Dr. Melanie Reyes is the Executive Director of Miriam College-Women and Gender Institute (WAGI). She is also a member of the National Gender Resource Pool of the Philippine Commission on Women providing gender training and capacity building for government agencies, LGUs, and the academe. Dr. Reyes is also the Chairperson of the Department of International Studies at Miriam College and a Senior Lecturer at the University of the Philippines Open University (UPOU) teaching Women and Development Research. She is also a Board Officer of the Women and Gender Studies Association of the Philippines (WSAP) and a member of the Asian Association of Women’s Studies (AAWS).  

Prof. Aurora de Dios is currently the Senior Project Director. She is also an Associate Professor of the Miriam College Department of International Studies. She is a former WAGI Executive Director, and Former Dean of Miriam College Higher Education Unit. She was the chair of the National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women from 2001- 2003, now called the Philippine Commission on Women. Prof. Aurora de Dios is also a former member of the UN Committee on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (UN CEDAW), and the first Philippine Representative to the ASEAN Commission on the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Women and Children (ACWC). She has a BS in Foreign Service degree from the University of the Philippines, an MA in Asian Studies from the University of the Philippines, a PhD. in Philippine Studies from the University of the Philippines, and PhD. in Leadership and Organizational Development from the Southeast Asia Institute for Development. 

Prof. Aurora Javate de Dios is a leading feminist advocate for women’s human rights and gender equality. She is currently the Senior Project Director of the Women and Gender Institute (WAGI), and a Board Member of SEAWWatch. She is also an Associate Professor of the Miriam College Department of International Studies. She is a former WAGI Executive Director, and Former Dean of Miriam College Higher Education Unit. Prof. de Dios was also member and Chair of the External Advisory Board of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and works as Gender Consultant and Trainer on Women’s Rights, CEDAW, Migration issues as well as Gender Peace and Security with various ASEAN governments, government agencies in the Philippines as well as international organizations and NGOs. 

Prof. Aurora de Dios is also a former member of the UN Committee on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (UN CEDAW), and the first Philippine Representative to the ASEAN Commission on the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Women and Children (ACWC). Presently she sits as an alternative Member of the Philippine Interagency Council Against Trafficking in Persons and currently sits as a Member of the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) Technical Panel on Gender and Women’s Studies. She has long been engaged in various NGO work with the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women International (CATW) (as President) and its Asia Pacific chapter; the Women’s Crisis Center (as Board Member) and the Women’s Studies Association of the Philippines (WSAP) as its founding President. 

Frances Therese G. Zabala is currently the Project Coordinator of Women and Gender Institute (WAGI), and Project Assistant of Bayi, Inc. She is also a graduate student in Master in International Studies - Honors Program at Miriam College and obtained her Bachelor of Arts in International Studies in the same institution. Her research interests include International Relations, gender studies, discourse analysis, development, and leadership.  

Gracia Francesca Abuel, who prefers to be identified as Lesley, currently serves as an Administrative Assistant at the Women and Gender Institute (WAGI) of Miriam College. She has seven years of experience as a Support Service Provider in the development sector for persons with disabilities (PWDs) and four years of experience as an academic interpreter for deaf students, with a strong background in inclusive education, accessibility services, and disability advocacy.

Susan C. Albao has been among the administrative staff of Miriam College for the past 40 years. She finished her undergraduate degree of BS in Education, Major in Library Science at the Manuel L. Quezon University. Ms. Albao was formerly the Miriam College Higher Education Unit Librarian from 1982-2002, and served as the Women and Gender Institute Librarian from 2003-2006. She is now currently the Administrative and Finance Staff for the Women and Gender Institute. 

