a close up of a person drumming

Faye Macheke

Co-Executive Director

Faye is a passionate Pan-African feminist, active in movements for women's rights, racial justice, migrant and labor rights, and environmental justice. Her activism builds on the legacy of the struggle against apartheid in South Africa and the aftermath of the apartheid era in Zimbabwe.

In 2019, Faye joined AWID as the Director of Finance, Operations and Development, and strived to ensure that AWID upholds the feminist principles and values in all of its operations. She brings over 20 years of experience in feminist leadership, strategy, and all aspects of finance and organisational development.

Faye is a committed Board Member of UAF-Africa and other women's rights organizations. She previously held a Head of Finance and Operations roles at Paediatric Adolescent Treatment for Africa and JASS - Just Associates Inc. in Southern Africa. She also held Directorship roles for International Computer Driving Licence (ICDL) in Central and Southern Africa. She holds a Bcompt in Accounting Science from University of South Africa and is a member of the Southern African Institute for Business Accountants.

Stephanie Bracken

Operation Manager

Stephanie Bracken is a feminist from Canada who holds a Master of Human Rights from the University of Sydney and a BA in Women's Studies, History, and Philosophy from McGill University.  In the past she has worked with Gender at Work, the African Women's Millennium Initiative, and the Women's Global Network for Reproductive Rights, and is constantly thinking about how social (in)justice impacts our lives in a million huge and tiny ways.

Ritu S.

IT Manager

Ritu has worked as an IT professional in non-profit for over twenty years and loves her work to help non-profit organisations achieve their goals efficiently by using technology. Prior to working with AWID, she supported technological work in health promotion and environment sectors.

Having completed Masters in Technology from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi; she has handled a unique blend of projects in implementing IT infrastructure which includes web and software development, server and databases administration, technology evaluation and capacity building. 

Karen B.

Financial Analyst

Karen has built a career supporting the accounting and project work of financial service and not-for -profit organizations both in Canada and in her home country of Jamaica. Her drive to contribute to organizations that support a meaningful cause have led Karen to roles at the Jamaica Teachers’ Association Co-operative Credit Union as Finance Manager, the YWCA Toronto as Business Administrator for the REACH and LINC programs, YWCA Canada as Finance Coordinator/Manager and most recently to Peace Ranch (now part of Supportive Housing in the Province) as Bookkeeper/Consultant closing their books in preparation for merger.

She holds degrees in Business Administration from the University of the West Indies and Florida International University and recently completed a postgraduate certificate in Project management from Humber College, Canada. She continues to pursue the Certified Professional Accountant designation at the professional level. Her experience working with nonprofits in Canada spans over ten years.

Isabel Marler

Advancing Universal Rights and Justice Lead

Isabel is a feminist from the United Kingdom. She holds a Master’s degree in Gender Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. Before AWID, Isabel worked with Women Living Under Muslim Laws (WLUML), which was the start of a journey towards her current specialism in feminist responses to fascisms and fundamentalisms.  In 2019 she was appointed to the WLUML Council. 

She is passionate about knowledge-building, communications, and the use of creative expression to disrupt systems of oppression.

Tenzin Dolker

Resourcing Feminist Movements Lead

Tenzin Dolker works at AWID as the Resourcing Feminist Movement Coordinator. Tenzin is currently based in Pristina, Kosovo, where she has previously consulted as a Program Support/Development Officer at the UN Agency for Migration. She assisted in the designing, monitoring and implementation of projects on returns and reintegration, migration management, social inclusion, and preventing violent extremism.

Tenzin also worked as a human rights and governance analyst at the Ford Foundation based in New York, where she helped manage a $54M grant-making program for the internationalization of the human rights movement. Tenzin graduated with a master’s degree in East Asian History at Columbia University in New York; and a bachelor’s degree in International Relations and Affairs, and minors in Political Science, and Sociology and Anthropology from Lake Forest College. Tenzin also worked at Machik, a grassroots NGO supporting social innovation and quality education for girls, and rural and nomadic children in Tibet.

Kamee Abrahamian

Communications Manager

Kamee arrives in the world today as a queer and feminist diasporic-Armenian mother, interdisciplinary creative, scholar, producer, and facilitator. They hold a BFA/BA in film and political science (Concordia University), an MA in art therapy (European Graduate Institute), and soon to be PhD in community, liberation, indigenous and eco psychologies (Pacifica Graduate Institute).

