U.S. TEAM
SOHINI BHATTACHARYA
President & CEO
Sohini became Breakthrough’s second President and CEO in July 2017. She brings to her new role not only deep knowledge of Breakthrough’s issue areas and fundraising landscape, but also sincere dedication to the organization, its unique impact, and its boundless potential. She has worked with Breakthrough since 2010, most recently as Vice President of Resource Mobilization. She has developed an impressive portfolio of support for Breakthrough’s programs and has managed our wide range of partnerships across South Asia.
Sohini has worked in the development sector for more than twenty-five years. She worked with Ashoka Innovators for the Public to raise awareness on social entrepreneurship across India and ramp up its operations in the country, co-founded the Sanhita Gender Resource Centre—the first of its kind in Calcutta—and engaged with traditional craftspeople across India as program officer of Dastkar. Sohini also worked as the India strategy advisory for the Asian Venture Philanthropy Network in 2010.
Sohini is a board member of Dastkar, Jeevika Development Society, which supports women’s empowerment through financial access and control, and of Kolkata Sanved, which uses dance movement for recovery from trauma and violence. She is also a trustee of Read India, an organisation that sets up self-sustaining community libraries across the country and a director on the board of Aakar Social Ventures, an organisation focusing on awareness on menstrual hygiene and last mile delivery.
Sohini has a master’s in English literature and a passion for crime fiction, cooking, handicrafts, and travel.
SOHINI BHATTACHARYA
President & CEO
JOHN HORTON
Development and Operations Coordinator
As Development and Operations Coordinator, John is involved in all aspects of fundraising, database management, event planning, and finance. John joined Breakthrough in October 2020, after spending nearly five years working for an environmental nonprofit located in the Hudson Valley.
Currently based in Queens, NY, John is particularly interested in climate justice issues and immigration rights advocacy. When not planning his next solo travel destination, John enjoys going to the boxing gym, reading South American literature, and desperately trying to keep his house plants alive.
JOHN HORTON
Development and Operations Coordinator
JASON FLUEGGE
Associate Director of Business and Development
As Associate Director of Business and Development, Jason works in several areas across the organization, including fundraising, finance, board relations, human resources, and operations management. Jason joined Breakthrough in 2016 after almost eight years in non-profit arts management helping grow a community theatre into a world-class performing arts venue.
Outside of work, Jason has a slight running and cycling addiction, having completed several century rides and 15 marathons towards his goal of running one in all 50 states. When not training for races, Jason has volunteered as Race Director for the Front Runners New York (FRNY) LGBT Pride Run as well as Treasurer for the organization. All this balances his passion for cooking, baking, and consequently eating.
JASON FLUEGGE
Associate Director of Business and Development
LYNN HARRIS
Creative Strategy Consultant
As Breakthrough’s Creative Strategy Consultant, Lynn Harris helps guide Breakthrough in the areas of creative strategy, communications, and comedy.
Lynn was until last fall Breakthrough’s VP of Communications at Breakthrough. From there, her lifelong passion for what gets her up in the morning (social change) and what keeps her up at night (pop culture) led her to found GOLD Comedy (www.goldcomedy.com), a social impact startup designed to give girls and women the tools to find their funny and the platforms to share it with the world.
During her tenure, Lynn’s blend of humor and advocacy helped drive some of Breakthrough’s most visible and highest-impact programming in the U.S., including the “Be That Guy” animations screened on NASCAR and Indy 500 jumbotrons. She also led strategy and production on Dudes Against Violence Against Women: Because DUH, the two sold-out comedy shows that reached more than 38 million people and increased revenue by 300% in year two. A veteran standup comic and award-winning journalist and novelist, Lynn has written for The New York Times, The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post, Salon, Glamour, and a twenty-year career’s worth of national newspapers, magazines, and literary anthologies. She is co-creator, with super-genius Chris Kalb, of the award-winning Breakup Girl (breakupgirl.net). Lynn also played Tonya Harding on Geraldo!, which is a really long story.
