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.

Her Royal Highness Crown Princess Mary

The Crown Princess is a passionate advocate for health, gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls. She is committed to creating awareness, respect and ensuring compliance of women and girls´ sexual and reproductive health and rights, including access to family planning and the reduction of maternal and child mortality.

Crown Princess Mary was a member of the High-Level Task Force for the International Conference on Population and Development and serves as patron of several international organizations and agencies, including the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Europe, but also a number of Danish NGOs: Danish Refugee Council (DRC) and Maternity Worldwide.

The Crown Princess is also an Influencer of Women Deliver’s ‘Deliver for Good Campaign’ and is a member of the ICRW Leadership Council. The Crown Princess was patron of the Women Deliver Conference in Copenhagen in 2016.

In 2007 the Crown Princess founded The Mary Foundation with the mission of fighting social isolation. Under her leadership the foundation brings together untraditional partners to develop and manage projects and programs that focus on prevention, the creation of opportunities and empowering vulnerable individuals and groups who find themselves socially isolated. The foundation’s focus areas are: domestic violence, bullying and wellbeing and loneliness.

Crown Princess Mary is also patron of the Global Fashion Agenda and an advocate for sustainability in fashion. She is a frequent speaker at international conferences and an honorary member of various associations and societies.

Julie Gichuru

Julie Gathoni Sumira Gichuru is a Kenyan entrepreneur and media personality with investments in media, fashion retail and entertainment sectors. She is an Independent Director at Acumen Communication Limited and is a Fellow and trustee of the Africa Leadership Initiative EA. Julie’s career in the media spans over the past 19 years and has seen her work across the fields of broadcast, print and digital media. Julie has also pioneered an impressive number of television shows, from the first Kenyan investigative TV series, The Inside Story on Kenya Television Network to various current affairs shows at NTV (Kenya) including political and current affairs programs Showdown, On the Spot, You The Jury and The People’s Voice, the celebrated news program Sunday Live, peace and reconciliation program Fist to Five at Citizen TV and the celebrated post-election peace special Voices of Reason.

Through Arimus Media Limited Julie now oversees the production of quality African content such as Africa Leadership Dialogues, the Great Debaters Contest and entertainment series such as Maisha, Glam Show, Trading Bell, The Code and Shinda Washinde.

Alison Holder

Alison Holder is Director of Equal Measures 2030, an independent civil society and private sector-led partnership that connects data and evidence with advocacy and action, helping to fuel progress towards gender equality. The partnership is a joint effort of leading regional and global organizations from civil society and the development and private sectors, including: the African Women’s Development and Communication Network (FEMNET), Asian-Pacific Resource and Research Centre for Women (ARROW), Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Data2X, the International Women’s Health Coalition (IWHC), KPMG International, ONE Campaign, Plan International and Women Deliver.

Alison has nearly 20 years’ experience working in international development and the private sector, including leading policy, advocacy and campaigning work on issues ranging from inequality, tax justice, accountability, and corporate responsibility at Action Aid, Oxfam, and Save the Children. She has also worked on livelihoods projects with women’s groups in India and small business development in South Africa. Prior to working in the development sector, Alison worked in corporate social responsibility and business strategy consulting at Accenture.

Alison has an MSc in Development Studies from the London School of Economics and an undergraduate degree from the Richard Ivey School of Business in Canada.

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.

Dr. Ephraim Kisangala

Ephraim is a young Ugandan medical doctor with demonstrated experience providing healthcare in rural and urban parts of Africa. Through a local organization, he initiated mobile medical outreach programs in rural Uganda while mentoring future professionals to embrace community healthcare.

He is a Women Deliver Young Leader (Class of 2016) who has contributed to several policy documents and programs on reproductive health, menstrual health, and public health in general. He was recently credited for his work on menstrual health by The Duchess of Sussex, HRH Meghan Markle. He has also been a recipient of several awards such as the Windle Trust International Scholarship Award and Global Voices Award.

Ephraim has held several leadership positions, including chairing Africa's medical students umbrella body (FAMSA) when he was a medical student. He is currently completing a master’s degree in Public Health from Bangor University, UK under the Commonwealth Scholarship.

