Steering Committee

The ROSA Global Steering Committee is composed of a diverse group of leaders—including survivors of online violence, women politicians, civil society advocates, and technology experts— to reflect the multifaceted and global nature of this issue. With a commitment to survivor-centered solutions, the Steering Committee offers expertise and leadership to ensure that ROSA Global delivers on its mission: providing timely, effective, and compassionate support to women in politics and public life impacted by online violence.

Khoirunnisa Nur Agustyati

Executive Director

Perludem (Association for Election and Democracy)

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Khoirunnisa Nur Agustyati joined Perludem in 2012. Before joining Perludem, she worked as a researcher at the Center for Electoral Reform (CETRO). Her research experience and activities in electoral issues include the electoral system, electoral management, and women in politics. She is actively involved in various forums between electoral and democratic institutions on a national and international scale. Get involved in civil society coalitions to support the holding of elections in a professional manner. In addition, she is also actively involved in advocating for election laws and electoral administrators. She obtained a bachelor’s degree in Sociology from Universitas Indonesia and a master’s degree in Political Science from Universitas Indonesia.

Dr. Rumman Chowdhury

United States Science Envoy, Artificial Intelligence, CEO and Co-founder

Humane Intelligence

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Dr. Rumman Chowdhury is a data scientist and social scientist. She is the CEO of the tech nonprofit Humane Intelligence, which builds a community of practice around evaluations of AI models, as well as the United States Science Envoy for Artificial Intelligence. Dr. Chowdhury is also Responsible AI Fellow at Harvard University’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society. Previously, Dr. Chowdhury was the Director of the ML Ethics, Transparency, and Accountability (META) team at Twitter, as well as the Global Lead for Responsible AI at Accenture Applied Intelligence. She was named one of Time's 100 most Influential People in AI, BBC’s 100 Women, Worthy Magazine's Top 100, recognized as one of the Bay Area’s top 40 under 40 and named by Forbes as one of Five Who are Shaping AI. Chowdhury holds two undergraduate degrees from MIT, a master's degree in Quantitative Methods of the Social Sciences from Columbia University, and a doctorate in political science from the University of California, San Diego.

Tamara Cofman Wittes

President

National Democratic Institute

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Tamara Cofman Wittes became the fourth president of NDI in 2024. Before joining the Institute, she served as Director of Foreign Assistance in the U.S Department of State. Previously, she led the Russia sanctions effort for the State Department's sanctions coordination office. Dr. Wittes also served in the State Department from 2009 - 2012 as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, coordinating U.S. policy on democracy and human rights in the Middle East during the Arab uprisings. Dr. Wittes spent nearly twenty years as a foreign policy scholar at the Brookings Institution, including as director of its Center for Middle East Policy. Her analysis focused on U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East, political and economic change in the region, and the Arab-Israel conflict. She is an adjunct professor at Georgetown University, where she has taught courses in international relations, Middle East policy, and security studies. Dr. Wittes was one of the first recipients of the Rabin-Peres Peace Award, established by President Bill Clinton in 1997. Dr. Wittes has published three books, most recently Foreign Policy Careers for PhDs: A Practical Guide to a World of Possibilities (Georgetown University Press, 2023). She holds a bachelor’s in Judaic and Near Eastern studies from Oberlin College, and master’s and doctoral degrees in Government from Georgetown University. She is a founder of the Leadership Council for Women in National Security, and served on the board of the National Democratic Institute from 2014 - 2022. She is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and Women in International Security.

