Who We Are

PROOF uses visual storytelling and education to inspire action on human rights.

PROOF: Media for Social Justice is a non-profit organization based in New York City that uses visual storytelling and education to inspire global attitude and policy changes. It was founded in 2006 under the vision of Leora Kahn, a longtime photo editor, documentary producer, and human rights advocate, who sought to unite the skills and experiences of internationally renowned photojournalists for social good.

PROOF brings together photographers, documentarians, journalists, academics, students, and activists to create photo exhibitions, publications, and educational workshops that document social injustices and empower people to act. Our exhibits and workshops aim to engage the broader public in conversations about human rights, peace, and justice through moving firsthand testimonies and powerful photo narratives.

Leora Kahn | Executive Director

Leora Kahn is the founder and Executive Director of PROOF: Media for Social Justice. A photo editor for over 25 years, in 2006, she and a group of internationally known photojournalists decided to combine their skills and experience to make an impact in the world. PROOF was born six months later.

Leora was previously the director of photography at Workman Publishing and at Corbis. She has also worked for Time, The New York Times Magazine, Rolling Stone, The New Yorker, and US News and World Report as well as for the Ford and Annie E. Casey Foundations.  She has curated exhibitions for the Ford Foundation, ABC Television, Amnesty International, Women’s Refugee Commission, and the Holocaust Museum in Houston.

Leora’s film credits include "Rene and I," an award-winning documentary about the life of an extraordinary woman who, as a child, was experimented on by Josef Mengele during the Holocaust. She also co-produced "Original Intent," a documentary exploring the judicial philosophy promoted by Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas.

Leora was previously a fellow at the Genocide Studies Center at Yale University where she conducted research on rescuers and rescuing behavior. She was the Cathy Cohen Lasry Visiting Lecturer at Clark University’s Holocaust and Genocide Center. She is a recipient of The Adriane de Rothschild Fellowship for Social Entrepreneurship and is a Fulbright Senior Specialist.

Willhemina Wahlin | Creative Director

Dr Willhemina Wahlin is a practice-led design researcher, lecturer in design and PROOF’s Creative Director. Since 2009, she has designed many of PROOF’s exhibitions, including Ferguson Voices: Disrupting the Frame, America the Borderland, The Legacy of Rape, The Rescuers, System Error, Broken? and Unearthed, among others.

Willhemina is a Lecturer in Design within the School of Communication and Creative Industries, Faculty of Arts and Education, at Charles Sturt University, Port Macquarie. She brings to this role her diverse experience across the communication and creative industries, having worked in the fields of journalism, theatre and music before uniting these skills with communication design. Her research focuses on design for social change, spanning the areas of exhibition design, design thinking and human-centred design, and design as a vehicle for inspiring civic activity. She is a member of the Society of Experiential Design's (SEGD) Academic Task Force (2020-2021).

Click here to learn more about Willhemina’s research.

Advisory Board

Jonathan Alter | Bloomberg Review     Jimmie Briggs | Man Up Campaign
Olivia Drier |
Karuna Center for Peacebuilding
Adrian Edwards | Panos Pictures
David Garrison | 
The Brytemoore Group
Alex Gibney | Jigsaw Productions
Ed Kashi | V11 Photo Agency
Ben Kiernan | Yale University
Peter Mantello |
Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University
Erik Parens | Hastings Center
Tali Nates |
Johannesburg Holocaust Centre
Mark O’Brien | Pro Bono Net
Marc Skvirsky |
Facing History and Ourselves
John Withers II | 
Former U.S. Ambassador

Board of Directors

Fran Kaufman | Chair

A lifelong New Yorker, Fran Kaufman was a partner in Rosenberg + Kaufman Fine Art for 17 years, a contemporary gallery known for its commitment to an international roster of artists and a dedicated center for dialogue between visual art, literature, criticism and music. After closing the gallery in 2006, she went on to run palmbeach3 contemporary art fair for three seasons while maintaining her active practice as an art advisor to private and corporate collections.