Dr. Tesa De Vela has spent much of her professional life as a feminist scholar and activist. Her course designs are imbibed with feminist practices of self-direction that allow learners to acknowledge and value one’s own wellspring of knowledge, and critically transform one’s own sense of being. She ensures learning occurs in a safe space, mindful of purpose, and believing people can be united by differences, and strengthened by diversity. She has undertaken local and international collaborative research projects in the areas of sexual and reproductive health and rights, understanding the specificities of non-conforming sexualities as a feminist agenda, and creating an enabling policy environment for SOGIESC equality. Her energy is directed at projects that seek to make strategic contributions in challenging feminist analysis and meaning making, towards initiatives that support the agentic voices and visions of the most marginalized in the Global South / Majority World. She has invested and continues to invest in co-designing and co-organizing spaces for the reflexive interchange of ideas between and among thought leaders that support the growth and work of feminist and queer movements for a more caring, just world.

Anna M. Dinglasan has a Master's Degree in Development Studies focusing on Social Justice Perspectives and specialising in peace and conflict studies from the International Institute of Social Studies at Erasmus University, the Netherlands. She also holds a BA and MA in International Studies from Miriam College.  

Anna has extensive experience in gender and women's rights having previously worked in various local and international organisations leading programs, doing research, conducting training, and providing technical advice on gender justice, including on gender, peace and security. Anna has been a faculty associate at the Women and Gender Institute, and a part-time lecturer at the International Studies Department at Miriam College since 2016.  

Currently based in Sydney, she is the Equity and Inclusion Lead at Caritas Australia overseeing all matters in relation to gender equity, disability and social inclusion in the organisation's international development and humanitarian programs in Asia, Africa and the Pacific. She enjoys cooking and baking, and being crafty on her free time.

Pacita “Bing” Fortin is the Faculty Associate for Training at the Women and Gender Institute, and a full time faculty (Assistant Professor V) of the Department of International Studies and the Department of Social Work, School of Arts, Sciences and Education in Miriam College, Philippines. She is a registered social worker with more than 20 years of experience in social work education, administration and management, research and direct practice working with children and women survivors of gender-based violence. She sits as a board member of the social work professional association in the Philippines and serves as consultant and resource person in UN agencies, government and NGOs, with specialization on women, gender, development and social inclusion. 

She earned her Bachelor of Science in Social Work from Bicol University in Legaspi City in 1999. She earned her Master’s Degree in Development Studies with specialization in Women, Gender and Development in 2007 from the International Institute of Social Studies, Erasmus University, Hague, Netherlands. 

finished her Masters in Education Major in E-learning from Miriam College in 2021, where her capstone research was about designing a hybrid model for teaching Mathematics to Grade 6 students after the COVID-19 pandemic. She teaches the said subject to high school students from the same institution since 2015. She was also an NSTP instructor for SY 2023 to 2024 where she lectured on the different advocacies of Miriam College. She also has experience as a research consultant to an NGO focused on helping learners with special needs since 2022.

Lorna Q. Israel is an Assistant Professor and the Graduate Program Coordinator in the Department of International Studies, at Miriam College, Quezon City.  She is also a Faculty Associate of WAGI and conducts training, research, and consultancy on women and gender issues.  She has taught feminism and gender studies, political philosophy, international relations theories, development theories, and research methods (among others) for the past 20 years. She is currently the President of the Philippine International Studies Organization (PHISO) and currently serves as the Vice President of the Philippine-Middle East Studies Association (PMESA).  

Ms. Stella is WAGI's Faculty Associate for Gender Fair Education. She is a faculty from different Departments in Miriam College including: Department of International Studies teaching Effective Communications in International Studies; School of Business, Entrepreneurship, and Accountancy, teaching Communication and Corporate Social Responsibility; and Social Work Department, teaching The Art and Discipline of Academic Writing. She is the former Head of the Gender Fair Education, former Chair of the English Department in Miriam College, Former Senior Lecturere on Gender, Language, and Education, Dept. of International Studies. 

She acquired her BA in Journalism, University of the Philippines and MA in Speech Communication, University of the Philippines. 

