Grounded in social work and a deep commitment to racial, gender and youth justice, Jody is an activist, strategist, researcher, and writer. She has over 20 years of experience working across regions, movements, and sectors to advance social justice, transformative philanthropy, and girls’ and young feminists’ rights.

For a decade, Jody played a critical role in championing girls’ and women’s rights at the NoVo Foundation. As the Director of NoVo’s Initiative to Advance Adolescent Girls’ Rights, Jody led the Initiative’s grantmaking and donor organizing, overseeing a transnational movement-building initiative focused on resourcing girls and young feminists. Jody played a key leadership role in designing and orchestrating the Foundation’s historic 90- million-dollar commitment to girls of color in the US and multiple global initiatives aimed at centering girls and young feminists across diverse social justice movements. Prior to NoVo, she worked to advance gender, racial and youth justice across multiple organizations and contexts globally, from working directly with survivors of sexual violence and the criminal justice system, to building community and girl centered strategies to end violence, to organizing girl-centered social justice oriented convenings.

As a gender justice consultant, Jody works across social justice and philanthropic organizations to center girls, women, and non-binary people and to move resources to those working to build their collective power. She also co-leads the Global Resilience Fund, a participatory fund that resources the brave and resilient strategies of young feminists responding to the COVID crisis and is a strategic advisor to the With and For Girls Collective. Jody holds a B.S. from Colorado State University in Human Development and Family Studies with a focus on adolescence and a M.S. in Social Work from Columbia University. She currently serves as the board chair of the Children’s Rights Innovation Fund and was a founding Board Member of the Girls First Fund and Purposeful.

In her capacity at Shake the Table, Jody is bringing to life the contours of girls’ resistance and real-life examples of how funders are meeting girls where they are organizing from across the funding ecosystem, grounded in feminist theory and tangible practice-based perspectives on how social justice movements and funders can do better for girls and non-binary young people.

Katie Lau (she/her) is an intersectional feminist working with different funder and NGO networks and collaboratives as an independent consultant in research, resourcing, and network facilitation projects. She brings ten years of experience in policy, advocacy, grantmaking, and programming in human rights, particularly sexual and reproductive health and rights. Katie has mobilized with groups working on gender, reproductive, and racial justice, migrants' rights, youth and feminist leadership, and access to health. She is deeply passionate about creating empowering and equitable spaces to redistribute power.

Katie has previously held roles with Plan International, Global Dialogue/ Migration Exchange, and the International Planned Parenthood Federation. In her spare time, she is an aspiring ceramicist.

Guided by a lifelong commitment to gender, racial, and economic justice and transformative philanthropy, Pamela Shifman currently serves as the President of the Democracy Alliance and the Founder of Shake the Table. Pamela is a proven bridge builder—uniting donors, movement leaders, policymakers, community leaders, and allies in common purpose, collective momentum, and transformative vision with a dogged belief that there is no such thing as an unlikely ally.

Beginning in 2008, Pamela spent 12 years, including 6 as Executive Director, shaping the work of the NoVo Foundation, one of the country’s largest progressive foundations resourcing the power and leadership of girls and women, especially girls and women of color. Throughout her tenure at NoVo, Pamela challenged traditional practices of philanthropy and influenced funders across the sector to become more accountable to grantee partners and more responsive to rising threats against equality and justice. From Grantmakers for Girls of Color, a landmark effort to increase funding for girls of color; to the Collective Future Fund, an unprecedented collaboration to end gender-based violence; to Radical Hope, a bold initiative to resource responses to rising authoritarianism after the 2016 U.S. election, Pamela’s tenure at NoVo was marked by new partnerships that shifted lasting resources—and power—to transformative movements on the frontlines of change.

Pamela joined the NoVo Foundation from the UNICEF headquarters, where she led the organization’s efforts to end gender-based violence, especially in conflict-affected settings. Prior to joining the United Nations, Pamela served as Co-Executive Director of the international women’s rights organization Equality Now, and as a Program Coordinator for the Open Society Institute Network Women’s Program.

Early in her career, Pamela was a Legal Advisor to the ANC Parliamentary Women’s Caucus during South Africa’s first democratic elections—an experience that solidified her passionate belief in the power of social movements to win transformative change.

In 2020, Pamela founded Shake the Table, an initiative on progressive philanthropy, transformational leadership, and movement building housed at Panorama Global. Pamela serves on multiple boards, including The Young Women’s Freedom Center, The National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, The Ms. Foundation, and Tools and Tiaras.

Born and raised in Michigan, Pamela holds a B.A. from the University of Michigan and a J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School. She is based in Brooklyn, NY.

Swatee currently works with private and public foundations in strategy development and design, with individuals and families of wealth on their redistribution strategies and oversees a portfolio of businesses and start-ups across philanthropy, socially minded businesses and the arts. Swatee was previously Director of the With and For Girls Collective, the world’s only participatory fund by and for adolescent girls and prior was Director of Stars Foundation, a private philanthropic foundation focused on funding grassroots organisations working with children and young people around the world. Alongside founding Remember Who Made Them, a campaign and podcast championing a new solidarity economy in fashion, Swatee is a guest lecturer for Columbia University, The London College of Fashion and is a Practitioner in Residence for LSE's Marshall Institute. She is a founding member of several collectives and groups working across philanthropy and social justice movements including Closer Than You Think, Healing Solidarity and Shake the Table and is a Board Member of the Global Fund for Children and EMpower - The Emerging Markets Foundation.

Tynesha McHarris is a Black Feminist from the U.S that engages her work fueled by the desire to see the ideals of truth and justice actualized in the lives and conditions of every person she encounters. She brings over fifteen years of experience advocating for racial, gender and youth justice in social movements, organizations and philanthropic institutions. Tynesha is also the co-founder of Black Feminist Fund.

In her work inside of movements, Tynesha has worked to mobilize resources to black liberation organizations and ecosystems. Currently, Tynesha is the Principal at Black Harvest, a Black feminist consulting firm partnering with social movement leaders, individual donors and institutional philanthropy to bolster work advancing racial, gender and youth justice. Tynesha is also a part of the Shake the Table team.

Ghana-born Theo Sowa has lived and worked across Africa, Europe, the UK, and the US advising on women’s and children’s rights and social justice – as well as policy development and advocacy for a range of national and regional organizations in Africa and international agencies including Save the Children and UNICEF.

As CEO of the African Women’s Development Fund from 2011 until December 2020, Theo led the organization through a period of increased reach, impact and influence in Africa, parts of the Middle East, and globally. She is now Co-Chair of the Equality Fund; member of the African Advisory Board of the Stephen Lewis Foundation; Patron of Evidence for Development, and board member of the UBS Optimus Foundation; TheirWorld; and the Open Society Initiative for West Africa. She holds a number of advisory roles including to Co-Impact, Echidna Giving and the Centre for African Philanthropy and Social Investment. As a board member of the Graca Machel Trust, she is currently overseeing the work of its Executive Leadership team during a period of transition and growth.

Theo holds a Master’s degree in International and Comparative Education from the Institute of Education, University of London. She was awarded a CBE in 2010 and the ‘Unlocking Big Change’ Award in 2021.