The Women’s Funding Network Board of Directors is proud to welcome three new members, elected unanimously in December: Renée Joslyn, Ashlei Spivey, and Rashmi Yadav Marya. 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 among the 16 existing board members in 2022. Join us in welcoming:
Renée Joslyn
Renée Joslyn is a philanthropy advisor and strategist with more than 15 years of experience designing comprehensive approaches to advancing justice and equity around the world. Her focus areas include racial justice, gender equity, Indigenous communities, and community-led movement building. Renée supports foundations, companies and nonprofit organizations in developing programs and portfolios designed for optimal implementation and impact.
In 2012, Renée founded Philanthropy Unbound to advise and coach in the development of philanthropic projects and strategies-including program design, landscape mapping, and creating collaborative funds. Notable experience includes her time as the Director of Girls and Women Integration at the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) of the Clinton Foundation. In this role, she advised corporations, philanthropists, NGOs, and multilateral institutions on increasing investments in gender-focused initiatives through well thought out and designed commitments to action.
In 2020, Renée curated the inaugural “Philanthropy 100” list of people, organizations and corporations making a positive social impact around the world.
Ashlei Spivey
Ashlei Spivey is a bold leader that actively works to create just communities. In her work as a social entrepreneur, philanthropist, and activist, she champions racial and gender justice to create transformational system change. She is a graduate of Jackson State University where she studied communications and marketing, then attending University of Texas Arlington for her master’s program in urban social planning. She has spent the last decade of her professional career working in spaces from organizational development to philanthropy.
A thread through all of Ashlei’s work is creating and championing Black liberation which is evident in the two organizations she founded, Young Black & Influential Omaha and I Be Black Girl. I Be Black Girl (IBBG), a collective that supports Black women, femmes and girls to access their full potential through economic and reproduction freedom. IBBG has had outsized impact since inception in 2017, like investing over $200,000 in Black women, femmes and girls through grants and other resources. In 2019, Ashlei was chosen as an ABFE Connecting Leaders Fellow, an inaugural 2020 Black Futures Lab Policy Fellow, and proudly serves on the ACLU of Nebraska board of directors as Board President & Equity Officer. She is also a Tribute to Women, NAACP Freedom Fund, Ten Outstanding Young Omahan and 40 Under 40 awardee.
Most importantly, she is a mother, neighbor, partner and friend.
Rashmi Yadav Marya
Rashmi Yadav Marya is a board leader and diversity, equity, and inclusion advisor working with local and national organizations that focus on gender equity and education. She has extensive experience working across the private, public, and political sectors and began her career in neuroscience research working for the multi-national pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly & Co. in their South African affiliate, before shifting to mission driven work. Most recently, she served as board chair of Emerge, a national political organization focused on empowering women to serve in elected and appointed political office. Rashmi is also a trustee of a Bay Area independent school, and has served on the board of the San Francisco FBI Citizens Academy. She is a Fulbright Scholar and holds a Master of Philosophy degree from the University of Cambridge, King’s College.
“This past year included so much bleak news for women—the SCOTUS abortion stance, paid family leave in flux, the ongoing economic ‘she-cession,’ and domestic violence on the rise. As an organization dedicated to advancing the liberation of marginalized genders, we know that we must accelerate our fight in 2022, and we’re thrilled to grow our leadership coalition with three more exceptional women’s philanthropy leaders,” said Elizabeth Barajas-Román, President & CEO of Women’s Funding Network. “Our global alliance is led by the wisdom of local leaders. Renée, Ashlei, and Rashmi 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.”