Aarati is an intrapreneur with over 11 years of global experience in organisational leadership, education policy and impact measurement in various capacities across geographies. She has led strategic initiatives with Leadership Accelerators such as Teach for India, Global Citizen Year, and the Latin American Leadership Academy, enabling them to scale. Leadership, gender equality, and inclusion have been the overarching themes throughout her career. She has actively participated in various initiatives, such as AIESEC, Education Pioneers, Global Shapers, volunteered for the Paralympics, and served as a Climate Ambassador to Antarctica through the Leadership on the Edge program.

Aarati holds a master’s in International Education Policy from Harvard University, is a certified Yoga & Mindfulness instructor and an Advanced Open Water Diver. As the Regional Executive Director, she collaborates with the Executive Director and boards to successfully implement Wedu’s strategy and achieve widespread impact in closing the gender leadership gap.

Sara is passionate about design, culture, and education. She draws on over a decade of experience in creative expression, community engagement, and leadership development to spearhead leadership trainings at Wedu.

Most recently, Sara led Acumen’s leadership initiatives in Pakistan, focusing on designing learning experiences for social impact innovators. Previously, she worked with PeaceNiche/T2F and Salt Arts, promoting inclusive discourse through intellectual and cultural engagement. She has also taught courses exploring design and social entrepreneurship at the University of Karachi. Her passion for gender equality has led her to become a founding curator for the WOW – Women of the World festival in Pakistan and design an illustrated publication for young adults featuring stories of fifty exceptional women of the country.

Sara is an Acumen Fellow and holds a bachelor’s degree in design from the Department of Visual Studies, University of Karachi.

Sidra brings over seven years of experience leading programmes and fostering partnerships within the startup ecosystem in Pakistan and the MENA region. Her expertise lies in the intersection of gender, technology, and social entrepreneurship. She has supported over 700 entrepreneurs across the region, facilitating growth, scale, and gender lens investment readiness. Sidra will draw on these experiences to lead and scale Wedu’s signature mentorship programmes.

She also co-founded Daastan, Pakistan’s self-publishing startup, which leverages technology to promote literature, publishing over 200 books in print and onboarding 3000+ writers worldwide. Sidra strongly believes that community engagement is at the centre of impact and is an active community builder, building multiple thriving communities of readers and young women writers across Pakistan.

Sidra is a Women’s Impact Alliance fellow and graduated with a Bachelor’s in Mechatronics Engineering from UET Peshawar.

Dah has over four years of experience overseeing the planning, implementation, and evaluation of the programmes focusing on advancing women’s leadership.

As Programme Coordinator of Wedu, Dah leads mentorship and education financing programmes, supporting the individual and collective resilience of refugees from Myanmar who live in camps along the Thai-Myanmar border with mentoring, ensuring the Mentorship Programmes for women in Asia run smoothly; and helping women leaders achieve their post-secondary education goals on their own terms using Income Sharing Agreements to overcome financial barriers. Prior to joining Wedu in 2021, she worked with the under-represented ethnic minority women from Myanmar to foster their leadership growth, upgrade their soft and hard skills, and increase their awareness of social and political issues.

Dah also serves as an advisor at the local mentorship initiative – SheOwner Business Mentorship Programme in Myanmar to support minority women, mothers and girls from rural areas with mentoring and training. She holds a BA (Honours) in Human and Organisational Development and a minor in General Psychology from the Education University of Hong Kong.

Juliana is a storyteller and facilitator, passionate about issues related to gender, education and travel. She brings rich experience of working in diverse fields related to women’s empowerment including research, communications, community engagement, entrepreneurship and management. She graduated from the University of Sheffield with MA Intercultural Communication and International Development in 2021, as a Chevening Scholar.

Drawing from personal experience of leadership development through travel, Juliana co-founded Duluwa Outdoors, an experiential learning curator that offers travel and outdoor experiences for Nepali womxn.

She joined Wedu as a Rising Star in 2020 and now leads Wedu’s Community Engagement to facilitate conversations and inspire collaborations within the community and beyond.

Annum is an international development professional with over a decade of experience advancing high impact solutions to issues around sustainable economic development and gender equity. She has three years of banking-sector experience, and her programmatic expertise include project and grant management, impact investment, policy research, capacity building, multi-stakeholder engagement, and MEL. Her operational experience spans across North America, the Middle East and South Asia. Annum completed her Masters in Public Administration (Development Practice) from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA).

The common thread across Annum’s diverse cross-sectoral engagements is the emphasis on making public and private sector programs equitable and inclusive. She excels at creating partnerships and effectively managing teams to maximize collective impact. Her recent work includes managing a £15 million, multi-year local governance reform project in Pakistan funded by FCDO; overseeing an investment fund for women-led SMEs; executing grant challenge rounds to support financial inclusion innovations; and coordinating the development of grant proposals across South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya for a USAID inclusive digital economies project.

