Our Advisory Board
The Purple Campaign is building a broad coalition of diverse stakeholders to work together to address workplace harassment in the wake of #MeToo. Our Advisory Board members bring a variety of knowledge and expertise to guide the Purple Campaign’s strategic programming.
Isra Bhatty
Attorney & Social Intervention Policy Expert
A graduate of Yale Law School, the University of Oxford (where she studied as a Rhodes Scholar), and the University of Chicago, Isra Bhatty holds a PhD in Social Intervention, specializing in the empirical assessment of complex public health and welfare programming. As an attorney, Isra has successfully represented pro bono clients in a wide variety of matters, including appeals from the denial of disability benefits, family law and immigration matters, and religious and racial discrimination cases. Isra draws upon her ability to speak nine languages and expertise in econometric and empirical analysis to advise the Purple Campaign to address workplace harassment through a multidimensional and data-driven lens.
Melinda Kimbro
Chief People Officer and Senior Vice President of People and Culture, ViaSat, Inc.
Melinda Kimbro is the Chief People Officer and Senior Vice President of People and Culture for ViaSat, Inc. In her role, Melinda oversees global people strategy and is responsible for the full range of global human capital functions, as well as diversity and inclusion, people analytics, employer brand, employee communication, and corporate social responsibility. Melinda is proud to have been an integral part of the company’s growth from approximately 500 employees to over 5,500 employees today, in over 40 countries around the world. Prior to joining Viasat Melinda held positions in corporate training and organizational development at Sony Electronics and Qualcomm Personal Electronics.
Michael Marra
Co-Managing Partner, New York Office, Fisher Phillips
Michael Marra is co-managing partner of the leading labor & employment law firm Fisher Phillips’ New York Office. Michael’s practice spans a broad range of employment matters, and focuses on understanding business needs, developing effective strategies and solutions, and resolving employment discrimination issues. Michael represents some of the world’s best known luxury brands, advertising and media services companies, and technology and emerging growth companies. Before joining Fisher Phillips, Michael served for nearly a decade as Associate General Counsel with The Interpublic Group of Companies in New York, where he worked closely with the corporate team and its member companies on the full array of employment matters and policy.
Elizabeth Nieto
Head of Equity and Impact, Spotify
Elizabeth Nieto is Head of Equity and Impact at Spotify. Previously, she was the Head of Global Diversity and Inclusion at Amazon. She joined Amazon from MetLife, where she served as Global Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer and helped the company define and implement its first global Diversity & Inclusion strategy. Before joining MetLife, Elizabeth was the Global Head of Talent, Learning and Diversity for Marsh, Inc., where she was responsible for talent management and all learning initiatives. Before joining Marsh, Elizabeth spent almost 20 years with Citigroup, for more than 10 years in global talent management, diversity & inclusion roles and as an HR business partner. Born and raised in Argentina, Elizabeth uses her insights and talent to advise the Purple Campaign, along with other non-profit organizations that support global girls’ rights to education, access to developmental opportunities for young underserved talent and teenagers at risk.
Niyati Shah
Global Coordinator and Senior Gender-Based Violence Social Development Specialist, World Bank
Niyati Shah has been working to advance intersectional gender equality and social justice for over two decades and has managed multi-sector initiatives to address gender-based violence in a number of contexts across the world. She currently serves as the Global Coordinator and Senior Gender-Based Violence Social Development Specialist at the World Bank. Previously, she served as a Senior Gender Advisor and Team Lead in the Global Health Bureau at the United Agency for International Development (USAID). Related and concurrent to her professional work in the space of violence against women and girls and social justice, she has been engaging in collective care and studying, practicing, and teaching somatics, mindfulness, and yoga for over 20 years, and in particular connecting the science and practice to center resilience and healing.
