Staff

Executive Director

An experienced community organizer, Sandy’s life and work reflect the rare capacity to bridge the divide between grassroots realities and global policies, between academic and activist, and between values and practice. Sandy is the Strategic Director of the Huairou Commission and Global Facilitator of GROOTS International, a global network of grassroots women’s organizations. For over 20 years, Sandy has worked to enable grassroots women’s groups to replicate and mainstream their community development approaches and governance interventions. Her work with GROOTS International and the National Congress of Neighborhood Women has supported peer-to-peer learning exchanges and local, national, regional and global advocacy for grassroots women.

Director of Programs

Glenn Dolcemascolo assumed the key position of Director of Programs and brings twenty years of experience working on issues such as community-led development, environment and climate change. Glenn’s nine years with UNISDR, the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, spanned the critical period in which the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, the Paris Climate Change Agreement and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development were negotiated and adopted. A founding member of the Global Community Practitioner’s Platform Advisory Board, he has collaborated with the Huairou Commission over the past seven years and has a deep understanding of our work and organization. Glenn’s skills run the gamut from strategic guidance and high-level advocacy to managing a global education and training institute. Glenn has particular interest in partnerships-building and stakeholder engagement. As newly appointed Director of Programs, Glenn leads the strategic development and implementation of global programs and advocacy.

Office and Administrative Manager

Juanita Orengo-Rodriguez has been a community activist in Brooklyn for 36 years. She is a member of the National Congress of Neighborhood Women (NCNW) (Board Member), the Neighborhood Women of Williamsburg-Greenpoint (NWWG) (Board Member), GROOTS International, and the Huairou Commission. As a community organizer, she has worked to better the school systems in her community through collective action including the Eastern District High School Boycott and serving as Principal and Executive Director of the You Can Community School for 10 years. She has received many awards from city council members and other government officials for her dedication to improving the public-school system in New York City. Juanita graduated from the National Congress of Neighborhood Women College Program through Long Island University and received an AA in Social Work, BA in Education, and MA in Public Administration. She also has a degree in Fashion Design from Manhattan 7th Ave and was trained as a hair stylist in Puerto Rico- two passions she continues today. She is currently the Office and Administrative Manager of NCNW, NWWG, GROOTS and Huairou Commission, where her work is informed by her passion to encourage and support young women to be leaders in their communities. This dining room at the Neighborhood Women Living and Learning Center honors grassroots woman activist Juanita Orengo-Rodriguez for her passion and dedication for more than three decades to the welfare of grassroots women and youth in Williamsbourg-Greenpoint.

Member Engagement Coordinator

Molly is a masters graduate from the New School’s program in international affairs in with focused on development, gender equality and feminist economics. Molly is a returned Peace Corps Thailand community development volunteer (2015-2017) and has previously worked as a direct service provider for people living with developmental disabilities. Her particular interests involve care work, capacity building, access and inequality, and measurements of poverty and wellbeing. At Huairou, Molly supports the governing council & member committees as well as the implementation of member led initiatives.

Project and Grant Manager

A native of Iowa, Nicolle has spent the past 30 years of her career as an educator, activist, researcher, and worked as an administrator specializing in community and organizational development and capacity building with nonprofits based in New York City, Washington D.C., Florida, as well as globally in Mexico, Europe, Africa, and Asia. Nicolle first joined the Huairou Commission when she was studying at The New School in 2000 and in 2019 came back on board as Project and Grant Manager. While working with Huairou, she has helped organize and document peer exchanges at the United Nations and in Germany and provides ongoing support for grassroots members as they build partnerships and improve the living conditions and quality of life of women and their families. Nicolle holds a Master’s degree in International Affairs, focusing on the economic and political development from Columbia University, a Master’s in Educational Leadership, and a Bachelor’s degree in International Studies with concentration in international community development. She qualified for a Master’s in Public and Urban Policy at The New School while working towards her doctorate. Nicolle was a Fulbright Scholar in The Republic of Namibia.

Programs Officer

Shorai Chitongo is a grassroots community leader from Zimbabwe with vast knowledge, experience and skills in community organizing, advocacy, leadership training and working directly with communities. In 2005 she founded the Ray of Hope Zimbabwe (now the Survivors in Action Zimbabwe) which was the first community-based network of women survivors of domestic violence and sexual abuse. Her organization was part of the team that successfully campaigned for the enactment of the national Domestic Violence Law in 2007. In 2010 Shorai initiated and coordinated the Zimbabwe Home Based Care Alliance and with the continued support from the Huairou Commission went on to organize the first-ever National Caregivers Summit in 2013. In 2008 Shorai received The Women’s World Summit Foundation Award For creativity in Rural Life in recognition of her contributions in addressing eradication of poverty, while promoting gender mainstreaming and women empowerment in Mutasa District, Zimbabwe. She is currently working at the HC Global office in New York.

Advisor on Leadership Sustainability and Collaborative Planning 

Ana joined Huairou Commission in 2015 and fell in love with the organization and its members. She worked to strengthen internal member engagement through on-going communications and by helping to implement governance reforms that position members at the center of decision-making. She worked to support Huairou’s policy and advocacy, working to strengthen grassroots women’s voices in the UN DRR, UN DESA, and UN Habitat contexts. After deciding to leave New York and go back to Lithuania to further pursue her education, Ana shifted her role with Huairou Commission, Ana is currently a part-time advisor on leadership sustainability. In this capacity, she works with members to further strengthen bottom-up and collaborative planning processes and to consolidate a systemic approach to nurturing grassroots women’s leadership.

