Our Team
The World YWCA office comprises of team members based in Geneva and beyond. The team plays many core functions- is a supporter, a strategist, a catalyst and an advocate for the YWCA movement. All team members can be reached at worldoffice@worldywca.org.
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Casey Harden General Secretary (United States)
General Secretary/CEO (USA)
Casey (she/her) is a testament to the YWCAs mission to create space for young women to be leaders, in all their diversities, working together to contribute to gender equality.
Since January 2019, as the 15th General Secretary of World YWCA, Casey has been driving the realisation of the global YWCA movements’ Goal 2035 – 100 million young women transforming power structures – and tackling exciting operational, governance, and partnership opportunities to ensure the vitality and relevancy of YWCA in the 21st century. She demonstrates commitment to transparency, authenticity and inclusion, and a closely held aspiration for World YWCA to be accountable to the leaders of the YWCA global movement, most especially young leaders.
Casey has worked in the local, regional and national sphere of the USA advocating on and ensuring direct services in response to the issues of sexual and gender-based violence, economic justice, health and wellness, leadership and anti-racism. Casey joined the YWCA movement 24 years ago and through varied executive and leadership positions, has shown how to harness a movement that is rich and wide-reaching in its diversity, toward a common goal for collective impact, including a multi-year transformative process toward the YWCA USA mission of racial justice.
Casey serves on the Board of ACT Alliance, as a co-chair of the Multi-Faith Advisory Council to the UN Interagency Task Force on Religion and Development, on the Board of the Global Youth Mobilization, and as a #ThursdaysinBlack ambassador for the World Council of Churches.
An aspiring astronaut, proud mama of four, and YWCA torchbearer who finds joy in simple things, Casey believes that young women and girls will lead the way in realizing the global goal of leaving no one behind.
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Aïda Rehouma
Director of Operations (Switzerland and Tunisia)
Aïda (she/her) comes with over 10 years of experience working both in profit and non-profit organisations in service of a more equal, fairer, and sustainable and prosperous future.
She joined the World YWCA in 2014 where over the years she has utilized her expertise in strategy and partnership management, general planning and management, and operations and event coordination in multiple roles.
She is passionate about taking impact based work towards helping the World YWCA and the movement achieve the goals envisioned around the empowerment of women, young women and girls. Prior to World YWCA, Aïda has worked for the World Economic Forum in Geneva, non-profit initiatives in North Africa and Switzerland, as well as in the energy sector in Canada. She carries with her dual educational background in Business Administration and International Relations.
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Suchi Gaur (Ph.D.)
Director of Global Engagement and Impact (India)
Suchi (she/her) carries with over 10 years of experience working at the confluence of gender, public health and communications technology in the non-profit, startup, parliamentary and research sectors. She joined the World YWCA in 2018, where she is combining her expertise in behavior change, social marketing and community mobilization into her passion and experience around young women and women`s empowerment.
She currently oversees the World YWCA’s daily engagement, programmatic, mission impact and communications activities.
Passionate about writing around issues of service delivery and access, advocacy on rights-based policies for women and youth engagement comes naturally to her. She loves to volunteer to train youth and women across the world. A researcher by training, she was awarded a gold medal and the prestigious Fulbright scholarship for her doctoral work in participatory community communications.
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Thabani Sibanda
Lead – YW4A Partnership and Initiative (Zimbabwe)
Thabani (she/her) is a strategic partnerships, resource mobilization and grants management professional with 12 years of experience. With specialized expertise in sourcing funding for different thematic areas such as SRHR, HIV and AIDS, MNCH, women and girls empowerment, she joined the World YWCA in 2018.
At World YWCA, she is coordinating and guiding the development of strategic partnerships, mobilizing resources and donor building to enhance the sustainability of the World Office and the movement.
She is keen on linking her expertise in resource mobilization and her commitment to gender equality into generating revenue towards the YWCA Goal 2035 and beyond. She envisions a world where young women have better access to information and reproductive health. She carries with her a MSc. in Strategic Management and in Development Studies.
