The Gender Action Portal's research translation work could not be done without the hard work of our team of technical writers, content editors, and interns.
Siri Chilazi
Research Fellow
Harvard Kennedy School
siri_uotila@hks.harvard.edu
Siri Chilazi is a Research Fellow at the Women and Public Policy Program at Harvard Kennedy School whose life’s work is to advance gender equality in the workplace through research and research translation. She operates at the intersection of academia and practice, both conducting research on how organizations can become more inclusive and bringing those research insights to practitioners through speaking, training and workshops. As an advisor and scholar, Siri frequently collaborates with organizations ranging from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies and leading professional service firms in order to close gender gaps. She has presented at numerous conferences around the world, and her work has appeared in media outlets including Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, BBC, Fast Company, and Forbes. Siri has an MBA from Harvard Business School, a Master in Public Policy from Harvard Kennedy School, and a BA in Chemistry and Physics from Harvard College.
To me, advancing gender equity means identifying and fixing the systems, structures, and processes that are creating an unlevel playing field for women today. I am incredibly proud of the Gender Action Portal’s groundbreaking efforts to make rigorous, evidence-based research accessible to all the stakeholders - policymakers, practitioners, journalists, activists, and changemakers - who are doing their part to realize the vision of a just and gender-equal world.
Giovana Rodrigues Manfrin
Research Fellow
Harvard Kennedy School
giovana_rodrigues_manfrin@hks.harvard.edu
Giovana Rodrigues Manfrin is a Research Fellow with the Women and Public Policy Program (WAPPP) at the Harvard Kennedy School, where she analyzes data-driven tools, policies, interventions, and evidence-based gender research. She currently manages the COVID Re-Entry Research Project (CORE), authored by WAPPP Co-Director Hannah Riley Bowles, leveraging an intersectional gender lens and data analysis tools to assess the experiences of working mothers of color throughout the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
While at Harvard, Giovana has co-lead the "Map of Inclusive Symbols and Spaces" project, 1 of the 10 winners of the 2020 Harvard Culture Lab Innovation Fund. She was also selected for the Harvard Center for Geographic Analysis’ Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Winter 2020 Institute, where she completed an intensive two-week training on geospatial analysis and applications for public policy. She was additionally selected for Harvard’s “Government Innovation and Public Policy: Gender Equity and the Future of Work" field-cohort to United Arab Emirates (UAE), which gave her the opportunity to present to UAE officials on evidence-based policy and research that close involuntary gender gaps.
Originally from Brazil, Giovana is fluent in English, Portuguese, and Spanish, and is self-teaching Arabic and coding for data science. Giovana received her Bachelor of Arts in International Relations with a minor in Economics from Tufts University, where she also completed graduate-level courses at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.
Advancing gender equity is a matter of addressing structural inequalities that have hindered the prosperity of people, communities, and nations. With that, what inspires me about the Gender Action Portal is the opportunity to coalesce really important research findings from gender-related interventions conducted all across the world into a single, user-friendly tool, through which policymakers and other leaders can learn how to effectively foster intersectional gender equity – helping build better societies, frameworks, and systems.
Laura Chang Tourtellotte
Content Editor
Harvard Humanitarian Initiative
Laura is the Program Manager for the Peace and Human Rights Data Program at the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative. Laura holds a doctorate in anthropology from Boston University, where she studied how reproductive politics shaped interventions into at-risk and in-crisis girls’ and women’s lives in Kazakhstan. Previously, she earned her MA at Harvard in Regional Studies: Russia, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia, and her BA in Global Studies: Russian and Post-Soviet Studies from William and Mary
GAP serves as an essential intervention by presenting translational research in a digestible format to those who can enact change. I am committed prioritizing intersectional feminist approaches in providing solutions to current global inequities, and a key means of doing so is by democratizing knowledge and access to it.
Shanelle Chambers Haile
Content Editor
Brown University
Shanelle is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Sociology at Brown University, with an expected graduate date of 2023. Her dissertation explores the ways that racial and gender identity, along with class status and nationality, intersect to construct a sense of belonging for African diaspora returnees in Ghana. Shanelle earned a Master of Arts in sociology from Brown University, a Master of Education in community development from Vanderbilt University, and a Bachelor of Arts in psychology from Spelman College. Additionally, she brings to the GAP team ten years of public policy experience, including roles as both researcher and practitioner.
Gender equity can be advanced only by addressing the social systems that drive gender inequality in the first place. The most impactful analyses of these systems also draw upon intersectional theory and are thus attentive to how gender identity interacts with other aspects of identity. Research that takes an intersectional approach to examining the mechanisms that produce gender inequality can be harnessed to implement sustainable social interventions.
Denisse de la Peña
Technical Writer
Harvard Kennedy School
Denisse de la Peña is a first-year Master in Public Policy student at the Harvard Kennedy School. She is Mexican and currently lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to attend her graduate program. She is interested in the fight against gender-based violence; specifically, she is interested in developing solutions for intimate-partner violence and femicides in Mexico. Before coming to HKS, she worked at the electoral system in Monterrey, MX, and she holds a B.A. in Political Science from Tecnologico de Monterrey.
Advancing gender equity means working everyday to ensure women and girls everywhere have the same opportunities as their male counterparts, but also guaranteeing they lead violence-free lives. However, this work must be done from an intersectional lens, which means leaving no girl or woman behind due to her race, socioeconomic status, nationality, legal situation, religion or sexual orientation.
Since GAP launched in 2014, many staff, writers, editors, and interns have worked on this important and impactful resource that translates research into action. GAP would not be in existence without the vision and tireless dedication of longtime GAP Manager Anisha Asundi. We also extend our special thanks to Lameya Ahmed, Jessica Angel, Sara Arman, Aimee Bell-Pasht, Abigail Bliss, Danielle Boudrow, Sophie Bravo, Sunaina Chatterjee, Kerry Conley, Cici Coquillette, Mayumi Cornejo, Sarah Jacobs, Jackie Jahn, Joshua Jeong, Jessica Lieberman, Grace Liu, Heidi Liu, Inmaculada Macias-Alonso, MaryRose Mazzola, Leah Meadows, Danni Melton, Supriya Misra, Sahitya Raja, Snigdha Shahi, Merrit Stüven, Blair Uhlig, and Tina Wei.
Note: If you worked or interned for GAP and aren’t listed here, we apologize! Please let Siri or Giovana know and we will add you to the list.