Our Board & Advisory Councils

The 13 Indigenous Grandmothers
Thirteen grandmothers from all corners of the earth that have gathered to fulfill a prophecy and chart a course for humanity.

Lisa Ling, USA
Journalist for National Geographic Explorer and "The Oprah Winfrey Show" who reports from some of the most dangerous places on earth.

Mariane Pearl, France/Cuba
Award-winning international journalist, wife of the late Daniel Pearl of the Wall St. Journal.

Paul Hawken, USA
Environmentalist, entrepreneur, journalist, and best-selling author of "Natural Capitalism" and “Blessed Unrest”.

Loung Ung, Cambodia
Author, outspoken human rights and anti-landmine activist, and survivor of the Cambodian Killing Fields.

Zainab Salbi, Iraq/USA
Esteemed global advocate for women peacemakers and founder of Women for Women International.

Mahnaz Afkhami, Iran
Exiled former Minister of State for Women's Affairs in Iran.

Hafsat Abiola, Nigeria
Acclaimed global democracy activist.

Riane Eisler, Austria/Cuba/USA
Futurist, international best-selling author, and visionary historian.

Ritu Sharma Fox, India/USA
Founder of Women Thrive Worldwide, the leading non-partisan organization shaping US policy to benefit poor women worldwide.

Winona La Duke, USA
Indigenous rights leader.

Naomi Shihab Nye, Palestine/USA
Award-winning international poet and peacemaker.

Hazel Henderson, USA
World renowned futurist, evolutionary economist, sustainable development expert, and television producer with eight published books and a globally syndicated newspaper column.

Chair: Kathy LeMay, Founder, President, and CEO, Raising Change
Kathy LeMay serves as chair of the board of World Pulse. She is the Founder, President, and CEO of Raising Change, which helps organizations raise capital to advance social change agendas and philanthropic individuals with social action planning worldwide. Kathy, who began her global activism in war-torn Yugoslavia where she worked with women survivors of the siege and rape-genocide camps, has been a social change fundraiser for fifteen years, raising millions of dollars in the fields of women’s human rights, hunger, and poverty relief, HIV/AIDS, and movement-building. Kathy has provided social-change fundraising and generosity trainings to hundreds of organizations throughout the world—including top-level executives at JP Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, and CitiFinancial—as well as being a prolific public speaker on strategies that advance the movement for justice and empower women to come into their own voices. She has appeared on numerous TV and radio shows including Oxygen TV and the Oprah Winfrey Show.

Natasha Lycia Ora Bannan, City University of New York School of Law
Ms. Bannan has spent more than a decade in the public and non-profit sectors working on issues affecting women, youth, Latinos, and people of color. Most recently she served as Manager of Multicultural Initiatives at the national headquarters for Girl Scouts of the USA in New York. She sits on the board of the Red Tent Women’s Project and is also on the Alumni Relations Committee for the National Hispana Leadership Institute, the nation’s premier leadership program for Latina women of which she was a fellow. She is a certified Empowerment Trainer and facilitates empowerment workshops to women in the New York City area. She is currently a fellow at the Center for Latino and Latina Rights and Equality at CUNY School of Law.

Lin Coughlin, Founder and President, Great Circle Associates
Lin Coughlin is President and Founder of Great Circle Associates, offering interim executive and strategic advisory services to for-profit and not-for-profit organizations. A seasoned operating executive, Lin has extensive turnaround, restructuring and start-up experience. Most recently Lin served as Chief Administrative Officer of Cendant Corporation, a $20 billion Fortune 150 company in the travel, hospitality, vehicle rental, and real estate services sectors. She serves on the Executive Committee of The Harvard Kennedy School Women’s Leadership Board, the board of The Madison Square Boys and Girls Club of NYC, and the Advisory Board of Grameen America. She is a member of the Women and Foreign Policy Group at The Council on Foreign Relations. Lin has published a book and several articles and has spoken around the world on the role of women leaders as change agents. A graduate of Fordham University, Lin received a B.A. in economics, summa cum laude.

Jensine Larsen, Founder and CEO World Pulse Media
As a young journalist in Burma and the Amazon, Jensine discovered that some of the world’s most important stories are rarely mentioned in the mass media. But through her determination and persistence to reach out and connect, she became a new voice in global media. Touring around the world, she appeared on NPR and Air America, presented keynotes at major corporations, universities and world forums, and wrote articles in international publications. A visionary and pioneer, Jensine became the first voice of World Pulse—the first of many.

