Board of Directors

• Emma López

Emma López

Emma is a Guatemalan resident of the capital city. She is a psychologist with a master’s degree in Sexuality, Gender, and Public Policy from the University of San Carlos de Guatemala. She has 7 years of experience in Sexual and Reproductive Rights, especially training, promotion, and advocacy for Comprehensive Sexuality Education. She also works as a consultant for non-governmental organizations in processes of strengthening youth leadership, gender mainstreaming and intersectionality; awareness and information processes for the eradication of Child, Early and Forced Marriages and Unions, Violence Against Women, among others. She has also participated in research projects related to suicide by teenage pregnancy and LGBTQIA+ population.

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• Anne Kraemer

Anne Kraemer

Having served on the WINGS Board since 2019, Anne is an anthropologist and a co-founder of Maya Health Alliance | Wuqu’ Kawoq, an organization created in 2007 to transform health in rural Guatemala. She has served as Executive Director/Chief Executive Officer since 2009. Her passion is amplifying the voices of women and girls to foster community-driven, high-impact, culturally and linguistically appropriate programs that promote health and reproductive rights in underserved indigenous Maya communities. Anne trained as a cultural anthropologist at the University of Kansas, where she received her master’s degree and completed doctoral coursework. She received a Fulbright scholarship in 2007. Anne lives in Guatemala with her daughters. She speaks Spanish and Kaqchikel.

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• Lori Heise

Lori Heise

Lori Heise has over 30 years of experience working in the areas of gender equality, social change, and women’s health, first as an activist practitioner, and later as a researcher. Early in her career, she founded and led two women’s health organizations—one dedicated to sexual and reproductive health and rights and a second focused on women’s HIV prevention needs. She is an internationally recognized expert on the causes and consequences of violence against women and currently serves as co-founder and Technical Director of the Prevention Collaborative, a global initiative designed to strengthen the ability of key actors to implement cutting edge violence prevention programs informed by research-based evidence, practice-based learning, and feminist principles. Lori worked in Guatemala 30 years ago and recently returned to become a permanent resident. She is also on the faculty of the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health.

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• Kathy Hall

Kathy Hall

Kathy Hall has worked in philanthropy and as a lawyer and advocate for gender equality for 25 years. She is currently Director of the Equality for Women and Girls Program at The Summit Foundation. Kathy was previously Deputy Director of Women and Population at the United Nations Foundation and Co-Executive Director of Just Detention International. She also helped build and later directed the Global Legal Program at the Center for Reproductive Rights. Kathy has served on the boards of Funders for Reproductive Equity (FRE), the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee, and currently serves on the board of Kakenya’s Dream, which focuses on empowering girls through education in rural Kenya. Kathy is a graduate of Princeton University and Columbia Law School. Kathy first visited Guatemala in 1989 and is passionate about WINGS’ holistic approach to addressing the barriers to reproductive health and rights that so many women and youth face.

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• Dorotea Gómez

Dorotea Gómez

Dorotea is a Guatemalan professional dedicated to human rights, social justice, and equity. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Social Work and a Master’s Degree in Social Anthropology from the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP) in Brazil. Her work integrates historical, social, and anthropological perspectives, with a strong focus on Guatemala’s multicultural and multiethnic context. She has extensive experience working with women from diverse backgrounds and addressing barriers to sexual and reproductive rights. From 2023 to 2024, she served as WINGS’ first Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Specialist. Dorotea currently serves as the Director General of Social Welfare at the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare, where she continues to promote initiatives that strengthen rights, equity, and well-being for the Guatemalan population.

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• Richard Yankwich

Richard Yankwich

Richard has worked with groups advocating reproductive rights, providing health care services and education, and building community organizations for more than 30 years. He previously was on the Board of Directors of Planned Parenthood Mar Monte, the largest affiliate of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Kids in Common, a children’s advocacy group, as well as the Palo Alto Arts Center Foundation. He retired in 2013 as a partner in the international law firm of DLA Piper, where he was a member of the litigation department, the national recruiting chair, and a volunteer mediator in local courts. He joined the WINGS Board in 2018 and looks forward to assisting in expanding essential services to the people of Guatemala.