Gabriela Ramos

As Chief of Staff and OECD Sherpa to the G7 /G20, Gabriela Ramos supports the Secretary-General’s Strategic Agenda, and is responsible for the Organisation’s contributions to the global agenda, including G20, G7, APEC. She leads the Inclusive Growth and the New Approaches to Economic Challenges initiatives and oversees the OECD’s work on Employment and Social Affairs (including gender).

In recognition of her efforts on gender equality, Ms. Ramos was awarded the Forbes prize for Entrepreneurial Excellence in June 2017. She was decorated with the Ordre du Merit by the President of France in 2013. In May 2018, she was included in Apolitical’s Gender Equality Top 100: The Most Influential People In Global Policy.

Previously, Ms. Ramos was Head of the OECD Office in Mexico and Latin America, prior to which she held positions in the Mexican Government, including Director of Economic Affairs (and OECD issues) in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Technical Secretary at the Office of the Minister for the Budget. She held positions as Professor of International Economy at the Universidad Iberoamericana and at the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México. Ms. Ramos holds an MA in Public Policy from Harvard University, and was a Fulbright and Ford MacArthur fellow.

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.

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.

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

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Miranda Lam

Miranda Lam is Chair of the Board at Vancouver Foundation. She is a partner in McCarthy Tétrault's Litigation Group in Vancouver. Her practice focuses exclusively on business disputes, including contractual claims and economic torts, and her areas of specialization include securities litigation, shareholder remedies, corporate governance issues, and internal investigations, as well as internet and e-commerce issues and defamation. A skilled litigator, she is recognized for her strategic thinking and business-oriented problem-solving approach to all disputes.

Kevin McCort

Kevin McCort is President and CEO of Vancouver Foundation. With more than 30 years of service to the non-profit sector, both in Canada and around the world, he has earned a reputation as a smart, strategic leader who puts community at the heart of his work. Since 2013 Kevin has led Vancouver Foundation through a period of significant growth. The foundation’s assets have increased to over $1-billion, while more than 500 new funds have been created by individuals and organizations. As a result, more than $50-million is now being granted each year to build healthy, vibrant, livable communities across BC.

Aida Mwanzia

Aida is driven by her mission to shift the narrative through re-imagining our collective past, present and future. Through her dialogue facilitation and program coordination experience, she has seen the power of games, theatre, storytelling and experiential education as tools for decolonization and visioning. Aida is currently working as a coordinator for the Youth Exchanges Canada and Youth Peace Network programs at the YMCA. Aida is also part of Vancouver Foundation’s inaugural cohort of the LEVEL Youth Policy Program – a group of young racialized migrant and/or Indigenous leaders strengthening their public policy skills to advance racial equity work in B.C.

Elena Yugai

Elena Yugai is an Investment Manager and Director of Advisory Services at Helder Ventures, a Vancouver-based impact investment firm. She leads incubation strategy and investment activities in immigrant, refugee and women-led social enterprises. Elena is passionate about growing Vancouver’s social enterprise ecosystem. She is a Strategic Advisor to Groundswell, a social enterprise incubator, Social Ventures Mentor at e@UBC incubator, advisor to SFU Radius Refugee Livelihood Lab, member of the Pacific Impact Investor Network, and has been named one of BC’s Most Influential Women in Tech - STEM Stars 2018 by BC Magazine for her work advocating for and supporting women in technology.

Denise Williams

At the intersection of Indigenous sovereignty, technological advancement and a rapidly expanding technology and innovation economy, in demand of new ideas and new skills, Denise has the privilege of working with Indigenous peoples, governments, academics, technology futurists and social change makers to map the ecosystem that will result in fair and equitable access to the tools and education required for success in the digital age. Denise leads a theory of change that will not only ensure Indigenous peoples are competitive in BC’s technology and innovation sector, but leading and growing local digital economies.

With a passion for contributing and volunteering in initiatives and organizations that influence real change and the advancement of truth and reconciliation, Denise proudly serves as the President of the Urban Native Youth Association, advisor on innovation to the Governor General of Canada, Status of Women Canada’s Indigenous Women’s Circle, on the board of the First Mile Connectivity Consortium, Vancouver Economic Commission and on the Simon Fraser University Board of Governors as Alumni-in-Order, where she earned her masters degree in business administration in 2015.