Thought leaders

Abby Maxman is the President and CEO of Oxfam America, where she leads with a transformative vision for a more just and equitable world. Under her leadership, Oxfam America is advancing its commitment to addressing the root causes of poverty, inequality, and injustice, through locally led partnerships in humanitarian policy and practice, and advocating for economic justice, gender equality, climate action, and rights and dignity in crisis.

Maxman brings over 30 years of experience in the field, having held leadership roles including Deputy Secretary General of CARE International and Vice President of International Programs and Operations at CARE USA. Her career has taken her to more than 70 countries, and she has lived and worked in Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, the Occupied Palestinian Territory & Israel, the Republic of Georgia, Haiti, Ethiopia, Switzerland, and the United States. These experiences have honed her understanding of systemic issues and reinforced her commitment to inclusive, feminist leadership and decolonizing the aid sector through policy and practice.

Maxman’s work spans critical global challenges, from the apartheid era in southern Africa, the HIV/AIDS and Ebola epidemics in sub-Saharan Africa, and chronic food insecurity in Ethiopia. She has been involved in post-genocide relief and recovery efforts in Rwanda, supported civil society organizations in the Republic of Georgia, and led large-scale humanitarian responses in Haiti and Ethiopia. Her leadership has been instrumental in advancing gender and climate justice, fighting inequality, and driving Oxfam America’s ambitious 2030 strategy.

At Oxfam America, Maxman is reshaping the organization to be more representative of the communities it serves. She has supported global governance as Oxfam advances its de-colonial journey, and has invested in fostering an anti-racist culture and preventing sexual exploitation and abuse in the aid sector. Her approach is deeply values-driven, focusing on systemic change and advocating for justice to address the root causes of poverty and inequality.

Maxman’s leadership extends beyond Oxfam America. During her tenure, she has served as the Chair of the boards of InterAction, and the Steering Committee for Humanitarian Response, and as an NGO principal on the UN Inter-Agency Standing Committee.  She serves as a Trustee on the board of Frontline AIDS, the Global Executive Leadership Initiative and on the Classy Leadership Council and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Her contributions reflect a steadfast commitment to collaborative and intersectional approaches to global challenges.

Maxman holds a BA in History and Political Science, a Master’s in International Administration, and several honorary doctorates. She is a mother of three and resides with her husband of thirty years in Boston, continuing her lifelong dedication to global justice and equality.

Nabil leads Oxfam's agenda on economic and racial justice that works with policymakers, advocates, and organizers to address inequality in the US and internationally. He is a strategic convener, influencing policies and ideas on wealth and income inequality, financing and taxation, health and worker power at the intersection of class, race and gender. Nabil also leads with others Oxfam’s global effort on post-neoliberalism. He has led alliances and teams to win policy progress with governments and the private sector.

Based in Washington DC, Nabil joined Oxfam America in 2022. He is a public speaker and contributor on inequality issues, on outlets including Bloomberg, CNN and NPR. He has authored and co-authored flagship Oxfam reports, including “Inequality Kills” and “Inequality Inc.”.

Nabil was formerly Oxfam International’s Head of Executive Strategy and Communications, based in Nairobi, Kenya, where he led influencing and public engagement efforts to tackle inequality and the climate crisis and led Oxfam’s work to raise attention on inequality at the Davos World Economic Forum (WEF).

Nabil has led Oxfam’s engagement with the International Labor Organization’s Global Commission on the Future of Work and the G7 Gender Equality Advisory Council, and represented Oxfam on the WEF Advisory Board on Risks. He has served on the Steering Committee of The Economist Group’s Health Inclusivity Index, and was an Expert for Club de Madrid’s “System Change for Economic Transformation” Policy Dialogue. Nabil co-founded the People’s Vaccine Alliance that fostered a movement of millions of people, and led efforts with world leaders and Nobel Laureates to challenge pharmaceutical monopolies over Covid-19 vaccines.

Nabil was formerly a national organizer, worked in the private sector at Unilever, and is a graduate of the University of Manchester, UK.

Gina is the Vice President of Advocacy, Alliances & Policy for Oxfam America where she oversees research, policy, advocacy, campaigning, and building Oxfam's network of US allies, partners, and supporters to influence the US government and US corporations.