Kamee's work is steeped in relational, generative, visionary and liberatory practices oriented towards ancestral reclamation, diasporic futurism, and radical imaginaries. They have published, organized, and presented their work internationally through Saboteur Productions and Kalik Arts, and continues to do so both independently and inside collaborative frameworks.

Anissa Daboussi

Manager, Advancing Universal Rights and Justice

Anissa is a French-Tunisian feminist. She holds a Bachelor Degree in Translation and Interpretation and a Master’s Degree of Political Sciences from Sciences Po Lille. She started her professional life in Cairo in January 2011 and has for the past ten years worked on and lived in different countries of the South West Asia and North Africa region. She previously worked for international NGOs and intergovernmental organisations such as IDEA, Unicef and more recently FIDH, where she worked as a human rights researcher and advocate from 2017 until 2021. Anissa is passionate about women struggles, anti-racist movements and decolonial studies.

Marta Musić

Marta Musić是前南斯拉夫的去殖民主義倡導者、女權主義者、運動家和研究人員,目前居住在巴塞羅那。她的工作主要包括建立活躍的團結網絡和空間,以便在地方、區域和全球層面的不同運動、領土和替代方案之間進行交流、相互學習和合作。她是“全球替代品掛毯”(Global Tapestry of Alternatives)的共同創始人之一,是ATTAC國際委員會的成員,並參與組織了世界轉型經濟的社會論壇。在這些空間中的集體反思和經驗的啟發下,她開始攻讀博士學位,研究方向為“從去殖民化女權主義視角來研究替代品的融合過程”。

Sanyu Awori

Building Feminist Economies Manager

Sanyu is a Pan-African feminist activist, strategist and writer based in Nairobi, Kenya. She has spent the last decade supporting labour, feminist and human rights movements advocating for corporate accountability and gender justice. She has worked with the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre, IWRAW Asia Pacific and the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative. Sanyu has also researched for the Human Rights Law Centre in Nottingham and done community work with refugee groups in the UK. She has a Master of Laws in Human Rights Law and a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Nottingham.

Lola Silva

ICM Coordinator

Lola is a communication, international and alternative media researcher. She is a founding member of the International Feminist Art Festival – Chouftouhonna and a board member of Kohl: a Journal for Body and Gender Research. She directed various audiovisual projects, in addition to scientific research aimed at deconstructing discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation. Through her work, she constantly questions the roles and norms imposed on women by different patriarchal societies. And she spent the last three years elaborating communication strategies and analyzing the political participation and media representation of transgender womxn in Brazil.

Michelle D’Cruz

Membership and Constituency Engagement Coordinator

Michelle is a digital advocacy and communications strategist who focuses on feminist approaches to social change. She is based out of Singapore. She previously worked on a worldwide campaign to end violence against women and girls, where she specialised in creative campaigning to shift social norms, engaging new audiences and co-creating projects with young feminists and creatives. Michelle has also worked in digital rights, human rights research and advocacy and civil society coalition building across Southeast Asia. She has an LLB from National University of Singapore, enjoys following her feet down random city streets and likes coffee a little too much.

Patience Chabururuka

Human Resources Coordinator

Patience is a human resources professional with nearly a decade of experience in human resources (HR) management in the not-for-profit sector. She lives and works in Zimbabwe. Patience has recently been with an INGO working as the Global HR Officer for Africa and in the same organization she also worked as Country Human resources and Safeguarding Focal Point for the Zimbabwe country office. Prior to that she worked in HR and Operations at another INGO in various capacities. She also has HR Consultancy experience which she gained while she was still studying for her BSc Honors degree in Human Resource Management. She regards herself as a people person and she takes wellbeing and safeguarding as her core personal values and in her professional work as well. As someone who loves sports, you can also find Patience at the basketball court, the tennis court or on the soccer field.

