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.

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.

Chiseche Salome Mibenge

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

Reverend Josephine Ogola

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

Reyhana Patel

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

Maihan Wali

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

Mouhammed Cherif Diop

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

Dan Irvine

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

Jean Kemitare

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

Humberto Carlo

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

Sophia Wanjiku

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

Ramatu Bangura

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

Moufeeda Haidar

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

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.

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.

Lily Kak

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

Winnie Mwebesa

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

Malika Ndlovu

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

Sandra Oyarzo Torres

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

Joy E. Lawn

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

Renata Tallarico

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

Myriam Narcisse

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

Natalia Lozano

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

Khadija Khan

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

Ana Mosiashvili

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

Tikondwe Kaphangawani Chimkowola

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

Joannie Bewa

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

Leticia Pfeffer

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

Kechi Ogbuagu

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

Bitania Lulu Berhanu

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

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.

Gerda Verburg

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

Gladys Mugambi

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

Vivian Onano

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

Irshad Danish

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

Joel Spicer

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

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

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.

Carolyn Tastad

Carolyn Tastad is responsible for P&G’s business in North America managing P&G’s relationship with many of the company’s largest retail customers and working closely with the leaders of P&G’s business units. She is executive sponsor of P&G’s Gender Equality citizenship effort and leads P&G’s Corporate Women’s Leadership Team. Carolyn serves on the Board of Directors for the Kellogg Company and was named to Fortune’s list of Most Powerful Women in 2015 through 2018.

Deanna Bass

Deanna oversees defining and implementing best practices for attracting, developing and retaining diverse talent, building inclusive leaders and cultures, and ensuring consistency in practices and measurement systems. She is a chief architect of P&G’s Gender Equality platform and co-author of P&G’s “Women at Work: Myth vs. Reality” initiative. She is a strong mentor, advocate and ally for equality inside and outside of P&G and sits on The Conference Board’s Leadership Council on Advancing Women.

Pankaj Bhalla

Pankaj Bhalla is responsible for leading the Gillette & Venus Brands for P&G’s Grooming business in North America and is one of the key architects behind the messages of inclusion seen in Gillette and Venus’s new campaigns in the last year. Pankaj is deeply committed to doing good along with doing good business and wants his 6 year old son to grow up in a more equal world than the one he grew up in.

Ammon Allen

As a Research Consultant for sexual and reproductive health and rights with Amref Health Africa in Kenya, Ammon is responsible for challenging harmful gender norms that limit the potential of women and girls and paralyze sustainable development by establishing men’s education workshops and community dialogue sessions. Additionally, he also is the Co-founder of Inuka Success Youth Organization (ISUYO) and a Youth Empowerment and Advocacy Coordinator at Tinada Youth Organization. Ammon engages with men in addressing harmful gender norms and their involvement in family planning through the “Men as Partners” campaign.

Dr. Natalia Kanem

On 3 October 2017, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres appointed Dr. Natalia Kanem as Executive Director of UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund. Dr. Kanem brings to the position more than 30 years of strategic leadership experience in medicine, public and reproductive health, social justice and philanthropy. She started her career in academia with the Johns Hopkins and Columbia University schools of medicine and public health.

While serving as a Ford Foundation Officer from 1992 to 2005, she helped pioneer work in women’s reproductive health and sexuality, in particular through her position as the representative for West Africa. She then served at the Foundation headquarters, becoming Deputy Vice-President for its worldwide peace and social justice programmes in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America and North America.

From 2014 to 2016, Dr. Kanem served as UNFPA Representative in the United Republic of Tanzania. In July 2016, she was named Deputy Executive Director of UNFPA in charge of programs. Dr. Kanem was founding president of ELMA Philanthropies Inc., a private institution focusing primarily on children and youth in Africa. She also has been a senior associate of the Lloyd Best Institute of the West Indies.

Dr. Kanem holds a medical degree from Columbia University, New York, and a Master’s degree in Public Health, with specializations in epidemiology and preventive medicine, from the University of Washington, Seattle. She is also a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard University, where she studied history and science. Dr. Kanem becomes the fifth Executive Director of UNFPA since the Fund became operational in 1969.

Julia Bunting

Julia Bunting is the President of the Population Council, an international research organization that confronts critical health and development issues—from stopping the spread of HIV to improving reproductive health and ensuring that young people lead full and productive lives. Ms. Bunting is widely known for her path-breaking work on reproductive and maternal health during her 12-year tenure at the UK Department for International Development (DFID), where she oversaw the UK government’s international development policy on HIV and AIDS; maternal, newborn, and child health; sexual and reproductive health and rights; and population. Ms. Bunting was a lead catalyst of the 2012 London Summit on Family Planning, which brought together governments, donors, civil society, the private sector, and the research and development community to support the rights of women and girls to decide whether to have children and, if so, when and how many. Ms. Bunting holds the honor of Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for improving reproductive health in developing countries. She earned a BA (Hons) in Human Science from St Catherine’s College, Oxford, and an MSc in Medical Demography from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine at the University of London.

Stephanie Psaki

Stephanie Psaki is deputy director of the Population Council’s Girl Innovation Research and Learning (GIRL) Center, which generates and translates high-quality evidence to transform the lives of adolescent girls. She is a social demographer with expertise in the intersections of gender, education, and physical and mental health. Her research focuses on what works to improve the lives of girls and women globally. She leads and contributes to numerous studies on health and education at the Population Council. She also works to translate evidence for broader audiences of policy-makers and practitioners. Before joining the Council, Dr. Psaki worked as a project director in the Gender Department at FHI 360. Earlier she was a Co-Investigator on the eight-country MAL-ED study, focused on child health and development, at the Fogarty International Center at the U.S National Institutes of Health. She holds a PhD in women’s health and demography from Johns Hopkins University, and an MS in population and international health from Harvard University.