ABout us
Mina's List works to provide resources, support, tools, and training to empower women political leaders and women human rights defenders in government and civil society. We advocate for and with them, whether they are displaced by conflict or in their home countries.
Our Team
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Tanya Henderson
Founder & President
Tanya Henderson is an international human rights lawyer whose work has focused on women’s rights and empowerment; peace and security; and women’s political participation through U.S. policy, international multi-lateral agencies, civil society, and coalition building among global women political leaders. In 2014, Tanya founded Mina’s List, with the mission to realize women’s equal and substantive political representation globally. Mina’s List has run multiple training programs for women political leaders in Afghanistan and Nigeria and has provided strategic support for women civil society organizations in DRC, Colombia, Guatemala, Morocco, Mongolia, Nepal, Cameroon and Syria Prior to starting Mina's List, Tanya was the Policy Director for Women's Action for New Directions, (WAND) where she helped draft the Women, Peace and Security Act which was signed into U.S. law in October 2017, and previously, as the U.S. National Director for the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), Tanya was involved in the development of the U.S. National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security (U.S. NAP), introduced by President Obama through Executive Order in December 2011. As a gender and legal consultant, Tanya provided gender training for political parties and aspiring candidates in Lebanon in 2012, 2019 and 2020, and worked in Ethiopia as part of a research team in conjunction with the Harvard Medical School, researching and drafting policy related to gender inequality, economic development and health. Her work has been published in the Journal of Politics and Law and the International Journal of Women’s Health, as well as other print and social media outlets. She received her Bachelor of Science (B.S.) from the University of Massachusetts Boston, her Juris Doctorate (J.D.) from Suffolk University Law School and pursued her Master’s of Law (LL.M) in international law from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. She has also earned several certificates in mediation and conflict negotiation. Since 2011, Tanya has been an active member and served in a leadership role for the U.S. Civil Society Working Group on Women, Peace and Security (U.S. CSWG).
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Teresa Casale
Executive Director
Teresa Casale is Executive Director of Mina’s List. With 15 years of experience in the international NGO sector, Teresa specializes in policy advocacy and has advocated to the U.S. government, the United Nations, the World Bank, and other global entities. Before becoming Executive Director, Teresa led Mina’s List’s advocacy efforts related to the promotion and protection of Afghan women and girls.. Prior to joining Mina’s List, Teresa served as Global Policy Advocate at the International Center for Research on Women, where she helped launch and manage the Coalition for Women’s Economic Empowerment and Equality, served as the Legislative Chair of the U.S. Civil Society Working Group on Women, Peace and Security, and managed the Feminist UN Campaign. Before working on global gender equality, Teresa focused on issues related to humanitarian response as well as peacebuilding and conflict transformation in regions such as Israel/Palestine, Kenya, Rwanda, and Syria. With a specialty in the U.S. Congress, Teresa has helped create, support, and pass multiple pieces of legislation including the Women’s Entrepreneurship and Economic Empowerment Act and the Women, Peace& Security Act, and helped draft the Afghan WIN (Women in Negotiations) Act. As a volunteer advocate for the Huntington’s Disease Society of America, Teresa conducted over 200 lobby meetings with Members of Congress on the Huntington’s Disease Parity Act, adding almost 100 co-sponsors to the bill, and winning the HDSA Advocate of the Year award in 2015. Teresa is a frequent contributor to The Hill and has also published in Ms. Magazine and Foreign Policy Magazine. She holds an M.A. in International Relations and a B.A. in History and Political Science.
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Palwasha Hassan
Senior Technical and Program Director
Palwasha Hassan is Senior Technical and Program Director for Mina's List where she oversees all program implementation. Prior to joining Mina's List she was a senior fellow at Georgetown University, Institute of Women Peace Security. In Afghanistan, she was the former Executive Director of the Afghan Women’s Educational Center and a founding member of the Afghan Women's Network. She has over 26 years of experience managing and leading complex projects in the fields of gender, development, humanitarian aid, and peacebuilding. In addition to her work in Afghanistan, she has experience working in Pakistan, Iran, and Central Asia. She has facilitated regional dialogues among civil society to promote human rights and peace and democracy in South Asia. Palwasha has in-depth experience and profound knowledge in research and has in- depth experience in initiating and setting up organizations, developing and coordinating projects and teams, and advocating for women’s rights and gender-sensitive laws and policies with local government and international stakeholders in Afghanistan and around the world.
