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.

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.

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.

Diana Mukami

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

Marie-Ange Saraka-Yao

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

Dayna Kerecman Myers

Durga Sapkota

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

Dr. Sameera Al Tuwaijri

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

Monica Magoke-Mhoja

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

Soledad Tlehuactle González

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

Kalpana Giri

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

Silene Ramirez

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

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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.

Aklima Jesmin

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

Amani Kanjo

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

Ibrahim Balami

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

Venkatraman Chandra-Mouli

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

Julianne Deitch

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

Khadijah Moore

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

Zeinab Cherri

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

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.

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.

Albert Motivans

Albert Motivans leads data and research for Equal Measures 2030, a civil society and private sector-led data and advocacy initiative. He leads efforts to develop innovative approaches for visualizing development data and to strengthen the technical capacity of national advocates to monitor progress and improve policies and development outcomes related to gender equality, ensuring that data insights are accessible and understandable to all. He has worked in data and development for more than 20 years, including with the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, UNICEF Office of Research, and the U.S. Census Bureau. He has published widely on education, gender equality, and child welfare.

Anne Connell

Anne supports the data strategy for Equal Measures 2030, building strategic data partnerships and ensuring our results and insights are accessible to all. With experience in Africa, Europe, and the Middle East, Anne has previously worked with Partners In Health, Democracy Reporting International, the Brookings Institution, the Harvard Kennedy School, and the Council on Foreign Relations.

Stephanie Oula

Stephanie is a Program Officer with Data2X, where she manages partnerships on women’s financial inclusion data and gender data and Sustainable Development Goal (SDGs) monitoring. Her prior experience as a consultant for the United Nations Foundation and other INGOs on gender issues included advising on partnerships, organizational gender strategies, high-level engagement, and advocacy around adolescent girls. Previously, she managed the Girl Declaration Joint Advocacy Group, a coalition of 14 organizations co-convened by UNF, Nike Foundation/Girl Effect, and Plan International.

Nina Rabinovitch Blecker

Nina is Director of Communications for Data2X where she oversees all aspects of communications strategy development and real-time execution for the alliance. Prior to joining Data2X, Nina created and implemented communications strategies and campaigns for global health, gender equality, and social justice organizations, including Population Council, Merck for Mothers, HIAS, Repair the World, and the Center for Communication Programs at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School for Public Health.

Anne Connell

Anne supports the data strategy for Equal Measures 2030, building strategic data partnerships and ensuring our results and insights are accessible to all. With experience in Africa, Europe, and the Middle East, Anne has previously worked with Partners In Health, Democracy Reporting International, the Brookings Institution, the Harvard Kennedy School, and the Council on Foreign Relations.