*All staff may not be included due to safety and security reasons
staff directory block - Staff Directory Block
Prior to becoming Acting Executive Director, Maria served as OutRight’s Deputy Executive Director leading the work of the Development and Communications teams. In this position, they oversaw a period of extraordinary growth in visibility, diversification and increase in funding, in addition to launching groundbreaking initiatives, such as OutRight’s COVID-19 Global LGBTIQ Emergency Fund and pioneering engagement with international businesses.
Prior to coming to OutRight Maria served as Executive Director of RFSL, Sweden’s largest LGBTIQ organization. While in this position Maria established RFSL's international program, played a key role in ensuring that the human rights of LGBTIQ people become ingrained in the Swedish government's agenda for development and foreign affairs, advocated for marriage equality (won in 2009) and the abolishment of forced sterilization of trans people as a requirement for legal gender recognition (outlawed in 2013). Maria has led leadership trainings for hundreds of LGBTIQ activists on topics including strength-based coaching and appreciative inquiry. They regularly provide expert opinions to governments, UN agencies, and corporations.
Maria (she/they) is frequently quoted by the media, including by outlets like Time magazine and Thomson Reuters.
Chandler Bazemore (he/him) is the Senior Development Manager at OutRight Action International, based in New York. He joined OutRight Action International in 2019 to lead fundraising efforts in New York City. Chandler brings nearly 20 years of fundraising and development experience from different areas, including at-risk LGBT youth services, education enrichment, social justice, community organizing and environmental protection. He believes development and fundraising at its core is about relationship building and sharing the stories of the people and communities impacted by our work. Chandler has a passion for social justice, supportive services and organizations committed to improving people’s lives. Chandler is motivated and inspired by the creation of a world where all people are respected, supported and encouraged to live their true and authentic selves without reprimand, retaliation and interference. A world where access to opportunity and resources are shared freely by all and everyone has the opportunity to live up to their full potential.
Amie Bishop (she/her) is the Senior Research Advisor for OutRight Action International, based in Seattle. She is the author of its recent reports, Vulnerability Amplified: The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on LGBTIQ People published in May 2020, and Harmful Treatment: The Global Reach of So-Called Conversion Therapy, published in August 2019. She previously served on OutRight’s Board of Directors from 2008 to 2017.
Amie is a human rights advocate and global health leader with professional experience in more than 20 countries. Between 1989 and 2014 she worked for PATH, a non-profit global health organization where her work spanned a variety of leadership and technical roles in the areas of TB, HIV, and women’s health. Amie is also an Adjunct Clinical Instructor at the University of Washington’s Department of Global Health and the Jackson School of International Studies. Amie is an elected member of the Advisory Committee of Seattle’s Women in Global Health initiative and is on the board of Rise Beyond the Reef, a community empowerment organization in Fiji. Amie holds Master’s Degrees in Social Work and Public Health from Columbia University.
Damon Clyde (he/him) is the Senior Development Officer for Institutional Giving at OutRight Action International, based in New York. He came to OutRight from the British Council, where he developed partnerships with donors based in the United States to support the Council’s international programs on social entrepreneurship, women’s and girls’ empowerment, youth civic engagement and LGBTIQ issues. Prior to that Damon worked at the EastWest Institute, a global nonprofit promoting peace and security. Damon started his international career as a U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer in Kyrgyzstan. While in the region, he also served as a consultant for the Asian Development Bank and UNHCR.
Damon holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, and a Master of International Affairs degree from Columbia University.
Elise Colomer-Cheadle (she/her) is Director of Corporate Engagement at OutRight Action International, based in Charlotte, North Carolina. Elise has over 20 years experience working in the nonprofit industry connecting businesses to causes. Her past roles include Senior Director of Development overseeing institutional, special events and individual giving at SAGE, Associate Director & Director of Latin America Programs at the New York City Bar Association’s Cyrus R. Vance Center for International Justice, and Business and Partnerships Officer at the United Nations Office for Project Services where she co-established and co-managed one of the UN’s first units for partnerships with the private sector.
Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Elise is bilingual in English and Spanish. She holds a Master of Science in Administration of International Organizations from Columbia University School of Social Work, and a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations from Tufts University. She lives with her wife Diane and three dogs, and her interests include baking and running.
