Officers
Houry Geudelekian
Chair
Houry Geudelekian is a global leader in intersectional feminist network organizing, spearheading collaborative movements to achieve transformational change in gender equality in the UN space. Currently, she is the UN Coordinator of Unchained At Last, an ECOSOC-accredited organization fighting to stop early marriage in the USA, and Chair of the NGO Committee on the Status of Women/New York.
Geudelekian has skillfully led campaigns, forums, and coalitions for global policy change. As Chair of NGO CSW/NY, she spearheaded the Beijing+25 campaign as well as convened a global Civil Society Advisory Group to support UN Women’s Generation Equality Forums (GEF). She leads high-level engagement with UN Agencies, civil society networks, Member States, and other actors to advance policy efforts on care-work, child marriage, gender-based violence, SRHR, and other important topics. Geudelekian organized numerous multilateral forums which generated over 25,000 participants and $40 billion committed towards gender equality. She brings dedication, passion and humor to a challenging field, and has been seen making the UN Secretary General laugh on gender-equality panels at UNHQ.
Across numerous non-profits and academic institutions, Geudelekian is an effective force for enacting change at the local, national, and global levels. Prior to being elected as Chair of NGO CSW/NY, Geudelekian served as the committee’s Advisor, Executive Committee Member, Communication Secretary and Program Manager. She also served as Co-Chair of the Working Group on Girls, Co-Chair of NYC4CEDAW, UN Coordinator of the Armenian Relief Society.
Born in Beirut, Lebanon to an Armenian family, Geudelekian moved to New York City in the late ‘70s, started a business that grew to over 30 team members and 2,000 constituents. This business continues to flourish, although she has transitioned to full time work in the human-rights field. Houry is fluent in Armenian and English as well as spoken Arabic and French. She survives by meditating and practicing yoga.
Ivy Koek
Vice Chair
Ivy Koek is a Representative to the UN for Soka Gakkai International (SGI) based in New York. Engaged in SGI’s work in the fields of gender equality and women’s empowerment, sustainability and climate change, peace, disarmament, and human rights mainly through its nonformal education approach since joining in 2013. She has served on the NGO CSW/NY Executive Committee since 2014; currently Vice Chair of the Committee and former Co-chair of the Young Professionals Subcommittee. Ivy’s prior work has taken her from her home in the U.S. to Venezuela and Japan in the fields of education, study abroad, editing and translation. Some of her past projects included issues such as women peacebuilders and child labor. Ivy is passionate about young women’s leadership, building the culture of peace, bridging divides across various thematic areas, creating inclusive civil society spaces and interfaith collaboration.
Rosa Lizarde
Treasurer
Rosa Lizarde is a Mexican-American feminist advocating for economic, environmental, gender and racial justice. She currently serves as the Global Director of the Feminist Task Force (FTF), a global women’s rights coalition calling for gender equality to end poverty, founded under the auspices of the Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP) in 2005. Her advocacy, policy and campaigning experience has been honed at the UN and through global processes focusing on women’s economic justice, poverty eradication and women’s rights. She is a founding member and the current Co-Convener of the Women’s Working Group on Financing for Development (FfD), a network which advocates for financing for gender equality, systemic reform and global governance. Rosa began her international development work in Central America where she served as a Peace Corps Volunteer and trainer in the late 1980’s. She later worked at the Women’s Environment and Development Organization (WEDO) with the feminist movement leader, Bella Abzug, and other members of the board, including Nobel Peace Prize recipient Wangari Maathai. She was the Global Networking Coordinator, fostering global relations with women’s organizations and monitoring of UN conferences and other global forums in the late ‘90s. Nationally, Rosa is involved in social justice actions at the US/Mexico border and supporting many LGBTQI causes. Rosa is a graduate of Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs where she specialized in international human rights and Latin America. She lives with her partner, their teenage twins, their dog and cats in a rural community north of New York City.