Yvie is a public speaker and development professional dedicated to youth empowerment and women entrepreneurship. She played a pivotal role in formulating the Philippine Youth Development Plan (PYDP) 2023-2028, a comprehensive blueprint for youth development in the Philippines. She graduated with a degree in Management from the University of the Philippines Tacloban College in 2019.

Beyond her career in development, Yvie is a professional host and entrepreneur. She participated in the Philippines’ Youth Entrepreneurship Program alongside young women entrepreneurs and now runs her own event hosting business for national and international summits and conferences. She sharpens her public speaking and leadership skills as an active member of Toastmasters International.

Yvie’s influence extends internationally, having represented the Philippines at the ASEAN Youth Dialogue 2023 in Jakarta and the YSEALI Regional Workshop 2023 in Vietnam. Her dedication to empowering youth and women across Asia is exemplified through her work with Wedu, where she leverages her multifaceted expertise to create meaningful impact.

Aina Eriksson is a Filipina-Swedish communicator passionate about intercultural translation and fostering hybrid knowledge systems. She brings over seven years of experience in strategic science writing, policy engagement, youth activism and digital campaigning in the Nordics, South Africa, and the Philippines.

Interweaving her background in law (LLB) and development communication (MA) she applies an intersectional approach to her work, carefully considering local conceptualizations and multiple realities when crafting strategies for community work. Her career highlights include lobbying for seed freedom in Cape Town, crafting a digital campaign brought to COP26 on the role of artists in climate action, and coordinating the United Nations One Planet Network on Sustainable Lifestyles and Education.

She leads strategic communication initiatives to elevate Wedu’s impact and mobilise gender equity advocates in closing the gender leadership.

Jo is a digital marketer with over five years of experience supporting social impact organisations navigate the digital world so they can maximize their real-world impact. She specializes in designing integrated marketing campaigns, conducting marketing research, and running paid media campaigns.

Jo is an activist and a firm believer in the power of digital and the arts to bring inclusive change. Some of her notable work include digitizing Filipino artists’ works during the COVID-19 lockdown and volunteering as an art literacy instructor for displaced indigenous children. She has been recognized for her contributions through competitive fellowship programmes such as the inaugural UNESCO Creative Economy cohort by the University of London and UnionAid’s Mindanao Young Leaders Programme implemented by the Victory University of Wellington, New Zealand.

At Wedu, Jo leads overall brand communications strategy and champions Wedu’s work through public relations, media production, and digital fundraising efforts. 

Babita brings over four years of experience specialising in international development finance in Nepal, along with a firm belief that once equal opportunities are provided to women, every sector will start experiencing incomparable growth and development. Babita holds a BBA in Management from Pokhara University and an MBA in Finance from Purbanchal University. She leads Wedu’s accounting and finance functions and oversees global operations.

Francine is a Filipina geologist dedicated to leveraging her background in science communication to achieve gender just systems. With over a decade of volunteer experience in women’s CSOs/NGOs, she brings to the table extensive insights on crafting tailored campaigns to advocate for the representation of women in public spheres of decision-making (Motion 32 advocacy) and to address the disproportionate impact of malnutrition among girls (Girl Powered Nutrition).

Some of her career highlights include leading panel events in the Commission on the Status of Women for the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts, the Global Youth Summit with the 4SD Foundation, and the World Food Forum alongside the International Institute of Rural Reconstruction. In addition to this, she works towards amplifying the voice of marginalized communities through mentorship initiatives such as U-Go and people-led platforms like Ilaw.

Francine started her transformational leadership journey with Wedu as a YSEALI Women’s Leadership Academy alumna and now she develops meaningful communication strategies to further women’s rights across borders and barriers.

Kim is pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Global Economics with a Minor in Business Intelligence at Sunmoon University, Korea, with the Global Korea Scholarship 2020. She has extensive experience in Private Equity Investment Research, data analytics, and project management. As a Manager at VietAbroader, a nonprofit organisation empowering Vietnamese youths, she spearheaded initiatives to guide students in their career paths, organised online events, and expanded study abroad opportunities. Additionally,  the ‘Folktale – Một ít chuyện con nít’, which she is the co-founder of,  has published more than four thousand gender-equal fairy tales in Vietnam. Beyond her professional accomplishments, Kim  is deeply committed to leadership and community development.

As a Rising Star and Leadership Programme Intern at Wedu, she supports in managing and organising programme data, administrative processes, and ensuring the overall success of the programmes.

Jenny graduated from Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam with a Bachelor Degree of International Relations, which gave her a comprehensive view of the intersection of international affairs with gender equality and sustainable development. Her motivation for making change in her community, Jenny joined Wedu to further expand her knowledge on supporting women’s leadership and make Wedu’s work more widely known. Jenny has previously worked with the United Nations, gaining experience in project management and communications. Jenny aspires to make a career in social impact. With Jenny on board, Wedu’s community engagement team will facilitate conversations and inspire collaborations with Wedu’s leadership community and beyond.