Our Staff

The Fund for Global Human Rights has a multi-ethnic professional staff of fourteen:

Regan E. Ralph, Executive Director

Regan E. Ralph is the founding executive director of the Fund for Global Human Rights. Prior to launching the Fund, Regan was Vice President for Health and Reproductive Rights at the National Women’s Law Center in Washington, D.C. where she led advocacy, policy, and educational strategies to promote the quality and availability of health care for American women. From 1992-2001, Regan helped build and ultimately directed the Women’s Rights division of Human Rights Watch, where she developed campaigns to ensure the prosecution of sexual violence in conflict as a war crime, to secure recognition of gender-based persecution as grounds for asylum, and to promote women’s rights in countries including Russia, Egypt, Turkey, South Africa, Pakistan, and Mexico. Regan is a graduate of Harvard University and Yale Law School, and studied international law at the London School of Economics and Arabic at the American University in Cairo. She serves on the boards of EG Justice and WITNESS, the advisory council of the Women’s Law and Public Policy Fellowship Program at Georgetown University Law Center, the advisory committee of The Council for Global Equality, and the global practitioner council at Stanford University’s Program on Social Entrepreneurship.

Talia Bilodeau, Director of Strategy and Development
Talia joined the Fund for Global Human Rights in July 2007 as its first New York-based staff person.  She develops and implements strategies for growth of the Fund, and oversees fundraising efforts.  Prior to joining the Fund, Talia served as Vice President for Development at the National Women's Law Center where she led efforts to raise over $7 million in operating support a year and oversaw a $15 million endowment campaign.  Previously, Talia worked as a labor and employment lawyer in Miami and in New York City.  Talia earned a B.A. in English with a minor in Women's Studies from Boston University, and a J.D. from George Washington University Law School.

Jerusha Burnham, Grants Administrator and Program Officer

Jerusha Burnham first joined the Fund in August 2006 as its grants administrator and now also manages the Uganda program. Prior to joining the Fund, Jerusha worked as a linguist and project manager for a speech recognition technology company based in California, and interned at the U.S. Department of State. Jerusha received her BA in language studies from UC Santa Cruz and received her master’s degree in international politics and human rights from the American University.  Jerusha was born and raised in Mexico until the age of eleven, when she and her family moved to the United States. Jerusha is a native speaker of both Spanish and English and is fluent in French and German. In her master’s studies, Jerusha’s research focus was on human rights in Latin America, specifically on indigenous rights in Mexico. Jerusha also has a personal interest in East Africa/Great Lakes region.

Josh Hayes, Grants Administrator / Executive Assistant

Josh joined the Fund in October 2009. He has a B.A. in History, French, and International Studies from Loyola University Chicago. After graduation, he spent a year teaching English in Japan and then completed an M.A. at New York University’s Institute of French Studies. Josh interned at the Quebec Delegation of Chicago and the United Nations, where he worked with the NGO section on the 61st Annual DPI/NGO Conference: Reaffirming Human Rights for All: The Universal Declaration at 60. He has a particular interest in migration, which led to the publication of an article on Maltese migration to French North Africa in the Journal of Maltese History. Besides speaking French, Josh has retained a small portion of the Japanese he picked up while working overseas and looks forward to learning another language in the near future.

Kaylyn Kvochak, Development Officer
Kaylyn Kvochak joined the Fund in August 2008 and serves as the Fund’s Development Officer. Kaylyn is a graduate of the University of Georgia, where she simultaneously pursued a BA in International Affairs and a master’s degree in Public Administration, with a specialization in nonprofit organizations. Kaylyn was an intern at the U.S. Department of State’s Embassy in Belgrade, Serbia, where she worked on issues related to the refugee and IDP return process in Kosovo. Prior to joining the Fund, Kaylyn spent a year living and working in Paris, France. She is fluent in French and has a personal interest in women's rights.

