Individuals

Reverend Charles Okunya Oode is the Diocesan Education Co-ordinator for the Church of Uganda, Kumi Diocese which covers the jurisdiction of four districts in North-Eastern Uganda. 

He is principal of a theological college as well as being a board member of four institutions including MIDA, a charity that supports and enables sustainable entrepreneurship for rural women through farming and other projects. 

Charles oversees 133 primary schools and 13 post primary schools. He is an advocate of girls in education and actively seeks means of ensuring girls stay in school, including numerous projects promoting health and well-being, including menstrual hygiene education. 

In 2019 he was awarded a certificate of recognition for spearheading education and women’s empowerment. Reverend Charles’s passion, hard work, and determination has tirelessly been channelled into helping the children and needy in his community, where he is held in high esteem as a positive role model and inspirational leader. 

Grace Nabuduwa holds a Master of Education degree and post graduate Diploma in Human resource management. She is currently a head teacher of Ngora Girls SS in Ngora District in Uganda. She has taught for nearly 30 years in various schools at secondary level impacting young girls and boys to shape their future.

She is involved in issues of women and girls and helps to inspire youth in schools through the power of education to transform individuals and society.

She is an iEARN educator (International Educational and Resource Network) promoting international education through school collaborative project based on Sustainable Development Goals- SDGs using technology. She is passionate about girls education since coming from a poor background education has given her leverage to rise from obscurity.

She is involved in voicing the challenges that affect girls’ education through a project at school called Girls Voices where girls amplify their dreams and obstacles to education using media. The girls communicate to their audience using photography and videos. One photo speaks 1000 words. Grace also trains girls in media creation.

She is collaborating with other organizations and associations like GirlsforGirls aimed at mentoring girls and women into leadership.

Helen Kezie-Nwoha is the Executive Director of   Isis-WICCE. With an academic background in gender and international development and over 18 years’ experience working on women’s rights, gender, peace building and conflict resolution and governance, and women’s leadership in peace building and post conflict reconstruction. She has led regional and international training and research programs and advocacy on Peace and security in Africa (Liberia, South Sudan, Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Sierra Leonne and Burundi) and Asia. She has also provided technical support for peace mediation engagements by women activists in Burundi and Democratic Republic of Congo. Helen is a member of the African Women’s Mediators Network – FEMWISE and a member of the steering committee of the Gender Is My Agenda Campaign at the African Union; a network of over 55 African women’s organizations advocating for gender mainstreaming at the African Union. 

She has co-authored the following publications; Standing Firm, Reclaiming Civic Space. Sur International Journal of Human Rights (2017); Sustainable Development Goal 16: The Challenges of Sustaining Peace in Places of Crises (2017); Making Gender-Just Remedy and Reparation Possible: Upholding the Rights of Women and Girls in the Greater North of Uganda (2013); Women’s Participation in Post Conflict Reconstruction: The case of Burundi, Liberia and Sierra Leone. (2013); Policy Brief on Gaps between Policy and the Reproductive Health needs of Women, December 2011; and Policy Brief on Addressing Women’s Post Conflict Needs in Uganda, 2012.

Laura Murphy is Professor of Human Rights and Modern Slavery at the Helena Kennedy Centre for International Justice at Sheffield Hallam University (UK). She was a British Academy Fellow at University of Nottingham in 2018-2019, and the John G. Medlin Fellow at the National Humanities Center in 2017-2018.

She is the author of The New Slave Narrative: The Battle over Representations of Contemporary Slavery (Columbia University Press, 2019), and editor of Survivors of Slavery: Modern-Day Slave Narratives (Columbia University Press, 2014). She is currently working on a book about a 2002 slave revolt in India for Columbia Global Reports. 

Her research on the intersection of homeless youth and human trafficking provided a four-pronged victim-centered community blueprint for how service providers can best assist youth at risk of trafficking, based on interviews with over 600 homeless youth in the U.S. and Canada. She serves as a subject matter expert in the field of human trafficking for the U.S. Office of Victims of Crime and the Administration of Children and Families. She is also the chair of the research committee of HEAL, an organization dedicated to providing a public health lens to the field of human trafficking.