Jennifer Turnage
Director of Finance
Jennifer is a versatile accounting and finance career professional, and entrepreneur, who has over 20 years of experience in non-profit, philanthropic, academic, private, and local government sectors. She has overseen all aspects of accounting and bookkeeping, internal controls and compliance, budgeting and forecasting, financial reporting and audits, operations and business management, grants management, and impact investment accounting. She is the founder of FrontPaige Business Solutions, LLC, which provides a comprehensive range of accounting, finance, business, and operations related consulting, coaching, and strategic planning services. She loves helping businesses maximize efficiency and production, while empowering them to make growth-driven decisions with confidence, and she provides solutions to challenges that many businesses face every day. She has been instrumental at the Compton Foundation for the last eleven years and currently serves as the Foundation’s Director of Finance – in which position, her proven leadership directs critical financial operations. Jennifer holds a Master of Science Degree in Accounting from Saint Mary’s College, graduating Summa Cum Laude, and a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Management from Menlo College.
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Sohini Ashoke
Program and Communications Assistant
Sohini Ashoke is a recent graduate of The George Washington University where she received a BA with honors in Political Science. She has previously worked as a research assistant on numerous international relations and human rights publications, with her most recent article discussing ways to reduce prejudice against refugees. Sohini has also worked as a legislative intern at the House of Representatives. Her role as Program Assistant at Mina’s List combines her passions for refugee issues, the rights of women and girls, and international law.
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Mohammad Bilal Aqdas
Program Officer, Afghanistan
Mohammad Bilal Aqdas is Mina’s List Program Officer for Afghanistan, and has a background in administration, logistics, and procurement. Most recently, he served as Admin and Logistics Manager at the Afghan Women Educational Center (AWEC) where he played a pivotal role in ensuring the seamless functioning of operations. His responsibilities included procurement and logistic support, asset inventory management, lease agreements, and facility maintenance. Bilal excelled in organizing official events, program activities, providing training support, and overseeing security initiatives. Bilal holds a degree in Political Science from Kardan University, complemented by certifications in Excel skills for business and global procurement and sourcing. Bilal is fluent in English, Dari, and conversational in Urdu and Pashtu.
Andreas Randow
Consultant & Tech Guy
Andreas brings 30 years of experience in the technology and software industry, including as Managing Partner at Proper Orange, LLC and Chief Technology Officer for TourSphere (now STQRY) to Mina's List. He is an accomplished software architect, algorithm developer, scalability expert, and SaaS strategist. Andreas also brings experience as an advisor to startups in the U.S. and Europe, and is savvy with patent research and patent drafting. Andreas hosts weekly open office-hours at The Venture Café, in the Cambridge Innovation Center. He is also a member of the Investors Collaborative.
Board of Directors
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Belquis Ahmadi
Senior Program Officer, United States Institute of Peace
Belquis Ahmadi has over 20 years of experience working in Afghanistan on issues related to
gender, human rights, civil society development, rule of law, governance and democracy.
Ahmadi’s extensive experience includes senior management positions under large USAID
programs in Afghanistan, evaluation of USAID gender and democracy and governance
programming, and analysis and design of gender and human rights programming, and
training and mentoring Afghan civil society and government candidates. She has also
published extensively on democracy, governance and women’s rights in Afghanistan.
From November 2010 to March 2014, Ahmadi worked on the USAID-funded Regional
Afghan Municipalities Program for Urban Populations Regional Command East (RAMP UP),
implemented in 14 provinces. In this role, Ahmadi managed the technical work of the
program to ensure high quality results and deliverables. In addition, she developed core
skills training modules to integrate and mainstream gender in all aspects of governance,
service delivery, and leadership to over 200 municipal officials in fourteen provinces.
From 2006 to 2009, Ahmadi served as senior human rights advisor in Afghanistan. In this
role, she provided leadership and management oversight of resources, including budget,
planning, and program monitoring; designed and implemented activities promoting women’s
rights through the use of religious arguments, providing analysis of the Shiite Personal
Status Law, as well as providing advice and guidance in drafting of the Law on Elimination of
Violence Against Women; and oversaw the preparation of training materials for programs.
