Our Team

Alberto Minujin

Founder and Executive Director

Alberto Minujin is professor at The New School University, New York. Minujin is Founding Executive Director of Equity for Children and Equidad para la Infancia, a non-profit working to improve living conditions for deprived children (www.equityfrochildren.org).  A UNICEF Senior Officer from 1990-2005, Minujin is a mathematician with training in Applied Statistics and Demography. From 2013 to 2018 Minujin served on the Board of Comparative Research on Poverty (CROP), a Scientific Committee at the University of Bergen. He has authored volumes including “Leaving No Children and No Adolescents Behind” Ibedem (2021), “Tackling Child Poverty in Latin America”, CROP-Ibidem (2017),”Global Child Poverty and Well-Being”, Policy Press (2012). In 2010, Minujin was awarded the Bicentennial Medal by the government of Argentina in recognition of his decades-long work on behalf of the world’s most impoverished children and adolescents.

Gabriel Crespo

Associate Director of Programs and Administration

Gabriel administers Equity for Children, overseeing all the programmatic areas including project design and implementation, strategic communications, and fundraising. He is a parent and committed child rights advocate. His research interest focus on social innovation and effective policies for the reduction of poverty and urban inequality. Gabriel has a law degree from Universidad de Salamanca, Spain, in international law and human rights. He received an M.A. in International Affairs from The New School, prior to that, he obtained an M.A. in Comparative Literature at Universidad Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona.

Mariela Giacoponello

Program Officer

Sociologist and PhD candidate in Social Sciences at the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Mariela is a university professor in the areas of sociology and methodology and has extensive experience as a consultant in public and civil society organizations in the areas of quantitative and qualitative approaches in projects related to the advocacy of rights in vulnerable groups (UNICEF, JDC, among others).

Samantha Cocco-Klein

Senior Advisor

Samantha Cocco-Klein is an advocate for children and international development specialists. For over 15 years, she has worked with UNICEF, the UN and civil society organizations around the world to improve the lives of children. As Chief of Policy, Advocacy, Planning and Evaluation (PAPE) for UNICEF Pacific, she led research and advocacy initiatives to put children’s concerns at the center of regional discussions on poverty, climate adaptation, and the Post 2015 Agenda. She is currently a Ph.D. student in Public and Urban Policy at the Milano School for International Affairs, Management, and Urban Policy, with an interest in resilient and equitable cities for children.

Ruth Grant

Spanish to English Translator

Ruth Grant is a translator, proof-reader, and writer, passionate about language, meaning, and new ideas. Born in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1983, she studied Geography at the University of Cambridge and later completed two Masters degrees; one in Environment, Society and Development and the other in City Planning and Regeneration. Before becoming a freelance translator, she worked for third-sector organizations as a researcher and fundraiser. Ruth currently lives near Oxford in England. Her translation work is oriented towards social sciences, social and urban policy, international development and the environment, reflecting her academic and personal interests, as well as more commercial projects.

Alejandra Davidziuk

Web Editor

Alejandra Davidziuk has a degree in Social Communication Sciences from the Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA), a Master of Arts in International Affairs at The New School (United States) with a specialization in Social Economic Development. She is currently a student in the doctoral program in Social Sciences at the Instituto de Desarrollo Económico y Social (IDES-UNGS). In addition, she counts with a post-graduate course in Public Policy Management (FLACSO-INAP) and training courses in Project Management (Universidad Nacional de Lomas de Zamora), Quality Communication (INAP), Funding R&D and Innovation Business Management (European Commission). She has over twenty years of progressive experience as journalist, researcher, project manager, and outreach officer with special focus on virtual and onsite communication strategies and community relationship building. This experience is essential to her daily work at the international cooperation field, where she is actively involved since 2007. Currently, she is also Outreach Manager at the BrainLat Institute de la Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez de Chile.

María Agustina Banchiero

Social Media

María Agustina Banchiero is an advanced student of the Bachelor’s Degree in Audiovisual Communication at the National University of San Martín (UNSAM). She is also a journalist graduated from ETER. She has specializations in Social Media Management and content creation. She is a creative professional with experience in communication and digital marketing. She enjoys creating content for social media and effective digital campaigns.

