Jean Kemitare

Jean Kemitare is the Program Manager for the GBV Prevention Network at Raising Voices. Her work involves the coordination of a regional Network spread across the Horn, East and Southern Africa. She holds a Masters in in Social Sector Planning & Management and Bachelor's in Social Work from Makerere University. She has worked in the gender-based violence/ gender equality field for over ten years and was previously engaged in chronic poverty research and policy advocacy. She has expertise in GBV program strategy development, implementation & monitoring; capacity building for NGOs involved in GBV programing, advocacy and research. She is an active member of civil society in Uganda and serves as board member to some. She has authored a range of approaches and articles including the Get Moving! Process for strengthening individuals and organizations addressing GBV. Her dream is to see a world where women and men are valued and access opportunity/resources in equal measure.

Humberto Carlo

Humberto Carolo is the Executive Director at White Ribbon in Canada and the Global Co-chair of the MenEngage Alliance. He is a men and masculinities and gender-based violence prevention expert with 20 years of experience in the not-for-profit sector. He has strong cross-cultural experience in developing and overseeing large-scale, multi-national programs and strategies involving diverse stakeholders in multiple sectors. Humberto's current work is focused on developing educational strategies to engage men and boys in promoting gender equality, healthy masculinities, and preventing all forms of gender-based violence.

Sophia Wanjiku

Sophia is a gender expert with a Master's degree in Gender and Development, Master's in International Cooperation and Humanitarian Aid and a BA in Sociology. Currently working at International Rescue Committee (IRC) as Women's Protection and Empowerment (WPE) as Technical Advisor, she provides technical support for WPE programs in Horn and East Africa (Uganda, South Sudan, Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia and Zimbabwe). She has 18 years' professional experience working in different national and international NGOs in East and Horn of Africa in humanitarian and development context. She has worked at technical and managerial positions thematic areas of Gender mainstreaming, gender based violence, young women and adolescent girls programming, governance, peace building and HIV/Aids. Her previous work has been with different INGOs including Mercy Corps, Women for Women International and other Kenya National NGOs.

Ramatu Bangura

Ramatu serves as a Program Officer for the NoVo Foundation’s Advancing Adolescent Girls’ Rights initiative. Prior to joining NoVo, Ramatu served as Program Director at the Sauti Yetu Center for African Women in the South Bronx, where she founded and managed a program designed to meet the educational, developmental, leadership and college readiness needs of immigrant young women from West Africa. She engaged in advocacy and research on a host of issues impacting transnational girls, including early and forced marriage, sexual violence, trafficking, commercial sexual exploitation, and educational access for English Language Learners. While working in community-based organizations, Ramatu earned both a Masters of Education (EdM) and Doctorate of Education (EdD) in International & Transcultural Studies Teachers College, Columbia University.

Moufeeda Haidar

Moufeeda Haidar is the Gender Integration Specialist at the Arab Institute For Women. She joined the Institute in 2015 and is a master trainer in the Qudwa: Basic Living Skills Program that targets illiterate to semi-literate women in the community along with a previous experience as a national consultant and trainer on human rights and intercultural citizenship. She holds a Bachelor Degree in Law from the Lebanese University.

Meggie Mwoka

Meggie is a young global health specialist and physician with special interest in global health policy, governance and health systems strengthening. She has over 4 years’ experience in the NGO sector especially in the field of sexual and reproductive health. Meggie has been involved in the #Youth4UHC movement through her active engagement as an organizing committee member for the the Africa Health Agenda International Conference –Youth preconference 2017 and 2019, where she was contributed in development and delivery of the youth communique and UHC youth agenda respectively. She currently works at African Population Health and Research Centre (APHRC) as a policy research officer. Meggie Mwoka holds a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery from the University of Nairobi and a Masters in Global Health from the Barcelona Institute for Global Health, University of Barcelona.

Dr. Veronica Magar

Veronica Magar (Dr. Ph, MPH, MA) leads WHO’s work on Gender, Equity and Human Rights (GER). She heads an organization-wide mainstreaming initiative to ensure a coherent, systematic and sustainable approach for integrating these critical dimensions across WHO’s technical programmes at the headquarters, regional offices and country level. To support member states with implementation of the GER Criteria, WHO offers a country package, training and support to build capacity supported by her team. Since 2000, she has worked with UN agencies, NGOs, and governments in more than 30 countries across Asia, Africa, and the Middle East to address gender inequality and human rights. Prior to that Dr. Magar worked at international NGOs including CARE where she led work on gender mainstreaming, violence against women, research and community-based evaluations. Dr Magar earned her MPH and MA at UCLA and DR PH the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Elisha Dunn-Georgiou

Elisha oversees the programmatic work of PAI, ensuring that the organization’s research and advocacy agendas are in alignment with PAI’s mission and strategic plan. Elisha has more than 15 years of experience in the fields of sexual and reproductive health and international development. She holds a master’s degree in epidemiology and a JD from the State University of New York at Buffalo. Elisha is also a returned Peace Corps volunteer, having served in Morocco.

Dr. Belinda Afriyie Nimako (MD, MPH)

Belinda serves in the Policy, Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation Division of Ghana Health Service. In this role, she supports efforts to generate evidence as well as translate existing evidence to strengthen Ghana’s Health System, particularly at the Primary Health Care level. She has a wide breadth of experience, including serving as director of health in one of Ghana’s rural districts, as a departmental head in a regional hospital, and as a Board Member of Ghana’s Food and Drugs Authority. Alongside her work, Belinda is pursuing doctoral studies with the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute. 

Dr. Githinji Gitahi

A passionate advocate for a pro-poor Universal Health Coverage (UHC), Githinji Gitahi is Group CEO of Amref Health Africa and Co-Chair of the UHC2030 Steering Committee, a global World Bank and World Health Organization initiative for UHC. Amref Health Africa, founded in 1957, is the largest African-led international organization on the continent reaching more than 9 million people through over 150 health-focused projects across 35 countries.

Dr. Gitahi has received the Moran of the Order of the Burning Spear (MBS), a commendation from the President of Kenya, for promoting health in Kenya. He has a Doctor of Medicine from the University of Nairobi, a Master’s in Business Administration, majoring in Marketing, from United States International University and a Certificate for Strategic Perspectives for Nonprofit Management from Harvard University.

Raj Kumar

Raj Kumar is the founding President & Editor-in-Chief of Devex, the media platform for the global development community. A social enterprise dedicated to ensuring global development efforts do more good for more people, Devex was born in 2000 when Raj was a graduate student at the Harvard Kennedy School. Today, there are 100+ Devexers around the world serving a global audience of more than one million aid workers and development professionals. Beginning as a kid in Kerala, India, Raj has witnessed firsthand determined and courageous development work in over 50 countries – it’s what drives the Devex mission to “Do Good. Do It Well.” He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a media leader and former humanitarian council chair for the World Economic Forum, and has interviewed on-camera and on-stage hundreds of global luminaries on the most important challenges of our time. Raj is the author of the book "The Business of Changing the World," a go-to primer on the ideas, people, and technology disrupting the aid industry.

Dr. Taiwo Oyelade

Dr. Taiwo Oyelade, MD, MPH is Advisor, Gender, Women's Health and Ageing in the WHO Regional Office for Africa. He provides expert leadership and specialist technical support to Member States of the African Region for the development, implementation, monitoring, evaluation and promotion of equity-oriented, rights-based, and gender-transformative approaches to strengthening health policies, plans and programmes. In addition, he collaborates with relevant WHO/AFRO Clusters and WHO/HQ Departments and partners to build capacity, develop tools and guidelines and support implementation of evidence-based policies, strategies and plans. Dr. Oyelade has been working in the field of public health for more than 20 years. He started as a clinician in Lagos, and later the Federal Ministry of Health, UNFPA and WHO country offices in Nigeria providing leadership in population, reproductive health and gender.