Gina joined Oxfam America in 2006 as an Organizing and Alliances Manager where she developed the Sisters on the Planet ambassadors program, as well as alliances with chefs and other key allies. She then served as Director of campaigns setting the strategic direction for Oxfam’s advocacy campaigns and developing the team structures to support them.

Prior to joining Oxfam, Gina was Chief Operating Officer of Physicians for Human Rights, a nongovernmental organization that uses medicine and science to document and advocate against mass atrocities and severe human rights violations around the world. She managed day-to-day operations and supervised senior teams that oversaw policy, media, and fundraising work; forensic investigations; research; campaigns; and human resources.

Gina’s work included looking at the impact of torture in Guantanamo prison; juvenile justice in the US; asylum and human rights in Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Chechnya, Sierra Leone and Rwanda; and forensic investigations to determine crimes against humanity and genocide in Guatemala, Honduras, Rwanda, Iraq, and Afghanistan. She also served as the organization’s Director of Campaigns, organizing medical and nursing school programs, and establishing partnerships and projects with Partners In Health, the American Public Health Association, and other health-related organizations.

Bob Ferguson (he/him/his) manages the Brand & Engagement and Music Outreach programs for Oxfam America from his office just outside NYC, where he is responsible for Oxfam's relationship with some of the world's most respected music artists, and at whose concerts Oxfam connects their hunger, poverty, and social justice campaigns with hundreds of thousands of music fans every year.  He has twice been nominated for Emmy Awards, and won for his work on Oxfam's collaboration with The New Pornographers for the "Sweet Talk, Sweet Talk" music video.

Nick Galasso joined Oxfam America in 2012 as an American Council of Learned Societies Public Fellow (2012-2014). He has over twenty years of experience promoting social justice in international development. As Head of Research, Galasso manages a team of researchers who provide the strategic and evidentiary foundations Oxfam relies on to set agendas.

Galasso’s own research focuses on economic inequality. His research has been published in academic and policy journals, including Foreign Policy Analysis, Global Policy, and Turkish Policy Quarterly. His research has been cited in numerous news outlets including The Economist, The New Yorker, Vox, USA Today, The Washington Post, and NPR. From 2016-2018, he was hosted by the Council of Independent Colleges as a Woodrow Wilson Fellow. Galasso has a Ph.D. in Global Governance.

Tara R. Gingerich is the Humanitarian Director of Oxfam America, where she oversees work on Local Humanitarian Leadership (LHL), Disaster Risk Reduction and resilience, humanitarian policy, and support to Oxfam’s emergency responses. She has served in a number of leadership positions in the Oxfam America humanitarian team since 2018. For the 2018-19 academic year she was also an Arthur Vining Davis Visiting Fellow in Religious Literacy and the Professions at the Harvard University Divinity School. From 2008-2018, Tara was a humanitarian researcher with Oxfam, focusing primarily on the need for the global humanitarian system to shift to a system featuring more locally led humanitarian action, better partnerships, and more capacity strengthening of local actors. She was the lead researcher and author of Oxfam’s foundational Turning the Humanitarian System on its Head report, published in July 2015, and co-author of the shorter policy report Righting the Wrong. Prior to that she focused on human rights and humanitarian issues, as an independent consultant and at Harvard University. Tara is a lawyer and practiced international trade law at a private firm in Washington, DC. She has a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and a J.D. and M.A. from American University.

Ben Grossman-Cohen is Oxfam America’s Director of Campaigns. For 15 years he has led advocacy campaigns to change federal, state, local and corporate policies. He cut his teeth on electoral campaigns working as an organizer and media representative on local, state and Presidential campaigns. Ben has been with Oxfam since 2010 where he has led impactful campaigns on climate change, gender equality, and economic justice.

Kaitlyn Henderson is a senior researcher and the staff-elected member of Oxfam’s Board of Directors. Previously, Dr. Henderson was a Brent Scowcroft Award Fellow with the Aspen Strategy Group, which focused on national security and foreign policy through Track II diplomacy. Dr. Henderson completed her PhD in modern Latin American history at Tulane University, where she received the Peter T. Cominos Memorial Award for her dissertation work. During her graduate work, her research focused on race and politics in twentieth-century Cuba. She is an affiliate of the Instituto Cubano de Investigación Cultural Juan Marinello and has worked closely with the Fundación Nicolás Guillén and the Instituto de Historia de Cuba.