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Caterina Lemp Bitsacopoulos
Senior Specialist- Movement Building (Chile)
Caterina (she/her), with more than 15 years of experience in the YWCA movement and system both locally and nationally at Chile and globally at the World YWCA office, is a champion of movement building, organisational development, good practices and accountability. She began her life as a young women volunteer and staff in the Valparaiso, Chile YWCA.
Working in World YWCA Office since 2007, she has been supporting member associations and governance work, streamlining her work with the larger goals of gender equality, ensuring women and young women are supported and empowered for sustaining the YWCA movement.
Fluent in Spanish, French and English, Cate has utilized her educational background of journalism to strengthen her linkages with the global member association movement.
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Helen Deslarzes
Senior Specialist- Finance and Operations (Philippines)
Originally from Philippines, Helen (she/her) carries with her over 17 years of experience in finance and accounting. She joined World YWCA in September 2013 working with the finance and operations team. With her expertise in accounting, and her understanding of the development sector, she is working collaboratively around young women`s development and donor management.
Before joining the World YWCA she worked as an accountant for a trust in Geneva providing administrative and related financial management. Thereafter, she moved to a philanthropic office where she developed knowledge in investment accounting and philanthropic activities. She has a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Accountancy from St. Louis University (Philippines).
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Daniela Zelaya Raudales
Project Specialist (Honduras)
Daniela (she/her) joined the World YWCA, from Honduras, as a young intern in 2016. Currently championing initiatives and engagement at the World YWCA, Daniela has worked across communications and programme roles, coordinating peace building and young women empowerment and leadership programmes. Before joining the World YWCA, she was a volunteer and board member at the YWCA of Honduras where she worked as a peer educator for social and gender justice, violence against women and girls, and sexual and reproductive health and rights.
She has over the years linked her passion and ground knowledge around different thematic areas into young women leadership for development. She carries with her a degree in communications and advertising, with a specialty in administration.
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Victoria Genecand
Executive and Operations Associate (Brazil)
Victoria joined the World YWCA in 2018 and currently supports the executive operations.
She applies her experience in a start-up environment to her current role. The causes of stopping Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), human trafficking, and forced child marriage are close to her heart, and she connects deeply with the work of the global YWCA movement.
Victoria has a Bachelor’s degree in Economics. Since moving to Switzerland in 2015, she learned French and now considers the country her new home. She enjoys reading and is a fitness geek and foodie.
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Talisa Avanthay Garcia
Communications Associate (Switzerland and Ecuador)
Talisa (she/her) joined the World YWCA in 2019 with experience of bringing effective communication systems into the development world. Through her work, she has utilised communications in addressing human rights violations in armed conflicts and internal displacements of refugee women in Colombia.
She is keen on enhancing the awareness on effectively utilising communications for better policies for human rights, particularly for less represented communities and minorities.
Passionate about defending freedom of speech and information, gender equality and the fight against early and forced child marriage, she is keen to stand up for the rights of young women and girls.
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Nirmala Gurung
Research and Engagement Associate for Rise Up! Leadership Initiative in Asia-Pacific (Nepal)
Nirmala is a passionate, detail-oriented, grassroots-driven advocate who has been part of World YWCA since 2018 in various capacities. She is a YWCA leader who has showcased the power of investing in young women’s leadership and has also done a lot of work under our ecumenical identity.
Nirmala’s work within the YWCA has its root in the YWCA of Nepal. She specialises in co-designing, implementation, evaluation and youth-led evidence generation. She is a firm believer in the YWCA model of young women’s leadership and has extensively spoken about breaking formal and informal power structures. For many years, she has delivered training for young women through communities and national levels on issues that matter to them- sexual and reproductive health and rights, mental health, gender justice, and more. As a human-rights advocate, Nirmala has been working with youth across Asia for a long time.
