Sussanne Skidmore

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

Rita Aciro Lakor

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

Krishanti Dharmaraj

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

Bilan Arte

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

Haldis Holst

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

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

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

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

Mogesi Betty Samburu

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

Muhammad Zahidullah

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

Bianca Stumbitz

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

Alison Stuebe

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

Memory Zonde-Kachambwa

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

Shruti Arora

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

Fionna Smyth

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

Mbathio Diaw

Marisa Viana

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

Dr. Mariam Wallet Aboubakrine

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

@MAboubakrine

Marion Buller

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

Jane Meriwas

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

Lynne Groulx

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

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

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

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

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

Laura Garcia

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

Maame Akua Kyerewaa-Marfo

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

Kinga Wisniewska

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

Jess Tomlin

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

Husna Ahmad

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

Jayshree Balachander

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

Kristie Urich

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

Catriona Addleton

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

Yasmina Zaidman

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

Dr. Gayathri Vasudevan

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

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

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

Yen Do

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

Robert Webster

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

Katja Freiwald

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

HRH Princess Dina Mired

HRH Princess Dina Mired, is a mother of a cancer survivor and is a well-known and respected advocate for Cancer Control and Non-Communicable Diseases. HRH Princess Dina was elected as President of the Union International for Cancer Control (UICC) in 2018-the largest cancer fighting organization. Testament to her outstanding leadership, she was the first Arab to have been elected in in such a prestigious global post. HRH Princess Dina established and led the King Hussein Cancer Foundation (KHCF) from 2002 till June 2016. Princess Dina transformed the non-profit into the most successful fundraiser for cancer control efforts in Jordan and an internationally known brand and leader not only in Jordan but also in the global movement for people affected by cancer. KHCF work focuses on fundraising and development, global advocacy, public awareness about early detection and prevention, cancer coverage, and patient support. Globally, Princess Dina is a well-known and respected advocate for Cancer Control and Non-Communicable Diseases. 

Miga Chultem

Miga Chultem began her professional career in international development, and worked with the United Nations Population Fund in Mongolia for five years. In her current position, she engages in complex issues related to international regulatory cooperation and provides strategic advice to senior management. She joined Health Canada in 2004, focusing on gender equality and women's health issues. Since 2006, Miga has worked on regulatory cooperation with international partners including the World Health Organization (WHO) and Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO). She truly believes in the possibility of improving the health of the world population by learning from the best practices of different countries.

Amy Little

Amy Little leads the Alzheimer’s Society’s international advocacy and is based in London. Graduating from the University of Manchester in 2001 she initially worked in non-profit social research before developing a career as a civil society campaigner. Amy has driven global and national campaigns, working with iNGOs, the UN and governments. She has campaign-managed NGO coalitions including the Global Alzheimer’s & Dementia Action Alliance (GADAA) and the International Campaign to Ban Landmines & Cluster Munition Coalition. Through GADAA’s work, Amy has led work to recognise dementia as a global women’s health and rights issue that cannot be ignored.

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.

Dr. Hema Divakar

Dr. Hema Divakar is a leading medical professional of India with a vision to improve the healthcare services ecosystem for the welfare of women. She has over the last three decades, been a game changer in healthcare, establishing new benchmarks, standards and touching  women’s lives in the process. An accomplished specialist in the field of OBGYN care, she is the medical director at the Divakars Specialty hospital in Bangalore, a centre of excellence for women’s healthcare and centre for Skill Enhancement. In the year 2013, she was the President of FOGSI Federation of Obstetric & Gynecological Societies of India (FOGSI),with 32,000 specialists on roll as the members. She now holds an exhaustive list of important positions of great responsibility within India, as well as in Asia.

