IHRFG’s Steering Committee, made up of volunteers from among IHRFG membership, provides guidance on all IHRFG programs and initiatives:

Ana Valéria Araújo
Executive Director
Brazil Human Rights Fund

Ana Valéria, a Brazilian attorney, is the founding Executive Director of the Brazil Human Rights Fund, a position she has held since 2006. Prior to this, Ana served as the Executive Director of the Rainforest Foundation where she developed advocacy, policy and educational strategies to promote the rights of Indigenous peoples in Latin American countries. Ana  began her career in Washington, D.C., as a human rights intern at the Indian Law Resource Center before she returned to Brazil in 1989 to work for the Nucleus for Indigenous Rights (NDI), the first Brazilian NGO to bring cases on behalf of Indigenous peoples to the country’s Federal Courts. Ana Valéria graduated from the University of Rio de Janeiro State in 1984 and received her Master’s in International Legal Studies from the Washington College Law at American University in 1987.

Nikhil Aziz
Executive Director
Grassroots International

Nikhil Aziz has been Executive Director of Grassroots International since 2005. Before joining Grassroots, Nikhil was Associate Director at Political Research Associates. Nikhil previously taught human rights and international development in Colorado and Illinois. As a progressive, immigrant, gay man of color, Nikhil has built collaborations with activist and advocacy organizations nationwide and continues to speak, teach and write on human rights, international development and social change. He has served on the Boards of Africa Today Associates, Resist, Massachusetts Asians & Pacific Islanders for Health, and MASALA; and also currently serves on the steering committee of the convening committee of the Funders Network on Transforming the Global Economy (formerly on Trade and Globalization). Nikhil received his MA in International Relations from Claremont Graduate University and his PhD in International Studies from the University of Denver with a focus on human rights.

Lesley Carson
Program Officer/Philanthropic Advisor for International Human Rights
Wellspring Advisors, LLC

Lesley Carson is a Program Officer/Philanthropic Advisor for the International Human Rights Program of Wellspring Advisors, LLC. Prior to joining Wellspring, Lesley was an independent consultant working with human rights groups including Human Rights First, the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team, the Columbia University Center for the Study of Human Rights, and the Center for Economic and Social Rights. For six years, she served as founding director of Forefront, a training and advocacy network of frontline human rights defenders in thirty countries. She also spent time in Washington, working for Senator Patrick Leahy on the Foreign Operations Subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee and lobbying for Amnesty International-USA. Lesley specialized in Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs while earning a Master of International Affairs at Columbia, and has a BA from Harvard.

Michael Hirschhorn
President
Jacob and Hilda Blaustein Foundation
and Executive Director, International Human Rights Funders Group

Prior to directing IHRFG, Michael was Executive Director of the Coro New York Leadership Center from 2003-2008. Earlier, from 1995-2001, he served as Executive Director of the Literacy Assistance Center in New York City. He was an Assistant to the Chancellor of the NYC Public Schools and a Visiting Non-Profit Executive at Yale’s School of Management. Michael serves as President of the trustees of the Jacob and Hilda Blaustein Foundation, and also serves on the boards of several rights-related and educational non-profit organizations. Michael received his BA from Yale University in 1981 and his MBA & MSW from Columbia University in 1989. He has served on IHRFG’s steering committee since 2002.

James Logan
Programme Officer, International Human Rights Programme
Oak Foundation
 
James Logan joined the Oak Foundation in January 2009.  He focusses on the areas of ending impunity, promoting new technologies for human rights activists, and combatting abuses arising during counter-terrorism operations in the UK and Europe.  Prior to Oak, James was a Turkey specialist at Amnesty International's International Secretariat. There he conducted research and led campaigns to prevent torture and other gross abuses and hold those responsible to account, as well as on a range of other issues including policing reform and the protection of human rights defenders.  He has also worked as an external advisor to companies, conducting impact assessments and developing management systems related to human rights issues. A Turkish speaker, James has lived in London, Moscow, Oslo, Istanbul and Washington DC. He holds an LLM in Public International Law with Distinction from the University of London and a first degree in Turkish and Arabic from Oxford University.

Emily Martinez
Director, Rights Initiatives Program
Open Society Foundations

Emily Martinez is the Director of Special Initiatives at the Open Society Foundations. She currently oversees four global funding efforts on access to information, criminal justice, disability rights, and LGBTI rights. Emily has been with OSF since 1995. Before moving to Washington, D.C., she was Director of OSI’s Budapest-based Human Rights and Governance Grants Program, where she helped to promote the development of human rights and accountability groups in Eastern and Central Europe and the former Soviet Union. As the founding Director of that program, Emily developed expertise in a broad range of fundamental human rights issues in that region, as well as civil society’s role in promoting rule of law and accountable governance. Emily graduated from Georgetown University with a BS in International Affairs and Developmental Economics. She also holds an MA in Human Rights from the University of Essex.

Kica Matos
Programme Executive and Head, U.S. Reconciliation & Human Rights Programme
The Atlantic Philanthropies

Kica focuses on national security and human rights within the foundation's grant portfolio. Kica has extensive experience as an advocate, community organizer and lawyer in the civil and human rights fields.  Before joining Atlantic, Kica served as Deputy Mayor for the City of New Haven, Connecticut, where she oversaw all of the city’s community programmes and services and launched a number of initiatives that included prisoner re-entry, youth and immigration integration. Ms. Matos was previously the Executive Director of JUNTA for Progressive Action, New Haven’s oldest Latino community-based organisation. She also has worked as a federal defender for death sentenced inmates and with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and Amnesty International on death penalty and criminal justice issues.

Diana Samarasan
Director
Disability Rights Fund

Diana has over fifteen years of experience in disability, international health and human rights. In her previous position, Diana directed the Mental Disability Advocacy Center in Budapest, Hungary, a legal advocacy organization which litigates abuses of rights of persons with mental disabilities in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Previous to this position, she worked with the American Refugee Committee and Doctors of the World, addressing issues such as access of vulnerable populations to reproductive health services, tuberculosis control, and deinstitutionalization. Diana has advanced degrees in Public Administration and Psychology, and is a Board member of the United States International Council on Disability and on the Steering Committee of New England International Donors.