Virginia Nduta is the Executive Director of Women’s Empowerment Link (www.wel.or.ke) she holds a masters of Arts in Education Gender and International Development from the University of London and a Bachelors in Community Development from Kenyatta University. Virginia has specialised expertise in the design and quality assurance of gender equality and women empowerment programs; She believes that advancing and elevating women in all spheres especially in leadership and governance is the key to achieving sustainable political, economic and social development and is passionate about supporting women leaders, norm breakers and change-makers in Kenya. Prior to joining Women’s Empowerment Link Virginia worked within the area of disability inclusion and led advocacy campaigns aimed at expanding participation of persons living with disabilities in leadership and governance.

Everlyne Komba is an international Gender, Governance, Human Rights and Development expert with 10 years of experience. She has major competencies in matters of Public Policy Development, Analysis and Research, Access to Gender Justice, Gender-based Violence, Gender programming, Ending Harmful Traditional practices and Child Protection, Monitoring and Evaluation, Gender Responsive Budgeting. Gender mainstreaming and Inclusion, Women Economic Empowerment and Gender Data Training and Analysis.

Prof. Ngare is the immediate former Director for the Centre for Gender Equity and Empowerment at Kenyatta University (KU), and a Research Associate at the Women’s Economic Empowerment Hub (KU-WEE) leading the Policy and Advocacy docket. This is an initiative under the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on what works for Women’s Economic Empowerment.  Grace is a renowned gender scholar who has received numerous research awards among them, Johns Hopkins University project on Gender and Covid 19; Collaborative for Gender Equity & Empowerment In Education and Labour Systems Between John Hopkins University &Kenyatta university. She has also been funded by the Association of Commonwealth Universities where she developed a Technological App to enhance SGBV reporting at Kenyatta University in Kenya; in addition to the European Union-LEAP Agri on Phenotyping Cooking Bananas & Plantains for food Security. Other funding is from the Association of African Universities; National Research Fund; Lake Victoria Basin Research Initiative and OSSREA. Prof. Ngare is a recipient of the 2018/2019 Leicester Institute of Advanced Studies Fellowship and currently, the 2021 ACU Fellowship at Coventry University, where she is testing an indigenous model to address FGM in Kenya. Grace is an alumnus of the Global Women Leadership Network, and a coach for the course “Being a Leader and the Effective Exercise of Leadership Course an Ontological/ Phenomenological Model”.  In addition, Grace has published widely in the field of gender, besides supervising numerous postgraduate students.

Jack Odiwa is an experienced development professional, with 8 years of qualified experience leading projects touching on Policy Advocacy & Influencing, Governance, Child Rights, Gender and Women Rights, Education and Systems Strengthening. He has gathered valuable experience working within international development agencies, non-governmental organizations and the private sector. Prior to joining ActionAid International in Kenya, he was the National Policy and Advocacy Officer at Plan International Kenya. He possesses a successful trajectory in establishing and maintaining strategic partnerships. He is also a certified project manager (PMD Pro) by APMG International and is well conversant with project management tools and methodologies including ERPs like SAP. Jack is passionate about a safer world where every person has an equal opportunity to access and enjoy human rights including justice, rule of law, dignity, love, peace, equality and freedom.

Lauren Hendricks is the CEO of Equity Group Foundation International. Equity Group Foundation (EGF) was established in 2008 as the social arm of Equity Group Holdings. It seeks to transform the lives and livelihoods of the people of Africa. EGF was born out of Equity Bank’s commitment to providing service to the poor, both through its core business model and its various corporate social responsibility initiatives.

Prior to Equity Group Foundation, Lauren served as the Executive Vice President of Grameen Foundation.  A global expert in international development and financial inclusion, she works to engage technology and the private sector to address the critical challenges of our time.  She has partnered with banks, microfinance institutions, mobile network operators, and others in the private sector to adapt products and services to meet the needs of the poor, and to ensure that participants benefitted from new, digital financial services.

She was previously Executive Director for the Access Africa initiative at CARE, where she led the development of financial inclusion programs and innovative solutions to reach the poorest people in Africa.

Bernadette Wanjala is an economist with extensive experience in research and teaching at the university. She is currently the Research Director at the Strathmore University Business School (Nairobi, Kenya). In addition to the administrative role, she is also a faculty member where she teaches various postgraduate courses. Her areas of interest include public policy analysis and evaluation, public sector finance, public finance management, development economics, macroeconomic modelling, gender analysis and gender-aware macroeconomics (including feminist economics and gender-responsive budgeting), and programme evaluation (including experimental and non-experimental impact evaluation). She has published several journal papers, book chapters and working/discussion papers mainly in the areas of macroeconomics, economic development and gender mainstreaming/gender-responsive budgeting. She has also extensively consulted for various organizations, key among them, UN Women, United Nation Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), World Health Organization, World Bank, Save the Children, Tax Justice Network, Society for International Development, Action Aid International, Overseas Development Institute (UK), among others.

Azetse Were is a development economist with over ten years of experience working in Africa on Economic Research, Analysis and Strategy Development with a focus on Macroeconomics, Manufacturing, Private Sector Development, the Informal Economy, Finance Systems, and Trade and Investment. She has a Master’s in Economics from the University of Sydney (Australia) and a Bachelor’s degree from Brown University (USA). Over her career Anzetse has worked with African governments, private sector, development finance institutions, non-profit organisations, as well as academia and think tanks. She is currently Senior Economist at FSD Kenya.

Maureen Miruka is Country Director at CARE International in Kenya. She previously has held various roles within the Food and Water Systems Department at CARE USA as follows: Director of Gender, Youth and Livelihoods; Director of Agriculture and Market Systems; Team Leader of the flagship Women in Agriculture Program-Pathways; and as Principal Research Scientist at the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization. Her research and development focus is on gender equality & women’s voice in agriculture-based livelihoods. Maureen received the African Woman Award in 2018 from the International Development Research Center- in recognition of leaders and change-makers in the area of women’s empowerment and transformation of gender relations in Africa. She holds a PhD in Development Studies from the University of Greenwich, London UK.