Ananya Tiwari

Ananya Tiwari (33), from India, is a doctoral candidate in educational psychology at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, with a minor in gender relations in international development and a graduate certificate in evaluation studies.

Ananya’s research explores structural determinants of gender inequality among marginalized girls in Indian schools, with a specific examination of “sense of belonging” within educational settings. Specifically within India’s residential girls’ secondary schools (KGBV), Ananya seeks to determine the levels of disadvantage that create cultural dissonance - the clash when girls’ education is being promoted at the policy level but community factors (caste, religion, gender, socio-economic status, and rural locations) are contributing to low attendance, high drop-out, and the fundamental belief that “I cannot succeed.” 

In 2018 Ananya co-founded an international non-profit, SwaTaleem (https://swataleem.org), which addresses child marriage and school dropout by enhancing educational and life skills for girls in rural India. So far, the organization has worked with 1,000 girls across six schools in some of the most deprived parts of India.

Ananya’s future career is in international development as an expert and policy advocate in the global gender equity space. She hopes to continue expanding SwaTaleem and supporting underrepresented minorities to equip them in leading community-based initiatives.

Basnama Ayaz

Basnama (48), from Pakistan, is completing her doctorate in nursing at the Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing at the University of Toronto. Her study analyzes the human resources for health policy in Afghanistan, which capitalized on promoting women in the workforce to meet the needs of women, who are permitted to receive care only from female healthcare providers. Basnama aims to account for the difference between women’s participation as midwives, nurses, and physicians.

Basnama is an accomplished and ambitious nurse. She is the first from her province (Gilgit-Baltistan) to receive a master’s in nursing and pursue a PhD. Before commencing her PhD, Basnama worked for six years as Manager, Training and Policy, with the Aga Khan University (AKU) Academic Projects Afghanistan, supporting the Ministry of Public Health to revise and implement its nursing curriculum, standards, and policies.

Generally one of  few women in the room, Basnama is a trailblazer. While she will be the first woman from Gilgit-Baltistan with a PhD in nursing, her commitment to women’s access to healthcare and nursing education suggests she won’t be the last.

Her immediate career goal is to continue to work for AKU on its Afghanistan project, and in the long term her dream is to establish a nursing school in northern Pakistan. With this school, nursing candidates would no longer have to be uproot from their communities and relocate to distant Karachi to become much-needed nurses.

Diana Githu

Diana Githu (28), from Kenya, is pursuing her doctorate in Arid Land Resource Sciences at the University of Arizona.

Diana’s research examines the transferability of the agrivoltaics innovation to the Kenyan context. Agrivoltaics involves simultaneous use of land for both photovoltaic power generation and agriculture. When implemented, this innovation has the potential to reduce food and energy insecurity and increase water conservation among vulnerable rural communities, and ultimately help women, who most often undertake the tasks of water collection, gathering firewood, and cooking.

Diana has over eight years of experience conducting socio-ecological research in rangeland ecosystems. She has worked for the Kenya Forestry Research Institute and for the Rehabilitation of Arid Environments as a field/office coordinator.

In 2012, she founded an NGO called Guzo Kenya, which strives to improve the life of the impoverished in the society, primarily children, through projects related to food security, equitable education, and water hygiene and sanitation.

Diana’s goal is to work in industry, focused on improving sustainable agricultural methods in the developing world.

Diana Marcela Torres Molano

Diana Marcela Torres Molano (32), from Colombia, is completing her doctorate in art history at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada.

Marcela’s study examines the use of community art as a tool for healing, in the context of post-conflict Colombia. “When a pain cannot be put into words, it can be put into materiality,” says Marcela. She hopes for this study to provide healing to the female community artists, help break the conflict-trauma cycle for their children, and promote peace-building in the wider community. She will be the first scholar to produce an English-language dissertation based on direct interviews with artists, foregrounding the purpose and meaning of their art as well as their gendered and racialized experiences.