Jelen C. Paclarin is a feminist, educator, community worker and has been part of the women’s movements for the past two decades. She is the executive director of the Women’s Legal and Human Rights Bureau (WLB). 

The Women’s Legal and Human Rights Bureau Inc. (WLB), formerly Women’s Legal Bureau was established in 1990 by feminist human rights advocates wanting to effectively address the prejudices suffered by Filipino women before the law and in the legal system. WLB emerged as the first consciously feminist legal organization advocating feminist legal advocacy as a strategy for the promotion and defense of women’s human rights. 

WLB acts as Co-Coordinator, Weaving Women’s Voices in Southeast Asia. WEAVE is a regional group of women’s organizations and advocates from six ASEAN countries, amely, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Philippines, and Thailand. WEAVE aims to enable and facilitate meaningful and informed participation of women in the ASEAN processes and mechanisms. WLB was one of the three CSOs which drafted the implementing rules and regulations of Republic Act 11313 or the Safe Spaces Act. 

She was also the Chair of the ASEAN Civil Society Conference/ASEAN Peoples Forum (ACSC/APF) in 2017. She chaired the regional meeting of the civil society organisations in 10 countries in ASEAN including Timor Leste in 2017. The Conference was attended by more than 1000 delegates across Southeast Asia. 

She has co-written papers on the following issues/topics: (1) sexual violence and access to justice of women and girls in ASEAN; (2) women’s access to justice on sexual violence, online violence against women, and in plural legal systems; (3) access to justice of women in the context of violence against women both in the context of offline and online, women migrant workers and marriage migrants; (4) UN reports to the CEDAW, UPR, ICCPR, etc.; (5) feminist economic justice agenda in ASEAN; and (6) various research on sexual violence, women’s human rights, including documentation of stories of women and girls during the pandemic. 

She has also acted as facilitator and resource speaker in various meetings and trainings on women’s human rights, sexual violence against women and girl children, access to justice, economic justice, etc. at the national, regional, international levels. 

She is also a part-time senior lecturer at the International Studies Department of Miriam College Foundation teaching feminist legal theories, women’s human rights, feminism, and gender analysis to name a few. 

Anita “Anette”  Baleda is currently the Chief of the Policy Development Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation Division (PDPMED) of the Philippine Commission on Women (PCW). Her office leads the development and review of Gender and Development (GAD)-related policies including proposed legislative measures on gender equality and women’s empowerment. 

With her more than 30 years work experience with the PCW,  she has gained vast experience on Gender and Development (GAD) work as she has been involved in various GAD-related programs and projects in collaboration with various government agencies, non-government organizations (NGOs), and international development institutions.  

She has served as resource person on topics related to gender mainstreaming, GAD planning and budgeting, GAD-related policies and laws on women, and on various activities/events initiated by the PCW. 

Ms. Baleda earned her Master’s Degree in Applied Anthropology and Participatory Development (Specialising in Gender and Development), with distinction, at the Australian National University. She is a graduate of the University of the Philippines (Cebu) with a Bachelor’s Degree in Mathematics, and is also a licensed teacher. 

Hon. Mayor Ma. Josefina “Joy” Belmonte is the first elected woman Mayor of Quezon City, the largest city in Metro Manila. She previously served as the vice mayor from 2010 to 2019. In her last two terms, the Quezon City Council was regarded as the most outstanding local legislative body in the Philippines. Upon her assumption to office as mayor in 2019, she advocated for the protection of women, children and the LGBTQIA+, climate action and inclusive economic empowerment, among others. To date, the city government has garnered more than 250 local and international awards and recognitions, including the highly-coveted three consecutive unmodified opinions from the Commission on Audit. She has been chosen as the regional winner of the Presidential Lingkod Bayan Award from the Civil Service Commission - National Capital Region.

She espouses servant leadership, good and participatory governance, and data-driven decision making.

