Laura is a Partner in McKinsey & Company’s London Office where she has advised extensively on organizational, strategy and commercial topics including complex organisational transformations, total operating model redesign, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, culture change and leadership, and corporate strategy. Laura has a knack for helping organisations and individuals grow and develop to deliver their aspirations.

Laura has an undergraduate degree in psychology from UC-Berkeley where she was Phi Beta Kappa and graduated summa cum laude and a Ph.D. in psychology from UC-San Diego. 

Olivia Head is a Policy and Programme Officer in the Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative (PSVI) in the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. She leads the PSVI’s work on the Murad Code Project and on a number of other programmes and policy areas. Prior to joining the FCDO she worked in the NGO sector, with a particular focus on supporting women from refugee backgrounds, many of whom were survivors of gender-based or conflict-related sexual violence, to integrate into life in the UK. She remains involved with supporting refugee communities in the UK in her capacity as the chair of trustees for Bread & Roses.

Professional and Industry Experience

Charlotte is an Associate Director at KPMG and former General Practitioner. For the last 3 years, she has been Healthcare Executive to the Global Chairman for Healthcare, Government and Infrastructure at KPMG International, during which time she launched KPMGs Global Workforce Proposition for Healthcare and Government, and co-authored a book on the global workforce crisis in healthcare. Prior to this, Charlotte worked for 11 years in the NHS and has held posts with Nursing Now, the Health and Social Care Select Committee, and NHS England. She has a Masters in Economics and is a former National Medical Director’s Clinical Fellow. Recent engagements include:

―Charlotte is currently leading Primary Care transformation on the Isle of Man.

―Charlotte worked with Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Health on Primary Care Transformation. Working with the Ministry of Health to implement Team Based Working in Primary Care, devise Primary Care Network Governance and set nation-wide KPIs for Primary Care.

―Charlotte project managed the workforce component of NHS London’s Diagnostics Restoration and Recovery Programme. Working with national bodies and ICSs to deliver a Pan-London strategy for the diagnostics workforce. This programme will be replicated across the 7 NHS regions.

―Providing Subject Matter Expertise on a piece of work at national level to re-imagine the healthcare workforce of the future  for the UK. This includes workforce modelling to evaluate the impact of technology and the fourth industrial revolution as well as national training strategies to embed workforce resilience and agility.

―Identifying and securing the workforce for Project Nightingale. As part of workforce operations, Charlotte set out the Standard Operating Procedure for recruitment using KPMGs onboarding platform and led on the clinical engagement for this technology. She also worked with clinicians to re-design clinical roles and expand workforce capacity within intensive care. Working with the training school, she ensured skills competency across all staff groups – including non clinical and admin roles.

―Charlotte researched and drafted a book by Mark Britnell on the healthcare workforce entitled “Human: solving the global workforce crisis in healthcare.” The book has since been translated into Mandarin and Portuguese and has been launched in 14 countries.

―Charlotte has worked with Harvard T.H Chan School of Public Health on a series of case studies in workforce innovation, where she has also presented.

―Charlotte co-developed the System Workforce Improvement Model (SWIM) which has been implemented across each of the 7 NHS regions.

Education, Licenses & Certifications

MA (Hons) in Economics from University of Edinburgh, MBBS from St George’s University London, RCGP from the Royal College of General Practitioners, DCH from the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, DRCOG from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, DFSRH from the Faculty of Sexual  and Reproductive Health

Alexandra Lily Kather is an international justice practitioner and intersectional justice advocate. Her work follows a trauma-informed, intersectional approach with respect to engagement with affected communities and the design of responses geared towards equity, healing and justice. Her specialized interest lies in strategically investigating and understanding the intersectional dimensions of core international crimes and mass atrocities. She is currently working with a number of non-government organizations engaged in investigating and accounting for international crimes, including the Center for Justice and Accountability and the International Truth and Justice Project Sri Lanka. She previously worked for the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), the International Law Programme at Chatham House and the British Institute for International and Comparative Law. She was a Visiting Fellow at the at the Centre for Fundamental Rights at Hertie School of Governance Berlin and Unit for Global Justice at Goldsmiths University London. 

I am the Founder/Executive Director of the Wangu Kanja Foundation (WKF) and a Human Rights Defender for the last 17 years.

A Lady, rank of a Knight of the Order of the Star of Italy (SOI), 2022.