Regional Coordinator – Asia

Lilian Llegunas Pimentel is a long-time trainer of community organizers starting with Philippine Ecumenical Council for Community Organizing in the 70s, and later on with the Community Organizers Multiversity from the mid-90s to 2005. As a CO practitioner, Lilian took the challenge of mainstreaming women empowerment and gender equality in community organizing. She authored a hand book on the topic, “Mainstreaming Gender in Community Organizing” in 2006 on the occasion of the World Urban Forum held in Vancouver that year. Lilian joined the Filipino government in 2013 and served as the Program Manager of the Bottom-Up Budgeting Program under the Department of Interior and Local Government. She coordinated the national Filipino program where grassroots organizations, mostly women led, participated in choosing and prioritizing community initiatives for budget allocation. Prior to joining Huairou Commission, Lilian was the National Training Specialist of Kalahi-Cidds National Community Driven Development Program as well as the Department of Social Work Development, another government program promoting people’s participation in responding to communities priority issues. Lilian hopes to contribute to the Hurairou Commission’s work by partaking in the strengthening of grassroots women’s leadership in bottom-up community development, reinforcing grassroots women-led constituencies and networks and creating opportunities for women to influence Public policies and processes.

Regional Coordinator – Africa & Global Land Specialist

A development economist by training, Mino is a rural development expert and activist from Madagascar. Prior to joining Huairou as Africa Regional Coordinator, she spent nine years working for national and civil society organizations as well as an international coalition. Mino draws from deep experience on issues as varied as microfinance, education, rural development and land, also with a national and regional advocacy focus. She has facilitated gender projects as Africa Regional Coordinator for the International Land Coalition, served as a national expert for UNESCO and other agencies, undertaken an independent consultancy with FAO to translate the Voluntary Guidelines on the Governance of Tenure into Malagasy, and has additionally supported the Malagasy Rural Women Federation (FVTM) in Madagascar. Mino is fluent in English and French, and is based out of Madagascar.

Senior Program Administrator & Strategist

For 20 years, Sri has worked in the fields of human settlements, gender equality and new information technologies, and was formally trained in economics, political science and public administration. In 2012, she became the first CEO of Penang Women’s Development Corporation, established to engender public and private sector policies and programs, and work towards gender and social justice. Prior to joining PWDC, Sri served as a Senior Fellow for Program Coordination and Development at Huairou. She was also the Program Manager of the United Nations Women’s Development Fund, now known as UN Women, in Aceh, Indonesia, leading an initiative that promoted women’s legal rights during reconstruction after the 2004 tsunami and the signing of the Peace Agreement. She served as Program Officer for the Urban Governance Initiative (TUGI), where she facilitated the introduction of the Good Governance Report Card on Gender and Governance, as well as the Local-to-Local Dialogue that led to the inclusion of poor urban women and their communities in local governance processes. From 1993 to 1998, Sri was Program Officer at two United Nations Development Program regional projects and the Urban Management Program for Asia and the Pacific. Sri is currently a member of the Advisory Group on Gender Issues of UN-Habitat and of the UNDP’s Local Governance and Local Development global working group.

Advisor on Community Resilience

Suranjana Gupta is a part-time, India-based Advisor on Community Resilience. From 2002 to 2015 she worked full time with GROOTS International and Huairou Commission, dividing her time between Mumbai and New York. Suranjana has closely involved in the development of Huairou’s Community Resilience Fund and Community Practitioners Platform. Over the years, Suranjana has worked on a wide variety of areas with Huairou, including policy advocacy, fund-raising, strategic planning, facilitating learning exchanges and documenting grassroots women’s accomplishments. Prior to working with Huairou, Suranjana worked for five years for Swayam Shikshan Prayog in India. She was also adjunct faculty at the New School University’s Graduate Program for International Affairs from 2002-2004. She has an M.Sc. in Development Studies from the London School of Economics and an M.A. in Sociology from the University of Mumbai.

Regional Coordinator – Latin America

Veronica has more than 15 years of experience working on projects that promote the defense of women’s human rights. She has designed and participated in training processes for the empowerment and development of rural women, especially in the areas of ​​gender issues and food security. Veronica has coordinated social research teams with a gender focus and has integrated multidisciplinary teams for the study and attention of risks and disasters, food insecurity, and migration in the Central American region. She believes that it is the strength of the community that produces social change; therefore her main commitment is to contribute to the creation of a global civil society, based on the principles of equal opportunities. She supports the idea that the right to food, education, and development must be considered as fundamental human rights of all people. Veronica identifies herself as an eco-feminist and pacifist. She thinks that human development is possible if people, especially women and girls, have the same opportunities, that they are safe in their homes, have sufficient livelihoods, and that their natural environments are protected. With that thought, she sees a great opportunity to contribute to creating a better world working for the Huairou Commission.

Learning and Knowledge Management Specialist

Anwesha holds a Master’s degree in Social Work from Christ University, Bangalore and has over eight years of experience working with diverse and marginalised groups such as women, girls, farmers, youth and indigenous peoples in the areas of food security and climate resilient agriculture, skills and entrepreneurship development, and gender empowerment. Prior to joining the Huairou Commission, Anwesha was leading the Women-led Climate Resilient Farming program while working with Swayam Shikshan Prayog, India. Her main contribution has been to link women-led local actions to resolving global challenges of climate induced crises, such as food insecurity, loss of livelihoods, water scarcity and land degradation through program design, creating learning and impact measurement frameworks, action research and advocacy and partnership building. As a Learning and Knowledge Management Specialist, Anwesha provides support to organise grassroots learning and to co-create evidence-base for informed decision making.