Our board

Dr. Shelly-Ann Brown is an analyst and senior researcher at the Economic Lead Global LTD; she has an academic background in economics and statistics. Shelly-Ann has worked in the public sector as a researcher and has been instrumental in passing a national bill, amending the existing Marriage Act of Trinidad &Tobago which abolished child marriages.

She is passionate about work in the BAME community and specifically women of colour. She sits on the board for the African and Caribbean Society of Scotland Association (ACSS), providing expertise in building alliances and sharing resources toward a prejudice free society where everyone is treated with respect, integrity and justice. Shelly-Ann is also on the expert list for women of colour commentators in Scotland, and an opinion writer for the Daily Record. For the past three years, she supports Metro World Child as a sponsor- a humanitarian organization dedicated to serving underprivileged children in Kenya, and an outreach volunteer for local charities focusing on rough sleepers in Edinburgh.

She is also a member of the Economic Development Association Scotland (EDAS), and Women in Journalism Scotland.

Lucy Mulvagh (Vice-Convener)

Lucy is the Director of Policy and Communications at the Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland (the ALLIANCE). She previously worked at the Scottish Recovery Network, and before this spent several years working in international human rights. Lucy is also a member of the Advisory Group of the Human Rights Consortium Scotland and represents the ALLIANCE (as co-convenor) on the Health and Social Care Action Group of Scotland’s National Action Plan for Human Rights.

Louise Brodie

Lou is a freelance applied artist and project manager. She has a background in creating projects and artworks within the community, youth arts and young audiences’ sectors and has worked with a range of national and international companies and artists including; Platform Glasgow, Imaginate and the Edinburgh International Children’s Festival, Mammalian Diving Reflex, Nic Green, London's Southbank Centre and The WOW Foundation.

Lou is currently undertaking a part-time MSc in Applied Gender Studies at Strathclyde University in addition to her portfolio of on-going projects. These currently include the creation of youth consultation events for the First Minister’s National Advisory Council on Women and Girls, Women Dancing: A film series with artist Geraldine Heaney and Creative Facilitator for the National Theatre of Scotland and All the Queens Men’s Scottish Premiere of The Coming Back Out Ball.

Camila Cavalcante

Camila Cavalcante is an award-winning visual artist and educator from the north-east coast of Brazil, settled in Scotland. With a background in journalism, she has completed an MA Photojournalism and MSc Applied Gender Studies. Her artistic work explores empathy, social issues and the status of women in society. Camila has taken part in three art residencies and over 30 exhibitions in Brazil, Mexico, France, The Netherlands, the US and the UK. More recently, she has published the bilingual book For the Lives of All Women, with Break the Habit Press, about the experiences of women who have gone through illegal abortions in Brazil.

Maria Pakpahan has been a feminist since she was in high school. Maria ventured as social entrepreneur and was elected as Ashoka Fellow in 1999. She was awarded British Chevening Scholarship in 2000.She got scholarship from Refugee Study Center, University of Oxford to study Regional Course on Forced Migration in 2001.She was awarded Oscar Brown memorial scholarship and got an MA on Development Studies in 1994 from ISS, Erasmus University, The Netherlands. She worked for various UN bodies like ILO,WFP,UNDP and International NGOs like Terre des Hommes for children rights, National Democratic Institute for guarding democracy and civil society. She worked for the rights of political prisoners in 1996-1999 and regularly visited prisons.

Maria is a human rights defender and political activist who also work on conflict prevention, to curb the use of religion for political radicalisation which resulted violence and polarisation in society. Maria has been active to advocate universal basic income. She had been working professionally in referendum ( Scottish referendum 2014 then Brexit referendum) and national elections UK since 2016. Maria also works as life coach and have been advocating for the improvement of care system and mental health in Scotland. Maria was a Board Member of Engender 2015-2018 and member of Women For Independence since its early set-up.