Gary Barker

Gary Barker, PhD, is a leading global voice in engaging men and boys in advancing gender equality and positive masculinities. He is the CEO and founder of Promundo, which has worked over 20 years in more than 40 countries. Beginning in low-income areas of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Promundo’s approaches have been incorporated into ministries of health and education around the world. Promundo is a Global Consortium with members in Brazil, the US, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Portugal. Gary is co-founder of MenCare, a global campaign working in 45 countries to promote men’s involvement as caregivers, and co-founder of MenEngage, a global alliance of more than 700 NGOs. He co-created and leads the International Men and Gender Equality Survey (IMAGES), the largest-ever survey of men’s attitudes and behaviors related to violence, fatherhood, and gender equality. He is a co-author of the 2015 and 2017 State of the World's Fathers reports. He has advised the UN, the World Bank, numerous national governments, and key international foundations and corporations on strategies to engage men and boys in promoting gender equality. In 2017 he was named by Apolitical as one of the 20 most influential people in gender policy around the world. He is an Ashoka Fellow and received the Voices of Solidarity Award from Vital Voices for his work to engage men for gender equality. Gary holds a PhD in Developmental Psychology.

Katja Freiwald

Katja Freiwald has been working with Unilever for more than 10 years and has built her career around a broad expertise in consumer and B2B marketing. She leads on developing the advocacy and partnerships strategies on the areas of gender equality and livelihoods, and has extensive experience in developing and implementing successful partnerships with organizations such as: UN Women, WFP, IFAD, GAIN, PSI, Acumen and governmental organizations such as GIZ and the Dutch Government. Katja uses her marketing expertise to the overall development of partnerships supporting behavioral change campaigns as well as seeking innovative business models to deliver sustainable development for business and communities.

Thalia Kidder

Thalia currently leads Oxfam's work on women's economic empowerment and care, including developing the Rapid Care Analysis exercises for development programs and advocacy. She has coordinated learning initiatives on Women's Economic Leadership in agricultural markets in East Asia and Latin America, and advised Researching Women's Collective Action, as part of Oxfam's Gendered Enterprise and Markets initiative. Prior to joining Oxfam, Thalia worked as a community and labor organizer in the USA and Central America. Thalia holds a Master’s degree in Community and Economic Development from the University of Minnesota, and is a member of the International Association for Feminist Economics (IAFFE).

Florence Mutesi

Florence Mutesi is the Research, Advocacy and Communications Expert at RWAMREC. She works for Prevention+, a global programme that aims at addressing the root causes of Gender Base Violence at the Rwanda Men's Resource Centre (RWAMREC). She is a National and global advocate for engaging men and boys in promoting gender equality, women empowerment, gender justice, and positive masculinities and Gender Transformative approach. She formally worked as the Research Associate/Consultant at the Institute of Policy Analysis and Research; Director of Governance Policy and Practice Research at Rwanda Governance Board and worked in other research, analysis and advocacy capacities with Civil Society Organizations in the USA like Centre on Budget and Policy Priorities through International Budget Partnership and Population Reference Bureau. Ms. Mutesi has a Master’s in Public Policy from the National University of Singapore (NUS), Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy where and a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science from the National University of Rwanda.

Juma Assiago

Mr. Assiago is a social scientist and works as an Urban Safety Expert with UN HABITAT assisting governments and other city stakeholders to build capacities at the city level to adequately address urban insecurity and to contribute to the establishment of a culture of prevention in developing countries. He has served in various UN inter-agency coordinating processes and is also involved in developing safety tools in urban contexts, particularly those targeted at social crime prevention. He is involved in the Global Network on Safer Cities, which among others is strengthening the governance of safety and safety in public spaces.

Faridah

Faridah is a young woman who is part of Plan International’s Safer Cities programme. She joined the programme as a way of dealing with low self confidence and improve the lives of girls like her in the community. She is now a Champion of Change trainer leading her peers in advocating with city authorities for better public infrastructure such as street lights so girls can be safer when they walk alone at night. Faridah has represented her vision for safer cities at the UN general assembly in New York, talked to high school students in Denmark and spoken with various media houses on how she manages to advocate for girls rights despite the challenges at home.

Alexander Munive

Alex Munive is a development and gender specialist. Currently, he works for Plan International leading the Gender Equality and Inclusion team. Mr. Munive has experience working in programmes that promote gender equality and social development in several countries in Asia, Latin America and Africa. He has worked as a consultant for the European Union, the Nordic Development Fund, the Inter-American Development Bank and the Finnish government.

Ngo Chi Minh

Dr. Ngo Thi Minh is Vice-Chairwoman of the Committee for Culture, Education, Youth and Children, in the 14th National Assembly of the S.R of Vietnam (2016-2020). She has previously served as Chairwoman of the Vietnam Youth Union of Quang Ninh Province; Member of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Youth Union among others.

Maryorie

Maryorie began her journey as an advocate for girls rights in 2016 as a volunteer using dance and crafts to build solidarity with other girls in her community. In 2017 she began working with Plan International’s Safer Cities For Girls programme and has since been able to champion girls safety in cities through the Champions Of Change clubs, lobbying the Municipality of Carabyllo, taking over as CEO of Moviestar for a day in 2018 and being active in girls self organizing in her region.

Chiseche Salome Mibenge

Chiseche Salome Mibenge is a Board Member of Episcopal Relief & Development, and the Director of Community Engaged Learning in Human Rights at Stanford University. She has published widely on human rights, armed conflict, transitional justice and gender-based violence, and has been recruited as a gender expert by UNIFEM and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Sierra Leone, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and worked with local NGOs in Rwanda. She is passionate about the influence the intersect of faith and culture has over local contextualized understandings of victimhood and justice. Her book “Sex and International Tribunals: The Erasure of Gender from the War Story” was published by University of Pennsylvania Press (2013).

Reverend Josephine Ogola

Rev. Josephine Ogola is a passionate advocate for the rights of young women and girls and addresses stereotypes and misconceptions among faith leaders and communities about gender roles, healthy timing and spacing of pregnancy and child protection. She uses the platform of a trainer and facilitator in Channels of Hope to empower a community of faith leaders to advocate for family planning services. She also ensures adolescents and youth have access to essential information about sexual and reproductive health. Her efforts have led to youth making responsible decisions about their sexuality, strengthened family dialogue and girls returning to formal education.

Reyhana Patel

Reyhana Patel is the Head of External Relations at the NGO Islamic Relief Canada, where she leads the women and girls portfolio. She's also a fellow at the Institute for Global Engagement and a former BBC News journalist. Reyhana has spent the last few years leading program and advocacy initiatives to end violence against women and girls in Muslim communities. She has authored research on female genital mutilation and produced a learner's manual, which re-evaluates mainstream Islamic understandings.

Maihan Wali

Maihan Wali is from Afghanistan and currently lives in the U.S. She founded the Women’s Empowerment Through Sport in Afghanistan, empowering 700 women in eight provinces, creating the first women’s basketball team in Kandahar, and the first basketball camp for women. She led a social media campaign, #BanthisUniform, to stop a restricted uniform being imposed on school girls. Awards include the Linnaean Award (2017), Silent Leader Award (2018), G. Ronal Couchman Endowed Diversity Award (2017), Global Citizenship Award (2018), and the Women of Distinction Award, which has given her the opportunity to encourage more girls to advocate for gender equality.

Mouhammed Cherif Diop

Imam Mouhammed Cherif Diop leads Tostan's strategy of aligning religious leadership to human rights. His decade-long contributions to social norm perspective and religious leadership have been recognized by the Carter Center, Skoll Foundation and United Nations, among others. With his guidance, Tostan has held catalytic training and consensus building seminars, reaching more than 230 religious leaders at the Tostan Training Center in Thiès, Senegal, since 2015. In this setting, participants consider religious guidance on such topics as gender-based violence and child protection. Tostan’s strategies have led more than 9,000 communities to declare their abandonment of child marriage and female genital mutilation.

Dan Irvine

Dan Irvine has directed the health and nutrition department in World Vision International since 2007. During this time he has advised development of interventions and programmes focused on primary health care in developing, fragile and humanitarian contexts. He has led a health system strengthening approach from the community perspective resulting in the support of 220,000 community health workers. He is an advocate of social capital, and social accountability, and advised the development of World Vision’s core local level advocacy approach, as well it’s global campaigns focused on maternal and child health and nutrition, and violence against children.

