Staff

 

Maya Ajmera, President

Maya Ajmera is the founder and president of The Global Fund for Children. She is also the author of several Global Fund for Children books, including GFC’s first book, Children from Australia to Zimbabwe.

Maya received a bachelor's degree in biology from Bryn Mawr College and a master's degree in public policy from the Sanford Institute of Public Policy at Duke University. She also studied and traveled in Southeast Asia as a Rotary scholar. Her previous professional positions include special assistant to the president of the Population Institute and consultant for Family Health International.

She serves on the boards of directors of Echoing Green, the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the Washington Area Women's Foundation, and on the advisory boards of the American India Foundation, Youth Philanthropy Worldwide, Global Philanthropy Forum, and the Emerging Markets Foundation. Maya is fluent in Hindi.

Grantmaking

Victoria Dunning, Vice President, Programs

Victoria Dunning joined The Global Fund for Children in 2005, having worked in international development programs for over a decade. She brings with her significant experience in program planning, management, and evaluation, and over five years' experience in developing countries.

Prior to joining GFC, Victoria served as the senior program officer for women and population at the United Nations Foundation. She oversaw a program portfolio on strengthening youth health and development and maximizing access and quality of reproductive health services with the United Nations and international NGO partners. Before that, Victoria was at the Pacific Institute for Women's Health, where she oversaw research and evaluation activities on youth development and women's health in East and West Africa. Her previous positions include NGO sector advisor at USAID Tanzania, clinic manager for the Young Men's Clinic in New York City, project design and development trainer with developing-country professionals, and Peace Corps volunteer in West Africa.

Victoria has a master's degree in public health from Columbia University and a bachelor's degree in politics and international affairs from Mount Holyoke College. She enjoys working with her national and international colleagues at the United Nations, USAID, government ministries, foundations, nongovernmental organizations, and community-based organizations at all levels in a multicultural environment. Victoria is fluent in French and proficient in Wolof, Swahili, and Spanish.

Vineeta Gupta, Program Officer for South Asia

Vineeta Gupta, joined The Global Fund for Children as the Program Officer for South Asia in 2008. Prior to this engagement, she directed Stop HIV/AIDS in India Initiative (SHAII) based in Washington DC. She practiced medicine in India, predominantly maternal-child healthcare, both in rural and urban settings for 16 years. She has over twenty years of experience in organizational and community management in India and internationally. She has traveled widely in Europe and the U.S addressing the impact of international policies on Global South countries. Among other noted groups, she has consulted UNAIDS, International Commission of Jurists and Global Campaign for Microbicides. A strong believer in the holistic development of vulnerable children, her work emphasized the need to provide proper healthcare and education to all children. In addition to her work in health rights, she investigated, documented and litigated many human rights cases. In this vein, her work has been acknowledged by many national and international organizations such as National Human Rights Commission of India, People’s Union for Civil Liberties, Amnesty International (U.K.), Physicians for Human Rights ( Denmark ), Indian courts and judges including Chief Justices of India (former). The “Rotary Service to Humanity Award 2001” was conferred upon her in recognition of her efforts to uphold ethical standards in society. In 2004, Vineeta graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Notre Dame, with a Master’s degree in International Human Rights Law (LL.M.). She also holds a Bachelors of Law (equivalent to J.D.) from Nehru Memorial Law College , Ajmer University , India and a dual Bachelors degree for Medicine and Surgery from Medical College Patiala, India with a Residency in Gynecology and Obstetrics. She is fluent in Hindi, English, Punjabi and Urdu.

Sarah Ireland, Associate Program Officer

Sarah Ireland is the associate program officer for special grants at The Global Fund for Children. She first came to GFC in 2007 as a William Ascher summer fellow after receiving her master’s degree in international education policy from Harvard Graduate School of Education. As an Ascher fellow, Sarah documented GFC’s past experiences in awarding post-crisis Recovery and Renewal Grants, researched the strategies and processes of various disaster response organizations doing similar work, and developed a comprehensive disaster response strategy paper for GFC. Sarah has a strong background in education, having previously worked as a high school history teacher in the US and as an English language teacher in Japan through the JET Program. Most recently, Sarah volunteered with an NGO and a school for orphans in Uganda through the Foundation for Sustainable Development.

