Board of Directors

Board Chair
Penelope D. Foley
Group Managing Director, The TCW Group, Inc.

Directors
Jeni Abramson
Managing Director, The Jocelyn Group

Josh Barer
Managing Director, Sunflower Life Sciences

Thomas C. Barry
Founder and CEO, Zephyr Management, L.P.

Bill Best
Managing Director, Institutional Sales & Investor Relations, VanEck

Joyce Chang
Global Head of Research, JP Morgan Securities, LLC

Frank DeGiovanni
Retired Director, Financial Assets Unit, Ford Foundation

Kathleen A. Donovan
Vice President, Human Resources, North Shore-LIJ Ambulatory Services HR

Elizabeth M. Forget
Managing Director, J.P. Morgan Asset Management

Nicholas Gabriel
President, Greentree Foundation

Antoinette R. Geyelin
President, Klein Family Foundation

Susan Leader
Managing Director (Retired), Trust Company of the West

Mark Littman
Director and CEO, Northern Lights / Bodega

Reshmi Paul
Leadership Advisor, ghSMART & Company, Inc.

David H. Russell
Investor

Barbara A. Schatz
Clinical Professor of Law, Columbia Law School

Rangu Salgame
Chairman and CEO, Princeton Growth Ventures

Benjamin Segal
Managing Director-Portfolio Manager, International Equities, Neuberger Berman

Sapna Srivastava
Chief Financial and Strategy Officer, Abide Therapeutics

Donald Steinberg
Senior Fellow for Diversity and Inclusion, InterAction

Linda Strumpf
Chair, Investment Committee (Retired), The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust and Chief Investment Officer (Retired), Ford Foundation

Trickle Up extends our special thanks to Thomas C. Barry, who retired from our board after 13 years of dedication, wise counsel, and support.

Advisory Council

Robert Berg
Senior Advisor, World Federation of United Nations Associations | Former Trickle Up Board Member

Hernando de Soto
Founder and President, Institute for Liberty & Democracy, Peru | Author, The Mystery of Capital

Christopher Dunford, PhD
Former President, Freedom from Hunger

Heather Grady
Senior Fellow, Global Philanthropy, Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors

Mary Ellen Iskenderian
President and CEO, Women’s World Banking

Elizabeth Littlefield
Senior Counselor, Albright Stonebridge Group

Jonathan Morduch
Professor of Public Policy and Economics, Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, New York University

Kavita N. Ramdas
Feminist, Human Rights Activist and Philanthropic Advisor

Kim Wilson
Lecturer, The Fletcher School, Tufts University

Our partners and staff join forces with policy makers and allies to understand the barriers that hold people back and break through them.

Trickle Up Staff

William Abrams
President
New York

Zahra Alzubaidi
Interim Office Manager
New York

Anaïs Angoulvant
Program Officer
New York

Héctor Aragón
Administration and Finance Officer
Cobán

Kingsly Atem
Program Director
Ouagadougou

Pauline Awelo
Senior Gender Officer
Kamwenge

Bienzi Bénédicte Bama/Toé
Communications Officer
Ouagadougou

Paul Bandré
Program Director
Ouagadougou

César Iván Juárez Barrientos
Field Coordinator
Cobán

Beatrice Batako Traore
Office Assistant
Ouagadougou

Alexi Bernagros
Director of Technical Assistance
Washington, D.C.

Florie Bielsa
Monitoring and Evaluation Coordinator
Cobán

Nawab Biswas
Administrative Assistant
Kolkata

Sibiri Bonkoungou
Program Manager
Ouagadougou

Franceline Caboré
Financial and Administrative Officer
Ouagadougou

Mike Castlen
Vice President, Planning and Operations
New York

Arpita Chatterjee
Manager – Monitoring & Evaluation
Kolkata

Nilanjan Chaudhuri
Manager – Monitoring & Evaluation
Kolkata

Kaila Clarke
Training Specialist, Refugee Affairs
Washington, D.C.

Jorge Coy
Regional Representative, Americas
Cobán

Dr. Ashish Das
State Programme Officer – Jharkhand
Kolkata

Manash Ranjan Das
State Programme Officer – Odisha
Kolkata

Sudip Das
Associate – Accounts & Administration
Kolkata

Trishikh Dasgupta
Project Officer – Communication
Kolkata

Robert Dikua
Senior Refugee and Livelihoods Advisor
Kamwenge

Lovemore Dumba
Livelihoods Specialist, Seconded to UNHCR
Solwezi

Sandip Dutta
Program Director
Kolkata

Lori Fried
Program Manager
New York

Bhaswati Ganguly
Associate – Accounts and Administration
Kolkata

Katty Garcia
Accountant
New York

Sahana Ghosh
Project Officer
Kolkata

Shoshana Hecker
Senior Director of Refugee Affairs
Washington, D.C.