LYNN HARRIS
Creative Strategy Consultant
COLE HAWKINS
Development Assistant
Cole Hawkins serves as the part-time Development Assistant, primarily managing the donor database. Cole is a lifelong New Yorker who studied Sociology at Northeastern University in Boston, MA. His previous experiences include working in the municipal sector, focusing on housing and public assistance. Cole is passionate about fostering strong community bonds to ensure our future and currently serves a Board Member at the Bronx Community Board #7. He enjoys outdoor yoga, running, baking/cooking from scratch and crossword puzzles.
COLE HAWKINS
Development Assistant
Amani Jiu
Associate Producer
With a background in Documentary Filmmaking and a passion for social justice, Amani is an accomplished storyteller with experience directing, shooting, and editing her own content. As an Associate Producer for Breakthrough, Amani works closely with the entire production team on all major projects from pre to post production.
AMANI JIU
Associate Producer
PRIYA SUSHEELA KVAM
Associate Director, Strategic Partnerships and Initiatives
Linkedin
Twitter Priya@letsbreakthrough.org
Priya Kvam (She/Her/Hers) is a storyteller and impact strategist with a deep commitment to gender and racial justice. She leads Breakthrough’s creative partnerships across the U.S. and globally, and advises on impact and development strategy.
Before joining Breakthrough, she led fundraising efforts for The B Team, a collective of business leaders taking action on climate change, corruption and human rights. She previously worked as a researcher and program evaluator with Gender at Work, and in the field of sexual and reproductive health.
Priya holds an MA, with distinction, in gender and international development from the London School of Economics and Political Science. She is trained in feminist approaches to program evaluation and learning.
PRIYA SUSHEELA KVAM
Associate Director, Strategic Partnerships and Initiatives
MICHELLE RODRIGUEZ
SOCIAL AND DIGITAL MEDIA MANAGER
As the Social and Digital Media Manager, Michelle (She/Her/Hers) works with the creative and development team at Breakthrough. She is responsible for managing digital communications, including e-blasts, social media, and Breakthrough's websites.
Before her role at Breakthrough, Michelle worked as a digital communications manager for a Chicago-based digital marketing agency. During this time, she partnered with several nonprofits and businesses to develop comprehensive communications plans.
MICHELLE RODRIGUEZ
Social and Digital Media Manager
MARC SOKOL
Chief Operating Officer
Marc is a senior executive with 25 years of global and national nonprofit experience who knows how to align organizational talent, values, cultures, strategies, departments, and resources for maximum success and delivery on mission. Based in Breakthrough’s U.S. office, Marc manages people, finances, operations, resource mobilization, and business development, working with both institutional funders and major donors. He also oversees program activities, ensuring alignment with immediate goals and long term strategy. During his ten-plus year tenure, Marc was part of the small leadership team that designed and implemented the structures and systems that transformed the organization from a small venture into a 100+-person global organization. Marc also serves as Secretary of Let’s Breakthrough, Inc.
Marc serves on the Board of UHAI-EASHRI USA, the U.S. affiliate of UHAI-EASHRI, an activist-led indigenous fund based in Nairobi, Kenya, working on LGBTI, people living with HIV, and sex worker rights in eight African countries.
Prior to joining Breakthrough, Marc was VP for Business Development and acting COO of a national school reform organization. Marc designed the staff and operation systems, programs, and budgets, growing the organization to 100 trainers delivering 4,500 training days yearly. His nationally-replicated Architectural Youth Program received numerous awards and won multi-year funding from the National Endowment for the Arts. As a member of Visual AIDS for the Arts, he helped produce the World AIDS Day tribute “Night without Light.”
Marc is a huge fan of travel, both recreational (he has visited more than 50 countries) and time (Doctor Who).
MARC SOKOL
Chief Operating Officer
MARLA SWANSON
Director of Institutional Giving and Philanthropic Partnerships
For over 20 years, Marla Swanson has worked hand in hand with a multitude of nonprofit and philanthropic partners across the globe to build and fund movements, amplify voices, and catalyze change.
Based in Seattle, Marla works with nonprofit organizations providing expertise and strategic counsel on institutional funding, engagement, and strategic communications. As Director of Institutional Giving and Philanthropic Partnerships for Breakthrough, Marla manages a portfolio of foundation donors and prospects to advance Breakthrough’s work in the U.S. and globally.
