Women In News, WAN-IFRA

Myanmar

Thandar runs programs for Women In News, WAN-IFRA. She previously served as Country Lead for Myanmar in the past years. Thandar is a marketing and communications professional and previously led a commercial team at Frontier Myanmar, one of the leading media organisations in Myanmar. In parallel, she also led Frontier Myanmar's Black Knight Marketing and Communication Agency, and collaborated with a number of international clients.

Thibi

Myanmar

Yan Naung Oak is the founder of Thibi, a consultancy working in the space between data and design. He works with media and civil organisations across Southeast Asia to help them use data for storytelling and advocacy.

Luminate

Egypt

Alexandra Buccianti oversees Luminate's Global Programme team's efforts in supporting transregional organisations and initiatives to safeguard information integrity and hold technology accountable. With over 14 years of experience in designing and implementing media support and development projects, she previously worked at BBC Media Action and Search for Common Ground.

Luminate

Malaysia

Jo-Ann leads Luminate’s programmatic work in Malaysia. She is part of the team in Asia supporting civil society organisations working to protect civic spaces, build inclusive societies, and hold Big Tech accountable. She has been involved with human rights and institutional reform advocacy for over 15 years in various roles as a lawyer, journalist, and activist.

MS COUNSELLING PSYCHOLOGY (IN PROGRESS), BA MAJOR IN PSYCHOLOGY AND SOCIOLOGY

Counselling Thailand

Thailand

Pim is fluent in both Thai and English. Pim has experience working with clients facing depression, stress, anxiety, self-esteem issues, relationship issues, trauma-related issues, and more. Pim believes that self-love, self-compassion, self-awareness, and self-forgiveness are the keys to having positive and healthy emotional wellbeing, where these skills can be developed through acknowledgment, understanding, and acceptance.

Pulitzer Center

Malaysia

Kuek Ser Kuang Keng is the data editor at the Pulitzer Center, a non-profit journalism organisation based in Washington D.C., where he supports, trains and mentors journalists in doing environmental investigation and in-depth reporting.

PHD PSYCHOLOGY IN COUNSELLING, MA GUIDANCE & PSYCHOLOGY COUNSELLING

Counselling Thailand

Thailand

Doi is highly experienced in both individual and relationship/marriage counselling. With a Doctorate in Applied Psychology and membership in the Thailand Counselling Psychology Association, he brings a wealth of experience gained from his studies, research, internships, and professional practice, offering clients empathetic, authentic, and validating support.

MS COUNSELLING PSYCHOLOGY, BA COMMUNICATION ARTS

Counselling Thailand

Thailand

Prieo has a diverse counselling experience with a range of clients of all ages encountering relationship issues, stress, anxiety, depression, eating disorders, grief, and life transitions. Her aim in therapy is to facilitate clients in self-discovery and help them utilise their inner resources to cope with any challenging circumstances that occur in any stage of life.

Ladder Studios

United States

Ross Settles, occasional academic, sometime consultant and dilettante investor, tries to stay at the intersection of media, money and tech, but is often left in the dust by innovators in Asia. Learning from the devil in the details is his motto.  Ross previously spent a year as a faculty associate at Harvard's Berkman Centre and also taught journalism graduate students at Hong Kong University's Journalism and Media Studies Centre about the ins and outs of the media business. You can find him anywhere there is a good bowl of noodles. Currently oscillating between Taipei and San Francisco.

Beijing SourceEngine Technology

China

Xin Feng is the founder of Beijing SourceEngine Technology, a media and tech startup delivering AI-powered open-source intelligence solutions for businesses and individuals. An award-winning former journalist and 2018 John S. Knight Journalism Fellow at Stanford University, she initially created SourceEngine to address information-gathering challenges in journalism, later expanding its mission to serve a broader range of industries.

Planet Splice

India

Mili Semlani is the community manager for Planet Splice, the Splice community on Slack. As a new media professional, she has led digital transformation at newsrooms in India, Hong Kong, Indonesia, and Singapore. She now spends most of her time seeding connections and nurturing impactful communities in the media development world. She is also managing and building the climateXchange community.

Google

The Netherlands

Filip Shen is a News Partner Manager at Google, based in Singapore. He works closely with the news media community across the Asia-Pacific region, more recently with a focus on South East Asia. He leads multiple programs through the Google News Initiative (GNI) to support the digital advancement of the news ecosystem.

Code for Africa

Italy

Jacopo is a computer scientist who works as Code for Africa’s Senior Strategist. As an ICFJ Knight Fellow in 2016-2019, Jacopo built teams and programs supported by the World Bank, Google News Initiative, GIZ, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. His mix of technical skills, as a computer scientist and data journalist, has resulted in a series of projects published by, among others, The Guardian, Der Spiegel, El País, and Internazionale. He worked on multiple projects supported by the Pulitzer Center and the European Journalism Center. He is a member of the European Press Prize preparatory committee, and a trainer with BBC Media Action.

University of South Australia

Sri Lanka

Amantha Perera is a journalism academic, educator, and trainer focusing on building expertise on safe and professional digitally enhanced journalism workspaces. He is a PhD candidate at Creative, University of South Australia. He is the Project Lead at the Dart Centre for Journalism and Trauma, Asia Pacific (a project of the Columbia School of Journalism). Amantha also teaches journalism and narrative writing at the School of Education and Arts, Central Queensland University. His journalism has appeared in TIME, the Guardian, Reuters, Washington Post, and Al Jazeera.

climateXchange

Romania

Dr Carmen Nicoara is an established social researcher and impact evaluation specialist, currently leading research and impact strategies at climateXchange (cXc), Syli’s global initiative designed to advance high-impact climate journalism around the world. At cXc, she helps newsrooms define, deconstruct, and measure the impact of their climate storytelling. With over a decade of experience in education, employment, and community development, Carmen has managed high-profile projects, including the evaluation of the 2012 London Olympics and Paralympics Community Programme and creating evaluation frameworks for cross-border cultural heritage preservation in Syria.