Michelle Leisure, Director of External Relations

Michelle has more than fifteen years of experience in non-profit management including marketing and communications; fundraising and outreach; and events and operations. As the Senior Director of Marketing at Human Rights Watch, Michelle repositioned the organization in preparation for its 30th anniversary and built a strategic marketing team from the ground up.  She has helped build an international support base for HRW through programs and events that now operate in eleven countries. During her career, she has collaborated with close to 100 human rights defenders to promote their work and enlist supporters in the cause of human rights. Michelle has a BFA from Ohio University and lives in New York City.

David Mattingly, Director of Programs
As Director of Programs for the Fund for Global Human Rights, David is responsible for oversight, coordination and integration of human rights grant-making in sixteen countries around the world.  Prior to becoming the Fund's Program Director, David developed and managed the Fund’s programs in Latin America as well as its grant-making on LGBT rights.  David has more than 10 years of experience fundraising for and grant-making to human rights and social justice organizations in the U.S. and Latin America.  After earning a BA in International Development from American University, David monitored the human rights situation in indigenous communities in Chiapas, Mexico.  Prior to joining the Fund, David worked at the Moriah Fund, where he helped manage grant-making programs on indigenous rights in Guatemala, sustainable development and women’s rights and reproductive health. David is fluent in Spanish.

Chloée Ponchelet, Program Officer for North Africa
Chloée joined the Fund full-time in February 2006 as its Program Officer for the Maghreb and the African Great Lakes regions; she had previously worked on these regional programs for two years on a consulting basis. Before joining the Fund, Chloée worked for Medical Care Development International in Washington, DC, promoting access of marginalized groups to health care. Prior to that she worked in Paris for Agir Ici, where she organized advocacy campaigns to promote fair North-South relations.  Chloée earned a BA in International Relations at the Institute of Political Science in Aix-en Provence, France, an MA in Political Science and African Studies from the Institute of Political Science in Bordeaux, and an MA in International Development from the Panthéon-Sorbonne University of Paris. Chloée is a native of France and has a high interest in the use of advocacy techniques in the promotion of human rights.

Kathryn Sommers, Director of Operations
Kathryn Sommers joined the Fund in May 2007.  She manages and coordinates all administrative functions of the office and assists the Executive Director in managing the structure and operations of the organization.  She has over ten years of experience in the non-profit sector ranging from direct service and program management to fundraising, operations and financial management.  She has a BA in History with Minors in Religion and Philosophy and TESOL.  Prior to joining the Fund, Kathryn worked in the adult education and literacy field where she worked directly with many refugees and immigrants from countries all over the world.  She has spent time traveling and studying in Côte d’Ivoire and has a long-term personal interest in West Africa.

Tony Tate, Program Officer for Sub-Saharan Africa

Tony Tate began working with the Fund as the program officer for Sub-Saharan Africa in October 2010.  He oversees the Fund’s grant making programs in West Africa and the African Great Lakes.  Before joining the Fund, Tony was a program officer at Unbound Philanthropy, responsible for the development of the organization’s international programs.  Prior to his work at Unbound Philanthropy, Tony worked for seven years as a researcher at Human Rights Watch, first as their in-country researcher in Burundi, later as the Africa researcher in the Children’s Rights Division.  At Human Rights Watch, he investigated and published reports on human rights violations in numerous countries in central, eastern and southern Africa.  In the 1990s, Tony worked as a case manager at the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Comoros Islands.  He has a J.D. from the City University of New York School of Law, an M.A. in international affairs and African studies from Columbia University, and a B.A. from the George Washington University.  Tony is a member of the advisory committee of the Children’s Rights Division of Human Rights Watch and the Board of Visitors of CUNY School of Law. He is fluent in French and conversant in Swahili.

Sarah Yarger, Operations Associate
Sarah joined the Fund in 2012. She works closely with the Director of Operations assisting with various office systems from accounting to information technology. She has a B.A. in Political Science with a minor in French from Elizabethtown College. During college, Sarah completed a semester at American University which included travel to South Africa to study international environment and development. While in DC, she interned with the International Foundation for Electoral Systems, a non-profit dedicated to the support of democratic elections worldwide. Prior to joining the Fund, Sarah worked as an Assistant Township Manager in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania where she oversaw operations of the township, sewer authority and water authority, and served as Secretary/Treasurer for the township.