Zahra Al-Harazi

Canadian Ambassador, UNICEF Canada

Zahra Al-Harazi is one of Calgary’s “Top 40 Under 40”; Business in Calgary’s “Leader of Tomorrow;” was selected as Canadian Woman Entreprenuer of the Year by Chatalaine magazine, and voted one of Canada’s most powerful women by WXN. She has also received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubiliee medal for her contributions to Canada in 2012, and the RBC Top 25 Immigrants to Canada Award in 2013. She has also been appointed as the Canadian Ambassador to UNICEF. A true global citizen, Zahra was born in Uganda, raised in Yemen, and survived two civil wars. After arriving in Canada, Zahra went to Alberta College of Art and Design, and shortly after graduation founded Foundry Communications, a multiple international award winning marketing and communications agency which was recognized as one of Canada’s most profitable companies by Profit magazine. She sits on the Board for the global Entrepreneurs Organization and as an advisor to the national Make-a-Wish Foundation Board. Zahra is also Chair of the Fund Development Committee for the Werklund School of Education at the University of Calgary and has signed a book deal with HarperCollins. 

Myrna Cunningham

Former Chair, UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues

Dr. Myrna Cunningham, from the indigenous Miskito community in Nicaragua, is Former Chair of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. After earning a Master of Primary Education, Dr. Cunningham studied Medicine and Surgery in Nicaragua, becoming the first Miskita woman doctor. Dr. Cunningham has been the Chairperson of the Center for Autonomy and Development of indigenous People (CADPI) since 2003, which works in the areas of intercultural communication, cultural revitalization, rights of indigenous women, climate change and its impact on indigenous people. Dr. Cunningham is currently a member of the Board of Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID), The Hunger Project, and a Trust Fund for Indigenous People, Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE), Indigenous Peoples Assistance Facility (IPAF). She is currently First Vice President of the Board of the Fund for the Development of Indigenous People of Latin America and the Caribbean.

Marlou Hermsen

General Manager, World Merit

Marlou Hermsen is a passionate loveaholic and on a mission to change the world. With a Master’s in Global Health, she has found her purpose by playing a major role in building World Merit since 2013. As the General Manager, she leads all aspects of the organization, including a global community of 100,000+ changemakers. Across more than 120 Country Offices and through 500,000+ “acts of merit,” World Merit has reached over 7.5 million people globally.

In addition to her work with World Merit, Marlou founded Run for Life and By One Collection. She is on the Advisory Team of Rhize and a Trustee of Postcards for Peace. Finally, she is heavily focused on the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals, and believes everyone else should be, too.

Clara Vondrich

Global Director, Divest-Invest Philanthropy

Clara Vondrich is the Global Director of Divest-Invest Philanthropy. In this role, she manages the foundation sector for the broader Divest-Invest movement, which now spans universities, sovereign wealth funds, cities, pension funds, insurance companies, health organizations, faith groups and individuals. Until June 2015, Clara served as Account Director for Climate & Energy at Fenton Communications. There, she led client efforts on a range of campaigns, including divest-invest, anti-fracking, defending climate science, and the clean energy transition. Before joining Fenton, Clara was Director of Leadership Initiatives at the ClimateWorks Foundation. Clara is a frequent speaker and writer on climate change. She sits on the Board of Directors of 2 Degrees Investing Initiative, a multi-stakeholder think tank working to align the financial sector with climate goals. An attorney by training, Clara served as Counsel to the President’s Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, focusing on ecological restoration and environmental justice. Clara graduated from the University of Virginia Law School in 2006.

Alian Ollivierre, I am a Girl Barbados

Building you: Empowering girls from the grassroots up

Alian Ollivierre is the Managing Director and Lead Trainer at Gateway International, a training and consultancy agency for individuals, NGOs and businesses. As Founder of I Am A Girl Barbados, a not-for-profit that aids in the development of girls aged five to eighteen, she develops programs to inspire and empower towards positive change. With an LLB and a MSc. in International Relations, Alian gained ten years’ experience in London and within the United Nations sphere, and her thesis on regional integration has recently been published. She is the Chairperson of the Advisory Board for the Caribbean Regional Youth Council, and is extremely passionate about sustainable community growth for youth.

Leo Schwarz & Matthias Mann, ThINK

Sustainability and Carbon Footprints

Matthias Mann holds a PhD in Geology and is partner at the Thuringian Institute for Sustainability and Climate Protection (ThINK) in Jena, Germany. This institute deals with various problems related to climate protection, as well as adaptation to climate change, and works mainly on the level of small and medium towns or counties. One of the institute’s main tasks is to calculate the carbon footprints of organizations and events, and to give recommendations on how to reduce carbon outputs.

Leo Schwarz (Junior Fellow) is currently interning with ThINK and is attempting to establish a long-term partnership between the institute and the Melton Foundation. Through an additional internship with Sterling and Wilson in Bangalore, India, he has gained a firm grasp of the green energy sector. He completed a B.A. in Sociology and Psychology earlier this year, and conducted empirical research on sustainable lifestyles as part of his thesis.

Natalia Caniguan Velarde, Instituto de Estudios Indígenas

Araucanía, Intercultural Region

Natalia Caniguan is a social anthropologist with a Master’s degree in Human, Local and Regional Development. She is currently serving as Director of the Indigenous Studies Institute at the Universidad de La Frontera, UFRO, in Temuco, Chile.

Natalia is dedicated to the research of Mapuche people, especially in fields focused on intercultural education, cultural heritage, and political participation, according to the use of local spaces of power.