In addition to her academic presentations, she is a sought-after trainer and public speaker who has educated and motivated thousands of community activists, students, law enforcement officers, service providers, and medical professionals to employ a trauma-informed response to serve the needs of survivors of trafficking and contemporary slavery. As a consultant, she provides stakeholders assistance with community-based research, curriculum design, evaluations, and awareness projects in the field of modern slavery, human trafficking, and other social justice issues.   

Dr Stella Jerop Chebii is a 41 year old  scholar  from Kenya with a PhD in Communication studies and a Masters of Arts in Linguistics.

Currently a Lecturer of Gender and Communication at Moi University in the Department of Communication Studies. 

Dr Chebii is also a member of the Soroptimist international, a global voice for empowerment of women and girls.  

Hardlyne Lusui is an energetic, ambitious lady who has developed a mature and responsible approach to any task that she undertakes, or situation that she is presented with. As a graduate with seven years’ experience in Banking and three years in Marketing and agribusiness, she is excellent in working with particularly women and youth towards ensuring their empowerment.

Hardlyne is currently the Chief Executive Officer of World Poles Co. Ltd (starting March 2019) and a non-executive Director of Consolidated Bank of Kenya Limited (a national appointment from December 2018).

Professor of Sociolinguistics. Director, Linguistic Profiling for Professionals, University of Nottingham, UK.

Professor Louise Mullany specialises in investigations of gender and language in professional settings in global contexts, including businesses, politics, healthcare and the mass media.

She is principal Investigator of the Language, Gender and Leadership Network, funded by the UK-based Arts and Humanities Research Council. She has published widely and book publications include Language, Gender and Feminism: Theory, Methodology and Practice, (with Sara Mills, Routledge) and Gendered Discourse in the Professional Workplace (Palgrave Macmillan). Forthcoming books include the edited collection Professional Communication: Consultancy, Advocacy, Activism and The Sociolinguistics of Gender in Public Life, both with Springer Palgrave. 

She is Founder and Director of Linguistic Profiling for Professionals (LiPP), a research consultancy and business unit delivering linguistic communications analysis to public, private and third sectors, including charities and NGOs. One of the core strands of LiPP is engagement in research, consultancy and training in equality, diversity and inclusion. Professor Mullany has worked with various stakeholders and organisations to address a range of contemporary issues related to language and leadership in order to bring about organisational and social change. She has successfully delivered research-based consultancy and training to over 300 businesses and organisations, from SMEs through to large multinationals.  

She is currently also Co-Investigator on an Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council grant, investigating recruitment language and digital discrimination experienced by non-traditional groups in Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths and Medicine (2018-2020). She has also received research funding from the European Regional Development Fund, the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the Economic and Social Sciences Research Council, the British Academy and the UK’s Higher Education Innovation Fund. She has presented her professional communication research in a number of global locations including New Zealand, Hong Kong, Canada, China, Brazil, Argentina, Poland, Spain, Kenya and Uganda. 

Senior people development consultant / EDI consultant

Honorary Associate Professor of Sociolinguistics / EDI Specialist, University of Nottingham

Dr Roshni Mooneram’s key areas of expertise lie in the interface between research, people development and Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) policy in the corporate and public sectors. She is also a leadership coach and mentor.  

During her early academic career, she lectured at Birmingham City University, then co-founded and directed the Division of English Studies and the Centre for Research in Applied Linguistics at the University of Nottingham in China. She has a career history of leading people development strategies, creating inclusive curricula, and knowledge exchange in international organisations. 

Since leaving conventional academia, she has specialised in establishing positive learning environments and operational programmes across diverse global industries (such as Accenture and HSBC) that demand keen business, commercial, financial, and technology acumen to succeed. She also has expertise in driving (cultural) change in the public and corporate spheres and maximising performance to achieve organisational values, vision and business objectives. She incorporates evidence-based, bold and disruptive approaches to effectively challenge and engage cross-functional teams and communities. She draws from the latest research in neuroscience to create bespoke leadership development journeys for the future workplace. 

She is an EDI policy advisor to public stakeholders and industry leaders. She is currently completing a report for the University of Nottingham to advise on how it might harness its EDI related research to influence policy in this area. 

She is a Tedx-Talker, a columnist, a creative writer, and a traveller.