Day Three Speakers
Keynote Speech
Namatai Kwekweza
Executive Director of WELEAD Trust
Namatai Kwekweza serves as the Executive Director of WELEAD Trust, an organization that she founded at age 18 in 2017, which focuses on youth leadership development and advocacy. Through the work done at WELEAD Trust, youth have built strong alliances around human rights, feminist solidarity practices, constitutionalism, participation in governance and leader development.
Panel: Power Like You’ve Never Seen - Ways Women are Crafting a New & Improved Way of Governing
Victoria Pelletier
RepresentWomen's National Partnerships Manager
Victoria Pelletier is the National Partnerships Manager at RepresentWomen, and is based in Portland, Maine. She is currently serving her first term as a Portland City Councilor, and is the second Black woman in her city’s history that has been elected to this seat.
Yordanos Eyoel
Founder & CEO of Keseb
Yordanos Eyoel is an Ethiopian-American democracy entrepreneur who is the Founder and CEO of Keseb. Keseb is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization building an ecosystem for cross-country learning, collaboration, and innovation to advance inclusive and resilient democracies.
Marjan H. Ehsassi
Executive Director of the Federation for Innovation in Democracy (North America)
Marjan H. Ehsassi is the Executive Director of the Federation for Innovation in Democracy North America. She is also a Future of Democracy Fellow (non-resident) at the Berggruen Institute and a Senior Innovations Fellow at the Institute for Democratic Engagement and Accountability (IDEA at OSU).
Jennifer Nadel
Co-founder and Director of Compassion in Politics
Jennifer Nadel is an author, activist and award-winning journalist with an unwavering commitment to both compassion and women’s rights. As the co-director of the UK-based think tank Compassion in Politics, Jennifer works to help foster more empathetic and compassionate politics across the political spectrum, working with over 100 MPs.
Expert Discussion: Non-electoral Solutions - Addressing Violence Against Women and Mental Well-Being in Politics
Sandra Pepera
Director For Gender, Women And Democracy, National Democratic Institute
Sandra Pepera is a career diplomat and international development professional. Before joining NDI as its Director for Gender, Women and Democracy in 2014, she spent thirteen years as a Senior Officer at the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID), including leading programs in the Caribbean, Rwanda-Burundi and Sudan. Prior to joining DFID, Sandra spent time in British domestic politics; lecturing in political science and international relations at the University of Ghana; and as a political analyst in the Political Affairs Division at the Commonwealth Secretariat.
Senator Cynthia López Castro
Mexican Senator and President of IPU's Women's Caucus
Bio coming soon!
Natalia Herbst
Director for Latin America Strategy and Development at the Apolitical Foundation
Natalia is an Obama Scholar '19 who has over 10 years of experience in government at the local and national levels. In 2023 she was a member of President Obama’s Inclusive Economies Working Group.
Expert Discussion: Electoral Solutions - Gender Quotas in Latin America & Australia’s Single Transferable Voting System
Vandinika Shukla
RepresentWomen Board Chair & Gender Policy Specialist
Vandinika Shukla is a gender policy specialist, technology policy expert, and educator. She has spent the last decade designing national gender policies and advocacy campaigns at UN Women, building public interest technology products and partnerships at MIT Media Lab, and founding organizations to amplify unheard stories for stronger democracies.
Jennifer Piscopo
Professor of Gender and Politics at Royal Holloway University of London
Jennifer M. Piscopo is Professor of Gender and Politics at Royal Holloway University of London. She is a leading expert on gender and politics, especially women’s political representation, in Latin America, the United States, and the globe.
Kate Chaney MP
Member of Parliament in Australia's House of Representatives
Kate Chaney is Western Australia’s first female Independent Federal Member of Parliament in the House of Representatives.
Bio coming soon!