Ariel Herrera has dedicated over 20 years to international human rights advocacy. At Amnesty International USA, he played a pivotal role in developing one of its most successful thematic program initiatives focused on LGBT human rights. He also led a 3-year campaign based on AIUSA’s groundbreaking 2005 report, “Stonewalled: Police abuse and misconduct against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people in the U.S.” At Freedom House, he was part of a 5-member senior core-management team for a global rapid response program that provided emergency funds and technical assistance on security and protection for activists and civil society organizations facing existential threats due to their human rights work. As a consultant, he has undertaken a diverse range of projects, including capacity-building initiatives for grassroots activists on rights documentation and security training, as well as developing grantmaking strategies for major philanthropic foundations.

Ariel Herrera is also a dancer/choreographer. As a choreographer, he has received numerous awards, including from the New York State Council on the Arts, Cultural Council Foundation, Foundation for Contemporary Performance Art, the American Dance Festival Franco-American Bilateral Exchange Project, and was twice nominated for the American Choreographers’ Awards (National Corporate Fund for Dance). The New York Times cited him as “one of the newer names to watch among modern dance choreographers” in its 1989 Year in Review. He has appeared in the works of Reza Abdoh, Jeff Weiss, David Wood, and Sarah Skaggs, and has toured across the US and major international festivals in Europe.