:: who we are - advisors

Gary Barker is International Director of Promundo-DC, the US office of Instituto Promundo, a Brazilian NGO that works locally, nationally, and internationally to promote gender equity and reduce violence against children, women, and youth.  He has carried out research on men, violence, gender, health, and conflict in Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, and Asia, and has co-authored numerous training materials. Gary has served as a consultant to the World Bank, the International Rescue Committee, UNDP, WHO, UNAIDS, the UN Commission on the Status of Women, the Ford Foundation, and the MacArthur Foundation on issues related to gender, engaging men, health promotion, and violence prevention. From 2008-2010, he worked for the International Center for Research on Women where he served as principal investigator for the International Men and Gender Equality Survey (IMAGES), a multi-country study on men, women and gender equality carried out in Latin America, Asia, Africa, and Europe. An Ashoka Fellow, Gary holds a Master’s in public policy and a PhD in child development. 

Megan Boler is an Associate Professor with the Department of Theory & Policy Studies at University of Toronto’s Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE/UT). Her work combines cultural history with ethical and multicultural analyses to explore how emotions have been disciplined, suppressed, or ignored at all levels of education and educational theory. In her book Feeling Power, Megan traces the development of progressive pedagogies from civil rights and women's liberation movements, to her own recent studies of "emotional intelligence" and “emotional literacy." More recently, as the editor of Digital Media and Democracy: Tactics in Hard Times, she explores the ways in which the "social web" - epitomized by blogs, viral videos, and YouTube - creates new pathways for truth to emerge and makes possible new tactics for media activism.

Thokozile Budaza is a youth, gender, and HIV/AIDS activist currently working with the HIV/AIDS Program of the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa. She joined the struggle against gender based violence and HIV/AIDS in 2003 while studying towards he B.Sc. degree at the University of the Western Cape, where she was an HIV/AIDS peer educator and a member of the Men as Partners Network. She has since worked for a number of international organizations, including the Global Call to Action Against Poverty, CIVICUS, Action Aid, and EngenderHealth. Thoko has created two digital stories with Silence Speaks (through partnerships with EngenderHealth and the Sonke Gender Justice Network) and has dedicated her life to ending violence and improving the lives of women and children in South Africa.

Paul Gready is the founding director of the Centre for Applied Human Rights at the University of York (UK). He has worked for Amnesty International (on issues of concern in East and Southern Africa, and India) and a number of other international and national human rights organizations, and has wide-ranging experience as a human rights consultant. Linking academia and practice-based work, he has published on various human rights-related topics, notably transitional justice, human rights and development, and the ethics of human rights practice. Paul is the co-editor the Journal of Human Rights Practice (Oxford University Press). For more than a decade, he has also been involved in the development of interdisciplinary, practice-based human rights teaching curricula.

Jac sm Kee is a feminist activist, poet, writer, and researcher. She is the Women's Rights and ICT Advocacy Coordinator with the Association for Progressive Communications, Women’s Networking Support Programme, where she initiated the annual “Take Back the Tech” campaign as part of the global 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence. Jac is also co-founder of Knowledge & Rights with Young People through Safer Spaces, an organization working with young people in the Philippines on issues of human rights through creative platforms, and KataGender – a collective of artists and activists that politically subverts spaces through street art and culture. She is currently serving as a board member for the New York chapter of Creating Resources for Empowerment and Action (CREA).

Sally J. Laskey is the Associate Director of the National Sexual Violence Resource Center (NSVRC), a comprehensive collection and distribution point for information, research, and emerging policy development related to sexual violence prevention. For more than 18 years, she has worked for social change at local, state, and national levels, building experience as an advocate, prevention educator, trainer, and researcher. Sally currently provides technical assistance and training around the United States on prevention, sustainability, and multidisciplinary responses to sexual assault. Prior to her work with NSVRC, Sally served from 1996-2001 as the Direct Services Coordinator for the Sexual Harassment and Rape Prevention Program at the University of New Hampshire. She is currently pursuing a Master’s in Community Psychology and Social Change from Pennsylvania State University.

Feroz Moideen is a Program Director at Futures Without Violence (formerly the Family Violence Prevention Fund), where he is spearheading the organization’s international efforts to mobilize men and boys on the issue of gender based violence. Feroz is also responsible for the development of collaborative anti-violence efforts with professional sports teams, professional athletes, and high profile coaches in the U.S. Prior to his employment at Futures, Feroz spent several years working with Major League Soccer to grow and expand the league’s presence and influence among owners, athletes, fans, and local coaches. He has a law degree from the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., and a BA in International Affairs from Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania. Born in India and raised in New York City, Feroz currently resides in San Francisco.