Gillian D’Souza Nazareth
Communications Secretary
Gillian D’Souza Nazareth is an Economics and Sociology graduate, with a Masters in Marketing. In 2015 she transitioned from a career in commercial airline management to Social protection and Development. She is the current Director of Global Partnerships and Principal Representative to the United Nations for the Red Dot Foundation(https://www.safecity.in/). As the current vice-chairperson of the NGO Committee on Social Development, she works on expanding advocacy in the virtual space, as a way to educate and energize people to rally the cause of social protections. In addition, Gillian is currently pursuing dual certification in Sustainable Development and Mindfulness. She is an amateur gardener and a trained classical Indian (Bharatnatyam) dancer, last but not the least, Gillian also volunteers at her local church and is PGC (Protecting Gods Children) compliant. Gillian's preferred pronouns are she/her/hers.
Saphira Rameshfar
Recording Secretary
Saphira Rameshfar is a Representative of the Baha’i International Community to the United Nations Headquarters in New York. She has served as Co-Chair of the Faith and Feminism Working Group to the United Nations, Co-Chair of the Working Group on Girls to the United Nations, and on the Youth Steering Committee to the United Nations Department of Global Communications. Prior to this, Saphira was at the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs headquarters in New York working on capacity development policy and as an Australian, she worked for the Australian Federal Government on national policy in Canberra. Ms. Rameshfar has worked for over a decade on projects aimed at the empowerment of youth in Australia as well as in communities throughout the Asia Pacific region and North and South America. She holds a Bachelor of Economics, Bachelor of Applied Science and a Masters of International Law (Australian National University).
Members-at-Large
Terry Ince
Member-at-Large
Terry Dale Ince has managed territories which included private and public sector accounts and has volunteered with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in developed and developing countries and underserved communities during a career in business and community development, business technology and social activism.
She is the Managing Director of TDI and Associates, a Change Management consulting practice, and Convener of CEDAW Committee of Trinidad and Tobago (CCoTT), a non-governmental organization committed to stakeholder advocacy for the sustainable implementation of the CEDAW convention mandates and committee recommendations through collaboration, education, development, and knowledge sharing.
Some Highlights:
▪ She designed and implemented technology solutions for medium and large businesses and government agencies as a systems engineer and client manager with a global technology company during a 26-year career.
▪ She contributesto the practical promotion and core principles of women’s economic and political empowerment and sustainable machineries nationally, regionally, and globally.
▪ She has a practical formation in the field of development work and gender issues,
especially as it extends to the inclusion of young people and the environment.
▪ She guest lectures on CEDAW and women’s empowerment, leadership, and advocacy locally, regionally, and globally.
▪ She observes general elections and serves as a gender specialist on observer team
deployed by the Commonwealth Secretariat.
▪ She serves on the board of several non-governmental organizations including Women Working for Social Progress and is the current Chair of the National Steering Committee of the Global Environment Facility Small Grants Program (GEF SGP) (Trinidad &Tobago); Women Environmental Program (Nigeria), and the Spotlight Initiative Civil Society Regional Reference Group (Caribbean).
▪ She holds a Master of Science in Organizational Development and Behaviour from John Hopkins University, Project Management certification from Columbia University, and IBM Leadership Executive training from Harvard Business School.
Margaretha Jones
Member-at-Large
Margaretha Jones lived and worked in Switzerland, France, Belgium and the United States. She has a Commercial Degree (Handelsdiploma) from Switzerland and a BA in Anthropology from Fordham University. She worked for the American Ethical Union first as part-time for their Executive Director and later as their National Administrator for over 20 years. In recent past she has been involved in NGO Committees, including Co-Chair of the NGO Committee on Children’s Rights. She started her second term being on the Board of CoNGO and accepted to be their treasurer. She has been a member of the NGO Committee of CSW for over 10 years and is happy to serve as their treasurer.