Cäcille Ealy (she/her) is the Development Associate for Individual Giving at OutRight Action International, based in New York. She joined the Outright team with five years of professional writing experience. A graduate of Parsons The New School for Design in New York City, she earned a Bachelor of Business Administration with a minor in writing. While still a student Cäcille write social justice articles for the LGBTQ lifestyle magazine, Kraven. After graduating, she began her career as a contributing food/wellness writer for New York Spirit Magazine and a blog/copywriter for Kanler Construction.
Originally from a small town in Indiana, she knows firsthand how difficult it can be growing up “different”. Because of that, she will forever be a fighter for a persons right’s and a champion for anyone in need.
Lester (he/him) is OutRight's Senior Fellow - Emergency Research. He is a journalist and photographer who has reported in more than 40 countries. Lester began his career at Politico, where he covered the politics and policies of health care in Congress, the White House, and the Supreme Court. In 2013, he joined BuzzFeed News as its first international correspondent, pioneering a first-of-its-kind international LGBTQ rights beat.
Among other topics, Lester has covered the 2014 Sochi Olympics and Russia's "gay propaganda" law; discovered how Steve Bannon was building ties to senior figures in the Vatican; wrote about Iraqi activists rescuing LGBTIQ people from ISIS; and exposed the local politics behind anti-LGBTIQ crackdowns globally, from Uganda to Indonesia to Egypt. Lester was named the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association’s Journalist of the Year in 2015 and received a GLAAD media award in 2016. In 2020, Lester was named a Knight-Wallace Reporting Fellow at the University of Michigan.
Neela Ghoshal (she/her) is OutRight's Director of Law and Policy, based in Washington DC. She comes to OutRight from Human Rights Watch, where she served as Associate LGBT Rights Director, leading global initiatives on LGBTIQ rights and conducting research and advocacy on rights violations related to sexual orientation and gender identity around the world. Prior to joining the LGBT Rights Program, she was a researcher in the Africa Division at Human Rights Watch, based in Burundi and in Kenya, where she covered political repression, police abuse, justice sector reform, and transitional justice in East Africa. Neela previously worked with the Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala, the Bronx Defenders, and the New York City public schools.
Neela holds a bachelor's in social justice studies from the University of Michigan and a master's in international relations from Yale University, and speaks English, Spanish, French and Kiswahili. She enjoys growing vegetables, cooking, and practicing and writing about feminist parenting.
Anika Gray (she/her) is OutRight's Caribbean Advocacy Officer based in Jamaica. She is a human rights and gender equality advocate with over nine years’ experience in developing and executing programmes for a number of entities, including UNDP, UN Women, AIDS-Free World, the Caribbean Court of Justice and others. She has championed the provision of better access to HIV and AIDS services for vulnerable populations, advocated for the dismantling of discriminatory laws and practices that impinge on the rights of LGBTIQ people, supported holding members of the security forces accountable for extra-judicial actions, and implemented projects to better society's response to gender-based violence.
Anika holds a Master's degree in Public Policy from the University of Oxford. She is a lawyer, criminal law lecturer and a board member for the Caribbean Family Planning Affiliation.
Hala (she/her) is the Digital Communication Officer at OutRight Action International, based in New York. Prior to her work in the nonprofit world, Hala worked for a digital agency in both Beirut and Dubai, where she led different digital campaigns in the MENA region. Her illustrations have been published in Autostraddle, The Seventh Wave, and the Gulf Center for Human Rights and more, and she often contributes to projects grounded in art activism.
Originally from Lebanon, Hala has found a home in New York City and enjoys the local drag scene that has inspired a lot of her creative work. When she's not working, she's tinkering in the kitchen and discovering new ways to cook mushrooms.
Alexa Hoffmann (she/her) is OutRight’s Caribbean Program Associate based in Barbados. Alexa is a trans advocate and Human Rights Defender, with almost 10 years experience specializing in policy change and legislative reform. Alexa was part of organizing a pilot project for Barbados Pride in November 2015, and the first official Barbados Pride celebrations in November of 2017. She is also the lead claimant in a Petition to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights challenging Sections 9 and 12 of the Sexual Offences Act of Barbados, which criminalize all forms of same-sex intimacy with life imprisonment and 10 years’ imprisonment respectively.
Alexa likes cats, cooking, writing, getting her hands dirty while working on cars, Céline Dion and Britcoms.