Marcela’s previous achievements include co-founding a design project in Nepal, Parkmandu, enabling young girls and women to participate in the development of their neighborhoods and community spaces; being the art director for Decrebis, a collaborative project with women refugees in Italy; and founding a non-profit organization Mhuysqa, which facilitates the co-production art projects, cultural training, education, citizen involvement, and urban transformations.

Marcela’s goal is to continue using art as a powerful advocacy tool and put gender at the center of participatory space design, urban planning, and policymaking.

Fiorella Yvette Guerrero Calle

Fiorella Yvette Guerrero Calle (37), from Peru, is completing her doctorate in rehabilitation sciences at the University of Florida.

Fiorella’s studies focus on developing a family quality-of-life instrument—a holistic instrument measuring the physical, emotional, and social wellbeing of families with children with disabilities—in Peru’s rural highlands. This tool can then be used to measure the effectiveness of future policy and program interventions, which she hopes to design and implement.

An activist-academic, Fiorella is already implementing programs through the organization she founded: Warmakuna Hope. This organization provides free rehabilitation services to children with disabilities; empowers families through various training programs; promotes inclusive education at the community and policy level; and creates collaborative networks among teachers, therapists, and other specialist interventions. Fiorella’s long-term career goals are to turn Warmakuna Hope into a sustainable organization and conduct research in the disability field to gather evidence for public policymaking.

Fiorella’s commitment is to “making children with disabilities visible,” which she aims to achieve by changing how parents see the potential of their children; how teachers set expectations for them; and how policymakers see and support their role in society.

Neema Landey

Neema Landey (38), from Tanzania, is a third-year PhD student in education at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada.

Neema’s research examines the community attitudes and social constraints that contribute to low school attendance by Maasai girls. Despite existing efforts, factors such as female genital mutilation, child marriages, teen pregnancy, low value on girls’ education, and a lack of decision-making power are all significant impediments to Masai girls’ education.

Neema’s goal is to continue researching education in Africa and establish a peace center, which she is in the process of registering. The center will serve the dual purpose of being a refuge for girls who run away from home and a community library that would educate and empower young girls. Neema also hopes to continue her micro-finance scheme, which offers financial instruction and independence to many women. So far, Neema’s efforts have already helped mentor 52 girls in her community, of which one has recently gone to study abroad on a scholarship.

As a member of the Masai herself, Neema sees herself as an “inside outsider.” This position places her extremely well to support her community and influence meaningful change.

Rochelle Channer

Rochelle Channer (32), from Jamaica, is completing a doctorate in urban and regional planning at Florida State University. Her study is an institutional and experimental analysis of select housing policies in Jamaica, focused on decolonization and transformative planning.

Rochelle aims to make the housing market transparent for the people most challenged by the current system, and to tackle colonial structures that impact how community planning and real estate are practiced, most often leading to the dispossession and displacement of women and children.

Rochelle’s goal is to create a non-profit housing institute with branches across Jamaica, offering specialized supportive housing services, counseling, and financial training.

Rochelle is addressing concrete public policy shortfalls that have a disproportionate impact on women and children. “Without understanding the old laws and interacting policies impacting our behaviours, we cannot make a true change,” she says.

Ruthfirst Ayande

Ruthfirst Ayande (35), from Ghana, is completing a doctorate in public health at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Her research examines the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on maternal and child health, and explores strategies to deliver remote nutrition education interventions to improve infant and young child feeding practices in Ghana.

Ruthfirst practices an interdisciplinary approach to the field of nutrition. She is completing a certificate in feminist studies alongside her doctoral studies to better understand women’s unique challenges in accessing healthcare, including reproductive services. She has also led seminars on food and identity, exploring the foodways and specific dietary needs of various populations to inform sustainable feeding practices.

In the future, Ruthfirst hopes to implement nutrition training interventions, collaborating with women in rural settings to utilize their native foods to achieve maximal nutritional benefit. Ruthfirst’s long-term goals are to create community kitchens and learning centers in low-income communities to offer nutrition and health services. Furthermore, Ruthfirst aspires to contribute to STEM education for girls in Ghana through fundraising and mentoring.

 “My goal for research is to be able to inform policy shifts in maternal and child health because data helps with advocacy.”