Ms. Sabine Schielmann 

Sabine Schielmann is an ethnologist and has been active at the Institute for Ecology and Action Anthropology - INFOE since 1995. She worked with UNESCO and the International Labor Organization (ILO) as a research assistant on the rights and education programs of indigenous peoples. From 2004 to 2007 she worked as a development worker with the Protestant Development Service (EED) at a Mapuche organization in Chile on issues regarding traditional knowledge. Since 2008 she has coordinated various development education projects at INFOE and is currently the project coordinator for the 'Indigenous Peoples and Sustainable Development' project. 

Professor Bal Chandra Luitel 

Professor Bal Chandra Luitel coordinates a transformative education project called Rupantaran that aims at engaging Masters and Doctoral students to bring forth autoethnographic narratives unfolded during their immersion in a school transformation process via transformative (decolonial, anticolonial, and postcolonial) epistemologies armed with new analytics arising from dialectical, metaphorical, poetic, and narrative for conceiving, expressing, and implementing visions of holistic (place-based, inclusive and life-affirming education) in Nepal.  

Ms. Margarita Bernard Cholymay 

Margarita Bernard Cholymay is from Losap, a small island in the Mortlocks Region in Chuuk State, the Federated States of Micronesia.  She is the fourth among ten (10) children, with two sisters and seven brothers.  She is part of the Maasalé and the Sóór clans.  She is married to Dn. Eliot Cholymay from Sapuk, Weno and they have four grown children, and seven grandchildren. She enjoys teaching and keeps herself busy by participating in numerous social and religious activities. Dr. Cholymay has had several years of school and training in education.  She received her associate’s degree in general education from Suomi College, Michigan, a bachelor’s degree in bilingual education from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction from the University of Guam and her doctoral degree in teach education curriculum studies from the University of Hawaii at Manoa.  Dr. Cholymay has committed her professional life to improving the educational system in Chuuk and training the next generation of educators. 

She worked in different capacities at the Chuuk Department of Education, the FSM National government, the College of Micronesia-FSM, Chaminade University in Hawaii, and now at the Caroline College and Pastoral Institute (CCPI) in Weno, Chuuk. She had dedicated much of her personal time supporting and improving the lives of her Chuukese community. Throughout the years she has been the chairwoman and member of the Chuuk State Board of Education, member of the Child Abuse and Health Services Committee, as well as several other committees in Chuuk. A teacher, a mentor, a role model, and an inspiration to many Chuukese, Dr. Cholymay is a living proof that a humble beginning is not an impediment but a catalyst to one's success. Her profound appreciation of her culture combined with her professional trainings and experiences enables her to venture into territories where no Chuukese women ever ventures. 

Ms. Anna Schlingmann 

Anna Schlingmann is a Predoctoral Research Fellow of the LICCI team at the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ICTA-UAB). She carried out her master thesis at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), where she applied a global biophysical and agroeconomical model to analyze the impacts of global dietary changes on greenhouse gas emissions. For the LICCI project, she uses the multiple evidence approach to enhance knowledge exchange between social and natural sciences. Her field of interest comprises local responses to climate change impacts and the analysis of drivers and barriers for adaptation in Indigenous Peoples and local communities. 

Mr. Adrien Tofighi-Niaki 

Adrien Tofighi-Niaki is a systematic and mindful strategist in environmental and climate change justice. He has worked in environmental law research, mobilization of land and human rights resources and protection strategies for frontline communities via Project HEARD, and GHG emissions mitigation strategies in the fossil fuel industry. Adrien is coordinating the LICCION project at the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ICTA-UAB) in partnership with Indigenous peoples and local community representatives and civil society organizations. He is active in various human rights and climate change networks and speaks English, French, and Spanish. 