Bruno Carrattini

Bruno Carrattini is a young advocate from Uruguay, graduated as a nutritionist specializing in noncommunicable diseases and pursuing a master's degree in public health. Since he was a teenager, he has lived with an NCD and has dedicated all his efforts to helping other members of the community. He works in a nongovernmental organization as a professor and as an advocate, as well as in a hospital as a health professional. He has participated and created programs both nationally and internationally and has a great passion in the fight for health policies that achieve equality in all aspects related to health rights. He has been a mentor for many young people affected by NCDs in the country and in the region, as well as participating in different decision-making processes at the political level as a representative of the community. He is working on education for the affected population in rural areas, strategies and strategic alliances to achieve commitments for the care of the rural community that suffers NCDs and to respond their needs.

Karen Walker

A/Professor Karen Walker is Program Manager for Global Women's Health at the George Institute for Global Health. She is clinical academic passionate about improving health outcomes for women across the lifespan through equitable access to universal health care, education, empowerment and mentorship. She combines her passion for women's health, advocacy and policy with her role as President-elect of the Council of International Neonatal Nurses where she focuses on improving globally maternal and neonatal survival. With more than 70 journal articles and book chapters, she is an invited national and international speaker with more than 100 national and international presentations. 

Preston Mitchum

Preston is a Black queer advocate and activist with over five years of legal and policy experience in his role as Senior Legal & International Policy Analyst at Advocates for Youth. At Advocates, he supports both Policy and International Youth Health and Rights Divisions on the global sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) portfolio, and is a Board Member of the MenEngage Alliance. In addition to his work at Advocates, he is an Adjunct Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center teaching LGBT Health Law and Policy. He is the first openly LGBTQ Division Chair of the Washington Bar Association Young Lawyers Division (WBA YLD). Prior to joining Advocates, Preston served as the Senior Policy Analyst at the Center for Health and Gender Equity (CHANGE) where he provided in-depth analysis of new data, policies, and programs across SRHR.

Ambassador Deborah Birx

Deborah L. Birx, M.D., is the Coordinator of the United States Government Activities to Combat HIV/AIDS and U.S. Special Representative for Global Health Diplomacy. Ambassador Birx is a world-renowned medical expert and leader in the field of HIV/AIDS. Her three-decade-long career has focused on HIV/AIDS immunology, vaccine research, and global health. As the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator, Ambassador Birx oversees the implementation of the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the largest commitment by any nation to combat a single disease in history, as well as all U.S. Government engagement with the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Serving as the U.S. Special Representative for Global Health Diplomacy, she aligns the U.S. Government’s diplomacy with foreign assistance programs that address global health challenges and accelerate progress toward: achieving an AIDS-free generation; ending preventable child and maternal deaths; and preventing, detecting, and responding to infectious disease threats.

Patrick Mwesigye

Patrick is the founder and team leader at the Uganda youth and Adolescents Health Forum a grassroots youth led and youth serving organizations that works towards empowering marginalized and vulnerable adolescent girls and young women to live quality lives with equity and dignity and support them with opportunities to realize their full potential through addressing their health, gender equality and livelihood needs. Patrick is a very passionate and dynamic young man from Uganda who has championed gender equality reproductive rights for girls and has strongly worked with both local communities in Uganda and the Uganda government to advocate for prioritise these rights.

Rasha Jarhum

Rasha Jarhum is a South Yemeni Senior Development Policy Advisor and Expert on Women, Peace, and Security. Jarhum has been working in the humanitarian and development fields, and advocating for Human Rights including women and refugees rights for over 15 years. She is also a civil society activist and development campaigner. Jarhum is a recipient of the Women Have Wings award.

Erin Kenny

Ms. Erin Kenny (MPH) is the Head of the Technical Unit and Senior Adviser to the United Nations-European Union Spotlight Initiative to Eliminate Violence Against Women and Girls. In this role she provides technical oversight to a 500 million Euro portfolio of programmes worldwide. Prior to assuming her current position, Erin was a team leader in UNFPA’s Humanitarian Division, overseeing their work on addressing GBV in emergencies. Before joining the UN, Erin worked with the International Rescue Committee, Child Fund International, EngenderHealth, Save the Children, the Women’s Refugee Commission, and the Open Society Foundations.