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• Dana Rogers

Dana Rogers

Dana has more than 20 years of experience in scaling and evolving innovative fundraising and philanthropic models for women’s rights organizations and feminist and social justice movements in the United States, Latin America and the Caribbean, and globally. In her current role as Senior Philanthropy Advisor at Fòs Feminista, Dana is focused on expanding major and planned gifts and gender lens investing. Previously the Chief Development and Strategic Partnerships Officer at Fòs Feminista (and formerly International Planned Parenthood Federation Western Hemisphere Region), Dana led a wide range of initiatives to achieve greater sustainability and impact to advance sexual and reproductive health, rights and justice with a focus on developing high-value partnerships across many different philanthropic actors including high-net worth individuals and family foundations, governmental agencies and major foundations, donor collaboratives, donor-advised funds, and individual and institutional investors. She secured catalytic funding to pilot blended capital models and to support the launch of Fòs Feminista’s first Feminist Impact Fund. Dana holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Spanish and Italian from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana and a Master of Public Health from Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. Dana is fluent in Spanish and has traveled extensively throughout Latin America and the Caribbean.

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• Lisa Van Dusen

Lisa Van Dusen

Lisa is a seasoned social impact leader with experience in social innovation, media, marketing, business and leadership development in Silicon Valley. Lisa serves as Executive Director of the Palo Alto Community Fund (PACF), channeling local resources—financial and otherwise—to nonprofit organizations serving Palo Alto, East Palo Alto and Menlo Park, California. Passionate about protecting reproductive rights for all, Lisa served on the board of Planned Parenthood Golden Gate (San Francisco, California) and has been an engaged supporter of Planned Parenthood Mar Monte (Northern California) for multiple decades. Lisa first spent time in Guatemala as a college student, returning as often as possible ever since. She enthusiastically joined the WINGS board in 2019 and is committed to supporting WINGS’ compelling work throughout Guatemala because “it all starts with reproductive rights.”

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• Karina Copen

Karina Copen

Karina is a seasoned non-profit leader with over 25 years of experience working in the United States and internationally. She currently serves as Chief Development Officer at Nature and Culture International, where she oversees the fundraising, marketing, and communications teams. Karina began her career at Common Hope in Guatemala, facilitating women’s groups focused on health education and economic development. She later led Oxfam America’s Humanitarian Program in El Salvador, coordinating emergency preparedness teams and responding to disasters throughout Central America and the Caribbean. Throughout her career, Karina has worked for the integration of gender equity into grassroots development initiatives. She also dedicated over two decades as a board member of EcoViva, a non-profit committed to environmental sustainability, social justice, and community empowerment. Karina holds a Bachelor of Arts in Politics and Government from the University of Puget Sound and dual Master’s degrees in Public Health and International Affairs from Columbia University. Fluent in Spanish, she lived in Central America for more than 12 years, deepening her connection to the region and its communities.

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• Waleska López

Waleska López

Waleska is a Guatemalan resident in Patzún, Chimaltenango, Physician and Surgeon with experience in the community area, coordination of projects related to nutrition, women’s health services and chronic diseases, participating in the management and monitoring of projects with civil organizations and government, she also coordinates and liaise with different levels of the Ministry of Health and local authorities and leaders for the development of projects and research. She is the current Medical Director in the NGO Maya Health Alliance- Wuqu ́ Kawoq. Waleska also received the Senacyt Award, which is a National Innovation Award that is a highly prestigious recognition, that is awarded each year by the Government of Guatemala, through Senacyt, to individuals, companies, institutions and organizations that stand out for their his contribution to the country’s innovation. She is very excited to join WINGS and be able to contribute her knowledge to help more Guatemalans.

 

 

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• David Sterman

David Sterman

David is a fee-only Certified Financial Planner based in New York State’s Hudson Valley at Huguenot Financial Planning. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science and Philosophy from Emory University and a Master’s degree in the Science of Management from Georgia Tech. David has long been active in the non-profit community. He is currently the Board Treasurer of the Wallkill Valley Land Trust, the Board President of the United Way of Ulster County, NY and has previously served as the Board Treasurer of Family of Woodstock. He is also active through volunteerism, working with groups such as the Restorative Justice and Community Empowerment Center of Ulster County and the Ulster Immigration Defense Network (UIDN). David is glad to support WINGS and its support of essential reproductive health education and services.

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• Sue Patterson

Sue Patterson

Sue discovered her passion for helping women as a Peace Corps volunteer in a rural area of Colombia from 1966 to 1968, helping them learn about family planning and how to access it. Sue has lived in Antigua, Guatemala since 1996, when she retired from a 24-year career as a US Foreign Service official. Since then, Sue has devoted her time and energy to improving the lives of underserved Guatemalans, especially Mayan women in rural areas, without access to education. In 1999, a Guatemalan friend contacted Sue asking for help for seven women, all with at least eight children, who wanted to undergo a tubal ligation. Sue contributed from her own funds and wrote to friends asking for donations. Within a few months she had received more than $4,000. She discovered the lack of a non-profit organization focused on family planning in Guatemala, and that led her to found WINGS (Women’s International Network for Guatemala Solutions).