Sylvia Kasanga

Sylvia Kasanga is a Nominated Member of Parliament in the Senate, representing Affirmative Action, as well as an Active Advocate for the Construction Profession. In this role, she is a champion for the empowerment of youth and women and sponsored an amendment Bill in Parliament to destigmatize & restructure the approach of dealing with Mental Health Diseases. Sylvia is RIBA Chartered Architect, and has been practicing for 16 years. She is the Founder of Sycum Solutions Company Ltd, an Architectural and Construction Management firm based in Nairobi. She also serves as an Arbitrator with the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators UK & Kenya.

Anna Gainey

Anna Gainey is the former president of the Liberal Party of Canada. Anna has been an active member of the Liberal Party for over 15 years, as well as worked as a special assistant to Minister John McCallum and as NATO policy advisor to Minister Bill Graham. She has been a key team member on many winning campaigns, including Marc Garneau’s elections in 2008 and 2011, and served as a senior advisor to Justin Trudeau’s leadership campaign. Ms. Gainey also serves as the Executive Director of the Gainey Foundation, which provides funding for environmental and arts education programs for youth.

Razan

Razan self-describes as a committed feminist “Afro-Arab” activist with a strong focus on SRHR and challenging harmful gender norms. She is a Women Deliver Young Leader and a Plan International Global Youth Influencer. Razan is part of the youth network Medicin Sudan, where she mobilises young students around SRHR issues in Sudan. She also participates in the youth network AMNA (Safe), where she leads workshops with young women aged 17-30 on meaningful youth engagement to overcome barriers to equality. She has led several campaigns and community outreach programmes on SRHR, CSE and GBV and has participated in 4 National General Assemblies.

Melissa Richmond

Melissa Richmond is Chief Strategy Officer of Running Start, a Washington, DC-based nonpartisan nonprofit that trains young women to run for political office. Melissa previously worked for Senator Mitt Romney over the course of 10 years and is a graduate of Brigham Young University, George Washington University Law School and the Women’s Campaign School at Yale. She speaks regularly and has appeared in/on NPR, POLITICO, US News and The Washington Post, among others.

Citlalli

Citlalli is a member of the National Coordination of Indigenous Women of Mexico, Commission on Indigenous Child and Youth of the Continental Network of Indigenous Women of the Americas. As a dedicated activist of indigenous women in the Americas, since 2014 she has been a volunteer of the National Reading Rooms Program implemented by the Ministry of culture and in 2018 participated in the 1st Regional Workshop on Empowerment and Leadership of Young Indigenous Women for ECMIA.

Adriana

Adriana is a passionate advocate for the rights of indigenous peoples. Since 2016, she has been active at a national and regional level and is a member of the Children and Youth Commission of the National Coordination of Indigenous Women of Mexico (CONAMI) and the Continental Link of Indigenous Women of the Americas (ECMIA). Much of her work focuses on the sexual and reproductive health rights of young indigenous women; the prevention of violence and defending human rights. She works as an assistant in the Civil Court of the Municipality in Mexico.

Helen Clark

Helen Clark was Prime Minister of New Zealand for three successive terms from 1999–2008. She was the first woman to be elected as Prime Minister in New Zealand. Throughout her tenure as Prime Minister, and as a Member of Parliament over 27 years, Helen Clark engaged widely in policy development and advocacy across the international, economic, social, environmental, and cultural spheres. In April 2009, Helen Clark became Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme. She was the first woman to lead the organisation, and served two terms there. At the same time, she was Chair of the United Nations Development Group, a committee consisting of all UN funds, programs, agencies, and departments working on development issues. As Administrator, she led UNDP to be ranked the most transparent global development organisation. Prior to entering the New Zealand Parliament, Helen Clark taught in the Political Studies Department of the University of Auckland, from which she earlier graduated with her BA and MA (Hons) degrees. Helen continues to be a strong voice for sustainable development, climate action, gender equality and women’s leadership, peace and justice, and action on non-communicable diseases and on HIV.

Shannon Kowalski

Shannon oversees IWHC’s work on international and US foreign policy advocacy. She is an experienced and effective advocate for sexual and reproductive rights and health, is very familiar with UN negotiations, and is an expert on HIV and AIDS, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, and programs to advance youth sexual and reproductive health. Prior to IWHC, Shannon was director of the global health financing initiative of the Open Society Foundations. In this role, she oversaw a $1.6 million grantmaking and operational initiative to ensure that global health donors and financing mechanisms are transparent and accountable, and meet the needs of communities and marginalized groups. Previously, Shannon worked for Family Care International and the Center for Reproductive Rights. She has been featured in several media outlets, including The Guardian, Associated Press, Reuters, and Huffington Post.

Lopa Banerjee

Lopa Banerjee is the Director of the Civil Society Division at UN Women. She leads UN Women’s work on partnering with, supporting and strengthening women’s rights groups and civil society networks as well as their contribution, participation and influence in policy discussion at global, regional and national levels. Lopa’s work focuses on partnership development with civil society organizations to influence global action on gender equality, in particular related to standard setting, policy discussion and stakeholder accountability.A gender and human rights thematic expert with substantive experience in social policy and governance issues across Asia and Africa, Lopa has worked for over 3 decades on international development, policy advocacy, communication and partnership building, across the UN and in the private sector in different countries. Lopa’s areas of specialization include feminist policy advocacy and analysis, and inclusive partnership development and engagement. She lives in New York City.

Jessica Stern

Jessica Stern, Executive Director of OutRight Action International, specializes in gender, sexuality and human rights globally. At OutRight, she has doubled the budget, supported the legal registration of LGBTIQ organizations globally, helped secure the mandate of the United Nations Independent Expert on Discrimination and Violence based on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, and advanced the UN LGBTI Core Group. She is frequently quoted by the media in The New York Times, The Guardian, and Time. She has provided expert opinions to governments globally and UN mechanisms, including UNWomen where she serves as a member of the LGBTI Reference Group and Women Human Rights Defenders Reference Group. Her writing has been cited by the Indian Supreme Court in its seminal judgement decriminalizing homosexuality (Navtej Singh Johar versus the Union of India) and featured in a new chapter in The Oxford Handbook of Women, Peace and Security (2019). She is an adjunct associate professor at Columbia University.

Stephanie Lum

Steph Lum is a poet, lawyer and intersex advocate from Australia and a Women Deliver Young Leader. She is co-Chair of Intersex Human Rights Australia and spent most of last year working with the Australian Human Rights Commission on a project looking at medical interventions on intersex people.

Kamanda Bosco

Kamanda Bosco (alias Amanda) is a transgender activist and human rights defender advocating for gender, LGBTI rights, sexual and reproductive health rights. Working in these areas, she reaches out to grassroots communities, particularly including young key populations through the African Queer Youth Initiative. Kamanda is the co-chair of inclusion and diversity with the Society of Gender Professionals. Kamanda is currently finishing an undergraduate degree in Business administration and working at Transgender Equality Uganda as a programs assistant. Kamanda is a civic graduate of the Young African Leadership Initiative (YALI) and part of the Commonwealth Youth council on committee representing special interest groups. Kamanda has also worked with the youth coalition for sexual and reproductive Rights and Lancet standing commission on adolescent health and well-being.

Renata Tallarico

Renata Tallarico holds a PhD from Italy on International and European law and a Masters in International Relations. She has more than 10 years’ experience working in public health. She worked as programme coordinator in Nigeria for an Italian NGO for 3 years after which in 2009 she joined UNFPA eSwatini working as focal person for HIV Prevention and young people with a focus on condom programming and social behavior change communication. She currently works for UNFPA East and Southern Africa Regional Office as coordinator of two regional programmes implemented in East and Southern Africa focusing on Adolescents Sexual Reproductive Health and youth empowerment.

Myriam Narcisse

Myriam Narcisse is a highly skilled manager who has been working throughout Haiti for over 15 years, managing development and microfinance programs targeting poor women and youth. Her skill set includes capacity building, business consulting, and training of trainers for adult literacy and life skills. She holds a law degree from the Haitian Faculty of Law and her expertise and understanding of the Haitian culture has truly been an asset to many international and local organizations and entities working in Haiti. Myriam is fluent in Haitian Creole, French, and English and she lives in Haiti.

