Featured Presenters at QLC 2019
Keynote Speaker* Hanifa Nakiryowa is a Global Health Associate, working to advance the goals of the Women’s Health Activist Movement (WHAMglobal). She is a recent H.J. Heinz fellow and a second career graduate with a Master of International Development and Human Security Studies from the University of Pittsburgh’s graduate school of Public and International Affairs (GSPIA). She has worked as a Monitoring and Evaluating Specialist for the UNICEF-FBO partnership promoting maternal and child health, women’s and children’s rights and girl’s education Uganda. Hanifa’s work focuses on addressing gender-related challenges facing women and children in institutionally oppressive societies. She founded The Center for Rehabilitation of Survivors of Acid and burns Violence (CERESAV), an NGO in Uganda after surviving an acid attack in 2011.
GMB Akash is a world renowned Photographer, whose work has been featured in National Geographic, Vogue, Time, Sunday Times, Newsweek, Geo, Stern, Der Spiegel, The Fader, Brand Ein, The Guardian, Marie Claire, Colors, The Economist, The New Internationalist, Kontinente, Amnesty Journal, Courier International, PDN, Die Zeit, Days Japan, Hello, and Sunday Telegraph of London. He has received more than 100 international photography awards and recognition, andin 2011 Nikon selected GMB as one of the 8 influencers in Asia Pacific (APAC region). In 2012 GMB published in a book entitled `SURVIVORS`. The proceeds from the book go to helping the subjects in that book set up small businesses. In August 2013, GMB founded the FIRST LIGHT INSTITUTE OF PHOTOGRAPHY in Bangladesh, which now has hundreds of students from all over the world. GMB has also had Solo Exhibitions from 2006 to 2018 in Bangladesh, Germany, Belgium, Portugal, Italy, Switzerland, the USA in New York, N.Y. and Charleston, S.C, as well as in the Czech Republic and Greece. Please see this link for photos of GMB Akash’s phenomenal art gallery at QLC 2019.
Keynote Speaker* Jamala Osman is a 25-year-old social entrepreneur and former Bank Manager at Barclays plc. She was one of the youngest bank managers in the country and was tasked with running her first branch at the age of 21.
Having had a difficult start to life, her dramatic turnaround inspired her to create pathways and programmes for other struggling individuals to help break down barriers. Winner of Great Britain and Irelands Young Citizen Award for 2018 and TEDx London Speaker Jamala is on a mission to help bridge the gap between young talent and organisations
Andrew Newman is a Fine Arts teacher, MUN Director and school photographer at John Burroughs School in St. Louis. At 17 years of age his photographs were published in his local newspaper. At age 22 he was photographing for National Geographic Magazine. Now after 27 year of teaching Andrew is currently on a full year sabbatical visiting MUN conferences around the world, advocating for MUN Impact and inspiring student leaders into action to support the SDGs. With camera in hand he plans on visiting all seven continents this year capturing images of life on land, below the water, and portraits of people who effect positive change for our environment.
Frank Pobutkiewicz is an educator, youth mentor, serial entrepreneur, and solo founder. In 2011, Frank founded All-American Model United Nations, combining his love of teaching, Model United Nations, and international travel. Frank has taught Model UN, speech and debate, and entrepreneurship to students around the world. Frank has given three TedX talks on mentorship, rapid market validation, and the societal benefits of gap years between high school and university. In fall 2019, Frank’s first book, Happy Wednesday, will be published.
Gisela Becker is a teacher for History, Political and Social Sciences as well as English in the state of Bavaria in Germany. At the moment she works for ALP, the state-run Academy for the further professional development of teachers in Bavaria, Germany. Her organization welcomes around 30,000 teachers each year to update their professional skills in subject matter and teaching strategies. Gisela Becker is responsible for the teacher training in History and Political and Social Sciences. In her younger years Gisela Becker played soccer and not only discovered her love for that team sport but also the many similarities between her passion and her professional challenges. She wants to share her experiences to help others find their paths on the way to becoming inspiring leaders for others.