Solome Lemma, Program Officer for Africa

Solome Lemma is the program officer for Africa. Her experience is in the field of human rights, with a focus on children and youth, gender, and forced migration. Prior to joining GFC, Solome worked with the UN Development Programme in Ethiopia and Human Rights Watch in New York City. She recently interned with the International Rescue Committee in Liberia, where she worked on trainings to combat gender-based violence. Solome received a master's degree in public policy from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and a bachelor's degree in international relations from Stanford University. She is fluent in Amharic.

Katy Love, Assistant Program Officer for Eastern Europe and the US

Katy Love joined GFC’s grantmaking team in 2005, and she is the assistant program officer for Eastern Europe and the US. Previously, she worked for the World Bank on education quality in Brazil. Katy’s background is also in youth development and community building. Katy graduated from Brown University and wrote her honors thesis on torture in Brazil. In 2003, she received a fellowship to study immigration in Central America. Katy recently founded a young person's giving circle, is a reviewer for Washington’s Catalogue for Philanthropy, and is a member of the Washington Area Women's Foundation Leadership Awards committee. Katy is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese and proficient in French.

Cynthia Pon, Director of Global Fund for Children Books

Cynthia Pon is the director of Global Fund for Children Books. She brings to her position a love of words, arts, and world cultures, as well as experience as an educator, working in higher education and educational publishing. Before joining GFC, she was on the editorial staff of Teaching Tolerance, a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center. She is an award-winning writer and has experience working with writers and educators across the country and internationally. Cynthia grew up in Hong Kong and has a bachelor's degree from the University of Hong Kong. She later earned a master's degree and a doctoral degree in comparative literature from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. Cynthia is fluent in Chinese, proficient in French, and has reading knowledge of German.

Susanna Shapiro, Program Officer for Latin America and the Caribbean

Susanna Shapiro is the program officer for Latin America and the Caribbean. Before coming to GFC, she was a consultant at the World Bank in the Social Development Department, where she provided operational and analytical support to projects in Latin America and founded the Critical Development Thinking Group. Susanna has spent ten years working directly and indirectly with grassroots organizations in the United States, Latin America, and the Caribbean. She earned her master’s degree in international affairs from the New School while working part-time at the Brazil Foundation in New York. Prior to that, she served for two years as an at-risk youth advisor in the Peace Corps/Jamaica and worked with Foundation for International Community Assistance (FINCA) in Peru and Ecuador. Susanna has also conducted research in northeastern Brazil, where she lived for several months with teachers and students from the Landless Workers Movement (MST). She has a bachelor’s degree from Stanford University and is fluent in Spanish, Portuguese, and Jamaican Patois.

Lu Shen, East and Southeast Asia Program Officer

Lu is the program officer for East and Southeast Asia at GFC.  Prior, Lu was with the Asian Development Bank where she had various posts in finance and infrastructure lending and grant making in the Asia Pacific region. Lu also has extensive experience in economic consulting and market research, particularly in health care, energy and telecommunications.

Lu’s interest in children’s education and health began when she created a children’s book for a second-grade class in inner-city public school in Boston; and the most recent effort being her involvement in creating the Smokey Children project in the Philippines, an initiative that provides vaccination for children living on garbage dumps in Manila.

Lu’s background is in economics, finance and international development.  She received her bachelor’s degree in economics from Wellesley College and her joint MBA/MPA degree from the MIT Sloan School of Management and the J. F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard.  Lu is fluent in Mandarin Chinese and conversational in French.

Development

Parie Kadir, Database Coordinator

Parie Kadir is the database coordinator for The Global Fund for Children. Prior to coming to GFC, Parie worked as a foundations grants coordinator, database manager, and intern coordinator for a grassroots international peace and justice organization in Washington, DC. In 2006, she was selected to participate in a cultural studies and perspective program located in Austria, Hungary, and the Czech Republic. Prior to this, she traveled to both Spain and Mexico to study Latin American cultural development. She has worked with numerous help centers to provide assistance to women and children who are victims of violent sex crimes. Parie graduated from George Mason University with a bachelor’s degree in economics and another degree in government and international relations. She is conversant in Spanish.

Tamar Schiffman, Investor Relations Officer

Tamar Schiffman is the investor relations officer for The Global Fund for Children. Tamar comes to GFC with several years of marketing and development experience with KAZU public radio in California, the Autism Society of Northern California, and The Wall Street Journal in San Francisco. She spent a summer as a nonprofit consultant in St. Petersburg, Russia, with American Jewish World Service, and she served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Uzbekistan and Ukraine. Tamar has also spent many years teaching, both domestically and internationally. Tamar earned a bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of California at Santa Cruz, where she focused on developmental disabilities. She recently earned a master's degree in international public administration, with a regional emphasis on the Newly Independent States, from the Monterey Institute of International Studies. Tamar is fluent in Hebrew and Russian and conversant in Ukrainian and Spanish.

