For the Panel Discussion:

Located in the Southeast of Amsterdam, Neighborhood Feminists is an intersectional and antiracist feminist collective that organizes direct-impact community projects. Neighborhood Feminists is dedicated to eradicating period poverty in Amsterdam, and supports marginalized communities by providing free menstrual products through their Dignity Kits and Menstruation Stations. In addition to her work at Neighborhood Feminists, Nicole is secretary of Black Pride NL, columnist for Savannah Bay book store, and they are a freelance D&I consultant.

Member of Periodic’s founding team, dedicated and determined to end period poverty in the Netherlands. Her focus is in creating political awareness and get period products into schools and government buildings.

Esther has a background in law. When not talking about period poverty she can be found discussing data protection and digital ethics, as she works as a Privacy Manager.

Hi Sally is an organisation that addresses the taboo around menstruation amongst teenagers. The goal is to increase the level of confidence of menstruating teenagers and to fight inequality of opportunity at the start of their adult lives.

This is achieved by running national campaigns, sharing education and knowledge among teens at school, empower menstruating teens and fight for menstrual products for everyone.

Recently Hi Sally launched their pilot to reduce menstrual poverty among teens by providing menstrual products in schools.

For the TED Talk:

For her thesis she did research on heavy menstrual blood loss in young people and this brought her to the conclusion that there is still much room for improvement regarding the taboo surrounding menstruation. She also heard the term "menstrual poverty" for the first time, after which she held a fundraising campaign to create awareness and ensured that the first cabinet with free menstrual products was installed at her medical school.

For all her work around menstruation, she received the first Medicine Student of the Year award!

Since 2017, she has worked in multiple international organizations building evidence on the connections between menstrual health, sexual and reproductive health and gender equity.

In 2019, she won a five-year grant to complete her PhD on menstrual health and social enterprises at the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University. Her research starts from the recognition that while data shows that menstrual health affects women’s opportunities, health and inclusive participation in society, the topic is widely missing in current agendas around gender equity.

In 2021, in collaboration with other stakeholders, she has advocated and obtained funding for free menstrual products on the Erasmus campus, and continues her activism within and beyond the university.

She also regularly consults organisations and companies on menstrual health education, content creation and menstrual products’ business innovation.

When she is not busy writing and teaching, she curates her @periodswithmariacarmen Instagram page, where she translates evidence on the menstrual cycle into fun, shareable content.

For the advocacy skills workshop:

Sicilian, living and loving Amsterdam. Since 2015 traveling back to Italy every year to train new generations of students on his personal experience in Sales & Marketing.

His objective is to help universities to close the gap between “paper & reality” with real life business cases and direct experience on field.

Actively mentoring +10 students, he is defined from them as “direct but fair partner to discover what is missing in your preparation to start your journey in the corporate environment.”