Sara Darehshori
PRINCIPAL
Darehshori has decades of experience tackling sexual abuse in organizations in the United States and abroad.
While at Human Rights Watch, Darehshori conducted an in-depth investigation into widespread retaliation against US military service members who report sexual assault. In the military, as in civilian settings, fear of retaliation is a key factor discouraging victims from coming forward. Underreporting makes it difficult to understand the prevalence of the problem and to address it effectively. Darehshori worked closely with military officials and external advocates to develop targeted policies to increase protections for service members who had been sexually assaulted and prevent retaliation against them after they report. Her efforts resulted in numerous legislative and policy changes to address this long-overlooked aspect of the complex problem of sexual assault in the military.
Darehshori also conducted extensive investigations into the District of Columbia police department’s failure to respond appropriately to sexual assault complaints. Her inquiries led her to formulate recommendations to improve the department’s approach to sexual assault victims, many of which were adopted by the police department. Her work also led to the Sexual Assault Victims Rights Amendment Act of 2014, landmark legislation improving police response to sexual assault in the District of Columbia.
Recently, Darehshori researched immigration policies pertaining to violence against undocumented women in the United States, another vulnerable population often reluctant to report crimes. Her work, based on detailed accounts from survivors and interviews with members of law enforcement, includes suggestions for feasible policy changes to improve existing practices.
In addition to her work in the United States, Darehshori has extensive experience internationally. Darehshori worked as a prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda where she prosecuted the first case establishing rape as a war crime and an act of genocide, the Prosecutor v. Jean-Paul Akayesu. Darehshori’s work was featured in the award-winning documentary, “The Uncondemned.” Darehshori also investigated gender violence committed in Bosnia during the Yugoslav war. Early in her career at Human Rights Watch, Darehshori worked on improving justice mechanisms intended to hold perpetrators to account for war crimes in Darfur and Serbia, and at the International Criminal Court.
During her time at Human Rights Watch, Darehshori published numerous reports, news releases, op-eds and policy papers based on her interviews with hundreds of sexual assault and harassment survivors and stakeholders. She has spoken on this topic before a wide range of audiences and has appeared extensively in major media including USA TODAY, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the Guardian, NBC, NPR, and Time magazine.
Darehshori began her professional career as a litigator in New York at Cravath, Swaine & Moore. She is a graduate of Brown University and Columbia Law School.
In 2016 she was appointed by President Obama as a Member of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, where she served on its Committee on Conscience until her term ended in 2019.
Brande Stellings
principal
A leading expert on workplace inclusion and women’s advancement, Stellings combines her experience a a litigator, diversity and inclusion consultant and lifelong advocate for women’s equity to help build organizations that work for everybody. She has partnered with companies across entertainment, sports, technology and finance to strengthen culture and HR policies and practices. Stellings helps boards and executives turn crises into opportunities — rebuilding trust with their employees and other stakeholders — usually in the aftermath of a public reckoning around sexual harassment and discrimination. For organizations undergoing a transformation, she brings innovative, culture change practices from across multiple industries to strengthen both business performance and the employee experience.
At Vestry Laight, she has served as an independent monitor and auditor in the aftermath of litigation, including as an appointed member of the Fox News Workplace Professionalism and Inclusion Council, reporting to the company’s Board of Directors. In these roles, she works with organizations to build safer and more inclusive workplaces. Stellings also serves as a consulting expert in high-stakes discrimination and sexual misconduct litigation and provides executive coaching in the context of post-investigation remediation.
Prior to founding Vestry Laight, she served as Senior Vice President, Advisory Services at Catalyst. She led Catalyst’s consulting and corporate board departments, partnering with CEOs, senior executives and board directors in Fortune 500 corporations and leading professional services firms on strategies to advance women and promote inclusion in the workplace and the boardroom. Earlier in her career, Stellings practiced law at NBC Universal (where she co-led the GE Women’s Network) and at Cravath, Swaine & Moore. She previously chaired the NYC Bar’s Women in the Profession Committee as well as the Conference Board’s Leadership Council on Advancing Women, served on the board of DirectWomen (accelerating corporate board opportunities for women lawyers) and is a founding member of Beyond #MeToo: A Working Group on Corporate Governance, Compliance and Risk.
Stellings received her JD cum laude from Harvard Law School and graduated magna cum laude from Yale College.
Silda Palerm
strategic advisor
Palerm has had a distinguished legal career in New York City, having served as Vice President and Global Head of Litigation at Warner Music Group and Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York. She was a litigation associate at the law firm Cahill Gordon & Reindel.
Palerm uses her legal background to champion women’s and victims’ rights in a variety of areas. In her role as Executive Vice President and Legal Director of Legal Momentum - The Women’s Legal Defense and Education Fund (formerly the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund) she conducted and supervised numerous investigations and litigations dealing with sexual harassment in the workplace.
Palerm served for ten years as Chair of the Mayor’s Commission on Gender Equity (CGE), an advisory body that supports City agencies in dismantling institutional barriers for women, girls, and New Yorkers of all gender identities and expressions. CGE develops and supports policies that promote opportunities for cisgender and transgender women and girls in all areas including employment, housing, childcare, education, health and reproductive justice, criminal justice, and public safety.
From 2014 to 2020, Palerm was Chair of the Board of Directors of Violence Intervention Program Inc. (VIP), a grassroots organization providing services to Latinx survivors of domestic and intimate partner abuse.
She served on the Board of Directors of Planned Parenthood NYC, where she was part of the Executive Committee and Chair of the Board Development and Governance Committee. She later joined the Board of Planned Parenthood of Greater New York where she served until 2021.
