Abirami (Abi) Baskaran: Abirami is passionate about equality and the environment. A recent graduate with a degree in Environmental Science from The University of Nottingham, Abi currently works as a Research Associate and is an aspiring marine biologist in the field of conservation and research. As part of the Malaysian Youth Delegation (MYD), Abi has attended the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Bangkok 2018. MYD is a youth-led organisation focusing on climate change policy advocacy and educating youths on climate change. As climate change affects everyone, Abi particularly looks at the gender and sexuality perspective to deeper understand the vulnerability faced by marginalised groups in this climate crisis. Equality and human rights issues matter deeply to Abi, and she is constantly striving to educate herself on issues of the world and to be ethically consistent. As an environmentalist, intersectional feminist and a vegan, Abi believes in ending all forms of oppression. In her spare time, Abi enjoys playing football, reading, and painting. (Article) 

Andrew-Gorman-Murray: Andrew-Gorman-Murray is a Professor of Geography at Western Sydney University. He is a social, cultural and political geographer whose interests include gender, sexuality and space; household dynamics and home/work interchange; mobilities and place-making; emotional geographies and wellbeing; and inclusive disaster planning and emergency management. He has led three Australian Research Council Discovery Projects. He co-edited: Material Geographies of Household Sustainability (2011), Sexuality, Rurality, and Geography (2013), Masculinities and Place (2014), Queering the Interior (2018) and Digital Geographies of Sexuality (2019). (Article)
 

Dr Anu Mundkur: Anu Mundkur is a passionate advocate for gender equality and women’s empowerment. Her extensive practical experience in the field of gender and development, women’s leadership and empowerment, informs her applied research, consultancy and teaching practice. Her research areas of expertise include women peace and security; women's representation, participation and leadership in politics; feminist approaches to international relations; gender women and international aid. She has fifteen years of professional experience, including nearly 8 years working, in different roles, on gender projects funded by Australia Aid. The majority of these projects have targeted the Indo-Pacific region with a focus on, gender-based research, women’s leadership, gender-based violence and capacity development in gender analysis and gender mainstreaming. (Article)

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Asma Masood: Asma Masood is Research Officer & Programme Director - Internships, Chennai Centre for China Studies (C3S). She has worked as an Independent Researcher on International Relations in the Asia-Pacific and interned at the Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies, New Delhi. She has an M.A. in International Studies, Stella Maris College, Chennai, and a Bachelor's degree in Journalism from M.O.P Vaishnav College, Chennai. (Article)

Ayushi Kundu: Ayushi Kundu is a practicing advocate at High Court of Calcutta specialising in civil matters. She is a recent graduate from Queen's Mary University, London in 2018 following which she secured a Graduate Diploma in Law from London Metropolitan University in 2019. Through her membership in several reputed social service and non-governmental organisations, Ayushi strives to serve women and girls from underprivileged backgrounds at a grassroots level. Ayushi currently serves as the Soroptimist International President’s Appeal Coordinator. She had the opportunity to attend the 63rd Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW63) as a Soroptimist International delegate in March 2019, where she was also a panellist  and spoke on the need to push more women and girls in the STEM sector, at a parallel event organised by NAWO and Advance. (Article).

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Dale Dominey-Howes: Dale Dominey-Howes is Professor of Hazard and Disaster Risk Sciences at the University of Sydney. His interests and expertise are in natural hazards, hazard, risk and vulnerability assessment, disaster and emergency management and has completed research and consultancies for organisations including the United Nations and The World Bank. He has either led, or been a member of, multiple post-disaster assessment teams, is Chairman of the UNESCO Post-Disaster Policy and Protocols Working Group (2010–present) and Advisor to various Australian State and Territory emergency management bodies and agencies. (Article)

Deborah M. Weissman: Deborah Weissman is the Reef C. Ivey II Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of North Carolina School of Law.  Her research, teaching, and practice interests include gender-based violence law, immigration law, and human rights in the local and international realm. Some of her recent relevant publications include In Pursuit of Economic Justice: The Political Economy of Domestic Violence Laws and Policies 2020 Utah L. Rev. 1 (2020); The Community Politics of Domestic Violence, 82 Brooklyn Law Rev. 1479 (2017), and Countering Neoliberalism and Aligning Solidarities: Rethinking Domestic Violence Advocacy, 45 Sw. L. Rev. 915 (2016). (Article)

