We are a team with a bold ambition: to advance the human rights of women and girls in STEM fields. We aim to grow our team of professionals including by hiring additional staff, as we scale up our activities to achieve gender-equitable STEM education and employment by 2030.
Watch our video to learn more about us:
Video In English: https://bit.ly/3nM01rg
Video in French: https://bit.ly/36VBpGM
Find out more about what we do, our mission, vision and impact, and meet the team.
Board Members
Alexandra Schafhauser, Board President, Brussels
Alexandra Schafhauser has more than ten years of experience from working in the European Parliament in Brussels as a Political Advisor. She has a strong interest in human rights, and in particular in women’s rights, and has participated in the work on Women’s Rights in the European Parliament during her career. Alexandra holds a Masters Degree in Law from Stockholm University, and has studied a Law and Economics in Rotterdam, Ghent and Aix en Provence. She is fluent in Swedish, English and German.
Makoto Ikeda, Board Member, Geneva
Makoto Ikeda is a qualified physics, chemistry, and maths teacher, having taught in various international schools in the Geneva area. He recognised the need to nurture the interest in STEM fields among the girls in his classes and that teachers had an important role to help them navigate the obstacles placed before them in the classroom and in society. Before he entered teaching, he worked in particle physics research in CERN and in computing and telecommunications in a NGO, a startup, and a large multi-national. Makoto holds a BSc from MIT, MSc from the University of Michigan, and a PhD from the University of California. His teaching qualification (PGCE) is from Durham University (UK).
Brice Copy, Board Member and Secretary, Geneva
Brice Copy is a software engineer at CERN since 2003, where he works on open-source industrial control projects for the LHC and general CERN infrastructure. Prior to this, he developed the project management tools used at CERN for the construction of the LHC and other large European scientific projects. He is passionate about technology and making it more accessible to further education methods, gender equality and human progress.
Brice holds an MSc in Distributed Computing from Kent University (UK) and is fluent in English and French.
Magdalena Bunkowska, Board Member and Treasurer, Geneva
Magdalena Bunkowska has 10+ years of international experience as a specialist or assistant in administration, finance, operations in the domains of ICT, wholesale and religious institutions. Socially and ecologically conscious, she likes to see the big picture. Magda dreams that women and girls will soon fill STEM organisations and businesses and will drive innovation for human well-being rather than for profit solely.
Magda holds a MA in Economics from Warsaw School of Economics (PL) and is fluent in Polish, English and French.
Arwa Al-Fakih, Board Member, Geneva
With over 11 years of experience managing protection programs in Yemen, Arwa has been involved in child rights advocacy that has led to: improved protection of children from sexual exploitation and abuse in humanitarian settings; reduced suffering of children in conflict with law; advocacy for and support to improvement and amendment of laws; and, increased access by children to identity documents.
For the Yemeni human rights NGO ‘Democracy School’, she has managed protection programs and projects, including those mitigating gender-based violence, matching them with national laws, as well as advocating for women’s and minorities’ issues, involving productive partnerships with international organisations and relevant governmental institutions. Arwa has played a leading role in coordinating DS’s engagement with governments and other partners in the development of programs for the prevention and response to violence against children in Yemen.
Arwa’s regional contributions have been in coordinating and facilitating in the implementation of protection programs across the Middle East, participating in the processes which influence decision-makers through regional studies on the situation of childhood in the Arab world.
Staff
Ellen Walker, Founder & Executive Director, Geneva
Ellen Walker is an international human rights lawyer and educator passionate about empowering rights holders to know their own rights, and how to claim them. She considers herself a lifelong technology learner, as she encourages all girls and women to do. Ellen envisioned and founded RightsTech Women (RTW) to get more women working in STEM jobs who know about their rights, while creating a bridge between technology and human rights.
Ellen brings to RTW 15+ years of experience in successful United Nations human rights advocacy, multilateral negotiations, and capacity transfer. Ellen holds an LL.M. from the University of Geneva and a J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School.
Follow RightsTech Women on LinkedIn.
Technical Advisors
Jason Myatt, Technical Advisor, US
Jason Myatt is a software engineer and architect based in Boston, MA (USA) who has been instrumental in the success of dozens of software projects since 1998, across a wide range of industries and technologies. Currently Jason works for EdX, an open source, online learning platform that helps deliver high quality courses from the world’s best universities to learners across the globe.
Follow Jason on LinkedIn.
Victoria L Hayek (Vickie), Advisor, Geneva
Vickie is a math teacher, sailor and passionate believer in lifelong learning, which keeps us young at heart and mind. Her life roles have included financial analyst, wife and mother, PTA executive member, teacher of secondary math and history in an international school, and more recently, around-the-world sailor. These roles have confirmed her belief that education (whether in the classroom or sailing in a fleet across the oceans) opens the doors to greater communication, understanding and friendship. STEM learning, in particular, allows individuals to apply learned knowledge in a collaborative effort to inquire and to solve problems using technology. It allows for the trial and error of possible solutions to get to a common goal. Vickie teaches her students that there are no mistakes, but learning experiences.
Get involved
We are always looking for talented people who have time to dedicate to our mission. If you are interested in joining our team, please send your CV and letter of interest to volunteers (at) rightstech.org.