From 2001 to 2007, Palerm was a member of the Board of Directors of the New York Women’s Foundation. She has also served on the board of directors of the John Jay College Foundation and MFY Legal Services. She was a founding member of the Puerto Rican Women’s Foundation.
Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Palerm obtained her bachelor’s degree from Princeton University. She studied law at the University of Puerto Rico (J.D.) and at Harvard Law School (LL.M.). Palerm clerked in the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico for the Honorable Federico Hernandez Denton and in the First Circuit Court of Appeals for the Honorable Stephen Breyer, now Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.
Maureen Garrity
Communications Expert
Maureen Garrity is a crisis communications and public affairs specialist, bringing nearly 30 years of media, corporate, government affairs and agency experience.
With her background as a newspaper reporter, television news writer, corporate spokesperson, press secretary, senior director of government affairs for Comcast, and public relations agency senior vice president and management director at Tierney (a fully owned subsidiary of The Interpublic Group), Garrity brings a unique perspective to counseling her clients.
Throughout her career, she has worked with Fortune 500 companies, professional sports teams, private educational institutions and non-profit organizations on a wide array of issues, including sexual misconduct. She has advised clients on business mergers and acquisitions, corporate restructurings, reductions in force, workplace safety situations and litigation matters related to environmental issues. Garrity has a track record of developing successful strategic internal and external communications and helping leaders communicate in times of crisis.
Garrity led the strategy, messaging and government affairs efforts in a national campaign to change a federal policy that discriminated against children under the age of 12 in the allocation of adult donor lungs. The campaign resulted in the unanimous passage by the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network of a resolution that now allows children under 12 to be considered for adult transplant lungs. The campaign saved the life of a 10-year-old girl with cystic fibrosis and won the 2014 PR Week Public Affairs Campaign of the Year and Honorable Mention for Public Relations Campaign of the Year.
Suzette Ramirez-Carr
Strategic HR and Transformation Expert
Suzette Ramirez-Carr is a transformational Human Resources executive, strategic advisor and executive coach with more than 25 years of experience leading people strategy across financial services, entertainment, advertising, academia, beauty, fine arts, healthcare, nonprofit, and technology industries. She has held CHRO roles at TKO Group Holdings, Beautycounter, United Talent Agency, Oaktree Capital Management, Southern Methodist University, and DMB&B Worldwide Advertising.
Suzette specializes in cultural transformation, HR and AI systems assessment, and building scalable, inclusive people practices tailored to complex, high-growth and disrupted environments. Her leadership spans global HR Operations, Inclusion and Belonging, Internal Communications, and Workplace Services—often during pivotal moments such as IPOs, mergers, acquisitions, and private equity transitions. She has led enterprise-wide initiatives including the launch of Workday, redesign of long-term incentive plans, and implementation of engagement surveys and culture transparency frameworks.
At TKO, Suzette partnered with the CEO and Board of Directors to lead HR strategy through the sale of WWE to Endeavor and subsequent merger with UFC. At UTA, she scaled HR through rapid expansion and multiple acquisitions; while at Oaktree, she supported the firm’s IPO and global growth from $48B to $100B AUM.
Suzette’s board experience includes serving on the boards of American Contemporary Ballet, Hope Street Friends Early Education Center, and the Arlington Museum of Art. She is a founding member of The Hollywood Commission and served as Membership Committee Chair of the Private Equity CHRO Roundtable.
She holds an M.A. in Organizational Psychology from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and dual B.A. degrees in Psychology and Social Ecology from the University of California, Irvine
Elana Sigall
EDUCATION EXPERT
Sigall is an educational expert, attorney, and consultant with experience in teaching, and high-level experience in education-related legal and policy matters. She also has deep experience working on education issues in religious communities.
Sigall served as the Deputy Secretary for Education for New York State, acting as Governor Andrew Cuomo’s chief advisor on education policy matters. During her tenure, New York passed the Enough is Enough legislation relating to sexual assault on college campuses.
Sigall also served as New York City Department of Education’s Chief Policy Officer for the Division of Specialized Instruction and Student Support. Prior to her appointment to Chief Policy Officer, Sigall served as an Internal Special Master for the New York City Department of Education in connection with a federal class action lawsuit related to special education/students with disabilities.
Sigall has taught education law and policy courses focused on K-12 issues at Columbia University, School of Law, and Teachers College, and is currently teaching, Higher Education and the Law, a course that covers topics including sexual harassment and assault on campus, Title IX, equity, First Amendment freedom of speech and religion, liability, and discipline.
Sigall’s consultancy practice specializes in education-related legal and policy issues. She has served as an expert witness on educational matters in litigation. She recently served as the expert education witness for a federal class action lawsuit against the NCAA in connection with sexual misconduct by coaches in college athletics.
She also serves as the education expert/advisor for Footsteps, the non-profit that supports people who choose to leave the ultra-Orthodox community. Her work with that community has been featured in the New York Times and The New Yorker and on the Netflix series, My Unorthodox Life. She produced a documentary film that premiered in New York City in September, 2025, about education in the ultra-Orthodox community.
Sigall collaborated on Enddeepfakes.org, a national hub to support schools and school districts in addressing deepfakes, especially those that sexually exploit adolescent girls.
She evaluates schools for a variety of purposes and counsels individuals and institutions on an array of issues, including harassment, placement, special education, curriculum, and school discipline.
She has written articles for a variety of publications, including The Daily News, Chalkbeat and The American Lawyer and was interviewed on NPR about schooling during COVID.
She serves on the board of the Center for Jewish Life at Princeton University.
Prior to earning her law degree, Ms. Sigall taught public high school in Brooklyn, New York, and provided teacher training and curriculum development for Teach For America. Sigall received her A.B. from Princeton University, magna cum laude, and her J.D. from Harvard Law School, cum laude.