Meet the faculty and teaching assistants for DSROI 2021

Co-Faculty for Module 1

Niluka Gunawardena, is an educator, researcher and disability rights advocate based in Colombo, Sri Lanka. She is a Visiting Lecturer at the University of Kelaniya and a Disability Consultant and curriculum developer at the University of Colombo. She serves on the board of Women Enabled International and the disability advisory panel of HYPE Sri Lanka.

Co-Faculty for Module 1

Nandini Ghosh, is an academician-activist working on the intersectional issues of disability and gender. She is the Assistant Professor of Sociology at the Institute of Development Studies, Kolkata, India. She has a PhD degree in Social Sciences from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences Mumbai. She is widely published in academic and other journals, highlighting issues of disabled people in India. She is closely associated with disability activism within India and was also part of the process of framing the new disability rights law in India. She has represented the delegation of Indian activists at the review of the implementation of the UNCRPD in India in 2018-19.

Teaching Assistant for Modules 1 and 2

Mildred Adhiambo Omino is an Administrator in charge of the Gender and Disability Unit at the University of Nairobi in Nairobi, Kenya. Inspired by her lived realities as a woman with a disability coupled with several years of professional experience, Ms. Omino works extensively to advocate for sexual and reproductive health rights (SRHR) of girls and women with disabilities through self and collective advocacy. Ms. Omino holds a Master of Arts degree in Public Administration from the University of Nairobi and Bachelor of Commerce degree from KCA University.

Lead Faculty for Module 2

Po Kimani is a genderqueer healing justice activist and sex worker guided by love and transformational justice. Po has over 20 years experience working within civil society as an advocate and teacher of human rights environmentalism and healing justice through art, popular culture and advocacy. As a person living in chronic pain, Po centers their work in liberation work that makes space to heal ourselves of ableism, capitalism and generational trauma kept alive by institutionalized and systemic oppression and violence.

Co-Faculty for Module 3

Dwi is the Program Officer for Indonesia for the Disability Rights Fund and the Disability Rights Advocacy Fund. Dwi has worked for over eighteen years in Indonesia on disability rights and movement building. She has worked with grassroots and national organizations of persons with disabilities and supported bridge building with the women’s rights movement. As a woman with a disability herself, Dwi has also advocated for the empowerment of women with disabilities and ensures that women with disabilities are heard in every decision-making process that affects women's lives. She received the 2020 Woman of Distinction Award (Asia/Pacific Region) by NGO CSW, New York. https://ngocsw.org/woman-of-distinction-2020/#

Co-Faculty for Module 3

Megan Smith, is a disability rights activist with over 12 years of professional experience working with grassroots organizations of persons with disabilities globally. Her work has focused on reproductive justice, the rights of women and girls with disabilities, and anti-landmine advocacy in Afghanistan, Cambodia, the United States, and Australia. In Afghanistan she led projects focused on ensuring reproductive health programmes and safe family planning practices included women and girls with disabilities. She additionally held the position of Gender and Development Officer with the International Disability Alliance (IDA) in New York, where Megan led gender related partnerships within the United Nations system. She is currently completing her PhD at the University of Iceland researching the bioethical implications of prenatal testing and fetal impairment on disability culture and rights in Iceland and Ireland.

Teaching Assistant for Module 3

Phylis Mbeke Ndolo is the Executive Director at Women Spaces Africa (A feminist disability led organization working on access to information and services on SRHR). She has been working with grassroots movements on advocacy for sexual reproductive health and rights for the past 13 years. She believes that a community lens is crucial for policy makers and is a driver to regional and international conventions.

Co-Faculty for Module 4

Janet Price is an activist and academic, who works at the intersection of disability, sexuality, and gender. In partnership with many others from Nigeria, India, Kenya, and Australia, amongst others, she has been convening DSROI since 2010. She is also on the Board of Disability and Deaf Arts (DaDa), Liverpool, which holds a biennial International Festival, DaDaFest.

Co-Faculty for Module 4

Agness is a disability rights and a women’s rights activist with over 10 years of experience working with girls and women with disabilities. She is a Mandela Washington fellow and a 2020 gender champion awardee from the Dutch Embassy in Harare and a nominee of HerAbility Awards. She is the founder and Director of Deaf Women Included

Lead Faculty for Module 5

Nidhi Goyal is a disability rights and gender justice activist. She is the Founder Director of the non-profit Rising Flame. Her work spans research, writing, training, campaigns, advocacy, and art. She actively advocates at policy levels in India and the UN on issues of girls and women with disabilities. She is currently serving as the President of the Board of AWID.

Co-Faculty for Module 6

Nelly Bassily is an intersectional feminist, sexual rights, and anti-racism activist and media maker with over 15 years of experience in the non-profit sector. Born to Egyptian parents in Montreal, immigration, diaspora, and identity also inform her activism. Currently the Director of Youth Initiatives and International Relations at DAWN Canada (Disabled Women’s Network Canada), she focuses her work on young women with disabilities and Deaf young women.

Guest lecturer for Module 6

Hiker Chiu is an intersex human rights activist who founded OII-Chinese in 2008. As part of their work mission, Hiker started a "Global free hugs with intersex" campaign at Taipei's LGBT Pride Parade in 2010. In 2011 and 2012 they participated as spokesperson for Asia in the first and second International Intersex Forum. 2015 Hiker was elected as Co-Chair of ILGA Asia and a member of the ILGA World global Board being the first intersex activist ever elected to become a member of an ILGA board. In February 2018 Hiker and fellow intersex activists founded Intersex Asia as an umbrella organisation for intersex human rights activism in Asia. Hiker is currently serving as co-chair of Intersex Asia.