The Grant Making Panel (GMP) is made up of trans activists from across the globe with diverse expertise who review applications and select grantees.
Anna Acosta
Anna Acosta is a trans activist from Cali, Colombia. Her longstanding involvement in LGBTQ, feminist and sex worker movements, as well as Afro-Colombian struggles, is driven by her belief in social justice and the need for an intersectional perspective on trans issues. In recent years, she has also worked as a freelance English-Spanish translator for organizations such as NSWP (Global Network of Sex Work Projects) and the feminist fund MamaCash. As a trans woman of color, sex worker and drug user, she embodies in her skin the diverse realities and identities that trans people navigate, at the intersection of multiple axes of oppression and multiple platforms of resistance.
Cai Thomas
Cai is LGBTI+ youth advocate, community builder, researcher, facilitator, and program manager from the United States. They currently work as a Technical Advisor on gender equality and social inclusion (GESI) and safeguarding at IREX, a global development and education organization, and as the Chief Operating Officer at The Global Center, an NGO that transform the world through education for LGBTI+ youth globally. In their free time, Cai enjoys volunteering with local LGBTI+ organizations like Brave Trails, an LGBTI+ youth camp, and PFLAG, an organization for families of LGBTI+ youth. They received a MA in Comparative & International Education from Teachers College, Columbia University. A question that guides Cai’s work is: “How do we create a truly, just, equal, and inclusive culture for LGBTI+ youth globally?”
Jas Pham
Jas is a trans woman from Europe, born from a Vietnamese family of refugees. She has been based in Asia for the last 10 years, initially working in the tech-space (gaming, telcos, advertising), then shifted for good to Non-profit, Social Change, Diversity & inclusion. Jas is currently working at the Asia Pacific Transgender Network, the largest trans-led network that supports and advocates for the rights for trans and gender diverse people in Asia Pacific. She initially joined 5 years ago as Media and Communications Officer and helped to launch the current APTN website. Now her role is Knowledge Management and Operations Officer, helping to improve the team’s operations, processes, and systems in a sustainable way. She’s passionate about helping underserved trans communities, providing capacity building and best tools to do better their work, increasing their impact and funding. Jas is a feminist, a hyperglot, and a mindfulness nerd. In her free time, she likes to cook fusion plant based Italian food, travelling in developing countries and volunteering at children’s orphanages. She’s also interested in developing alternative sources of funding for grass root organisations and NGOs like Cryptocurrencies, Decentralized Autonomous Organisations and Quadratic funding.
Jholerina Brinnette Theodora Timbo
Jholerina is a Transgender activist from Omaruru NAMIBIA, Jholerina is well versed in managing inclusion programs, including health programs for members of the transgender community. She has over a decade of experience advocating for the equality, social inclusion, economic empowerment and safety of LGBTI persons from diverse backgrounds and demographics. As a transgender professional, Jholerina is passionate about creating knowledge, raising awareness, and educating on LGBTI issues through various and creative means. In her capacity as founder of the Wings to Transcend Namibia Trust(WTTN), she has an exceptional track record of planning, policy development, budgeting, program implementation, report writing and establishing relationships with the LGBTI community and other stakeholders. Jholerina has experience as part of the grants peer review process for other foundation and holds a living legend Award 2022 from the other foundation. Jholerina serves as Vice Chairperson for the Key Populations Technical Working Group (KP TWG) under the National Strategic Framework for HIV and AIDS Response in Namibia. To accentuate her role and commitment to the transgender community, Ms. Timbo is a Mandela Washington Fellowship alumnus 2018 and holder of a Certificate in Global Policy Development and Advocacy in Public Health from the University of Washington
Linn Julian Koletnik
Linn Julian Koletnik is a nonbinary queer transfeminist activist and the former Executive Director and founder of TransAkcija Institute, the first and only trans specific non-governmental organization in Slovenia. They have been involved in Slovene LGBTIQ+ activism since 2006 and have numerous experiences with various structures of organizing, community and capacity building and advocacy. They are the first nonbinary person who publicly came out in nationwide media in Slovenia. Linn holds an MA in Gender Studies from Central European University and a BA in Social Work from the University of Ljubljana. In 2022 they joined the staff of Amnesty International Slovenia. They are inspired and led by norm and binary critical politics, recognition of (their own) privileges, community accountability and radical vulnerability.
Matilda González Gil
Lawyer graduated from Universidad de Los Andes. International Human Rights from American University, Washington College of Law. Has worked in the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights at the LGBTI Rapporteurship as a legal fellow; Colombia Diversa as a human rights lawyers; Instituto Colombiano del Bienestar Familiar in charge of the differential approach at the Children and Youth Direction; and a consultant in International Network of Civil Liberties Organization. Currently leading sex work legal strategy in Red Comunitaria Trans, working as a law professor in Universidad de Los Andes and video-columnist combining art and opinion at Cambio
Tristán López
Tristán López (he/him) is a human rights defender, activist and researcher from Guatemala. His activism started in 2017 in anti-corruption and then transitioned into LGBTIQ+ human rights, understanding the links between justice, democracy and human rights. From 2017 to 2022 he was Advocacy Coordinator of the Guatemalan Transmen Collective ‘Trans-formación’ and is a founding member of Visibles, a local NGO bridging together the LGBTQ+ spectrum. In grassroots, he has contributed to research focused on transmasculine identities and in LGBTIQ+ violence and discrimination in Guatemala. He is also part of the Latin American Network of Trans and gender diverse AFAB persons. Tristán has a masters degree in contemporary history where he studied gender in the early Cold War in his country, his work was published in an opinion paper of Global Action for Trans Equality. In recent years, he has been a fellow for RFSL’s Rainbow Advocacy Program and interned in ILGA World’s GIESC programme. Tristán loves meditating, painting, cooking and hopes to become a therapist and a writer someday.
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