Welcome to the Activist, Advocate and Ally Bios section where you can learn more about the anti-Violence Against Women experts from various fields who support The Pixel Project’s Celebrity Male Role Model Pixel Reveal campaign!

They support the cause to end violence against women? Do you?

It’s time to stop violence against women. Together.

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Launch Google Hangout for the Celebrity Male Role Model Pixel Reveal campaign

Regina Yau
Founder and President, The Pixel Project
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Regina Yau is a global citizen who synergises Western liberalism with Asian pragmatism and her own social conscience. In 2009, she created The Pixel Project to raise funds, awareness and volunteer power for the cause to end violence against women using the power of the internet, popular culture and new technologies. Prior to The Pixel Project, Regina was nominated in the Education and Public Service category of The Malaysian Women’s Weekly’s “Great Women of Our Time” Awards 2008 for her innovative awareness-raising work for breast cancer. Regina is a Rhodes Scholar with a long-standing commitment to women’s issues. She has a M.St in Women’s Studies and a M.St in Oriental Studies from Oxford University.

Rita Smith
Executive Director, National Coalition Against Domestic Violence
Denver, Colarado, USA
Rita Smith has had a long history of working in the field of Domestic Violence and has been involved since 1981. Since she assumed leadership of the NCADV, she has been active in the media (both print and TV/radio) working to forward the progress of anti-violence work through numerous interviews and authoring articles. She has co-authored a legal manual for attorneys working with domestic violence victims in Colorado. In December of 2010, she was invited to the Oval Office, along with a small group of other national leaders, to join President Obama as he signed the Family Violence Prevention & Services Act into law. In December of 2011, Smith was named Distinguished Alumna of Polk State College and, in 2013, was awarded the Leroy Collins Lifetime Achievement Award by the Florida Education Association. She believes that advocacy and social change are intricately connected and cannot be done separately.

Urjasi Rudra
Communications Analyst and Youth Focal Point, UN Women
United Nations
Urjasi Rudra manages UN Women’s global advocacy and social mobilization network, Say NO – UNiTE to End Violence against Women, which is part of the UN Secretary-General’s UN system-wide campaign on the issue. As UN Women’s Focal Point on Youth, Ms. Rudra works with other UN agencies to support efforts to promote and strengthen the UN system’s work with youth. She also manages a global partnership programme with the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts to engage young people to prevent violence against women and girls. Ms. Rudra specializes in international development, gender and human rights law. Prior to joining UN Women, she worked with South Asian women’s organizations on intimate partner violence issues in immigrant communities and transnational spaces.

The White Ribbon Session – In Conversation With Jeff Perera and Clay Jones

Jeff Perera
Community Engagement Manager, White Ribbon Campaign
Toronto, Canada
Jeff Perera is a Community Engagement Manager for White Ribbon, the world’s largest movement of men working towards a new vision of masculinity, inspiring men and boys to help end gender-based violence. Jeff speaks across the country to people of all walks of life about embracing the impact we make, and difference we can make. Jeff also started Higher Unlearning, as an online space to explore how ideas of gender and masculinity impact us in everyday life.

Clay Jones
Office and Communications Manager, White Ribbon Campaign
Toronto, Canada
Clay Jones is the Office and Communications Manager for White Ribbon, the world’s largest movement of men working towards a new vision of masculinity, inspiring men and boys to help end gender-based violence. Clay helps individuals and organizations start local, grassroots campaigns Interacting with people across the world promoting the White Ribbon message through social media.

Smartphones and Women’s Safety – In Conversation with Circle of 6 and PFO tech

Bella Carlsson
Co-Founder, PFO tech
Sweden
Johan and Bella Carlsson met in 1996 and moved to New York where Johan started a firm on Wall Street and Bella worked on Fashion Avenue. In 2009, they went into business together, influenced by their three daughters. With a mission to create fashionable safety for girls and young women, they recruited a world-class team of technical engineers and accessory designers to launch the Protective Fashion Object, a bracelet with alarm, GPS and accompanying mobile application. PFO Tech is now based in Stockholm, providing companies and organisations with GPS safety solutions, as well as the technology behind the IAM Defender bracelet and personal safety app. Bella will be speaking on behalf of PFO tech at this Google Hangout event.

Nancy Schwartzman
CEO, Tech 4 Good LLC (Circle of 6)
New York, New York, USA

Nancy Schwartzman is a filmmaker, media strategist, and catalyst for social change who believes storytelling and technology can create safer communities for women and girls. She is the director and producer of the documentary films The Line (Media Education Foundation, 2009) and xoxosms (May 2011), which broadcast on POV. She has brought “The Line” and the award-winning The Line Campaign to over 65 Universities in person, and spoken to students and young people around the world. She is also the CEO of the start up Tech 4 Good, LLC., which created the Circle of 6 App. Circle of 6 won the Apps Against Abuse Technology Challenge, a national competition launched in July 2011 by Vice President Joe Biden and HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. The first safety app of its kind, Circle of 6 is being used by over 100,000 people in 32 countries, and currently localized the United States and New Delhi, India.

