The 2024 Yale Philanthropy Conference Committee

Tiffany Lau (she/her), MBA‘24 | Chair

Liv Ouyang (she/her), MBA‘24 | Fundraising Lead

Erin Manning (she/her), Mba’24 | Logistics Lead

Erin Manning is a 2nd year MBA candidate at the Yale School of Management. Prior to SOM, Erin was a manager on the International Social Impact team at Sesame Workshop, the non-profit educational organization behind Sesame Street. In this role, she led strategy and operations projects across Sesame’s international portfolio and offices in the Middle East, South Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa. She managed Sesame’s East Africa portfolio including the launch of Kiswahili television and Somali-language radio programs and the design of school-based early education programs. She also worked on a variety of strategic planning projects including exploration of Sesame programming supporting environmental education and humanitarian response expansion. This past summer, she interned in the higher education strategy practice at Huron Consulting. Erin holds a B.S. in Radio/TV/Film from Northwestern University.

ODILE MUKIZA (She/hER), mpp‘24 | MARKETING LEAD

Odile Mukiza is a 2nd year MPP candidate at the Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs. She focuses on economic policy & development, with special interests in systems change, social innovation, and public-private partnerships. Odile most recently worked as a consultant at The Rockefeller Foundation— Africa Office to shape food systems policy changes that address pressing public health threats including Non-Communicable Diseases Ghana and Kenya, and children Malnutrition in Rwanda. Prior to joining Yale, Odile was an economic policy analyst at the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) of Rwanda where her primary responsibilities were to advise the Prime Minister and other high government officials on the private sector promotion related policies, strategies, and projects. She has worked on a wide range of policy and strategy drafting exercises, and project implementations, including shaping the needed institutional and legal frameworks to establish Kigali as an International Financial Center. While at OPM, she also facilitated the coordination efforts when implementing a public-private partnership to develop the Gabiro Agri-business hub project aimed at creating an advanced modern value chain with a holistic and commercial agricultural ecosystem of cutting-edge irrigation systems, and high-value agro-processing operations over 15,600 hectares of arable land in Rwanda. Odile holds a BA in Economics with international focus and a minor in Finance from Texas Christian University. Odile is fluent in French and Kinyarwanda.

Camila Novo-Viano (She/Her), MBA‘25

Camila is a 1st year MBA student at the Yale School of Management. Before SOM she spent 5 years at FSG, a social impact strategy consulting firm, where she advised both donors and nonprofits. She has extensive experience working with corporate and philanthropic donors, on strategy, program design, and evaluation. She has developed strategic plans for organizations across issues areas, including economic mobility, education, mental health, and racial justice. She holds an AB in Public and International Affairs from Princeton University.

Ben Wrobel (he/him), MBA Partner’24

Ben Wrobel is the founder of Proximate, a magazine focused on participatory problem-solving. He is the author of the book Letting Go: How Philanthropists and Impact Investors Can Do More Good by Giving Up Control. Earlier in his career, he worked as chief speechwriter for the national NAACP, and later raised money for nonprofits including Stacey Abrams’ New Georgia Project. He has also edited two best-selling books: REACH: 40 Black Men on Living, Leading and Succeeding and The Innovation Blind Spot. He earned his MBA in 2023 from the Georgetown McDonough School of Business.

Margaret Kuo (she/her), mba ‘25

Margaret is a first year MBA student at the Yale School of Management. Prior to SOM, she worked in Sales & Trading at Deutsche Bank and as Head of Growth at a startup. She was also deeply involved with Apex For Youth, a nonprofit that serves Asian and immigrant youth from low-income families in New York City. At SOM, Margaret is a Nonprofit Board Fellow and a member of the Social Impact Consultant Club, through which she advises the Black Business Alliance. Post-SOM, she hopes to go into the nonprofit/philanthropy space with a focus on poverty and socioeconomic mobility.

