Panelists

Moderator:

Jennifer Hollett, TV, new media, the world

Jennifer Hollett’s work as a broadcast journalist has taken her around the globe. Her international reporting has won her several awards, from documenting the lives of youth in Afghanistan to being tear gassed with Israeli conscientious objectors in Palestine. As a Swiss Army knife storyteller, she can report, blog, shoot, produce and edit. At present, she is a Cross-Platform Contributor on CBC News Network’s new prime time program Connect.

Jenn is best known for her work with MuchMusic as a VJ and Videographer. While at Much, Jenn hosted a variety of shows: MuchOnDemand, The MuchMusic Video Awards, Live@Much and MuchNews. She has interviewed an endless list of big names, from Beyonce to Prime Minister Stephen Harper. After the collapse of the Taliban, Jenn travelled to Kabul to host A MuchMusic Special: Afghanistan. The documentary won a Gold Ribbon Award from C.A.B., a Bronze Award at the New York Festivals, and was nominated for a Gemini. Jenn reported from Live 8 in London, and travelled to Thailand, Sri Lanka and Indonesia to cover the tsunami for MuchNews and The New Music. Prior to MuchMusic, Jenn was a chatterbox with CTV/TalkTV’s live current affairs show the chatroom.

Jenn’s career began in new media at Sony Music Canada, where she became a Manager of New Media during the height of the digital music revolution. She was the youngest manager in the company’s history. The Globe and Mail selected Jenn for their 133 Young Leaders List in 2000. This webgrrl has been online since 1994, created her first website in 1995 and started blogging before it was called blogging. Most recently, Jenn managed e-communications and developed a social media strategy for the international development organization Plan Canada.

Social issues are extremely important to Jenn. As the founder of YouthCARE, she created a youth engagement program at CARE Canada. In 2007 and 2008, Jenn worked with jhr (Journalists for Human Rights) in Freetown, Sierra Leone where she trained reporters in war-torn newsrooms. Jenn was recently recognized by Amnesty International Canada with a 2009 Media Award for her story on Israeli conscientious objectors.

Jenn has her Bachelor of Arts, With Distinction in Journalism and Communications from Concordia University in Montreal. She currently works with The 411 Initiative For Change and supports Plan’s Because I am a Girl campaign. Jenn also has a passion for dance. She is a founding member of shebang! breakdance crew, and has performed with Beastie Boys, Nelly Furtado and Kool Herc. While living in Sierra Leone, she performed with the Biana Players West African dance troupe.

Opening Panel:

Sarah Degnan Kambou, International Centre for Research on Women

Sarah Degnan Kambou is interim president and chief operating officer (COO) at the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW). Degnan Kambou coordinates internal leadership and management functions and implements the organization’s strategic plan. Prior to her appointment as COO in 2008, Degnan Kambou was vice president of ICRW’s health and development group and oversaw research and program work on HIV; reproductive health and nutrition; and gender, violence and rights.

Before joining ICRW in 2006, Degnan Kambou spent 11 years with CARE, where she managed programs throughout sub-Saharan Africa. She also worked for eight years as a director of international health in the School of Public Health at Boston University. While there, Degnan Kambou was responsible for strategic planning, research and training and worked extensively in South and Southeast Asia.

Expertise: HIV and AIDS, Reproductive Health

Education: Degnan Kambou holds a doctorate in international health policy, a master’s degree in public health services delivery from Boston University and a bachelor’s in French language and literature from the University of Connecticut.

