The Team

Hannah spent almost 14 years working in Latin America and Africa on education, digital health, and innovative finance projects before she was forced to pivot as so many others were following the closure of USAID. She started her career working for community development projects as a Volunteer Coordinator in Nicaragua. That is where her love of connecting across cultures began. She obtained her Master’s Degree in Global Human Development from Georgetown University and a BA in Sociology and Economics from the University of Pennsylvania. She wrote her first play, Vacate, in January 2025 and performed it in April 2025 to a sold-out audience at Joe’s Movement Emporium. It is there that she found the power of storytelling and her ability to tell stories that connect people and build empathy.

Ariel leads programs and designs technology-enabled products that truly work for the people they serve, and the teams that make that happen. With 10+ years of experience in monitoring and evaluation, participatory research methods, behavior change research, human-centered design, and learning & training design across global contexts, Ariel is fluent in how quality products and services get built, evaluated, iterated, refined and actually used. She possesses expertise in digital health-system strengthening, learning and training design and facilitation, and leveraging human-centered design and monitoring & evaluation to drive evidence-based outcomes.

Ma is a Brazilian multi-artist based in NYC whose work spans acting, filmmaking, and music-making. After earning her degree and completing a three-month DJ course at the School of Electronic Music in Brazil (AIMEC), she moved to New York to study at The Stella Adler Studio of Acting, graduating from The Evening Conservatory, an intensive two-year program. ​Ma starred in many short films and theater productions both in Brazil and in the US. A self-taught screenwriter, Ma’s first feature script, Foreign, was shortlisted for the competitive Sundance Development Track. Her short script, The Love of Jupiter, won the 2022 PANO Microgrants and was selected for the 2022 Open Screenplay M Film Lab. In 2024, she wrote, co-directed, and acted in the vampire short film The Death Dance. In 2021, Ma received the City Artist Corps Grant to curate the third edition of Make Music Don’t Get Killed, a showcase uplifting queer, underrepresented performers and musicians in Brooklyn.

Caryn is the head of Knoll Court Associates, where she provides fundraising and development strategy for organizations working in social change, civil rights and economic justice. Before starting her own firm, she was Chief Philanthropy Officer for Prosperity Now, where she led a team responsible for partnerships that fueled the organization’s work to create stability, wealth and prosperity in communities of color. Caryn also spent 15 years in international and community development, implementing and evaluating livelihoods, education, health, and civil society programs around the world. As a freelance writer, she has appeared in the New York Times online, WAMU.com, Transitions Abroad, and Arts & Sciences magazine and helps lead a memoir and creative non-fiction writing group. She currently serves as a teacher, board member and Racial Equity Team member at Circle Yoga, a yoga cooperative in Washington, DC.

Jessica is the founder and creative director of Jessica Whalen Films, a content production and storytelling strategy company serving women, femme, and LGBTQIA+ founders across Northwest Arkansas and beyond. Before starting her own company, she worked on the media, creative direction, and communications teams at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, a top 10 American art museum, where she told the stories of emerging artists for their groundbreaking State of the Art exhibition (featured in the New York Times, PBS, and CBS Sunday Morning) along with other arts and culture nonprofits that focused on equity, diversity, and inclusion in America's Heartland. Jessica brings 13 years of video production and cinema experience to her work, crafting human-first, empathy rooted brand strategy and visual storytelling for those who want the online world to feel like authentic connection.