Sue continues to be an active member of the WINGS Board and has contributed fundamentally to the growth of the organization.

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• Ángel del Valle

Ángel del Valle

Ángel is a social anthropologist with 12 years of experience in research, project implementation, and monitoring and evaluation across thematic areas including adolescent girls’ empowerment, education, child marriage, gender-based violence, youth engagement and evidence-based advocacy to improve social protection frameworks. In his work, he has led experimental and mixed-methods evaluations of programs designed to empower adolescent girls in marginalized settings, including rural and indigenous populations. He has promoted the expansion of programs focused on adolescent girls in Belize, Guatemala, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Honduras, and El Salvador and has supported efforts to reach Native American girls in the United States. He has also served as an advisor to national governments and multilateral institutions, promoting evidence-based policy design to meet the needs of the most marginalized populations, and has advised donors and foundations on grant-making strategies with a focus on education and girls. Ángel currently serves as the Country Representative of the Population Council’s Guatemala Office.

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• Not Pictured: Rebecca Koladycz

Not Pictured: Rebecca Koladycz

Rebecca is the Director of Programs and Learning at Listen4Good, an initiative dedicated to empowering nonprofits to create systematic client feedback loops that enhance impact. With over two decades of experience, she specializes in program design, performance management, and capacity building, working across Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, and Latin America to advance equitable access to education and healthcare. In her current role, she oversees program implementation, learning efforts, and a growing coaching team, continuing her mission to elevate community voices and drive sustainable change. Rebecca began her career in Texas, focusing on teen pregnancy prevention and sexuality education before transitioning to international development. At the International Planned Parenthood Federation, she led initiatives to improve health services, challenge social norms, and strengthen policies. Her achievements include scaling a performance management system across 21 countries and rolling out a Net Promoter Score-based feedback system in 25 countries. Rebecca holds a Master’s in Social Anthropology from the University of Rochester. Her experiences across the U.S. and abroad have shaped her deep commitment to equity, social justice, and addressing systemic barriers.

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• Not Pictured: Joanna Sánchez

Not Pictured: Joanna Sánchez

Joanna is the Vice President of Financial Planning & Analysis at Azuria Water Solutions, an industry leader in water pipeline rehabilitation. Joanna is a finance professional with fifteen years’ experience in Corporate Finance leading the financial planning, capital markets and financial reporting functions for various private and public organizations. She holds a B.B.A from the University of Miami and resides in Tampa, Florida. Joanna looks forward to supporting WINGS’ mission and the meaningful work it performs to provide quality reproductive health education and services across Guatemala.

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• Board Member Emeritus, Kathie Amble

Board Member Emeritus, Kathie Amble

Kathie Amble graduated from St. Catherine University with a BS in Nursing, and then earned an Adult Nurse Practitioner degree and a Masters of Arts. For many years Kathie volunteered at Common Hope in Guatemala, where she helped set up and manage the clinic pharmacy. She also created health classes for rural women and developed protocols for the clinic. Kathie saw that many Guatemalan women didn’t have access to reproductive health education and services. She became passionate about making these needed services more available. She joined the new WINGS Board in 2001 and became President of the Board a year later. During the nine years she served in that role, she helped build WINGS’ organizational capability and networked tirelessly on behalf of the young NGO. She remains an active fundraiser and performs key tasks in the WINGS US office as a volunteer.

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• Board Member Emeritus, Sue Wheeler

Board Member Emeritus, Sue Wheeler

Sue is a certified coach, facilitator and organizational consultant, partnering with individuals and teams to get to the heart of what matters to them and be their best and bravest selves. Sue spent much of her career as a leader inside organizations, both corporate and nonprofit, and now works independently. One of her leadership roles introduced her to the rich culture of Guatemala, back in 2002, and to the kind and wonderful people who live here. She served the WINGS Board for 10 years.

Lynn Bakamjian, who succeeded Sue as Board President says “The Board of Directors and staff of WINGS are very pleased to name Sue Wheeler as Board Member Emeritus. We honor her for her passion, leadership and wisdom during her long tenure as Board member from 2006 to 2015, during which she served in many capacities, including President. Sue was instrumental in leading the WINGS Board to strengthen its governance practices to ensure a healthy organization, and for setting in motion a sustainable path to enable WINGS to serve the family planning and reproductive health needs of women, men and youth of Guatemala. Her generosity and wisdom have inspired us all, and we are grateful for her continued association with WINGS.”

Sue continues to be a passionate supporter of our work and our dreams.

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