Our Advisory Board
Paula Jørgensen
Paula (she/hers) is 14 years old. She is half Danish and half Mexican and likes being able to speak two languages. She likes Denmark because of the snow and Morelos, Mexico because the mountains, trees, plants. What she likes the most about school is drama class and arts and crafts class because it is fun. Paula plays the piano and the harmonica and is a talented painter. Her favorite animal is the koala and butterflies. She wants to visit Egypt and the Amazon because she is fascinated by jungles and forests. Paula thinks that girls can do and achieve whatever they want. She likes gymnastics, climbing trees and wants to buy a metronome.
Diego Jørgensen
Diego (he / his) is a young man with doble nationality, Danish on his father side and Mexican on his mother side. He grew up in Mexico where he studied until high school, with high interests in mathematics, history, geography, and computer science. Throughout his childhood, his goal in life changed frequently due to the large number of interests he had but over time he realized that he wanted to dedicate his life to helping other people and achieving a society with more opportunities for everyone and with less poverty. Currently, at 16, he is studying high school in Denmark, with the aim of assimilating himself with his Danish roots and the culture of his other country.
Danielle Elleman
Danielle (she/hers) is the Associate Director of Sexual Misconduct Support Services at New York University working with students who experience sexual assault, sexual harassment, sexual exploitation, stalking, and relationship violence by helping them navigate various systems in the aftermath of the trauma including criminal justice, family court, and Title IX. Danielle provides training, workshops and groups to the broader NYU community while also consulting with mental health providers to coordinate ongoing services. Her advocacy experience includes individual-level work in criminal justice, civil court, and hospital contexts. For 13 years, Danielle was a supervisor in the H+H/Bellevue Hospital Victim Services Program. She provided supervision to the Victim Services staff and works directly with survivors of crime. Her work included crisis intervention, case management, advocacy, therapy, group therapy, and program development. She organized and trained forty volunteers a year to provide crisis intervention and advocacy to sexual assault and domestic violence survivors in the immediate aftermath of the trauma. Danielle has conducted trainings at middle schools, high schools, community-based organizations, bars, and within the hospital on trauma-informed care, services for survivors, primary prevention and bystander intervention. She is dedicated to creating awareness of the underlying root causes of violence as a way to prevent it from continuing to occur and to decrease the stigma. Danielle has worked with international organizations through the Peace Corps in Uzbekistan and Romania, and through the Open Society Institute’s Sexual Health and Rights Project. She serves on the board of La Casa Mandarina AC an independent and itinerant Mexican non-profit organization devoted to end sexual violence, break the silence and heal trauma through ARTivism Danielle is good at organizing, being efficient, dealing with crises, and achieving goals. She enjoys finding adventures on a day-to-day basis. She has climbed Kilimanjaro, dived, and bungy jump in New Zealand. Danielle is good at sports, cooking, sailing, and problem solving.
Chauntel Gerdes
Chauntel, LMSW, is an experienced trauma therapist, preventionist and community mobilization strategist specializing in sexual and intimate partner violence prevention and response. With over 14 years of experience in the social work field, she has worked in the anti-violence community for the past 11 years, connecting survivors to services and engaging communities in dialogue around prevention, bystander intervention and crisis response. Her work has focused on program development, inter-agency collaboration, community relationship and coalition building, and volunteer coordination and training. In 2014 Chauntel was the recipient of the Lydia Martinez Multidisciplinary Collaboration Award for Sexual Violence Prevention by the New York City Alliance Against Sexual Assault in New York City. In 2015, she helped co-found OutSmartNYC, a collective of organizations and stakeholders organized to mobilize, train and provide supportive services to the nightlife and hospitality industries in order to prevent violence. Currently, Chauntel resides in Winston Salem, North Carolina. She provides consultancy to businesses and organizations and speaks publicly on various topics including trauma, community building, organizational health and violence prevention. She serves on the board of La Casa Mandarina AC an independent and itinerant Mexican non-profit organization devoted to end sexual violence, break the silence and heal trauma through ARTivism and is on the Advisory Board for Women in Hospitality United whose mission is to develop solutions and provide policies that set new standards for equity, accountability, and transparency in the hospitality industry. Most recently, Chauntel was awarded the Samuel & Sarah Wait Graduate Fellowship in Theology and Ministry by Wake Forest University School of Divinity and is pursuing a Master of Divinity. Chauntel attributes her passion for social justice to having spent his childhood traveling with the United States Army and having survived the violence, poverty and oppression experienced by her family. In her free time, Chauntel loves spending time with her chosen community, camping, dancing, and singing. She loves mornings, music, and making connections with new people. Chauntel has proclaimed herself a "cat whisperer".
César Fernández +
César (he / his) was born in Mexico City and died in Jerusalem in 2006 of heart failure. Since he was a child, he was someone special who spread peace and captivated everything he touched. He was a person with such a big and generous heart that perhaps it is no coincidence that his heart grew and worked so slowly from all the love that he spread. At the age of 17 he became a Consecrated of the Legionaries of Christ where he dedicated his life to serving others. Cesar graduated in Economics and he was Administrative Director of the Universidad Anáhuac del Sur and the Irish Institute in Mexico City. In 2005 he moved to São Paulo, Brazil as Regional Director of the Legion. With his good humor, playfulness, and deep insight into human rights, he helped found La Casa Mandarina AC. César was passionate about food and football, especially Los Potros del Atlante. He could fix the world in one afternoon as he laughs out loud at one of his bad jokes. No matter the time or the distance, it will be in our hearts forever.