Suyen Barahona Cuan

Executive Director

Colmena Fund

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Suyen is the Executive Director of the Women’s Political Leadership Fund, a new independent fund designed to bring critical funding to advance women’s feminist and democratic political leadership, with a particular focus on the global south. She is a political leader, human rights activist and feminist with over 15 years of leadership experience in politics. She began her political involvement working as campaign and project coordinator for various Nicaraguan non-governmental organizations involved in national and international advocacy in defense of the environment and the rights of indigenous peoples. In 2006 Suyen became part of Unión Democrática Renovadora (UNAMOS formerly MRS), a Nicaraguan progressive opposition political party. Her commitment to the defense of human rights, democracy and justice led her to be part of the first coordinating team of the Women’s Network within her political party and to be elected as President of UNAMOS in 2017. Her leadership has developed in the context of a brutal dictatorship. Suyen has known firsthand the many barriers that women face when participating in political spaces. She has suffered persecution and has been unjustly and arbitrarily imprisoned on two occasions. The last time she was imprisoned for 606 days with other opposition figures, civic leaders, and presidential candidates before national elections. She was deported and illegally deprived of her nationality. In spite of the challenges she has faced, she persists in her commitment to create the necessary support structures for women, to help them gain political power and open up new opportunities in political spaces to further gender equality and bring about governments that are open and accountable to its citizens. Suyen serves as a member of the Board of the Progressive Alliance, a network of 140 progressive, democratic, social democratic parties and organizations worldwide committed to promoting freedom, justice and solidarity. Suyen holds a B.A in International Relations from University of Mobile. She was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to study an MSc. in Environmental Studies with a concentration in Environmental Policy at Ohio University.

Elizabeth Dartnall

Executive Director

Sexual Violence Research Initiative

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With over 25 years of expertise in health systems, mental health, and research addressing violence against women and violence against children, Liz is a dedicated advocate for evidence-driven solutions. Her career spans diverse roles across countries, equipping her with a deep understanding of how research shapes policy and practice. Since 2006, Liz has steered the Sexual Violence Research Initiative, transforming it into an independent NGO recognized internationally for advancing the field. Committed to feminist, ethical, and equitable research practices, Liz continues to lead efforts that build critical evidence to drive impactful policy changes and create a violence-free world for women and children.

Julie Inman Grant

eSafety Commissioner

Government of Australia

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Julie Inman Grant is Australia’s eSafety Commissioner, the world’s first government regulatory agency committed to keeping its citizens safer online.  Before commencing in this role in January 2017, Commissioner Inman Grant spent two decades working in senior public policy and safety roles in the tech industry at Microsoft, Twitter and Adobe.

Sherry Hakimi

Co-founder and CEO

pirth.org

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Sherry Hakimi is co-founder and CEO of pirth.org, the first global resource + reporting platform designed to address online violence, especially for high-risk communities such as academics, activists, elected officials, journalists, public figures, and youth. Previously, she served as executive director of genEquality, an applied behavioral science nonprofit organization. She has advocated and advised on foreign policy and gender policy at the multilateral, international, federal, and local levels for more than a decade. She is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and Harvard Kennedy School, and her work and writing has been featured in Fast Company, the Washington Post, Politico, Business Insider, the Meteor, and the Hill, among others.

Dr. Scott A. Hale

Associate Professor & Director of Research

Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford & Meedan

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Dr Scott A. Hale is Director of Research at Meedan, a global non-profit, and an Associate Professor at the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford. His applied Natural Language Processing and Machine Learning research seeks to achieve more equitable access to quality information online. His research has investigated the spread of information between speakers of different languages online, the roles of bilingual Internet users, collective action and mobilization, hate speech, and misinformation. With Meedan, he builds AI tools for human-led fact-checking and facilitates academic–practitioner collaborations.

Kalliopi Mingeirou

Chief

Ending Violence against Women and Girls Section, UN Women

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Kalliopi Mingeirou is the Chief of the Ending Violence Against Women Section at UN Women, based in New York. She leads global initiatives, including various interagency efforts, focused on preventing and responding to violence against women and girls in both public and private spaces. A lawyer by training, she holds an LL.M. in public international law. Prior to joining UN Women, Ms. Mingeirou practiced law in Greece and worked internationally with UN agencies and INGOs in the fields of human rights, women’s rights, and refugee protection, in both development and humanitarian settings across multiple countries.

