LEADERSHIP TEAM
MARTI SPERANZA WONG
Founder, Executive Director & Board Chair
Marti Speranza Wong is dedicated to elevating women’s leadership. She is the Founder of Amplify Her® and Amplify Her® Foundation, where she serves as Executive Director. Through both organizations, she advances a shared mission: equipping women from underserved communities to become transformative changemakers. Amplify Her Foundation drives this work through grantmaking, advocacy, thought leadership, and community building, while Amplify Her focuses on increasing women’s representation in elected office through candidate endorsement and campaign support. Previously, Marti served as Director of Women Entrepreneurs NYC, where she launched a citywide initiative supporting thousands of women through innovative programs focused on mentorship, skill-building, and access to capital. She also served as Director of Strategic Initiatives at the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs, where she advanced efforts to protect and empower low-income New Yorkers. Marti has held numerous civic leadership roles, including her appointment to Manhattan Community Board 5 and election as Democratic State Committeewoman for New York’s 74th Assembly District. She also served on the Board of Habitat for Humanity NYC and currently serves on the Board of RTW Institute and RTW Foundation, where she founded BioQuest, a STEM mentorship program. Her leadership has been widely recognized. In 2025, Nasdaq invited Marti to ring the Opening Bell in honor of Women’s History Month and Girl Scouts of Greater New York presented her with the Gold Achievement Award. In 2024, Amplify Her Foundation received a Citation from the Office of the Mayor of the City of New York for Give to Women & Girls Day. In 2023, Marti was named to City & State’s “Responsible 100: New Yorkers Serving the Common Good.’ In 2022, the Bronx Borough President honored Marti with a Proclamation for her impact in the community. Marti earned her BA from the University of Pennsylvania, where she studied political science and economics and MBA from Harvard University, where she focused on entrepreneurship.
Colonel Julia Coxen
Board Vice Chair
Colonel Julia Oh Coxen is the Deputy Department Head of the Department of Systems Engineering at the US Military Academy at West Point. She earned her PhD in Operations Research (OR) from the University of Michigan and two masters degrees from Columbia University from their department of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research. Julia is a Distinguished Military Graduate from the University of Pennsylvania where she majored in Systems Engineering and minored in Music. Julia was also among the top 50 finalists out of 18,000+ applicants for the NASA astronaut selection in 2017. Julia is a senior-rated jumpmaster that commanded three times at the company level and also commanded a battalion in the US Special Operations Command. She was commissioned in the Signal Corps and started her career in Korea. She continued to serve in various leadership and staff positions from being a paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division to leading troops as a signal officer to deploying multiple times overseas in support of the Global War on Terror. She also taught in the Department of Systems Engineering at West Point from 2007-2010. She served the following years with the U.S. Special Operations Command from 2010-2018 near Washington D.C. working extensively with interagency partners and the intelligence community. She commanded two different Troops, served as an Executive Officer, and also deployed in key roles for a brigade sized task force overseas. She spent the final two years of her tour in Virginia as a Battalion Commander simultaneously launching the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) Data Initiative. Her PhD research was an interdisciplinary effort that took a risk analysis and data-driven approach to combatting sex trafficking. This expanded her research interests in data science, anomaly detection, machine learning, and operations research for vulnerable populations. She continues to teach and be part of the governance of the military academy while conducting meaningful research.
LAURA RISIMINI
Senior Director of Grantmaking & Strategy
Laura Risimini serves as the Senior Director of Grantmaking & Strategy at Amplify Her Foundation, where she oversees the Foundation’s grantmaking strategy and cultivates strategic philanthropic partnerships in the New York City area. Prior to joining the Amplify Her Foundation, Laura served as the Managing Director of the Purpose Foundation, a start-up organization acting as a fiscal sponsor for social impact campaigns and organizations. Prior to that role, she was the Foundation Manager of the HLH Family Foundation, formerly The Sister Fund, where she guided the organization through its transition from a women’s fund to a family foundation. Throughout her career, Laura has had the unique opportunity to support organizations in all areas of their lifecycle from start-up to sunset. She specializes in building nonprofit operating and programmatic structures and designing and implementing grant cycles aligned with feminist and trust-based funding principles. In addition to her leadership roles, Laura is the co-author of The Uprising of Women in Philanthropy, a work that explores the transformative impact of the global women’s funding movement. She holds a BA in International Studies and an MA in Political Science from Fordham University and is passionate about working for organizations that support the leadership and advancement of women and girls.