ADEL Bios

Fatma Ahmed is currently the Capacity Building Specialist at UNDP Regional Program for Africa, based in Addis Ababa where she implements flagship projects on conflict prevention, peacebuilding, political transitions, climate security and other emerging development challenges and priorities with the African Union and regional institutions. Prior to joining UNDP, she worked across Africa, Middle East, and Southeast Asia, implementing regional projects for development partners.

Marianna Albuquerque is an Assistant Professor at the Federal University of Rio Janeiro. Previously, she was the Deputy Director of Projects at the Brazilian Center for International Relations (CEBRI). She was a substitute professor at the Institute for Strategic Studies (INEST-UFF) between 2017 and 2019, a consultant for projects in Think Tanks, and coordinator of the South American Political Observatory (OPSA/UERJ).

Macarena Ayelen Acuipil is currently working at the General Secretary of the Government of Chubut. She is an advocate for gender equality. She is also a Program Coordinator for the Women's Democracy Network in Argentina, where young female candidates are empowered to step in and take decisive roles in the political arena. She is also working  as a professor in Gender Studies at the Siglo XXI University.

Pauline Batista works at the United Nations in New York, where she serves as a Media Production Assistant for the Global Communications Division. Her research interests include UNESCO’s influence over educational curricula in Latin America and also the exploitation of Paulo Freire’s Socratic method to reinforce standards for Heritage Studies in schools located in Latin American towns seeking UNESCO Heritage Site titles.

Deborah Braide is the Nigeria Research Coordinator for University of Massachusetts-Amherst/e-GUIDE on a project to support sustainable electrification of over 250,000 small and medium scale enterprises.

Christina Caouette is a public policy and foreign affairs analyst with the Government of Canada. Currently, she works as a Senior Policy Analyst at Natural Resources Canada, where she forwards Canada’s energy security and net zero commitments as part of the Natural Gas & Hydrogen Division.

Salim Dehmej is an economist in the Monetary and Capital Markets Department of the IMF. Since he joined the international institution in 2018, he covered several topics and countries (Iraq, Lebanon, Russia, and the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa - CEMAC) from different departments. He participated to the Russia 2021 Financial Sector Assessment Program, covering macroprudential policy and transition-climate risk.

Amine Derj is the co-founder and CEO of Jodoor, an Agritech start-up with a mission to democratize controlled environment agriculture across Africa. Jodoor provides turnkey soilless farms that save 80% of water and fertilizers while helping small and medium farmers achieve sustainable revenues. He also leads a consulting company and brings a strong background in industrial engineering.

Nusrat Farooq the Founding Partner at Artificial Intelligence Strategy, a consulting firm specializing in integrating trust and safety into AI strategies for public and private enterprises. Previously, she served as an analyst in Washington DC, at Global Internet Forum to Counterterrorism, established and funded by Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter, and YouTube.

Martina Ferracane is passionate about policy-making and technological innovation. She is a an Associate Professor at the European University Institute, where she manages the Digital Trade Integration Project. Her research covers digital trade, data governance, and digital education.

Nallely Garza has been a strong player in both the public and private sector in promoting Mexico as a destination of FDI. Her previous experience includes Political Advisor at the State Congress of Nuevo León and senior advisor to the Ministry of Economy in the State of Nuevo Leon (which is the second most wealthy State in Mexico with a GDP of $92.3 billion dollars).

Jevanic Henry is a climate change and development professional with experience leading and supporting the development of environmental projects at multi-levels.

Fatima Hewaidi currently leads the Market Intelligence office for the Middle East at Barclays Private Bank in Switzerland. For the past four years, she was a Business Engagement Lead at the World Economic Forum, where she developed partnerships and curated dialogues among business leaders in the Middle East and North Africa. Prior to this, she measured and analyzed the ease of starting a business across the Middle East and Africa as a Consultant in the World Bank's Doing Business project.

Zukie Hlwatika works as a Researcher at Wayne State University in Michigan, USA mainly focusing on legislative research and public policy theories ranging from environmental to geopolitics issues. She is also a 3rd year Political Science PhD student interested in comparative public policy.

Dysmus Kisilu is the founder of Solar Freeze, a company that specializes in providing renewable energy solutions (solar powered cold storage units) to smallholder farmers in Kenya to increase agricultural productivity. Dysmushas worked with 3,000 smallholder farmers in Kenya to increase agricultural yields by more than 150%.

Fritjof Knier is the co-founder of Integreat, a multilingual integration platform to provide understandable information for refugees and migrants arriving in a city. Integreat has been implemented in collaboration with over 90 of Germany’s 400 municipal governments throughout the country, most recently launched in Greece while pilots in Australia and the Netherlands are currently being prepared in close collaboration with local partners.

Savannah Lane is an Associate Director at The ASPEN Institute. Previously, she was directing strategic communications for an organization focused on equipping women into the policy spaces. Prior to this role, Savannah led and directed the NATO 2030 Global Fellowship Program in support of NATO’s 2030 Strategic Concept goals.

Lavar Thomas is currently an Environmental Protection Specialist at the US Environmental Protection Agency in Washington, DC. He is also a Co-founder of Leaders of the Free World, a non-profit organization that provides international experiences and leadership development to young Black men. Before this, he served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Rwanda, East Africa, addressing rural public health challenges and providing youth leadership development.