Dr. Princess Nothemba (Nono) Simelela

Dr. Simelela, from South Africa, has over 30 years experience as an obstetrician, academic, advocate and government official, and now acts as Special Advisor to the Director-General of the World Health Organization. Before joining WHO, she was Special Advisor to the Vice President of the Republic of South Africa on Social Policy, supporting the multisectoral response to HIV. Previous roles include CEO of the South African National AIDS Council and Director of Technical Knowledge and Support for the International Planned Parenthood Federation. Dr. Simelela has presented and published widely on women’s health and contributed to guidelines including the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV.

Sheila Tlou

Prof. Sheila Tlou is Co-Chair of the Global HIV Prevention Coalition and the Nursing Now Global Campaign. She is former UNAIDS Regional Director for Eastern and Southern Africa, and former Minister of Health of Botswana. She is also former Professor of Nursing at the University of Botswana and Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Nursing and Midwifery Development in Primary Health Care for Anglophone Africa.

As Minister of Health, she led a successful HIV prevention, treatment, care and support program whose achievements are still some of the best in Africa. She provided leadership in the adoption of the SADC HIV/AIDS Plan of Action and Maputo Plan of Action on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights. She represented Eastern and Southern Africa in the Board of the Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

Prof. Tlou has a Ph.D in Nursing Sciences from the University of Illinois at Chicago and has Membership of the American Academy of Nursing and the US National Academy of Medicine.

Dr. Sharron Hinchliff

Dr Sharron Hinchliff leads a programme of research on ageing, gender, sexual health, and sexual well-being, which examines the psychological, social, and cultural factors that influence health and healthcare. Her work tackles stigma, prejudice, and discrimination to promote and support the sexual rights of older adults. Sharron is Reader in Psychology and Health at the School of Nursing and Midwifery, University of Sheffield, UK. Her latest book ‘Addressing the sexual rights of older people: Theory, practice and policy’ was published in 2018. For further details, see Sharron’s website: www.sharronhinchliff.com

Dr. Sameera Al Tuwaijri

Sameera M. Al Tuwaijri is a Lead Health Specialist and Global Solutions Lead for the Population and Development at the Health, Nutrition and Population Global practice, the World Bank since June 2016. She is a board-certified medical doctor (OB/GYN). She also has a master’s degree (Harvard) and a Ph.D. (Johns Hopkins) in Public Health, focusing on health systems development. Prior to the World Bank and after concluding her public health studies, she worked in the United Nations system for ten years.

Muluba Habanyama

Muluba Habanyama is a Zambian activist, organizer and educator from Toronto, Canada. She has been living with HIV since birth. She serves on the boards of the Ontario HIV Treatment Network, Interagency Coalition on AIDS and Development and The Teresa Group. She has written work published in Huffington Post Canada, Flare, MTV and more. She is the Ontario provincial positive youth transition coordinator at the AIDS Committee of Durham Region. Her most valuable title is that of aunt to Amaja, Judah and Ezekiel.

Rebecca Calder

Rebecca Calder has spent the best part of 25 years in Asia, Africa and the Pacific designing and leading innovative qualitative research; designing and leading complex formative and process evaluations; training on gender and inclusion, poverty and social analysis; and employing qualitative analytical techniques across programs. Her clients have included UNICEF, DFID, AusAid, DFAT, Australian Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, Irish Aid, USAID, PSI, Mercy Corps, Plan, ActionAid, Comic Relief, ODI, Hewlett Foundation, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Girl Hub, Nike Foundation, Girl Effect, the Unreasonable Group, and Women Moving Millions. Rebecca has recognized expertise on adolescent girls and young women, women’s and girls’ economic empowerment, sexual and reproductive health, gender and social norms, social protection, and violence against women and girls. Rebecca has a Ph.D. in Anthropology from the School of Oriental and Africa Studies in London.

Rosemary Nazar

Rosemary Nazar works with Population Services International as a Youth Officer for Adolescents 360, a youth-powered sexual and reproductive health (SRH) program that seeks to increase how girls aged 15-19 perceive and voluntarily uptake modern contraception. Through proven approaches grounded in human-centered design, she works alongside young people to identify how to break cultural norms, economic barriers, negative value systems and non-supportive social systems blocking girls’ access to SRH services. Nazar has a Bachelor’s degree in Health Systems Management, and a passion for unlocking young women and girls’ choices so they have control over their bodies and their lives.

Tracy Johnson

Tracy Johnson is a design anthropologist who is passionate about getting to the why behind people’s behavior and using design to change behavior. She has more than 15 years of experience applying a design anthropological perspective to global health and development problems as well as business concerns. She has developed innovative research and design agendas across many areas of global health and development, including maternal and child health, family planning, frontline health worker platforms, complex intervention delivery, as well as education and human rights, and on behalf of Fortune 500 clients. She is a design leader for designforhealth.org and a contributor to the award-winning LEAP Dialogues: Career Pathways in Design for Social Innovation.

Sean Hughes

Sean Hughes leads a global team that is tasked with developing a broad range of solutions including products, software, digital services as well as architectural concepts that are shaping the future of healthcare. Sean engages directly with healthcare delivery organizations, leveraging design thinking to transform care provision in meaningful ways. Over a 25-plus year career across 3 continents and multiple business categories, Sean has built and led multidisciplinary award-winning creative teams that deliver business results while maximizing the role of design as a key element of sustainable competitive advantage.

Sinit Zeru

The Tony Blair Institute (TBI) seeks to make globalization work for the many, not the few. The Policy & Innovations team leads the piloting of new tools within TBI and its Government projects, including spearheading the application of human-centered design. Sinit Zeru joined TBI in 2013 as a Strategic Advisor for the Rwandan Government’s National Capacity Building Secretariat. Previously, Sinit was Country Head (Tanzania) and Senior Consultant (Kenya) for a communications consultancy. Sinit has a B.A. from Oxford University, and an M.A. from University College London.

Rukmini Callimachi

New York Times foreign correspondent and three-time Pulitzer Prize finalist Rukmini Callimachi is the recipient of the 2018 Peabody Award and the inaugural “Integrity in Journalism” award for her on the ground reporting on ISIS, including their systematic enslavement of Yazidi women. Born in Communist Romania, Callimachi and her family fled the country when she was five years old. Callimachi has covered 20 foreign countries and spent seven years in West Africa for the AP. She recently profiled Nadia Murad and Denis Mukwege for their Nobel Peace Prize, awarded for their work to end warzone rape.

Laurel Baig

Laurel Baig is a Canadian litigator with over 18 years of international criminal law experience, including prosecuting cases charging military and political leaders with crimes involving sexual violence in conflict. She is a Senior Appeals Counsel in Office of the Prosecutor of the UN’s International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals and a member of the Justice Rapid Response-UN Women SGBV Justice Experts Roster. Previously, Laurel worked as a prosecutor with the UN International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and advised judges at the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and the Special Court for Sierra Leone.

