Board of Directors

Amanda is a fierce advocate for women’s rights and social justice. She grew up in Wisconsin and Texas before attending Princeton University, where she majored in Politics and focused her independent research on women in electoral politics. Amanda’s career spanned economic policy work at a think tank in Washington D.C. and compliance work at large investment banks and trading platform start-ups in California. She is a past volunteer at the DC Rape Crisis center, former Deacon at Westminster Presbyterian Church, current documentary film and Broadway producer, SHE-CAN Global mentor and Treasurer for her Princeton class of 1994. Far and away, Amanda’s most cherished role is being an incredibly proud, close mother to two thoughtful teenagers.

Kym Loren Worthy is the current Prosecutor of Wayne County, Michigan, home to the city of Detroit. She is the first African American woman to serve as a County Prosecutor in Michigan. She became internationally recognized for prosecuting then Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick at the beginning of March 2008. In 2009, Worthy began working on resolving a massive backlog of unprocessed rape test kits in Detroit. Some of the kits had been sitting in a Detroit Police Department property room for over three decades. Since that time, almost 235 rapists have been convicted and over 800 serial rapists have been identified. In 2018, she was inducted into Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame for her years of tireless work as the Wayne County Prosecutor and specifically for her outstanding work on resolving the Detroit Sexual Assault Kit Backlog.

Chauncey Parker serves as the Director of the New York/New Jersey HIDTA (High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Area), a federally funded program that invests in law enforcement partnerships designed to build safe and healthy communities. Chauncey has worked in criminal justice for over 40 years.

After retiring from a 34-year career on Wall Street, Elizabeth Grossman has focused on her philanthropic pursuits. She currently serves as President of the Larson Charitable Foundation. She is Trustee Emeritus of the Honolulu Museum of Art, and a member of the Board of Directors of the Bishop Museum, the Creative City, and the Hawaii Food Bank.  Past Board affiliations include the Public Theater in New York, The New York Ronald McDonald House, and The Family Academy in Harlem.  Public Service includes serving the City and County of San Francisco as a Juvenile Probation Commissioner. 

Jessica Ambrose graduated from Boston College with a degree in Radio and Television, which lead her to her 12-year career as a radio disc jockey. Since moving to East Hampton, New York and raising three girls (Lyman, Mansell and Whittier) with her husband, Colin Ambrose, they have created a popular restaurant called Estias Little Kitchen in Sag Harbor, New York and Estais Back Porch in Darien, Connecticut.

Lauran Bromley’s business career spans the globe with companies in London, Hawaii and Guam. She comes to Joyful Heart Foundation with over 35 years of business experience, and after serving as a board member and a long-time benefactor to Joyful Heart.

Kate Coyne is a veteran entertainment journalist with more than three decades of experience covering Hollywood’s biggest personalities and most compelling stories. Most recently Editorial Director at People magazine, she has interviewed everyone from the Sexiest Men Alive to Maya Angelou and penned more than a hundred cover stories—including five featuring a certain beloved SVU star. Renowned for her expertise in negotiating access, soothing egos, and never taking no for an answer, she lives just outside New York City with her family.

Kathryn Gallagher is a Tony -nominated and Grammy-winning singer, songwriter and actress. Gallagher can be seen in Anna Kendrick’s hugely popular directorial debut feature Woman Of The Hour on Netflix which made its premiere at the Toronto Film Festival.  Gallagher also stars in Alex Ross Perry’s Pavements, a musical biopic concert film, which premiered at the 2024 Venice Film Festival and NYFF. On stage, Kathryn made her Broadway debut as Martha in the Tony nominated Deaf West revival of Spring Awakening in 2015. She returned to Broadway as Bella in Alanis Morisette’s musical Jagged Little Pill. The show, based on the album, was written with Diablo Cody, and directed by Diane Paulus. The role led her to a Tony Award nomination in the category of “Best Featured Actress in a Musical,” and a Grammy Award win as a principle in the category of “Best Musical Theatre Album.” She is coming off a successful off-Broadway run in All Nighter opposite Havana Rose Liu. On television, Kathryn was seen on Netflix’s mega hit show You, as Annika. She was also seen in MAX’s Gossip Girl, Amazon’s Modern Love and The CW’s The Flash. Kathryn is also an accomplished singer songwriter whose music has had placements in film/TV. She continues to work on new music, working alongside accomplished writers from all over the world. Her single “The Sweetest Song,” which is also featured in Woman Of The Hour, was released this past fall.

Peter Hermann is an actor, writer and advocate living in New York. He is a graduate of Yale University and was a charter member of the Teach For America Teaching Corps. Peter’s acting credits span television, film and stage. He currently stars as Charles Brooks on TV Land’s hit romantic comedy Younger. His credits include performances on Broadway in Talk Radio and the Tony Award-winning Lincoln Center production of War Horse, the critically acclaimed film United 93, and a recurring role on NBC Universal’s Law & Order: Special Victims Unit for the last 18 seasons. He is the author of If the S in MOOSE Comes Loose, his first children’s book from HarperCollins. Peter and his wife, Mariska Hargitay, live in New York with their three children.

Poorna Jagannathan is an actor and producer who recently starred in the Onyx/Hulu series DELI BOYS, for which she won a Gotham Award for ‘Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series’ for her performance as ‘Lucky.’ She is currently in production on the DC/HBO series LANTERNS from Damon Lindeloff and Chris Mundy. 

Poorna starred as one of the leads, ‘Nalini’, in Netflix’s #1 hit comedy series, NEVER HAVE I EVER, produced by Mindy Kaling and also as ‘Safar Khan’ in HBO’s THE NIGHT OF. Her recent feature work include WOLFS, opposite George Clooney and Brad Pitt, and THE OUTLAWS opposite Adam Devine and Pierce Brosnan.

