OSI Democracy and Power Fund Welcomes New Program Officers

The Democracy and Power Fund welcomed two new program officers. Patricia Jerido and Cristóbal Joshua Alex join program director Bill Vandenberg and program associate Rachel Pecker to complete the Democracy and Power Fund roster. In the coming weeks, Jerido and Alex will begin to set up introductory meetings and visits with grantees.

Patricia Jerido brings a range of personal and professional experiences to the Open Society Institute, including eight years as a social worker and community organizer on human rights issues in the Manhattan Borough President's Office, and as co-director for Client Services at the Minority Taskforce on AIDS, where she worked with women incarcerated at Rikers Island.

Since 1999, Jerido has worked as a program officer and consultant to foundations and nonprofits working on economic, health, and leadership development issues.  As a program officer for health and safety at the Ms. Foundation for Women, she managed three funds covering reproductive rights, women and AIDS, and sexuality education.

Since 2003, Jerido has worked as an independent consultant, assisting nonprofit organizations in fundraising, communications, board and program development, evaluation, executive coaching, and organizing.  Her clients included the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Association of Black Foundation Executives, the Ford Foundation, the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Center, the Racial Justice Collaborative, the Women's Funding Network, and many others.  Jerido has also explored the intersections between popular culture and progressive politics through GoLeft.org, a web-based nonprofit that she founded.  Jerido is a graduate of Rutgers University and Hunter College Graduate School of Social Work.

Cristóbal Joshua Alex was most recently the director for the National Campaign to Restore Civil Rights, an Open Society Institute-funded project that includes more than 100 organizations united to ensure that U.S. courts protect and preserve justice, fairness, and opportunity for everyone. 

Prior to joining the campaign, Alex served as a law clerk for a justice on the Washington State Court of Appeals and then practiced civil rights law at MacDonald, Hoague, and Bayless in Seattle, where he represented clients in cases ranging from prisoner abuse to voter disenfranchisement.  While in law school he helped organize a campaign to bring housing to farm workers and also founded the Farm Worker Justice Project, to extend greater access to justice to migrant workers.

Alex has served as the youngest president in the history of the Latina/o Bar Association of Washington and also established the Latino Political Action Committee.  He is the chair of the civil rights section of the Hispanic National Bar Association, a frequent public speaker and writer on issues relating to immigrant justice, voting rights, and human rights, and a regular blogger on Huffington Post.  Alex is a graduate of Southern Methodist University, where he was a volunteer for Planned Parenthood and the National Commission for Democracy in Mexico, and the University of Washington School of Law.