Avni Amin works at the WHO’s Department of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Research. She is the unit head for the Rights and Equality throughout the Life course team and leads WHO’s work on violence against women. Her primary focus has been to lead research on health sector interventions to address violence against women, support development of normative guidelines and tools and support countries – Ministries of Health – in the translation and uptake of the evidence and guidelines to strengthen health systems response to violence against women. She has also led research on masculinities in the context of sexual and reproductive health as a gender equality issue. Avni is a passionate feminist scientist with a fierce commitment to gender equality and women’s health. She has a PhD in International Health from the Johns Hopkins University, Bloomberg School of Hygiene and Public Health. She is originally from India and considers herself as a global citizen.

Dr. Ruby C. Castilla-Puentes is a Colombian psychiatrist with advanced training in psychiatric epidemiology and international business, who completed her medical education at the Universidad Industrial de Santander, residency at Javeriana University, and post-doctoral studies at the University of Pittsburgh. Before relocating to the United States, she held leadership roles early in her career, notably transforming a struggling hospital mental health unit into a model of excellence. She served as President of the American Society of Hispanic Psychiatry and is currently President of the American Psychiatric Association Hispanic Caucus.

Dr. Castilla-Puentes has been dedicated to mentoring students and improving healthcare for underserved populations, especially racial and ethnic minorities. She founded WARMI, a network promoting women's mental health, and has authored several books, including “Quijotes de la Psiquiatria,” “Mental Health for Hispanic Communities,” and “Saving Olito.”

With nearly 25 years in higher education as a teacher, researcher, and administrator, she became the University of Cincinnati’s Ambassador at the Community Leadership Institute. Her expertise extends to epidemiology and drug development, contributing to evidence-based approaches in mental health and advancing treatment options. Her recent honors include the 2023 Servant Leadership Award from HACE and the 2024 Social Justice Award from the APA. She focuses on enhancing psychiatric care for bilingual and bicultural communities.

Senior academic psychiatrist and international women's mental health leader with 30+ years of experience across clinical practice, academia, public mental health systems, and global health leadership. Recognized for advancing women's mental health and perinatal psychiatry across national, regional, and international platforms.

Dr. Frey is Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences at McMaster University; Academic Head of the Mood Disorders Treatment and Research Clinic and the Women’s Health Concerns Clinic, McMaster University; and Director of the Centre for Clinical Neurosciences at St Joes/McMaster University. Dr. Frey is the inaugural Homewood Research Chair in Women’s Mental Health and Depression.

His research is primarily focused the neurobiology of mood disorders, including brain imaging and circadian rhythms research, with an emphasis on women’s reproductive mental health. Dr. Frey is co-lead of the first CANMAT Clinical Practice Guidelines for perinatal mental health. He has completed the first and only study looking at the neurocorrelates of women with bipolar disorder and co-morbid premenstrual dysphoric disorder. Other publications from this project were the first study of resting-state brain functional connectivity in women with bipolar disorder during clinical remission and one of the few studies investigating the association between endogenous levels of sex hormones and resting-state brain functional connectivity across the menstrual cycle. Dr. Frey also has extensive research experience in the area of perinatal anxiety, including one of the largest cognitive-behavioural therapy RCTs. Some of his current research involve studies of sleep and biological/circadian rhythms disruption across pregnancy and the postpartum period, as well as clinical trials in the areas of perinatal anxiety, perinatal emotional dysregulation and concurrent depression, trauma and hormonal sensitivity. He has more than 350 publications accepted in peer-reviewed journals, and has received numerous career awards, including the title of University Scholar and the Douglas Utting Prize in Mood Disorders.

Fernando Fernandez-Aranda, Full Professor (School of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Barcelona, Spain), Specialist in Clinical Psychology, has been the Director of the Eating Disorders (ED) Unit at the Clinical Psychology Department (University Hospital Bellvitge, Barcelona, Spain) and Director of the Long-lasting ED Unit /Hosp. Fundación Hospitalarias-HUB, in Martorell. He is former Scientific Director of Research Institute IDIBELL, current Deputy Director of CIBERobn (Excellence Spanish Research Network for Obesity and Nutrition), PI of Research Group CIBERobn and of Group Psychoneurobiology of Eating and Addictive Behaviours (IDIBELL). He is past president of the Eating Disorders Research Society (EDRS) and current co-Chair of the Eating Disorders Section of the World Psychiatric Association. Adjunt Professor of Clinical Psychology, at the Health Sciences School of the Southern Denmark University (2025-2030). He obtained his PhD in Psychology in 1996 at the University of Hamburg (Germany). His previous appointments were as a Clinical Psychologist at the Psychiatric University Hospital of Hamburg (1994-1995) and long-term predoctoral Research Fellowship in Hannover, Germany (1992-1993) and Consultant Psychologist at the Department of Psychiatry, University Hospital Bellvitge in Barcelona (1996-03). He gave more than 550 invited lectures in International or National professional Psychology, Psychiatry, Nutrition/Endocrinology Conferences. Past-Editor in Chief of European Eating Disorders Review (2011-2022). Awarded with the Meehan Hartley Award for Public Service and/or Advocacy-2004, leadership Research Award-2015, Hilde Bruch Lecture Award-2017 (University of Tübingen, Germany), ICREA Academia Award-2024 (Generalitat de Catalunya) and Josep Trueta Medal-2025 for Health Merit. He received several additional awards on development and innovation (Best European Video game for health-2011; Best Spanish Research Ideas-Diario Medico 2011). He has been PI in International/ EU Grants (15) and National Grants (22). He has published more than 540 English peer-reviewed manuscripts in international journals.