Ani Karapetyan
Member-at-Large
Ani Karapetyan is a member of Armenian International Women’s Association (AIWA) and is an AIWA representative at the United Nations. She has a Master of Science degree in Global Affairs from New York University with a specialization in International Development. She has worked with the United Nations Development Program’s Social and Environmental Compliance Unit, Freedom House, the Peace Project Inc and Children of Armenia Fund. Ani has been published on Freedom House and Young Professionals in Foreign Policy blogs as well as the academic journal, Perspectives on Global Issues.
Ani has served as a chair of the Initiatives Committee of the NYU Center for Global Affairs student executive board and as the Associate Editor of the academic journal, Perspectives on Global Issues. Ani presented her research on Turkish-Armenian conflict at the Association for Conflict Resolution Annual Conference in 2016 in Baltimore, participated in the United Nations Association Youth Leadership Conference in 2015 in New York, represented the Council of Europe Youth Sector in 2013 in Strasbourg and Armenia in 73rd International Session of the European Youth Parliament in Zurich.
Ani speaks Armenian, Russian and beginner German and has professional training in Women in International Development as well as Negotiation, Mediation and Data Analysis.
Luisa Kislinger
Member-at-Large
Luisa Kislinger is a feminist advocate, writer, and international consultant with over 20
years of experience working on gender equality and women’s rights issues at the
international, regional and grassroots levels.
She holds a bachelor’s degree in International Studies and a Master’s degree in Communications, both from Universidad Central de Venezuela (UCV). She is a former career diplomat from the Venezuelan foreign service and worked at the Permanent Mission of Venezuela to the UN where she was one of the lead negotiators during the Beijing +5 process and facilitated the adoption of several gender-related resolutions.
She has also worked for UNFPA and has been a consultant for different organizations, including UN Women, ICASO, and the European Union, among others. She is currently a Senior Advocacy Officer at Fòs Feminista, based in New York. Before joining her current position, Luisa lead research and advocacy around women’s rights violations in Venezuela, particularly in the areas of sexual and reproductive health and rights and gender-based violence and has written about women’s representation in Venezuelan media.
In 2016 she founded the “Asociación Civil Mujeres en Línea” from where she has
worked jointly with different local and regional NGOs. Luisa is the co-author of the book “Doble Crimen”, published in 2021, about the story of Linda Loaiza, a survivor of sexual violence who took her case to the Inter American Court of Human Rights.
Pamela Morgan
Member-at-Large
Pamela Morgan, chair of Zonta International’s United Nations Committee leads teams in NY, Bangkok, Geneva, Paris, and Vienna. A tireless worker, she is an activist dedicated to uplifting the status of women. Pamela serves on the Executive Committees of NGOCSW/NY and the NGO Committee on Migration. A retired instructional technologist, Pamela is also the founder and Executive Director of Woman in Media-Newark, a not-for-profit organization that educates the public about global issues facing women using film, video and new media as its platform.
Susan O’Malley
Past Chair, Ex-Officio
Susan O’Malley is the Main Representative to the UN (NY) for the International Federation of Business and Professional Women (IFBPW). She has chaired NGO CSW/NY since 2015 and was vice-chair for the previous four years. Last year she was instrumental in organizing the Rural Women’s Study Group Subcommittee with Winifred Doherty and Jourdan Williams to prepare the members of NGO CSW/NY for the priority them of CSW62 on the challenges and opportunities of rural women. She is co-chair of the Global Coordinating Committee for the NGO CSW/NY Advocacy Grant. She plays cello in the UN Orchestra. Previous to joining NGO CSW/NY, O’Malley served as the Faculty Trustee and Chair of the 22-campus Faculty Senate of the City University of New York and taught English Literature and Liberal Studies (Women’s Studies) at CUNY (Kingsborough and the Graduate Center) for 36 years. She holds an AB from Smith College and a PhD from Tulane University. Her latest book is “Custome Is an Idiot” Jacobean Pamphlet Literature on Women (Illinois UP, 2004). In addition, she has published articles/chapters in books and edited books and journals on civil rights, disability, higher education, human rights Shakespeare, and early modern women’s cultural studies.
