Board of Directors

Mariska Hargitay, Founder & President

As an actress, activist and advocate, Mariska Hargitay has dedicated her time, talent and resources to be an inspiration and force for change. Putting her passion for healing, education and community involvement to use, Ms. Hargitay works to help not only survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence and child abuse but other causes she is passionate about.

Read more about Mariska.

Beth Armstrong, Chair

Beth Armstrong had a successful career in post-production television and marketing. She was also an active philanthropist in LA for over a decade with a particular focus on issues that deal with women who have been victims of abuse. Beth has just returned to the west coast after living in London and New York where she became involved with Joyful Heart. She currently lives in San Francisco with her husband and three children.

Kym Worthy, Vice Chair

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 Woman’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, Secretary

Chauncey Parker serves as Deputy Commissioner for Community Partnerships at the NYPD. He also serves as the Director of the New York/New Jersey HIDTA (High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Area), a federally funded program that invests in public safety and public health partnerships designed to build safe and healthy communities. Chauncey has worked for more than 30 years in criminal justice.

Elizabeth Grossman, Treasurer

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 and the Dr. Richard Grossman Community Foundation. She isTrustee Emeritus of the Honolulu Museum of Art, a member of the Board of Directors of the Bishop Museum, and a member of the Board of Directors of the Hawaiian Humane Society.  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

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

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

Cynthia Erivo

Cynthia Erivo is a Grammy® Emmy® and Tony® Award-winning actress, singer, songwriter and producer, as well as Academy Award®, Golden Globe®, and SAG nominee. Erivo burst onto West End and Broadway stages in The Color Purple and has since taken the world by storm in movies such as Harriet and TV shows such as the HBO series The Outsider. She currently plays Aretha Franklin on National Geographic’s Genius: Aretha, will be releasing her debut album in the Summer of 2021 and debut children’s book in September 2021, and recently wrapped production on Disney’s Pinocchio remake. In August 2020, Erivo launched her production company, Edith’s Daughter, and announced her first-look deal with MRC Television & Civic Center Media. Edith’s Daughter focuses on projects that express the beauty in the stories and people who are often overlooked and underrepresented.

Kathryn Gallagher

Kathryn Gallagher can be seen on the Netflix hit "You," "The Flash" and will be featured Season 2 of the Amazon series "Modern Love." Most recently she was seen on Broadway in the original cast of Jagged Little Pill as Bella Fox and Deaf West’s Tony nominated revival of Spring Awakening. She is also an accomplished songwriter, her work can be found on streaming platforms everywhere and featured in films such as "Thanks For Sharing."  

Peter Hermann

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 NBCUniversal’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.

Andrea McTamaney

Originally from Australia, Andrea has spent the past 29 years traveling the globe with her husband and three children—having resided in Tokyo, London, Hong Kong, New York, Colorado, California and Hawai‘i. Now based in NYC, she is active in philanthropy and serves on boards and committees. She likes yoga, running marathons and helping people find joy, love and heart connections whilst living a meaningful and authentic life. 

Rev. Al Miles

Al Miles is a board-certified chaplain and 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 in Honolulu. Al is the author of four books focused on domestic violence in teenagers and families. 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.

Debbie Millman

Debbie Millman is a designer, author, curator, educator, and brand strategist. Since 2005, she has been the host of the award-winning podcast Design Matters, which is one of the world’s very first podcasts. She is also co-founder and chair of the world’s first Masters in Branding Program at the School of Visual Arts, President Emeritus of AIGA, and the author of six books on design and branding.

Heather Mnuchin

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.

Pamela Schein Murphy

Pamela Schein Murphy pursued literature, psychology, and women’s studies at the University of Rhode Island and later earned her master’s degree in magazine journalism from New York University. She worked at some of the publishing world’s biggest women’s magazines, such as Fitness, Mirabella, Elle, and Glamour. After successfully climbing the masthead, Murphy created her first independent venture, a national lifestyle magazine called Madison. She became a film producer (with actor Ed Burns) and marketing director (of her husband Chef Marc Murphy’s restaurant group). She also ran The R.E.S.T. Initiative, which is part of the alternative medicine practice at the NYU Clinical Cancer Center. Murphy is the principle of The Select 7, a curated exploration into philanthropy, food, beauty, wellness, travel, fashion, interior design, and social media.

Tom Nunan

Tom Nunan is founding partner of Bull's Eye Entertainment, a leading independent production company responsible for the Academy Award-winning film Crash, The Illusionist, Thumbsucker, the Starz TV adaptation of Crash and many other film and television projects. He is the former president of UPN, president of NBC Studios and chairman of the Hollywood Radio and TV Society. Mr. Nunan teaches once a year at the graduate school of TV and Film at UCLA and resides in Venice, California.

Sarabeth Rees

Sarabeth Rees is a director with PwC. An accomplished corporate strategist, she has spent the past 20 years helping Fortune 500 companies navigate some of their most difficult challenges. Passionate about fighting sexual assault, domestic violence and human trafficking, she is the former chair of the board of Haven and co-founded a Human Trafficking Task Force in Montana. Sarabeth is a member of the faculty at Montana State University, holds an MBA from Georgetown University and an AB from Duke University.

Robin Renzi

Robin Renzi, designer and founder of Me&Ro, has been passionate about jewelry since childhood, some of her earliest memories are of playing with her grandmother’s rings. She has been making jewelry since high school, an art she continued to perfect while studying modern dance. Robin has performed in avant-garde theaters such as The Kitchen in New York City, and in a number of music videos including Steve Winwood's award winning Higher Love video. Me&Ro has been at the forefront of modern jewelry design for 30 years, creating a style of jewelry that has been recognized globally, inspiring a movement of personal, handcrafted fine jewelry.  Inducted into the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) in 2008, Robin continues to express herself through the art of making jewelry.

Sophia Schrager

Sophia Schrager is 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. She works 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.

Amanda Stephens

Amanda Stephens graduated from Princeton University in 1994 with a degree in politics, where her research centered on women in electoral politics. She continued her focus on policy and women's issues in Washington. D.C., working at the American Enterprise Institute and volunteering as a hotline counselor for the D.C. Rape Crisis Center. Amanda then relocated to the West Coast and worked in compliance, supervision, and operations at investment banks Banc of America Securities and JP Morgan before joining UNX, a fintech start-up. Since 2004, Amanda has been living in Tiburon, California, with her husband Bart (Stephens Investment Management) and their two children, where she is involved with local philanthropic organizations, including the California Academy of Sciences and the Reed School Foundation.

Ali Wentworth

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.