Amina Rasul-Bernardo is the President of the Philippine Center for Islam and Democracy and host of "She Talks Peace", a podcast available on Spotify and Apple podcasts. She is a member of the Board of Regents of Mindanao State University. Chosen as one of three Philippine representatives to the ASEAN Women for Peace Registry in 2018, she was a UN PEACE awardee for 2019. In 2007, she received the Muslim Democrat of the Year Award from the Washington, DC-based Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy (CSID). For over 20 years, she has worked on the capacity-building of Muslim women for peace-building, human rights, good governance, and clean elections.

She has developed an Islamic peace education program in cooperation with Muslim religious leaders. She has written & edited several articles and books on the Mindanao

conflict, Islam, and democracy. She was a member of the Philippine cabinet under former President Fidel V. Ramos, as Presidential Advisor on Youth Affairs, and was appointed concurrently as the first chair of the National Youth Commission (NYC), which she organized. She has served as Commissioner of the National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women, representing Muslims; She holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of the Philippines, an MBA from the Asian Institute of Management, and a master’s in public administration from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.

Juana Caumeran, currently works as the Organizing and Training Coordinator for Baigani Feminist Collective, an organization working with widows and families affected by the War on Drugs campaign. She’s getting her masters in Women and Development at UP Diliman and is affiliated with different women’s rights networks and organizations. Her previous work is with PILIPINA, under the Access to Justice project with UN Women.   

Atty. Ma. Sophia Isabella P. De Castro, or “Atty. P” to her colleagues obtained her Juris Doctor degree at San Sebastian College-Recolletos, Manila where she is currently taking her Masters of Law. Presently, she works as Attorney III in the Philippine Commission on Women (PCW) under its Policy Development, Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation Division (PDPMED) focused on providing legal advice and counselling, reviewing legislative measures, laws, policies, issuances, rules and regulations including their legal implications, she also provides technical assistance and serves as resource speaker on Gender and Development (GAD) and women related laws.

Cecilia is an experienced gender specialist for twenty-eight (28) years, with technical expertise on gender-responsive planning, budgeting and governance. She provided technical assistance on gender mainstreaming in projects funded by the UN Women, UNDP, USAID, GIZ, DFAT, ADB, the World Bank, and FCDO, in the ASEAN region, in four developing countries (Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Zambia, Cambodia), and in three post-conflict countries (Afghanistan, South Sudan, Liberia).

Cecilia was the technical staff in the National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women who drafted the first ever provision on the GAD budget in the General Appropriations Act in 1994. She was the division chief of the Technical Services Division when she left NCRFW (now Philippine Commission on Women) in 2000. She is now one of the certified members of PCW’s National Gender Resource Pool. Cecilia is a graduate of the University of the Philippines with a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and a Master’s degree in Women and Development.

Ambassador Laura Quiambao-del Rosario is the 9th President of Miriam College. She is a distinguished career diplomat with an outstanding track record of 37 years in the Philippine Foreign Service, culminating in her appointment as Undersecretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs.She served in various capacities in Philippine Embassies abroad, including Vienna, Singapore, and Washington, D.C., her last appointment being as Philippine Ambassador to India and Vietnam. Upon retirement, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Merit.

Ambassador del Rosario is an alumna and a recipient of the

coveted Mother Mary Joseph award upon her graduation. She received her Bachelor’s Degree major in English Literature, magna cum laude, from Maryknoll College. She is also a Maryknoll/Miriam College Amazing Alumna Achiever. She holds two master’s degrees: a Master of Arts in Literature, benemeritus, from the University of Santo Tomas; and a Master in Education major in educational administration from the University of the Philippines.

Jean Encinas-Franco is currently a Professor in the Department of Political Science, College of Social Sciences and Philosophy, University of the Philippines, Diliman. Before she entered the academe, she worked for 15 years at the Senate of the Philippines, where she was Director III of the Senate Economic Planning Office. She also lectured at the International Studies Department of Miriam College from 1999 to 2009 and was a Faculty Associate of its Women and Gender Institute. Her dissertation explores the politics of labour out-migration in the Philippines and the discursive representation of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) as “modern-day heroes”.