Prior to this, as Senior Program Officer for the International Women’s Rights Program at the Open Society Foundations based in New York, Marla worked with women’s and human rights NGOs, fellow funders, networks, and movements around the world. During her 12 year tenure, she successfully built and managed strong, diverse grantmaking and programmatic portfolios, with a particular focus on increasing women’s access to justice, building leadership and movements, and ending gender-based discrimination and violence.
Marla holds a MA in International Policy Studies from the Monterey Institute of International Studies with certificates in Public Administration and Gender and Development. From 1994-1998, she lived, worked and traveled widely in the former Soviet Union/Central and Eastern Europe region, including serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in rural Central Asia.
In her free time, she enjoys embarking on new adventures with her husband and daughter, and partaking in outdoor activities in the Pacific Northwest.
MARLA SWANSON
Director of Institutional Giving and Philanthropic Partnerships
MONI VARGAS
Creative and Program Director
Moni is an Emmy-nominated filmmaker and multidisciplinary artist with a practice in music, theater and photography who believes in the power of broad representation in media, art and storytelling as tools for social change. As a graduate of American University’s School of International Service, joining the Breakthrough team as the Creative Director of Programs and Strategy is the perfect opportunity to merge her passion for the arts and culture change.
Moni has directed an array of music videos, short documentaries, commercials, educational content featuring Queen Latifah as well as the pilot episodes of Jada Pinkett Smith’s Red Table Talk. Her screenwriting serves as an extension of her multiracial background and interests in the intersectionality of social and racial justice, mental health, immigrant, LGBTQIA and women’s rights. “Audrey’s Poem,” a short narrative film she wrote, produced and directed, tells a mother-daughter story of healing from abuse through poetry and is included in Big Little Girls, a DVD and streaming film anthology.
She is the co-founder of Nuyorktricity, a production company based in Los Angeles and Friends We Love, a platform consisting of media workshops, experiential events and a short doc series with screenings at Brooklyn Museum, the Bronx Museum, and international film festivals. Moni has served as a teaching artist in NYC public schools, a moderator and mentor at Kidult Youth Leadership Conference and as a presenter at the Annual Human Rights Leadership Forum. She is an advocate for gender equality, a member of the Alliance of Women Directors, Brown Girls Doc Mafia, NALIP and the ACLU.
MONI VARGAS
Creative and Program Director
ALEX YAKACKI
Video Producer/Editor
As a Video Producer/Editor, Alex (He/She/They) works with the creative team at Breakthrough and supports all video initiatives. Their passion is telling stories with a greater purpose and a point of view, and seeing to it those stories' impact travels as far as possible.
Throughout their career, they have developed, produced, shot, and edited a range of high-performing digital content and powerful documentary shorts. Their work has highlighted the intersection of style and identity, told the stories of exceptional women, and illuminated ever-important African American history at brands like Vox, MAKERS, and McGee Media.
In their spare time, Alex enjoys improv comedy, electronic music, the art of drag, communal camping, and collecting and building miniatures. As a genderqueer person, they’re interested in learning about and engaging with social justice and human rights issues, especially studying LGBTQ+ history, theory, and culture.
ALEX YAKACKI
Video Producer/Editor
BOARD MEMBERS
SUNIL SAVKAR
Board Chair
Sunil Savkar is a partner with the New York office of Debevoise & Plimpton LLP. Sunil focuses his practice on complex debt finance transactions. He primarily advises private equity firms, credit funds and their respective portfolio companies in a broad range of domestic and international financing transactions, including leveraged buyout financings, direct lending, mezzanine and subordinated debt financings and high yield offerings. His transactions include large cap as well as middle market financings in a variety of industries such as technology, consumer and healthcare. Sunil has a JD from Columbia University School of Law and a Master’s of Engineering and BS from Cornell University.
SUNIL SAVKAR
Board Chair
MAGGIE BANGSER
Maggie works with social justice initiatives and their funders to design, plan, implement and evaluate the change they seek to create. She offers technical expertise in the rights of vulnerable groups and strategies to reach them based on over twenty years living and working in East and Southern Africa. Maggie founded and directed Women’s Dignity in Tanzania which re-framed the global conceptualization of obstetric fistula in a human rights context. Prior to that she was a Program Officer at the Ford Foundation, and at the International Women’s Health Coalition. Maggie holds a Master’s degree in Public and Private Management from Yale University. Her Bachelor’s degree is in Political Science from Amherst College, from which she received an Honorary Doctorate in 2009.