Convenor of the Survivors of Sexual Violence in Kenya Network for the last 5 years

Manty Tarawalli was appointed to the position of Minister of Gender and Children’s Affairs in November 2019 to set up a standalone results driven Ministry that addresses the inequalities faced by women and strengthens the national protection mechanisms for children. The Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Policy developed by the Minister describes 13 tangible objectives across 13 key sectors addressing issues from women’s political participation, women’s economic empowerment to gender mainstreaming and gender macro sector formation budgeting. The Honorable Minister is a leader and champion of women’s empowerment with extensive contributions to women’s health and economic empowerment. Previously, guided by her convictions that social change is about simultaneously improving individual lives and transforming systems, she led several transformative national initiatives including Sierra Leone’s first ever National Maternal Health Social Franchise Network. The Honorable Minister is a Project Management Expert, and an Alumnus from the Harvard Ministerial Leadership Forum. She holds a MSc in project Management from Salford University.

Rainatou Sow is the executive director of Make Every Woman Count (MEWC), an African woman-led organisation that monitors African States progress to meet their commitments on women’s rights and gender equality. The organisation has been tracking the progress, challenges and gaps of the 55 African Countries during the African Women's Decade. Rai holds an MA in Law and in International Relations; she has over ten years of experience working with International Organizations, CSOs, and policy-makers focusing on advocacy, research and policy. She has been working with various agencies such as the African Union, United Nations, European Union, INGOs, CSOs, women's groups on women’s rights, gender equability, peace, development and human rights.

Over the years, she has received many awards and honours in recognition of her work, such as the “Most Inspirational Woman” by Women4Africa in 2012, Forbes Magazine named her as one of the “20 Youngest Power Women in Africa 2012″ and one of the "20 young builders of Africa of tomorrow in 2014" Salt Magazine named her as one of the World’s 100 Most Inspiring Women. She was BBC 100 Women in 2013 and 2014. She received the Pan African Humanitarian Awards on Gender Equality and Advocacy in 2016 and the “Change Maker” Award from the African Achievers Awards in 2017.

Publications:

• Write to Speak – 2021
• Continental Report of Women in Leadership and Decision-making in Africa Report - 2018-2019
• The State of African Women’s Rights Report “Right by Her” - 2018
• African Women's Decade 2010-2020 (Yearly Reports: 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015)
• Women and ICT in Africa: A New Digital Gap – Aljazeera - 2014
• Journey to Equality: 10 Years of the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa - 2013

Winnie Byanyima is the Executive Director of UNAIDS and an Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations. A passionate and longstanding champion of social justice and gender equality, Ms Byanyima leads the United Nations’ efforts to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030. Ms Byanyima believes that health care is a human right and was an early champion of a People’s Vaccine against the coronavirus that is available and free of charge to everyone, everywhere.

Before joining UNAIDS, Ms Byanyima served as the Executive Director of Oxfam International, a confederation of 20 civil society organizations working in more than 90 countries worldwide, empowering people to create a future that is secure, just and free from poverty.

Ms Byanyima was elected for three terms and served 11 years in the parliament of her country, Uganda. She led Uganda’s first parliamentary women’s caucus, championing ground-breaking gender equality provisions in the county’s 1995 post-conflict constitution.

Ms Byanyima led the establishment of the African Union Commission’s Directorate of Gender and Development and also served as Director of Gender and Development at the United Nations Development Programme. She founded the Forum for Women in Democracy, an influential Ugandan nongovernmental organization, and has been deeply involved in building global and African coalitions on social justice issues. A global leader on inequality, Ms Byanyima has co-chaired the World Economic Forum and served on the World Bank’s Advisory Council on Gender and Development, the International Labour Organization’s Global Commission on the Future of Work and the Global Commission on Adaptation.

Ms Byanyima is a recipient of several awards, including an honorary doctorate from the University of Manchester, United Kingdom, an honorary doctorate from Mount Saint Vincent University, Canada, and the 2018 Human Rights and Solidarity among Peoples Prize, awarded by the Latin American Council of Social Sciences.

She holds a master of science degree in mechanical engineering from Cranfield University and an undergraduate degree in aeronautical engineering from the University of Manchester.

Ms Byanyima is married and has one son. She loves birds, gardening and hiking. Ms Byanyima has seven given names, one of which is Kyegiragire, which means “I can make myself whatever I want to be”. Ms Byanyima says this has shaped her attitude to life!

Preet Kaur Gill is the Member of Parliament for Birmingham, Edgbaston, Shadow Cabinet Minister for International Development, and the UK’s first female Sikh MP. Born and raised in the West Midlands, Preet was a social worker and a Councillor and Cabinet Member for Public Health and Protection prior to entering Parliament. She is Chair of the Co-operative Party Parliamentary Group, a patron of social housing charity Spring Housing, and Vice-President of the Local Government Association.  

In Parliament Preet chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for British Sikhs, and co-chairs the APPG for International Freedom of Religion or Belief, the APPG for the West Midlands, APPG for the Commonwealth Games, the APPG for Birmingham and APPG for the West Midlands. Preet is Vice-President of the British Group Inter-Parliamentary Union and Co-Chair of the West-Midlands Co-operative Task Force. 