Natalia Lozano

Natalia Lozano is a young feminist lawyer, a women’s human rights defender and an activist working towards legal abortion and emergency contraception in Honduras. Her longstanding commitment defending sexual and reproductive rights has led her to be involved in initiatives such as being Youth Representative in the National Advisory Council of Human Rights. Natalia has been actively involved with the Youth Parliamentarian Network, identifying Hondurans youth main needs from a legislative perspective, as well as supporting the implementation of the Diploma in Parliamentary Techniques and Political Negotiation for the National Congress of Honduras. Currently, Natalia is National Coordinator for the Right Here, Right Now Honduran platform, supporting 15 organizations working for sexual and reproductive rights and non-discrimination.

Khadija Khan

Khadija J. Khan manages two of Advocate’s Youth Leadership Councils – the International Youth Leadership Council and the Muslim Youth Leadership Council. In this capacity, she recruits, trains and supports members in media engagement, advocacy, and organizing on issues to advance young people’s sexual and reproductive health and rights in the United States and in the global south. Khadija holds a Bachelor’s of Arts in Justice and Peace Studies from Georgetown University.

Ana Mosiashvili

Ana Mosiashvili is a youth worker and youth advocate from Georgia. Ana has been actively working on raising awareness of gender equality and SRHR among youth from disadvantaged and vulnerable groups, as well as advocating for Comprehensive Sexuality Education, meaningful youth participation and youth policy for the past 7 years with various national and international organizations. Through her work with YouAct, Ana has gained broad experience in youth-led advocacy, particularly advocating at the European institutions, including European Parliament. Ana has an academic background in International Human Rights Law.

Tikondwe Kaphangawani Chimkowola

Tikondwe is a proud African Writer and Intersectional women’s Rights Activist. She is passionate about advancing women and adolescent girls’ sexual reproductive health rights. She strongly believes in empowering the next generation of African women to have the power to decide and choose what they want for their bodies and what they want their future to look like. She has been an activist since age 14 and has worked with various grassroot community-based organizations as well as international NGO’s. In order to bring the advocacy home, to the decision makers themselves, she works for the Malawi Government in the Ministry of Gender.

Joannie Bewa

Joannie Marlene Bewa is a physician, a global advocate for girls, women and reproductive health, who is passionate about health,gender equality, rights and empowerment. She has over ten years of experience in global advocacy, healthcare, public speaking,international development, community mobilization, and policy. She was appointed in 2018 by the UN Secretary General Special Envoy on Youth as a UN Young Leader for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In 2016, she was featured on Melinda Gates’ list of six influential women on the topic of global access to contraception and was invited in 2017 by Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeauon a panel during which, he announced $650m for women’s health globally. Joannie is a member of the Global Advisory Board for Merck for Mothers, co-led the creation of the UNFPA Youth Panel in Benin in 2014 and joined in 2015 the advocacy for the creation ofthe Adolescent and Youth Constituency in the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn, Children’s Health.

Leticia Pfeffer

Leticia Pfeffer is the Senior Manager of Global Policy and Government Affairs at Global Citizen. She leads Global Citizen's girls and women's policy campaigning, including on women's economic empowerment, gender discrimination in the law and women's sexual and reproductive health. Her background in development and international policy has fueled her passion for gender equality.

Kechi Ogbuagu

Dr. Kechi Ogbuagu, MBBS, MPH, is President and Founder of Conversations For Change (C4C), an international youth empowerment nonprofit. She is Chair of the UNFPA Senior Expert Advisory Board in Nigeria, and CEO of Pistis-K Consulting, a consulting firm that provides strategic, programmatic and technical support to countries and agencies on population and development, sexual and reproductive health and rights, and family planning. Dr. Ogbuagu’s previous positions include: Coordinator of UNFPA’s Global Programme to Enhance Reproductive Health Commodity Security; Advisory Board Member of the Mobile Alliance for Maternal Action; and Head of Department of Community Medicine, Nnamdi Azikiwe, University, Nigeria. She was also a fellow of the West African College of Physicians.

Bitania Lulu Berhanu

Bitania Lulu Berhanu is the founding Executive Director of Youth Alliance for Leadership and Development in Africa, and serves on the Board of Directors of the African Model United Nations. Ms. Berhanu has been widely recognized for her work, including as one of the African Youth Awards’ 100 Most Influential Young Africans in 2016, and 2015 Best Female Personality of the Year. Since 2016, Ms. Berhanu has also served as a young designer in PSI Ethiopia’s Adolescents 360 project, where she has helped to design the Smart Start intervention to support married adolescent girls’ demand for and access to modern contraception.

Ugwu Nkechi Uzoamaka

Nkechi Uzoamaka is a 26-year old program officer with LEDAP in Nigeria. In 2017 she implemented LEDAP's project on supporting survivors of sexual and reproductive rights violations in the three North East states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe. In this project they provided counseling and vocational training for women and girls, mostly drawn from IDPs camps and host communities in these states. These women suffered from violations such as child marriages, rape, sexual slavery, sexual exploitation etc. In 2018, Ms. Uzoamaka participated in LEDAP-CRR collaborative project on documenting incidents of SRHR violations in Northern Nigeria.

Kate Gilmore

Kate Gilmore was appointed United Nations Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights on 1st December 2015.

She brings to the position diverse and longstanding experience in strategic leadership and human rights advocacy with the United Nations, government and non-government organizations.

Prior to joining OHCHR, Ms. Gilmore was Assistant Secretary General and Deputy Executive Director for Programmes with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). Previously she was National Director of Amnesty International Australia and then Executive Deputy Secretary General of Amnesty International.

Ms. Gilmore started her career as a social worker and government policy officer in Australia. She helped establish Australia’s first Centre Against Sexual Assault at Melbourne’s Royal Women’s Hospital and her work over a number of years focused on prevention of violence against women. In Australia, she was granted honorary appointments to provincial and national public policy and law reform processes, including membership of the country’s first National Committee on Violence Against Women.

Ms. Gilmore holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of New England and postgraduate degrees in Social Work from the University of Melbourne and Community Development from RMIT.

Sathya Doraiswamy

Dr. Sathya Doraiswamy, currently the Chief of Health at UNFPA/ Bangladesh, is a senior public health professional with 20 years of experience in the Government, NGOs and in the UN. He holds a BA in Medicine and Masters in Community Medicine from Chennai, India and is pursuing a professional doctorate at the University of Bath, UK—studying provider attitudes behind medically unnecessary cesarean sections. Dr. Doraiswamy has worked in Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa and in Europe in various capacities- committing the bulk of his career has been in supporting humanitarian public health responses for conflict affected populations.

Grace Kodindo

Dr. Grace Kodindo is an Obstetrician-Gynecologist who currently serves as the Director of Reproductive Health in Chad’s MOH. She obtained her undergraduate and medical degrees from the University of Montreal. Dr. Kodindo served as the head of maternity at the Central Hospital in N’Djamena for many years and received a Distinguished Community Service Award for EmOC from FIGO/ Mailman’s School of Public Health. Dr. Kodindo later worked as the Chief Advisor for the Reproductive Health Access, Information and Services in Emergency Settings (RAISE) Initiative, and was featured in a 2005 BBC film, Dead Mums Don’t Cry, and documentary, Grace Under Fire.

Debora Diniz

Debora Diniz currently serves as the Deputy Director of Rights and Justice at IPPF/WHR. Prior to joining IPPF, Ms. Diniz co-founded and served as Executive Director of ANIS Institute of Bioethics, a feminist organization based in Brazil dedicated to advancing women’s rights through litigation, communications, and advocacy. An anthropologist by training, Debora’s research spans several issues including reproductive and sexual rights, disability, criminal justice and prison reform, and public health. Ms. Diniz has extensive experience arguing cases on abortion and marriage equality before Brazil’s Supreme Tribunal. She was recently engaged in evaluating the SRHR situation and needs of populations displaced from Venezuela.

Martin Gutierrez

Gerda Verburg

Gerritje “Gerda” Verburg is a Dutch politician and diplomat of the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) party and trade union leader. She served as Permanent Representative of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to the United Nations organizations for Food and Agriculture in Rome from 2011 to 2016. In this role, she chaired the United Nations Committee on World Food Security (CFS) between 2013 and 2015. Additionally, she was appointed Chair of the Global Agenda Council for Food and Nutrition Security of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in 2014, and in 2016, she was appointed as Coordinator of the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement by UN Secretary-General Bank Ki-moon. Previously, she was an MP from 1998 to 2007 and again from 2010 to 2011, and also served as Minister of Agriculture in the fourth Balkenende cabinet. During her time as an MP, she focused on matters of social affairs, the European Union, and energy and innovation policy.

