Meet Our Board

We are a team of passionate and skilled human rights advocates.

Staff Member Display Picture

Maryangel Garcia-Ramos

Executive Director

Maryangel is the Executive Director at Women Enabled International. Maryangel has worked for the past 15 years as a human rights advocate, leader, with a core focus on diversity, inclusion, gender,...

Read Maryangel Garcia-Ramos’s Bio…
Staff Member Display Picture

Catherine Hyde Townsend

Board President

With over twenty years of experience, Catherine Hyde Townsend is a recognized thought leader on disability inclusion and rights with deep knowledge of the connections between disability and gender....

Read Catherine Hyde Townsend’s Bio…
Staff Member Display Picture

Carissa Janis

Treasurer

Carissa Janis has spent her 30-year career working for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) as a Grants Program Manager and Policy Advisor. Carissa is a national leader in the...

Read Carissa Janis’s Bio…
Staff Member Display Picture

Jaime M. Gher

Secretary

Jaime M. Gher is a human rights lawyer specializing in issues of gender, sexuality, and health. Jaime is working as an Independent Consultant and a Fellow in the International Reproductive and Sexu...

Read Jaime M. Gher’s Bio…
Staff Member Display Picture

Fayel Achieng Odeny

Board Member

Fayel Achieng Odeny is a multifaceted woman with psychosocial disability. She is a board member at the Access to Justice Hub and the Advocacy officer at Kenya Association of the Intellectually Hand...

Read Fayel Achieng Odeny’s Bio…
Staff Member Display Picture

Dwi Ariyani

Board Member

Dwi is a disability rights activist and movement builder with over twenty years experience in disability rights and inclusion. She has worked with grassroots, national, regional and international o...

Read Dwi Ariyani’s Bio…
Staff Member Display Picture

Regina Blye

Board Member

Regina Blye serves as the Chief Program and Policy Officer at the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation; Regina is at the forefront of steering the operations of the National Paralysis Resource C...

Read Regina Blye’s Bio…
Staff Member Display Picture

Niluka Gunawardena

Board Member

Niluka Gunawardena is an educator, researcher, and activist based in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Her understanding of disability is informed by her experience of multiple disabilities and intersectionality...

Read Niluka Gunawardena’s Bio…
Staff Member Display Picture

Pratima Gurung

Board Member

Ms. Pratima Gurung is an academic activist from Nepal. She has been remarkable in bridging multiple marginalized identities and initiating cross-movement collaboration with intersectional lenses am...

Read Pratima Gurung’s Bio…
Staff Member Display Picture

Susie Rogers

Board Member

Susannah (Susie) Rogers is a global technical adviser on disability inclusion with extensive experience advising public and private sector organisations around the world. She has worked on internat...

Read Susie Rogers’s Bio…
Staff Member Display Picture

Tariro Tandi

Board Member

Tariro Tandi is a human rights lawyer by profession currently working with Urgent Action Fund Africa as the Head of Partnerships & Development. She is a member of the Women Enabled International Bo...

Read Tariro Tandi’s Bio…
Staff Member Display Picture

Stephanie Ortoleva

Founder and Board Member Emeritus

Founder’s Herstory Stephanie Ortoleva is an accomplished human rights lawyer and prominent feminist leader, scholar and activist, and herself a woman with a disability, who established Women ...

Read Stephanie Ortoleva’s Bio…

Follow the latest

Sharing news about issues and our progress is essential to advancing our reach!

Subscribe to our Newsletter