Trainers

Afaf Al-Khoshman (she/her) specializes in research methods, gender, migration, and the histories, politics, and cultures of the Middle East. She has worked on major projects related to women, gender and youth in the United States, Iraq, and Jordan for organizations including the Aspen Institute for Development Entrepreneurs, UNICEF, the CGIAR Gender Impact Platform, Freedom House, and and Al Firdawas. She has designed curriculum and led trainings about intersectionality and development, intersectionality in applied research methods, women’s economic empowerment, gender mainstreaming, and Islamic feminisms.

Afaf is a Ph.D. candidate in the education and anthropology program at Teachers College, Columbia University. She has a Master of Arts Degree in Arab Studies from Georgetown University. Afaf was born and raised in Jordan and currently lives in the U.S.A.

Dr. Lucy Ferguson is a trainer and consultant in gender equality. She has collaborated as a gender trainer with a wide range of international organisations, including UN Women, Commonwealth Secretariat and the European Commission. Lucy has also worked as a trainer and researcher for the UN Women Training Centre since 2013, and produced the Working Paper Series. She is the author of "Gender Training: A Transformative Tool for Gender Equality", along with a range of academic publications in the field of feminist knowledge transfer and feminist pedagogies. She is passionate about training as a vehicle for feminist change at the individual and organisational level.

Brooke Lavelle, Ph.D.  (she/her) is a co-founder of Courage of Care. She holds a Ph.D. in Tibetan Buddhism and Embodied Cognition, and is committed to ways in which individuals and communities develop cultures of practice that support love, health and liberation. Brooke has consulted to various human rights, education and spiritual organizations, and has experience leading national and international political, educational and climate justice projects. Through her work at Courage of Care and in her neighborhood of Brooklyn, NY, Brooke understands the challenges of trying to build alternatives to the status quo, and remains steadfastly convinced that another way is possible.

Dr. Nathalia Hernández Ochoa is an interdisciplinary researcher within the realms of visual ethnography, storytelling, and poetry. Her topics of interest include intersecting forms of violence based on gender, race, class, and sexuality in Central America. Her dissertation titled “Curanderas: Maya Women Resisting Violence Through Theater that Heals in Guatemala” centers Maya Kaqchikel women's theater work and healing practices as a tool for personal and collective transformation. In addition, throughout her academic career, Nathalia has been a volunteer development practitioner for ACDI/VOCA and USAID as a gender and youth specialist. She has been assigned to multiple projects in Paraguay and Jamaica. Nathalia is a first generation scholar originally from El Salvador. She holds a Doctoral Degree from the University of Texas-Austin with a focus on Anthropology, Gender and Women’s Studies and Indigenous Studies.

Maja Bosnic is an economist, specialized in public financial management and gender-responsive budgeting with 20 years of professional experience in international development projects. Ms Bosnic was a Team Leader of one of the largest global projects on gender-budgeting: Gender Budgeting in Ukraine Project funded by Sida (2013-2020). In her work with international finance institutions, including International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank group (WB), she has most recently cooperated with the WB PEFA Secretariat in developing new tools to ensure gender equality is taken up in public finance management processes. She has worked on developing and implementing number of training programs in South Asia, Africa, the Caribbean, and Europe in cooperation with the IMF and Joint Vienna Institute. She gave TED talk at TED Women Conference in Palm Springs (2021).

Dr. Jane Henrici designs, conducts, and teaches research on gender and intersectionality, focusing on disaster response, development for recovery, and climate change adaptation. She directed and co-directed four COVID-19 projects and collaborated with colleagues in Puerto Rico for a project on cascading disasters. Dr. Henrici directed an international committee gathering on gender and COVID-19 for the Natural Hazards Center of the University of Colorado at Boulder. She represented the Women’s Major Group on organizing committees for two Thematic Sessions of the UN Disaster Risk Reduction’s Global Platform. She’s a Professorial Lecturer in the Gender Program of the Elliott School of International Affairs at GW University.

Dr. Michelle Lokot is a researcher and practitioner specializing in feminist research, gender, forced migration, and gender-based violence. Michelle is Co-Director of the Health and Humanitarian Crises Centre at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, where she is an Assistant Professor. She currently works on a research project focused on governance, participation and co-production in the context of mental health services in Lebanon. Her PhD research explored humanitarian gender narratives on (im)mobility, family relationships and resistance among self-settled Syrian refugees in Jordan. Michelle has held long-term posts in Jordan, Nigeria and Burundi. She has consulting experience for humanitarian organizations including the International Rescue Committee, Mercy Corps, World Vision and Save the Children.