Pamela Shifman, Novo Foundation

Since May 2008, Pamela Shifman has served as the Director of Initiatives for Women and Girls at the NoVo Foundation, where she directs the Foundation’s work on empowering adolescent girls in the developing world and ending violence against girls and women. Prior to joining NoVo, she worked as a Child Protection Officer at UNICEF where she spearheaded UNICEF’s efforts to prevent and respond to gender-based violence, particularly in conflict-affected settings. Spending nearly forty percent of her time in the field, Pamela worked closely with UNICEF’s country offices in Darfur, Sudan, Eastern Congo, Liberia, Nepal and other conflict affected countries to improve efforts to end violence against girls and women. Pamela also served as the co-chair of the UN Task Force against Sexual Abuse and Sexual Exploitation and was a founding member of UN Action against Sexual Violence. Prior to joining the UN, Pamela served as the Co-Executive Director of Equality Now, where she focused extensively on trafficking of girls and women and sex tourism and worked closely with a coalition of organizations for passage of the first US legislation on trafficking in persons and the UN Transnational Crime Protocol on Trafficking in Persons. Pamela also worked at the Open Society Institute, Network Women’s Program and as legal advisor for the ANC Parliamentary Women’s Caucus in South Africa. As the Legal Advisor to the ANC Women’s Caucus, Pamela led a joint civil society/Parliamentary Campaign to End Violence against Women and Girls, and participated in the development of South Africa’s first post apartheid legislation addressing domestic violence. Pamela has taught Women’s Studies at the University of Michigan and at Hunter College, and she holds a BA from the University of Michigan and a JD from the University of Michigan Law School.

Swan Paik, Nike Foundation

Swan leads the portfolio team that oversees the Nike Foundation’s investments and grantee relations. Swan has been with Nike, Inc. for nine years, serving in a number of senior leadership positions. Just prior to her joining the Foundation, Swan was the General Manager for the Nike Women’s Business in Asia Pacific. Prior to the Foundation and Nike, Inc., Swan held posts with the National Football League, NBC and Miramax. Swan received a BS in Economics from Wharton University and her MBA from the Columbia Business School.

Jill Sheffield President, Women Deliver

Jill Sheffield is a global educator and advocate who has worked to promote women’s health and rights around the world for more than three decades. Sheffield is the founder and President of Women Deliver, an international advocacy organization that convenes global leaders to galvanize action on maternal health and women’s empowerment.

The first Women Deliver conference occurred in London in October 2007, and was credited with putting Millennium Development Goal 5 (MDG5) on the international agenda. The second Women Deliver conference will occur June 7-9, 2010, in Washington, DC, and will convene more than 3,000 policymakers, activists, business leaders, and public figures from around the world on the eve of the G8 Summit. Attendees will push G8 leaders to commit substantial funding for maternal, reproductive, and newborn health.

Sheffield’s commitment to women’s reproductive rights in developing countries was inspired while volunteering for a family planning clinic at the Pumwani Maternity Hospital in Kenya in the mid-1960s, where she initially worked as a teacher. At that time, while the feminist movement was flourishing at home in the USA, the Kenyan women she met through the clinic were legally barred from using contraception without their husbands’ permission. This inequity became the driving force in Sheffield’s transition from teaching to a global crusader for women’s reproductive rights.

In 1987, Sheffield co-founded Family Care International (FCI), a non-profit global organization committed to improving the maternal health of women in the world’s poorest nations; she served as the organization’s President of for more than 20 years. Sheffield and FCI played an integral role in leading the Safe Motherhood Initiative, also launched in 1987, which helped guide global efforts to improve maternal health over the past two decades.

Prior to founding FCI, Sheffield served as Executive Officer for the International Program of Carnegie Corporation of New York, and as Africa Regional Representative and Director of Programs for Latin America for World Education. She has held board and advisory positions for the International Planned Parenthood Federation/Western Hemisphere Region, Population Communications International, Global Fund for Women, and Center for Health and Social Policy. Sheffield received her MA in Comparative and International Education from Columbia University and her BA in Education from Glassboro State College.

Zainab Salbi, Founder and CEO of Women For Women International

Zainab Salbi is co-founder and CEO of Women for Women International, a grassroots international humanitarian and development organization helping women survivors of war rebuild their lives, families and communities. Since 1993, the organization has helped 250,000 women survivors of war access social and economic opportunities through a program of rights awareness training, vocational skills education and access to income generating opportunities, thereby ultimately contributing to the political and economic health of their societies. Women for Women International programs worldwide have also engaged community leaders to advance women’s rights and socioeconomic opportunities, and have impacted more than 800,000 family and community members. In its 17-year history, the organization has distributed more than $79 million in direct aid, micro credit loans, and other program services.