Gladys Mugambi

Gladys Mugambi worked as a District Nutritionist at Thika District Hospital for 10 years. She has served as the National Coordinator of the Micronutrient Program. She has worked as Deputy Head of the Division of Nutrition and National Food Fortification for the Ministry of Health and is licensed as a Registrar at the Kenya Nutritionists and Dieticians Institute. She currently acts as the Multi Sectoral Coordinator FS & Nutrition in the Department of Health Sector Coordination and Inter Governmental Affairs at the Kenyan Ministry of Health, acts as the SUN Focal Point and a SUN Executive Committee member.

Vivian Onano

Vivian Onano is a social entrepreneur and seasoned humanitarian who is recognized as an emerging woman leader bringing change to the African continent. She is a youth advisor to Global Education Monitoring Report, UNESCO and the Founder/Director at Leading Light Initiative. Vivian is a respected speaker who often speaks on global education, gender equality, youth empowerment, and international development. She has presented at the United Nations General Assembly and the Clinton Global Initiative, among others.

Irshad Danish

Irshad Danish is International Development Practitioner with key expertise in Policy Advocacy and Campaigning. He has been advocating for Women and Child Rights with focus on Nutrition, Reproductive Health & Rights and Right to Survival. He is Steering group member of SUN Civil Society Network and founding Secretary of SUN Academia & Research Network. He also coordinates SUN Civil Society Asia Regional Coordination Group. He has been working with leading International organizations including Save the Children & Nutrition International.

Joel Spicer

Joel Spicer is the President and CEO of Nutrition International. He is a global health leader with a track record of building and leading initiatives and partnerships in nutrition, maternal and child health, TB, HIV, innovative finance and resource mobilization. Over his career he has worked for the Canadian International Development Agency, UNICEF, WHO, Stop TB Partnership, World Bank and in support of governments. Joel is passionate about unlocking human potential for people living in poverty and closing the missed opportunities gap. In September 2016, Joel received the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Emerging Public Health Professional Award.

President Tarja Halonen

Tarja Halonen served two terms as President of Finland from 2000 to 2012. During her presidency, she was Co-Chair of the United Nations Millennium Summit, Co-Chair of the Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization, Co-Chair of the UN High-Level Panel on Global Sustainability and Chair of the Council of Women World Leaders. President Halonen has been actively engaged with non-governmental organizations and trade unions. She is also Chair of the Board of the University of Helsinki. After her exit from the office, the TH Global Sustainability Foundation was established in 2012 to promote President Halonen’s work in the field of sustainable development.

She continues to work closely with the UN and is currently Alternate Co-Chair of the Every Woman Every Child Movement’s Steering Group, and a member of the Secretary-General’s High-Level Advisory Board on Mediation. Among other duties, she is also UN Global Champion for Disaster Risk Reduction, UN Drylands Ambassador, and a member of the Group of Eminent Persons (CTBT).

Ndinini Kimesera Sikar

Ndinini Kimesera Sikar is the Founder and Executive Director of the Maasai Women Development Organization-MWEDO. She has over 25 years of experience in management and development work. At MWEDO, Ms. Kimesera has developed programs that aim to improve livelihoods for grassroots and marginalised women in Tanzania. In 2005, Ms. Ndinini initiated the Education Access program and the MWEDO secondary school for underprivileged girls providing education to over 1000 girls from most underserved Maasai communities. Under Ms. Kimesera leadership a Community Healthcare program was also initiated in 2010 and a health facility that provides over 10,000 households with maternal and childcare services. Globally Ms. Kimesera has advocated for Indigenous peoples agendas through the UN Permanent Forum major group and UN Habitat as co-chair for Indigenous peoples.

Pratima Gurung

Ms. Pratima Gurung is a leading activist and researcher in Nepal. She has been advocating for ensuring the rights of women, young women, indigenous women, women with disabilities and young indigenous women with disabilities and emphasizing intersectional issues in Nepal since 2004. She is the President of the National Indigenous Disabled Women Association Nepal (NIDWAN) and is a faculty member teaching in one of the single women college, Padma Kanya College, Tribhuvan University in Nepal. She is the general secretary of Indigenous Persons with Disabilities Global Network. She is an advisory member of Disability Advocacy Rights Fund (DRAF) Disability Rights Fund and also Asia focal person for Indigenous Persons with Disabilities Global Network. She was a former fellow of International Disability Alliance.

Conrad Prince

Conrad Prince is Anishinabe, member of Sagkeeng First Nation (Treaty # 1) in Manitoba and part of the ‘Sixties Scoop’. He currently works in the field of Indigenous child rights as Director of the National Reconciliation program, Save the Children Canada. Conrad has worked for over a decade in the Indigenous health research field focusing on population health, health data governance, and health systems transformation. He is currently an advisory member of a national committee dedicated to examining Indigenous children welfare. He has been speaking up and out on Indigenous children apprehension and the need for Indigenous self-determined systems for over 20 years.

Ruth Kaviok

Ruth Kaviok is an Inuk youth from Arviat Nunavut. She is the former elected President for the National Inuit Youth Council; an Advocacy organization for Inuit youth across Canada. Ruth is an Alum of the Students On Ice which is an educational organization that offers students to participate on a two week exhibition around the polar region to learn hands on and classroom perspective about the arctic. She attended a one year junior college program; Nunavut Sivuniksavut, that is based in Ottawa where students learned about the history and the governing body of municipal, territorial and national level of political structure for Inuit in Nunavut. Ruth also took part in a voluntary opportunity with the Canada World Youth to travel and live few months in Peru. She gained an experience in attending the Cop24 conference in Poland this past December, to further enhance indigenous collaboration to put an end to climate change.

Elizabeth Amondi Okumu

Elizabeth Amondi Okumu is passionate about issues of Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights. She manages the Adolescent and Youth SRHR program at TICAH, coordinating activities and mentoring girls both in primary and secondary schools, universities, adolescent mothers and out of school youths. The program creates a safe spaces for young people to have frank conversations around Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights, giving them the power to make safe, healthy and informed choices. She also founded the Sister to Sister initiative, an initiative that empowers adolescent girls in rural Nyanza.

Dr. Manasi Kumar

Manasi Kumar is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Psychiatry and Senior Lecturer at the Department of Psychiatry at University of Nairobi. She is a research fellow at the Department of Psychology at University College London. Manasi has been working on minoritized adolescent and women populations focusing on mental health, health inequity and addressing social determinants of health associated with mental health. She has recently received a 5years Fogarty/NIMH K43 Emerging Global Leader award for carrying out research on implementing mental health interventions for pregnant adolescents in primary care LMIC settings. She is also a co-investigator on three NIH grants – focusing on developing WhatsApp based interventions for caregivers of HIV positive adolescents (NIMH, R34), Mobile Wach NEO: Mobile Solutions for Neonatal Health and Maternal Support (NIMH, R01), and addressing disruptive behavioral disorders in school based intervention in Kenya (U19). Another study funded by Population Council focuses on assessing sexual and behavioral health and wellbeing of families exposed to FGM/C in Kenya.

Simone Honikman

Associate Professor Simone Honikman is a medical doctor (UCT) with clinical experience in Paediatrics, Obstetrics and Gynaecology and Psychiatry and a Masters degree in Maternal and Child Health (UCT). She is founding director of the 17-year old Perinatal Mental Health Project based at UCT. The Project has received formal commendation by the World Health Organization. Simone received the international Ashoka Fellowship for Social Entrepreneurship, has published academic papers, book chapters, editorials and training manuals. She designs and conducts training for a wide range of healthcare and social service providers and consults to health policy and programme processes within South Africa.

Brenda Onguti

Brenda Onguti has a passion and drive to serve women and newborns in Kenya. She has a background in Public Health and Pharmacy and currently works as the Kenya Program Lead in a study that is generating evidence to understand whether Group Antenatal Care (G-ANC) is effective, acceptable and feasible in low and middle income countries (LMIC). She is also leading efforts to expand the method mix for women and couples in Kenya through the introduction of levornogestrol intrauterine system (LNG-IUS) in public health facilities in Kenya under USAID’s Maternal and Child Survival Program.