Fanta Traore (she/her), MPP’24

Fanta Traore is pursuing a Master of Public Policy at the Yale Jackson school of Global Affairs. Fanta’s commitment to championing economic inclusion is ignited by her fascination with the economic complexities witnessed growing up in the dynamic, culture-rich and also heavily unequal city of New York. A desire to serve the marginalized and disenfranchised, globally, brings Fanta to Yale, where she studies management and policy with a focus on impactful investing in venture capital. Her experiences as a social entrepreneur — a co-founder of the Sadie Collective, the only organization dedicated to addressing the pipeline and pathway access for Black women in economics and related fields — has served as the launching pad for her career as an investor. Working at Commonweal Ventures, CT Innovations and Echoing Green, have been enriched by growing up in New York in her mother’s hair salon, her introduction to being an entrepreneur. Being a founder twice over — in the U.S. context and in Mali, raising capital — informs how she thinks about investing in founders from all walks of life in the U.S. and Africa. Her work has been featured on NPR, Fortune, Forbes, the World Economic Forum and more, garnering much success enabling her to be a sought-out speaker and startup advisor. She has been recognized as a Global Shaper with the World Economic Forum and is on the Board of Directors of WAKE Academy, designed to empower girls through sports’ education in Guinea. Fanta speaks four languages and has worked across sub-Saharan Africa to encourage entrepreneurship amongst youth in the francophone regions. She is a proud alumna of Howard University where she obtained dual degrees in economics and political science and graduated summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa.

Milton Gilder (he/him), M.Div‘25

Milton is a second-year student at the Yale Divinity School. He worked previously in education technology at Teachers Pay Teachers, working with internal stakeholders on sales and product marketing strategy. Before transitioning to education technology, Milton spent several years in secondary education and youth leadership development, launching career and college readiness programs in the Durham, North Carolina neighborhood, Walltown organizing with black and brown youth. Second, he directed the Duke Youth Academy at Duke Divinity School, facilitating the closure of a legacy youth program. He graduated from Duke University with a degree in Public Policy and International Studies, emphasizing Middle Eastern History and Politics. He later returned to the Duke Program in Education as a Teaching Fellow studying education pedagogy and policy and working in Durham Public Schools. Having worked broadly in the education sector, Milton came to Yale Divinity School to learn economic and religious models of sustaining marginalized communities and institutions. At Yale, Milton is a co-leader of the Divinnovation Club and serves on the Presidential Search Student Advisory Committee. He looks forward to working for innovative social finance organizations after Yale.

India Gupta (she/her), MBA ‘24

Wendy Shi (She/Her),GBS‘24

Wendy dedicated herself to the field of energy and sustainability, as well as amplifying innovations. She has worked on topics such as ESG, power markets, and cleantech. Her most recent experience includes consulting and entrepreneurship, also co-founded an ESG data startup in Paris as the Chief Impact Officer. Prior, She was the Research Lead at Asia Society Young Green Tech, a think tank.

Natalie King (she/her), Drama‘24

Natalie King (she/her) is in her final year as an MFA candidate in Theater Management at the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale and is serving as Yale Schwarzman Center's Associate Director of Strategic Initiatives. While in CT, she has worked as Co-Managing Director of Yale Cabaret, Interim Director of Development at Westport Country Playhouse, Assistant Managing Director of Yale Repertory Theatre, and Creativity Fellow at the Heinz Endowment. Prior to Yale, she was Institutional Giving Manager at Theatre Development Fund (TDF) and Director of Development for New York Deaf Theatre in New York City. Natalie has worked as a general manager, stage manager, and sound engineer with several small and mid-sized dance, theater, and festival organizations in New York City. She has also performed professionally with dance choreographers Pat Graney, Nusha Martenyuk, and Richard Dickinson, and companies Pennsylvania Ballet and Hudson Vagabond Puppets, among others. Natalie received her B.A. at Oberlin College in Oberlin, OH where she was awarded the Helen H. Ward Memorial Award for outstanding contributions in Theatre & Dance.

Danielle Frankel (she/her), Yale college’26

Danielle is a sophomore at the college, studying Global Affairs and Global Health. Originally from South Africa, she has spent most of her life in Boston, MA. At Yale, she is involved in the Urban Philanthropic Fund, through which she leads a non-profit consulting team. She has also helped to launch a chapter of Partners in Health Engage, the youth network associated with Partners in Health (a global health non-profit). This past summer, Danielle interned at Rafanelli Events, an event planning and management company based in Boston, New York City, and Palm Beach. Danielle loves organization, communication, and logistics, and she is very excited to be part of the YPC 2024 team!

Emma Herlinger (she/her), MAM‘24

Emma is a Master of Advanced Management (MAM) candidate at the Yale School of Management. Her experience prior to SOM spans industries from public service to education and several years of place-based philanthropic management. Most recently, she worked on PwC Canada’s Sustainability & Climate Change advisory team with a focus on modern slavery risk mitigation and reporting within international supply chains. Having worked extensively in industries that are often on the receiving end of grant-making, Emma is particularly interested in philanthropic models that advance equity, share power, and center proximate leaders. Emma holds an MBA from UBC Sauder School of Business and a B.A. in Interdisciplinary Studies of Culture from Scripps College.

Nicole Wong (SHE/HER/HERS), MBA/MPP Joint Degree’ 25