Among other projects, Dr. Henderson is the lead researcher and author of Oxfam’s Best States to Work Index, a look at how states treat workers and working families in the US. This index captures 25 policies across three themes – wages, worker protections, and rights to organize – and includes all 50 states plus Washington, DC and Puerto Rico. There were special editions of the index released in 2020 focused on COVID and in 2021 focused on working women. Dr. Henderson is a member of the Oxfam Research Network (ORN), a coalition of researchers across all Oxfam International, and works within the ORN as a member of the Gender Working Group. She writes regularly for Oxfam America’s Politics of Poverty Blog.

Ashfaq Khalfan is Oxfam America's Director of Climate Justice. He was previously the Director of Law and Policy at Amnesty International. As part of that role, he led Amnesty’s effort to deepen its engagement at the global level on climate justice from 2015 onwards, including developing its policy and strategy on climate change and established a global, across-Amnesty-movement project team to advance climate justice in all parts of its work.

Ashfaq holds a doctoral degree in law from Oxford University, and law degrees in common and civil law, and an undergraduate degree in political science and international development from McGill University. He has worked for over 20 years as a manager, and in research, policy work and advocacy on sustainable development, economic and social rights and wider human rights policy and strategy. Prior to working at Amnesty International, Ashfaq headed the Right to Water Programme at the Centre for Housing Rights and Evictions and was a Founder Director of the Centre for International Sustainable Development Law.

A key area of focus, including in his doctoral research, is States’ legal obligations under human rights law to people outside their borders, and he is recognized as a leading global thinker in this area. Ashfaq played a key role in advocacy to secure the United Nations’ recognition of the human rights to water and sanitation as legally binding rights.

Diana Kearney is Senior Legal and Shareholder Advocacy Advisor at Oxfam America, where she leads the organization’s legal and shareholder proposal activism. This includes identifying and executing legal strategies to forward Oxfam’s antipoverty mission, such as joining in litigation, filing amicus briefs in the U.S. and foreign courts, submitting appeals to regional human rights bodies, and providing legal analysis to Oxfam staff. She also supports Oxfam campaigns by filing environmental, social, and governance (ESG) shareholder resolutions at publicly traded companies. Her work currently focuses on corporate accountability, indigenous land rights, asylum rights, and climate justice.

Prior to her time at Oxfam, Kearney taught international law in Cardozo Law School’s Human Rights & Atrocity Prevention Clinic. She holds a J.D. from NYU Law, an M.Sc. in International Development from Lund University, and a B.A. from Boston University.

Dr. Laté Lawson-Lartego leads Oxfam’s Global Innovation Lab for Equality (aGILE), which is focused on identifying innovative solutions to problems created by inequality. He also leads Oxfam America’s work on creating equitable, nourishing, and regenerative food systems for all.

He has held other senior leadership positions with Oxfam and other international organizations including CARE, where he and his team pioneered the organization’s first Market Engagement and Agriculture Value Chain Development strategy and implementation—an initiative that reached more than 10 million people.

Dr. Lawson-Lartego earned a doctoral degree in business administration at Georgia State University in the US, with a focus on innovative business strategies and value co-creation between business and bottom-of-the-pyramid (BOP) people. He also earned master's degrees in economics and business from the University of Lomé in Togo, and in social and rural development from Reading University in the UK.

Dr. Lawson-Lartego’s publications include “Socio-Technical Innovation Bundles for Agri-Food Systems Transformation.”

Eric Muñoz leads Oxfam America’s work at the intersection of food security and climate justice. He manages a team that advances program, policy and advocacy initiatives that address agriculture’s potential to end hunger and poverty and respond to climate change. Since joining Oxfam in 2010, Eric has contributed to the development of community-based sustainable agriculture programs and lead advocacy initiatives on the US Farm Bill, the Feed the Future initiative and the Global Food Security Act, as well as reform of US food aid programs. He collaborates with Oxfam and partners, including in Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Ghana, and Ethiopia, to encourage governments to increase spending on and improve policies that benefit smallscale food producers. Eric supports Oxfam America’s work on agriculture development initiatives such as re-greening the Sahel, an effort to scale agro-forestry practices across West Africa.