Angelina Spicer

Angelina Spicer is a comedian, actress, social media influencer, wife and mother. A cum laude graduate of Howard University, Spicer has smartly delved deep for comedy that’s authentic, transparent and relatable. By using her social media platform, she became an outspoken advocate for maternal mental health after she was admitted into a psychiatric facility for treatment of postpartum depression (PPD). It was then that her journey to remove the stigma from the shame and guilt associated with PPD began. She became the 2018 Spokeswoman for The Blue Dot Project, has lobbied on Capitol Hill, helped pass three new pieces of legislation for new moms in California and been featured in USA Today, Essence magazine, and on NPR.

Anisha Chugh

Anisha Chugh is the Deputy Executive Director of Women's Fund Asia, which is a regional women's fund supporting and women and trans* activists and groups in 18 countries of the region. Anisha has been with the organisation for 9 years and has been part of its transition from South Asia to an Asia wide entity. Anisha also serves on the board of FRIDA – The Young Feminist Fund, as the Treasurer. She has a Masters in History from the University of Delhi (St Stephen’s College) as well as a Master’s in Governance in Development from Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex. Her prior experience includes working with a national human rights funder, Dalit Foundation, in India.

Somer Nowak

Somer Nowak is a Program Associate with the Women’s Rights program at Wellspring Philanthropic Fund. She provides programmatic support and manages grantmaking related to building power for the women’s rights movement and women’s land and property rights. Previously, she worked at the International Women’s Health Coalition where she coordinated international advocacy trainings for young feminists and advocated at UN conferences and agencies for young people’s sexual and reproductive rights and meaningful engagement of young people in political processes. As a Fulbright scholar, she built community and organized with black feminist collective, Bonecas de pixe in Minas Gerais, Brazil. She has co-designed and organized digital campaigns including #Comoesermulhernegra and #YoungFeministVisions to visibilize black women’s experiences in Brazil and amplify young feminists’ demands ahead of global UN conferences. Prior to this, Somer worked with Community Advocates Public Policy Institute in Milwaukee, WI, supporting grantmaking in the areas of violence prevention and youth development. Somer graduated from Marquette University with a BA in International Affairs and a concentration in Latin America. She speaks English, Spanish and Portuguese.

Oriana López Uribe

Oriana is a feminist activist for Sexual and Reproductive Rights and Health with 20 years of experience. She has worked in various organizations and networks to develop strategies to disseminate and promote Sexual Rights and Sexual and Reproductive Health for women, youth and adolescents. She is a member of RESURJ (Realizing Sexual and Reproductive Justice) a global feminist alliance and a member of the regional network of feminists “Vecinas Feministas por la Justicia Sexual y Reproductiva en América Latina,” she is the Executive Director of Balance, a feminist organization based in Mexico. Since 2010 she has specialized in training abortion doulas and since 2012 in reducing abortion stigma at the individual and community levels.

Eva Johansson

Eva Johansson is Sida’s Lead policy advisor for gender equality. She has worked in development cooperation and humanitarian assistance for 25 years. She was previously UNFPA’s senior advisor for Gender equality, rights and sustainable development in New York 2014-2017. Eva was Country Director for UNICEF in Eritrea 2007-2009. Eva has worked for the Swedish development cooperation agency, Sida, since 1997 and has served as Head of Sida’s division for development cooperation with Afghanistan 2010-2014, and as Humanitarian advisor for East Africa at the Swedish Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya 1998-2002. Since 2019 Eva Johansson is co-chair of the OECD Development Assistance Committee’s network for gender equality (Gendernet).

Miren Bengoa

Miren Bengoa has a degree from Sciences Po Paris and is specialized in Public Health. She has 15 years of experience working in international NGOs, as well as the United Nations (UNFPA and UNICEF) where she managed a number of maternal and infant health projects in Latin America and Africa. She is very committed to women’s rights and gender equality and today is the Executive Director of Fondation CHANEL, which supports women as actors of societal change and is active in 35 countries. Miren Bengoa is also former President and Co-Founder of the French National Committee for UN Women, which was created in 2013 and aims to raise awareness about the work of UN Women around the world and disseminate its international campaigns, such as HeForShe and Orange Day. The organization carries out numerous awareness raising activities with the general public, institutions, media, and companies.

Erin Hohlfelder

Erin Hohlfelder is a Senior Program Officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where she helped build the foundation's first gender equality advocacy and communications strategy in 2016 and today manages a global grants portfolio to drive progress against this strategy.  Prior to joining the foundation, Erin spent six years at the ONE Campaign, where she served as the Policy Director for Global Health.  In this work, she focused primarily on infectious diseases, maternal and child health, and health financing. Before joining ONE, she worked as the Policy Associate for the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases. Erin has also spent time living in Kenya, where she conducted research on integrated care models for female orphans. 

Jacob Thomas

Jacob Thomas is a 29 year-old nonbinary person living in Melbourne, Australia and uses the pronouns they/them. In 2016 Jacob was one of two Australians to receive The Queen’s Young Leaders award for their work in suicide prevention and creating accessible pathways for queer people. Jacob is the Coordinator of the Commonwealth Youth Gender and Equality Network (CYGEN) and has represented the network at the 61st session of UN Women’s Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) in New York, to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, the 11th Commonwealth Youth Forum in London, and at AIDS2018 in Amsterdam.

Tanzila Khan

Tanzila Khan is a wheelchair user since birth from Lahore, Pakistan. She wrote her first book, ‘A story of Mexico’ when she was 16 and then went on to publish her second book, ‘The Perfect Situation’ later. She has sold her books to fund community projects in the fields of disability, women empowerment, education and environment. Her NGO is Creative Alley that trains and empowers the community through events and projects. She launched her company, Iwish to create sustainable solutions to achieve the SDGs which includes a mobile application, Girlythings that delivers sanitary products to women with disabilities. Tanzila has also been a public speaker and has spoken across 15 countries. Her day job is serving as Manager Entrepreneurship Development Program at Hashoo Foundation.

Jude Thaddues Njikem

Jude Thaddues Njikem is founder and executive director of Community Centre for Integrated Development; a Non-Governmental Organization registered in Cameroon. Jude is an advocate for girls and women’s right with over 11 years’ experience in the promotion of human rights, gender activism, policy advocacy/engagement, community development. Presently, Jude is working on Cameroon Human Rights fellowship as project manager since March 2016. Jude recently launched www.youthsrhrdistrict.org a platform that collects and share evidence on the role of young people in promoting sexual and reproductive health and rights.

Sarah Gammage

As Director of Gender, Economic Empowerment and Livelihoods, Sarah Gammage leads the organization’s work on women’s economic empowerment with a particular focus on the care economy, time use and time burdens and intra-household processes. She has more than 25 years of experience as researcher and feminist economist, providing policy advice and supporting strategic advocacy on gender equality in Latin America, Africa and Asia. She has written about and led research and policy innovation on gender, economic empowerment, livelihoods, labor markets, migration, unpaid care and poverty.  She has worked with and for the United Nations, bilateral and multilateral agencies and civil society.

Anne-Birgitte Albrectsen

A renowned leader in development and gender equality, Anne-Birgitte Albrectsen has worked for over 25 years in international development, human rights, change management and diplomacy.

Ms. Albrectsen has been CEO of Plan International since September 2015. Prior to this she was United Nations Assistant Secretary General and Deputy Executive Director for Management at the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

Ms. Albrectsen is also Chairperson of the International Civil Society Centre and the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data and a member of the United Nations Every Woman Every Child High Level Steering Group and the Generation Unlimited Global Board.

Ms. Albrectsen has previously held senior leadership positions in the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), UNFPA and the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She served with the UNDP from 1997 to 2004, in Indonesia and later as Director of the Administrator’s Office at UNDP Headquarters. She led country operations for UNFPA in Turkey, Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan from 2004-2006. From 2007-2009, she led the Danish government’s humanitarian and civil society affairs work as the director of the relevant division in the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Ms Albrectsen is Danish and holds a law degree from the University of Copenhagen.

