Advisory Board

Advisory Board Members

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  Radhika Balakrishnan

  Radhika Balakrishnan, faculty director of the Center for Women’s Global Leadership, and Professor, Women’s and Gender Studies at Rutgers University, has a Ph.D. in Economics from Rutgers University. Previously, she was Professor of Economics and International Studies at Marymount Manhattan College. She has worked at the Ford Foundation as a program officer in the Asia Regional Program. She is currently the Chair of the Board of the US Human Rights Network and on the Board of the Center for Constitutional Rights and the International Association for Feminist Economics. She is the co-editor with Diane Elson of Economic Policy and Human Rights: Holding Governments to Account (Zed Books, 2011). She is the author of Why MES with Human Rights: Integrating Macro Economic Strategies with Human Rights (Marymount Manhattan College, 2005). She edited The Hidden Assembly Line: Gender Dynamics of Subcontracted Work in a Global Economy (Kumarian Press, 2001), co-edited Good Sex: Feminist Perspectives from the World’s Religions, with Patricia Jung and Mary Hunt (Rutgers University Press, 2000), and also authored numerous articles that have appeared in books and journals. Professor Balakrishnan’s work focuses on gender and development, gender and the global economy, human rights and economic and social rights. Her research and advocacy work has sought to change the lens through which macroeconomic policy is interpreted and critiqued by applying international human rights norms to assess macroeconomic policy.

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  Gregg Gonsalves

  Gregg Gonsalves is an Lecturer in Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases as well as a Research Scholar in Law and Lecturer in Law at Yale Law School, co-director of the Global Health Justice Partnership and a leading HIV/AIDS activist. His research focuses on the use of quantitative models for improving the response to epidemic diseases. For more than 20 years, he worked on HIV/AIDS and other global health issues with several organizations, including the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, the Treatment Action Group, Gay Men’s Health Crisis, and the AIDS and Rights Alliance for Southern Africa. He was also a fellow at the Open Society Foundations and in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School from 2011-2012. He is a 2011 graduate of Yale College and received his PhD from Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences/School of Public Health in 2016.

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  Adam Lupel

  Dr. Adam Lupel is the Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at the International Peace Institute. He is responsible for developing IPI’s long-term research agenda and for overseeing management and coordination among IPI’s offices in New York, Vienna, and Manama in close collaboration with the President. Between 2014 and 2016 he served as the director of research and publications for the Independent Commission on Multilateralism, a project of IPI.  Dr. Lupel also conducts research on issues related to globalization, multilateralism, and the prevention of mass atrocities. He is the author of Globalization and Popular Sovereignty: Democracy’s Transnational Dilemma (2009) and the co-editor of Peace Operations and Organized Crime: Enemies or Allies? (2011) and Responding to Genocide: The Politics of International Action (2013). Prior to 2006, when he joined IPI as Editor, he was the Managing Editor of Constellations: An International Journal of Critical and Democratic Theory, and he taught modern and contemporary political theory at The New School’s Eugene Lang College in New York. He has a PhD in political theory and an MA in liberal studies from the New School for Social Research and a BA in international relations with a concentration in Latin America from Boston University. 

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  Inca Mohamed

  Inca A. Mohamed is an internationally recognized facilitator and consultant. From 2003-March 2011, Inca was MAG’s third Executive Director and spearheadeded MAG’s initiative to go beyond one-on-one consulting and deliver a diverse range of products and services. Inca’s clients have included: Atlantic Philanthropies, the Forum for Youth Investment, SisterSong, the Center for Reproductive Rights, the Washington Greater Community Foundation, the Funders Network on Population Growth and Reproductive Health and Rights, the Asian American Justice Center, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, and the Washington Area Women’s Foundation. Before joining MAG, Inca was Program Officer for Human Development and Reproductive Health at the Ford Foundation, where she oversaw a $60 million dollar portfolio aimed at strengthening youth development domestically and abroad. Her career has included work in advocacy, training and public education, program design, and program management; she has held leadership positions at a diverse range of organizations, including the YWCA, the Door Center for Youth Alternatives, and Planned Parenthood. 