Katie Hultquist (she/her) is Director of Leadership Giving of OutRight Action International and is based in Seattle. With a career in the nonprofit sector spanning more than 20 years, Katie brings a deep understanding of nonprofit management and fundraising to OutRight. Prior to coming to OutRight, Katie served for eight years as the Northwest Regional Director at NPH USA (Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos), where she led the staff and Board in development efforts to support programs for vulnerable children in Latin America and the Caribbean. Katie also spent nine years as the Executive Director of Passages Northwest, a Seattle non-profit dedicated to building courage and leadership in girls through the outdoors and the arts. While based in Washington, DC Katie was the Assistant Development Director for the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice and the Director of Partnerships and Outreach for Ashoka’s Youth Venture.
Katie holds a Masters degree in Nonprofit Leadership from Seattle University and a B.A. in International Studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Originally from San Francisco, Katie lives in Seattle with her wife and three children.
Paul Jansen (he/him) is the Senior Advisor for Global Advocacy at Outright Action International. He joined OutRight in 2017 after working as an International Consultant on organisational and strategic reviews for organizations and networks working on LGBTIQ issues, HIV, and other topics. Before starting his consultancy company, he was the Program Director for Salzburg Global Seminar in the areas of education, nature and sustainability issues. He has also worked as organisational sustainability advisor in the Asia Pacific Coalition on Male Sexual Health, in Bangkok, Thailand. Prior to this, he was the country director of the Hivos office in Johannesburg, South Africa. He has been working in international development since 1998 in various development organisations, like Voluntary Service Overseas, after a career in the tourism industry for the Dutch Tourism Board in Cologne, Germany, and the Provincial Tourist Board in Utrecht, Netherlands.
Originally from the Netherlands, Paul holds a Master’s degree in Development Studies from Utrecht University and a Bachelor’s degree in marketing management for the hospitality and tourism industry from the Maastricht Hoge Hotelschool.
Travis McCown (he/him) is the Grants Administrator at OutRight Action International, based in New York. Travis joined the OutRight team in 2021. He uses his extensive training in grants management to break down the barriers civil society organizations face when accessing funds. He has worked with civil society organizations and activists in all regions of the globe and is constantly in awe of the verve of the LGBTIQ movement. He has previously worked on international campaigns with Freedom House and in the 2020 election cycle he campaigned on behalf of Planned Parenthood Votes in his home state of North Carolina. Travis obtained his Bachelor's degree in Human Services in 2016 from The George Washington University, shortly thereafter he completed his Masters of Public Administration with a concentration in Social Policy. In his free time Travis loves to explore new restaurants and music venues in the area.
Sahar Moazami (they/them), United Nations Program Officer at OutRight Action International, is based in New York. Sahar is a New York State bar admitted attorney with a focus on international human rights law. Sahar is a first generation Iranian-American born in London but primarily raised in New York. They attended Boston University for their undergraduate degree, majoring in Political Science and minoring in American and Persian history. Upon graduation, Sahar volunteered with the AmeriCorps FEMA Corps program, traveling the United States for 10 months aiding disaster survivors. After completing the 10 month service position Sahar returned to New York to attend Fordham Law School.
Sahar obtained her Juris Doctor from Fordham Law School in 2017. As a student at Fordham Law, they heavily engaged in student activism through leadership positions in a number of student groups including the Coalition of Concerned Students, the National Lawyers Guild, Advocates for Sexual Health and Rights, and Fordham OUTLaws. Sahar was also a member of the Stein Scholars for Public Interest Program and was a Crowley Scholar for International Human Rights.
Tenesha Myrie (she/her) is Outright’s Caribbean Advocacy Officer based in Jamaica. Tenesha is a human rights lawyer with over ten years’ experience working on issues concerned with gender equality, LGBTIQ rights protection, HIV and AIDS, gender-based violence, child rights, and sexual and reproductive health and rights. Her work centers on legal and policy reform with a focus on strengthening legal protection and improving access to services for groups in a position of vulnerability. In this regard, she has provided expert opinion to the Government of Jamaica, has consulted for UN Women, UNDP, USAID, Child Rights International Network (CRIN), as well as regional and local NGOs such as Caribbean Vulnerable Communities Coalition, Jamaica AIDS Support for Life, Jamaicans for Justice, and others. She has also worked with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Washington D.C. as a legal fellow. She is a former corporate and property lawyer.
Tenesha holds a Master of Public Policy from the University of Oxford and has been recognized as a Researcher for Development by the University of West Indies.
