Helen Gebregiorgis is a filmmaker, photographer, and communications strategist passionate about storytelling, international development, and social justice. She currently serves as the Communications Organizer for the Washington Interfaith Network (WIN) in Washington, DC.
Her lens has captured the essence of everyday life in Eritrea, Egypt, Kenya, and Nigeria. In 2020, she debuted her documentary Love, Pain, Lemonade at Chicago Filmmakers, exploring the experiences of two American women—one of whom was Helen herself—navigating life in Eritrea. In 2017, she created Lagos Budding 50, a project highlighting the resilience of young professionals and leaders in Lagos, West Africa. Her photographic work has been exhibited internationally, including at the University of East Anglia during Black History Month in 2017 and the University of California San Diego in 2018.
Helen holds an MA in Media and International Development from the University of East Anglia and a BA in Film and Video from Columbia College Chicago. Based in Washington, DC, she continues to merge her creative vision with her commitment to equity, advocacy, and storytelling.
Adewunmi Emoruwa is a global policy, politics, and advocacy leader with a distinguished track record of advancing over a dozen landmark policy reforms in Africa and influencing millions to take positive actions. His strategic counsel has driven transformative initiatives for multilateral organizations, private philanthropies, and global movements, including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, World Bank, USAID, and PEPFAR.
He is the Founder and Lead Strategist of Gatefield, a Sub-Saharan Africa-focused public policy, and advocacy organisation, where he provides leadership direction and strategic oversight inspiring the organisation’s mission to create positive social change through advocacy, media, and governance initiatives. He is also a media tech investor, leveraging his expertise to support innovations in information dissemination and media influence. Adewunmi’s thought leadership and insights have been featured in top-tier international publications, including Bloomberg, The Guardian, Project Syndicate, World Economic Forum, The Atlantic, BBC World, Al Jazeera, Quartz, and Huffington Post.
His commitment to policy, democracy and governance extends to his roles as an advisor to several global advocacy efforts and as an advisory council member for several organisations and initiatives, where he champions public health, social justice, and political inclusion.
Adewunmi was educated at the Geneva Graduate Institute, King’s College London, and Harvard Kennedy School, bringing a world-class policy perspective to his work in shaping impactful advocacy and governance strategies across Africa and beyond.
Jake Okechukwu Effoduh is an Assistant Professor at the Lincoln Alexander School of Law of Toronto Metropolitan University, Canada. He teaches a range of technology law courses, including Critical Approaches to AI and the Law; Big Tech and Social Justice; and Technology Law and Society. With expertise at the intersections of international law, access to justice, and the use of AI in legal processes, Effoduh has informed the regulatory frameworks and policy formulation on AI at the United Nations, the African Union, and several countries.
He is also the Chief Councillor of Africa – Canada Artificial Intelligence and Data Innovation Consortium, mobilizing AI and Big Data techniques to build governance strategies against future global pandemics. Effoduh has been an international lawyer for 15 years with programmatic experience from working in Canada and across 30 African countries. He has gained ample experience in human rights advocacy at four ranks of human rights systems: at the domestic level (in both Nigeria and Canada); sub-regional African human rights systems; the regional African human rights system; and mainly at the international level (especially the United Nations Human Rights Council). He is listed as a Global Expert on Human Rights by the World Economic Forum. He has published widely on various human rights issues and has won several academic awards.
Rose Kobusinge is an Ugandan advocate specializing in migration, environment, and climate change. She holds a Master’s degree in Environmental Change and Management from the University of Oxford and is currently pursuing a doctorate in Sustainable Energy Futures in Displacement Settings at Coventry University. Her research focuses on ensuring that displaced populations are included in the just energy transition.
Rose’s advocacy spans local, regional, and international arenas, where she works to bridge the gap between, policy and action, grassroots and global. She is committed to amplifying the voices of women, youth, migrants, refugees, and internally displaced persons (IDPs) to influence inclusive policies and solutions. Her efforts focus on integrating diverse perspectives and forging durable solutions with marginalised mobile and immobile populations in climate and migration dialogues and initiatives.
Recently, Rose was appointed as an African Union Migration Ambassador and an International Organisation for Migration (IOM) Changemaker. She has participated in high-level engagements such as the Climate Conference of Parties (COP), the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM), the UN Migration Network Meetings, and the Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD), contributing her expertise and advocacy for sustainable and inclusive solutions.