Geetanjali Misra

Geetanjali Misra is the co-founder and executive director of CREA. Geeta has worked at the activist, grant-making, and policy levels on issues of sexuality, reproductive health, gender, human rights, and violence against women. Before joining CREA, she was program officer sexuality and reproductive health for the Ford Foundation in New Delhi and supported nongovernmental organizations in India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka working on sexual and reproductive health and rights. She also co-founded SAKHI for South Asian Women in New York in 1989, a nonprofit organisation in New York, committed to ending violence against women of South Asian origin.

Aisha Ijaz

Aisha Ijaz has been working at Aahung since 2008, and is currently the Senior Program Manager where she oversees the entire team in the development and management of all programs and projects. She has a B.A. in English Literature from Tufts University, and a MSc. in Social Policy and Development from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Aisha has over thirteen years experience in NGO programming on intimate partner violence in the USA, and SRHR in Pakistan. Her areas of interest and expertise include developing and managing SRHR programs for young people, and closely advocating with the various provincial Education Departments in Pakistan for the integration of CSE in their education curricula.

Aminata Wurie

Aminata has been a strong advocate for gender mainstreaming in policies and programming since 2014, when she returned to Sierra Leone to join the frontline of the Ebola response. She worked for the largest Social Mobilization Action Consortium in the region, developing various community behavioural change campaigns. She co-founded the Survivor Dream Project focused on providing support (psycho-social, entrepreneurial and educational) to female Ebola survivors and conducting empirical research on sustainable community recovery efforts targeting women and youth. Before that, she worked with various organizations in Canada using the arts and innovative approaches to engage youth on gender, sexuality education and HIV/AIDS issues.

Anna-Kay Magnus Watson

Anna-Kay Magnus Watson is the National Coordinator for Health and Family Life Education (HFLE) and HIV/AIDS in the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information, Jamaica. During her 7 year tenure she has coordinated the development of the life-skills based HFLE curricula for both primary and secondary school  levels. She has conducted numerous trainings of teachers in life skills education and has led the development of training resources to support classroom delivery. Mrs. Magnus Watson holds a Bachelor of Science Degree and a Master’s Degree in Public Health, specializing in Health Promotion from Florida International University.

Monica Geingos

Monica Geingos founded the #BeFree in 2016 as a youth-driven programme facilitating a non-judgemental platform for adolescents and young adults to engage on challenges they face.  The movement also integrates access to information and services. As the UNAIDS Special Advocate for Young Women and Adolescent Girls she champions the Start Free, Stay Free, AIDS Free Agenda. The First Lady works to capacitate community-based grassroots to lead the fight against HIV in their communities. In acknowledgement of her efforts, Madame Geingos was awarded the 2018 World without AIDS Award.

Joanna Herat

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

Jemie Shrestha

Jemie Shrestha is a Youth Advocate with White Ribbon Alliance Nepal. Ms. Shrestha is a passionate advocate for sexual and reproductive health and rights, focused on improving access to services and education for girls. She has effectively used health education and the promotion of self-care principles and practices to challenge misinformation, cultural taboos and often deadly rituals around menstruation. She is an experienced speaker and advocate, having previously spoken at the World Health Assembly and multiple local and national forums. Ms. Shrestha is currently studying for her degree in Social Work from St. Xavier’s College.

Martha Brady

Martha Brady is Director, Sexual and Reproductive Health at PATH. She leads a global program aimed at improving the sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) of women and girls, including research and programming on reproductive health literacy, SRHR-HIV linkages, and women’s self-care products and practices. For more than two decades, Ms. Brady has worked with diverse partners to design and evaluate health, education, and sports programs for women and girls, including authorship of numerous peer-reviewed articles and publications. She was previously Senior Associate at the Population Council. Ms. Brady holds a master’s degree in public health from Columbia University.