Jo Enrica “Jean” Enriquez is currently the Executive Director of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women – Asia Pacific (CATW-AP). She was awarded as one of The Outstanding Women in the Nation’s Service (TOWNS) in 2010, and as one of the Seven Modern Heroes of 2011 by Yahoo! Philippines. She is accredited as Gender and Development (GAD) Resource Person of the Philippine Commission on Women (PCW). She also represents Women’s NGOs in the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT).

Ms. Enriquez has gained extensive experience as resource person and trainor for various international and national fora on trafficking, prostitution and other forms of violence against women, gender issues, women’s political participation, women and development. She has been invited to speak on women’s issues in 34 countries. Among others, Ms. Enriquez chaired the Commission on Trafficking in Persons during the World Conference Against Racism held in Durban, South Africa in 2001.

Her leadership and management skills have been grounded by her long experience in grassroots work, and have been internationally recognized. She was invited to the United Nations and by various governments to speak on the hugely successful anti-trafficking projects she has led, including the “Addressing the Demand Side of Trafficking Project” for young men. This project, replicated in Thailand, Indonesia and India, has produced more than 2,000 young men

saying no to buying women in prostitution, to consumption of pornography and to violence against women, in general. Together with young women she educated, the young men has formed the Youth and Students Advancing Gender Equality which has presence in several Asian countries. She also led the establishment of Bantay-Bugaw mechanisms in trafficking hotspots in the country such as Calbayog, Zamboanga, Jolo, Bongao, Quezon City, Bontoc, Olongapo, Pampanga. This project facilitated the rescue of numerous victims of trafficking, as well as the transformation of countless law enforcers towards gender-responsiveness. This trafficker-watch project is being brought by her to other countries such as Papua New Guinea and Nepal.

Ms. Enriquez helped in drafting the anti-trafficking bill in the Philippines, which was passed in 2003. She sat as Women’s Sectoral Council Member for the National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC), and is currently a Member of the Board of Advisers for Buklod Center for Women in Olongapo and Bagong Kamalayan (Prostitution Survivors’ Collective), two survivor groups she help organize.

As Gender and Development Resource Pool member of the Philippine Commission on Women, she has trained national and local employees of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) - Manila, Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC), and various local government units in disaster and conflict areas.

At the University of the Philippines, Ms. Enriquez was also involved with the Philippine Collegian and carried out her interest for journalism, as she is at present a radio broadcaster also for DZRH’s Aksyon Kababaihan (Women’s Action).

Lisa Garcia is the Executive Director of the Foundation for Media Alternatives. She specializes in women’s rights and ICT. Liza has an undergraduate degree in Sociology from the University of the Philippines, a Masters degree in International Relations from the Kiev State University and an MA in Women and Development Studies from the University of the Philippines.

Dr. Patricia B. Licuanan is a social psychologist, educator and women’s rights and empowerment activist. As a psychologist and educator, Dr. Licuanan has played important leadership roles in a wide range of organizations.Her work on women’s issues includes serving as chairperson of the National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women (NCRFW), now the Philippine Commission on Women. It was during her term that the groundbreaking Philippine Development Plan for Women (PDPW) was launched. She was chair of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (UNCSW) as the preparatory commission for the U.N. Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing, China in 1995. At the Conference she chaired the Main Committee which negotiated the Beijing Platform for Action, the landmark global blueprint for women’s rights and empowerment. She co-founded regional women’s NGO networks such as the Asia Pacific Women’s Watch (APWW) and SouthEast Asia Women’s Watch (SEAWWatch).

