Meet Leticia
Leticia Peguero has always believed a more just world is possible.
Leticia has spent over 25 years moving resources toward liberation — leading programs at Nathan Cummings Foundation, the Andrus Family Fund (Surdna Foundation), The Posse Foundation, Planned Parenthood of New York City, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and more. Today, she’s the executive director of Amplify Fund at Neighborhood Funders Group, and she serves on the boards of the Center for Study of Social Policy, Partners for Dignity and Rights, and the Drug Policy Alliance.
In 2019, after years of watching brilliant leaders struggle in isolation, Leticia became a professional certified coach. She coaches because she knows what it feels like to carry both the weight of the work and the weight of being first, only, or few.
Growing up as an Afro-Latina in Brooklyn shaped a belief she's carried ever since: a more just world is possible, and the people closest to a problem hold the seeds of its solution. That belief is the foundation of everything Leticia and her team bring to the table — relational, rigorous, and rooted in the conviction that inner transformation and outer change move together.
Leticia holds an MPA from the Marxe School of Public Affairs at Baruch College, a BA in Sociology from Fordham University, and is a proud graduate of the National Urban Fellows program. She is bilingual in English and Spanish.
Our Team
Leticia works alongside a group of values-aligned women who bring deep expertise and radical transparency to every engagement. They’ve worked inside large institutions and one-on-one — so they understand how to build the structure that makes bold, honest conversation possible, not just well-intentioned.
Amanda Perez Leder
Amanda is an accomplished instructional designer, facilitator, and conflict coach with over 20 years of experience designing and implementing evidence-based programs in public health, organizational development, and leadership. As the founder of CHAT Consulting, she empowers executives, boards, and organizations to navigate complex challenges, drive cultural change, and foster belonging.
Amanda has a proven track record of improving employee engagement, patient experience, and organizational capacity, with a specific expertise in facilitating sensitive and high-stakes topics, including race equity, trauma-informed practice, and workplace culture. Whether guiding organizations through times of growth and uncertainty or leading mediation services to repair trust, she is recognized for her ability to read a room, understand organizational goals, and ensure diverse perspectives are heard and valued.
Amanda holds a B.S. in Human Development from Cornell University, a Master of Public Health from George Washington University, and a Professional Certification in Mediation & Conflict Resolution from Columbia University. She is fluent in English and Spanish.
Jessica Estévez
Jessica is a leadership coach, seasoned facilitator, and strategic advisor. With 30 years of cultivating leadership and advancing equity, Jessica has successfully facilitated civic learning, inclusive community outreach, and strategic, game-changing initiatives for nonprofits, educational institutions, and businesses. She is equipped with a bilingual (Spanish) and cross-cultural lens. She draws wisdom and inspiration from her faith, her ancestors, and her community, with whom she intentionally seeks to serve justice for all.
As Co-Owner of Estrategia Group, she has provided leadership coaching and strategic planning to organizations nationwide such as Hispanics in Philanthropy, the American Association of Colleges and Universities, and Mi Familia Vota. She is also the co-founder of the nonprofit MiGente MiPueblo, which seeks to advance equity through narrative, healing, and advocacy while centering the Latine community and culture.
Jessica is actively parenting two Generation Z children, deepening her 25-year-old marriage, and volunteering in her community. She is a Curriculum Development partner and fellowship manager with the St. Petersburg TRHT. She is also a volunteer leadership coach and trainer for Weslaco Chamber of Commerce’s Leadership MidValley Program. She is a member of the WKKF Global Fellows Network, which shares a purpose of connecting, collaborating, and taking purposeful action for transformative change. Jessica holds a Master of Management from the Heller School at Brandeis University and a Bachelor of Arts from Mount Holyoke College. She also holds certifications from the University of Wisconsin-Stout and the University of South Florida. Jessica integrates all her experiences to lead from her love without fear framework.
Manami Kano
Manami is a strategic advisor with over two decades of experience working at the intersection of journalism, media, culture, and racial equity. She partners with organizations and funders to design strategies, collaborations, and initiatives that center community power and narrative change.
Manami has helped build fields and mobilize resources at scale, with specific expertise in funder collaboration and embedding diversity, equity, and inclusion into organizational goals. She co-created the Racial Equity in Journalism Fund at Borealis Philanthropy, which has mobilized over $30 million to support more than 90 BIPOC-led news organizations, and helped design the Color Congress, a participatory fund building the field among nonfiction storytellers and documentary makers of color.
As a consultant, she has advised foundations, including the Ford Foundation, the Democracy Fund, and the Knight Foundation, on strategy and organizational development. Previously, as Deputy Director of the Global Media Program at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, she led media investments elevating underreported stories and diverse voices across the U.S., Europe, Africa, and India. Manami holds a B.A. in American Studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and a Master of Public Administration from Baruch College.
Andrea Hernandez Rodriguez, PhD
Dr. Andrea is a lover of humanity, mom, leadership & change doctor, and creative. She brings over 25 years of practice in nonprofit and foundation management, grantmaking, organizing, capacity building, and systems change — centering trust and the belief that those closest to the issue hold the solutions.
Dr. Andrea specializes in holding compassionate space for leaders, especially in times of significant change or crisis; conflict transformation involving race; and intergenerational organizing that shares power with young people. She leads Growing Giving, LLC, providing customized coaching and consulting services, provides circle facilitation with Wisdom Circles Oceania, and is a founder of the Maui Organizer Mālama Fund that resources local Maui community organizers leading disaster recovery and healing.
Dr. Andrea was raised in rural Texas and spent her early professional years in the Midwest and mid-career years on the West Coast and on the Island of Maui. She now lives in Rochester, New York, on unceded lands of the Seneca Nation, where you will likely find her lovingly tending her garden or near the closest water source or wooded trail with her son and devoted dog.
Our Partners in This Work