Joanne Kobuthi-Kuria

Manager, Membership and Constituency Engagement

Joanne is an African feminist who is passionate about dismantling gender inequalities on the African continent. She has an LLB from Moi University, a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Nairobi and is currently pursuing a Masters of Public Policy Administration at Strathmore University. Joanne is the founder of Double X Agenda-an online platform and a conversation starter on all matters women. In 2018, she led a campaign dubbed #MyBlackIsBeautiful which shed light on colourism on the African continent. Prior to joining AWID, Joanne led the Communications and Membership pillar at Amnesty International Kenya. She is a regular print columnist and TV commentator on gender issues. Through the project #Better4Kenya, Joanne works with a diverse collective of high profile Kenyan influencers with multiple NGOs around the notion that gender equality is not just a women's issue-it is better for everyone. She serves on the board of Freely in hope-an NGO based in Kenya and Zambia that seeks to equip survivors and advocates to lead in ending sexual violence. She is a book junkie with a penchant for fiction.

Maria Olivo

Digital Communications Coordinator

Maria is a graphic designer and visual communicator. For the last few years, Maria has been working with NGOs, and Human Rights organizations in the Dominican Republic - including Profamilia and OXFAM; Maria has a Master of Science in Communication and media Technologies, and a Bachelor's degree in Graphic Design.

Inna Michaeli

Co-Executive Director

Inna is a feminist queer activist and sociologist with many years of deep engagement in feminist and LGBTQI+ struggles, political education and organizing by and for migrant women, and Palestine liberation and solidarity. She joined AWID in 2016 and served in different roles, most recently as Director of Programs. She is based in Berlin, Germany, grew up in Haifa, Palestine/Israel, was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, and carries these political geographies and resistance to colonial past and present into her feminism and transnational solidarity.

Inna is the author of “Women's Economic Empowerment: Feminism, Neoliberalism, and the State” (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022), based on the dissertation which earned her a doctoral degree from the Humboldt University of Berlin. As an academic, she taught courses on globalization, knowledge production, identity and belonging. Inna holds an MA in Cultural Studies from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She is a Board Member of the Jewish Voice for a Just Peace in the Middle East (Germany), and previously of +972 Advancement of Citizen Journalism. Previously Inna worked with the Coalition of Women for Peace and she is passionate about mobilizing resources for grassroots activism.

Marianne Mesfin Asfaw

Logistics and Administrative Coordinator

Marianne is an African feminist who is dedicated to social justice and community development.

She has a BA in Gender Studies and International Relations from the University of British Columbia, and an MA in Gender Studies and Law from SOAS University of London. She has worked and volunteered at various non-profit and non-governmental organizations, including Plan International and UN Women, in administrative support and resource mobilization roles.

Marianne also has experience working in academic administration and student services with a particular focus on international student development. She is from Ethiopia but was raised in Rwanda and calls both places home. She enjoys reading, traveling and spending time with her family.
 

Juhi Bhavsar

IT Support Coordinator

Juhi holds a Bachelor's degree in Computer Engineering, and completed a post graduate in Wireless Telecommunications and Project Management from Humber College. She has experience working in multiple industries as an IT Technician from Finance to School Board.  Juhi loves listening to music, exploring new places and foods, and adventure sports. 

 

Lucy O.

Accounting Coordinator

Lucy holds a BComm degree in Finance, completed an accounting diploma from Centennial College. She has been working for different industries and volunteered in non-profit sector. She loves music and travel.

Priscilla Hon

Resource Mobilization Manager

Priscilla has over 15 years of resource mobilization and project management experience and has fundraised for a wide range of medium-sized charities, and supported field-based technical teams to produce compelling proposals and reports for funders. Currently based in London, she has worked with women’s rights, youth, development and conservation organizations that support marginalized communities in the UK and globally.

Priscilla has an MSc in International Politics from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) and in her spare time, sings with a community choir.

Camila Galdino

Online Production and Logistics Coordinator

Camila is a Brazilian communications specialist and passionate feminist. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Social Communications, majoring in Marketing and Publicity, from IESP in Brazil.

Camila is one of the co-founders of the Brazilian Network of Young Feminists and has worked in several non-profit organizations. She advocated for women’s rights in Brazilian and Latin American feminist movements for over a decade through public policy advocacy. She has also served as the Executive Producer of various events and coordinated communications for companies in both Brazil and Canada.

Ana Inés Abelenda

Building Feminist Economies Lead

Ana Abelenda has been working in AWID for the past five years as Economic Justice Coordinator focusing on understanding the impact of macroeconomic policies on gender equality and women’s human rights. Through advocacy at the global level, production of analysis and knowledge building from a feminist perspective, she has been focusing on tax justice, critique to growth-based development models, and unveiling the power of corporations globally and their impact for the advancement on gender equality and human rights.

