Our Team

**Alexandra Bacchus | Consultant**
Alexandra has spent her career working in partnerships and business development for venture studios and early stage startups. She has worked with innovation executives at Fortune 500 companies in the energy, mobility and materials spaces, using skills in research, strategy, and sales to help them achieve their innovation agendas.

In addition to consulting with Gray Ink, Alexandra works at Co-Created, a New York City-based venture studio that brings large companies looking to innovate together with experienced entrepreneurs and operators who are ready to start their next venture. She previously lived in Nashville through the Venture For America fellowship, which is focused on growing startup ecosystems in mid-size American cities.

Alexandra has lived in NYC, SF, Nashville, Paris and Connecticut… but NYC currently feels the most like home.

**Aaron Parnell Brown | Consultant**
Aaron is a nonprofit professional with over 15 years of fundraising experience, especially in researching and writing successful federal, corporate, and foundation grants for organizations of all sizes and varied services. His past professional experiences have included working for well-known nonprofits such as the United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey and the national office of Big Brothers Big Sisters of America. He is a Philadelphia native now living in South New Jersey and has a Marketing degree from Penn State University and Master’s Degree in Public Administration from Marywood University. He is also an accomplished musician and an active volunteer in his community.

**Sydney Gray | Principal**
Sydney Gray is an internationally recognized social entrepreneur and fundraiser. Over the last 15 years, she has honed her expertise in business development, systems engineering, impact investing and advancement, design thinking, and lean data. Sydney has raised $100 million in institutional and government funding with a proposal success rate of 65.6 percent.

Sydney has also built partnerships and launched joint annual events with key stakeholders in both local and international ventures including the U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. Small Business Association, MIT D-Lab, Harvard, Tulane, Nairobi University, Ashoka, the National Women's Business Council, the Delta Regional Authority, and Case Foundation. Sydney has taken the stage to speak on innovation in nonprofits and entrepreneurship for the World Water Forum in Brazil, SOCAP, universities in Pakistan, and at the United Nations.

**LaTierra Piphus | Consultant**
LaTierra Piphus is a self-identified Womanist-Marxist with a decade worth of advocacy and grant writing experience. A Midwest-native, she graduated from the University of Wisconsin with her B.A. in Communication, minor in Women, Gender & Sexuality studies and acquired dual certificates in Community Based-Learning and Media Literacy.
Since her relocation to the South, her primary focus has been accessing and redistributing resources to grassroots organizers and creating opportunities for cooperative development in alignment with Social and Solidarity Economy values. She currently honors her calling through her work with the Womxnist Liberation Collaborative, The Womanist Working Collective and her grant writing.

Daisy Wu | Director of Finance & Operations

Daisy is an impact-driven consultant with experience working across multi-million dollar transformation projects, and managing proposals and pitches for startups and nonprofits. She has worked with leaders and executives at Fortune 500 companies, startups, and nonprofits, using project management, strategy design, and change management skills to support clients and teams in achieving sustainable growth. Daisy holds a Bachelor of Science from National Chinch University in Taiwan and a Master of Science from Michigan State University.

Daisy was born and raised in beautiful Taiwan and now calls New York City home.

Steffani Bangel, MPH | Senior Consultant

Steffani Bangel is a strategist, community organizer, and leader with a passion for resource mobilization. For over fifteen years, Steffani has worked to advance reproductive and social justice in New Orleans, with work that has spanned fundraising, radical movement building, meaningful community engagement, capacity building, nonprofit leadership, and strategic storytelling for change. As a lifelong advocate and creative writer, she is skilled at connecting organizations to opportunities, and perfecting the stories we tell to illustrate impact.

Steffani holds a master of public health in health behavior from the University of North Carolina Gillings School of Public Health, where she has also served as an adjunct instructor in the Public Health Leadership Program, and a bachelor of arts from Tulane University.

Sarah Cottee | Consultant

Sarah Cottee has spent the past eight years in the philanthropic sector as a funder, a founder, and most recently at a tech4good non-profit focused on the Global Health space. Based in South East Asia for seven years, she worked at a private foundation and funded nonprofits working on healthcare and education; co-designing projects with grantee partners ranging from $500,000 to $3M and measuring long-term impact. She went on to run a multi-million dollar Global Awards Programme for a UK investment bank focused on finding high-impact social enterprises addressing SDG5.