Olivia Holt-Ivry
Special Advisor to the Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs and Executive Director, Women’s Councils, U.S. Department of State
Olivia Holt-Ivry is a Special Advisor to the Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs at the U.S. Department of State. In this capacity, she serves as Executive Director of three public-private partnerships that engage corporate, government, philanthropic, and civil society actors to advance women's economic security in Afghanistan, India, and Pakistan. Previously, she served as Senior Advisor to the U.S. Special Envoy for Afghan Women, Girls, and Human Rights, and as the Senior Programs Advisor on Women, Peace, and Security in the Secretary's Office of Global Women's Issues. Prior to joining government, Olivia worked as a gender consultant for clients such as the Department of Defense, Cordaid International, UNDP, Save the Children, and the OSCE, and served as Deputy Director of The Institute for Inclusive Security. From 2010-2013, she worked on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and the Iranian nuclear program at think tanks in Washington, D.C. and Tel Aviv, Israel. She holds an M.A. in International Security Studies from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and a B.A. in Classics and Political Science from McGill University.
Tina Tang
Director of Product Marketing, SAP and Chair, MIT CDO Forum West
Tina is a co-founder of the global non-profit, Women in Big Data— a grassroots organization started in 2015 that now counts 17,000+ members across 6 continents. Named one of Datanami’s People to Watch in 2020, she has over 25 years experience in the high technology industry and holds degrees from the University of Texas at Austin. Tina serves as head of Global Innovation marketing at EY, and she also advises startups on marketing strategy. She and her husband raised three sons in Palo Alto, California, where they live with a cat, 100,000 bees, 4 jackrabbits, and 2 donkeys.
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Jane Zimmerman
Retired Foreign Service Officer
Jane Zimmerman has enjoyed a decades-long career in public service, whether as senior U.S. diplomat, an international nonprofit executive, college professor and educator, or civic leader and volunteer. For over 25 years, she served as a U.S. State Department Foreign Service officer. Before sharing her experience and expertise with nonprofits as a strategic planning and board development consultant, she was the Chief of Staff at the GLIDE Foundation, an iconic nonprofit and social justice organization in San Francisco, CA. Jane was also the Managing Director of a family foundation advancing women, peace, and security. From 2019 to 2021, she served as the Director of the Dean Rusk International Studies Program at Davidson College in North Carolina. From 2017 to 2019, she was the Executive Director and CEO of the American Research Center in Egypt, and from 2013 to 2016, she was the Executive Director for International Policy & External Affairs at the American Red Cross. As a career U.S. State Department Foreign Service Officer, Jane was honored to serve as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. Her overseas assignments in the Foreign Service included Cyprus, Israel and the Gaza Strip, Tunisia, Brazil, and Mali. Her foreign languages include French, Portuguese, and Arabic. She is the recipient of the Secretary of State’s Career Achievement Award, four Superior Honor Awards, two Meritorious Honor Awards, and an Award for Excellence in Community Service. She has a Master of Arts in Law & Diplomacy from Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy, and a Bachelor of Arts from Macalester College.
Board of Advisors
Amb Chowhdury
Former UN Under-Secretary General
Ambassador Chowdhury has served as Permanent Representative to the United Nations, President of the UN Security Council, President of UNICEF Board, UN Under-Secretary-General, and the Senior Special Advisor to the UN General Assembly President. In March 2000 as the President of the Security Council, Amb. Chowdhury achieved the political and conceptual breakthrough leading to the adoption of the groundbreaking UN Security Council Resolution 1325 in which the Council recognized for the first time the role and contribution of women in the area of peace and security. He served as Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to the United Nations in New York from 1996 to 2001 and as the Under-Secretary-General and High Representative of the United Nations, responsible for the most vulnerable countries of the world from 2002 to 2007. Ambassador Chowdhury is a member of the Advisory Council of IMPACT Leadership 21 and is the first recipient of the IMPACT Leadership 21’s Global Summit Frederick Douglass Award Honoring Men Who Are Champions For Women’s Advancement in October 2013. He is one of the 12-member Asia-Pacific Regional Advisory Group on Women, Peace and Security hosted in Bangkok and also a member of the UN High Level Expert Advisory Group for the Global Study on the 15-year implementation of Security Council resolution 1325 (2000). He has been the Chair of the International Drafting Committee on the Human Right to Peace; an initiative coordinated from Geneva and was a founding member of the Board of Trustees of the New York City Peace Museum. Ambassador Chowdhury is the Founder of the New York-based Global Movement for The Culture of Peace. Public speaking and advocacy for sustainable peace keep him engaged at the present time.