Dalia Amin

Born in Karachi, Pakistan to Kurdish refugees fleeing the Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq, Dalia Amin spent the first decade of her life in resettlement camps before moving with her family to Washington. Now based out of Erbil, Iraq, 29-year-old Dalia is a Gender Equality and Social Inclusion Advisor with Save the Children, where she designs and implements gender-sensitive programming to prevent, mitigate and responds to sexual and gender based violence, and collaborates with partners to build community expertise on women and girls’ rights. Dalia is a M.S. graduate of the Centre for Global Affairs at New York University.

Vasfije Krasniqi-Goodman

Vasfije Krasniqi-Goodman is a Kosovo-born survivor of sexual violence in conflict, and an activist with the Kosova Rehabilitation Centre for Torture Victimes (KRCT), advocating for the rights of survivors of wartime sexual violence, fighting to bring justice for the 20,00 women who were raped during the Yugoslav Wars. She is the first survivor of sexual violence from the Kosovo War to publicly share her story without hiding her identity, and today is a member of SEMA, the global network of survivors and victims to end wartime rape, facilitated by the Mukwege Foundation. The recipient of the 2019 Kim Bok-dong Peace Prize, Vasfije has provided testimony to the UN Human Rights Council and the US House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee, and has received the Honorable Citizen Award by the president of Kosovo.

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.

Bärbel Weiligmann

Bärbel Weiligmann has addressed issues in agriculture from different stakeholder perspectives. Presently as special advisor for global commodity chains for the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition. Previously, as Senior Program Manager for Food Security at the Rabobank Foundation she is responsible for developing and strengthening links between agriculture and nutrition. Previously at the Tropical Commodity Coalition (comprised of 10 Dutch NGOs), she was engaged in stimulating the development of sustainable supply chains in cocoa, coffee and tea. Working for the Hamburg Chamber of Skilled Crafts and being responsible for a large European education project (with 13 partners in 7 countries), and a marketing project, she expanded her experience with the private sector. Her career commenced with a 10 year stint at GIZ, the German International Co-operation Service, engaged in diverse positions and long-term overseas assignments, including as an Economic Advisor on marketing policies for Citrus fruits. Her PhD was in the field agriculture with specialization on information exchange in networks.

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.

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.

Lawrence Haddad

Before joining GAIN, Dr. Lawrence Haddad was the founding co-chair and lead author of the Global Nutrition Report, Director of the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), and research Director at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). In 2018, Lawrence was awarded the World Food Prize for his: “relentless leadership and advocacy in mobilizing political will to make nutrition the focal point of development strategies.

Monami Mehnaz

Monami is a dynamic youth advocate for nutrition and joined SKNF in 2013 and participated in many training and youth forums activities in Bangladesh - winning the “Year best Shornokishoree 2014.Currently, she is also working as a Graduate SKNF leaders and support in training and capacity building activities of SKNF club members and part-time work as TV Anchor at Channel i.

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.

Hon Julia Gillard

Julia Gillard served as the 27th Prime Minister of Australia from 2010-13. As Prime Minister and in her previous role as Deputy Prime Minister, Ms. Gillard was central to the successful management of Australia’s economy, the 12th biggest in the world, during the Global Financial Crisis. Ms. Gillard delivered nation-changing policies including reforming Australian education at every level, from early childhood to university education, and commenced the nation’s first ever national scheme to care for people with disabilities.

Ms. Gillard is the first woman to ever serve as Australia’s Prime Minister or Deputy Prime Minister. In October 2012, Ms. Gillard received worldwide attention for her speech in Parliament on the treatment of women in professional and public life.

In April 2018, Ms. Gillard was appointed Inaugural Chair of the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership at Kings College, London. In 2014, Ms Gillard was appointed chair of the Global Partnership for Education, a leading organization dedicated to expanding access and quality education worldwide. Ms. Gillard is a non-resident Distinguished Senior Fellow with the Center for Universal Education at the Brookings Institution in Washington.

Fatu

Fatu is a dedicated advocate on issues of education, child marriage, teenage pregnancy and the engagement of young people in decision making processes. She is currently the chair of the West Africa and Central African Regional Youth Forum working actively with young people across 14 countries to advocate and influence Plan International, national governments and the African Union on key advocacy activities on education, child marriage, teenage pregnancy and governance. In February, 2018, as part of the Global Partnership for Education replenishment conference, Fatu was a lead voice lobbying world leaders to invest in girls’ education. She has been a global voice to appeal to G7 Leaders to invest in education during emergency situations.

Mabel van Oranje

A global advocate for freedom, justice and development for over two decades, Mabel van Oranje is the initiator and chair of ‘Girls Not Brides: The Global Partnership to End Child Marriage’. She is also co-founder and the executive chair of the European Council on Foreign Relations. She is a member of the (advisory) boards of the Coalition for the International Criminal Court, Crisis Action, Global Witness, the Malala Fund, the Open Society Foundations and The Elders.

Fatu

Fatu is a dedicated advocate on issues of education, child marriage, teenage pregnancy and the engagement of young people in decision making processes. She is currently the chair of the West Africa and Central African Regional Youth Forum working actively with young people across 14 countries to advocate and influence Plan International, national governments and the African Union on key advocacy activities on education, child marriage, teenage pregnancy and governance. In February, 2018, as part of the Global Partnership for Education replenishment conference, Fatu was a lead voice lobbying world leaders to invest in girls’ education. She has been a global voice to appeal to G7 Leaders to invest in education during emergency situations.

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.

Jayathma Wickramanayake

Ms. Jayathma Wickramanayake was appointed as the UN Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth in June 2017 at the age of 26. In this role, Jayathma works to expand the UN’s youth engagement and advocacy efforts across all four pillars of work – sustainable development, human rights, peace and security and humanitarian action – and serves as a representative of and advisor to the Secretary-General.

Originally from Sri Lanka, Ms. Wickramanayake has worked extensively on youth development and participation, and has played a key role in transforming the youth development sector in her home country.

Prior to taking up her post, Ms. Wickramanayake was instrumental in creating the movement for civic and political engagement of young people, especially young women in Sri Lanka named “Hashtag Generation”. Previously, she advocated for global youth development on an international level including as the first ever Sri Lankan Youth Delegate to the United Nations and as the youth lead negotiator and member of the International Youth Task Force of the World Conference on Youth 2014 where she played a critical role in mainstreaming youth in the Post-2015 Process and in the establishment of World Youth Skills Day.

Alusine Bangura

Alusine Bangura is a child and youth rights advocate in Sierra Leone. She started advocacy in the Children’s Forum Network (CFN) in 2010. She is the Founder and National Coordinator for the Action For Youth and Children’s Network (AYCN), and is also the first Chairperson for a youth network establish by Defence for Children International with support from Plan International, called Children and Youth Advisory Board (CYAB) for the Western Area. She also currently serves as the Youth Representative in the Steering Committee of the RMNCAH+N-CSO Coalition hosted by Health Alert secretariat, and participated in the preparation of the RMNCAH+N-GFF investment case designed by the Ministry of Health and Sanitation. She also serves as the Youth Representative in the Global Financing Facility (GFF) and also participated in the GFF Civil Society Organization Workshop and Replenishment Conference in Oslo, Norway, in November 2019.