Nirmala holds a Master’s degree in Rural Development from Tribhuvan University, Nepal. With her current role as a RESEARCH AND ENGAGEMENT ASSOCIATE, she will guide and support the work under evidence-based storytelling, streamlined communications and coordination, and provide support to manage a technical pool of assistance. Her skills, experiences, understanding and in-depth knowledge of the YWCAs in the region will complement the Global Engagement and Impact team in meeting the objectives of Phase IV of the RiseUp! Leadership initiative in Asia-Pacific. -
Vicki Snoddy
Executive Office and Governance Associate ( Scotland)
Originally from Scotland, Vicki joined the World YWCA in 2022 and is based in Geneva working in the World Office. She joins the team with over 20 years of professional experience in the private and non-profit sector in a variety of roles that have contributed to her having a wide array of skills and competence across administrative and governance functions.
Before joining the World YWCA she worked in the Trade Union movement, championing the improvement of workers’ rights and equality for women.
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Ndulamo Pholi
Finance and Administration Coordinator for the YW4A Initiative
Originally from Zimbabwe, Ndulamo (he/his) is an accomplished and solutions-driven Development Finance Practitioner with over nine years of experience in financial operations management, including financial planning, forecasting, reporting, risk mitigation, compliance, and strategic decision-making. His career history spans social entrepreneurship, development, and corporate sectors, in different finance functions that focused on accountability, continuous process improvement, strategic planning, and execution, as well as financial and thought leadership. He has worked as a Financial Planning and Analysis Manager for the US-based Velocity Global firm; Head of Finance for Shield GEO; Grants Accountant at World Vision International and a Finance and Partnerships Specialist at Lead Us Today Trust, among other mandates.
Ndulamo’s commitment to the pursuit of social development, social justice, and human dignity, leveraging financial and leadership skills to pursue such an ideal, has persistently attracted him to the development sector as evident in him joining the World YWCA team in 2023. Furthermore, Ndulamo believes that gender equality is a prerequisite to any form of development.
Ndulamo holds a Masters Degree in Development Finance from the University of Stellenbosch Business School, and a Bachelor of Commerce Honors Degree in Accounting from the National University of Science and Technology.”
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Veena Singh
Program Coordinator for Rise Up! Leadership Initiative in Asia Pacific (Fiji)
Veena Singh is a Fiji Islander, born and raised in a small rural town in Fiji and is of mixed ethnicity (her mum is an Indigenous Fijian woman and her dad is a Fiji Islander of Indian descent). She is a feminist development practitioner and is a strong advocate of ‘shifting powers to create positive change’ and in ‘building an economy of kindness’. Her work experience has largely been in the areas of Human Rights, Gender Equality and Social Inclusion, and she has more than 18 years of professional experience working specifically in women and children’s rights, Women, Peace and Security (UNSCR 1325), Human Security, Community Development and Community Media.
Veena has worked and volunteered for several Fiji and Regional based NGOs and agencies before joining the World YWCA- The Pacific Community (SPC), Fiji Women’s Rights Movement, FemLINKPacific, Fiji Red Cross and Save the Children (Fiji). Additionally, Veena has worked on a wide range of development areas and issues, including Access to Justice, Conflict Prevention and Peacebuilding, Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR), Women’s Political Participation, Leadership and in Decision Making, and more recently in the area of Gender Statistics. Outside of the office, she likes to work on promoting and protecting the environment; raising awareness on positive mental health and wellbeing; and spending time on writing.
She is a mum to 11 cats, proud wearer of sarees and a collector of postcards. Veena holds a Degree in Community Development with Murdoch University (Australia) and a Postgraduate Diploma in Social Policy with the Fiji National University.
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Bijita Devsharma
Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Specialist for Rise Up! Leadership Initiative in Asia Pacific (India)
Bijita joined the World YWCA in 2022 and is based out of Hyderabad, India where she works closer to the YWCAs of the Asia-Pacific region for the monitoring, evaluation and learning of the Riseup! Leadership Initiative, leading the work on implementation of our feminist MEL framework.
Bijita comes with a decade plus of extensive experience in leading gender transformative evaluation and learning-oriented evaluation approaches such as outcome mapping, development evaluation and utilization-focussed evaluation in designing frameworks that critically examine gender-norms and power-relations while studying impact, capturing shifts in experiences, perceptions, attitudes and transformative change.
