BOARD OF DIRECTORS
STAFF
ADVISORY BOARD
TO APPLY FOR CONSIDERATION TO
JOIN THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
CONSUELO RUYBAL – Co-Founder,
Chair of the Board of Directors
Consuelo Ruybal is a Vice President, Group
Creative Director at DIGITAS, an award-winning New York City marketing
firm. She
leads a mix of visual designers, copywriters and usability engineers
to create multi-channel marketing communications for Fortune 500
companies.
Consuelo brings a wide variety of skill sets to her advocacy work
including branding, marketing, corporate identity work, user interface
and website design.
Serving as the Chair of the Board of Directors
for RightRides for Women’s
Safety, she designed the RightRides logo, designed and built the website
along with co-creating the operational model and key documentation
such as the volunteer training manuals.
Consuelo holds a Bachelor’s of Fine Art from Eastern New Mexico University.
ORAIA REID – Co-Founder,
Executive Director
See STAFF for bio
UMA DESHMUKH – Member
Uma is the Clinical Research Coordinator at MassGeneral Hospital for Children. She is a long-time volunteer for the Mount
Sinai Sexual Assault and Violence Intervention (SAVI) Program.
She has
extensive domestic and international experience in community development, program
and policy analysis, fundraising, and advocacy work, and has contributed years
of service to the movement to end violence against women.
Uma graduated from Swarthmore College with a B.A. in Sociology and Anthropology
and completed her Master's degree in Urban Planning at New York University.
BENJAMIN DONSKY -
Member
Benjamin is a Project Manager with a boutique
urban redevelopment firm. He has extensive background in
transportation planning and operations, holding leadership
positions for the student transportation services at Brown
University, which included driving and walking escort services
provided by the school’s public safety department. Following
graduation, he consulted the University on a comprehensive
re-design of the services.
Benjamin holds a B. A. in Urban Studies with Honors from
Brown University and a Master's in City and Regional Planning
from Rutgers University.
ALAYNA FRANCIS - Member
Alayna is the Manager of Media Relations for the Americas
division of a global reinsurer. In this role, Alayna is
charged with development of strategy and implementation
for all external communications in Canada, United States and Latin America.
She has more than a decade of experience in communications and public
relations, having worked with a range of business-to-business clients
including Guardian Life Insurance and Cablevision among others. She
has participated in a variety of charity work, ranging from food-prep volunteer for God’s
Love We Deliver, a charity that prepares and delivers food to home-bound
AIDS patients to acting as a mentor for low-income women.
Alayna holds a B.A. in English/Communications from Hofstra University and is
currently pursuing an M.B.A. at Baruch College, with a concentration in Marketing
and Finance.
MARQUINA ILIEV - Member
Marquina Iliev is the Account Director for Firstlight ERA, an online
advertising technology firm. She is an active board member of the
University of Michigan Alumni Association of New York, where she
serves on the scholarship and fundraising committees. She is fluent
in conversational German.
Marquina holds a B.A. in Organizational Business and Sociology from
the University of Michigan.
STEPHANIE JOSON - Member
Stephanie Joson works at
an art gallery and manages a wide variety of its functions, including
press relations, writing and editing, archiving, rights and reproductions,
and graphic design.
Involved with RightRides since 2006,
she assistd
in fundraising efforts, volunteers as a Navigator in the
driving program, and serves in the Leadership Circle's outreach committee. She
is honored to have recently won a Distinguished Defender Award
from RightRides and to be one of its newest board members.
Stephanie received
a B.A. from Fordham University, where she studied Visual Arts and
Communications and Media Studies.
SAMANTHA OLAYA - Member
Samantha Olaya works at Smith Barney, a subsidiary of
Citigroup, where she wears many hats. Currently, she is working
with various departments to create a system that streamlines processes
for corporate and field users.
As a RightRides volunteer since
2004, she has driven people home, helped with fundraising efforts and
dispatched. She is an execution-oriented person at work and in
volunteer efforts, and is up for the challenge of expanding RightRides
domestically.
Samantha holds a B.A. in Political Science with a concentration in International
Relations from Boston University and will pursue a M.A. in Social-Organizational
Psychology in the near future.
CHAITRA "Chai" SHENOY,
ESQ.
-
Member
Chai Shenoy is the Policy & Technical Assistance
Attorney at Break the Cycle, Inc., a national non-profit empowering and
educating youth and young adults on dating violence and domestic violence. In
the East Coast office located in Washington, DC., Chai represents D.C.
youth seeking civil protection orders, child custody & support,
and other family law related issues.
Prior to working for Break
the Cycle, she lived in NYC and worked as the Domestic Violence Policy
Analyst at government office. During her time in NYC, Chai volunteered
for RightRides and became passionate about the organization's mission
and purpose. Chai
is currently a rape crisis counselor for DC Rape Crisis Center.
Chai is originally from the Bay Area, California. She holds a B.A. from
UCLA and a J.D. from American University, Washington College of Law.
NICHELLE STEPHENS
-
Member
Nichelle is a freelance bookkeeper, blogger and social media strategist. She
has held Senior Risk Management Consultant and Senior Accountant positions at
Protiviti, KPMG, Deloitte & Touche, among others. Nichelle is currently a
Business Advisor for AllBusiness.com, where she blogs about accounting issues
for small businesses.
Nichelle received her Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting
from the University of Cincinnati.