Ms. Patricia de Almeida Zuppi

Patricia de Almeida Zuppi is advisor to the Executive Secretariat of the Amazon Cooperation Network (RCA), with a focus on Climate advocacy and Gender, since 2015. She holds a master's degree from the School of Communications and Arts at the University of São Paulo (USP), with research in the area of Art at the interface with Guarani ethnology. She worked as a collaborating member of the Technical Chamber on Climate Change of the Steering Committee of the National Policy for Territorial and Environmental Management of Indigenous Lands (PNGATI), from 2016 to 2018. She’s member of the Advisory Group of the Brazilian Amazon Regional Committee for partnerships with Indigenous Peoples and Traditional Communities of the Governors' Climate and Forest Task Force (GCF-TF). She worked as teacher and pedagogical advisor at the First Training for Indigenous Teachers and the Intercultural Higher Training for Indigenous Teachers at the University of São Paulo (USP), held in partnership with the State Department of Education of São Paulo Government, from 2002 to 2009. She was consultant-coordinator of the independent evaluation of the National Education Plan (PNE), chapter of Indigenous Education, in the states of São Paulo and Paraná, carried out by the National Foundation for Indigenous Affairs (FUNAI) and the Federal University of Roraima, 2010. She coordinated the Vocational Villages Project, of the São Paulo Municipal Secretariat of Culture, focusing on the cultural and political strengthening of the Guarani Indigenous Lands of São Paulo, from 2011 to 2012.

Professor Ben Orlove

Professor Ben Orlove is an anthropologist at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, and director of the Master's Program in Climate and Society at Columbia's Climate School. He has conducted extensive field work in Peru and Bolivia, as well as field work in the Alps and Himalayas. In addition to several European languages, he speaks Quechua, an Indigenous language in the Andes. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a lead author on two IPCC reports.

Professor Motheo Koitsiwe

Professor Motheo Koitsiwe is the Director at the Indigenous Knowledge Systems Centre, Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, North - West University. Dr Koitsiwe is a qualified indigenous knowledge systems lecturer, researcher and supervisor of IKS postgraduate students (M&D). He is a registered Post-Doctoral Fellow at the DSI-NRF South African Research Chair in Ocean Cultures and Heritage, Faculty of Humanities, University of Nelson Mandela, Port Elizabeth. His Postdoc fellowship host is Professor Rose Boswell (PhD Anthropology) at Nelson Mandela University. Dr Koitsiwe was the first coordinator of the Bachelor of Indigenous Knowledge Systems which is a four (04) years professional degree registered with the South African Qualification Authority (SAQA) and approved by the Council for Higher Education (CHE). He has done and continue to conduct indigenous research with indigenous astronomy experts, African indigenous health practitioners, traditional leaders, researchers, scientists and various government departments as one of the strategies to promote African Indigenous Knowledge Systems (AIKS). Dr Koitsiwe has worked in collaboration with the Department of Science and Innovation in projects such as Recognition of Prior Learning, IK Act Public Awareness Campaign and Biocultural Community Protocols. Dr Koitsiwe has published in accredited journals, attended national and international conferences. His current focus is on developing African Indigenous Languages, Heritage, Arts, Culture, Indigenous Astronomy, to establish the International Indigenous Astronomy Experts Society, a cadre of IKS Ambassadors, institutionalization of IKS and development of the Consortium on IKS at North-West University. He is also working with the like-minded to develop Short Learning Course in African indigenous entrepreneurship, arts, culture, heritage, museum, library and archives. He is also currently working with the Department of Higher Education and Training, Science and Innovation and the Service SETA to identify the career opportunities for IKS graduate coming from North - West University and University of Venda. Dr Koitsiwe is also planning to collaborate with NRF-SAASTA Science Communication Division, with a purpose of organising and offering a science communication workshop to post-grads and post-docs conducting research around Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) to equip them with skills to communicate their research effectively. The workshop aims to build science communication capacity in specific scientific fields or priority research areas, IKS being one of them, which will ensure the communication of research and technological developments in these fields.