In 2018 Preet featured on Birmingham City University’s Brummies Who Inspire and presented an award for Sikh Woman of Substance by the Sikh Women’s Alliance. In 2020, she was named MP of the Year by the Patchwork Foundation.  

Titsi Matekaire is the Global Lead, End Sexual Exploitation. In this role with Equality Now, Tsitsi provides leadership to a global team campaigning to end sex trafficking and sexual exploitation across the world. 

With over sixteen years of experience, Tsitsi is a recognized legal expert on women’s rights, sex trafficking, sexual exploitation, access to justice, women’s political participation, violence against women and girls . She is co-author, along with Samantha Ferrell-Schweppenstedde and Equality Now’s Jacqui Hunt, of “How Lifelong Discrimination and Legal Inequality Facilitate Sex Trafficking in Women and Girls,” featured in the Palgrave International Handbook on Human Trafficking (2019). Her writing and commentary have also featured in The London Economic, Eco Business, and Inter Press Service, among others. 

Tsitsi began her career as a Legal Officer providing legal aid services to women affected by domestic violence.  Prior to joining Equality Now in 2016, Tsitsi served as Program Manager at Womankind Worldwide providing program and advocacy support to women’s rights organizations in Ethiopia, Uganda, and Zimbabwe, and was Director of the Women in Politics Support Unit and Legal Officer at Women’s Action Group in Zimbabwe. Knowing that she is contributing to positive changes in women’s lives has been the greatest source of inspiration throughout her career. 

Tsitsi holds a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Zimbabwe and an LL.M. in Human Rights Law from the University of Nottingham. Based in Burgess Hill, West Sussex, Tsitsi loves green walks, listening to music, and watching TV crime dramas. 

Dr. Annelies Vredeveldt is an Associate Professor at the Department of Criminal Law and Criminology at VU Amsterdam. She is co-founder and director of the Amsterdam Laboratory for Legal Psychology (ALLP). Her ERC Starting Grant research team investigates eyewitness testimony in cross-cultural settings. Dr. Vredeveldt regularly appears as an expert witness in criminal cases and serves on advisory committees of the Netherlands Register of Court Experts and the Dutch National Police. She teaches the Psychology course in the international Law in Society programme at the VU and coordinates Project Reasonable Doubt, in which potentially dubious criminal convictions are re-evaluated.

Valerie Oosterveld (@VOosterveld) is a full Professor at Western University’s Faculty Law (Canada). Her research and writing focus on gender issues within international criminal justice. She has published widely on the concept of gender in international criminal law, the interpretation of sexual and gender-based crimes by international criminal tribunals, and gender-sensitive investigation and prosecution.  Her forthcoming co-edited volume (with Indira Rosenthal and Susana SáCouto), Gender and International Criminal Law, will be published by Oxford University Press in June 2022.   

Valerie is the Associate Director of Western University’s Centre for Transitional Justice and Post-Conflict Reconstruction and she served as an Associate Dean at Western Law from 2014-2018. She is an active member of the Governance Committee of the Canadian Partnership for International Justice, which was granted $2.5 million (2016-2022) by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for research on domestic and international accountability for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. In 2010, she served on the Canadian delegation to the Review Conference of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in Kampala, Uganda. 

Valerie is an emeritus member of the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists, in which she served from 2014-2021. She was awarded Western University’s Faculty Scholar designation from 2017-2019.  

Before joining the Faculty of Law in 2005, Valerie served in the Legal Affairs Bureau of Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. In this role, she provided legal advice on international criminal accountability for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes, especially with respect to the ICC, the International Criminal Tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda and the Special Court for Sierra Leone. She served on the Canadian delegation to various ICC-related negotiations, including the Assembly of States Parties.  

Prior to joining the Legal Affairs Bureau, Valerie was a member of the Canadian delegation to the 1998 UN Diplomatic Conference of Plenipotentiaries on the Establishment of an ICC. In this role, she negotiated various gender provisions, as Canada played a leading role in pressing for a gender-sensitive Rome Statute.  

I am a gender specialist and Clinical Psychologists (PhD Candidate). I have over 15 years of work experience working with vulnerable communities including women and children, refugees, LGBTQ communities, poor rural and urban communities living in the informal settlements. My field of work has embedded human rights as a core component  This are included psychosocial support for survivors of violence, protection of vulnerable communities and fundraising. My work has involved addressing gender based violence, sexual and reproductive health rights, women leadership and governance,  refugee protection, resettlement, counseling, child care and protection, foster care,  HIV/AIDs care and management and strategic advocacy on relevant legislations.

