Conference Committee

As the last Technical Director on the Girls’ Education Challenge, Emma oversaw the closure of a £500 million project aimed at reaching 1.6 million of the most marginalised girls, breaking down barriers to education and fostering inclusive learning environments. 

Emma’s experience spans across East and Central Africa and Iraq, where she has collaborated with governments, NGOs, academics, and educators to drive impactful educational reforms. She is has worked in many areas with education with the aim of improving educational outcomes, whether as a teacher, M&E advisor or programme leader she is focused on improving practice and sharing evidence and learning around change.

Her research is driven by a commitment to amplifying the voices of children in areas where they are often sidelined, such as policy development and implementation.  In her work across Mozambique and South Africa, Francesca has examined how global narratives about teenage pregnancy clash with educational and employment goals, ultimately limiting young people’s potential to succeed. Her current projects in Mozambique and Indonesia are pioneering new approaches in Climate Change and Sustainability Education, as she collaborates with children and educators to create co-constructed pedagogies.

She is based at the University of Nottingham (UK), School of Education, where she leads the BA Education.

He is currently a co-chair of inclusion and equity thematic group of the International Task Force on Teachers for Education 2030 and a member of UNGEI Global Advisory Committee. He is a co-founder of a community  led  Early Years Education Society UK ( EYES-UK).

Previously, Rona worked as primary teacher in London for many years, at an outstanding, multicultural, three-form-entry primary school, including additional roles as team leader, teacher training lead, and in the senior leadership team.

While teaching, Rona completed her Master’s in Education, Gender, and International Development at the Institute of Education, UCL, London. Rona has worked closely with schools and teachers in the UK, Ethiopia, Ghana, Uganda, Kenya, and India.  Rona now works in FCDO’s Girls’ Education Department, based in London and leads the FCDO policy on foundational learning globally, including the support to data for foundational learning.

She has been developing her interest in collaborative working and partnerships through her practitioner, manager and researcher roles, most recently, and most explicitly as a Senior Research Associate with the Transforming Education for Sustainable Futures Network where collectively synthesising the learning from 67 Southern-led projects offered rich insights into the challenges and possibilities of knowledge co-creation and ethical equitable partnerships.

She specialises in creating safe and inclusive education systems by integrating Gender Equality, Disability, and Social Inclusion (GEDSI) principles and driving social norms transformation to challenge systemic barriers.

Danielle has led transformative safeguarding and GEDSI initiatives for major organisations, including the UK FCDO’s Girls’ Education Challenge, UNICEF, Irish Aid, and the Global Partnership for Education. Her work has strengthened safeguarding mechanisms, improved accountability structures, and supported marginalised learners in accessing equitable education. She is also a seasoned humanitarian responder, with senior leadership roles in Education in Emergencies (EiE), Gender-Based Violence in Emergencies (GBViE), and Child Protection in Emergencies (CPiE) across global crises.

Her technical expertise includes spearheading education-focused programmes such as the FCDO PLANE project in Nigeria, the Syria Education Programme, and initiatives in South Sudan and Somalia. A passionate advocate for equity and wellbeing, Danielle applies evidence-based approaches to address the intersecting vulnerabilities of girls, children with disabilities, and other marginalised groups.

Danielle’s leadership continues to drive impactful change across education and development sectors, advancing safe, inclusive, and transformative learning environments where all children can thrive.

Gándara’s work focuses on gender, climate, inclusivity, and justice, and she has designed and led gender-, climate- and literacy-related evaluations in more than 15 countries.

With a PhD and postdoctoral fellowship centered on transformative education in conflict-affected areas, Najme’s work has always been rooted in identifying and addressing the systematic barriers to equity and justice. She has contributed to social protection and equitable education for marginalized populations across the Middle East and East Africa through her roles with UNICEF and the Education Development Center. Passionate about creating meaningful change, Najme combines her academic background and field experience to drive practical solutions for global education challenges.

Amy has been working in the education sector for over 20 years, with a particular focus on teacher development, language policy and edtech-enabled education in South Asia with a variety of published work exploring these areas. She holds an MA in Education and International Development from University College London and an MA in English Language Teaching from the University of Bath. After 12 years in India and Sri Lanka, she is now based in the UK.

Her research interests are in the role of higher education in peacebuilding, pedagogies for peacebuilding and regenerative humanitarian response.  Through Re-Alliance, a network of community practitioners and academic researchers from some of the most conflict and disaster affected parts of the world, she supports research into regenerative food production and land restoration, alternative livelihoods and sustainable sources of water, hygiene and sanitation.  She also works on research informed policy with INGOs and governments.

She has held multiple education consulting roles, including serving as an Inclusive Education Consultant with the Education Global Practice at the World Bank, as well as with the British Council and Oxford Policy Management. Her research interests lie in the area of inclusion and intersectionality in education, with a particular focus on gender, disability, and religion.

