Trust Gap Advisors

We are deeply grateful to the funders and civil society advisors who have volunteered their time and expertise to help shape our research on regional disparities in human rights funding and guide our response to the findings.

Amy Bisno

Wellspring Philanthropic Fund
United States

Amy has over a decade of experience working in women’s movements, human rights, and social justice issues globally. Amy currently serves as a program officer at Wellspring Philanthropic Fund, supporting inclusive, vibrant, and robust civil society in East Africa, focusing on strengthening democracies, protecting human rights defenders, and elevating the voices of historically excluded communities. Before joining Wellspring, Amy spent five years supporting social movements in Africa and Southeast Asia with American Jewish World Service as a program officer for Civil and Political Rights and Humanitarian Response. Amy has also worked with UNICEF in West Africa and with a feminist advocacy organization in the United Kingdom called Make Every Woman Count. She also serves on the board of feminist funder CivFund Africa. Amy received a BA in Political Science from Wellesley College and a MSc in Violence, Conflict and Development Studies from SOAS at the University of London. Outside of work, Amy is a trained post-partum doula, nurturing communities where support networks are most needed, and she is a member of Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ), a New York-based social justice organization.

Masa Amir

Urgent Action Fund – Africa
Africa

Masa Amir is the knowledge leadership manager at Urgent Action Fund-Africa. She has extensive experience in research and documentation of the experiences of womn’s human rights defenders (WHRDs) across Africa. She is passionate about exploring protection and collective security and care needs of WHRDs and the centrality of healing to feminist movement building. Masa holds an MA in International Human Rights Law from the American University in Cairo (AUC). Her dissertation focused on the feminization of poverty in Egypt and its connection to violations of the right to social security. She has a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations from the American University of Sharjah (AUS).

Maria Amália Souza

Fundo Casa Socioambiental
Brazil

Amália has dedicated 35+ years to designing systemic strategies that assure philanthropic resources reach the most excluded and vulnerable grassroots communities. She is co-founder of the Brazil Philanthropy Network for Social Justice and leads her organization in many global and regional funders coalitions. In 2016, Amália was a finalist among seven global leaders for the Olga Alexeeva Memorial Prize on innovative philanthropy in the Global South. She is an advisor to The Ocean Foundation and board chair of Nucleus of Information Technology/Training (NUPEF). Amália holds a degree in International Services, Development and Environmental Studies from World College West in California and is a fellow of the Donella Meadows Sustainability Program on Systems Thinking.

Shaady Salehi

Trust-Based Philanthropy Project
United States

Shaady Salehi is a strategist, facilitator, and network builder who has dedicated nearly two decades working at the intersection of narrative and social change. From 2018-2020, she collaborated closely with the founders of the Trust-Based Philanthropy Project to conceptualize and launch the initiative, and now serves as its executive director.

Prior to the Trust-Based Philanthropy Project, Shaady held many roles across the nonprofit sector, which contributed to her deep understanding of the many challenges and opportunities facing social change organizations. In 2017, she launched a social impact consultancy, Skyview Strategies, dedicated to providing strategic communications consulting for visionary changemakers. She also worked as a senior brand strategist with Mission Minded, where she helped organizations clarify their values, branding, and messaging in support of their vision for change. From 2015-2017, she served as managing director of distribution and impact at ITVS, where she led a team to advance the reach and impact of documentaries on public television. Prior to ITVS, she served as executive director of Active Voice, a pioneering nonprofit organization that works with storytelling to catalyze social change.

Shaady holds an MS in Strategic Communications from Columbia University, an MA in Anthropology from UC Davis, and a BA in Anthropology from Oberlin College. In her downtime, you can find her practicing yoga, binge-watching cooking shows, and attending rallies in solidarity with the women and young people fighting for justice in Iran.

Valeria Scorza

Fundación Avina
Mexico/Spain

Valeria Scorza is executive director of Avina Americas and the director of strategic partnerships for Fundación Avina. Previous to her current role, she led Avina’s Political Innovation and Migration Programs. Prior to joining Avina in 2015, Valeria was deputy director for Proyecto de Derechos Económicos, Sociales y Culturales (ProDESC), a non-governmental organization that promotes labor, land, and territory rights in Latin America. She has also worked at the International Center for Transitional Justice and Amnesty International in New York, and participated in the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL). Valeria holds a BA in Political Science and Public Administration from the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City and a master’s degree in International Relations from Columbia University in New York. She serves on the boards of the Human Rights and Business Award, Ethos Innovación en Políticas Públicas, and Equis Justicia para las Mujeres. She also participates in the American Steering Committee of the Edge Funders Alliance.