She has curated numerous projects in the US, Italy and Germany, including Lucio Boschi: Una Argentina, the first solo photography exhibition at the Museo de Bellas Artes in Buenos Aires and To Photograph a Stranger, a traveling exhibition which will open in Italy in June 2019. In 2011 she envisioned and directed the premier international Houston Fine Art Fair, remaining as a consultant for its second year. She is a partner in Kaufman Vardy Projects, an international consultancy based in New York and Miami, focused on strategic marketing and curatorial practice as well as advising private and corporate clients on the acquisition and sale of artwork. Fran is a regular lecturer and panelist on art market issues, and frequently writes about art. 

Elie Rubinstein Treasurer

Elie Rubinstein is native of Belarus and a graduate of Belorussian Polytechnic Institute and received his Master’s degree in Jewish Communal Service and Management from Brandeis University. Elie has worked in non-profit organizations almost for most of his professional life. Starting as a lay leader in Belarus, former Soviet Union, he was hired in 1991 as a regional director for the International Association for Jewish Studies and Jewish Culture. A second generation Holocaust survivor himself, he worked with needy first and second generation survivors in the former Soviet Union. Elie immigrated to the United States in 1993. Since that time he has worked as an outreach coordinator at the Hillel Student Center in Cincinnati, Ohio, and then at the Hebrew Union College. In 1996, he became an Assistant Executive Director for Program Development at the Kings Bay YM-YWHA. In 2003, he was hired as Marketing and Development Director for The Workmen’s Circle, a national fraternal organization. From 2006 until 2013, Elie served as the Executive Director of The Blue Card, a national non-profit organization that is the only agency in the United States that provides cash assistance to needy victims of Nazi persecution in the United States. In 2013, Elie Rubinstein joined the Hebrew Educational Society (HES), a community-based multi-service agency, as its Executive Director. With over 20 years of leadership experience working for the advancement of underserved children, individuals and families, he was responsible for managing the HES’ day-to-day operations. Elie currently serves as the Executive Director of Emergency USA – a non-profit organization that builds high-quality, sustainable medical centers (rather than temporary or minimal-care facilities), EMERGENCY partners with the local population in war-torn and impoverished communities to provide healthcare services that reach beyond walls to heal communities.

Ronnie Weyl

Ronnie has more than 35 years of experience in nonprofit management and administration, fund development, board development, public affairs, strategic partnerships, and strategic planning. Most recently, she served as the executive director for the Foundation of Raritan Valley Community College, a nationally recognized institution, where she designed, implemented, and managed an aggressive and comprehensive development strategy to support the College and its faculty and students. Prior to that, she worked at the NJN Foundation for Public Broadcasting; where she held a number of positions, including her final role as Chief Operating Officer. As a consulting writer, editor, and publicist, her client list has included the New Jersey State Council on the Arts; Alliance for Arts Education/NJ; Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation; and the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. She currently serves as a donor advisor consultant.  She is a member of the Community Cancer Action Board of the Cancer Institute of New Jersey; a member of the Board of Trustees, Temple Beth-El; and lead member of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense/ Somerset-Hunterdon Counites group.

Anita Fábos

Anita Fábos is an anthropologist and Professor of International Development, Community and Environment at Clark University. Formerly the Director of the Forced Migration and Refugee Studies program at the American University in Cairo, and later Programme Coordinator for the graduate program in Refugee Studies at the University of East London, Fábos has integrated teaching, research, and participatory programs that have incorporated refugee and forced migrant perspectives into collaborative work with scholars, practitioners, refugee organizations, policy makers, and international organizations. At Clark University, students in her classes have carried out community-based projects that have investigated refugee participation in community development initiatives, refugee access to higher education, refugee livelihoods in Worcester, and experiences of belonging and home for people from refugee and non-refugee backgrounds. Anita has worked and conducted research together with Muslim Arab Sudanese in the diaspora on transnational identity and mobility in the Middle East, Europe, and North America.  She has published widely on topics related to race, ethnicity, and gender identities for people on the move, Muslim mobilities, and the acoustics of diaspora.. She is currently working on a book with Cathrine Brun on home and home-making for people living in long-term displacement.