Hamid Khalfallah is a development professional, currently working as the Education Projects Manager for the British Council in Sudan. He comes from a multi-disciplinary background, with qualifications in International Development and Communications Engineering. In addition to being a Chevening alumnus, the UK’s prestigious scholarship, Hamid is the winner of the UK Development Studies Association dissertation prize for 2019. Hamid has co-founded To Sudan With Love charity that has been operating for nine years now, with the aim of helping less-privileged families in Sudan. Additionally, he acts as the Director of Resources of Nile Swimmers Organisation, which is an international NGO working on water safety and drowning prevention. Hamid has worked with refugees, IDPs, and ex-child soldiers. Furthermore, Hamid has been active with various youth groups tackling issues like civil resistance, democracy and human rights monitoring.
Inga Zielonka graduated as a technical landscape architect in Germany. She has worked on the design and execution planning of campus and sports facilities, the conversion of old barracks into modern elements of cities, transforming traffic arteries into sustainable city spaces and the renewal of residential areas for people with disabilities. She is responsible for various urban redevelopment and new construction projects. Inga has working experience in the Netherlands, Germany and China. She enjoys the challenge of making the most of functional and aesthetic possibilities while focusing on practicality of construction. In her work she likes to focus on biodiversity, sustainability, water retention, new mobility and finding innovative solutions.
Currently she is researching about the role of landscape architects and urban planners in Sub-Saharan Africa. Inga likes sharing her profession and relating her day-to-day work with leadership and personal development.
Kellen Brewer is a full-time staff member at Thirst Project, the world’s largest YOUTH water organization. He graduated from Arizona State University with a degree in Global Studies and a focus on International Development. For his last semester at university, Kellen interned with Thirst Project where he traveled across the United States as a representative for the organization. Since 2017, Kellen has spoken to thousands of young people about the global water crisis, working with groups like the United Nations, UNICEF, National Associations of Student Councils, Key Club and more. With a mission to END the water crisis, Kellen and the Thirst Project team currently work closely with the Kingdom of eSwatini and four other nations to build clean water projects for communities in need.
Reinhardt Smit is an entrepreneur based in The Netherlands. He participated in his first MUN conference in 1999, and eventually went on to be a founding member of the THIMUN Youth Network and Conference Manager of the THIMUN conference in The Hague. He is also one of the co-editors of THIMUN’s 50th Anniversary book “Shaping Tomorrow.” Reinhardt is the co-founder of the Dutch social enterprise “Closing the Loop,” an innovator in the Circular Economy by offering a new business model for sustainable mobile telephones. As the winner of the Circular Award in the Netherlands in 2018, his company is often cited as a key expert and best-practice for the Circular Economy. As such, they were invited to present their business at the UN in New York in July of 2018.
Reinhardt grew up in South Africa and Ghana, and studied IT and Hospitality Management.
Samuel Smeele is a director with the Online Model United Nations program and is also completing his honours dissertation in Sustainability Accounting at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Australia. Samuel has served as a director with Online Model United Nations (OMUN) since July 2016, and has served in leadership positions with the organisation off and on since 2013. Samuel is also currently serving on the board of the Asia-Pacific Model United Nations Conference, an annual travelling conference for university students in the Asia-Pacific region. Samuel also, in 2018, completed a Batchelor of Law (Honours) and Batchelor of Commerce with a major in Accounting at the Australian National University in Canberra, Australia.
Dr. Walter Peterson is an Emeritus Member of the THIMUN Advisors Board and has accompanied his students to THIMUN for 35 years, beginning in 1984. He has a Ph.D. in European history and has published a book and scholarly articles related to the German emigration of the 1930s and 1940s. Prior to retirement, he served as Chairman of the History Department at the John F. Kennedy School (JFKS), Berlin, Germany. In 1992 he embraced a suggestion of two JFKS students and with them founded the Berlin Model United Nations (BERMUN). Since then, the BERMUN Conference has grown and annually attracts participants from around the world.