Ayesha A. Mattu, Development Consultant/Writer
Ayesha A. Mattu is a writer, photographer, and philanthropy consultant. She has raised millions of foundation dollars for global human rights issues over the past 12 years. Through her work she supports issues including women’s human rights, reproductive health, economic security, and access to education with a focus on marginalized, minority, and indigenous women in the Global South.

Her career began in Pakistan, where she worked at Sahil to address the controversial issue of child sexual abuse in a Muslim country. She then moved to Boston where she joined Grassroots International to support social justice organizations in six countries. Next, she worked at the Global Fund for Women in San Francisco, raising significant funds to disburse to grassroots women's organizations in 167 countries.

She was a founding board member for the Muslim Women's Fund, the first fund solely focused on serving 600 million Muslim women worldwide, and also served on the board of the Women’s Funding Network (WFN), a coalition of 130 women's organizations around the world. Her first book, Love, InshAllah: The Secret Love Lives of American Muslim Women, will be published on Valentine's Day 2012 by Soft Skull Press.

Andrea Meditch, Filmmaker and Media Executive
Andrea Meditch, a noted executive producer whose credits include the 2009 Oscar-winning film Man on Wire and 2009 Oscar-nominated film Encounters at the End of the World, is the president of Back Allie Films, whose most recent film BUCK earned the 2010 Audience Award at Sundance. Until recently, she served as the director of the Film and Media Arts Initiative at Michigan State University, where she helped develop a center for creativity in film and media and served as the College’s liaison to the film industry in Michigan. Prior to joining MSU, Meditch was Vice President of Discovery Films, the theatrical arm of Discovery Communications, which she helped create and build, and head of Development for the Discovery Channel. Previously she was executive editor of Discovery.com and Managing Editor of Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine. She has PhD Linguistic Anthropology, with a concentration in Communications.

Zulma Miranda, International Law and Human Rights Consultant
Zulma Miranda is a human rights lawyer with expertise in international human rights, international humanitarian law, and international criminal law. As Senior Counsel at the Global Justice Center, she serves as legal advisor and speaker in a diversity of settings, particularly in Asia, Latin America, and at the United Nations. She provides technical expertise in the form of legal trainings and has developed materials on international advances in gender jurisprudence for nonprofit law organizations, judges, lawyers, and parliamentarians. She has written on sexual violence in conflict, ICC law, transitional justice issues, and comparative constitutional analyses from a gender perspective. Most notably she participated in the development of gender jurisprudence at the international level through the submission of a legal memo focused on Security Council Resolutions 1325 and 1820 on Women, Peace and Security and their Application to the CEDAW Committee’s Review of a State’s implementation of the Convention.

Gillian Parrillo, Founder, SacWomen
Gillian Parrillo was in the first wave of women who broke the corporate ‘glass ceiling’. As Group President for Sterling Software, Inc., she was responsible for a $200M+ worldwide organization. During her 14-year tenure, Gillian held positions in Washington, D.C., London, U.K., Sacramento, CA., Paris, France, and Dallas, Texas.

Gillian has served on numerous non-profit boards including: the Sacramento Angels, the Sacramento Area Regional Technology Alliance, and the Sacramento Entrepreneurship Academy. A passionate supporter of entrepreneurs, Gillian is an angel investor in several startup companies and provides advice and guidance, formally and informally, to many more. In 2006, Gillian founded SacWomen with a goal of amplifying the voices of women in Sacramento.

Gillian is an active member of Dallas Social Venture Partners, an organization of business and technology professionals who invest their time, money, and expertise (engaged philanthropy) in local nonprofits. Gillian has recently joined the Board of Dallas Afterschool Network, an organization focused on expanding the quality and quantity of afterschool programs.

During the past two years, Gillian has been very involved in the political process, serving as a National Delegate, and continues to work hard to ensure the voice of grassroots activists are heard in Washington.

Marisa Rivera-Albert, President, Mpowerment Works
Marisa Rivera-Albert is the President of Mpowerment Works, a consulting firm designed to impact global change by focusing on empowering Women. Her extensive work experience in the non-profit, government and private sectors have always been used to resolve justice and equality issues facing the world today.

Prior to starting Mpowerment Works, Ms. Rivera-Albert was President of the National Hispana Leadership Institute (NHLI), the top leadership program for Latinas in the country. Her work experience includes several assignments overseas, including working for the U.S. Information Agency, the U.S. Embassy in Panama and as a consultant in organizational development in Spain. She is the recipient of the Cesar Chavez Community Service Award given by the US Hispanic Leadership Institute, and she was awarded as one of the 21 Leaders for the 21st Century by Women’s eNews.