Gonzalo

Gonzalo is a highly experienced and enthusiastic gender equality and inclusion activist from El Salvador. From his work with the Farabundo Marti Front for National Liberation, his role as Leader of the Association for LGBTIQ+ Rights and his work leading intersectionality and feminism trainings as Secretary of Gender and Sexual Diversity at the University of El Salvador - Gonzalo is a gender equality champion and expert. Having dealt with discrimination and violence throughout his life due to his identity, Gonzalo works to connect youth-led social justice movements across El Salvador.

Cassandra Hallett

An educator since 1992, Cassie has taught in Nova Scotia, the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and, more recently, Tanzania; a teacher to the core, she will happily tell stories of wonderful experiences in each school she taught. In addition to teaching, Cassie’s career in education has included a variety of leadership roles including Professional Development Coordinator in Nunavut  and the president of the Kivalliq regional teachers’ association. She also served on the central executive of both the Northwest Territories Teachers’ Association (NWTTA) and the founding executive of the Nunavut Teachers’ Association (NTA). Cassie is a strong advocate for quality inclusive publicly funded public education.

Abigail

Abigail is a 23 year old impact-driven young activist from Ghana, who has worked in the area of youth accountability and young people’s access to information on sexual reproductive health and education for over five years now. She has also participated in many youth led advocacy initiatives on gender equality and girls’ rights and is well abreast with issues around girls’ education in Ghana and across the continent. She participated in the GPE’s replenishment conference in Dakar in 2018 and helped developed the Youth Solidarity Statement. She is currently studying communications in the Ghana Institute of Journalism.

Rita Bissoonauth

Dr. Rita Bissoonauth holds a Masters degree in Biochemistry from the University of Lyon, France and a Ph.D. Education from the University of Quebec in Montreal, Canada. She presently heads the African Union International Centre for Girls and Women’s Education in Africa (AU/CIEFFA) based in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Before moving to Ouagadougou, she was a Senior Policy Officer in Education for five years at African Union Commission in Addis Ababa. She also worked as a Senior Lecturer at the Mauritius Institute of Education, Mauritius and the University of Quebec in Montreal, Canada teaching Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Science Education.

Joanna Herat

Joanna Herat is a Senior Programme Specialist on Health and Education at UNESCO (Paris), providing technical leadership and policy support for education sector responses to improve health and well-being. Her areas of technical leadership are HIV prevention, comprehensive sexuality education, school-related gender-based violence, early and unintended pregnancy and gender equality. Before joining UNESCO, Joanna worked with civil society at the International HIV/AIDS Alliance supporting community-based HIV interventions in Africa and Asia. She started her career teaching and managing theatre for HIV education in Tanzania and Cameroon. Joanna has a Master’s degree in Anthropology of Development from the University of London.

Hannah Vaughan Jones

Hannah hosts news programmes across CNN International –including CNN Talk (live streamed on Facebook), Newsroom, Connect The World, The International Desk and Hala Gorani Tonight. She has broadcast live on location across the UK, covering the Royal Wedding from Windsor, London terror attacks, General Elections, referendums and State Openings of Parliament from Westminster, and the Manchester arena terrorist atrocity. Hannah has interviewed leading politicians, thought leaders, activists and campaigners.Previous broadcast credits include work for Sky News, The Associated Press, and LBC radio.Behind the camera, Hannah has vast experience as an executive producer and writer with outstanding news judgement and efficiency. She is a sought after awards host and events moderator, having single-handedly hosted the Malaria Summit London 2018 —attended by HRHs Prince of Wales and Duke of York, Bill Gates, and 15 Heads of State from across the Commonwealth. Hannah recently moderated the opening session of the 2018 World Health Assembly in Geneva, at the personal invitation of the Director General of the WHO.

Lily Kak

Dr. Lily Kak is Newborn Health Team Lead at U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Washington DC. She received her PhD in Anthropology from the State University of New York and a Post-Doctoral Fellowship in health education and behavioral sciences from Johns Hopkins University. During her 18 years at USAID, she has led the development of the Agency’s global development alliances with the private sector, health professional associations, and NGOs to scale up newborn health interventions through innovative private sector approaches. She provides leadership and guidance to expand and ensure technical excellence of USAID’s newborn programs worldwide.

Winnie Mwebesa

Dr. Winnie Mwebesa is Associate Vice President, Technical, at Save the Children US, with more than 25 years of clinical and programming experience in reproductive health. Dr. Mwebesa manages technical experts supporting the design, implementation, management and evaluation of Maternal Newborn and Child Health programming in low resources settings. A native of Uganda, Winnie grew up in Belgium where she earned her M.D. and ObGyn residency at the Catholic University of Louvain in Brussels. She also holds a Master in Public Health in population and reproductive health from Johns Hopkins University.

Malika Ndlovu

Malika Ndlovu is an internationally published South African poet, playwright, performer and arts project manager. Via her poetic memoir, “Invisible Earthquake: A Woman’s Journal through Stillbirth,” published by Modjaji Books in March 2009, she has become a passionately vocal advocate around pregnancy-related loss, bereavement support and maternal health through a wide variety of community interventions. Malika’s voice has featured in the Lancet Medical Journal, SANDS (Miscarriage, Stillbirth & Newborn Death Support) newsletters, BBC World Service, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s “Impatient Optimist” blog, and WHO’s April 2017 World Health Day online campaign focused on mental health issues.

Sandra Oyarzo Torres

Registered Midwife Sandra Oyarzo Torres is an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Chile. Since taking that position in 1998, she has taught across the five-year degree curriculum of the Midwifery School. With a Master’s degree in Health Science Education, she currently teaches in the Department of Education in Health Sciences to students seeking Postgraduate Degrees. Additionally, she is the coordinator and Professor in the Multidisciplinary Teams Formation Program. Sandra has been a member of the Chilean Midwives Association since 2007, working in the Scientific Committee. She was elected Secretary General in 2015, and in 2018 she was elected as the Vice President in the new Board. She became an ICM Board Member representing Central and South America in 2014 and the same year she trained to be a Master Trainer CBE TOT. During 2017, she was reelected as an ICM Board Member for her second term. As an ICM Board Member, Sandra has devoted herself to strengthen ICM’s three pillars: Education, Association and Regulation in the Americas.

Joy E. Lawn

Professor Joy Lawn is an African-born, British-trained pediatrician and perinatal epidemiologist, now Director of Maternal, Adolescent, Reproductive & Child health (MARCH) Centre at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. She has >25 years of experience including: clinical care, epidemiological burden estimates, design and evaluation of maternal, newborn and child care services at scale, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, including a decade with Save the Children. Her Masters of Public Health is from Emory University and PhD in perinatal epidemiology from UCL. She has published >250 peer reviewed papers including several Lancet series on newborn survival and stillbirths. Joy is a champion for women’s leadership.

Denise Bradshaw

Denise Bradshaw, Director of Provincial Health Initiatives at BC Women’s Hospital + Health Centre, has a 25 year long career working in mental health and addictions working across community, acute and residential sectors of supports and is dedicated to ensuring people with lived and living experience are at the centre of their journey, program and policy development with a particular passion for ensuring that women’s voices are head and acknowledged. A significant portion of her career has been focused on designing programs and leading services for people using substances. Central to all her work is gender responsive approaches, trauma-informed practices and Indigenous cultural safety. Denise also brings tremendous experience in harm reduction and recovery approaches.

Dr. Annabel Mead

Dr. Mead has been practicing addiction medicine for 20 years with expertise in concurrent psychiatric disorders and chronic pain management. She is a Fellow of the Australasian Chapter of Addiction Medicine, a diplomat of the American Board of Addiction Medicine and Clinical Assistant Professor with the University of British Columbia. Dr. Mead currently practices as a consultant at St Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver, and provides longitudinal addiction care to the residents of New Dawn Recovery House. She is the Director of the BCCSU Addiction Medicine Fellowship training program and an Education Committee member of the International Society of Addiction Medicine.

Kinnon Ross

Kinnon Ross is a registered nurse, harm reduction and recovery advocate who live in Vancouver, BC. As a person in recovery, she aims to intertwine the personal and the professional, highlighting the ways that stigma and discrimination inform our ways of being in all areas of our life. Working in harm reduction and living in recovery allow Kinnon to have a unique perspective on the recovery and harm reduction continuum and how our perceptions of these ideas can be influential in change making processes. Kinnon’s advocacy work stems from both lived and professional experiences, and is focused on reducing stigma in acute settings for people who use drugs. Kinnon is also active in the local recovery community and believes in the power of sharing our stories to help ourselves and others recover.