Umyra Ahmad

Advancing Universal Rights and Justice Advocacy Lead

Umyra is a feminist from Malaysia with a background in international human rights law. She was most recently working with IWRAW Asia Pacific in advocating for feminist responses to gender-based violence in international and regional policy spaces. She also has experience in supporting national and grassroots advocacy strategies to challenge laws and policies that further marginalises young women and marginalised groups of women in South and Southeast Asia.  

Umyra is particularly interested in finding ways to mobilise against dominant narratives related to bodily autonomy and agency from a feminist and decolonial approach.

Kasia Staszewska

Manager: Resourcing Feminist Movements

Originally from Poland, has been supporting the work of feminist and social justice movements for the last 15 years. Before joining AWID, Kasia used to lead policy and advocacy work on women’s human rights for ActionAid and Amnesty International, and prior to that, worked and consulted for a number of feminist organisations including WIDE Network , FEMNET or KARAT Coalition.

She is passionate and knowledgeable about, among other things, gender just economies, building resilient feminist movements and resourcing for women’s rights. After a decade abroad Kasia is now back to Warsaw, where she engages with the feminist struggles for sexual and reproductive rights and supports the work of the first Polish Feminist Fund.

Margarita Salas Guzmán

Communications and Tactics Strategist

Margarita is a feminist and LGBT activist, and a founding member of several national and regional organizations and networks. Her passion is social transformation and collective welfare. She has a Master’s Degree in Public Administration (MPA) from Harvard University as well as a Master’s Degree in Communications and Development and a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology from Universidad de Costa Rica. She has also earned certificates from the Harvard Kennedy School in Management and Public Policy, and in Management, Leadership and Decision Making.

In her professional capacity, Margarita has had an extensive experience in development organizations both at national and international levels, implementing various services, among which participatory appraisals, strategic planning, training, technical counselling, assessments, development of protocols and interinstitutional policies, political advocacy strategies, communicational strategies, and project implementation. Work with such a wide array of organizations has allowed her to learn about different issues within the framework of the development agenda: social economy, information and communication technologies, migration policies, housing and right to the city, gender and environment, population with HIV, and the rights of women and LGBTIQ people, among others.

Gopika Bashi

Deputy Director of Programs

Gopika is an Indian feminist activist & campaigner, with over 11 years in the field of gender justice and human rights. Her experience is rooted in working with womxn & diverse young people on issues including access to justice, sexual & gender-based violence, gender & sexuality, and labour rights. In her most recent role, she worked with the global Enough Campaign to end gender-based violence; supporting regional & national campaigns across Asia. Prior to this, she led various women's rights campaigns at Amnesty International India. Gopika has been an advisor for FRIDA | The Young Feminist Fund since 2015, and served on the panel of the Global Resilience Fund (a rapid response fund set up for young womxn & girls responding to COVID-19).She is passionate about the intersection of feminist activism & creative practice, and was an editor and Equitable Practices Lead for the 'Bystander Anthology' by South Asian graphic story-telling group Kadak Collective.

Rachel Jacobson

Global Alliance Lead

Rachel is a US-born, Colombia-based feminist with fifteen years of experience in human rights and youth-led advocacy and abortion care. She has an MPH from Columbia University focusing on human rights and a BA in Women’s Studies and Human Rights Studies from Barnard College. Prior to joining AWID, Rachel worked with Action Canada for Sexual Health and Rights, the Youth Coalition for Sexual and Reproductive Rights, and Human Rights Watch. She also has a history of providing abortion care and dismantling abortion stigma in Texas. Outside of work, she loves to dance, cook, and cook while dancing with her daughter.

Jessica Whitbread

Membership and Constituency Lead

Jessica is a queer artist and activist from Toronto, Canada, but is currently based in Bulgaria. Jessica has over 15 years experience in the HIV response working at the intersections of gender and HIV with key populations (sex workers, women who use drugs, LGBTQI communities, incarcerated people). Jessica has worked as a consultant supporting organizations with the development of tools and programs to engage civil society in various advocacy efforts most recently as the global civil society engagement consultant for the UN High Level Meeting on AIDS in June. Jessica loves movement building and thinking/taking/strategizing about arts-based interventions. One fun project she started in 2013 was LOVE POSITIVE WOMEN that engages over 100 community groups and organizations globally every February 1-14th to celebrate women living with HIV in their communities.