Executive Board

Françoise Moudouthe, Board co-chair

African Women's Development Fund (AWDF) - CEO/Executive Director

Françoise is a pan-African feminist with roots in Cameroon, Françoise Moudouthe is passionate about advocating for women’s rights and fostering sisterhood within African feminist movements. Before joining the African Women’s Development Fund as CEO, Françoise established Eyala, a bilingual platform that amplifies the voices and lived experiences of African feminists and worked as an international consultant for gender justice in Africa. She also played an instrumental role in incubating Girls Not Brides, the global civil society partnership to end child marriage, and in spearheading its growth in Africa. Françoise is a Board member of the Malala Fund, Womankind Worldwide and WATHI think tank.

Virisila Buadromo, Board co-chair

UAF Asia & Pacific - Co-executive director

Virisila Buadromo is a Pacific feminist and political activist who co-leads the Urgent Virisila Buadromo is a Fijian feminist and co-leads the Urgent Action Fund for Women’s Human Rights Asia and the Pacific. Her role is focused on strategic partnerships and resource mobilisation. Prior to joining UAF AP, Virisila freelanced as a feminist facilitator, trainer and gender advisor in the Pacific and Asia focusing on organisational strengthening and supporting feminist coalitions and movements in the two regions. Virisila’s feminist beginnings were nurtured at the Fiji Women’s Rights Movement, a cutting-edge feminist organisation that she led for more than 13 years.

Kate Kroeger, Secretary

URGENT ACTION FUND FOR WOMEN'S HUMAN RIGHTS - Executive Director

Kate Kroeger joined Urgent Action Fund for Women’s Human Rights as Executive Director in 2012, fulfilling a lifelong dream of pursuing her feminist activism at an organization dedicated to supporting women’s human rights defenders around the world. She became Treasurer of Prospera’s board in 2013. Kate is a seasoned advocate, grantmaker and strategist, bringing two decades of experience with grassroots human rights work and social justice philanthropy to her leadership of UAF. Kate learned about grassroots activism in India, where she was a fellow with the Aga Khan Foundation Canada in rural Rajasthan and later worked in the Tansa Valley of Maharashtra. She then moved to New York City, where she spent twelve years funding human rights and social justice work globally, at NetAid (now part of Mercy Corps) and American Jewish World Service (AJWS), where she oversaw grants to over 450 grassroots organizations in 36 countries. Under her leadership, AJWS deepened its commitment to funding women’s rights activism, including support to young women, LBT women, indigenous women and ethnic and racial minorities. In an earlier incarnation as a policy wonk in the US government, Kate worked in the Department of Health and Human Services, and in the House of Representatives, where she focused on U.S. foreign policy in Asia and the Pacific. Kate has earned degrees from McGill University, the London School of Economics, and New York University, and most recently received her Master’s in International Human Rights Law with Distinction from the University of Oxford. A member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a former fellow at the Aspen Institute, she speaks French and Hindi. She is a proud Canadian, and watches her country closely through rose colo(u)red binoculars, from her perch south of its border.

Nadejda Dermendjieva, Board treasurer

BULGARIAN FUND FOR WOMEN - Executive Director

Nadejda is the Executive Director of the Bulgarian Fund for Women. She holds a Master’s degree in Creative Writing from the Sofia University and in Gender Studies from the University of Nottingham, UK. She has been working in the sphere of human rights for several years focusing on gender equality and elimination of domestic violence. Nadejda graduated a program in social work, holds a specialization from the University of Social Affairs in Berlin and graduated Bulgarian School of Politics. Nadejda is the co-founder of the charity movement “Million women for million goodnesses”, she is the author of the short story collections “Without anesthesia” for survivors of violence.

Carla López

FCAM - FONDO CENTROAMERICANO DE MUJERES - Executive Director

Carla López C. is a Nicaraguan feminist and social worker, with extensive experience in promoting and defending women and young people’s human rights in Central America, with a main focus around movement building and creating/strengthening alliances between grassroots and national organizations, and local and national media and networks. She is a founding member and current executive director of the Fondo Centroamericano de Mujeres (FCAM). Carla served from 2013-2022 as co-chair of the Prospera INWF Board. Carla is part of the advisory committees of Global Fund for Women, FRIDA- the Young Feminist Fund and Urgent Action Fund-Latin America. She also participates in the steering committee of the Mesoamerican Initiative of Women Human Rights Defenders.

Judy Kan

HER FUND - Executive Director

Judy is the executive director of HER Fund and has worked with women’s funds for 13 years. She joined HER Fund as a Programme Officer since 2007, and became Executive Director since 2018. Before she joined HER Fund, she was an organizer to work closely with women and young people in the community. Judy understands the role, opportunities and challenges of national / local women’s funds. She became Co-coordinator of Prospera Asia and the Pacific this year and also joined as the planning group member on behalf of Prospera with PAWHR members, she is one of the founding members of “NGO Taskforce” in Hong Kong to advocate flexible funding in Hong Kong with ten women NGO women leaders in the year 2020.

Joy Chia

Executive Director, Astraea Lesbian Foundation For Justice

Joy L. Chia is the Executive Director of the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice, a public foundation rooted in LGBTQI communities and movements working globally to advance the rights of LGBTQI people and communities. Astraea endeavors to mobilize and distribute resources so as to reach the activists and communities who need them most and who are best positioned to make transformational impact over time. Joy comes to Astraea from the Open Society Foundations (OSF), where she was team manager with the Women’s Rights Program (2018-2021) and the East Asia program officer (2012-2018).

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