Ms. Rivera-Albert has extensive community service and volunteering experience and serves on the Board of the U.S. Committee for UNIFEM, The United Nations Development Fund for Women. She was appointed by Governor Mark Warner of Virginia to the Commission on the Status of Women and was a Board member for Habitat for Humanity in Northern Virginia.

Caroline Rook, CFO, TUI University
Ms. Rook is a senior-level professional with over 25 years of international strategic financial and operational experience with public, venture capital, and private equity backed companies including leading an IPO and a secondary offering on NASDAQ, business operations, company turnaround, driving revenues, and profitability. Caroline has worked in England, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, CA, and Little Rock, AR. She is a Fellow of The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales. Apart from Caroline’s latest position above, she has held positions in Deloittes, Ernst & Whinney, Grant Thornton, Barclays Bank, Sterling Software, Inc. Acxiom Corporation, and PeopleSupport, Inc.

Ellen Wingard, Leadership Consultant, Institute for Women’s Leadership
As an early innovator in the field of leadership development, Ellen is committed to advancing and retaining women leaders to create gender equality and promote the social and economic empowerment of women. Ellen has 28 years of experience coaching senior and emerging leaders in the public and private sector with a sample list such as the Harvard Business School, Diageo, Hispanic Access Foundation, MIT, Pfizer, PricewaterhouseCoopers, UN Food Programme, and Wells Fargo. Ellen is a member of the Women’s Leadership Board, Harvard Kennedy School, and a faculty member of the Institute for Women’s Leadership in Redwood City, California. She serves as a mentor for the Impact Center, a DC based fellowship to prepare the next generation of public service leaders. Ellen has been a commentator on career navigation, intergenerational mentoring, and the neuroscience of mindful leadership to the Committee of 200, the Fletcher School International Business Program, Harvard Kennedy School, and NPR Marketplace. She is a certified Birkman consultant in career visioning and the co-author with Lin Coughlin of Enlightened Power: How Women Are Transforming the Practice of Leadership, Jossey-Bass, 2006. Ellen is currently the Mentor Advisor to the 2011 Voices of Our Future Correspondents Social Media and Empowerment Training in partnership with Rachael Maddock-Hughes and Scott Beck.

Halima Rahman, Community Board Member
A journalist with 10 years experience, Halima Mohamad Abdel has worked for numerous Sudanese and Saudi Arabian publications as a writer, researcher, editor, and translator. Halima was a participant in World Pulse's inaugural class of the Voices of Our Future program, where she was the first to break the story of Sudanese journalist Lubna Hussein, who the Sudanese government sentenced to flogging for wearing pants. The story soon became international news. A graduate of the University of Khartoum with a degree in translation, Halima is fluent in French, English, and Arabic. She is passionate about using social media to connect women around the world and is committed to bringing the voices of women of the Arab world to an international audience.

Founding Board Emeritus:

Nanci Luna Jiménez
Kathy Murphy
Sharon Marer
Jeannette Fruen
Kathy Long Holland
Shafia Monroe
Wendy Cutler
Rangineh Azimzadeh
Darcy Winslow

Andrea Learned, Chair of Marketing Council, President of Learned on Women
Andrea Learned is a leading women’s market authority, writer, speaker, consultant and co-author of "Don't Think Pink: What Really Makes Women Buy and How To Increase Your Share of this Crucial Market."

Janet Champ, Copy Writer
Award-winning writer for Nike, Microsoft, Time Warner and CNN, Champ has written for The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Adweek, Advertising Age, The Wallstreet Journal, Allure, Vogue, Sports Illustrated, Mirabella, and Lear's.

Sarah B. Murphy, VP Communications, American Express
As Vice President of American Express, Murphy is responsible for direct marketing communications for 22 international markets. Previously, she ran the Charge Card business in the UK with responsibility for developing new Charge Card products.

Rodney Rascona, Photographer and Image Maker
With over two decades of serving the design and advertising industry, Rodney has produced captivating images in 40 countries around the world and across the USA.

Gisela Grier, Market Researcher, Skype
Gisela’s specialty is changing the culture within business through intelligence gathering and insight generation to the brand and strategic teams who need to have a clear understanding of consumer and market trends in order to drive brand positioning and communications strategies.

Myrna Yoo, CEO, Blueline Publishing
Founder of a national independent book and magazine publishing with a specialty in socially responsible projects relating to climate change, energy and the environment.

Janet Johnson, VP Online Marketing, Marqui
Ms. Johnson is a skilled online marketing executive and a pioneer in corporate blogging with outstanding success in start-up, mid-size and Fortune 50 technology companies.