More recently, Sarah founded a FemTech startup which successfully raised capital and is currently working in four countries with a multitude of partners, most notably UNFPA. Having had experience fundraising and creating partnerships on the non-profit side too, she has a holistic view of how the sector operates and how to design for inclusivity and success, and execute to ensure systemic change.

**Wonu Owoade | Senior Consultant**
Wonu has over a decade’s experience in fundraising. Her interest in fundraising and the not for profit sector started in her youth where she volunteered for charities such as Oxfam, UNICEF UK and Christian Aid.
Since then she has built considerable experience working for a range of NGOs including Plan International UK, Christian Aid, Girl Effect and the More than Brides Alliance, a partnership between Oxfam Novib, Simavi, Population Council and Save the Children Netherlands.
She has worked with trusts, foundations and governmental donors based in the UK, Europe, the US and Asia. Through her career to date, she has learnt considerably about what makes donors tick and key principles around fundraising best practice.
Wonu also has experience in running training sessions on various aspects of fundraising including grant writing, prospect research, donor cultivation, donor stewardship and diversifying income streams. She has run training sessions at various charities including Wetlands International.
Wonu has an BA in Ancient History and History (2:1) from the University of Nottingham and an MSc in Africa and International Development from the University of Edinburgh.

**Bridgette Ryan-Ortiz | Consultant**
Bridgette is a communications and development strategist with a passion for empowering mission-driven organizations. With a focus on public health, Bridgette has worked with NGOs, nonprofits, and social impact groups for over eight years, helping them elevate their impact and tell the stories of their most vulnerable stakeholders. Armed with a degree in English Literature and expertise in human-centered design and community engagement, she is committed to building community-driven solutions.

**Charlotte Brandin | Senior Consultant**
Charlotte has been an active executive in nonprofit management and philanthropy for 25+ years. She has served as an Executive Director, advisor, board member, and consultant both in the U.S. and Sweden, and worked with start-ups in communications and social media.
Native of Sweden, Charlotte has extensive experience in supporting nonprofits scale operations and build capacity, developing systems, and with project and financial management. In addition to working in direct services at Planned Parenthood, she co-founded a national campaign to reauthorize welfare reform, and lobbied in Congress. In her free time, Charlotte writes novels.

**Tina El Gamal | Senior Consultant**
Tina is Chicago born, raised, and based fundraising professional and artist. They have years of experience in the nonprofit arts sector as a development professional, educator, community organizer and executive leader. In her time as an arts administrator and community organizer she has overseen strategic planning, governance design, prospect development and analysis, revenue generation, individual fundraising and grant writing for organizations of various sizes and life stages.
In addition to her work as a fundraiser, she works as an actor and director in Chicago and across the US. She understands the infinite power of meaningful storytelling and relationship-building, which is the core of her work as a theatre artist and informs her approach as a consultant. She graduated from University of Illinois at Chicago Magna Cum Laude with a BFA in Theatre. Tina was featured in New City Mag’s Player’s 50, 2022.

**Krathika Parchani | Consultant**
Krathika Parchani is an impact sector professional with a focus on tech4good, and has over four years of experience working across partnerships, board development, communications, and operational strategy. She brings a strong track record of fundraising through innovation programs, including InnovateUK, Eureka, Elevate, and MIT Solve, amongst others.
In addition to fundraising, Krathika is skilled at working with leadership teams, and has experience building out governance mechanisms. To further explore the intersection between business and impact, Krathika is currently pursuing an MBA at the University of Cambridge, with a concentration in social innovation.

Claire Siemietkowski | Senior Consultant

Claire is a nonprofit professional passionate about building partnerships to create a more equitable world. She has experience providing fundraising, operations, grants management, and executive support to impact-driven organizations. Claire's strategy and workstyle is informed by her experience across a variety of sectors, including healthcare, health equity, international peace and security, international development, the Sustainable Development Goals, arts and culture, and education.

Claire has worked with healthcare organizations to address social determinants of health needs and advance racial justice in maternal health and health equity in local communities. She has worked with UN agencies, private foundations, and government funders to support initiatives around energy and climate, global health, sustainable food solutions, equitable data access, disaster relief, and LGBTQIA+ rights. Claire has also fundraised for film and performing arts festivals, as well as youth education programs.

Claire is based in Brooklyn, New York and graduated from the University of Virginia with a B.A. in Economics and French.