STAFF
ORAIA REID – Co-Founder,
Executive Director
With over a decade of grassroots organizing experience, Oraia is committed to
empowering communities on behalf of LGBTQ, socio/political justice, and women’s
rights issues with a focus on ending sexual assault.
Serving as the Executive Director of RightRides For Women’s Safety, Oraia
has been instrumental in launching the organization from vision to operations
and significant growth, by overseeing strategic and programmatic development,
public relations, fund development, along with community and sponsorship relations.
Under her direction, RightRides has received awards,
community recognition and press
coverage. She is also sought for speaking engagements at conferences
about her experiences as a young activist, community leader and social entrepreneur.
Recently, Oraia completed executive education certificates from Harvard Business
School in Performance Measurement for Effective Management of Nonprofit Organizations,
and from Columbia Business School's Institute for Not-For-Profit Management,
certificate of Middle Management. She is also a 2007 Junior Fellow at the
Nonprofit Leadership Development Institute at the United Way of New York City.
ERIN ARMSTRONG - Program
Manager
Erin started volunteering for RightRides
in 2006 as a Navigator and a Dispatcher. For her dedication to
the RightRides mission, she was honored with the Distinguished
Defender award at the 2006 Friends of RightRides Social. In
2007, she joined the RightRides staff as the Program Manager. She
is responsible for coordinating RightRides volunteers, community
based outreach, fostering partnerships, as well as general program
management for RightRides for Women's Safety.
Erin originally comes from a small town
in Utah but moved to New
York City in 2005 after transitioning from male
to female. Since transitioning, Erin has
worked tirelessly to promote Transgender awareness and create a
positive image of the Transgender population. She runs the
most subscribed-to Transgender
blog on YouTube.com and is featured
in Rolling Stone magazine's “Hot Issue” in October
2007. Erin
is also the subject of a 2007 documentary detailing her life after
transition, the rise of her blog as an expression of herself
and others.
Previously, Erin held positions as the Director of
Costuming for Ricky’s and Marketing and Public Relations Manager
for Halloween Adventure. She
now looks forward to bringing her skills and talents to the RightRides
team and can’t wait to see where RightRides will take her
in the future.

ADVISORY BOARD
Purva Panday, Worldwide Campaign Manager, V-DAY
Tracy Hobson, Executive Director, The Center for Anti-Violence Education
Stephanie Blackwood, Account Director, Double Platinum
Nathan Burgess, Director, Ripp Media
Janet Weinberg, Senior Managing Director,
Development & Legislative
Funding, Gay Men's Health Crisis

TO APPLY FOR CONSIDERATION TO JOIN THE BOARD
OF DIRECTORS:
We are actively expanding and diversifying our board. At
this time, we are seeking dedicated leaders in the non profit and
for profit sectors, especially those with senior-level
experience in operations managment, human rights, community
organizing and/or fund development areas.
We are seeking Board Member Candidates with these
specific skill-sets, abilities and interests:
Strategy/Operations Management - Seeking
candidates with senior-level experience (10+ years) in Strategic
Planning, Operations Management, Program Development and/or Evaluation
either in the for- or nonprofit sector. Ideally, candidates
will have experience in Mergers & Acquisitions, national expansion
via licensing agreements and/or establishing affiliates. Members
must have strong interest in working closely with the Executive
Director, staff and key volunteers (including ad-hoc Board Committees
when created) to develop a long-term operations strategy for organization,
including performance management on various levels.
Community Organizing/Community Activist -
Seeking candidates with experience (or interest) in working with
marginalized communities and who have (or wish to) successfully
organize community members towards social change. Ideally,
candidates will have experience working for social change by
evaluating community needs across race, class and gender-identity
spectrums and within the same or similar constituents that RRWS
serves. Candidates will also have experience (or interest)
in working with local government, law enforcement, and/or transportation
authorities. Committee members will assist Executive Director
in evaluating the safety needs of and organizing community members
to effect policy change.
Major Donor/Fundraiser - Seeking candidates
who are, or with strong ties to, Major Donors and who can work
closely with the Executive Director and the Board Fundraising
Committee to successfully solicit and secure major donations,
including corporate sponsorships.
Event Planning - Seeking
candidates with experience (or interest) in planning medium- to large-scale
fundraising events. This committee will be responsible for
organizing the 2009 Friends of RightRides Social and Distinguished
Defender Awards, in celebration of our 5th Anniversary, in 2009. Key
aspects will include: establishing the Host Committee, soliciting
and securing items for the Silent Auction, soliciting and securing
ad placements in the event program, soliciting and securing group
ticket sales, assisting with event logistics and event in-kind donations.
Help us grow RightRides For Women's Safety into a
prominent organization! If you are interested in becoming a member
please
and request an Application. We'll send you this document, and ask
you to return it along with your resume/CV. Our Nominating Committee
will be in contact with you upon receipt.

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