MAGGIE BANGSER
Treasurer
Marilia Bezerra
Marilia serves as Managing Partner of CARE Enterprises Inc., a for-profit subsidiary of CARE focused on creating economic opportunity for people experiencing poverty globally.
Prior to CEI she founded and lead Aldeia Works, a boutique consulting firm focused on supporting philanthropists, corporations and nonprofits in the creation of meaningful social impact. Before Aldeia, Marilia helped develop partnerships and managed the rapid growth of Purpose.com, a company using new media to deploy the collective power of millions of citizens and consumers to help solve some of the world’s biggest problems. Previously, she was a member of the executive leadership at the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), serving as the Director of Commitments. During her five years working with President Clinton, she took a central role in building the organization from its start-up phase to the successful catalyst for action and global convening body it is today. In New York, Bezerra also served as the business and financial manager for AEA Consulting, a management consulting company with a client base of leading nonprofit cultural organizations throughout Europe, the Americas, and Asia.
Bezerra received a master's of science degree (with distinction) in global affairs from New York University in 2007. Bezerra received her law degree from the Federal University of Ceará in 1996. Before graduating she founded the Andanças Art School, an institution dedicated to providing art education and bridging the gap between children from the most privileged areas and children in the slums of her native Fortaleza. During her early career, she also deeply engaged in political activism as a student union leader and manager of political and advocacy campaigns.
MARILIA BEZERRA
MALLIKA DUTT
Founding President Emeritus
Mallika Dutt is a leading innovator in human rights, multimedia, and culture change. She combines her creative advocacy for social justice with a spiritual healing practice that connects planet, people, and purpose. Her work inspires a diverse community of change-makers dedicated to replacing the social norms that perpetuate inequality and violence with the bedrock value of respect for all.
Mallika is the founder of Breakthrough and served as President and CEO of the organization from its founding in 2000 through early 2017.
Mallika has worked for more three decades to expand and deliver civil rights, economic and environmental justice, progressive public policy, and global health.
Her achievements include co-founding Sakhi for South Asian Women, initiating the Ford Foundation’s work on police reform in India, and acting as Associate Director of the Center for Women’s Global Leadership at Rutgers University that led the global movement that recognizes women’s rights as human rights, In 2012, Mallika received an honorary doctorate from Mount Holyoke in recognition of her pioneering accomplishments.
Mallika graduated from NYU Law School and holds a Masters in International Affairs and South Asian Studies from Columbia University as well as an A.B. in International Affairs from Mount Holyoke College. She recently received a certificate in shamanic studies and energy medicine from The Four Winds.
MALLIKA DUTT
Founding President Emeritus
MICHAEL J. HIRSCHHORN
Michael Hirschhorn is the Executive Director of the International Human Rights Funders Group (IHRFG). From 2003-08, Michael was Executive Director of the Coro New York Leadership Center and from 1995-2001 served as Executive Director of the Literacy Assistance Center in New York City. From 2001-03, Michael worked as a non-profit strategy consultant, primarily in the fields of education, human rights, and leadership development. Earlier, 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 WITNESS, Breakthrough, American Jewish World Service and several other rights-related organizations. Michael received his BA from Yale University in 1981 and his MBA and MSW from Columbia University in 1989.
MICHAEL J. HIRSCHHORN
L. CAMILLE MASSEY
L. Camille Massey is the founding Executive Director at the Sorensen Center for International Peace and Justice at CUNY Law, which opened in 2014. Previously, she was the Vice President for Global Strategies and Programs at the Council on Foreign Relations.
At the Council on Foreign Relations, Massey oversaw international initiatives, strategic partnerships, and the Corporate Program, and previously led the organization’s membership and fellowship program. Prior to joining the Council, she was the founder and CEO of Cue Global, a consulting business that designed and implemented strategic policy, legal, advocacy, communications, and resource mobilization plans for global organizations. She previously served as a senior advisor at the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, director of communications at Human Rights First, and a fellow in the Human Rights Program at the Carter Center.
