A passionate leadership practitioner and researcher on sustainable consumption, nature-based climate adaptation, and local policy solutions. With 20 years in development, Dr Bista specializes in organizational and change management, team leadership, program development, proposal writing, donor relations, grants management, partnerships, and government coordination. https://www.linkedin.com/in/samjhana-bista-phd-60102347/

Maereg T. Adhanom specializes in environmental management and has extensive experience in post-war rebuilding, rehabilitation, development, and peacebuilding. He is a World Vision Canada team lead for Food Systems and Climate Change, and his research interests include the impact of armed conflicts and natural disasters on the environment and livelihoods.

Tazrina is a researcher and advocate focusing on gender equality and disaster resilience in the Pacific. Her work supports evidence-based policy recommendations and amplifies the voices of marginalized women in climate adaptation and disaster management.

Kieu Gavin is the Pacific Program Manager at ActionAid Australia, working in solidarity with the Pacific feminist movement to tackle the climate crisis and strengthen women’s localised climate and humanitarian leadership. Working closely with the Shifting the Power Coalition, her work focuses on facilitating flexible and accessible grant making arrangements to support feminist civil society and movement strengthening on gender transformative climate and humanitarian action. Kieu has also been involved in the global youth movement for climate justice at the Oaktree Foundation and is particularly passionate about diverse young women’s political and advocacy leadership.

Vanessa empowers adolescent girls through education, advocacy, and skills training. As head of the organisation, she supports the cap youth mentors to lead the ‘Let Girls be Girls’ campaign and the Lapaha Youth Hub, creating spaces for Tongan youth to address climate challenges.

Vilimaina Naqelevuki is an indigenous Fijian woman who is passionate about transparency and accountability of governance, and meaningful participation of people in how they are governed. She has a passion to serve women and girls in all their diversities in the Pacific. She is currently the Learning Coordinator of Shifting the Power Coalition leading on the learning and communications work for the Coalition. She formerly worked as a journalist before moving into communications work. She now uses her skills and knowledge to help progress gender-equality within the Pacific. Before this she had volunteered at the Pacific Islands Associations of NGOs (PIANGO) and was closely involved in their Civicus work and also volunteered for the first Pacific Feminist Forum in 2016.

Flora leads the Women I TokTok Tugeta network and the Women Wetem Weta program, empowering women, including those with disabilities, to enhance disaster preparedness and community resilience.

Vida Asah-Ayeh is a PhD candidate at the University of Ghana and project coordinator for the HABVIA-Ga Mashie site under the mentorship of Ama de-Graft Aikins, the HABVIA-Ga Mashie site lead and a social psychologist whose research focuses on chronic care interventions, community health development and creative health communication in African and diaspora African settings.

Beth (she/they) is an Associate Professor in the department of Geography, Planning and Environment at East Carolina University in the so-called US. Beth’s work utilizes feminist political ecology frameworks to enrich our understanding of how gender and its intersecting power relations shape the capacity to adapt to ongoing climatic threats.

Muthise Bulani is a junior scientist working on ethical considerations of climate change and heath research with Thandi Kapwata, a climate change and health specialist at the South African Medical Research Council and site lead of HABVIA study in Thohoyandou, Limpopo Province of South Africa.

Lara Dugas, PhD, MPH, is the AXA Chair in Non-Communicable Disease (NCD) Epidemiology. She explores the impact of a heating climate and NCD risk in vulnerable populations in Sub-Saharan Africa as co-lead investigator for the Heat Adaptation benefits for Vulnerable groups In Africa (HABVIA) study.

Charlotte Ray is a post-doctoral research assistant at Bristol University. Her research brings together human geography, international development, livelihoods, displacement, food security, qualitative methodology and household energy systems in the global South. In particular she is focused on the complex cross-border social, cultural and historical ties that influence the availability of and access to resources (especially natural resources) for both hosts and refugees.

Monica Swahn is the Dean and Professor Health Promotion and Physical Education Wellstar College of Health and Human Services Kennesaw State University, USA. Her research is at the intersection of health risk behaviors and disparities among adolescents and young adults, primarily focusing on the structural drivers of alcohol, violence and HIV/AIDS in the United States and globally.