Anabella Orellana

Communications and Translation Manager

Anabella Orellana is currently attending her sophomore year at Parsons School of Design studying Product Design with a minor in Communications Design. She graduated from The High School of Art and Design in 2020 as an Illustration student. During the academic year 2020-2021, she enrolled in The New School’s BA/BFA program, where she majored in Illustration at Parsons and Digital Journalism+Design at Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts. She has worked with Equity For Children and Equidad Para La Infancia for 3 years. In her freshman year at The New School, she was hired as a Communications Assistant. With her fluency in Spanish and English, she has greatly contributed to the website and social media platforms. As of 2022, she was promoted to the organization’s Translation Manager.

Board of Advisors

Jace Schinderman

Advisory Board

Jace Schinderman is an expert in board development and strategic management of non-profit institutions, especially in education from pre-school through post-graduate learning.  Since 2006 when she founded consultancy JLS Enterprises, Schinderman has served a range of clients including the Bronx Children’s Museum, Equity for Children at The New School, Archdiocese of New York, Rice University, Jewish Theological Seminary, NYU Langone Medical Center Cancer Institute and Touro Hospital of New Orleans.

As Associate Dean of Columbia Business School from 1990-2006, Schinderman staffed the 80-member Board of Overseers, supervised marketing and communications and developed and operated the Chazen Institute of International Business.  Before Columbia, she worked at the Illinois Institute of Technology and Tulane University’s A.B. Freeman School of Business, which she joined after founding and operating for six years the social services program Crescent House, Louisiana’s first shelter for battered women and children.

Schinderman serves as Independent Director of alternative investment funds at Oppenheimer & Co. and Macquarie Group.  She is a graduate student in Johns Hopkins University’s M.A. in Writing program and received her BA and MBA degrees from Tulane University. Schinderman speaks Spanish, Italian and French.

Tom Fernandez

Advisory Board

Tom Fernandez is a founder of Balto Therapeutics, a specialty pharmaceutical company in New York. Previously, he co-founded Retrophin, Inc., a public biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing and marketing innovative therapies for rare, catastrophic childhood diseases. Before that, he was a partner at a family of hedge funds, Galleon Group, where he led Investor Relations and the marketing effort. Prior to Galleon, Tom was Assistant Dean for MBA Career Services and Director of The Chazen Institute of International Business at Columbia Business School. He is a Trustee of Synchronicity Earth, a UK-based nonprofit dedicated to preserving global biodiversity. Tom holds a BA in History from Yale University and an MBA from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

Marilyn Kohn

Advisory Board

Marilyn F. Kohn, is Associate Dean of Institutional Advancement at the Columbia University School of Professional Studies. Prior to this Marilyn was Vice Chancellor and Chief Development Officer of The Jewish Theological Seminary. Marilyn has been a development professional for 30 years. She directed and worked with fundraising teams for a variety of organizations, large and small, including serving as director of Principal Gifts at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and Associate Dean of External Relations and Development of Columbia Business School. Prior to that, she served as Vice President of Caesar & Washburn Incorporated, consulting with clients such as Cancer Care, Facing History and Ourselves, Jewish Home and Hospital, Ms. Foundation, and Victim Services.

Tamara Kreinin

Advisory Board

Tamara Kreinin is the Director of the Reproductive Health program at the Packard Foundation. Prior to that, Tamara served as the executive director of women and population at the United Nations Foundation where she designed and implemented initiatives to improve life for women and girls globally, with an emphasis on reproductive health, comprehensive programs for adolescent girls, U.S. policy on behalf of women and girls globally, global south advocacy, and partnerships with UN agencies. Tamara’s experience in health and human services spans more than 25 years. She has traveled the globe as an advocate and public policy advisor for sexual and reproductive health and rights. Throughout her career, Tamara has been a passionate voice for social justice and social change. She has consulted in the areas of advocacy, fundraising, public relations, and numerous issues related to social change domestically and internationally. She has advised governors, legislators, state and local public health officials, parliamentarians, and advocates on effective public health policy; and has worked on numerous political campaigns. Tamara is the co-author of Girls’ Night Out, a book about women’s groups across America, published in 2002 by Crown, Random House. Tamara holds a Masters in Health Services Administration (M.H.S.A.) from the School of Public Health at the University of Michigan.

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