Anne Sorensen, Corporate and Foundation Relations Officer

Anne Sorensen is the Corporate and Foundation Relations Officer for The Global Fund for Children. She has ten years of experience in the nonprofit and government sectors. Prior to joining GFC, she worked in fund development for nonprofit organizations that support charter schools and provide academic services to Asian immigrant students in Washington, DC. Anne was posted to Romania and India with the U.S. Department of State. As a Foreign Service Officer, she worked on a number of human rights issues, including trafficking in persons, negotiated the text of UN human rights resolutions, and helped coordinate relief efforts following the 2001 earthquake in Gujarat, India. Anne received a Bachelor’s degree in history and international relations from Brigham Young University and a Master of Public Affairs from Indiana University-Bloomington. She is conversant in Hindi, Japanese, and Romanian.

Shana Weinberg, Grant Writer

Shana Weinberg is a grant writer. Prior to joining The Global Fund for Children, Shana was awarded a World Partners fellowship through American Jewish World Service to travel to northern Thailand and work with a Burmese women’s non-governmental organization. During her fellowship, Shana wrote grant proposals and researched funding options for programs supporting displaced women through direct aid, political action, and education. Shana also has experience working as a museum educator, conducting public programming for visitors ranging from pre-school to adult. Shana graduated magna cum laude from Hamilton College, receiving a bachelor’s degree in history.

Finance and Operations

Mitchell D. Fenster, Vice President for Finance and Operations

Mitchell D. Fenster joined The Global Fund for Children after working in finance and accounting in a variety of emerging markets. Most recently, he was the chief financial officer for Phyto-Riker Pharmaceuticals, a Ghana-based manufacturer and distributor of essential medicines, where he handled all finance, accounting, and human resource activities. Prior to joining Phyto-Riker, Mitchell was an investment officer for Modern Africa Fund Managers, where his responsibilities included analyzing, negotiating, and monitoring private equity investments in sub-Saharan Africa.

In addition, he has worked in the investment funds departments of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and as a financial consultant for KPMG Barents Group on a privatization project in Mongolia. He started his career as a case manager for a US benefits consulting company before moving to Moscow, Russia, as a financial manager for a real estate developer.

Mitchell has an undergraduate business degree from Washington University in St. Louis and an MBA from Georgetown University. He is conversant in Russian.

Andrew Barnes, Grants Manager

Andrew Barnes joined the finance and operations team in 2007 as grants manager. Previously, he administered a tax amnesty program for businesses at the Multistate Tax Commission (MTC). His expertise is in systems design, database management, and client relations. Prior to his work for the MTC, he was a remedial writing instructor at Camden County Community College in New Jersey, and he has lived and studied in Oxford, England. He earned a bachelor's degree in English from Taylor University and a master's degree in English from Rutgers University.

Michael Bush, Controller

Michael Bush is the controller for The Global Fund for Children. He joined GFC after working 30 plus years in a variety of accounting venues including public accounting, internal audit, government contracting and non-profits. He has been responsible for accounting, finance, budgeting and human resources activities for membership, quasi-government, foundations, and non-profit organizations. Michael holds a bachelors degree from Howard University.

Meheret Mellese, Information Technology Manager

Meheret Mellese is the information technology manager for The Global Fund for Children. Her technical repertoire includes Tranasct-SQL, ASP, PHP, VBA, HTML, CSS, Crystal Reports and Javascript. Prior to joining GFC, Meheret worked with the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) for over four years, managing all in-house database systems and acting as a backup webmaster and network administrator. She also managed USCRI’s successful internship program. Meheret graduated magna cum laude with a double bachelor’s degree in economics and computer-based information systems from Park University. Meheret has studied in Vesalius College in Brussels, Belgium, and the International Community School of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, prior to moving to the US. She is fluent in Tigrinya and conversant in French.

Nardos Worku, Administrative Assistant

Nardos Worku is a former diplomat who worked with Ethiopia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Nardos was posted to Geneva, Switzerland, for five years to represent Ethiopia at key United Nations conferences as the officer in charge of human rights and humanitarian affairs. After immigrating to the US, Nardos worked for several lenders and mortgage companies as an underwriter and a loan officer. She has a bachelor's degree in political science and government from Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia. She speaks fluent Amharic and has a working knowledge of French.