Pauline Anyona

Pauline Bridget Atieno Anyona is 26 year old AYSRHR Programs Officer, and health budget advocate in the campaign for good governance at the Organization of Africa Youth Kenya. She is a Goalkeeper, and currently sits at the FP2020’s Youth Advisory Group and at the secretariat of the Kenya Adolescents and Youth SRHR/ HIV Network. Pauline is passionate about advocacy for improvement in the delivery of adolescents and youth friendly SRH services and policies, their economic empowerment and how both can be made instrumental in the achievement of the global SDGs. She firmly believes that a society in which everybody is able to make informed decisions concerning their sexuality is one that thrives.

Zanele Mabaso

Zanele Mabaso is a Women Deliver Young Leader and works in the Policy Development and Advocacy Unit at Sonke Gender Justice. She is an ardent policy advisor, advocate for women and girls and a social justice writer with a focus on HIV prevention, adolescent sexual and reproductive health and rights, and gender-based violence. She leads the country engagement coordination for The Partnership's Adolescent and Youth Constituency, providing expert technical assistance to youth-lead country partner organisations in Nigeria, Malawi, Kenya, India and Cameroon, in implementing the Advocating for Change for Adolescent Toolkit at national and sub-national level.

Preeti Sudan

Preeti Sudan has represented Government of India on the PMNCH Board since October, 2017 as the Board Vice-chair. Preeti is a career civil servant and is an officer of the Indian Administrative Service who joined service in 1983 and has served at various levels both in Federal and State governments in India. At present, she holds the office of the Secretary, Health and Family Welfare in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India and has been instrumental in planning and implementing some of the biggest health initiatives in India.

Helga Fogstad

Helga Fogstad currently heads the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health (PMNCH), which is the world’s largest alliance for women’s, children’s and adolescents’ health, combining over 1,000 partner organization from 10 diverse constituencies across 192 countries. Helga has 30 years’ experience in health systems strengthening, public health and reproductive, maternal, newborn child, and adolescent-related issues. Her experience covers health planning and development at facility, district and national levels, as well as at international level within multilateral and bilateral agencies.  She has also chaired and been actively involved in many global processes to forge consensus and increase global mobilization for RMNCAH, including the UN Secretary General’s Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health.

Previously Helga was Director of Global Health, Education and Research at the Norwegian Agency for Development (Norad) where she was central in providing technical guidance on Norway’s health, education, research and development portfolio, both through the bilateral programs, as well as global initiatives and funds supported by Norway.

She is a health economist and has co-authored several publications related to public health.

Koki Agarwal

Dr. Koki Agarwal is an internationally recognized expert in safe motherhood, reproductive health, and family planning policies and programs. She has more than 25 years of service delivery experience in reproductive health, family planning, and maternal health, and for over two decades has led, managed, and implemented large-scale USAID-funded global health projects.Since 2014, Dr. Agarwal has directed USAID’s flagship Maternal and Child Survival Program (MCSP), with a focus in 24 USAID priority countries. MCSP is the principal follow-on to the Maternal and Child Health Integrated Program (MCHIP), for which she also handled the overall management and technical integrity.

Esenam Amuzu

Esenam is a member of CURIOUS MINDS Ghana, a youth-led advocacy group working towards youth development through the media. She addresses the demographic dividend in Africa through the improvement of SRHR access for young women, particularly in rural areas of her country. She volunteers for several youth and health related organizations, both on national and international levels. Esenam serves as a Youth advisory board member of the Ghana SRHR Alliance for young people. She is a youth representative on the UNFPA–UNICEF Joint Programme on Empowerment of Adolescent Girls through Sexual and Reproductive Health, Education and Rights.

Maryjane Lacoste

Maryjane Lacoste joined the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in May 2014, working with the Family Planning Team as the senior program officer for family planning service delivery and quality. As such, she leads and manages implementation of the Implant Access Program, ensuring that the strategy focuses on expanding access to method choice and strengthens quality of care including counseling, interpersonal communications, clinical training, service delivery, and performance monitoring.

Jennifer Pope

As Director of Family Planning & Reproductive Health at PSI, Jen provides technical assistance to country programs providing life-saving products, clinical services and behavior change communications that empower the world’s most vulnerable populations to lead healthier lives. Jen has over 15 years of experience working with non-profits, corporations and government agencies on family planning, HIV and AIDS, malaria, child survival, institutional strengthening, staff capacity building, social marketing and franchising. Before joining PSI, Jen worked for a variety of organizations including the Peace Corps as a health volunteer in Mali.

Joy Cunningham

Joy Cunningham is the Acting Director of Research Utilization at FHI 360. Joy manages a portfolio of global youth health and gender activities for multiple projects. From 2008 to 2014, she led the knowledge management activities conducted under USAID’s Interagency Youth Working Group (IYWG). In this role, she worked to synthesize new evidence about youth reproductive health and develop and implement evidence-based resources, working closely with country office youth specialists and FHI 360’s research utilization team. She currently serves on the management team of Advancing Partners and Communities, a USAID project to promote community-based access to family planning. In this role, Joy provides leadership to a team of FHI 360 staff and manages the youth and gender activities.

Dr. Holly Burke

Holly M. Burke, PhD, MPH is a scientist in the Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (RMNCH) Division at FHI 360. She has nearly 20 years of experience conducting research focused on sexual and reproductive health, primarily in sub-Saharan Africa. She has held scientific leadership roles as the Principal or Co-Investigator for more than a dozen studies utilizing various research methodologies resulting in more than 25 peer-reviewed journal articles. She has expertise in both quantitative and qualitative research methods, program evaluation; and she has advanced training in psychometrics techniques, including scale development, testing and validation. Her content areas of expertise include adolescent health, contraceptive use dynamics, health communication, HIV prevention, and the integration of economic strengthening and health interventions to influence behavior change. Since 2009, Dr. Burke has been FHI 360’s lead scientist on DMPA-SC and self-injection efforts.

Laurie Adams

Laurie Adams is the Chief Executive Officer of Women for Women International (WfWI), a leading global organization dedicated to working with women survivors of war. With more than 25 years of experience working in international development and human rights, Ms. Adams is an innovative leader, strategist, and gender rights advocate. Prior to joining WfWI, Ms. Adams served as the Director of Women’s Rights for Oxfam in the United Kingdom leading communications, fundraising, program development, and advocacy of Oxfam’s women’s rights work. During her tenure, Ms. Adams created high-level partnerships with government leaders and multinational corporations and, under her leadership, Oxfam doubled its financial commitment to women’s rights.

Lisa Williams

Lisa E. Williams, Team Lead on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment, OECD Development Co-operation Directorate, leads the Organisations work on gender equality policies and practices with the 30 development agencies and foreign affairs branches of government in the Development Assistance Committee. Her career spans more than 20 years in international development and work in the OECD, the US Agency for International Development (USAID), and in public affairs, communications and journalism. She has led several expert development networks to deliver research programmes leading to internationally agreed guidance and standards in the OECD on major development challenges and in addition to gender equality has expertise in the areas of governance and anti-corruption, prevention of violent conflict and security sector reform, human rights, access to justice and development evaluation. She holds an MA from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and a BA in Journalism and International Affairs from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and has worked and in a number of countries. She speaks French fluently and currently lives in France with her partner and three children.