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  Maritza Silva-Farrell

  For the past seven years she has served as the Deputy Director and Campaign Director,  as well as the coordinator of Real Affordability for All, the largest affordable housing coalition in the City. During her time at ALIGN, Maritza played a critical role in the Caring Across Generations campaign, helping to secure $1.2 million in funding for undocumented and low income seniors to access home care and the Universal Pre-K campaign which brought the program to many children across New York City. She originally joined ALIGN to prevent Walmart from developing in East New York, leading a four-year fight that successfully halted the company’s plans and brought a union supermarket to the neighborhood. Previously, Maritza worked with the Long Island Progressive Coalition to coordinate the Yes, In My Back Yard (YIMBY) campaign, increasing affordable housing throughout the entire island. A native of Ecuador, Maritza earned her BA in journalism from the Central University of Ecuador and later completed a BA degree in communications from SUNY Old Westbury, where she organized with the New York Public Interest Research Group and United Students Against Sweatshops. She has also worked with Long Island Jobs with Justice on issues related to youth, labor, and immigrant rights where she combined her passion for documentaries, journalism and activism by producing short workers’ rights documentaries.

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  Amol Sinha

  Prior to joining the ACLU-NJ, Amol was a policy advocate at the Innocence Project, where he led state-level policy campaigns nationwide to address wrongful convictions. From 2010-2015, Amol was the director of the Suffolk County Chapter of the New York Civil Liberties Union, where he led efforts to defend and promote the constitutional rights of all Suffolk County residents, particularly around policing and criminal justice, immigrants’ rights, and education reform. At the NYCLU, Amol worked on legislation, litigation, and community-based advocacy, and gained a deep understanding of the need to work collaboratively with community members, advocates, and government officials in order to advance policy.

  Amol is also an adjunct professor at Marymount Manhattan College, where he has taught courses on constitutional law, civil rights, media law, and criminal justice. Additionally, Amol is the president of the South Asian Bar Association of New York and co-chair of the public interest committee of the South Asian Bar Association of North America.

  Amol holds a B.A. in journalism and economics from New York University, and a law degree from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law where he was a Public Service Scholar. Most importantly, Amol grew up in Lawrenceville, NJ, and is a proud product of Lawrence Township Public Schools. His role at the ACLU-NJ merges two central passions: advocating for constitutional rights and New Jersey.

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  Rebecca Sperling

  Professor Sperling earned her M.S.W. and Ph.D. from the Columbia University School of Social Work where she taught graduate level courses in addition to teaching a doctoral level practice course. At MMC, Dr. Sperling developed and oversaw the Minor in Social Work. Her teaching and clinical work are both grounded in systems theory, a firm belief in people’s strengths and the centrality of listening to people tell their stories. She also taught elective courses in the Sociology curriculum and in Gender and Sexuality Studies. In over twenty years as a practitioner, Dr. Sperling has been a clinical supervisor in out-patient hospital, community and school- based settings. She has run programs in the Lower East Side and at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York City that focused on the treatment of alcohol and substance abuse, improvement of mental health and crisis intervention for individuals and families. She has acted as Civilian Co-Coordinator of Parenting Programs at the Bedford Hills Women’s Correctional Facility. Professor Sperling also maintains a private practice in New York City. Her areas of professional knowledge and interest include: diversity, mental health, prison systems, women’s studies, human development, substance abuse, oral history and pedagogy.

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  Nancy Baez ’12

  A native New Yorker, Nancy attended New York City public schools and graduated from Brooklyn Tech. At Marymount Manhattan College (MMC), she focused her studies on international social movements with an emphasis on equity, inclusion, and transparency in urban planning. She spent a year observing the initiation of Participatory Budgeting (PB) in NYC, and published the first article on its initiation. Nancy graduated Summa Cum Laude with a Bachelor’s Degree in International Studies and Journalism, and was inducted into three Honor Societies based on Leadership, Academic Achievement, and Political Science. Nancy gained government experience in the Offices of Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and then-Public Advocate Bill de Blasio. She also managed and co-authored a grant-funded impact study on the NYC Department of Education’s Special Education Reform through the Fund for Public Advocacy. After two years as Special Assistant and Chief of Staff in the DOE’s Division of Family and Community Engagement, Nancy transitioned into her current role at the Fund for Public Schools. 

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  Matthew Corridoni ’13

  Deputy Communications Director & Campaign Spokesman, Pete for DNC

  Communications Director, Stoney for RVA

  Deputy National Press Secretary, O’Malley for President

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  Julietta Lopez ’12

  After she graduated from MMC, Julietta pursued her Master of Arts in Management and Urban Policy in International Affairs from the Milano School of International Affairs at the New School. Before moving to Washington, D.C. for her current role, Julietta was Senator Schumer’s Constituent Liaison here in NYC.

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  Quiniva Smith ’15

  CUNY School of Law ’20

  MMC Class of 2015, Political Science and History