Over the years she has developed an expertise on system thinking, putting working with the system at the centre. This involves thinking and working politically, understanding power dynamics, in contexts that are often fragile and unpredictable, and coaching our project teams to embed these approaches in everything that they do.

Deeply committed to women’s rights, she also provides technical support to project teams and ministries for gender equality and social inclusion, and design solutions that are built within existing systems, and can be sustainable and locally owned. Conducting qualitative research to inform potential drivers of change is also an important area of focus to inform the former.

Localisation, meaningful participation and empowerment of local CSOs are very important to her and she strongly believes that analysing and supporting existing systems and all their actors is key for sustainable development.

Mathilde holds a Masters in International Economics from the Sorbonne Nouvelle (Paris) and a masters in Sociology from Science Po Aix en Provence.

Since then, she has had the privilege of working with a number of different organisations and programmes including Children in Crisis, Relief International, Plan International UK, the Girls’ Education Challenge and Save the Children. She dances between technical advisory and technical programme management roles, and loves collaborating with country and global teams to work out what quality really looks like in the different places and contexts in which we work. She is a practitioner at heart, with technical expertise spanning early childhood, primary, secondary, formal, and non-formal learning and development spaces, with a particular focus on holistic playful learning and rights-based programming.

She is the lead author of Oxford International Curriculum’s ‘Global Skills’ project-based curriculum, now implemented in over 100 schools globally. Her new book “Seeking the Perfect World” (Routledge, 2024) introduces political and moral philosophy through an engaging exploration of global challenges.

Born in Quito, Ecuador, she has researched and trained educators across Latin America, Asia, and Africa, including projects on gender budgeting in Ecuador and health insurance accessibility in India.

Karem holds a DPhil in International Development from Oxford University and has published on mestizaje, migration, and adult education. She founded and directs Thinkers Meet Up Ltd., a virtual learning community serving gifted and 2e young people, as well as offering civic discussion workshops for adults.

Sam is technical lead for Link’s programmes which focus on girls’ and inclusive education, community mobilisation, accountability, system strengthening, and government capacity.

She is interested in strengthening and centring voices that may not traditionally be heard in the education space, in order to forward alternative views and solutions that work across varied contexts. Sam has direct experience working in Ethiopia, Malawi, Ghana, Uganda and Rwanda, as well as Morocco and Sierra Leone. She is also the focal person for Safeguarding and Child Protection.

Currently, she serves as the Senior Inclusive Programming Advisor at Save the Children UK and previously held the position of Global Lead on Disability and Social Inclusion for FCDO’s Girls’ Education Challenge. Michelle has provided strategic guidance, technical leadership, and research-based support to ensure that education programmes measurably improve opportunities and outcomes for individuals most impacted by inequality. She is committed to a decolonised approach to aid that centres local knowledge and decision-making.

From a policy studies background, she considers how education leaders approach these contested areas of education within their own situated contexts of national and global policy landscapes, the power dynamics of institutional structures and local communities, historical legacies, and accountability to children and young people.

Researching with education leaders, schools and young people to imagine alternative, preferred futures that redefine what and how we value in education for children and young people, in which children and young people are recognised as legitimate knowers and protagonists.

Social transformation is a key driver of her research and as part of this she is driven to conduct research that can inform change in policy and practice. Her academic identity is rooted in her commitment to challenging unjust power dynamics and creating conditions for greater choice and freedom. This stems from my first career as an advocate for sexual and reproductive health and rights in international NGOs.

Rachel holds a PhD in Social Policy from the University of Bristol, a Masters of Research from the University of Bristol, an MSc in Health and Population from the LSE, and a BA in Communication from Simon Fraser University (Canada).

For the past decade, Dr. Yan’s interdisciplinary research lies at the intersection of comparative public administration, social policy and educational studies.

She is the author of the book Getting schools to work better: Educational accountability and teacher support in India and China which is based on her award-winning doctoral dissertation. Her research on education policy design and practice has been published in leading journals such as the Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis, International Review of Administrative Science, and Policy Design and Practice and recognised by the European Commission with a Seal of Excellence. Among others, her works has been cited by the World Bank, while she has provided written evidence to the UK Parliament and policy consultancy for the European Commission on several education-related topics.

Department for International Development (DFID) and UNESCO’s International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP).Sandra worked at IDS for nearly 20 years, specialising in communicating research findings and enhancing knowledge flows between different stakeholders and networks for improved evidence-informed decision-making and learning outcomes. She designed and managed knowledge and learning support programmes (K4D, HEART) for various international donor agencies – DFID, DFAT, EC, Norad. She spent periods of secondment with DFID’s education cadre and UNESCO’s IIEP, and more recently as Knowledge Management Specialist for the DFAT (previously AusAID) Education Resource Facility. Prior to this she was teaching English in Peru.