Barbara Jackson
Vice President, Program Operations
New York

Kakoma Kakoma
Livelihoods Specialist, Seconded to UNHCR
Damak

Michael Karam
Communications Associate
New York

Elie Kogo
Program Assistant
Ouagadougou

Shanti Kumar
Program Quality and Development Associate
New York

Rose Lankoande
Accountant
Ouagadougou

Jorge Mario Leonardo Mendoza
Administrative Officer
Cobán

Stephanie Lucas
Knowledge Management Specialist, Refugee Affairs
New York

Debdas Majumder
Finance and Administrative Officer
Kolkata

Yéréfolo Mallé
Regional Representative, West Africa
Ouagadougou

Tyler McClelland
Director of Communications
New York

Rubén Alfredo Merida Gomez
System Administrator
Cobán

Chandan Kumar Mishra
Program Officer
Kolkata

Rachel Nanema
Program Manager
Ouagadougo

Babajide Ojo-Carons
Controller (Kiwi Partners)
New York

Krishnan Raghavan
Regional Livelihoods Officer, Seconded to UNHCR
Tunis

Dave Rivera
Donor Records Coordinator
New York

Andrew Rizzardi
Communications Officer
New York

Wilson Rwamugabo
Gender Officer
Kamwenge

Jo Sanson
Director of Monitoring, Evaluation, and Research
New York

Jaya Sarkar
Vice President, Program Quality & Innovation
New York

Fabio Siani
Regional Livelihoods Officer, Seconded to UNHCR
San José

Biesse Soura
Senior Monitoring & Evaluation Officer
New York

Elena Szajewski
Development Officer
New York

Swan Suseno
Director of Financial Planning and Analysis
New York

Efraín Tecú
Program Director
Cobán

Berna Twanza
Senior Gender Advisor
Kamwenge

Sushant Verma
Asia Regional Director
Kolkata

Juan Carlos Villatoro
Communications Officer
Cobán

Asaba John Vicent
Gender Officer
Kamwenge

Caroline Werner
Program Operations Advisor
New York

Rose Wilder
Program Manager
New York

Daynelle Williams-Edmonds
Office Manager
New York

Rhonda Zapatka
Vice President, Development
New York

Explore how your support is making an impact globally

"I've been very happy with my original seven colonies. Now I want to grow, and have even more."

Participant Story

Wilma Teresa Chi Santiago

Wilma Santiago and her family struggled to make ends meet. She was unable to pay for her son’s medical expenses and maintain their home and food security. As a part of the Maya Yucateco indigenous group, Wilma and her community have faced discrimination, illiteracy, and barriers to education for generations. Through financial help from Trickle Up, entrepreneurial coaching, and support from the members of her savings group, Wilma drastically changed her family’s future.

After developing a plan with the help of her coach, Wilma used her $774 in seed capital to buy supplies like protective gear, beehive boxes, and smoke canisters. With her seven colonies, she has created a new honey business, Miel Cisteil, which makes her enough money to live without insecurity.

Today, Wilma proudly serves her family three meals a day. She sees the livelihood training she received from her coach as critical to her new business’ success: “I have learned so much about beekeeping. When to feed them, how to keep away the ants that try to eat the hives. I learned how to chase the bees away with smoke, and how to open the hives.”

“I've been very happy with my original seven colonies. Now I want to grow, and have even more,” Wilma says.

Wilma and the other women in her savings group also learned valuable skills like financial planning, saving, and accessing credit. The savings group helps Wilma build a social support system with other indigenous women living in extreme poverty, who often face social exclusion, racism, and a lack of access to basic services.

With her new income and savings totaling $3,321 so far, she has quadrupled her initial investment in just two years. Now Wilma can afford her son’s medical bills, whereas previously her family could not afford healthcare.

In partnership with Ko’ox Taani, a local Mexican NGO who wanted to implement Trickle Up’s Graduation Approach with indigenous families in the Yucat we are able to reach more people than ever. Our pilot project together supported 200 indigenous families living in extreme poverty. Today, we’ve expanded our partnership to reach 3,000 indigenous families in Chiapas and Yucatán, Mexico, with a focus on women and youth.

Wilma continues to be an advocate for mothers like herself who have big dreams for the future of their family. She is an inspiration to her savings group members, her coaches, and to us.

“This is such a big opportunity,” says Wilma. “I will not waste it.”

See Wilma tell her story