Sarah Hendriks

Sarah Hendriks leads the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s efforts to achieve substantive and sustainable results in promoting gender equality and unlocking the empowerment of women and girls. Prior to joining the foundation in 2015, Sarah worked as the director of Gender Equality and Social Inclusion for Plan International, leading the development of a comprehensive gender equality policy, strategy and global capacity development program. In this role, she was the editorial chair and lead researcher for a multi-year global research and policy report entitled ‘Because I am a Girl: The State of the World’s Girls’. As the head of programming for Plan’s gender equality work, she led the development of the ‘Global Girls Innovation Program’, a $500 million portfolio of innovation and results-driven initiatives on adolescent girls. Sarah earned her master’s degree in adult education and international community development from the University of Toronto.

Lina Abirafeh, PhD

Dr. Lina Abirafeh, (Executive Director of the Arab Institute for Women at the Lebanese American University) is based in New York and Lebanon. Her background is in gender-based violence prevention and response in development and humanitarian contexts.

She brings over 20 years’ experience in countries such as Afghanistan, Haiti, Democratic Republic of Congo, Nepal, and others.

Her 2015 TEDx talk summarizes her experience. Lina completed her doctoral work from the London School of Economics and published “Gender and International Aid in Afghanistan: The Politics and Effects of Intervention” based on her research.

She speaks and publishes frequently on a range of gender issues. In 2018, Lina was listed as one of the Gender Equality Top 100: The Most Influential People in Global Policy - one of only two Arabs to make the list.

Shamilah Batte

Shamilah Batte is the co-founder of OGERA. OGERA promotes health and human rights of women LBQ and urban refugee sex workers living and working in Uganda. She is a female sex worker, Lesbian, Rwandese by origin and a Ugandan by naturalization. She is passionate to ensure that sex workers are treated with dignity and humanity regardless of their different sexual orientations, nature of work, origin or nationality. She has coordinated the sex worker movement in Uganda since 2015 to mid-2018 through Uganda Network for sex worker-led organizations (UNESO) which is a recognized umbrella for sex worker led organizations in Uganda.

Shena Cavallo

Shena is a Program Officer with the International Women's Health Coalition where she provides funding and support to grantee partners in Latin America, the Middle East and North Africa, and Eastern Europe. Prior to joining IWHC, Shena worked on immigrant rights. She has an MA in International Development from the University of Pittsburgh and a BA in International Affairs and Political Science from Duquesne University.

Natalia Moreno Rodriguez

Natlia is an activist, feminist, dramatist, researcher, and artist from Colombia, Natalia has advocated for the inclusion and rights of people with disabilities. She is a co-creator and coordinator of the collective of women with disabilities and diverse functionality, known as Colectiva Polimorfas. Natalia participated on the Colombian delegation for the implementation of the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and participated in a thematic hearing on sexual and reproductive rights’ violations of persons with disabilities before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

Luisa Cabal

Luisa Cabal is a Colombian human rights lawyer, leading the Human Rights and Gender team in UNAIDS. Until 2014, she oversaw the Center for Reproductive Rights' legal and advocacy efforts in the United States and globally as the Vice President of Programs, where she worked for over 15 years. She led human rights fact-finding reporting, litigated landmark cases and oversaw advocacy strategies that advanced legal and policy protections at global, regional and national levels including in the areas of HIV, maternal health, adolescent rights, contraception, abortion, and assisted reproductive technologies. From 2011 through 2014 she was a Lecturer-in-Law at Columbia University School of Law, where she taught comparative and international reproductive rights law. She is currently a member of the Lancet Commission on Global Health and the Law and she served as co-chair of the World Health Organization's Reproductive Health Department's Gender Advisory Panel. Ms. Cabal graduated from the Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia. She received her Master of Laws from Columbia University School of Law.

Ishani Ida Cordeiro

Ishani is a lawyer and has been working on issues of human rights for 10 years now. She has been a researcher and trainer before taking on the role of an advocacy officer at CREA. Ishani’s work focuses on bridging the divide between the local and the global. She works with international human rights mechanisms and endeavors to not only ensure global south voices are heard within these mechanisms but also strategizes on using these mechanisms as national level tools for advocacy.

Michele Goodwin

Michele Goodwin holds the Chancellor’s Professorship at the University of California, Irvine with appointments at the School of Law, School of Public Health, and Department of Gender and Sexuality Studies. She is the founder and director of the Center for Biotechnology and Global Health Policy and its Reproductive Justice Initiative. She researches and writes about legal concerns with regard to the human body. She is an acclaimed bioethicist and prolific author. Professor Goodwin has published with Forbes, Salon.com, the L.A. Times, Chicago Sun Times, Houston Chronicle, Christian Science Monitor, and the NY Times among others. She is the author of several highly acclaimed books, including the much anticipated, Policing The Womb, which chronicles how women’s reproduction has become the political scapegoat in Congress and legislatures across the U.S., resulting in the rise of personhood measures, practices that force women to undergo cesarean births under threat of court order, abuse of prosecutorial discretion that results in the criminalization and punishment of pregnant women for falling down steps, refusing bed rest or attempting suicide, and policies that dramatically erode reproductive liberty. Professor Goodwin’s scholarly work appears in the Harvard Law Review, Yale Law Journal, Northwestern Law Review, California Law Review and many other esteemed journals. Her media appearances include documentary films, such as Birthright, and featured appearances on episodes of Vice, To The Contrary, Point Taken, and various newscasts on NPR, PBS, NBC, CBS, and others. She is the recipient of numerous awards recognizing excellence in teaching, scholarship, and human rights advocacy.

Michelle Bachelet

On September 1, 2018 Michelle Bachelet assumed her functions as the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Established in 1993, Ms. Bachelet is its seventh Commissioner. Ms. Bachelet was elected President of Chile on two occasions (2006-2010 and 2014-2018) and was the first female president of Chile. During her presidential tenures, she promoted the rights of all, but particularly those of the most vulnerable. Among her many achievements include education and tax reforms, the creation of the National Institute for Human Rights, the establishment of the Ministry of Women and Gender Equality, the adoption of quotas to increase women’s political participation, and the approval of Civil Union Act legislation which granted rights to same sex couples. In 2011, she was named the first Director of UN Women, an organization dedicated to fighting for the rights of women and girls internationally. As Co-Chair of the High-Level Steering Group for Every Woman Every Child, Ms. Bachelet launched Every Woman Every Child Latin America and the Caribbean, the first platform for tailored, regional implementation of the EWEC Global Strategy. Michelle Bachelet has a Medical Degree in Surgery, with a specialization in Pediatrics and Public Health. She also studied military strategy at Chile's National Academy of Strategy and Policy and at the Inter-American Defense College in the United States.

Brian Heilman

Brian Heilman's work focuses on eliminating harmful masculine norms, preventing all forms of gender-based violence, and achieving broader social justice in the United States and around the world. As Senior Research Officer at Promundo, Brian has co-authored the 2017 and 2019 editions of the State of the World’s Fathers, and continues to travel extensively to lead new research and programs on masculinities and violence.