Anne Bennett
Executive Director, Hirondelle USA
Anne Bennett is an international development expert with extensive experience in creating and managing complex radio and journalism projects and communications strategies in challenging post-war and development contexts. She has worked in countries all other world, including Sierra Leone, Sudan, South Sudan, Algeria, and North East India. Prior to founding HUSA, Ms. Bennett managed operations for Foundation Hirondelle in Sierra Leone, Sudan and South Sudan. She is recognized for successfully engaging effective multi-year support from international donors as well as partner organizations. Ms. Bennett has a BA from University of California at Berkeley and a MA from the Graduate Institute of International Studies, University of Geneva.
Asila Wardak
Minister Counselor, Permanent Afghan UN Mission
Asila Wardak Jamal is Minister Counselor for the Permanent Afghan mission to the United Nations. She is a women’s rights and civil society activist from Afghanistan and one of the founders of the Afghan Women’s Network. She joined the Asian Development Bank (ADB) as a Gender Specialist in 2009. Prior to ADB, she worked as a Social Development Specialist for the World Bank and was engaged in short term consultancies with UN Organizations, international NGOs, and York University on issues such as gender, transitional justice, community mobilization, and project supervision. The organizations she consulted for include UNDP, UNAMA, CARE, and the Canada Fund. She has also served as the Director of Human Rights and International Women Affairs in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2011). She has been re-elected for the second round of the Independent Human Right Commission (IPHRC) of OIC (Organization of Islamic cooperation) for another term of three years.
Bushra Gohar
Central Vice President, Awami Party and Former Member of Pakistani Parliament
Bushra Gohar is Central Vice President of the Awami National Party (ANP) and a former Parliamentarian in the Pakistani National Assembly (2008-2013). She has over 20 years of experience in policy, development, and human rights in Pakistan and the region. She was chair of the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Women’s Development and a member of the Working Council of the Women Parliamentary Caucus. She has also served on the National Assembly’s Special Committee on Millennium Development Goals & Energy Sector and the Standing Committees on Finance and Revenue, Interior and Kashmir Affairs. As a development and human rights activist, she served as Director of the Human Resources Management and Development Center, as well as Chair of the South Asia Partnership International, and Global Vice Chair of the International Council on Social Welfare. She was a founding member of the National Organization of Women in Parliamentary Politics, Advisory Council member for the Women, Peace, and Security Research Institute, and a member of the Parliamentarians Network for Conflict Prevention. She holds a Master’s Degree in Human Resource Management from Wilmington College, USA.
Catia Cecilia Confortini
Professor and Co-Director, Peace and Justice Department, Wellesley College
Catia Cecilia Confortini is Assistant Professor in the Peace and Justice Studies Program at Wellesley College in Massachusetts. Dr. Confortini has authored several works on women’s peace activism, including Intelligent Compassion: Feminist Critical Methodology in the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (Oxford University Press: 2012). She is chair of the Women’s Caucus in International Studies and past program chair of the Feminist Theory and Gender Studies Section of the International Studies Association (ISA). She is also a member of the Peace and Justice Studies Association and the Peace History Society. Beyond her academic work, Dr. Confortini has been involved in peace and justice activism at the local and international levels, from working as an advocate for domestic violence victims in California to running women’s rights workshops in Chiapas, Mexico. She was the US representative to WILPF’s International Board for 2011-2014. Dr. Confortini holds a Ph.D. from the University of Southern California’s School of International Relations and a Masters in International Peace Studies from the University of Notre Dame.
Cynda Collins Arsenault
President of Secure World Foundation
Cynda Collins Arsenault is co-Founder, Chairman of the Board, and President of Secure World Foundation, an operating foundation working towards the secure and sustainable use of outer space for the benefit of humanity. She has 45 years of experience in non-profit work including peace and justice, criminal justice, mental health, disability rights and environmental issues. She is also on the family Boards of One Earth Future and the Arsenault Family Foundation. In her personal philanthropy she concentrates on the empowerment of women in order to tap into critical skills that women bring to the world for solving the difficult problems we face, with a particular focus on women, peace and security. She is part of the Women’s Donor Network, Women Moving Millions and The International Women’s Forum. She is the founder of Women Powering Change, an annual gathering of women working to create a better world. She has also been involved, for many years, in promoting opportunities for people with developmental disabilities and has authored two books on the subject. Her daughter, Erin, was born in 1979 with cerebral palsy, opening Cynda’s world to the value and opportunities for personal growth that people with disabilities bring the rest of us. Her son, John, born in 1985 currently lives in Boulder working as an investment researcher and musician. (Erin passed away in 2010.) Cynda received her BA in Sociology and Psychology at the University of California Berkeley and Masters Degree in Education from Colorado State University. She has lived in Colorado since 1974.