Grace Poore (she/her) is the Asia Regional Coordinator at OutRight Action International since 2007. She manages regional partnership projects for LGBT access to justice, rights to fundamental freedoms, and protections from domestic violence and family violence. She coordinates the Asia Regional Network on SOGIE and Gender Based Violence (GBV), comprising LGBTI advocates and GBV expertise in Asia. She does trainings on GBV documentation. She co-edited OutRight’s Through The Lens, a report on violence against lesbians, bisexual women and transgender people in Japan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines and Sri Lanka, and Creeping Criminalization, a report on curtailment of LGBT and women’s rights in Indonesia. She previously worked for 9½ years in the U.S. movement to stop domestic violence. She researched and co-authored Shattered Lives, a report on domestic violence homicides in Asian families in the U.S., published by Asian Pacific Institute on GBV. Her documentary films on the intersectionality of domestic violence and South Asians surviving incestuous child sexual abuse have been viewed in 18 countries. Her blogs have appeared in Huffington Post, New Civil Rights, and Asia Times. Grace holds a Master’s degree from Syracuse University. She is from Malaysia and based in Maryland.
June Raymond (they/them) is the Operations Assistant with OutRight Action International, based in New York. They join the OutRight team with four years of Media Tech support experience. June graduated from Wheaton College, in Norton MA with a Bachelors in International Relations with a concentration in Asia. While in school they were an active member of Student Government and helped introduce media technology to improve accessibility.
Born in the Republic of Korea, and adopted and raised in the United States, June comes from a strongly intersectional background and will always be there to fight for the human rights of all. When not working, they enjoy playing music, playing Dungeons and Dragons, and experimenting with dishes in the kitchen.
Meg Rosensweet (she/her) is the Executive Assistant for OutRight Action International based in New York. She found OutRight after working in the nonprofit world with the mental health population. Meg attended college at SUNY Purchase and received her bachelor’s degree in Media Theory, Production, and Writing, and also had a large focus in queer theory. While in school she was involved in student government where she was an advocate for feminist and LGBTIQ causes as well as mental health care. Since graduating Meg has also worked as a teacher, and creatively as a scriptwriter and production manager. Meg is also passionate about stand-up comedy and drag performance and has used these mediums as their own forms of activism.
Daina Ruduša (she/her) is OutRight’s Senior Communications Manager responsible for media relations and raising the organization’s profile, based in New York. She joined the team in February 2019 after almost three years at ILGA-Europe, the foremost European-level LGBTIQ organization. She has also worked at leading international development organizations CARE International UK and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Daina first joined the LGBTIQ movement in her native Latvia in 2006, when the second Pride march was being organized and faced hateful and violent opposition. Thereafter Daina studied history of sexuality as part of her Bachelor’s degree in History and English at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada, and earned her Master’s in Public International Law and Human Rights from the Riga Graduate School of Law in Latvia.
Originally from Latvia, Daina is a bit of a nomad at heart - moving to New York to join OutRight marks her 8th country of residence. She is a massive dog-lover, enthusiastic singer, and is fluent in English, Latvian and Russian.
Faith Sadicon (they/them) is OutRight's Program Officer, Asia and Pacific, based in the Philippines. They are a a queer activist and lawyer with extensive experience in legal and policy work, and campaigning and organizing for various social movements. They co-founded Camp Queer, a local queer organization creating safe and nurturing spaces for queer people, working in solidarity with other marginalized groups. Prior to engaging in queer activism, they were part of the youth and migrant worker movements in the Philippines. They also worked for Sandiganbayan, the Special Anti-Graft Court of the Philippines where they joined the Committee on Gender Responsiveness that proposes and implements policies and programs related to gender equality and justice.
Faith is also a fur parent to Estha, the book-munching dog.
Jonta Saragih (he/him) is OutRight's Indonesia Program Officer based in Indonesia. He started his activism at Hivos Jakarta in 2013 working on HIV advocacy and capacity strengthening activities of trans and MSM (men who have sex with men) organizations in Southeast Asia. Later he worked on a project striving to change public perceptions of LGBTIQ people by engaging and influencing religious leaders and sensitizing mainstream media outlets in Indonesia. Together with queer identified lawyers he has also worked to ensure legal assistance for LGBTIQ people who have experienced violence or discrimination.
Jonta has a Master's degree in Development and Gender, and in his spare time enjoys cooking and spending time with friends.
