Kristin Gardner is the Vice President of Strategic Engagement at the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice, where she leads efforts to mobilize resources and share the stories of Astraea’s work towards liberation. As a nonprofit executive, she grounds herself in a passion for working at the intersection of social justice and philanthropy. She’s led fundraising and communications efforts at organizations across New York City including Arthritis Foundation, Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund, and The New York Women’s Foundation. Most recently, she served as Managing Director of Development and Communications at City Year overseeing fundraising, external engagement, and communications.

Matthew (Matty) joined as Director of the Global Philanthropy Project in 2015, leading the efforts of an organization internationally recognized as the primary thought leader and go-to partner for philanthropic and development coordination of global LGBTI work. Founder and Principal of the Paris-based Lafayette Practice, Hart has previously served as Senior Strategist for Europe for Funders Concerned about AIDS and National Director for Public Engagement at Solutions for Progress, a US-based social enterprise.

Hart also serves as the President of the Board of Directors of the Calamus Foundation (DE), and has previously served as a member of the Mediterranean Women’s Fund, The Civil Marriage Collaborative, a board member of Funders for LGBTQ Issues, Philadelphia Cultural Fund, Philadelphia’s Sustainable Business Network, and The Leeway Foundation; and the community funding board of Bread & Roses Fund. A Jonathan Lax Academic Fellow. Hart helped found the Susan Treadwell Memorial Fund and Fellowships at Ariadne. Hart received degrees in Urban Studies and Cultural Anthropology from Temple University.

Milena is a queer feminist activist based in Armenia. She has a Bachelor's degree in Women & Gender Studies and a Master's in Peace and Conflict Research. For the past decade she has been working within the NGO sector supporting with project management, grant writing, fundraising, community mobilization. She has also taken on a number of research projects on gender, peace, conflict and legal gender recognition.

Mohira Suyarkulova is a scholar, teacher and activist living and working in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. She holds a PhD from St Andrews University and serves as a Full Professor at the American University of Central Asia. Mohira engages in arts-based and participatory action research that seeks to bridge the gap between academia, art and activism. Along with her comrades and colleagues Georgy Mamedov and Nina Bagdasarova she co-authored A Book on Happiness for Young (and not very young) LGBT(but not only) People (2021).

Nukri Tabidze is an anthropologist and queer activist from Abkhazia, living in Tbilisi. I consult feminist organizations and collectives, do research on social movements, nationalism and body politics in Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia

Saltanat Shoshanova is a doctoral researcher at the University of Regensburg. She is from Almaty (Kazakhstan) and is based in Berlin (Germany). Her interests include queer feminist movements, art, activism, and decolonial thinking in Central Asia and beyond.

Senda Ben Jebara, is a queer feminist originally from Tunisia and now residing in Montreal, QC, Canada. She boasts over a decade of feminist and queer activism mainly in Tunisia and across the SouthWest Asia and North Africa region. She presently serves as a Program Officer with the International Fund and holds the portfolio of Europe, Caucasus, Central Asia and South West Asia.