Cynthia Enloe
Professor and Author, Gender, Conflict, and Political Science, Clark University
Cynthia Enloe is Research Professor of International Development and Women’s Studies at Clark University (USA). She serves on the Advisory Board of the Consortium for Gender, Security and Human Rights at UMass Boston and on WILPF’s International Academic Network. Her teaching and research delves into the experiences of women in militarized societies and in areas of armed conflicts, as well as women working in globalized factories. Among her recent books are: Bananas, Beaches and Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International Politics (updated edition, 2014); Seriously: Investigating Crashes and Crises as If Women Mattered (2013); and Nimo’s War, Emma’s War: Making Feminist Sense of the Iraq War (2010).
Donya Aziz
Medical Doctor and Former Member of Pakistani Parliament
Donya Aziz is a medical doctor and former Parliamentarian in the Pakistani National Assembly. In 2002 she began her political career with the Pakistan Muslim League (PML) and was elected to Pakistan’s National Assembly. During her first tenure in Parliament, she was one of the youngest members and was appointed Parliamentary Secretary for the Ministry of Population Welfare, where she pursued her interest in advocacy for reproductive health. During her last tenure she served on various committees and also served as Parliament’s representative on the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council and on the Pakistan Nursing Council. She is currently a member of the working council of the Women’s Parliamentary Caucus, President of the Young Parliamentarian’s Forum, and on the Executive Board of Parliamentarians for Global Action. She holds BSC and MBBS degrees from the University of Punjab, and conducted research in interventional radiology at the UCLA Medical Center.
Dr. Iyabo Obansanjo
Former Nigerian Senator and Commissioner of Health for Ogun State
Dr. Obasanjo is completing a book on leadership and development in Africa. Until June 2015, she was a Distinguished Fellow at the African Presidential Center at Boston University. Prior to that she was an Advanced Leadership Initiative Fellow at Harvard University from Jan 2012 to Dec 2013. In 2007, she was elected into the Nigerian Senate and was Chair of the Senate Committee on Health until her term ended in 2011. From 2003 to 2007 she was the Commissioner for Health for Ogun State, Nigeria. She founded the Non-Profit, African Women Advocacy Project which provides after school science education for girls in poor suburbs around Accra, Ghana. Dr. Obasanjo is on the board of the US National Committee for UN Women. She has a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree from University of Ibadan, Nigeria and a Master’s in Preventive Veterinary Medicine (MPVM) from University of California, Davis as well as a PhD in Epidemiology from Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.
Dr. Sophie Nakueira
Senior Research Fellow, Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology
Sophie Nakueira holds an LLM and a PhD in Public Law from the University of Cape Town. She is Senior Research Fellow heading up the Africa component of the Horizon 2020 research project Vulnerabilities under the Global Protection Regime (“VULNER”), which aims to understand how the law evaluates, shapes, addresses, and produces vulnerabilities of protection seekers in practice. Nakueira’s work cuts across the fields of law, criminology, and anthropology as she attempts to understand the disjuncture between law and practice and associated effects of interactions between diverse actors and contestations between different normative orders. She has explored topics on transnational private governance, the governance of mega-events, and governance in humanitarian spaces. These topics are part of her broader research interest in understanding how contemporary governance takes shape and the resulting effects in global contexts. She completed her PhD in 2014 with a thesis titled New Architectures of Governance: Transnational Private Actors, Enrolment Strategies and the Security Governance of Sports Mega Events. Nakueira is a research associate at the Global Risk Governance Programme at the University of Cape Town and a member of the Evolving Securities Initiative (ESI), a cross-disciplinary group of scholars that undertakes research on current and emerging security challenges. Prior to joining VULNER, she taught at the University of Zurich, where she is currently a research associate. She has worked in various capacities as a researcher, visiting scholar, guest lecturer, and consultant in Uganda, South Africa, Australia, Belgium, and Germany.
