OUR
TEAM
We've gathered an excellent team of experienced partners and professionals, comprised of women and men of diverse backgrounds, races, and nationalities, to whom the White Ribbon cause is so much more than just a job! Our diverse team members and partners have extensive experience working with nonprofits and launching impactful campaigns.
Veronika Mudra
CEO/Founder of White Ribbon USA
Veronika Mudra is a CEO of the White Ribbon USA, women rights advocate, public speaker. She is a former refugee from Ukraine under domestic violence protection program and received asylum in the US. Veronika has been working in nonprofit sector in executive positions for the past 5 years leading White Ribbon Campaign in a few countries. She focuses on the development of support programs for refugees under domestic violence, early gender equality education for children, affordable and supportive housing, advancing women economic empowerment and gender equality in workplaces. She is TEDxWOMEN speaker, participant of “Women. Peace. Security” and IPCC gender task group.
Yuri Gorzey
Strategic Advisor, ImpactFactors, CEO/co-founder
Yuri was a deputy director of a large importer company, managing $50M+ division at the age of 21. His experience includes founding a software development firm providing services to some large companies in the USA since 2002, working as a business and performance improvement consultant for private equity firm, as well as founding law firm that won over 450 cases against the Ukrainian government. His company ‘Impact Factors’ is a Next generation community management platform, delivered as all-in-one or unbundled solution fundamentally changing the way organizations operate. ImpactFactors combines CRM, Website, Mobile and TV apps, Podcasts, Communications, Media, Automation, Marketing and Fundraising, all working as one system.
Miranda Fang
Strategic Communications Consultant
Miranda Fang is currently a full-time MBA Candidate at UCLA Anderson School of Management, studying social impact. Prior to business school, Miranda was a Human Capital Senior Consultant at Deloitte, guiding Fortune 100 companies through large-scale transformations and advising them on various talent strategies including diversity & inclusion. At Deloitte, Miranda led StepUpLA, a skills-based volunteering group who provided strategic consulting services to nonprofits and also helped build Deloitte’s Diversity and Inclusion consulting practice. Miranda studied policy analysis with a focus on inequities and law at Cornell University and started her career in strategic development at Teach For America - Los Angeles. She is a proud resident of Los Angeles and enjoys long-distance running and exploring national parks.
Sheila Shah
Tech Entrepreneur, Producer, Humanitarian
Sheila Shah is a Producer, international actress, and an advocate and humanitarian. She speaks fluent Farsi, French, and English. Sheila is focused on projects with social impact and social change. Shah also serves as an Ambassador for the March of Dimes of Canada and helped create awareness for the disease by attending and speaking at various events. She is also an Advocate for CARE to help fight poverty by empowering women and girls. Among her effort to bring awareness to this cause, she attended the National Conference to advocate for CARE in Capitol Hill, Washington, DC and the CAN summit in Atlanta in 2015 and has been involved in their campaigns for the International day of the girl. Sheila is a strong advocate and an ambassador of White Ribbon USA and White Ribbon Canada. She has helped and given her voice to other organizations such as the David Lynch Foundation and Go Campaign. Sheila also participated in a campaign for the United Nation Environment program called “World Is In Our Hands" to raise awareness for climate change.
Lora Bailey Ph.D
Program Evaluation, 'Ed Causes' President
Dr. Bailey is a renowned researcher, project developer, professor, dean of education with over 18 years experience advocating for disenfranchised, minority families and children zoned for public schools. She published over 40 peer-reviewed articles, delivered over 100 peer-reviewed presentations, published 4 books. Dr. Bailey collaborated with federal and state agencies, foundations to garner funds for development of collaborative projects aimed at professionally developing children, families and teachers who are educated live and teach in at-risk school districts facing school closure. She has been awarded $7 million in grant funds to improve conditions for communities she has served.