Rob Smith
Founder, The Phluid Project
Rob Smith is the Founder of the Phluid Project, a gender-free platform that is committed to redefining gender labels and recognizing the rising voice of youth and growing rejection of gender binaries. Throughout his career, Rob has worked in leadership positions for well-known companies and brands in the fashion industry, most recently as Global Chief Product Officer for Haddad Brands–Nike, Levi’s, Jordan, Hurley, and Converse–and before that as Executive Vice President and General Merchandising Manager for Victoria’s Secret and Macy’s. Rob presently serves on the Board of Directors of Steve Madden Ltd. and advises companies on how to create workspaces where all people can unapologetically be themselves.
Grace Speights
Partner and Global Leader, Labor and Employment Practice, Morgan Lewis
Grace Speights is the Global Leader of the Labor and Employment Practice at Morgan Lewis, where she leads the firm’s multidisciplinary workplace culture consulting team of more than 30 lawyers across offices and practices. Combining employment and workplace law experience with investigative expertise, she leads the team in helping employers investigate and address workplace crises stemming from claims of sexual harassment. Grace has worked with clients in the financial services, media and entertainment, sports, retail, nonprofit, and legal services industries to manage serious internal investigations, conduct workplace culture assessments, and advise on workplace issues. In 2018, Grace was named “Attorney of the Year” by American Lawyer Magazine for her work as an ally of the #MeToo movement and her efforts to improve corporate culture.
Janine Zweig
Associate Vice President for Justice Policy, Urban Institute
Janine Zweig, PhD, is Associate Vice President of Justice Policy at Urban Institute. She has engaged with survivors and stakeholders across sectors to address sexual violence for over 25 years. She conducts research on: the phenomenology of sexual victimization and its harms; the transportation industry’s response to incidents of sexual violence and misconduct occurring on their platforms; place-based programming to prevent sexual harms among chronically disadvantaged youth of color; community-based and criminal justice responses to sexual violence (victim service, medical, law enforcement, and prosecution); and responses to sexual victimization in prisons, jails, and juvenile facilities. She has a demonstrated track record of collaborating with practitioners, advocates, policymakers, national-level associations, and businesses to build knowledge and provide actionable data-driven guidance.
Lynn Haaland
Deputy General Counsel, Chief Compliance and Ethics Officer, Zoom Video Communications
Lynn Haaland is the Deputy General Counsel and Chief Compliance and Ethics Officer at Zoom Video Communications. Previously, she served as a consultant and former SVP, PepsiCo Deputy General Counsel Global Chief Compliance and Ethics Officer and Chief Counsel, Cybersecurity at PepsiCo. Prior to joining PepsiCo in 2016, Lynn served as a federal prosecutor in the District of Columbia and the Eastern District of Virginia (EDVA). At EDVA, she was Deputy Chief of the National Security and International Crime Unit, where she supervised and prosecuted terrorism, international drug trafficking, sanctions, cybersecurity, and other national security cases. Prior to becoming a prosecutor, Lynn worked at the United Nations and at the Claims Resolution Tribunal for Dormant Accounts in Zurich, Switzerland, the court established to adjudicate claims to the dormant bank accounts from the Second World War.
Tarek Maassarani
Practitioner and Professor of Restorative Justice, Georgetown University Law Center
Tarek Maassarani has a decade of experience as a restorative justice practitioner, five years as a practicing public interest and human rights attorney, and three years as a whistleblower advocate. In the past five years, Tarek has increasingly focused on addressing sexual and racial harm through restorative and transformative justice approaches, specifically working with survivors advocacy and support agencies to offer client-led, trauma-sensitive options. This expertise informs the Purple Campaign’s efforts to devise fair policies and practices to resolve incidents involving sexual harm. Tarek holds a Masters in International Affairs from Columbia University’s School for International and Public Affairs, a J.D. from Georgetown University, as well as a B.S. in Environmental Studies and B.A. in Cultural Anthropology from the University of California, Santa Barbara and the University of Cape Town, South Africa.