Bijita has been trained in facilitating participatory sessions and skill building exercises using tech tools. In her previous roles, she has done a lot of work around SRHR, WASH, and Adolescent & Child Rights, Child Protection and Education. She holds an M.Phil and M.A. in Sociology from University of Delhi, India and has completed many professional certificate courses in feminist and development evaluation approaches.
In her free time, Bijita enjoys baking ambitious and fun cakes along with her two daughters, loves painting folk art forms from India and is a yoga practitioner.
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Victoria Kahla
Victoria Kahla (she/her) joined World YWCA in 2023. She respectuflly acknowledges she lives and works on the traditional lands of the Bunurong people of the Kulin nation (Victoria, Australia). She grew up in a multi-culutral family with a Scottish mother and Lebanese father, both migrants to Australia. She lived in the UK for 10 years working in book publishing, film and TV before joining the international development community.
She is an experienced development professional, with expertise in program management and youth leadership across Africa, Asia, Australia and Pacific Island countries. She is passionate about girls’ and women’s engagement, and specialises in adolescent development, safeguarding, and feminsit participatory practice in program design, implementation, and MEARL (monitoring, evalution, accountability, research and learning). She is deeply committed to making inclusive, safe space and place for girls and women both online and in person. She works in solidarity to decolonise and dismantle attitudes and practices that hold back progress towards justice for all.She has 20 years experience in co-creating face to face and digital programs and advocacy campaigns with young women and adolescent girls’ addressing access to education, economic empowerment, sexual and reproductive health, mental health and wellbeing, digital access and safety, living free from violence, safer public spaces, leadership, political engagement, and climate change.
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Monica Nabil Aziz
Technical Programme Manager in Middle East and North Africa for the YW4A Initiative
Monica joined the World YWCA in April 2023, she is based in Egypt where she is providing close technical support to the implementation of the YW4A initiative in Egypt and in Palestine.
With over 9 years of experience, she has a background in psychology, social work, and working on projects related to women’s rights, child development, and climate change. She is also specialized in designing and implementing MEAL systems and leading programs’ evaluations. Moreover, she worked in case management for Gender-based violence survivors with refugees for three years. In addition to her interest in facilitating trainings and working with partners on mutual goals. Her skills and experiences reflect her rooted dedication to gender equality, feminism, and a life free from violence.
Outside of the office, Monica loves theater and oil painting. She is also an accomplished author, having published a novel on refugees and gender-based violence survivors. She is happily-married to a fellow human-rights advocate, and she is a proud mother of a four-year-old son.
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Dolphine Kwamboka
Technical Programme Manager in Eastern Africa for the YW4A Initiative (Kenya)
With close to 8 years’ experience, Dolphine has a strong passion for anti-gender-based violence (GBV) and disability programming. She is committed to addressing the root causes of violence and promoting human rights. Her vision for change encompasses system transformations, individual growth, and organizational development.
As a specialist in gender equality and social inclusion, she has experience in gender transformative programming, addressing the root causes of inequalities, and economic empowerment of women. She understands gender analysis, empowerment, and evaluation frameworks. In addition to that, she enjoys content simplification and delivery to various audiences on different approaches in the gender sphere.
Dolphine has worked with various projects involving women, girls, youth, and persons with disabilities, working closely with UN Agencies and County governments to ensure sustainability and a multisectoral approach.
Outside the office, she is in the farm looking after her crop or having a quiet day indoors.
Our Board Officers
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Mira Rizeq
President (Palestine)
Ms. Mira RIZEQ was born in East Jerusalem – Palestine. She got her graduate degree in Business Administration in the United States then did her second master’s degree in International Development in the Hague.
Mira is a recognized leader with over 30 years of solid local and international experience in the NGO sector and Municipal Development, especially in areas of strategic planning, good governance, monitoring and evaluations. She is an activist in the area of human rights, and especially women’s rights. She has served on several boards of women institutions and international churches in the USA, and established herself as a passionate public speaker on human rights and justice issues.
She accredits her first development experience Save the Children U.S.A. in Palestine where she started her career by designing credit as well as entrepreneurship development programs specifically for women, to be soon replicated in the Middle East region.