Suzanne Nossel

Incoming President and CEO

Freedom House

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Suzanne Nossel is the incoming President and Chief Executive Officer of Freedom House. She comes to Freedom House most recently from service as the Chief Executive Officer of PEN America, the leading human rights and free expression organization. She has overseen groundbreaking work on free expression in Hong Kong and China, Myanmar, Eurasia, and the United States as well as programs addressing free speech and education, online abuse, artistic freedom, and information integrity. She is a leading voice on free expression issues in the United States and globally, writing and being interviewed frequently for national and international media outlets. Her prior career spanned government service and leadership roles in the corporate and nonprofit sectors. She has served as the Chief Operating Officer of Human Rights Watch and as Executive Director of Amnesty International USA. During the first term of the Obama Administration, Nossel served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizations, where she led US engagement in the United Nations and multilateral institutions on human rights and humanitarian issues. During the Clinton Administration, Nossel was Deputy to the US Ambassador for UN Management and Reform at the US Mission to the United Nations, where she was the lead negotiator in settling US arrears to the world body. During her corporate career, Nossel served as Vice President of US Business Development for Bertelsmann and as Vice President for Strategy and Operations for the Wall Street Journal. Nossel is the author of Dare To Speak: Defending Free Speech for All (HarperCollins, 2020) and a co-author of Is Free Speech Under Threat? (Penguin Random House UK, 2024). She is a columnist for Foreign Policy magazine and has published op-eds in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, LA Times, and dozens of other outlets, as well as scholarly articles in Foreign Affairs, Dissent, Democracy, Daedalus, and other journals. In 2021, Nossel was selected as a member of the Oversight Board, an independent body using human rights principles to adjudicate content-moderation decisions. Nossel is a magna cum laude graduate of both Harvard College and Harvard Law School.

Ghada Oueiss

Principal Presenter

News Directorate, Al Jazeera Channel

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Oueiss is an Advisory Board Member for the Online Violence Alert and Response System project - a UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and Luminate funded and ICFJ-led effort to develop an integrated and systematic response to online attacks on women journalists. As a Principal Presenter at Al Jazeera Arabic channel and a media trainer, she has inspired and mentored aspiring journalists to reach their full potential. Her dedication to human rights and gender equality has been a driving force throughout her career. She has fearlessly covered political stories, conflict areas, and war zones, bringing attention to crucial issues that impact our world. In recognition of her outstanding contribution to journalism, she was honored as a World Woman Hero at Davos in 2023. Additionally, she received the prestigious May Chidiac Foundation Award for "Engaged Journalism" in Beirut in 2013. Her achievements are a testament to her unwavering commitment to ethical journalism and dedication to making a positive impact in the world.

Phumzile Van Damme

Strategist & Consultant

Counter-Electoral Disinformation & Platform Accountability

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Phumzile Van Damme is a counter-electoral disinformation and platform accountability strategy consultant. An activist on these subjects, she serves on boards and advisory councils of organisations dedicated to fighting disinformation and online violence against women and holding social media companies for harms emanating from their platforms, including the Real Facebook Oversight Board, #ShePersisted and the Global Partnership for Action on Gender-Based Online harassment and Abuse. A former Member of Parliament in South Africa, Van Damme was elected to Parliament at 31 and served on the Communications and Digital Technologies committee as Shadow Minister. Van Damme’s fire foray into the fight against disinformation was featured in the documentary “Influence,” which charted the rise and fall of controversial global PR firm Bell Pottinger and her role in bringing it to justice resulting in its ultimate demise. Van Damme was invited to join the International Grand Committee on Disinformation, an international array of legislators, policy advisors, and other experts working together to forge global alliances to battle disinformation. In September 2021, Van Damme founded and coordinated South Africa’s first electoral disinformation monitoring project. She is expanding her work to include elections around the African continent and aims to roll out similar programmes for the 2023 elections. Van Damme’s achievements have not gone unnoticed; she has received many accolades for her work. Recently she was awarded the prestigious 2022 Vital Voices Global Leadership Award for her work on electoral disinformation and platform accountability.

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