Our Team

Board Member

Board Chairwoma

Chairwoman of the Board

ARUNA RAO

Co-Founder of Gender at Work

is the Co-Founder of Gender at Work, a transnational network of individuals and organizations that build knowledge and practice to end discrimination against women and advance cultures of equality. She is an expert in the field of gender and development with over 30 years of experience in pioneering new approaches to gender and institutional change. She has consulted widely with a range of government, academic and development agencies. She sits on many other Boards and is the Chair of the Board for Oxfam International and Nobel Women’s Initiative.

Members of the Board

CASEY STAVROPOULOS

Executive Director of J P Morgan Chase & Co.

is the Executive Director of J P Morgan Chase & Co. She focuses on philanthropic giving. She has worked at the intersection of policy and communications at Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth, the U.S. Justice Department, APCO Worldwide, McKinsey & Co. and the Obama for America campaign. She holds an M.A. from Johns Hopkins University (SAIS) and a B.A. from Loyola University-Chicago.

RUSSELL HANSER

Senior Policy Advisor at the U.S. Department of Commerce.

is a Senior Policy Advisor at the U.S. Department of Commerce. He is a globally oriented leader, policymaker, and advocate with a passion for technology’s capacity to improve lives. More than two decades of experience in government and private legal practice focused on telecommunications and technology policy. He is passionate about the human rights, development, and digital inclusion issues at the heart of Azadi’s mission and performs pro bono legal work on behalf of refugee rights. Russ is a graduate of Amherst College, Harvard Law School, and Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies. He lives in Fairfax, Virginia, and has a daughter.

Soraya Chemaly

Executive Director of The Representation Project.

is currently the Executive Director of The Representation Project. An award-winning author and activist, she writes and speaks frequently on topics related to gender norms, inclusivity, social justice, free speech, sexualized violence, and technology. The former director and co-founder of the Women’s Media Center Speech Project, she has long been committed to expanding women’s civic and political participation.

Our Team

Priyali Sur

Founder and Executive Director

Priyali Sur is the Founder and the Executive Director of The Azadi Project. She has built and implemented leadership training, job skills and mental health support programs for refugee and marginalized women globally across Europe, Africa and South Asia, helping refugees and migrants from Afghanistan, India, Iran, Iraq, Myanmar, Niger, Syria, Ukraine and Yemen. Priyali is also an award-winning broadcast and multimedia journalist with extensive experience reporting on social justice and gender issues in South Asia and Africa and the refugee crisis in Europe and the Middle East. She is a former news anchor for CNN-IBN in India and her work has been published in CNN, NPR, PBS, and The Guardian, among other international media outlets. She was born in India and is currently based in New Delhi. She holds undergraduate and masters degrees from St. Xavier’s College in Calcutta, Commits in Bangalore, and Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Study in Washington, D.C.

Shreyas Jayakumar

Director, Communications

Shreyas is a communications specialist with a successful track record in building strategic relationships, developing sustained internal/external communications campaigns, and managing CSR programs. In her extensive experience of 15+ years across sectors, she has worked in large corporates, agencies, and non-profits. In her spare time, Shreyas advises NGOs on their brand communication strategies, teaches sustainability and impact investing to post-graduate students, and volunteers for causes related to animal welfare and gender equality.

Villy Tentoma

Global Programs Manager

Villy Tentoma is a designer, an artist, a feminist and an activist. She completed her Master Advanced Studies in Urban Design in ETH Zurich focusing on Rio De Janeiro and Sao Paolo’s favelas. She also holds a diploma in Architecture from National Technical University of Athens where she graduated with distinction. Her love for design and great interest in refugee rights led her working as a co-curator and assistant program director for multiple shows in London that took place in major venues like Southbank Centre and Barbican, and they explored the art, urbanism and conditions of migrant communities affected by the European refugee crisis in places like Calais and Lesvos.

Villy is the president of SINIPARXI : Citizen’s Movement-Coexistence & Communication in the Aegean, a local anti-racist organization on Lesvos in Greece, which deals with refugees and immigrants and with the development of friendly and peaceful relationships with the people of neighboring countries like Turkey. In 2021, Villy coordinated the first pan-European multi-city “Inside Out Project” group action, initiated by activists on the Greek island of Lesvos who want to change European policies on migration and raise awareness among citizens through art.

155 portraits of refugees living in the new Kara Tepe camp in Lesvos were installed in over 15 European countries on 17th of July. Villy joined Azadi’s team in September 2021. She worked as a facilitator and program manager of our MHPSS program “Doust” in Lesvos. Her great passion for mental health and refugee/gender rights soon led her to managing our programs globally.

Villy is particularly interested in women’s rights, gender inequality, gender based violence and healthy relationships .

Aya Ragheb

Social Media Manager

Aya is passionate about Social Media and traveling. Her passions led her to study for a Bachelor’s Degree in Commerce and Business. She has lived in Egypt, and Kenya and travelled in 12 countries, which led her to move to Dubai, where she developed her career as a marketer and developed a “Think out of the Box” mentality which leads her to have creative ideas. She also worked with Social Hackers Academy, an NGO in Greece, as a Social Media Manager to support the team reach its mission and supporting more people in achieving their goals in tech. Aya joined a lot of NGOs as Volunteer because she believes in helping people who are in need when she can do something for them.

Aya is currently studying her Master’s in Management and Entrepreneurship at Leuphana University in Germany. Aya Joined The Azadi Project to keep supporting many Women and Men to reach good mental health and better life by pushing for the growth and development of the whole organisation through Marketing strategy and promoting the activities that the team are doing to raise the awareness of the

Bartosz Ocipski

Associate Development Manager

Bartosz has a background in philosophy. Prior to working with Azadi he worked for private sector and non-profits where he was responsible for a wide range of tasks including corporate outreach, managing CSR projects, and running fundraising campaigns. Programs he has been involved in have addressed human rights, animal welfare, environmental protection, and climate change mitigation. He writes about current issues concerning climate change and social equality for SmogLab.