Hon. Nur-Ainee Tan Lim - is the Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Social Services and Development of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM). She has a master’s degree in Development Management from the Asian Institute of Management and also holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the American University of Sharjah, and a Bachelor of Arts in Islamic Studies from Preston University Ajman. She passed the Shari’ah bar exam last year and is a licensed Shari’ah Counselor-at-Law.She has more than 15 years of experience on counseling women on issues related to spirituality, mental health, and marital issues. 

Maria Theresa V. Mendoza-Arcega an Associate Justice of the Sandiganbayan, Quezon City from January 2016 to present.

She started her career at the Supreme Court in 1990 as Executive Assistant at the Office of then Associate Justice Florenz D. Regalado.  After a year, she transferred to the Regional Trial Court of Malolos, Bulacan and served as a Branch Clerk of Court. After six years, she became the Presiding Judge of the Municipal Trial Court of Bustos, Bulacan.

Rosalyn Mesina is the UN Women Philippines Programme Manager for We Empower Asia – a programme promoting women’s economic empowerment through private sector engagement, entrepreneurship and adaption of women’s empowerment principles at various levels. Over the past 20 years, she has joined various research, advocacies and campaigns promoting the advancement of women’s causes and as well as promoting gender equality and women empowerment.

Dr. Mira Alexis P. Ofreneo is Associate Professor and former Chairperson of the Psychology Department of Ateneo de Manila University. She is currently the Director of the University Gender Hub, the center for gender-responsiveness in Ateneo de Manila University.  

Dr. Ofreneo has a PhD in Social Psychology and an MA in Counseling Psychology from Ateneo de Manila University. Alongside teaching, she conducts training, research, and advocacy on gender issues including sexual and gender-based violence or SGBV, discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, and expression or SOGIE, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender or LGBT issues. She also does counseling for cases of sexual harassment, sexual and gender-based violence, and SOGIE concerns and is a licensed psychologist. 

Dr. Noel C. Racho has 34 years of combined academic, consulting and training experience in various organizations. With a Ph.D. in Organization Development at Southeast Asia Interdisciplinary Development Institute (SAIDI), he has helped academic institutions, corporations, and government and non-government organizations in their organizational development requirements.  

He obtained his Masteral Degree in Philosophy at the Ateneo de Manila University. He is a former Lecturer at the Ateneo De Manila University, former trainer at the AteneoCORD and was a Visiting Professor at Molloy College, Long Island New York, USA. 

He is a regular resource person for Anti Sexual Harassment learning sessions and workshops. Currently, he heads the Institutional Committee on Ethics and Protocols. As such he spearheaded the crafting of the IRR of the Safe Spaces Act of 2019. 

Salma Pir T. Rasul is a lawyer by profession, admitted to the practice of law in the Philippines as well in the states of New York and Maryland.  She is currently the Programs Director of the Philippine Center for Islam and Democracy.  She is also the Director for the Islamic Law Studies of the University of the Philippines Law Center (UPLC) and likewise serves as the Programs Development Consultant of the Institute of Administration of Justice of the same center. She currently lectures for the Mandatory Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) program of the UPLC and at the Lyceum of the Philippines College of Law.

Atty. Rasul is part of the study group on Federalism, organized by the Local Government Development Foundation and the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung. She obtained her LLB in Law from the University of the Philippines College of Law.  She has earned her undergraduate degree Business Economics from the University of the Philippines School of Economics. Atty. Rasul is a member of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines and the Philippine Bar Association.

Atty. Sandoval works in law, gender, peace and security.

Her legal career started with a public interest/alternative law group providing legal representation education, advocacy, training to workers, farmers, and urban poor, especially the women among them. She joined the government as Director for Policy of the National Anti-Poverty Commission, then Assistant Secretary for Policy and later Undersecretary for Programs in the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP). She also served as the first Chief of Staff of Abanse!Pinay, the first women’s party-list in the House of Representatives and assisted in drafting laws towards gender equality.

