Dr. Carla Sutherland joined The Vaid Group as a senior consultant in 2016, after initially working with Urvashi at the Ford Foundation. Later, Carla relocated from Nairobi to New York to join Urvashi at the Arcus Foundation, where she developed the foundation’s first international program. Carla then followed Urvashi to Columbia University’s Gender and Sexuality Law Center to collaborate on a global research project examining how tradition and culture have been leveraged to resist human rights advancements for LGBTQ people worldwide.

Before joining The Vaid Group, Carla returned to South Africa to establish a Southern African public foundation focused on advancing the rights and well-being of LGBTI people across the region. During this period, Carla also contributed to Justice Work, playing a key role in the LGBTQ Poverty Collaborative, which sought to identify the drivers of LGBTQ poverty and develop a federal policy agenda to address them.

As the Executive Director of Justice Work, Carla has prioritized ensuring that Urvashi’s legacy projects—the National LGBTQ+ Women’s Community Survey and the 22nd Century Initiative—transition into stand-alone initiatives. Moving forward, Justice Work remains committed to Urvashi’s vision of cultivating innovative, silo-breaking projects that advance social justice and a multiracial, feminist democracy.