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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.