Dr. Lavinia Lumu, completed the fellowship in psychiatry and obtained the FCPsych (SA) qualification from the Colleges of Medicine in South Africa and a Master of Medicine in Psychiatry (Witwatersrand University). Currently in private practice with a special interest in perinatal psychiatry. An advocate for maternal mental health in South Africa and supports the Grow Great - Flourish Foundation in maternal mental health training. Ran a pro-bono maternal mental health clinic at the Rahima Moosa Mother and Child Hospital, Johannesburg for 5 years (2019 -2024). An honorary lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand, Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Health Sciences and is an executive board member of the South African Society of Psychiatrists - Women's Mental Health Special Interest Group. Dr Lumu is the current president of the International Marcé Society for Perinatal Mental Health

Anita Riecher-Rössler is Professora emerita of Psychiatry at the University of Basel, Switzerland. She specialized in psychiatry, psychotherapy/psychoanalysis, consultation/liaison psychiatry, and gerontopsychiatry.

Her research interests include schizophrenic psychoses, gender differences in mental disorders, and mental disorders in women. In the field of schizophrenic psychoses, she has mainly worked on the onset and early detection of these disorders, but also on late-onset schizophrenia. In the field of women’s mental health, she is particularly interested in the peripartum and the menopausal transition and in psycho-neuroendocrine and psychosocial risk factors.

She was a founding member/president of several interdisciplinary societies for women’s mental health. 2011-2013 she was president of the International Association for Women's Mental Health. In 2018 she was awarded the Constance Pascal-Helen Boyle Prize by the European Psychiatric Association for outstanding achievements by a woman in working to improve Mental Health Care in Europe. Until recently she served as the Editor-in-Chief of the “Archives of Women’s Mental Health”. According to the Web of Science, she belongs to the most highly cited researchers.

Professor Gina Rippon is Emeritus Professor of Cognitive Neuroimaging at the Institute of Health and Neurodevelopment, Aston University. Her research has involved state-of-the-art brain imaging techniques to investigate developmental disorders such as autism. Her current research interests focus on the under-recognition of autism in women and girls, especially in neuroscience research. Her new book on this topic: The Lost Girls of Autism (UK)/Off the Spectrum (US) was released in April 2025. She also explores the use of neuroscience techniques to investigate social processes, especially those associated with the development of sex/gender differences in the human brain. She was a member of the Fawcett Society Commission on Gender Stereotypes in Early Childhood, contributing to the report “Unlimited Potential”.

She is an outspoken critic of ’neurotrash’, the populist (mis)use of neuroscience research to (mis)represent our understanding of brain-behaviour links, particularly on the topic of sex/gender differences. Her book on such topics, ‘The Gendered Brain’, published by Bodley Head and Penguin Random House, came out in the UK in 2019. She is a member of the international NeuroGenderings network and has co-authored many papers on sex/gender neuroscience. She is a passionate supporter of initiatives to address the under-representation of women in all spheres of influence, especially science. Under the heading “Mind the Gender Gap”, she has offered a neuroscience-informed approach to diversity and inclusivity initiatives to a wide range of business and political organisations, including the UK’s Cabinet Office and the EU.

Marta Torrens, MD, PhD, Specialist in Psychiatry, Professor of Psychiatry at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra and at the Universitat de Vic-Central Catalunya. She is the leader of the Research Group on Addictions at IMIM-Hospital del Mar Research Institut, Barcelona, and leader of the Research Network for Primary Care in Addictions (RIAPAd) supported by the Carlos III Health Institute (Instituto de Salud Carlos III),  and elected member of the Scientific Committee of the European Union Drugs Agency (EUDA) and the Informal Scientific Network of UNODC and WHO. She is working in the drug abuse field in clinical, teaching and research. Her main experience is the assessment and treatment of substance use disorders (opioid, cocaine, cannabis, alcohol...), in medical (HIV, VHC, ...) and psychiatric comorbidity among substance users (dual disorders), evaluation of new psychoactive substances and a transversal gender perspective in substance use disorders.

Professor Louise Howard is Professor Emerita in Women’s Mental Health at King’s College London. She has been Professor in Women’s Mental Health since 2010 and also worked as an Honorary Consultant Perinatal Psychiatrist at the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. She has led a number of research programmes with an aim to improve mental health service policy and practice, including a focus on perinatal mental health and the relationship between violence and abuse and mental health. She was awarded a prestigious National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Research Professorship in 2013 and became an NIHR Senior Investigator in 2019. She was President of the International Marcé (perinatal mental health) Society 2020-2022, awarded a Marcé medal in 2014, an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal College of Psychiatrists in 2022 and an OBE (Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) in 2023. She chaired the NICE Guidance on Antenatal and Postnatal Mental Health 2014 (CG192) and has also been involved in the writing of guidelines on domestic abuse for NICE and the World Health Organisation.