Miriam Yasbay & Mana Taheri, HPI School of Design Thinking

Understand Problems, Identify Solutions : A Launchpad for Changemakers

Miriam Yasbay is a Berlin-based social scientist and design thinking expert with a passion for social innovation. She offers trainings and workshops for children, students, companies and organizations from the business and non-profit sectors. At the HPI School of Design Thinking, she co-led and co-designed the academic program, and trained international, interdisciplinary student teams to design innovative solutions to complex problems. Her mission is to support and enable social innovation around the world.

Mana Taheri is a research fellow at the HPI-Stanford Design Thinking Research Program and a member of the teaching team for the Advanced Track of HPI D-School. She has several years’ experience designing and leading workshops in various international settings, from Tehran to Berlin to Havana. In her research projects, she investigates the potentials and challenges of teaching design thinking at scale and to a global audience with diverse cultural backgrounds. Mana was born and raised in Tehran, where she earned a Bachelor’s degree in Economics before moving to Berlin to complete her Master’s in Economics and Management.

Katie Hale, Mama Hope

Discovering Your Why

Katie Hale is the Global Advocate Program Manager for Mama Hope, where she trains fellows in fundraising, human-centered design, marketing and storytelling. She has an M.A. in Human Rights Education from the University of San Francisco and a B.A. in Spanish and International Relations. After leaving her teaching position in Bangkok in 2013 she became a Global Advocate fellow in rural Tanzania to gain a better understanding of using education to foster holistic community development. Katie has mentored 40 fellows who have fundraised over $500,000 to fund sustainable projects. She considers herself a travel junkie and has studied and worked on four different continents.

Geraldine Hepp, Amani Institute

Creating Impact through Managing Self, Others and your Work

Geraldine Hepp is Communications and Community Director at the Amani Institute. Since a young age, Geraldine has been interested in the way personal development interlocks with positive societal transformation and has developed and facilitated Amani Institute’s leadership development course ‘the Inner Journey of the Changemaker’ as part of the founding team. With a background in adult education and music and media science she has also run an innovation management program for creative hubs in East Africa with a focus on organizational learning and team development to increase collaboration and sustainability in the creative economy.

Jerome Bailey Jr., Jerome Bailey Media

Storytelling, culture and me: Using digital media to impact your world

Jerome Bailey Jr. is a visual journalist and Director of Jerome Bailey Media, a growing digital media company. Bailey reports news daily for NewsFix on the CW-39 network in Houston, where he has interviewed U.S. presidential candidates, Grammy Award winning music artists, and more. When he’s not in the field, he teaches cinema & new media arts at Houston Baptist University. Previously, he produced multimedia projects for the Associated Press and earned his Master’s degree in Journalism from Columbia University in New York City.

You can keep up with him on Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat at @jeromebaileyjr or check out some of his work on JeromeBaileyJr.com.

Pooja Channaveerappa

From Problem to Solution: Engineering Virtual Teams

An engineering and space science enthusiast, Pooja is pursuing a Master’s degree in Aerospace Engineering. In this capacity, she networks with multiple research groups and engages in online cooperation to develop workable solutions. As a Melton fellow, she has been involved in several activities, and considers the ‘Civic Courage’ project and GCC coordination to be her most gratifying experiences thus far. She has found that virtual collaboration and teamwork have been key in all these pursuits, and is thus determined to deal with the challenges they present by merging the engineering mindset with global citizenship.

A get-together from the roots

Maquehue (Mapuche community)

Chile’s Araucanía region is an important hub for cultural diversity. In particular, Mapuche people are the most prominent indigenous group in the country. During the last years, young Mapuche students have become more involved in acknowledging and representing their culture through social movements and civic participation in mainstream society.

Members of the Wüñelfe Foundation and the Mapuche Federation of Students, both organizations of young university students, will join participants in a visit to Maquehue, a location near Temuco that brings together Mapuche communities from around the region. During the morning, participants will get to know each other through an aukantun, a series of Mapuche ancestral games, and create a space for sharing and discussing about our conference topics. In the afternoon, we will go to a Mapuche community where families reside and share a traditional meal and recreational activities with them.

Sustainable growth and empowerment of a fishing village

Nehuentue

Years ago in Nehuentue, a fishing village located in the coast of the Araucanía region, only men had the leading role as family providers. Nowadays, the scenario has changed. By using their own resources in a more sustainable way, this community has become a powerhouse for sustainability and tourism where leadership of women has been the key point for its growth.

During this field trip, participants will visit the most important gastronomic center in Nehuentue, which was founded by a group of female entrepreneurs. The women will share with participants the story and development of their community. In the afternoon, we will have the opportunity to enjoy typical and organic cuisine at the gastronomic center, get to know the fishermen from the village and take a boat ride around the amazing landscapes.

Intercultural education in Chile

Mañuco School, Community of Galvarino

During this field trip, participants will be able to interact with students, teachers and parents from Mañiuco School, which is located in the rural zone of Galvarino, a town near Temuco mostly populated by Mapuche indigenous people. In 2015, the school was the location of a Deep Dive, a signature program of the foundation for immersive learning. This visit will  build upon the experiences and learnings from last year.

We will start the day with beautiful landscapes during the trip to Mañiuco School. Once there, students will be waiting with a cultural presentation, showing their own traditions through art and music. Then, it will be our fellows’ time to present stands, activities and games, while creating a place where students can discover and learn about the countries in our network. Afterwards, we will finish this great journey and have mizagun time, a tradition from Mapuche culture in which people gather to enjoy a meal in community and connect local realities.