Eric served as the Oxfam International lead for agriculture investment policy, coordinating a team across the confederation engaging with multilateral institutions such as the Committee on World Food Security. He also works with Oxfam’s Humanitarian policy team on hunger hotspots, for example as a co-author of the Hunger Virus: How Covid-19 is fueling hunger in a hungry world.

Prior to joining Oxfam America, Eric worked as a Senior Policy Advisor for Bread for the World. He studied English Literature at Rice University and International Relations at the Joseph Korbel School for Advanced International Studies.

Dr. Tawanda Mutasah is Vice President of Global Partnerships and Impact (GPI), with responsibility for overall strategic and operational leadership of Oxfam America’s GPI division, and for identifying, nurturing, and maintaining a wide range of strategic partnerships within and outside the Oxfam International confederation on all matters related to programmatic impact and global networks. Mutasah joined Oxfam America in 2021, bringing over 25 years of international nonprofit management and program leadership and innovation in a vast range of areas from humanitarian response to advocacy and long-term development. He was the Senior Director of International Law and Policy at Amnesty International where, among other things, he established and operationalized the global human rights movement’s Sustainable Development Goals engagement and partnerships.

Before that, Mutasah served as the Global Director of Programs at the Open Society Foundations (OSF), where he stewarded a $400M budget. He had previously held a variety of other positions in the global OSF complex, including Executive Director of the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa. Mutasah also previously worked for Oxfam Great Britain. And he has served on governing and advisory boards for global institutions that include the Center for Civilians in Conflict, Open Society Justice Initiative, and Rutgers University’s Center for Women’s Global Leadership; as well as African entities that include Trust Africa, and the Coalition for Dialogue on Africa. Among other initiatives credited to his leadership over the years, Mutasah founded the Southern Africa Resource Watch, which researches and advocates on extractive industries.

A graduate of Harvard Law School, New York University Law School, the Graduate School of Public & Development Management at the University of the Witwatersrand, and the University of Zimbabwe, Mutasah has taught at the Paris School of International Affairs on international humanitarian law and human rights laws.

Scott Paul leads Oxfam’s US government advocacy to end inequality in areas experiencing humanitarian crises, armed conflict, and state fragility. During his tenure at Oxfam, Scott has spearheaded the organization’s work on a number of complex emergencies, including protracted crises in Yemen and the Horn of Africa. His advocacy often focuses on the political drivers of violence and rights violations, the role of the US government, and the financial exclusion of vulnerable communities.

Scott is a frequent media commentator with outlets including the New York Times, Washington Post, Foreign Policy, and Al Jazeera and has testified before Congress. His published work focuses on international humanitarian law, the use of force, and bank de-risking, among other issues.

Before joining Oxfam, Scott was the UN representative for CIVIC and led campaigns at Citizens for Global Solutions to strengthen the US government’s commitment to international cooperation and the rule of law. As a student and young professional, he was a co-founder and the first Chair of SustainUS. Scott graduated from New York University Law School and did his undergraduate work at Columbia University and St. Petersburg State University.

Kimberly Pfeifer is the Knowledge for Impact Director at Oxfam America, where she oversees the production of research and trends analysis. She serves as the editor of Oxfam America's Research Backgrounder Series and is a member of the organization’s Gender Resource Group. Kimberly co-founded and co-leads the Oxfam Confederation’s Research Network.

She has written a number of Oxfam International Policy Briefing Papers focused on trade and agricultural issues, and has managed numerous research projects, including on issues of biotechnology, the future of agriculture, food security, agricultural innovation, trade, extractive industries, and economic inequality.

Prior to joining Oxfam, Kimberly worked for the AFL-CIO as a researcher with the Center for Strategic Research in Corporate Affairs. She has also worked for the Aga Khan Foundation in Zanzibar, Tanzania. While in Tanzania, Kimberly held a Research Fellowship with the Institute of Development Studies, University of Dar es Salaam. She received her MA and PhD from the University of Florida in Political Science and African Studies. She has a number of publications and papers critiquing models of development, and on land and natural resource politics.

