Advocacy

Mental Health

As a trained psychotherapist, I am a recognized advocate for mental health and emotional wellbeing.

My model for preventing and mitigating burnout has reached globally on individual and organizational levels. I also consult corporations on scaling Emotional Intelligence (EQ) and related areas.

MESPERO: Impact for Resilience, which I founded, builds psychosocial support for underserved populations. To that end, I have mentored innovative projects including an online initiative to build mental health capacity in last-mile settings in Syria and Yemen and a Kenya-based initiative aimed at mitigating collective trauma.

HUMAN TRAFFICKING

I lead development of an interactive digital showcase spotlighting people with lived experience and others working against modern slavery and human trafficking. This includes creating public-access television segments.

Impactful events are in scope. For example, I organized an exhibition, interactive installation, and forum in London: The SDGs and Human Trafficking: Lived Experience Leads. Prior to that, I led a televised World Day against Trafficking in Persons event in Vienna.

I also mentor anti-trafficking projects such as Footprint to Freedom and the African Survivor Coalition. This includes closely supporting the creation of the African Survivor Leadership Academy.

CLIMATE

I scale large-scale climate initiatives with a community-based approach.

My Bridging Climate Divides was launched at the UN in Vienna to promote inclusive development of bottom-up solutions for climate impact. I also supported the OSCE in developing large-scale eLearning courses for renewable energy.

At COP27, I co-launched a capacity-building project linking climate change with human trafficking. At COP26, I coordinated a multidisciplinary forum.

Innovations have included television broadcasts viewed by millions via US public access (an example is here) and an SDG 13 HUB complete with virtual-learning modules and an interactive project showcase. Further television segments will be broadcast in Q4 24.

GENDER TOPICS

I support the development of gender-equity projects for corporations, governmental groups, and other organizations.

Initiating and organizing related conferences, such as A Collaborative Vision of SDG 5 at the UN, is also in scope.

In that regard, I created the SDG 5 Hub and its Changemaker Challenge, which was featured in a Learning Session of the UN High Level Political Forum.

I have spoken on panels and led workshops on AI implications for online hate speech and related violence against women; discussions have covered everything from deep fakes to preventive algorithms.

INCLUSIVE ENGAGEMENT

As a career educator, I have had the honor of accompanying generations of young people on their path to self-discovery.

Since empowerment is inherent, I see the best mentoring as creating opportunities for people to explore their own potential in safe, inclusive, and cooperative environments.

That approach is reflected in all of the activities I initiate and organize, such as the World Youth Skills Day event at the United Nations in Vienna in 2023 (shown in photo).

I also work to engage communities in scaling psychological solutions, destigmatizing personal narratives, advocating for social change, and other areas of fostering social cohesion.

SDGs

As Executive Director of SDG2030.me, I head an intergenerational team initiating and implementing innovations around the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

So far, that has included a variety of leading-edge events, sustainability initiatives, multimedia broadcasts, and learning architectures.

I have also initiated and organized related conferences, such as ‘Achieving Gender Equality and Female Empowerment: A Collaborative Vision of SDG 5’.

SDG 5 Thrive, for which I am a founder, promotes cultural sharing among youth – with an emphasis on women of a refugee background.