Dr. Piotr (Peter) Pawlak is an independent development specialist and a senior gender and masculinity expert working with multilateral development partners globally. He is a researcher and published author and co-author of numerous reports on engaging men and boys - alongside women and girls - for gender equality, women’s empowerment and transforming harmful social and gender norms. He designed, tested and evaluated multiple educational curricula to engage men and boys in gender equality including in child nutrition and health, caregiving, and ending GBV. Piotr holds a Ph.D. in Human Rights and Peace Studies from Mahidol University, Thailand. His doctoral research examined how the changing conception of Maldivian masculinity contributes to gender inequitable attitudes and behaviors among young men in the Maldives.

Emily B. Brown is a gender equality and social inclusion (GESI) researcher and consultant who has worked with several prominent international development organizations, such as Venture37, PAE, FHI 360, and Save the Children US, to provide GESI technical assistance for proposal development and project design in response to bi-lateral, multi-lateral, and private sector requests up to $200 million. She has worked on dozens of bids across a range of sectors, including health, education, agriculture, food security, civil society and governance, adolescents and youth, and more. Emily currently consults with the women-owned small business Bid Boss to support international development actors with GESI strategy, design, and compliance for proposal development.

Aanchal Jain is the founder of the India-based research and training organisation Thought Project. She has collaborated with organisations including Cambodian Living Arts, Asia Europe Meeting Foundation, German Embassy and Deutsche Schule Bombay, Playback Theatre Nigeria, Oxfam India, Ashoka University, Mumbai University, Rotary Club of Mumbai, and Brihanmumbai Corporation. Aanchal's expertise is in feminist leadership, women's issues in India, gender equality, queer affirmative, disability-friendly, and anti-caste frameworks. Her methodology is based on intersectional pedagogies that unpack privilege and power and their manifestation in interpersonal and professional spaces. She has a Master's degree in Women's Studies from TISS Mumbai and has received theatre training from Yale University and Trinity College London.

As the co-author for the 2018 State of Diversity in Global Social Impact report, Ms. Mahesri is both an experienced international development expert with more than 15 years of experience in global development and DE&I expert with nearly 10 years of working on DEI-type initiatives using liberatory frameworks to unlock transformative potential and impact. She is a skilled facilitator, expert in training design, and has experience conducting organizational development work both as internal staff for an organization and as an external consultant. You can see more about her work at www.fnmadvising.com.

Dr. Emily Springer (https://dremilyspringer.com/) is one of 100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics™ in 2024 and serves as the emerging technologies consultant within the Gender and Human Rights technical division at UNFPA, specializing in ethical and feminist AI, and as the AI consultant with the Global Center for Gender Equality, providing technical gender assistance to Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Previously, Dr. Springer worked with Athena Infonomics as part of DAI’s Digital Frontiers on a digital inclusion toolkit, World Bank's IFC as a strategy consultant for digitalization of African higher education institutions, and worked at a Microsoft partner building relational database and automation solutions for enterprise clients. She is trained as an interdisciplinary sociologist and completed a postdoc at Arizona State University in the US where she taught undergraduates about how machine learning changes not only our everyday interactions but also global geopolitical landscapes, and has taught and mentored graduate students in Development Practice and Social Justice programs.

Maha El-Sheikh (she/her) has 20 years of experience as an international humanitarian and development professional, including 15 years in the Middle East. Her work currently focuses on the social injustices underlying our global humanitarian crises. She has been actively engaged in anti-racism and decolonization initiatives in the humanitarian and development sector, working to reimagine aid through compassion-centered, counter-oppressive, liberatory frameworks. She is co-director and core faculty at Courage of Care Coalition, and a member of the international solidarity movement, where she partners with relational facilitators and leaders in the economic, racial and climate justice movements.

Njeri Kimotho is an international policy advisor, Gender Equality & Social Inclusion (GESI) expert, capacity builder, and mentor working in inclusive sector transformation. She has worked across Africa, Latin America, and Asia. With a practice-grounded approach to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Njeri has lead regional and global teams in institutional gender transformation, lobbying & advocacy, and awareness raising. She’s designed and implemented intersectional gender analysis tools for macro, mezzo and macro level assessments, conducting intersectional feminist research, curating e-learning courses on virtual platforms, creating and maintaining coalitions and partnerships with CSOs, INGOs, Donors, CBOs, Private sector players, women rights organizations and networks, feminist movements and Government.

Urooj Mian is the CEO of Sustainable Human Empowerment (SHE Associates) Inc. She holds an M.Sc. in Peace and Conflict Research, and an LL.M. in International Crime and Justice. She has run advocacy campaigns for over 15 years, and has a unique combination of experience as a lifelong activist, a national policy-maker, and as the former founding president and executive director of Women in International Security (WIIS) Canada. She has advised on hypermasculinity policies at international forums, and was a visiting professor at the UN University of Peace teaching on gender, human security, peace and conflict. Ms. Mian believes that effective public engagement and advocacy campaigns involve more than ‘making noise.’ Her personal measure of success has been to ‘engage the otherwise disengaged.’