Chiwawa Nkhoma

Chiwawa Nkhoma is Deputy Country Representative and Head of HIV at PSI Malawi. In her 10 years with Population Services International (PSI), she has initiated and implemented wide-ranging HIV service delivery programs, including HIV self-testing. Ms. Nhkoma is actively engaged in self-care policy, successfully working with the Government of Malawi to improve access to self-care options. Prior to PSI, she spent eight years managing clinical trials research on microbicides. Ms. Nhkoma holds a master’s in public health from Johns Hopkins University, and a master’s in science and bachelor’s from the University of Malawi.

Manjulaa Narasimhan

Manjulaa Narasimhan is a scientist in the Department of Reproductive Health and Research at WHO, leading the development and implementation of the WHO Consolidated Guideline on Self-care Interventions for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR). She also coordinates advocacy, research, policy and programmatic linkages between SRHR and HIV interventions, and co-convenes the interagency working group on SRHR/HIV linkages.

Miles Kemplay

Miles Kemplay is Executive Director, Adolescence, having led CIFF's work on adolescent sexual and reproductive health as Director since 2016. He joined CIFF in 2012 following six years with Marie Stopes International and more than a decade working for global health, development and private sector organizations. Miles was previously Director for Business Development at MSI London, after leading the MSI program in Madagascar. Before MSI, Miles managed neglected tropical disease programs in Sudan, West Darfur and Liberia. Miles received his M.Sc. in Public Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and an undergraduate degree from the University of London.

Michelle Bachelet

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

Brian Heilman

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

Mabel Bianco

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

Jama Jack

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

Lyric Thompson

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

Lopa Banerjee

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

Emi Mahmoud

Emi Mahmoud is a Sudanese-American slam poet, activist, and UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador. In June 2018, she opened TEDxKakumaCamp, the first ever TEDx event in a refugee camp. Emi uses her work and talent to raise awareness about refugees, notably including Boy in the Sand and Head over Heels. In 2015, she won the Individual World Poetry Slam championship for her poem Mama, a tribute to her mother. She has witnessed UNHCR’s frontline work in the field, having spent time with Syrian refugees in Zaatari and Azraq camps in Jordan in 2018. She has also traveled to Greece and Uganda – in the latter, she led poetry workshops. Emi has represented the UNHCR at multiple high profile events, such as the Women’s Forum for the Economy and Society in Paris, the Youth Strategy 2030 launch at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, and the Hilton Foundation Humanitarian Prize event.

Erica Johnson

Erica Johnson is an award-winning investigative journalist with a particular interest in media, gender equality and consumer issues. She has covered gender inequality in Kenya’s education system, sexual harassment inside Canada’s prison system and sexual assault risks for female travellers. As host of Go Public – an investigative segment on national radio, television and online – Johnson exposes wrong-doing and holds corporations and governments to account. Previously, she hosted Canada’s investigative consumer program, Marketplace, for 15 years.

Most recently, Johnson’s examination of misleading sales practices inside Canada’s telecom industry lead to a national public inquiry and better protections for consumers. Her investigation of aggressive sales targets inside Canada’s banks lead to a banking review.

As the mother of a 15 year old daughter, Johnson is pleased to participate in a conference aimed at making the world a better, stronger place for girls and women.

OluTimehin Adegbeye

OluTimehin Adegbeye is a writer, speaker, and advocate whose work focuses on human rights, inclusion and justice in the areas of Gender, Sexualities, and Urbanisation.

Her TED Talk “Who Belongs in a City?”, on the subject of inclusive urbanisation in her home city of Lagos, was delivered when she was 25 years old. It has been viewed over 2 million times and was chosen by TED as one of the best ten talks of 2017.

As a leading voice in the Nigerian Young Feminist movement, Ms Adegbeye has worked with a wide range of political, cultural, civil society and corporate organisations, including the European Union in Nigeria, UN Women, Unilever, Shining Hope for Communities (SHOFCO), the African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF), the Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID), the Ake Arts and Book Festival, The Initiative for Equal Rights, and other entities.