Jennifer McCarthy
Assistant Secretary-General, Parliamentarians for Global Action
Jennifer McCarthy is Assistant Secretary-General of Parliamentarians for Global Action (PGA), a global network of 1,100 legislators from 140 countries advocating for human rights, rule of law, democracy, human security, non-discrimination, and gender equality. She served as Managing Director of Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative, led by Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. At Realizing Rights, she directed the Women Leaders Intercultural Forum (WLIF), which leveraged women’s leadership to contribute to a more just and secure world and fully implement UNSCR 1325. She organized women leaders’ diplomacy missions to amplify the voices of women directly affected by conflict in Africa and the Middle East. She managed major international events, including the International Women Leaders Global Security Summit; and served as program chair for the March 2009 International Colloquium on Women’s Leadership in Liberia that was co-convened by Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Finnish President Tarja Halonen. She has worked as a consultant to non-profit organizations and foundations on strategic planning, program development, and fundraising. She holds a Master’s degree from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs in economic and political development, and a Bachelor’s degree in anthropology from Barnard College.
Justine Rukeba Mbabazi
International Lawyer
Justine Rukeba Mbabazi is an international lawyer with over 20 years in international law and development. She has worked with over 13 governments to tackle issues regarding the rule of law, transitional justice, gender equality, and institutional capacity building. Her work in post-conflict countries such as Rwanda, Afghanistan, and South Sudan has helped these countries achieve some of the highest percentages of women in decision-making roles in the world. In Rwanda, she played a critical role in discussion forums on the Rwandan Constitution that placed gender equity at the forefront of national politics. In Afghanistan, she worked as a gender expert, human rights advocate, and senior legal advisor for Bearing Point, Deloitte, and Global Rights with USAID funding. Most recently, she spearheaded the successful referendum and legislative strengthening in South Sudan. She is the author of This is your Time, Rwanda. She holds a Master’s in International Law (LL.M) from Washington College of Law and a Diploma in International Leadership from Harvard Law School.
Maria Butler
Program Director, PeaceWomen, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom
Maria Butler is the Director of the PeaceWomen Program of Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) at the UN office in NY. She is the author of numerous publications including the “Women, Peace and Security Handbook” and analysis of the Security Council’s resolutions. She regularly presents at and facilitates briefings, trainings, and consultations with Security Council members, other states, UN officials, and civil society groups across a range of policy topics. For example, she led the work to organize the first ever meeting of the UN Security Council with Syrian civil society in January 2014. She has pioneered the development of new tools for knowledge sharing, including the first ever iPhone application on Security Council work and an ongoing successful lecture series. Prior to WILPF, she worked as an advisor for the Permanent Mission of Ireland on a range of policy matters including the Middle East, in partnership with human rights and community development organizations. She is an Attorney-at-Law and a member of the New York State Bar. She holds a Masters in Human Rights from the London School of Economics and is a native of Ireland.
Mohammed Naeem
Social Entrepreneur, Speaker and Women’s Rights Advocate
As a recent fellow for IMAGINE, an initiative of the Empowerment Institute, as well as a member of the Clinton Global Initiative, Mr. Naeem collaborated with private and nonprofit stakeholders to empower women globally. Addressing women’s empowerment, Naeem has worked with international delegations at the U.S. State Department; participated in panels concerning gender and conflict for global NGOs; discussed grassroots program development with researchers at the Consortium for Gender, Security, and Human Rights and keynoted the 2014 Gala for Women for Afghan Women (WAW) as a Global Ambassador. Most recently, he addressed the United Nations Beijing+20 March for Gender Equality with Ban Ki-moon, Secretary General of the United Nations. Naeem is also a delegate to the ManUp Campaign, engaging men to end gender-based violence around the world. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Health Science from Stony Brook University (’13) and currently lives with his hero–his mother–and family in Flushing, New York.
Shinkai Karokhail
Member of Parliament
Shinkai Karokhail is a Parliamentarian in the Afghan National Assembly, where she works towards conflict prevention and promotes women’s rights. She helped push forward the Elimination of Violence Against Women Bill and was the only member of Parliament to oppose the drafted Shia Family Law. She also founded the gender budget within the National Budget of Afghanistan. She is one of the founding members of the Afghan Women’s Educational Center, and has served as Director since 2002. She is also a founding member and current chair of the Parliamentary Women’s Network and board member for Afghan Women’s Network. In 2012, she was the first ever recipient of the East West Institutes’s H.H. Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak Award for Values-based Leadership. She holds a diploma in English from the National Institute of Modern Languages of Islamabad, Pakistan and studied at the Medical College of Kabul University between 1979 and 1984 to become a Doctor. She has also completed studies in Political Science.