Andrew Schlager (he/him) is Development and Communications Assistant at OutRight Action International, based in New York City. In this role, he supports a variety of functions including corporate engagement and fundraising administration, research, external communications, and content creation and review. For the past five years, Andrew has been involved in New York- based LGBTIQ advocacy, political mobilization, and social impact. He was introduced to OutRight Action International originally as an intern with the development team, before transitioning to a permanent role with the organization in 2021.
Andrew earned his Bachelor of Politics with minors in Sociology, French, and Peace and Conflict Studies at New York University. He is originally from Lancaster, Pennsylvania and is a passionate traveler and French language enthusiast.
Azza Sultan (she/her) is the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Regional Program Advisor at OutRight Action International, based in Washington DC. She came to OutRight in 2020 from Grindr, where she was the associate director of Grindr for Equality, the app's initiative to promote justice, health, and safety for LGBTIQ people around the globe.
Azza is a Sudanese American queer activist. She is a co-founder of several prominent LGBTIQ organizations in the MENA region, including Bedayaa organization, Mesahat Foundation for Sexual and Gender Diversity, the Queer Women Network (QWN), and the North Africa Center for Strategic Partnerships (NACSP). Azza started her queer activism in 2007 by publishing queer poems and short stories on blogs and social media to raise awareness around sexual orientation and gender identity issues, and provide alternative literature and discourse for queer, lesbian and bisexual Arabic-speaking women in the MENA region.
Luiza Drummond Veado (she/her) is OutRight's United Nations Program Officer based in New York. She is a Brazilian attorney with an International Human Rights Law LLM from the University of Essex. She worked at the Rapporteurship on Rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Persons of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights for almost two years, where she developed thematic reports and worked on regional leading cases on LGBTI rights. Prior to this, she was a member of the Human Rights Clinic at the University of Essex and has worked at the Inter-American Court on Human Rights, the Center for Justice and International Law and the Minas Gerais State Human Rights Council and its Truth Commission. Luiza has also published several academic articles on sexual orientation, gender identity and sex characteristics; trained more than one hundred activists and government officials on international and regional non-discrimination standards, with a focus on LGBTI rights; and has coordinated an award-winning video campaign on violence against LGBTI persons in the Americas.
Yvonne Wamari (she/her) is the Africa Program Officer at OutRight Action International, based in Kenya. Yvonne joined OutRight in 2019. She is a human rights defender from Nairobi, Kenya with nine years’ experience in advocacy, research and security management. She has worked with the Kenyan Section of the International Commission of Jurists and the Africa Centre for Open Governance (Kenyans for Peace with Truth and Justice). For the past six years Yvonne worked for National Coalition of Human Rights Defenders - Kenya as the Programme Officer- Advocacy, with a particular focus on human rights defenders. Yvonne is also a trained trainer, and has carried out various trainings to human rights defenders,journalists and others across Kenya on monitoring and documentation; advocacy strategies and physical and digital security management. She has worked closely with the LGBTIQ+ community and is part of the advocacy and legal strategy team in the campaign to repeal sections 162 and 165 of the Penal Code of Kenya.
Yvonne is an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya currently pursuing her Master’s degree in Human Rights from the University of Nairobi.
Kevin Wanzor (he/him) is the Head of Operations at OutRight Action International, based in New York. Before joining Outright in November 2017, Kevin Wanzor worked in college access and student advocacy, on a team committed to teaching a shift from passive and impersonal communication to active, personal, agency and fluency-focused ways of expression. As Director of Operations/Chief of Staff, as well as a teacher, Kevin worked to support professionals, teams, jobseekers and students to tell better stories and to be their strongest advocates. Previously, he worked in global health PR, researching and assessing social and epidemiological studies related to HIV/AIDS, malaria and other infectious diseases.
Kevin is as comfortable working in the office as he is performing on stage, where he spent his early career. His passion for working with marginalized populations and advocating for equality and parity is matched only by his passion for music and the performing arts. He has collaborated with several organizations to create an acting and singing program for foster care LGBT teens. He is an award-winning lyricist and playwright, and spent a number of years traveling the country as a performer. He is an alumnus of Syracuse University and the prestigious BMI Writing Program.
Meet Bob. Bob is the cofounder of “Unicorns For Humanity” and a proud member of the LGBTQI community. If it were up to him the world would be pink and covered with glitters. He’s very sweet and a huge supporter of OutRight Action International. So much, he even agreed to be their mascot. Some say, he’s the one making marriage equality in Belgium possible by persuading the political leaders with his glitter cookies and pancakes with strawberry jam. Learn about how Bob became our mascot.