Poorna has been a staunch advocate for ending violence against women. In 2012, moved by the violent gang-rape and subsequent death of medical student, Jyoti Singh Pandey in India, Poorna co-conceived, produced and acted in the play NIRBHAYA written by Yael Farber. The testimonial play attempted to break the silence around sexual violence and featured her real story of sexual assault alongside 4 other women, each telling their own stories. The play won the 2013 Amnesty International award and was called by The Telegraph as, “One of the most powerful and urgent pieces of human rights theatre ever made.” NIRBHAYA is considered a watershed moment in India’s history of women’s empowerment. 

Before her acting career, Poorna was in Advertsing for 20 years.

Originally from Melbourne, Australia, Andrea has spent the past 30 years traveling the globe with her family — residing in Tokyo, London, Hong Kong, New York, Colorado, California and Hawaii. Now based in NYC, she is active in philanthropy, mindfulness mentoring and serves on boards and committees. She has worked in fundraising and spiritual psychology, has run 33 marathons and her interest is helping people experience healing, self-compassion, tenderness and heart connections while living a meaningful and authentic life.

Al Miles is a board-certified chaplain with the Association of Professional Chaplains and a national trainer in adult and teen intimate partner violence awareness. Since 1993, he has worked for Pacific Health Ministry as the coordinator of the Hospital Ministry Department at The Queen’s Medical Center located in downtown Honolulu. Al is the author of four books and hundreds of articles focused on adult intimate partner and teen dating violence. Al has served on many national boards and committees, including as a member of the National Advisory Committee on Violence Against Women and the American Bar Association’s Commission on Sexual and Domestic Violence.

Named “one of the most creative people in business” by Fast Company, “one of the most influential designers working today” by GDUSA, and a “Woman of Influence” by Success magazine, Debbie Millman is also an author, educator, designer and podcast pioneer. Debbie is the host of the Webby award-winning podcast Design Matters, one of the first and longest-running podcasts in the world, Chair of the first-ever Masters in Branding Program at the School of Visual Arts, Editorial Director of PrintMag.com, and the author of eight books. Debbie is the recipient of a Cooper Hewitt National Design Award, an AIGA Lifetime Achievement award, the OnAir Audio Vanguard award and many others. She is currently a Harvard Business School Executive Fellow.

Heather Mnuchin’s career spanned nearly 15 years in the retail and marketing sectors. Heather opened retail stores based on the show Sesame Street, after which she moved on to an interactive company that created and leased music listening devices to retail music stores. In 1995 she became VP of Marketing and Promotions for Planet Hollywood. After Planet Hollywood, she moved back to the music business and worked as SVP of Corporate Communications at LAUNCH Media. After the company went public in 1999, it was sold to Yahoo! and is now known as Yahoo Music. More recently, Heather left the business world to start a family and currently lives in Los Angeles.

Robin Renzi is the designer and founder of Me&Ro, a pioneering jewelry design company that creates and produces its works in New York City. Me&Ro, which is committed to using recycled metals and ethically sourced materials and gems, has been at the forefront of modern jewelry design for over 30 years. Inducted into the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) in 2008, Robin’s driving force, since her youth, has been artistic expression. After studying modern dance in college, Robin performed in avant-garde theaters such as The Kitchen, Cuando and White Dog Studio in Manhattan, and appeared in a number of music videos, including Steve Winwood’s award-winning “Higher Love” video. Throughout her career, Robin has integrated her creative work with advocacy causes close to her heart.  By creating custom pieces (with 100% of net proceeds donated) and other fundraising efforts, Me&Ro has supported BlinkNow, Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), Hearts of Gold, Hidden Water, Kageno, The Joyful Heart Foundation, NewYork-Presbyterian Sloane Hospital for Women and The Tibet Fund, among many other critical organizations. Robin’s dedication to both the arts and philanthropy continues to inspire her work on the board of The Joyful Heart Foundation.

Sophia Schrager was a Senior Events Manager at PURPLE, a global agency for luxury brands and innovation with offices in New York, London, Los Angeles, Hong Kong and Singapore for over 8 years. She worked with clients across the platforms of Lifestyle, Fashion and Beauty including: The Academy Museum of Motion Picture, Buccellati, Chloé, GUCCI, EDITION Hotels, Fashion Trust US, Kering, PUBLIC Hotels, Tory Burch, Vanity Fair, Vogue and more. 

Sophia has been involved with Joyful Heart since 2013. She is Co-Founder of Joyful Heart’s GenerationJOY Committee for next generation advocates, as well as Development Committee Co-Chair. In addition to Joyful Heart, Sophia is also on the Board of Trustees of Trevor Day School in New York City.

Sophia is currently the Events & Partnerships Consultant for Joyful Heart where she focuses on strategy, events, development, partnerships and the management of committees.

A multi-talented performer, Ali Wentworth brings a wealth of experience to all her endeavors, including writing books, movie scripts, articles and columns in multiple magazines, and acting in notable movies and television shows. Ali is a three-time New York Times bestseller and is currently working on another book, How to Grow a Teenager. Ali made a name for herself as a regular on three seasons of In Living Color. She has appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno over 100 times, as well as on Colbert, Seth Meyers and Jimmy Kimmel. She was the creator, star and executive-producer of the critically acclaimed Starz series Head Case. She created, wrote and starred in Nightcap, a half-hour comedy on the Pop network. She resides in New York City with her husband George Stephanopoulos, and their two daughters Elliott and Harper.