Our Team.
Women’s Voices Now uses film to drive positive social change that advances women’s and girls’ rights globally.
Heidi Basch-Harod
Executive Director
As Executive Director, Heidi has overall strategic and operational responsibility of WVN’s team, boards, programs, expansion, and execution of its mission. She is the founding editor of The WVoice, WVN’s digital publication.
Heidi brings her experience in international human rights advocacy from her work with Tibetan Nuns Project, the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission of the U.S. Congress, and the Palestine-Israel Journal. She is a published author whose works can be found in several publications, including: Open Democracy, Palestine-Israel Journal, Tel Aviv Notes, Working Mother, The WVoice, and the edited volume, Kurdish Awakening: Nationbuilding in a Fragmented Homeland. She wrote the monograph, The Kurdish Women of Turkey: Building a Nation, Struggling for Gender Parity, (Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies). Heidi is a producer of the award-winning documentary Honor Diaries, and also of the acclaimed short film In Search of America, Inshallah.
Soizic Pelladeau
Development Director
Soizic is responsible for leading fundraising efforts, including grant writing, individual donations and corporate sponsors. Soizic also oversees evaluation, monitoring and reporting across programs, and assists with strategic planning.
Soizic brings with her extensive experience in gender-specific program design and evaluation. While getting her master’s degree in International Development and Political Science, she worked for Women’s Worldwide Web in Paris, and then for the Division for Gender Equality at UNESCO for two years, where she supervised and updated monitoring & evaluation processes. In Los Angeles, Soizic worked as a Program Officer for the Cultural Services of the French Embassy from 2016 to 2018 before joining Women’s Voices Now. Soizic occasionally consults for UN Women, assisting with evaluation and performance analyses of UN agencies’ efforts to promote gender equality.
Ariane Thielenhaus
Programs & Partnerships Director
Ariane is responsible for managing WVN programs, and leads partnership development and community outreach efforts both locally and internationally, on behalf of WVN.
Ariane comes to WVN with a non-profit background specializing in program development, project management, and strategy. Her experience working at all levels of a non-profit organization, addressing diverse issues – from homelessness and social justice to environmental conservation and workforce development – allow her to approach her work with a holistic vision, considering all parts of the greater whole. In addition to her work at WVN, Ariane occasionally consults with mission-driven organizations looking to increase their efficiency and maximize their impact.
Ariane’s passion for furthering girl’s and women’s rights comes from her own lived experience, as well as her background in providing direct services to women who have suffered immeasurable trauma and injustice. As a filmmaker herself, she firmly believes in the power of story and film to change minds, inspire action, and effect real change in the world.
Yasmeen Al-Shawwa
Communications Manager
Yasmeen leads WVN’s communications and social media strategies.
In her early 20s, her curiosity and devotion to exploring the world drove her to pursue a Master’s degree in Journalism at Columbia University. After six years of international reporting on business, culture, and immigration, she decided to switch gears and focus on utilizing her storytelling tools to empower conscious organizations + businesses. Yasmeen now specializes in helping identify, amplify, and disseminate mindful narratives to audiences across multiple online platforms.
Growing up in a multicultural family and living in several countries throughout the Middle East and Latin America allows her an expansive perspective and unique lens of the world around her. Through government laws and societal norms from Saudi Arabia to Argentina, Yasmeen has experienced first-hand accounts of support and suppression for simply being a woman. She whole-heartedly believes in the power of advocating for women’s rights, education, and progression in order to create a more sustainable and peaceful collective existence.
Ausma Palmer
Social Media Coordinator
Ausma assists with developing and implementing WVN’s social media strategy.
Ausma is a recent graduate of Boston University’s College of Communication, where she earned her Bachelor’s degree in Journalism with a concentration in Cinema Studies. She has always been interested in the intersections of women, media, and social justice, and she has explored these issues through documentary filmmaking, photojournalism, and film criticism. In her spare time, Ausma enjoys reading, experimenting with film photography, and playing tennis.
Coco Cowper
film festival intern
Coco supports film festival communications, outreach, event planning and logistics. She has assisted in furthering festival visibility geographically and within the target audience, maintaining the global nature of submissions and ticket sales, and evaluating outcomes to develop a framework for future strategy.