Mabel Bianco

Mabel Bianco is a feminist and the founder, in 1989, and president of Fundacion para Estudio e Investigación de la Mujer, in Argentina, an NGO with ECOSOC status. Bianco is Co-Chair of the NGO Committee for the Commission on the Status of Women Latin America and Caribbean and elected OP of the Women's Major Group for Latin America and the Caribbean. Additionally, Bianco serves as Coordinator of the global campaign Women Won't Wait End HIV and Violence NOW!, a member of the Advisory Board of the  Latin America and Caribbean Women's Health Network (LACWHN) since 2000, Board Member from 1992 till 2000. She is the author of 8 books and 150 articles.

Jama Jack

Jama Jack is a Women Deliver Young Leader and the Communications Manager at Think Young Women (TYW), a youth-led organization based in The Gambia. She is passionate about teaching girls and young women about women’s rights and using communication as a tool for social change. At TYW, Jama is responsible for leading communication processes and creating effective advocacy and community engagement strategies for the organization. Through her work, she positioned effective communication on her organization’s work, leading to more partnerships Jama inspires and mentors a new generation of youth advocates effectively using new media to communicate and engage with peers and communities on issues of interest, including women’s rights.

Lyric Thompson

Lyric Thompson is the Director of Policy and Advocacy at the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW). In this capacity she leads the institution’s formulation of evidence-based policy recommendations and manages ICRW’s advocacy efforts with the U.S. Government and internationally. She is an adjunct professor at the George Washington University, where she teaches a graduate level course on women’s rights advocacy.Lyric is on the board of North Carolina Women United and leads or is a member of a number of advocacy coalitions on women’s rights issues, including Girls Not Brides USA, the Coalition for Women’s Economic Empowerment and Equality, the Coalition to End Gender-Based Violence Globally, the U.S. Civil Society Working Group on Women, Peace and Security and the Coalition for Adolescent Girls. She is on the Editorial Board of Apolitical, and writes regularly on gender and foreign policy for such outlets as Ms., Huffington Post, Devex, The Hill, Thomson-Reuters Foundation and Foreign Policy.

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.

Monica Magoke-Mhoja

Dr. Magoke-Mhoja brings over 25 years of experience in leading women’s rights programs including designing and implementing collaborative community and international programs on land rights  and gender-based violence. She is the first chairperson of WiLDAF-Tanzania and the first coordinator of the United Nations’ CEDAW Task Force in Tanzania. She is also the founder of the Women’s Legal Aid Center and facilitated the establishment of paralegal centers to provide legal aid services. She is a 2003 recipient of the American Bar Association’s International Human Rights Award for significant contribution to human rights, rule of law and access to justice.

Soledad Tlehuactle González

Soledad is an active member and president of the Association of Foresters of the Sierra of Zongolica, a nonprofit organization affiliated with the Mexican Network of Peasant Forestry Organizations. Her role within the organization includes aiding women victims of domestic violence, helping women access education as a means to prevent violence, and advocacy to strengthen the rights of women and children as well as access to economic opportunities. Soledad is also a member of the Mesoamerican Alliance of Peoples and Forests, a regional organization dedicated to defending the land and resource rights of Indigenous Peoples and forest communities.

Kalpana Giri

Kalpana Giri is a forester by training and action researcher by practice with substantive experience in development policy and practice. She has implemented environmental development projects, primarily in the Asia-Pacific Region, and has provided oversight to all aspects of research and project management, including planning, implementation, evaluation and upscaling. Her areas of technical expertise include action research, policy analysis, gender equity and social inclusion, governance, tenure and developing enabling environments within projects, programs and organizations. She excels in building international, regional, national and community sector partnerships, with demonstrated success in establishing a network of “Gender Champions” who are influencing gender equality in more than 20 key climate change, REDD+, and FLEGT policies and processes in six countries in the Asia-Pacific.

Silene Ramirez

Silene is the Gender Justice lead at the global Coalition Rights and Resource Initiative. She graduated from the University of Cincinnati, in Ohio, with an M.A. in Women’s, Gender and Sexuality studies and holds a B.A. in international relations from the National University of Costa Rica. She has worked throughout Latin America on topics related to Indigenous Peoples and Afro-descendant communities’ collective tenure rights, rural and indigenous women’s leadership, health and education. In her home country, Costa Rica, she worked with Amnesty International’s Regional Office with the program Stop Violence Against Women and collaborated with the Inter-American Institute of Human Rights.

Diana Mukami

Diana is the Head of Programmes and Director, eCampus at Amref Health Africa’s Institute of Capacity Development. She has experience in designing, implementing and managing health systems and strengthening programs that seek to increase access to quality health services in sub-Saharan Africa. For more than 15 years, Diana has been involved in capacity development programs for frontline healthcare workers, including community health workers. She believes that technology, used the right way, contributes significantly towards the development of responsive human resources for health in Africa.

Marie-Ange Saraka-Yao

Marie-Ange Saraka-Yao is a senior executive with a relentless drive for results and a 20-year track record in strategic leadership, policy development, innovative finance, and resource mobilisation in emerging markets and globally. Ms. Saraka-Yao is currently the Managing Director of Resource Mobilisation and Private Sector Partnerships reporting to the CEO of Gavi, the vaccine alliance. Since joining Gavi in 2011, her leadership was instrumental in raising the largest amount of resources ever for Gavi close to USD 18 billion by 2015. She is the lead negotiator with G7 and G20 leaders, corporates and high net-worth individuals in the expansion of Gavi investors’ base.

Dayna Kerecman Myers

Durga Sapkota

Durga Sapkota is a Women Deliver Young Leader with more than 8 years of clinical and public health work experience, specifically, sexual, reproductive, maternal, neonatal, and adolescent health. She has been involved in qualitative research related to women's health as a freelance Research Consultant and has been providing training related to sexual and reproductive health (SRH) and rights, especially to girls and women in hard to reach, poor resource, rural areas. Currently she is pursuing her Bachelor degree of law (LLB) as well as Advance Nursing with specialization in Women's Health Development. She is a Youth Champion of Asia Safe Abortion Partnership (ASAP).

Dr. Sameera Al Tuwaijri

Sameera M. Al Tuwaijri is a Lead Health Specialist and Global Solutions Lead for the Population and Development at the Health, Nutrition and Population Global practice, the World Bank since June 2016. She is a board-certified medical doctor (OB/GYN). She also has a master’s degree (Harvard) and a Ph.D. (Johns Hopkins) in Public Health, focusing on health systems development. Prior to the World Bank and after concluding her public health studies, she worked in the United Nations system for ten years.

Memory Zonde-Kachambwa

Memory Zonde-Kachambwa is a pan-African feminist and social-justice activist. She is a recognized cross-cultural thought leader in movement-building and feminist organizing in policy, advocacy, and networking. She has over 18 years of experience developing, managing, and implementing programs promoting women and girls rights regionally and globally. Memory has extensive front-line experience implementing campaigns/policy advocacy initiatives advancing human rights, gender equality, economic justice, sexual-rights and bodily autonomy, transformational leadership, ending-violence-against women and girls and  sustainable development. She passionately dismantles and disrupts patriarchy, neo-liberal systems and structures that oppress and deny women dignity.

