Over the last year, we at Astraea have been working to expand our organizational infrastructure to meet our growing needs as an organization and continue to best serve our movements. This has meant everything from reorganizing our systems and structures, to ensuring our practices and policies always put our people and their wellbeing first! As one critical piece of this work, we have been expanding our teams to bring in even more brilliant LBTQI global, feminist expertise, as well as to ensure our staff members have the support, capacity, and spaciousness they need to keep fueling our movements and building their power!

Today, we’re delighted to introduce you to Astraea’s ten newest staff members! This includes our much-awaited new VP of Programs and longtime Astraea comrade, Rebecca Fox, who will officially start in her role on August 1st, and Astraea’s first-ever Director of People and Culture, Raven Maldonado. Each of our new staff members brings a burst of fresh energy to Astraea, adds critical capacity, and contributes their well-honed skills and experiences in philanthropy, grassroots movement building, gender justice, and organizational transformation. In July, we’ll also be sharing the highly anticipated news of who will be stewarding Astraea as our next permanent Executive Director, so stay tuned!

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Welcome:

Lariza Romero Fonseca (she/her) who joins our team from Mexico City, Mexico as Program Officer for Latin America and the Caribbean.

Rebecca Fox (she/her), our new VP, Programs based in Brooklyn, NY.

Senda Ben Jebara (she/her), based in Montreal, Canada and who is Astraea’s Program Officer for Europe, Central Asia, and Middle East/Southwest Asia.

Simone Jones (she/her), as an Administrative Assistant based in New York City.

Raven Maldonado (she/her), Astraea’s first-ever Director of People and Culture, and is based in New York City.

Elisabeth McCarren (she/her) who lives on Long Island, NY and joins us as an Administrative Assistant.

Kayla McMillen (she/they) who joins us as an Administrative Assistant in New York City.

Poppy Pruidze (they/them), our Grants Management Associate, based in Brooklyn, NY.

Kevin Romero (he/him), our Development Associate, Operations from Queens, NY.

Patrice Smith Sterling (she/her), Astraea’s new Senior Grants Manager based in the Bronx, NY.

Photo & Biographical details forthcoming