Hawkfeather Peterson

Hawkfeather Peterson, lives in Sechelt located on the Sunshine Coast in B.C. Hawkfeather is a proud parent of six amazing children, a professional artist and a drug user.  Hawkfeather puts a lot of time and energy into advocating for people who use drugs and is the secretary and BC representative with CAPUD (the Canadian Association of People who Use Drugs).  Hawkfeather is a board member and the Vancouver/Coastal representative for the BCYADWS (BC/Yukon Association of Drug War Survivors) and works in her local community offering peer outreach support.  Hawkfeather’s goal is to help reduce the stigma that shapes the lives and empower people using drugs and to impact the policies that govern these lives.  The lives of PWUD are valid and worth protecting and Hawkfeather works in solidarity with her peers fighting the overdose crisis that is killing those we all love.

Caren Morris-Jones

Caren Morris-Jones is an Indigenous Youth Worker for Children in Care for the URBAN Native Youth Association (UNYA) in Vancouver, BC. Caren has completed a diploma in Community Support Work and Addictions and will begin to pursue her Bachelors of Social Work in the fall. She is a self-identified Metis woman in recovery, whose personal journey has involved growing up the child care system, homeless and living on the streets, struggling with stigma and trauma associated with substance use, having her children apprehended and fighting the system to get her two beautiful children back. Caren holds Indigenous Health, Culture and Safety at the forefront and hopes to influence the health care delivery system through this lens in order to provide better, more respectful, culturally safe services through advocacy and sharing her own journey with others.

Barkha Dutt

Barkha Dutt is an award-winning TV journalist, anchor and columnist with more than two decades of reporting experience. She is India’s only Emmy-nominated journalist who has won multiple national and international awards, including the Padmashri, which is India’s fourth highest civilian honour.

Barkha graduated from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi with a degree in English Literature. She did her Master’s in Journalism from the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University in New York.

Barkha has reported from some of the toughest spots and conflict zones in India and across the world including Pakistan, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Egypt. Her frontline reporting of the Kargil war first made her a household name.

She is an out spoken feminist voice on the global stage and also the Founder-Editor of Mojo, a multi-media events and content venture. She is also the founder of ‘We The Women’, a multi-city festival and current affairs website that focuses on the biggest gender debates of our time.

She is a featured Columnist with Washington Post; appears regularly as an analyst on CNN and BBC and is also a Contributing Editor at The Week magazine.

Poonam Muttreja

Poonam Muttreja, Executive Director, Population Foundation of India-PFI, has over 35 years of experience promoting women’s rights, rural livelihoods, public advocacy, communications and behaviour change. She conceived and promoted the transmedia initiative, Main Kuch Bhi Kar Sakti Hoon - I, A Woman, Can Achieve Anything. Before joining PFI, she served as Country Director of McArthur Foundation in India. She serves on the board of several non-governmental organisations, and co-founded SRUTI, DASTKAR, and Ashoka Foundation. An alumnus of Delhi University and Harvard University’s John F Kennedy School of Government, Poonam is a regular television and print commentator in India and internationally.

Vandana Chavan

Vandana Chavan is a Member of Parliament (from Maharashtra in the Rajya Sabha (Council of States). She is currently serving her second term in Parliament and is a member of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Empowerment of Women and on Human Resource Development. Ms Chavan strongly advocates the implementation and strict observation of the equity-based UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Arvind Maryam

Dr. Mayaram (IAS) is currently the economic advisor to the government of Rajasthan . He has held several positions of responsibility in the past, which include the following: Finance Secretary, Ministry of Finance, Government of India (GoI); Special Secretary, Ministry of Rural Development, GoI; Secretary, Tourism, Ministry of Tourism, (GoI); Commissioner, Investment and NRI (Govt. of Rajasthan); Secretary Planning, Secretary, Industries and Commerce and Principal Secretary, Training (Govt. of Rajasthan). He holds a PhD in Finance.

Vandana Gurnani

Ms. Vandana Gurnani (IAS) is currently serving as the Joint Secretary, Reproductive and Child Health programme (RCH), in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), Government of India (GoI). In twenty-eight year career, she has held a number of positions of responsibility in several departments. She has worked in the Department of Women and Child Development as a Managing Director, as the Project Director for AIDS Prevention and Control and as Executive Director as well as a Project Director in the University of Manitoba in Canada.

Rohit Kumar Singh

Rohit Kumar Singh is an IAS officer. In 2019 he assumed the charge as Additional Principal Secretary in Medical, Health and Family Welfare, Department, Government of Rajasthan. In the past he held the positions of Chairman and Managing Director, Jaipur Metro Rail Corporation Limited, Member(Finance), NHAI and Joint Secretary (Highways) in the Ministry of  Road Transport and Highways, Government of India.

Nanci Lee

Nanci Lee is a poet, adult educator and analyst who works on community finance and alternative economic models for greater voice, choice and rights, gender justice. She has a Masters in Science in Rural Planning and Development, a Bachelor of Education and an Honours BA in Economics-English literature. Currently, Nanci is focused on affordable housing, online action research, gender-transformative and feminist research, story in community building and healing. She helped to found a peer coaching and consulting group made of self-employed women from around the world working on economic and gender justice.

Rebecca Chiao

Rebecca is Co-Founder and Board Member of HarassMap, launched in 2010 to combine ICT with community activism to end sexual harassment and assault in Egypt. She received her MA from Johns Hopkins SAIS, a Certificate in Strategic Frameworks for NGOs from the Harvard University KSG, and BA in Politics from NYU. From 2004-2010, she worked at the Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights, Ashoka Arab World, and INJAZ Egypt. She currently assists activists replicating HarassMap’s model.

Dr. Carmen Yon Leau

Dr. Carmen Yon Leau holds a bachelor's degree in Sociology, Master of Arts, and a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Medical Anthropology. Currently, she is principal researcher for the Institute of Peruvian Studies (IEP) and lecturer in the Master’s program of Anthropology at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, and the Master´s program of Gender and Development at the National University of San Marcos. She leads an IDRC funded four-year research project on indigenous health, social inequalities and interculturality in Andean and Amazonian areas in Peru. She has more than 20 years of experience as a researcher in issues of sexuality, gender, sexual and reproductive health.

Dr. Dominique Charron

Dominique Charron is IDRC’s Vice-President, Programs and Partnerships. Prior to being Vice-President, Dominique was the Director of IDRC’s Agriculture and Environment program. She supervised research focused on increasing agricultural productivity and food security, reducing vulnerability to climate change, and protecting the public against infectious diseases and non-communicable diseases. Dominique joined the Centre in 2006 as head of the Ecosystems and Human Health program. Previously, she managed research programs at the Public Health Agency of Canada. Dominique Charron holds a PhD in epidemiology and a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from the University of Guelph.

Jean Lebel

Jean was appointed President of IDRC on May 1, 2013. As President, Jean leads the Centre’s contributions to Canada’s development, foreign policy, and global innovation efforts. He is responsible for significant funding partnerships with Canadian and foreign governments, philanthropic organizations, and the private sector. Jean previously served as Vice-President, Program and Partnership Branch, overseeing all IDRC programming, as well as Director, Agriculture and Environment. He holds a PhD in environmental sciences from l’Université du Québec à Montréal and an MScA in occupational health sciences from McGill University.

Dr. Ravi Verma

Ravi has more than three decades of experience working on issues of girls and women’s empowerment and gender equality. His research is focused on primary violence prevention, child marriage prevention, sexual and reproductive health issues and engaging men and addressing masculine norms. Ravi has led groundbreaking work in evidence-based gender transformative strategies with programs such as Gender Equity Movement in Schools (GEMS), Promoting Adolescent Engagement, Knowledge and Health (PAnKH), and Parivartan as well as Parivartan Plus. Throughout his career he has held multiple positions within the Government of India, as a professor at the International Institute for Population Sciences in Mumbai and as a member of High-Level Committee on the Status of Women (HLCSW). He currently serves on the International Advisory Board of Lancet-Women and Global Health 5050.