Welcomes national advocates and gender justice leaders Junemarie Justus, Adriana Loson-Ceballos, Ada Williams Prince and Teresa Younger to WFN board of directors
SAN FRANCISCO — Women’s Funding Network announced the appointments of four new additions to its board of directors: Junemarie Justus, Adriana Loson-Ceballos, Ada Williams Prince and Teresa Younger. The newly appointed members hail from diverse personal and professional backgrounds and are all national leaders in gender equity and justice advocacy. They will take their seats in 2021.
“We are thrilled to welcome another slate of exceptional women’s philanthropy leaders to our board of directors,” said Elizabeth Barajas-Román, president & CEO of Women’s Funding Network. “They are representative of our members and network, with a shared passion and dedication to our collective mission of leveraging the power of philanthropy to mobilize an intersectional, feminist movement for equity and justice.”
“As we head into a new year of challenges and opportunities, we are looking forward to tapping into their vast expertise and commitment to our shared vision of a world where just outcomes for all genders, of all races, are regarded as crucial to the creation of dynamic and effective social, political and economic policies and systems,” said Women’s Funding Network Board Chair, Michelle Zych.
Junemarie Justus is Founder and Director of The Acorn Project, a social justice advocacy organization. She has a background in computer science, and having co-founded 2 technology companies; ICS, Inc. a global data storage hardware provider established in 1984 and Keyconnect.com, co-founded in 1996 as an internet access company providing managed data storage, application services, and software development. Junemarie’s latest venture combines her more than 3 decades of success and executive experience with her lifelong commitment to human rights advocacy and activism. She serves as a United Nations delegate to the Commission on the Status of Women, and on the Santa Barbara council of Human Rights Watch. She also serves on the boards of Women’s Economic Ventures and Women’s Funding Network. Junemarie is a member of Women’s Economic Ventures’ League of Extraordinary Women, a Global Fund for Women Champion for Equality, and recipient of the Association of Fundraising Professionals – Spirit of Philanthropy Award 2017.
Adriana Loson-Ceballos is a philanthropist, fundraiser, academic and citizen scholar. With 12 years as a fundraiser for nonprofits, she is an advocate for changing philanthropy. At Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy (EPIP), Loson-Ceballos leads all resource mobilization efforts, building the connections and infrastructure to move toward community-based and community-centric fundraising practices. Loson-Ceballos has raised funds for community health, human rights, civil rights and decolonizing museum collections. She regularly speaks on catalyzing giving in communities of color and how to use forms of collective philanthropy models to build civic power. Loson-Ceballos currently serves on the board of directors of the United Philanthropy Forum, and is a representative of EPIP within the CHANGE Philanthropy and WINGS philanthropy networks.
Ada Williams Prince leads several bodies of emerging programmatic work at Pivotal Ventures and was previously program officer at the Marguerite Casey Foundation in Seattle. Prior to this she served as director of special projects for OneAmerica, where she directed their women’s rights policy program, focusing on immigrant women and girls. Williams Prince has also worked with the Women’s Refugee Commission in New York and the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Survivors in Brussels, Belgium, as well as worked for Concern Worldwide, Plan International UK and Save the Children in London. Williams Prince currently serves on the board of iLeap and Women’s Funding Alliance and is a partner at Social Venture Partners. Ada has served as a board member for several organizations including, Neighborhood House and the Refugee Women’s Alliance in Seattle, and chair of the board of directors of Wandsworth Women’s Aid UK, a domestic violence shelter. Currently she serves on the board of PAI (a global reproductive health organization) and Crisis Text Line.
Teresa C. Younger is an activist, advocate, organizational strategist and a proven leader in the philanthropic and policy sectors. She is the president and CEO of the Ms. Foundation for Women. Prior to joining the Ms. Foundation for Women, Younger served as the executive director of the Connecticut General Assembly’s Permanent Commission on the Status of Women and as executive director of the ACLU of Connecticut — the first African American and the first woman to hold that position. Younger is a thought leader at the critical intersections of gender and race. Within the philanthropic sector she works on initiatives to shape and change the narrative of women and girls, including Grantmakers for Girls of Color, Funders for Reproductive Equity, Philanthropy New York and Black Funders for Social Justice. Younger serves on a number of boards, including the Ethel Walker School and Essie Justice Group.