Mary Hansel is an international human rights attorney and scholar, focused on intersectional gender justice and corporate accountability. Recently, at UC Irvine School of Law, Mary led a research project identifying issues and cases for strategic litigation to advance global gender justice. She also directed the Human Rights and Social Media Initiative, which monitored and analyzed timely digital rights issues, alongside the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression. 

Prior to UC Irvine, Mary taught international law courses at Loyola Law School and worked at human rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch and the International Center for Transitional Justice. For more than a decade, she practiced commercial litigation and international arbitration at private law firms. 

Mary earned her J.D. at USC Gould School of Law and her LL.M in Public International Law at the London School of Economics, where she wrote her dissertation under the supervision of Professor Christine Chinkin. She has published and presented widely on international law and human rights issues. 

Chrissy Hart serves as Director of Policy & Advocacy at Together for Girls and regional lead for sub-Saharan Africa. She oversees the partnership’s policy and advocacy work, education sector work, and collaboration with sub-Saharan African partners. Chrissy manages Together for Girls’ work to advocate for comprehensive, evidence-based policies, programs, and investments to prevent violence and ensure survivors have access to healing and justice. She also leads the partnership’s work to better understand the relationship between violence and educational settings and outcomes and to advocate for a safe and equitable schools agenda, globally. Additionally, Chrissy leads the partnership’s work to support sub-Saharan African partner countries implementing a Violence Against Children and Youth Survey (VACS).

Chrissy has held positions in advocacy, research, and partnerships focused on women’s and children’s rights, gender-based violence, and violence against children at RFK Human Rights, the University of Denver Human Trafficking Center, Women Thrive Alliance, and most recently, the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women and UN Women. She served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Burkina Faso and holds a B.A. in Political Science and History from Colgate University and an M.A. in International Human Rights from the University of Denver.

Naitore Nyamu is an advocate of the High Court of Kenya, and an international human rights lawyer with over thirteen (13) years of experience. Ms. Nyamu has focused her career on the advancement of women’s and girls’ rights, specifically advocacy and litigation towards elimination of Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV). Ms. Nyamu’s expertise is in the areas of gender justice and access to justice for survivors of human rights violation including in times of conflict, enhancing victim participation and pursuit of justice for victims of gross human rights violations. Ms. Nyamu has led campaign initiatives aimed at addressing Sexual violence in many countries in Africa including Zambia, Kenya, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Tanzania. Her expertise on state accountability in legal cases has allowed her to focus on advocacy and training on the African Human Rights Systems and the workings of the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, and the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights. Currently, Ms. Nyamu is the Head of the Kenya Office at Physicians for Human Rights, where she is responsible for the advancement of the Program on Sexual Violence in Conflict Zones in Kenya. Ms. Nyamu holds a Master’s degree in International Relations and Diplomacy from USIU, a Bachelor of Law degree (LLM) from the University of South Africa and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political science from the University of Nairobi. She holds an LLM from University of Pretoria.

Caroline is a registered nurse, midwife and health visitor and has extensive experience of working directly with families, particularly those with high levels of need. She has held a number of different academic posts over the past twenty years.  Over the years she has developed a particular interest in the area of violence against women and girls.  Even more specifically, with the issue of domestic violence and abuse and sexual violence. Understandably (given her clinical roots) a great deal of her research is concerned with how the health sector responds to, and supports, those who have experienced abuse. She has led several studies on the issue, including work in low and middle income countries and has published widely in the field. 

Caroline’s current post is Professor of Gender Based Violence at the University of Birmingham, UK. Her research work is broadly within the scope of addressing inequalities and more specifically on issues of violence against women. She is the founder of the Risk, Abuse and Violence (RAV) research programme at the University of Birmingham. 

Simone Buitendijk is the thirteenth Vice-Chancellor of the University of Leeds, a Russell Group University with a commitment to high quality education, a strong and dynamic research base and a track record of social, economic and cultural development. She was previously Vice-Provost (Education) and Professor of Maternal and Child Health at Imperial College London.  

Prior to this, Professor Buitendijk was Vice-Rector at Leiden University in the Netherlands where she was responsible for education, student affairs and diversity. 

In addition to strengthening the links between education and research, Professor Buitendijk has extensive experience of driving the digital and online learning agenda. 

Dr. Ingrid Elliott MBE is a criminal justice expert with over 23 years of experience, including investigating and prosecuting international crimes at the Bosnian State Court and the UN International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.  She is a member of the UK Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Team of Experts, deploying over 30 times since 2013.  She has worked on investigation and response to sexual violence in Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Turkey, Libya, and Myanmar/Bangladesh, as well as building investigation and prosecution capacities with national justice actors across Southern Africa. She also works on tackling CRSV stigma within communities and within justice processes.  She is the lead consultant at IICI on the Murad Code Project and the primary drafter of The Murad Code.