Adam Hoffman
Legal Advisor, Helix Compliance Founder
Headquartered in the heart of midtown Manhattan, Helix Compliance is a legal tech firm that helps turn dreams into reality. Managed by US-based attorneys - current and former General Counsels, Chief Compliance Officers, and Law Firm Practitioners - Helix provides essential documentation for non-profits, small business owners, and individuals to achieve their goals and protect their organizations. By embracing leading automation technology methods, Helix seeks to efficiently improve the quality, while reducing the cost, of fully customizable documents. If you would like to learn more about Helix and how they can help you, please do not hesitate to send a message to info@helixcompliance.com.
Kayla Manteiga
Website & Social Media Design and Management
Kayla joins the White Ribbon team from Ontario, Canada. She is the owner of Soul or Flare (www.soulorflare.com) a company that helps businesses start, grow and expand in the digital space. Kayla has a passion for copywriting, editing, and social media marketing strategy and design.
“I’m thrilled to have joined the White Ribbon USA team, because working with people who are dedicated to creating positive, lasting change sets my soul on fire. Looking forward to helping this amazing company continue to make a positive impact on the world!”
Kurt Graves
Founder of TaxFreeCharity.com
Kurt Graves is the President and founder of TaxFreeCharity.com. Since 1983 he has assisted in the formation of thousands of exempt 501(c)3s charities and foundations. From the race to end the COVID pandemic to outposts in the poorest corners of our planet, Kurt continues to provide compliance assistance for nonprofits performing work that would otherwise be left undone.
Paloma Urbina
Project & Event Coordinator
Paloma Urbina is Mexican American entrepreneur, seed investor and women rights activist. From the early age Paloma has founded numerous companies in service industries and real estate. She has profound experience in managing multiply business ventures, stuff members and companies. Paloma Urbina initiated employment partner program for the White Ribbon USA and became Event and Project Coordinator. Currently Paloma is working on affordable housing project in Los Angeles.
Christina Schmotolocha Marketing & Communications Coordinator​
Christina Schmotolocha is a USC Berkeley graduate, women’s rights advocate, and Women’s March member. Christina has advanced experience in marketing, corporate communications, Public Relations, communications for human rights organizations.
She also has expertise in advocacy and campaigning in a way that supports and elevates voices of social movements and vulnerable groups and communities. She has high-level of professional experience in proof-reading, writing and editing works in English, excellent research and analytical skills, and writing.
Christina has a strong analysis and understanding of the international human rights framework, advocacy and campaigning activities.
Aaron Celious, Ph.D
Director of Research &Data Strategy, Maroon Society, Inc., CEO/founder
Aaron Celious is a sociologist whose work focuses on how to introduce large-scale programs and policies. This includes understanding how to match the capabilities of the agency with the wants and needs of the consumer. Recent projects include:
-
Developing the 10-Year Strategy for the City of Los Angeles AIDS Coordinator's Office
-
Evaluating the effectiveness of the GRYD (Gang Reduction Youth Development) program for the City of Los Angeles
-
Outlining a strategic direction for the Southern California Association of Governments to plan for the rapidly aging population in Southern California
-
Identifying opportunities to expand rail service to reduce congestion and improve access to Bob Hope Airport for the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority
​
Arwa Awan
Full Stack Web Developer
Arwa Awan is Miscrosoft certified full Stack Web Developer with over 7 years of professional experience.
She works with PHP, RESTful API, Javascript, JQuery, HTML, CSS, Angular and Elasticsearch (ELK stack); MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL, SQL Server, Oracle databases and Apache, Ubuntu, CentOS, DigitalOcean server environments.
​
After getting degree in Computer Science Arwa participated in numerous projects as Programmer Analyst for CenterPoint Energy, as Lead Developer for Substation Automated Login System, as Web Developer for Aerocare, as Software Engineer for Etisalat, ODS2, TeleTaleem and many others.
Our team’s leadership, membership composition, and collaborative partners demonstrate the holistic assembly of experts. This expertise and researched-based knowledge are exactly what is needed to achieve an immediate impact on problems associated with domestic violence. As such, our partnership structure is uniquely positioned to deliver program results to execute our mission.