Shruti Arora

Shruti has been working on issues of Gender and Sexuality with a feminist understanding since 2011. She has been part of various campaigns, and activist and advocacy forums aimed at understanding, engaging with and speaking out against issues like street sexual harassment, moral policing, control over women and trans people's mobility in public spaces, and legal reforms on sexual violence (post-2012 rape case in Delhi).

Fionna Smyth

Fionna Smyth oversees Oxfam’s humanitarian campaigning to ensure the rights of those affected by crisis. She has worked in development and human rights for 15 years for Oxfam, Amnesty and the UN.

Mbathio Diaw

Marisa Viana

Marisa Viana is currently the Executive Coordinator of RESURJ (Realizing Sexual and Reproductive Justice Alliance), a transnational feminist alliance of activists working towards the fulfillment sexual and reproductive right and health for all. Marisa’s commitment and dedication to social justice, gender equality and human rights is deeply rooted in her experiences growing up in a resource-poor area of the Brazilian Amazon where discrimination and violence against girls and women continues to be the norm. Marisa’s experience spans policy advocacy, program development and evaluation, implementation of youth-friendly health services, grant making, and young feminist organizing. She has led the Association for Women’s Rights and Development (AWID)’s Young Feminist Program; worked at the Foundation for Tropical Medicine in the Brazilian Amazon implementing youth friendly health services program for adolescents living with HIV/AIDS, and she also served as Latin America Program Associate for the International Women’s Health Coalition (IWHC). She is a member of the BRICS Feminist Watch, the Vecinas Feministas for sexual and reproductive justice in Latin America, and an advisor to Mama Cash. Marisa has a Master in Public Health from Columbia University.

Aklima Jesmin

Aklima Jesmin is a human rights professional with more than 10 years in diverse work experiences that directly connects to the well-being of women and girls. However, she loves to introduce herself as a life-time advocate for adolescent sexual and reproductive health and rights (ASRHR). One of her recent achievements has been to contribute in the formation of the ASRHiE Task Force in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, along with many other ASRH initiatives to improve the SRHR status for Rohingya adolescents girls. She is a firm believer that adolescent responsive SRHR programs are not negotiable in any circumstances.

Amani Kanjo

Amani works as Gender-Based Violence Program Manager for Syria Relief and Development, that serves affected women and girls in Syria crisis. She co-leads the Youth and Adolescence Taskforce and is a member of Adolescence Reproductive Health Working Group in Northern Syria. Amani is leading the Young Mother’s Clubs initiative in collaboration with CARE and UNFPA to meet the needs of pregnant adolescents and first time mothers. She contributed to the development of the UNFPA Whole of Syria Adolescence Strategy and GBV Standard operation procedures for Syria in 2018-2019. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Bioengineering from Aleppo University and a Master's in Molecular Biology and Genetics from Gaziantep University, Turkey, after she was chased by the Syrian Government as an opposition-activist.

Ibrahim Balami

Ibrahim Balami is a young professional who was born in Maiduguri, Nigeria. He joined the IRC Nigeria in 2017 as the Comprehensive Women Centre (CWC) Integration Officer, where he successfully coordinated integration of reproductive health (RH), gender-based violence and empowerment services. A year later, he became the Senior RH Officer, and is committed to removing facility- and community-level barriers to adolescent sexual and reproduction health (ASRH), increasing adolescent and community meaningful participation in project design and implementation, and supporting quality SRH for displaced adolescents in crisis-affected northeast Nigeria. He is also a gender equality champion, passionate about advancing positive behavior change towards ASRH in Nigeria.

Venkatraman Chandra-Mouli

Dr. Venkatraman Chandra-Mouli works on Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health (ASRH) in the World Health Organization’s Department of Reproductive Health and Research (which includes the UNDP/UNFPA/UNICEF/WHO/World Bank Human Reproductive Programme). His work includes building the evidence base on ASRH, and supporting countries to translate this evidence into action through well-conceived and well-managed policies and programs. His experience in generating knowledge and taking knowledge to action is global in scope and spans over 30 years. Drawing upon these experiences, he has presented in scores of global, regional and national conferences, and authored/co-authored books, book chapters, newsletter articles, blog pieces and over 85 peer-reviewed journal articles: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Venkatraman_Chandra-Mouli/contributions

Julianne Deitch

Julianne Deitch has more than a decade of experience working in global health with international, regional, and community-based organizations. She is currently a Doctoral Candidate at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, where her research focuses on understanding adolescent demand for contraception in humanitarian settings. With the Women’s Refugee Commission, Julianne is leading a project aimed at expanding access to sexual and reproductive health services for adolescent girls in Iraq, Lebanon and Bangladesh. She is committed to designing evidence-based interventions that actively involve adolescents in program design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation.

Khadijah Moore

Khadijah Moore is on a mission to help create sustainable change. Trained as an sexual and reproductive health and rights educator, this catalyst for change has a unique nine-year background in advocacy, volunteerism and communications. A Commonwealth of Dominica native, she has served as President of the Youth Advocacy Movement, youth representative, and Board Director of the Dominica Planned Parenthood Association and the Caribbean Family Planning Affiliation. In 2016, Khadijah co-founded the Lévé Domnik Campaign, which is now a full-fledged organization launched to support survivors of gender-based violence. Khadijah is currently pursuing studies in Political Science and Women & Gender Studies in the United States.

Zeinab Cherri

Zeinab Cherri is a Women Deliver Young Leader and a member of WD Humanitarian Committee. She studied a Master's in Public Health in Disasters at Universidad de Oviedo and Université Catholique de Louvain. Zeinab overlooked mixed-method studies advocating for migrant and refugee women's right in Lebanon. As a Research Assistant at the American University of Beirut, she was responsible for developing the research methods and analyzing qualitative data that will help decrease adolescent girls’ school dropout rate in Tripoli, Lebanon. As an advocate, Zeinab published a study on early marriage and barriers to contraception among Syrian refugee women in Lebanon.

Dr. Mariam Wallet Aboubakrine

Dr. Mariam Wallet Aboubakrine, is a Tuareg woman. She is a current member and former chair of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous. She holds a M.A.S on humanitarian action from Geneva University in Switzerland and a medical doctor degree from University of Tizi-ouzou in Algeria. Dr. Wallet Aboubakrine is also member of Tin hinan, a nomadic women organization from the region of Sahel-Sahara in Africa. Currently she is in education degree at University of Ottawa, guest speaker, and independent consultant on Indigenous Issues.

@MAboubakrine

Marion Buller

Chief Commissioner Buller is Cree and a member of the Mistawasis First Nation in Saskatchewan. In 1994, Buller was the first Indigenous woman appointed as a Provincial Court Judge in British Columbia. She was instrumental in establishing the First Nations Courts of British Columbia in 2006 and the Aboriginal Family Healing Court in 2016. Chief Commissioner Buller received both her undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Victoria. Prior to being appointed to the Provincial Court, Buller worked in civil and criminal law. She was Commission Counsel for the Cariboo-Chilcotin Justice Inquiry and served as President and Director of the Indigenous Bar Association in Canada, the B.C. Police Commission, the Law Courts Education Society and the Law Foundation of British Columbia. She retired from the Provincial Court on August 31, 2016 in order to lead the National Inquiry.