Justice Rebeca Martinez
chief Justice, Texas Fourth Court of Appeals
Rebeca Martinez is the Chief Justice of the Texas Fourth Court of Appeals. Rebeca received her law degree from Boston University School of Law. After clerking with a large prestigious Boston law firm, Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky & Popeo, P.C., she returned to Texas to serve with U.S. Magistrate Judge for the Southern District Eduardo de Ases, and later for Justice Federico Hinojosa on the Thirteenth Court of Appeals. Rebeca has been recognized for her outstanding service to the legal profession and to the public. In addition to using her expertise to advise the Purple Campaign’s efforts, she has also served on the Board of the National Association of Women Judges and the Mexican American Bar Association, among other Associations and Foundations.
Angela Onwuachi-Willig
Dean and Professor of Law, Boston University School of Law
Angela Onwuachi-Willig is the Dean of Boston University School of Law and a renowned legal scholar and expert in critical race theory, employment discrimination, and family law. She previously served as Chancellor’s Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law, where she taught courses on employment discrimination and critical race theory, among other subjects. Angela is the author of What about #UsToo? The Invisibility of Race in the #MeToo Movement (Yale Law Journal 2018) and her articles have appeared in other leading law journals such as the Virginia Law Review, Northwestern University Law Review, California Law Review, Michigan Law Review, Georgetown Law Journal, Texas Law Review, UCLA Law Review, and Vanderbilt Law Review, to name a few.
Aishah Shahidah Simmons
documentary filmmaker, author, educator, and activist
Aishah Shahidah Simmons is an award-winning Black feminist lesbian documentary filmmaker, activist, author, cultural worker, international lecturer, and professor whose work, for the past 25-years, examines the intersections of race, gender, sexuality, and sexual violence. An incest and adult rape survivor, Aishah wrote, directed and produced the Ford Foundation-funded, internationally acclaimed film, NO! The Rape Documentary. NO! was ahead of its time: the film’s 2006 world premiere took place nineteen months before Title IX was successfully applied to campus sexual assault cases and eleven years before the global recognition of the long-term #MeToo movement went viral. NO! and its supplemental materials have since been used continuously in high schools, colleges and universities, rape crisis centers, battered women’s shelters, community centers, correctional facilities, churches, and at conferences and government-sponsored events in the U.S., and countries in Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean.
Chad Sniffen
Outreach Manager, National Sexual Violence Resource Center
Chad Sniffen has been with the National Sexual Violence Resource Center since 2015, where he is currently the Outreach Manager. He is also Research and Evaluation Manager for the business consulting branch of RALIANCE. Chad has worked or volunteered in the movements against sexual and domestic violence as a prevention educator, victim advocate, researcher, women’s self-defense instructor, and board member since 1999. He was with the California Coalition Against Sexual Assault for eight years focused on technical assistance to rape prevention programs and building the PreventConnect online community of practice. He has also worked for community rape crisis and domestic violence programs in California and Arizona, and campus programs at the University of Arizona and the University of California, Davis. He earned a Master of Public Health degree from the University of Arizona in 2007.
Scott Westfahl
Director of Executive Education and Professor of Practice, Harvard Law School
Scott Westfahl is a Professor of Practice and the Director of Executive Education at Harvard Law School, where he oversees global leadership programs for many audiences, including law firm managing partners, emerging law firm leaders, and General Counsel. He also teaches team-based courses on leadership and design-thinking and innovation within the law school’s J.D. curriculum. Before joining Harvard Law School in 2013, he practiced corporate, regulatory and international law at Foley & Lardner, and then became a professional development leader, first at the Washington, D.C. office of McKinsey & Company and then at the law firm Goodwin Procter LLP. In September 2018, Professor Westfahl and Harvard Law School Executive Education partnered with the Purple Campaign to convene global leaders from more than 30 companies and 20 legal and policy organizations for the two-day #MeToo, Now What? Workshop.