of the Ms. Foundation for Women, the oldest women’s foundation in the United States, since 2014. Under Teresa’s leadership, the Foundation launched #MyFeminismIs, a multimedia campaign sparking a national conversation on feminism; funded a groundbreaking report on the sexual abuse to prison pipeline; joined leading women’s foundations at the White House to announce a $100 million funding commitment to create pathways to economic opportunity for low-income women and girls; and led a campaign to hold the NFL accountable for violence against women.

A noted speaker, advocate, and activist, Teresa has been on the frontlines of some of the most important battles for women’s health, safety and economic justice. She was honored by Planned Parenthood Federation of America as a Dream Keeper, given Liberty Bank’s Willard M. McRae Community Diversity Award, and named one of the “50 Most Powerful Women in Philanthropy” by Inside Philanthropy. A graduate of the University of North Dakota, Teresa currently serves on the board of several philanthropic and advocacy organizations and initiatives, including: Grantmakers for Girls of Color (G4GC), Black Funders for Social Justice, the ERA Coalition, ACLU Awards Committee (2017), Essie Justice Project (Board Member), Funders for Reproductive Equity (FRE) (Board member) and Philanthropy New York (Board Member).

In addition, Teresa serves on the following boards and committees: the Ethel Walker School (Trustee), The Women’s Building (Advisory Committee), Women’s Campaign School at Yale (Board Member), the NYS Council on Women & Girls (Steering Committee), and Girl Scouts USA (Board Member).

Younger previously served as the executive director of the Connecticut General Assembly’s Permanent Commission on the Status of Women and as executive director of the ACLU of Connecticut – making her the first African American and the first woman to hold that position.

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ADVISORS AND PARTNERS

Suzanne Biegel, Advisor

Suzanne Biegel is founder of Catalyst At Large Ltd, with more than 25 years of experience as an entrepreneur, social impact angel and venture investor, philanthropist, board member, and hands-on operational manager. She founded the Clearly Social Angels network in the UK for ClearlySo and serves as a senior adviser there. Her consultancy is focused on impact investing with a women and girls lens.  She is the Investment Director for SPRING, a venture accelerator focused on companies that improve the lives of adolescent girls in East Africa.  She is a Senior Adviser at the Criterion Institute, on our gender work. She serves on the global advisory council for the Wharton Social Impact Initiative, and is a Wharton and Penn alumnae.  Suzanne serves on the board of Confluence Philanthropy in the US, a network of foundations moving their capital into mission related investing, and founded and runs Women in Social Finance, in London.  She is a fellow at the Aspen Institute. She speaks and writes frequently on the topic of impact investing.  Suzanne has been based primarily in London for the past five years.

Sarah Kaplan, Advisor

Sarah Kaplan is Director of the Institute for Gender + the Economy at the Rotman School and University of Toronto Distinguished Professor of Gender and the Economy.

She is co-author of the New York Times business bestseller, Creative Destruction, challenging the notion of sustainable competitive advantage and the myth of excellence. She has recently co-edited Survive and Thrive: Winning Against Strategic Threats to Your Business.

Her research explores how framing processes of managers and entrepreneurial actors affect the evolution of technologies and fields, organizational response to change, and strategy making inside organizations. Her studies examine the biotechnology, fiber optics, personal digital assistant, financial services and nanotechnology fields. Her interest in gender lens investing is in understanding how whole new ecosystems can be built.

Formerly a professor at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and a consultant and innovation specialist for nearly a decade at McKinsey & Company in New York, she completed her doctoral research in Management of Technology, Innovation and Entrepreneurship at MIT’s Sloan School of Management. She is currently a Senior Editor at Organization Science, and formerly Guest Editor of a special issue on new research methods at the Strategic Management Journal, and an Associate Editor at the Academy of Management Annals.