She contributed to drafting laws particularly on women, notably on the Magna Carta of Women and its implementing rules and regulations (RA 9710), and the IRR of the Safe Spaces Act (RA 11313). She was also the consultant that drafted the IRR of the Anti-Torture law (RA 9745). She is a member of the Gender Resource Pool of the Philippine Commission on Women. Currently, she is a faculty of the School of Law, Ateneo de Manila University teaching Peace Process and Negotiations, and the MA Humanities Program of St. Scholastica’s College handling gender and law.

She earned her Degrees on Bachelor of Arts, Major in Economics and Juris Doctor from the Ateneo de Manila University.

A career jurist who served in all levels of the judicial hierarchy, Justice Singh practiced law for 10 years before joining the Judiciary in October 2002 as the Presiding Judge of Branch 31 of the Metropolitan Trial Court of Quezon City. She was appointed Executive Judge of the MeTC-Quezon City thereafter and served for two terms in that capacity. Simultaneously, Justice Singh was selected and sat as the Representative of all First Level Courts in the country on the Board of Trustees of the Philippine Judicial Academy. She served on the PhilJA BOT until her promotion to the Regional Trial Court of Quezon City as Presiding Judge of Branch 85 in June of 2007. Justice Singh was bestowed the Don Antonio Madrigal Award as Most Outstanding First Level Court Judge of 2007 by the Society for Judicial Excellence of the Supreme Court.

Dr. Maria Rosario Singh-Vergeire is the current Undersecretary of the DOH UHC Health Services Cluster Area I (North and Central Luzon) and at the same time held the highest position in the health sector as the DOH Officer-in-Charge from July 2022 to early June 2023. She was a former Undersecretary for the DOH Public Health Services Team and Officer-in-Charge, Undersecretary of the Department’s Health Regulation Team (HRT). She also held office as the Director of the Health Facilities and Services Regulatory Bureau as well as the Chief of the different Divisions of the Health Policy Development and Planning Bureau (HPDPB) of the DOH.

As a devotion for advancement of the country’s public health, Dr. Singh-Vergeire shares her knowledge to soon-to-be public health leaders as a faculty at the Development Academy of the Philippines and a part-time faculty in the Ateneo School of Government.

Congresswoman Marjorie Ann “Maan” A. Teodoro is a House Member of the 19th Congress who was elected to office on June 30, 2022 as the representative of the First District of Marikina City. Despite being a neophyte as a House Member and in public service, she already sits as an Assistant Majority Leader of the House and was elected Vice-Chairperson of notable committees such as the Committee on Metro Manila Development, the Committee on Government Reorganization, and the Committee on Persons with Disabilities. She was likewise elected as an officer of the Association of Women Legislators Foundation, Inc. (AWLFI), a bloc in the House of Representatives composed of 86-strong lady lawmakers dedicated to advance laws to empower and safeguard the rights of women and their children in the country.

is Professor Emeritus, College of Social Work and Community Development, University of the Philippines and Executive Director, Philippine Social Science Council. She is also a regular consultant to UNIFEM, NEDA, DILG and NCRFW among others. 

She taught psychology early in her career but later shifted to applied social sciences: Community Development (CD), Women’s Studies, and Social Development Studies. Amar Torres has completed researches and publications relevant to the disciplines of Community Development, Child Labor, Gender and Women’s Studies, Philippine Psychology, and Social Psychology. She has designed and provided training and technical assistance on gender mainstreaming for national agencies, international organizations, Southeast Asian governments, and local government units.

is a feminist development worker and has been working in the sector for a decade. She is currently working in Oxfam Pilipinas, a development and humanitarian organization, under the Sexual Health and Empowerment Project or SHE. The project seeks to empower women and girls to secure their Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights in disadvantaged and conflicted affected regions in the Philippines. As an NGO worker, she previously worked on advocacies focused on women, peace, and security and young women’s leadership.

She earned her Bachelor’s degree in International Studies at Miriam College and her Master’s degree in Women and Development at the University of the Philippines, Diliman.