Jane Meriwas

Jane Meriwas is an indigenous woman, mentor, feminist and women human rights defender with more than 15 years advancing women and girls rights national, regional and international platforms. Jane is a graduate with BA in Community Development and undergraduate in Gender Development. Jane is the founder of Samburu Women Trust, an Indigenous women-led hub working locally, nationally, regionally and internationally to advance indigenous women and girls collective voice, in policy and influence community perceptions towards women decision making. Jane is the winner of tje 2019 Kenya Red Cross Inclusion Award and a board member of the National Coalition of Human Rights Defenders Kenya and IPACC East Africa Regional Representatives.

Lynne Groulx

As the Executive Director for the Native Women’s Association of Canada, Lynne Groulx advocates for the rights of Indigenous women. Her passion and expertise on Indigenous rights, gender equality, human rights and economic development make Lynne one of our country’s strongest activists. Through her intensive dedication to empower women of all Nations, Lynne won the Women’s Executive Network’s 2018 Canada’s Most Powerful Women award.

Lynne’s academic background equipped her to push for decolonization in all aspects of society. She focused in civil and common law, with studies in corporate law, social justice, and Indigenous legal traditions and customary laws.

During her past two years at NWAC, Lynne furthered the organization’s capacity to address its mission “to advocate for and inspire women and families of many Indigenous nations” and defend Indigenous women’s human rights. Through effective high-level negotiations with key government agencies, Lynne is bringing Indigenous women’s issues to the national and international stage.

Most notably, Lynne has taken the lead on developing a social and cultural innovation NWAC Resiliency Centre. This culturally appropriate, Indigenous hub will promote healing and feature workshop spaces and a boutique to provide employment and revenus to over 200 Indigenous women entrepreneurs in Canada.

Lynne Groulx is a paradigm of resolute leadership expressing the full capacity of her knowledge to ensure justice and equality for all Indigenous women. Through her visionary efforts, she has embossed the unmistakeable value and power of the many Nations of Indigenous women to further the road to reconciliation and decolonization.

Laura Garcia

Laura Garcia is the Executive Director of Fondo Semillas, the only women’s fund in Mexico. Laura attended King’s College in London for a Master’s Degree in International Peace and Security. Before working at Semillas, she was a human rights advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs. She has collaborated with various civil society organizations, such as the International Center for Transitional Justice and the International Council on Security and Development on projects focused on human rights, transitional justice and Latin American drug policies. Laura is a Board Member of Women’s Funding Network, and an advisor to the Global Fund for Women.

Maame Akua Kyerewaa-Marfo

Maame Akua Kyerewaa-Marfo is the communications assistant for the African Women’s Development fund, a singer, a feminist and a writer. She is passionate about social change, progressive feminist thought and using the arts to effect social change. She is an organizing member of the Young Feminist Collective, a space for feminist community and activism in Accra, Ghana.

Kinga Wisniewska

Kinga Wisniewska is a feminist and a sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) advocate from Warsaw, Poland. She is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Development Policy and Management at the Global Development Institute in Manchester, with a focus on environmental degradation, agricultural economics and intersectional gender equality. She has experience in resource mobilization and grant-making in the public and private sectors, as well as social justice networks. Kinga is a Women Deliver Young Leader and 120 Under 40 Award winner. She is passionate about SRHRs, women's rights and climate justice. She enjoys hiking, cooking and learning about anthropology of food.

Jess Tomlin

Named by the Stevie Awards as 2017's Most Innovative Woman of the Year, Jess is the President and CEO of The MATCH International Women’s Fund - Canada’s only global fund for women. Emphasizing the role of innovation in social movements, The MATCH Fund resources women’s organizations around the world working to change systems and dismantle barriers through innovative and disruptive approaches. Jess has worked in Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and Asia for a range of actors including the World Bank, the UN and USAID. Jess was the Director-Women’s Platform for CARE Canada’s signature ‘I am powerful’ campaign. Prior to her appointment at The MATCH Fund, Jess was with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), managing large-scale reform for the Agency that supports Palestinian Refugees in Jordan, the West Bank, Gaza, Lebanon and Syria.

Sussanne Skidmore

Sussanne Skidmore was elected BCFED Secretary-Treasurer in November 2018. A well-known human rights, social justice and queer rights activist, Sussanne has served as executive vice-president of BCGEU since 2014. She has also served as co-chair of the BCFED’s Human Rights Committee, and is active in the Women’s Rights Committee.

Rita Aciro Lakor

Rita Aciro Lakor is champion for women's rights and leader of one of Uganda’s largest NGOs working on gender transformation and the empowerment of women. 

Krishanti Dharmaraj

Krishanti Dharmaraj founded the Dignity Index, a human rights measurement tool utilized to ensure equity and inclusion, co-founded WILD for Human Rights (Women's Institute for Leadership Development) and initiated the U.S. Human Rights Network. She served as the Western Regional Spokesperson for Amnesty International USA. Under Krishanti’s leadership, San Francisco became the first city in the US, and in the world, to pass legislation implementing an international human rights treaty (CEDAW). She conducts trainings and lectures extensively in the US and abroad.

Bilan Arte

Bilan is a black Muslim feminist residing on unceded and never surrendered Algonquin Territory. She is an activist with more than a decade of experience in grassroots and youth-lead movements, and is fueled by her passions for social justice and equity. Today, Bilan is the National Representative for Women and Human Rights at the Canadian Labour Congress. In her volunteer time, she is proud to serve as co-president for the board of directors of Planned Parenthood Ottawa, and as a national board member for Oxfam Canada.

Haldis Holst

Haldis Holst is Deputy General Secretary of Education International (EI) which represents organisations of teachers and other education employees across the globe and is the world’s largest federation of unions.

Ms. Holst is also currently Chair of the Governing Board of The European Wergeland Centre (EWC). The EWC is a resource centre based in Oslo for education professionals, researchers, civil society, policymakers, parents and students across Europe. In addition, Ms. Holst serves on the Board of Directors of the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) and on the Board of the Global Campaign Against Child Labour.

Ms. Holst graduated as a teacher in 1983, after majoring in English and Physical Education. She has worked as a teacher in primary and secondary schools and has been a union representative at local, regional and national level. In 2001, she became Vice-President of Norsk Lærerlag (NL). After the merger of the two largest teacher unions in Norway in 2002, she was an Executive Board member and later Vice President of Utdanningsforbundet (Union of Education Norway).

Ms. Holst has also served as Norway’s representative on the European Trade Union Committee for Education (ETUCE) and been a member of the Executive Board of Education International. Ms. Holst was Vice-President of EI from 2009 –2012.

