Our people

Vivian Huelgo, JD serves as President & Chief Executive Officer at Esperanza United. Vivian articulates and implements the organization’s strategic vision and supports a high-performing culture with staff located in the Twin Cities area, Washington, DC and across the country. Founded more than forty years ago, Esperanza United is the largest Latina-founded and Latina-led organization working across the mainland United States and territories to mobilize Latin@s and their communities to end domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence, and staking.   

Vivian has worked at the intersection of law and domestic and sexual violence for over twenty-five years. In 2022, she joined Esperanza United as Chief Programs Officer. Over the prior decade, Vivian led the American Bar Association (ABA) Commission on Domestic & Sexual Violence as Chief Counsel, working intensively on the organization’s human rights, domestic and sexual violence, and human trafficking initiatives. At the ABA, Vivian developed and established a broad, inclusive vision for the Commission’s work, sponsoring critical policy, increasing its online presence, and doubling funding for training and technical assistance to lawyers nationally. Vivian began her career as a prosecutor in the New York County District Attorney’s Office and subsequently served as Director of Legal Services at Safe Horizon, Inc., the nation’s largest crime victim’s agency. She has lectured for the US Department of State, Coalition against Trafficking, and the ABA globally on domestic and sexual violence, access to justice, human trafficking, and organizational development.  

In 2015, Vivian was chosen as a selected fellow of Move to End Violence, a program of the NoVo Foundation. She is also a recipient of the Flor de Maga Award for Women in the Legal Profession from the Puerto Rican Bar Association. Vivian is a graduate of Fordham University School of Law where she served as an Adjunct Associate Professor of Law and received both the Andrew A. Rivera Alumni Achievement Award and the Louis J. Lefkowitz Public Service Award. Vivian was born in Brooklyn, raised in New York City, and is now a twin mom living in the greater Washington, DC area.

Annika Gifford has worked at the intersection of social justice and anti-violence internationally and in the U.S. for 25 years. As Esperanza United’s Chief Strategy and Impact Officer, she animates and actualizes the organization’s work with strategic vision, nurtures a values-driven culture of excellence, and uplifts culturally specific, strengths-based approaches to ending domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence, and stalking. She has also held leadership positions with Resonance Network, Break the Cycle, and the National Resource Center on Domestic Violence, as well as worked at the Centre for Women’s Studies in Zagreb, Croatia post-conflict. She has a Master of Arts in Gender and Peacebuilding from the United Nations mandated University for Peace in Costa Rica. She was part of Cohort Two of Move to End Violence, a program of the NoVo Foundation. She is also a founding board member of the Asian Pacific Institute on Gender-Based Violence and currently serves on the board of the Battered Women’s Justice Project.