Gaia Hefti
Gaia is the advocacy officer in Geneva and coordinates the advocacy activities before international human rights mechanisms in Geneva, Switzerland.
Prior to joining Race and Equality, Gaia worked with the Mexican Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in the democratic space unit, where she focused on the monitoring of abuses against human rights defenders, journalists and during peaceful protests. Additionally, she worked in different local and international human rights organization on human rights education, particularly on international human rights mechanisms, in Chile, Germany and Switzerland.
Gaia holds an Msc in Human Rights from the London School of Economics and Political Science and a BA in International Studies with a specialization in the Latin Americana region form Leiden University.
hefti@raceandequality.org
Paolla Moura
Paolla handles all communications work for our work on LGBTI rights in Brazil and supports the implementation of our region-wide communications strategy.
Before joining us, Paolla worked in the field of public relations, particularly in cultural and business promotions. She has focused her past work as a journalist and communications specialist on the topics of race, gender, and intersectional feminism, especially the development of Afro-descendant identity and consciousness for social movements seeking racial and gender justice.
Paolla is trained as a journalist and holds a master’s degree in Culture and Territory from Universidad Federal Fluminense (Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil)
jornalista@raceandequality.org
Leilane Reis
Leilane works with the strengthening of Brazilian organizations to combat racism and gender violence, and to promote and defend human rights at the national and international levels.
Leilane is a lawyer, with a master´s degree in law and public policies. She has experience in criminal law. Before joining Race and Equality, she has worked to combat violence against women, and also as a legal assistant in supporting refugee and refugee seekers.
She is currently working on her Ph.D. at PUC/Rio, where she is researching environmental migrations and refuge. She is also a researcher on human rights, forced displacement, extractivist, and environmental justice, with a focus on race and gender.
reis@raceandequality.org
Nathaly Calixto
Nathaly Calixto (she/her) serves as the Brazil Program Officer and is located in the Washington DC office. Her role involves representing the Brazil office at an institutional level in DC and advocating for our partners, effectively elevating their concerns to the highest levels of human rights protection. She actively engages with influential stakeholders, such as the US Congress, State Department, the OAS, and prominent human rights organizations with a regional and global impact.
Nathaly is a lawyer specializing in International Politics and Human Rights, with a Master’s in Political Science and International Relations from NOVA University of Lisbon, and SciencePo-certified in International Migration. She has worked in Brazil, Sri Lanka, and Portugal, conducting research in the fields of migration, international politics and human rights.
calixto@raceandequality.org
Rodnei Jericó da Silva
Lawyer and Coordinator of the Race and Equality Brazil Program. Rodnei is responsible for managing the projects, programs and strategic alliances of Race and Equality in Brazil.
For 23 years he acted as lawyer and coordinator of SOS Racism of Geledés – Black Women’s Institute. He has a postgraduate study in Human Rights from the University of São Paulo (USP), postgraduate in Human Rights and International Law from the Advocates Training Program at Columbia University (NY), also a postgraduate in Civil Law and Civil Procedural Law. Litigator with vast experience in the defense of the rights of the Black population. Since 2001, he has been acting before the International Human Rights Protection Systems, both in the Inter-American Human Rights System and the Universal Human Rights System.
jerico@raceandequality.org
Luz Mateo Cielo
Luz implements the communication strategies of the LGBTI Program working with staff and activists in Latin America and the Caribbean to promote the LGBTI+ work of Race and Equality and our partners.
Previously, she worked as a consultant in the area of communications for various feminist non-governmental organizations such as the Estudio por la Defensa de los Derechos de la Mujer (DEMUS), Movimiento Manuela Ramos, and Lesbianas Independientes Feministas Socialistas (LIFS), all dedicated to the protection and promotion of the human rights of women and LGBTI+ and gender diverse people.
She has experience carrying out communication campaigns for political and social advocacy incoordination with independent activists, groups, and civil society organizations. Among her most prominent campaigns is #LesbianasCedaw and Generación Z; the first was part of a coalition of human rights organizations and the second, part of a project by UNICEF, Promundo, and Movimiento Manuela Ramos.
Luz has a B.A. in Journalism and Communication from the Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas (UPC).
Sara Sánchez
In this role, Sara is in charge of coordinating the administrative, financial, and logistical policies of the Race and Equality office in Colombia.
Before joining Race and Equality, she worked as an Administrative Assistant at the Feminist Kolective Corporation. She also worked at the Humanas Corporation as administrator of the project “Support for the construction of public policies with a gender approach in Colombia”, financed by the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation.
Sara is a Business Administrator from the Universidad Nacional Abierta y a Distancia (UNAD), and has extensive experience in planning, executing and optimizing financial resources, mastery in establishing excellent business relationships and office management.
logistic@raceandequality.org
Lina María Velásquez
Lina is a junior researcher in the line of research and advocacy activities against racist police violence in Colombia. She is a Sociologist from the Universidad del Valle.
Before joining Raza e Igualdad, Lina was a research assistant at the Universidad del Valle in the Ethnic-Racial Studies and Labor Studies research group in its different social components in projects related to affirmative action, higher education, and job placement for Afro-descendant populations. and indigenous women, processes of economic strengthening and social leadership of indigenous women, internationalization and characterization of Colombian Universities and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) of the United States.
Lina has participated in the Afro-descendant Foundation for Social and Sexual Diversities SOMOS IDENTIDAD in activities related to training processes from a gender and ethnic-racial approach, in activities to accompany and disseminate affirmative actions for the Afro-descendant population in higher education. She was a scholarship holder of the Martin Luther King program carried out by USAID, Embassy of the United States and Colombo Americano. In 2017 she participated in the School for Advanced Studies in Ethnic-racial Inequalities: dialogues between Africa, America and Europe at the Universidad del Valle.
investigacioncali@raceandequality.org
Jesús Fragozo Caro
Jesús is in charge of executing communication actions to advocate on human rights issues in Latin America. He also supports the implementation of Race and Equality’s communication strategy.
He is a social communicator and journalist from Barranquilla, Colombia. Previously, he coordinated the communications area of a Colombian NGO that fights for the rights of LGBTI+ people, and was the facilitator of a pilot project that created a model for the Colombian Police to prevent and improve attention to cases of gender-based violence.
He has worked in media and human rights organizations that address issues of gender, internal armed conflict, and peace agreements.
commslatam@raceandequality.org
Yanitza Sánchez Batista
In this role, Yanitza works to design and implement innovative programs to build the capacity of human rights activists in Latin America.
Yanitza initiated her legal path by working as a lawyer in Cuba, mainly focusing on civil law, criminal law, and disputes. She also practiced law in Ecuador, working as a legal advisor for the local Government of Pichincha (GAP) in Quito. Her work focused on enhancing law to protect people’s rights in a human mobility context, designing local immigration public policies, and developing advocacy strategies towards the local and national level institutions. She also actively participated in constructing the Organic Law on the Human Mobility process in Ecuador. Continuing her legal career in the U.S., she was part of the Human Rights Clinic (HRC), in Miami Law’s Human Rights Program, as a student fellow to gain experience in human rights litigation and advocacy at the local, national, regional, and international levels.
Yanitza has a law degree from the “Oscar Lucero Moya” University in Cuba. She received her second law degree, an LL.M/J.D. in International Law from the University of Miami School of Law in Florida.
sanchez@raceandequality.org