Kudzai Mukaratirwa is currently the Director of Online Model United Nations, a global debate and educational development platform focused on using MUN to achieve the SDGs. Kudzai also acts as an Expert Advisor for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) for their Education for Justice Programme. This year he has been a panellist for a UNODC Youth Side Event for African youth leadership at the Pan African Youth Conference in The Gambia with a focus on youth in Africa as leaders and actors. He has also been a moderator and rapporteur at the EcoSoc Youth Forum 2019 at the UNHQ in New York City. With a focus on recommendations for inclusive participation for youth to achieve peace and security through SDG 16. Kudzai has actively worked with civil society in Zimbabwe with a focus on preventing gender-based violence in public spaces, child marriages and child protection policy. Kudzai also sits as a member of the MUN Impact and HELA Afghanistan Advisory Board and is a champion for youth rights and their active participation.
Faruque Ahmed is a passionate social worker creating new opportunity to serve the society by enriching the inner power of the underprivileged segment across Bangladesh. After completing his post-graduation in Mathematics, he worked in a BPO company. During the time, he played a key operational role to found “Bidyanondo Foundation, a non-profit charity organization” in Bangladesh. He is now working with indigenous kids & Rohingya refugees providing them basic needs like shelter, education and food. He leads some of the most innovative charity action in Bangladesh like the Food Vending Machine for street children (First ever bio-metric food ATM in Bangladesh), making sanitary napkins for 6 cent, and many other programs. Some of the most remote orphanages for hundreds of indigenous kids were initiated by him under Bidyanondo Foundation. He also has worked in India & Nepal to share the inspiration of Bidyanondo’s flagship initiative “One Taka Meal”. Faruque wants to create a platform of doing good work to inspire the society by the means true voluntarism.
Mohand Nour, a specialist in the field of early-stage startups, has 7 years+ experience of helping entrepreneurs and early-stage founders go from idea to scale. This involves years of helping entrepreneurs connect with governments, institutions, universities and corporates, helping to innovate different structures within business and drive funding to those with the ideas that change society for the better. As part of the founding team at F6S, now the world’s largest tech startup community, with over 3 million users globally, Mohand was able to hone his expertise and directly support entrepreneurship at every level. One particular focus of his is Social Enterprise, helping early-stage entrepreneurs who offer innovation that is both for-profit and non-profit, use technology to solve the key problems facing society. Within social enterprise, Mohand has helped organisations with keen eye for topics such as, but not limited to: climate change, sustainable energy, and being of Eritrean descent himself, societal inclusivity.
Elena Wise is a 21 year old student from upstate New York who is currently studying Anthropology, Religions, and Oriental Civilizations at the University of Bologna in Italy. She completed two years of study in art and design, focusing on textiles and traditional craft techniques. She has since worked with NGOs working with traditional artisans in Asia, the Dominican Republic, and Ghana. Now studying at the University of Bologna, she is taking courses about world cultures, religions, and anthropological techniques and is an active member of AIESEC in Bologna. Through AIESEC she became interested in the SDGs and the work of the UN. She participated in the European Youth Debate in Milan, a round-table debate backed by the European Commission, and was elected to be the spokesperson of the European Cultural Heritage round-table. Recently she took part in the Impact Summit in Prague on SDG #5 Gender Equality where she was the main sponsor of the resolution on preventing violence against children and girls.
Suzie Yassin is an educator, mentor and international speaker with a passion for and specialism in out-of-school education and its influence on youth and community development. She has a scientific and legal background with a BSc in Molecular Biology and Masters in Intellectual Property Law from Queen Mary University of London. Over the past 15 years, she has set up and managed award winning projects that aim to have a lasting impact on young people from disadvantaged communities. Through Idris Foundation and Ethar Relief she is focused on highlighting the refugee crisis in East Africa and the Middle East and bringing the latest technologies that can improve health and education to those living in less privileged regions of the world.