STAFF
Interns
Devan Zingler
Program Manager & NGO CSW Forum Coordinator
Devan Zingler (she/they) is a graduate of Marymount Manhattan College with a Bachelor’s degree in Politics & Human Rights and a minor in Religious Studies. During her senior year, she was an intern with NGO CSW/NY where she helped plan for the NGO CSW64 Forum. She became Program Manager at NGO CSW/NY after her internship ended, managing day-to-day operations and coordinating the annual NGO CSW Forum. She is also the Co-Chair of NGO CSW/NY's Youth Leaders & Young Professionals, a community of young people and youth advocates who are passionate about global gender equality and looking to engage in or learn about UN processes.
Devan also served as the Civil Society Advisory Group (CSAG) Coordinator for the Generation Equality Forum (GEF). Devan’s main interests are gender equality, LGBTQ+ rights, criminal justice reform, climate justice, and the relationship between human rights and religion.
Tanitra Partivit
Web Producer
Tanitra has ten years of experience working with various non-profits, implementing online marketing campaigns, as well as managing social media and website content. Her professional experience includes working with various non-profits including Friends of UNFPA, Advancing Human Rights, and HIAS. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in International Relations with a concentration in Foreign Policy, Diplomacy, and Security of East Asia. She is a native Queens New Yorker with a lot of pride in her community. She still lives on the same block she grew up on. Additionally, Tanitra is a classically trained chef and a graduate of the International Culinary Institute.
Carla Cordova
CSW67 Social Media & Communications Intern
Carla is currently a Master's student in Media Studies and Social Justice at Queens College. She also holds a Bachelor's Degree in Social Communication and a minor in Audiovisual Production at the National University of San Marcos, obtained after her thesis "How Peruvians eat?: Identity and Market Positioning of the vegan food in Lima", a communication strategy for vegan activists considering the cultural and psychological meanings of the act of eating in Peru. Carla has worked in communications and audiovisual production for 6 years, designing strategies and digital content for organizations such as The National Fire Department of Peru, the National University of San Marcos, and civil organizations for women’s rights and mental health in Peru, Chile and Latin America. Her main interests are gender equality, veganism, mental health and the relationship between spirituality and human rights. In her spare time, she loves watching documentaries, singing, and exploring new places and vegan food in the city.
Audiovisual portfolio: https://carlacportfolio.tumblr.com
Ali Foote
CSW67 Advocacy & Administrative Intern
Ali is currently a Master's student at New York University's Center for Global Affairs, where her academic focus is gender and peacebuilding. This past summer, she conducted participatory action research (PAR) with human rights defenders in the Huila and Cauca departments of Colombia, facilitating focus groups and in-depth interviews in Spanish with youth, LGBTQ+, and female social leaders. She also worked in Lira, Uganda with the African Youth Initiative Network (AYINET) to develop a training manual for mental health professionals who support women and children survivors of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) in humanitarian emergencies. Ali is interested in working with local, grassroots organizations to build peaceful and more gender-equal communities for women worldwide, and is excited to support NGO CSW/NY's efforts to facilitate a platform for women's rights activists, feminists, and gender equality advocates. In her spare time, she enjoys traveling, is an avid yogi, and is training to run her first marathon.
Micaela Tompkins
CSW67 Advocacy & Administrative Intern
Micaela is currently a senior at Marymount Manhattan College, pursuing a dual degree in International Studies and Politics and Human Rights. Her academic focus has been intersectional political participation and development, as is reflected in her past work experience with Catholic Charities Refugee Resettlement, the Kota Alliance, and REDES Ecovillages. Micaela’s interest in peacebuilding and democratic institutions led her to her thesis-in-progress, detailing how American political parties can better reach rural voters through better understanding of historical precedent. As she pursues her bachelors degree, Micaela is excited to be working with NGOCSW, and she is looking forward to participating in civil society forums and getting a closer look at the inner workings of the United Nations System. In her spare time, Micaela is a painter, weightlifter, and home cook.