Salbi has been honored by Former President Bill Clinton for her work in Bosnia and Herzegovina, named Time Magazine’s “Innovator of the Month” and received Forbes’ Trailblazer Award. Salbi is a World Economic Forum young global leader and is a member of the International Women’s Forum and a member at the Council of Foreign Relations. She is also currently serving as a member of WITNESS board of Directors and as member of a UN civil society advisory group formed in the spirit of Security Council Resolution 1325 to advise on greater integration of women in peace and security efforts. She was also recently awarded the 2010 David Rockefeller Bridging Leadership Award for her work in helping women survivors of war rebuild their lives. Her work has been featured in major media outlets, including 8 appearances on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” as well as CNN, The Washington Post and The New York Times.

Salbi is the author (with Laurie Becklund) of the national best selling book “Between Two Worlds: Escape from Tyranny: Growing Up in the Shadow of Saddam,” that is an account of life in Iraq and the hold that Saddam Hussein had over her family. She documents the stories of women survivors of wars in her second book “The Other Side of War: Women’s Stories of Survival and Hope.”

She has a master’s degree in Development Studies from the London School of Economics and BA in Sociology and Women’s Studies from George Mason University. She is a blogger for Marie Claire Magazine and the Huffington Post and documents her travels and encounters with women worldwide on Twitter.

Education Speaker:

Ndungu Kahihu

Ndungu Kahihu is a Regional Advisor for Plan Canada. He is currently based in Nairobi, Kenya. His professional background is in Education, Management and International Development. He has worked and traveled in many parts of the World including Africa, Europe and North America. His current work chiefly involves providing technical support in program development and implementation as well as training in support of Plan programs and staff in Canada and overseas. This work includes projects that address post conflict reconstruction through the development of technical and vocational education as well as child protection. Ndungu was born in Kenya but lives in Toronto, Canada. He is married and has three teenage sons. He has worked in the field of international development for over 17 years.

Economic Productivity:

Reeta Roy, President and CEO, The Mastercard Foundation

Reeta Roy is President and CEO of The MasterCard Foundation, an independent, private foundation based in Toronto, Canada with assets over $3 billion. The Foundation’s vision is to make the global economy work for everybody by advancing effective and innovative programs in the areas of microfinance and youth education. Prior to joining the Foundation, Reeta was the Divisional Vice President of Global Citizenship and Policy at Abbott, a global health care company, and Vice President of the Abbott Fund, a corporate foundation. She created the citizenship and policy department and led Abbott’s public-private initiatives related to HIV/AIDS in Africa, global product donations program, and community initiatives. During her tenure, Abbott tripled its investment in global humanitarian programs and was named to the Dow Jones Sustainability Index.

Previously, Reeta held a number of positions of increasing responsibility at Bristol-Myers Squibb Company from 1991 to 2002, working on global health issues and private-public partnerships, including a three-year assignment in Shanghai, China where she led public affairs and strategic planning for the business. Prior to joining the private sector, she worked at the United Nations.

Reeta is on the board of the Global Health Council, the world’s largest membership alliance dedicated to saving lives by improving health throughout the world. Previously, she served on the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) Partnership for Pediatric AIDS Treatment. She is a former board member of the Business Civic Leadership Center, an affiliate of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Reeta received a Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, and a Bachelor of Arts from St. Andrews Presbyterian College.

Research Resource

Ann Warner

Ann Warner is the Gender and Policy Specialist at the International Center of Research on Women (ICRW), where she works on a range of projects related to the health and human rights of women and girls. Ann has been with ICRW for two years, and was previously the Special Assistant to the President, providing technical assistance and communications support to the President.

Before joining ICRW, Ann coordinated a research partnership between the International Rescue Committee and the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University that documented the prevalence of violence against women and girls in two counties of Liberia. Ann previously worked as the Director of Development for the Foundations Unit at CARE USA, where she managed CARE’s relationships with major professional foundations, and consulted on the development of a major post-tsunami development program for CARE Sri Lanka. Ann has a Master of International Affairs and a Master of Public Health from Columbia University and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Wellesley College.