Alivelu leads Oxfam America’s Gender Justice and Inclusion portfolio and serves on the Global Partnerships and Impact Leadership Team. Working with Oxfam since 2010, Alivelu  inspires and collaborates with the  leadership teams of Oxfam America to define and implement gender justice and inclusion policies and systems.

Alivelu leads and catalyzes Gender Justice and Inclusion work across thematic and functional departments, with Oxfam Country and Regional Leadership within the Oxfam confederation, and builds synergy in gender justice work across long-term development, humanitarian, and advocacy and campaigns. She leads the feminist approach work with colleagues within Oxfam America, as well as across the agency and with partners and allies, to design and deliver Oxfam’s Feminist Principles commitments.

Alivelu leads the development of a robust and systematic approach to putting inclusion and gender justice at the heart of all of Oxfam America’s work, through long-term development. Alivelu leads in the sector on topics such as transformational leadership for women’s rights, addressing gender-based violence and Unpaid and Underpaid Care work.

Rebecca Riddell is the senior policy lead for economic and racial justice at Oxfam America. Her work focuses on advancing economic and racial justice and human rights, in the US and globally.

Based in New York, Rebecca joined Oxfam in 2023. She is an international human rights lawyer with a background in addressing extreme inequality and excess corporate power and promoting economic and social rights. Previously, she co-led a research and advocacy initiative at New York University School of Law that partnered with communities and movements around the world to document the risks of privatizing public services. Prior to that, she served as a Senior Advisor to the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, carrying out investigations and advising governments on policies relating to tax, social spending, and other areas. She also worked at Human Rights Watch, where she investigated abuses against refugees and asylum seekers, and served as a law clerk to the honorable James Cott in the Southern District of New York.

She graduated summa cum laude from Kenyon College with a degree in political science, and received a Fulbright grant to teach in Thailand. She graduated cum laude from NYU Law, where she led the Unemployment Action Center, a city-wide non-profit that supports people seeking unemployment insurance.

Dr. Mikhiela Sherrod is the Director of US Domestic Programs at Oxfam America. She has over 17 years of experience leading non-profit organizations and working as a community organizer with Black farmers and rural communities of color in the U.S. and developing countries. As the lead coordinator and director of the Southwest Georgia Project for Community Education, Inc., Dr. Sherrod worked with rural communities and coalitions to build capacity and infrastructure to achieve social and economic justice in the local food system and led an organizational revitalization that build capacity to sustain the work. As the executive director of Agricultural Missions, Inc., an ecumenical non-profit organization, she successful led a decades long development and capacity restoration project in Liberia and Sierra Leone that resulted in the formation of an association of cooperatives engaged in regenerative agricultural practices and adaptation and mitigation strategies to address climate change.

Dr. Sherrod has over 10 years of experience leading research and evaluation projects for non-profit and philanthropic organization, including incorporating and using a racial equity lens to assess work priorities and integrate equitable practices and strategies. She has an undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering from Tuskegee University, a PhD in Genetics from the University of Iowa, and completed the first year of an MPH in Epidemiology from Rutgers University.

Irit Tamir is the Director of Oxfam America's Private Sector Department. In her role, she is focused on working with companies to ensure that their business practices result in positive social and environmental impacts for vulnerable communities throughout the world. She leads a team of advisors that engage the private sector on tax, business and human rights, vaccine equity, legal advocacy, supply chain and labor relations, climate change and gender and racial equity. She oversees the private sector engagement from campaigns and advocacy to collaborations and programs focused on corporate behavior along with a work focused on investors and shareholder advocacy.

Prior to working at Oxfam, Ms. Tamir was the Director of Government Relations at the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston, where she successfully lobbied for an extensive federal and state legislative agenda. She co-led the effort to pass the Sudan Divestment Bill in Massachusetts, which required the state pension funds to divest from companies doing business with the Government of Sudan in an effort to halt its human rights violations in Darfur. Ms. Tamir is an attorney with a masters in international law and has taught Business and Human Rights as an adjunct at Boston College Law School. She sits on the Board of the Fair Labor Association and co-chaired the Working Group on Business and Human Rights for the New York City Bar Association. A devoted human rights activist, she has spoken publicly about inequality, human rights, climate resilience, and the food system. Ms. Tamir has had years of experience in government relations and is a former prosecutor who supervised civil rights prosecutions and hate crimes.