In the early 90’s, Mira worked as Team Leader for the Local and Rural Development Program at the United Nations Development Program in Palestine (UNDP). She succeeded in designing one of the most successful fiscal decentralization and partnership programs between civil society and local governments, who were trained to implement participatory gender-sensitized strategies to empower women as equal partners in local development.
Later, Mira has headed the first Palestine National NGO Project funded by the World Bank and managed by a consortium of international NGO’s headed by Welfare Association. Through this program, she has designed special training manuals for NGO’s especially in areas of strategic planning, fundraising, good governance, monitoring, evaluations and reporting. She has joined a team of professors to deliver NGO management courses in the university of Toledo – Spain, for NGO leaders in the whole of the Middle East while doing her second graduate degree.
Mira has been an active YWCA member since her childhood, and served as the National General Secretary at the YWCA of Palestine from April 2006 to April 2020, until she was elected as President in the 29th World YWCA Council Meeting held in Johannesburg South Africa and reelected at the 30th World YWCA Council.
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Casey Harden
General Secretary/CEO (USA)
Ex-Officio Member
Casey (she/her) is a testament to the YWCAs mission to create space for young women to be leaders, in all their diversities, working together to contribute to gender equality.
Since January 2019, as the 15th General Secretary of World YWCA, Casey has been driving the realisation of the global YWCA movements’ Goal 2035 – 100 million young women transforming power structures – and tackling exciting operational, governance, and partnership opportunities to ensure the vitality and relevancy of YWCA in the 21st century. She demonstrates commitment to transparency, authenticity and inclusion, and a closely held aspiration for World YWCA to be accountable to the leaders of the YWCA global movement, most especially young leaders.
Casey has worked in the local, regional and national sphere of the USA advocating on and ensuring direct services in response to the issues of sexual and gender-based violence, economic justice, health and wellness, leadership and anti-racism. Casey joined the YWCA movement 24 years ago and through varied executive and leadership positions, has shown how to harness a movement that is rich and wide-reaching in its diversity, toward a common goal for collective impact, including a multi-year transformative process toward the YWCA USA mission of racial justice.
Casey serves on the Board of ACT Alliance, as a co-chair of the Multi-Faith Advisory Council to the UN Interagency Task Force on Religion and Development, on the Board of the Global Youth Mobilization, and as a #ThursdaysinBlack ambassador for the World Council of Churches.
An aspiring astronaut, proud mama of four, and YWCA torchbearer who finds joy in simple things, Casey believes that young women and girls will lead the way in realizing the global goal of leaving no one behind.
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Tina Herrera
Treasurer (USA)
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Adriana Sosa
Vice President (Haiti)
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Kateule Valentina Kasonde
Vice President (Zambia)
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Charlotte Muggeridge
Vice President (Aotearoa/New Zealand)
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Margaret Jip Kuo
Vice President (Taiwan)
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Nancy Fabiola Urrutia Zelaya
Vice President (Honduras)
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Yvonne Schüpbach
Vice President (Switzerland)
Our Board Members
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Ashley Albury
Board Member (The Bahamas)
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Amara Killen
Board Member (USA)
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Aldeli Albán Reyna
Board Member (Canada)
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Ann Joseph
Board Member (India)
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Alberdina Hendrika Hengelaar
Board Member (Netherlands)
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Emma Grzechnik Mörk
Board Member (Sweden)
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Emebet Regassa
Board Member (Ethiopia)
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Gloria Maung Maung
Board Member (Myanmar)
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Luisa Kasandra Pedraza Melgar
Board Member (Bolivia)
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Meti Gemechu Edo
Board Member (Ethiopia)
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Renee Mastrolembo
Board Member (Australia)
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Selina Abdallah
Board Member (Palestine)
Nominations Committee
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Ann Joseph
Nomination Member (India)
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Gemo Romero
Nomination Committee Member (Bolivia)
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Magda Barsoum (Bolivia)
Nomination Committee Member (Egypt)
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Olga Gkini
Nomination Committee Member (Greece)
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Queen Zanele Ncube
Nomination Committee Member (Zimbabwe)
You may contact the Nominations Committee at nominationscommittee@worldywca.org.