Mogesi Betty Samburu

Ms. Mogesi Betty Samburu is an Assistant Director Nutrition and Dietetics Services working for the Ministry of Health Kenya currently deputizing the head of nutrition and coordinating research in nutrition programme. Previously held the position of National Programme Manager for Maternal Infant and Young Child Nutrition (MIYCN) since 2013 to June 2017 at the Ministry of Health Headquarters. Ms. Samburu is a Nutrition and Dietetics specialist specifically with specialization in Maternal, Infant and Young Child Nutrition (MIYCN) and she is passionate about changing lives of vulnerable populations especially women and children through influencing policy and practice using research evidence.

Muhammad Zahidullah

Mohammed Zahidullah is the Head of Sustainability at DBL Group – one of the largest apparels and textiles organization in Bangladesh. In this role, Zahid has been working to promote social and environmental responsibility for the textile industry of Bangladesh. Through a wide range of programs aimed at the improvement of the lives of workers and the local communities and reducing the impact on the environment; Zahid regularly works with a broad range of stakeholders, including UN agencies. He is currently managing several sustainability programs, including the Partnership for Cleaner Textiles (PaCT) by IFC, Mothers@Work and Children’s Right & Business Principle of UNICEF and Future Leaders Development Program (FLDP). Sustainability programs at DBL are aligned with SDGs.

Bianca Stumbitz

Dr. Bianca Stumbitz has specialist knowledge on the subject of maternity workplace policies and practices across the world, and has recently undertaken related research in South Africa, Ghana and Malaysia. She has particular experience in exploring breastfeeding support and other maternity protection issues at work within their specific policy and cultural context, with a focus on low paid and vulnerable workers, and in examining the feasibility of innovative workplace maternity supports at low cost.

Alison Stuebe

Dr. Stuebe completed her Obstetrics and Gynecology residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. She completed fellowship training in Maternal Fetal Medicine at Brigham and Women’s, and she earned a Masters in Epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health. She has published more than 140 peer-reviewed articles. She is currently an Associate Professor and Board-Certified Maternal-Fetal Medicine subspecialist at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine and Distinguished Scholar of Infant and Young Child Feeding at the Gillings School of Global Public Health. She is Medical Director of Lactation Services at UNC Health Care, and she works with an interdisciplinary team of faculty and staff to enable women to achieve their infant feeding goals. Her current research focuses on developing models for holistic and equitable care of families during the 4th Trimester.

Husna Ahmad

Dr Husna Ahmad OBE is the CEO of Global One 2015 which is a faith based International NGO focused on women. With a PhD in International Environmental Law from the School of Oriental and African Studies, [SOAS] London University, Dr. Ahmad is the former Group CEO of Faith Regen Foundation which is a multi-faith UK charity. She is currently a Board member of BOND, Faith In Water, and Palmers Green Mosque (the MCEC). She is a member of the UN Inter-agency Task Force on Religion and Development’s Faith based Advisory Council.Dr Ahmad sits on the Steering Committee of The World Bank’s Moral Imperative Initiative. She is the Secretary General of the World Muslim Leadership Forum and the Coordinator for the Alliance of NGOs and CSOs for South-South Cooperation. She was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the New Year’s Honours list in 2010 for her services to disadvantaged people for work promoting social justice with disadvantaged communities. She is an honorary fellow of the Edward Cadbury Centre for the Public understanding of Religion, Birmingham University.

Jayshree Balachander

Jayshree is Director of the Green Pilgrimage Network, India, which facilitates the work of several faith based NGOs working to make places of pilgrimage a model of care for the environment and helping pilgrims leave a positive footprint on earth.  She was responsible for a variety of regulatory and developmental activities of the Government of India from 1979-92, after which she served at the World Bank till 2007 in various capacities in Human Development. She relocated to India where she is serving several non-governmental organizations. Jayshree has a Masters degree in Public Policy from Princeton University.

Kristie Urich

Kristie Urich has worked with World Vision’s WASH team for six years, and has served with World Vision for almost 13 years. Besides knowledge management, she helps lead World Vision’s efforts in scaling up its work in menstrual hygiene, and she is a trainer in the Designing for Behaviour Change approach. Her development career began as a Peace Corps Volunteer, serving for two years in Cameroon as a health, water and sanitation volunteer in Cameroon. She has a post-graduate certificate in Global Health and WASH and is a Certified Knowledge Manager. 

Catriona Addleton

Catriona Addleton is the Program Officer at the NGO Islamic Relief Canada, managing the Africa and Asia project portfolios. Catriona is Islamic Relief Canada’s focal point for the Call to Action on Protection from Gender-Based Violence in Emergencies, incorporating and reporting on programming commitments.

Yasmina Zaidman

Yasmina Zaidman is the Chief Partnerships Officer at Acumen, which works to change the way the world tackles poverty. She leads its work with strategic corporate partners that share Acumen’s commitment to entrepreneurial approaches to tackling poverty. She spearheaded Acumen’s gender integration work, co-authoring the report “Women and Social Enterprises: How Gender Integration can Boost Entrepreneurial Solutions to Poverty” (ICRW). Ms. Zaidman has worked in the arenas of international development, corporate sustainability and social entrepreneurship for more than 20 years. She is on the board of the White Ribbon Alliance, which supports advocacy for safe birth for women around the world.

Dr. Gayathri Vasudevan

Dr. Gayathri Vasudevan was cited as one of the top 50 women in business by Business Today, a leading magazine in India in the year 2017 and “Entrepreneur of the Year in Social Business Category” by Forbes India in 2018.

She has a doctorate in Development Studies with 30 publications in the areas of labour and employment and gender issues to her credit. Gayathri was also a speaker at the EY World Entrepreneur Forum 2017 at Monte Carlo, Monaco.

Between 1999 and 2007, Gayathri worked for the International Labour Organization (ILO), a United Nations agency. She co-founded LabourNet in 2006 with a vision to enable livelihoods and enhance quality of life through Education, Employability and Entrepreneurship. LabourNet’s model has been widely acclaimed as one of the few companies in this space which is run profitably and having far reaching impact. LabourNet has impacted about a million lives, empowering youth, men and women to earn a decent living or become profitable micro entrepreneurs.

Yen Do

Based in Vietnam, Yen focuses on investment opportunities in Vietnam and the Philippines. Prior to joining Patamar Capital, Yen was a Business Intelligence Analyst at Trust Circle Vietnam Ltd., a local fintech start-up with the mission to serve the financial needs of ordinary people using technology. Prior to Trust Circle, Yen started her career as an investment banking analyst in Vietnam’s leading brokerage firm, Ho Chi Minh City Securities Corporation (HSC). Yen graduated cum laude from North Central College, Illinois where she pursued a B.S. in Finance and B.A. in Global Studies, and served in multiple student-led organizations.

Robert Webster

Bob Webster is a Managing Director at SEAF, currently supporting a number of initiatives, including SEAF’s Women’s Opportunity Fund in SE Asia. Mr. Webster has been an active trainer and advisor in impact investing, including for the GIIN, ANDE, Santa Clara University and the Harvard Business School. He also serves as the mentor for investment readiness for the social enterprise accelerator at Santa Clara University. Bob holds an MBA in finance and a BA in Mathematics from Indiana University. He completed Harvard University’s Financial Institutions for Private Enterprise Development Executive Program, and he has completed post-graduate work in agricultural economics at the University of London.

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.