The #FB Rape Campaign and Cyber-Violence Against Women – In Conversation With Jaclyn Friedman and Soraya Chemaly

Jaclyn Friedman
Founder and Executive Director, Women Action Media
New York, New York, USA

Jaclyn Friedman is a writer, educator, and activist, and the editor of the hit book Yes Means Yes: Visions of Female Sexual Power and a World Without Rape (one of Publishers’ Weekly’s Top 100 Books of 2009, and #11 on Ms. Magazine’s Top 100 Feminist Nonfiction of All Time list). Friedman is a popular speaker on campuses and at conferences across the U.S. and beyond. She has been a guest on the Melissa Harris-Perry Show, the BBC, Democracy Now, To The Contrary, and numerous other radio and television shows, and her commentary has appeared in outlets including CNN, The Washington Post, The Nation, Jezebel, Feministing.com, The American Prospect, and The Huffington Post. Friedman is a founder and the Executive Director of Women, Action & the Media, where she recently led the successful #FBrape campaign to apply Facebook’s hate-speech ban to content that promotes gender-based violence. She is also a charter member of CounterQuo, a coalition dedicated to challenging the ways we respond to sexual violence.

Soraya Chemaly
Feminist Writer, Media Critic and Activist
New York, New York, USA
Soraya Chemaly is a feminist writer, media critic and activist whose work focuses on women’s rights and the role of gender in politics, religion and popular culture.  Ms. Chemaly is a frequent radio, television and online commentator and contributor to several media outlets including Salon, The Huffington Post, The Guardian, Ms. Magazine and CNN and Time. Most recently, she was one of the primary organizers of a successful social media campaign demanding that Facebook recognize misogynistic content as hate speech. She is a founding organizer of the International Feminist Network, a member of the national board of Emerge America (an organization that trains democratic women to run for office) and serves on the advisory boards of Title IX, FORCE: Ending Rape Culture and a national organization, Secular Woman, committed to encouraging women to explore secularism.  She was the 2013 recipient of the Donna Allen Award for Feminist Advocacy.  You can find her on Twitter @schemaly and blogs regularly on her tumblr.

Making Documentaries about Violence Against Women – In Conversation With Lisa F. Jackson and Evan Grae Davis

Lisa F Jackson
Documentary film-maker, “The Greatest Silence – Rape In The Congo”
New York, New York, USA
Lisa F. Jackson has been making documentary films for over 35 years – work that has brought her awards that include two Emmy awards and a Sundance Jury Prize.  “Sex Crimes Unit”, her most recent film, is an unprecedented verite portrait of prosecutors in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office as they work to bring justice to victims of sexual violence.  Jackson shot her last documentary in the war zones of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. “The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo” won a Special Jury Prize for Documentaries at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, earned 2 Emmy nominations and was broadcast on HBO. Learn more about Lisa’s work at www.jacksonfilms.com.

Evan Grae Davis
Independent Documentary film-maker, “It’s A Girl”
Tucson, Arizona, USA
From the Aral Sea disaster in Eastern Europe to poverty in Africa to social transformation among tribal groups of South America, It’s a Girl. director Evan Grae Davis has traveled the globe with camera in hand for 16 years. Evan has dedicated his career to advocating for social justice through writing and directing short documentaries and educational videos championing the cause of the poor and exploited. Evan draws from his experience and passion as he lends leadership to Shadowline Films, a team of filmmakers who share a common concern for the critical issues of our time. It’s a Girl is his first feature length documentary. Learn more about Evan’s work at www.evangraedavis.com.

International Anti-Street Harassment Week – In Conversation with Holly Kearl

Holly Kearl
Founder, Stop Street Harassment
Washington D.C., USA

Holly Kearl is a national street harassment expert, writer, and nonprofit professional based in the Washington, D.C. area. Kearl is author of the groundbreaking book Stop Street Harassment: Making Public Places Safe and Welcoming for Women (Praeger, 2010) and co-author of a national report on sexual harassment in grades 7-12, Crossing the Line: Sexual Harassment at School (AAUW, 2011). She founded Stop Street Harassment in 2008 and International Anti-Street Harassment Day in 2011. Kearl received her master’s degree in public policy and women’s studies from George Washington University, where she began her street harassment work by writing her thesis on the topic. 

Hanna Lena Kruger
Member, ProChange
Germany

Hanna is 23 years old and just finished her Bachelor’s degree in Social Work. She starts a one year work experience as a human rights observer in the Philippines in July. She wrote her BA thesis about sexual violence against women in India as a human rights issue after doing a work experience in India. She is a member of Pro Change for over a year. She joined because there is still a lot to do for women in German society, and International Anti-Street Harassment Week is important as it helps raise awareness and to demand safe public spaces for women and girls.

Ursula Singh
Executive, YUWA
Nepal

Ursula works in the sector of SRHR and HIV and AIDS with young people. She received her Bachelor’s degrees in English and Social Work.