Dr. Lina Abirafeh: Dr Lina is the Executive Director of The Arab Institute for Women (AiW) at the Lebanese American University. She has served in this position since 2015 and is based in New York and Lebanon. Established in 1973, AiW is the first women’s institute in the Arab region – and one of the first globally. Lina brings a strong feminist activist orientation to the Institute, promoting education and research to advance social change and policy change – and ultimately to improve the lives of women and girls in the Arab region. Prior to joining AiW, Lina spent over 20 years in development and humanitarian contexts, working with the United Nations and other international organizations in countries such as Afghanistan, Haiti, Democratic Republic of Congo, Nepal, and others. (Article)

Mariya Taher: Named one of the six experts on female genital cutting (FGC) to watch by NewsDeeply.com, Mariya has worked in the anti-gender violence field for over a decade in research, policy, program development, and direct service. She received her Master of Social Work from San Francisco State University in 2010 where she pursued a qualitative study titled, “Understanding Female Genital Cutting in the United States.” Since then, she has worked on the issue of domestic violence at W.O.M.A.N., Inc., Asian Women’s Shelter, and Saheli, Support and Friendship for South Asian Women and Families, and was part of the Women’s Foundation of California Women's Policy Institute. In 2015, she cofounded Sahiyo, an internationally recognized, award-winning organization to empower Asian communities to end female genital cutting. Mariya also sits on the inaugural steering committee for the US End FGM/C Network.  (Article)

Natasha Singh Raghuvanshi: Natasha Singh Raghuvanshi is a Doctoral candidate at Monash University.  She is the recipient of inaugural Meenakshi Gopinath Ann Tickner Scholarship at Monash University. Her research examines India’s engagement with the United Nation’s Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Agenda.' (Article)

 

Rupande Mehta: Born in Mumbai India, Rupande came to the US in 2002 in pursuit of an education, leaving behind 15+ years of emotional, physical, psychological, and sexual abuse. She is currently an analytical specialist working in sourcing and negotiations on multi-million-dollar projects, employing her skills in team building and conflict resolution for a Fortune 500 company in New Jersey. She has an MBA and a Master's in Public Administration where she was a Fellow of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers. Rupande ran for Morris County Freeholder in 2018 coming within 2 points of victory & State Senate in LD-25 in 2020 where she received the most votes ever received by a Democrat running for the seat. Rupande lives in Denville with her husband and daughter. (Article)

Sahar Moazami: Sahar is the United Nations Program Officer at OutRight Action International, and is based in New York. Sahar is a New York State bar admitted attorney with a focus on international human rights law. Sahar is a first generation Iranian-American born in London but primarily raised in New York. They attended Boston University for their undergraduate degree, majoring in Political Science and minoring in American and Persian history. Upon graduation, Sahar volunteered with the AmeriCorps FEMA Corps program, traveling the United States for 10 months aiding disaster survivors. After completing the 10 month service position Sahar returned to New York to attend Fordham Law School. Sahar obtained her Juris Doctor from Fordham Law School in 2017. As a student at Fordham Law, they heavily engaged in student activism through leadership positions in a number of student groups including the Coalition of Concerned Students, the National Lawyers Guild, Advocates for Sexual Health and Rights, and Fordham OUTLaws. Sahar was also a member of the Stein Scholars for Public Interest Program and was a Crowley Scholar for International Human Rights. (Article)

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Scott McKinnon: Scott McKinnon  is a Vice-Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow in the Australian Centre for Cultural Environmental Research (AUSCCER) at the University of Wollongong. His research interests include LGBT histories; sexuality and space; geographies of memory; and the social and cultural dimensions of disaster. Scott’s current research investigates collective memory of disaster in Australia. He is the author of Gay Men at the Movies: cinema, memory and the history of a gay male community (2016). (Article)