Massey earned her Juris Doctor degree from CUNY School of Law, and a Bachelor of Science degree from Syracuse University. She also serves on the advisory boards of Syracuse University’s Newhouse School and House of SpeakEasy, a literary nonprofit organization. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the American Bar Association, and the New York City Bar Association.
L. CAMILLE MASSEY
DARNELL L. MOORE
Darnell has long been a fan of Breakthrough’s work. He was previously a member of the Breakthrough team as the U.S. office’s Head of Strategy & Programs, before becoming Director of Inclusion Strategy for Content & Marketing at Netflix.
Darnell is an award-winning writer and activist, a leader in the Movement for Black Lives, and a tireless advocate for justice and liberation. He is co-managing editor of The Feminist Wire and the author of No Ashes in the Fire. His writings have appeared on several media platforms, including the Guardian, MSNBC, EBONY, Advocate, and within academic journals.
Darnell has spent the last two decades working in the fields of education, youth programming, community development, and media. All that he has done is organized a singular mission, namely, to do the little he can in community to transform society by ending the intersecting injustices of gender-based violence, racism, LGBTQI discrimination, and the other structural forces that keep people on the margins.
When he is not working, he is likely sitting on his stoop, at all times of the night, laughing with friends or on a plane traveling and wishing he were still on his stoop with his friends.
DARNELL L. MOORE
JOANNE SANDLER
Treasurer
Joanne Sandler is an independent consultant focused on women’s human rights and organizational change strategies. She is a senior associate of Gender@Work, an international collaborative that strengthens organizations to build cultures of equality and social justice.
Joanne has worked with international organizations, private foundations, academic institutions, and women’s organizations and networks worldwide for the past 30 years. From 2001 to 2010 Joanne served as Deputy Executive Director for Programmes for the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), guiding its support to programs that advance women’s empowerment and rights throughout the developing world.
During her tenure, UNIFEM grew from an organization with an $18 million annual budget and presence in 20 countries to a $200 million annual budget with a presence in 80 countries. Joanne then served on the transition team for the establishment of UN Women. Joanne currently serves on the boards of directors of Breakthrough and of Women Win.
JOANNE SANDLER
MONA SINHA
Mona Sinha is an advocate for gender equality in business and society. She has parlayed a career in finance (Morgan Stanley), marketing (Unilever) and restructuring (Elizabeth Arden/Unilever) to work at the intersection of social justice and women’s leadership.
She founded the Asian Women's Leadership University and is a co-founder of Raising Change.
Mona is currently the Board Chair of Women Moving Millions and the ERA Coalition Fund for Women’s Equality. She is an Executive Producer of Disclosure (Netflix), and serves on several non-profit boards including the Center for High Impact Philanthropy at the University of Pennsylvania. She is on the advisory boards of Apne Aap International, the Museum of Natural History, and Columbia Business School Tamer Center Social Enterprise Program. She also works with Women Creating Change at Columbia University and Columbia Global Mental Health program. She is a trustee emerita of Smith College, where she was Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees and co-led the $486 million “Women for the World” capital campaign, the largest to-date for women’s education.
Mona is a published contributor to What I Told my Daughter - Lessons from Leaders on Raising the Next Generation of Empowered Women, edited by Nina Tassler & Cynthia Middleton. Her story is also featured in She is Me - How Women will Save the World by Lori Sokol.
Mona is a recipient of the Exemplary Leadership in Development award from Smith College (2018) the Last Girl Champion Award by Gloria Steinem on behalf of Apne Aap (2017), and the Ellis Island Medal of Honor (2015).
MONA SINHA
RAVI SINHA
Ravi Sinha is Executive Vice Chairman of Global Corporate & Investment Banking at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. He has extensive experience across multiple industries, geographies and products and is a senior advisor to a number of CEO’s and Boards of Directors.
Prior to his current role, he spent more than 20 years with Goldman, Sachs & Co., primarily in New York, where he held a number of senior leadership positions. He was appointed Managing Director in 1998 and a Partner in 2000. Ravi received an MBA from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania in 1989 and a Bachelors degree from Georgia State University in 1984.
Ravi is a member of the Advisory Council of the American Museum of Natural History, a Trustee of the Trinity School in New York and a Member of the Graduate Executive Board of The Wharton School.
Ravi was born in India and lived in Kolkata, Mumbai, Delhi and Dehra-Dun.