She has been invited to speak at events in a dozen countries across four continents, including the inaugural U20 Mayors Summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Her writing, which is available both digitally and in print, has been translated into multiple languages.

John Cary

When architect-turned-writer John Cary co-authored an op-ed with partner Courtney E. Martin on the design failures of the breast pump, it sparked an MIT Media Lab hackathon and the launch of multiple companies. It’s a perfect example of his knack for linking good design and public good. John is the author of two books, most recently Design for Good: A New Era of Architecture for Everyone with a foreword by Melinda Gates, and his writing on design, philanthropy, and fatherhood is widely published. John works as a philanthropic advisor to an array of foundations and nonprofits around the world, including as Senior Program Officer of The Audacious Project, a big-bet philanthropy program managed by TED. In addition to being a TED speaker, John also frequently curates and hosts events for TED, the Aspen Institute, and other entities. Deeply committed to diversifying the public stage, John is also a founding partner in FRESH Speakers, a next-generation speakers bureau that represents young women and people of color. He lives with his family in a co-housing community in Oakland, Calif.

Rand Jarallah

Rand Jarallah is passionate about combining art and activism. She is founder of Randistic, a platform that uses art, performance, and makeup to convey stories on a range of topics, including human rights and mental health. Rand is also a Women Deliver Young Leader from the Class of 2016.

Since becoming a Women Deliver Young Leader, Rand has led many successful makeup campaigns, including a collaboration with the United Nations Population Fund on #7DaysOfMakeup, which helped raise awareness on the needs of displaced girls and women. Her artivism has been featured in The New York Times, Marie Claire, Vogue, The Independent, CNN, BBC, Mashable, and other media outlets.

Rand was born and raised in Palestine. She is currently pursuing a master's degree in Art and Politics and has received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology, Sociology, and Marketing.

Maysoon Zayid

Maysoon Zayid is an actress, comedian, writer and disability advocate. She is a graduate of, and a Guest Comedian in Residence, at Arizona State University. Maysoon is the co-founder/co-executive producer of the New York Arab American Comedy Festival and The Muslim Funny Fest. She was a full-time On Air Contributor to Countdown with Keith Olbermann and a columnist for The Daily Beast. She has most recently appeared on Oprah Winfrey Network’s In Deep Shift, 60 Minutes, and ABC News. Maysoon had the number one TED Talk of 2014 and was named 1 of 100 Women of 2015 by BBC.

As a professional comedian, Maysoon has performed in top New York clubs and has toured extensively at home and abroad. She was a headliner on the Arabs Gone Wild Comedy Tour and The Muslims Are Coming Tour. Maysoon appeared alongside Adam Sandler in You Don’t Mess with the the Zohan and has written for VICE. She walked in New York Fashion Week and is proud to be an ambassador for the Cerebral Palsy Foundation. Maysoon is currently developing a comedy series with Hazy Mills Productions called If I Cancan.

Georgia Arnold

Georgia Arnold is Senior Vice President of Social Responsibility at Viacom International Media Networks and the Executive Director of MTV Staying Alive Foundation.

Ms. Arnold was instrumental in establishing the MTV Staying Alive Foundation in 2005, and was appointed Executive Director in October 2007. MTV SAF is a global charitable body that provides grants to grassroots, youth-led organisations to set up HIV and AIDS awareness campaigns in their communities, and have supported 207 organizations, totaling over $6million. MTV SAF also produce the multi award-winning MTV Shuga – a 360-degree mass-media HIV prevention edutainment campaign.

Laurie Adams

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

Lisa Williams

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

Sarah Hendriks

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

Lina Abirafeh, PhD

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

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

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

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

Shamilah Batte

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

Shena Cavallo

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

Natalia Moreno Rodriguez

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

Luisa Cabal

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

Ishani Ida Cordeiro

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

Michele Goodwin

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