Meet Our Team
At OPS, we inspire action and creativity through storytelling and community, and at the heart of all our action is our global core team. Coming from all walks of life, our team is comprised of women and girls well-established in the gender equality movement, here to assist in building your path towards advocacy that creates tangible impacts.
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Read more about each member of our core team and their projects outside of Our People Said! With Our People Said being centred around amplifying the voices and stories of activists and trailblazers across the globe, we'd like to take this moment to share a bit about our team and their stories!
More about the team
Nirvana Talukder (she/her)
Nirvana Talukder is a climate and gender justice advocate from Sydney, currently studying Law and Arts student at the University of New South Wales. Her advocacy primarily centres around the intersection of the climate change and gender inequality. From leading strikes with School Strike for Climate Sydney to now volunteering as part of the Australian Youth Climate Coalition, she has helped mobilise thousands of students and community members across the country through grassroots climate actions and campaigns. Nirvana has worked with policymakers and Senators to ensure the voices and concerns of youth are heard and addressed, and is the founder of Our People Said, a global youth initiative striving towards collective female empowerment through storytelling and community building. Nirvana is a Teen Advisor alumnae for the United Nations Foundation’s Girl Up, helping advocate for gender equality, girls' education, menstrual equity and healthcare accessibility on an international scale. In her spare time, Nirvana is usually public speaking, reading, or engaged in cultural dances including Classical Indian Styles.
Yehansa Dayarathna (she/her)
Yehansa Dayarathna is a Medical Student at Monash University, a curious STEM-inist, dedicated athlete, and passionate advocate for women's health and education. Her love for the game and STEM has led to many achievements; she has won numerous awards, including being on Live NBA TV and winning multiple international competitions ranging from olympiads to research programs! She believes knowledge is power and strives to help bridge the gap in STEM fields and establish gender equity. As a Girl Up Teen Advisor from UAE for the UN Foundation, she has reached hundreds of girls through STEM equity efforts while sharing her love for sports and its endless opportunities. She has significantly contributed to women's health by raising money to buy menstrual products. She also addresses healthcare inequalities, focusing on menstrual equity, through international forums, podcasts, and leadership summits to foster awareness and education on these critical topics locally and globally. Her goal is to pursue a career in medicine, where she can combine her interests in anatomy, research, and technology to empower others through her work and passion.
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Luna Ramirez (she/her)
Luna Ramírez is a student at Princeton University and a youth advocate from Colombia. She is a passionate learner who aims to advance sustainable practices through the connections between gender equality, climate justice and STEM. She aspires to work in sustainable development and public policy and target the climate crisis by supporting girls to have greater involvement in climate action. Pursuing a career in economics with an emphasis on development studies, she is currently a Research Editor at Youth STEM Matters, an international youth-led scientific journal. She has participated in the International Junior Science Olympiad. Through her work, she has developed initiatives to advance the outreach of Comprehensive Sexuality Education to vulnerable communities, promoted environmental education and youth advocacy as an organiser of COP in Bogotá, and worked towards peacebuilding and female empowerment through STEM as an Operations Manager in ASOFI (Women's Association of Innovation for Rural Development).
Pranavaa Giri M (she/her)
Pranavaa Giri M is a passionate Girl Up Club Leader and Class of 2024 Teen Advisor from Tamil Nadu, India. Her advocacy journey started in 2021 when she started her own club to advocate for positive social change in the small city she resides in. She is currently the president of Girl Up TIPSE, and an avid MUNer and speaker. Pranavaa believes in the power of creating cohesive solutions to solve global problems through research and debate. She cares about issues of Gender Based Violence, Menstrual Health and Education. During her downtime, one will probably find her listening to music (particularly Taylor Swift or Gracie Abrams) and writing poetry in her journal. Pranavaa hopes to continue making the world more inclusive and to empower girls all over the world, especially in developing countries.
Cynthia Medina (she/her)
Cynthia Medina is a student at Yale College and describes herself as a gender advocate, leader, Florida activist, and movement organizer. She has ample experience advocating as the Youth Action Organizer and Director of Communications for Voices of Florida, UNICEF USA National Youth Council Member, and the Director of Florida at the Youth Legislative Action Committee. She has also activated change as a Girl Up Gender-Based Violence Workshop Leader, Florida School Speaker, and LatinX Florida Youth Voice. She joins us as a Latina, first-generation American aiming to speak up for the underrepresented and committed to fighting for the basic rights of all humans.
Zoe Lenz (she/they)
Zoe Lenz is a student at Arizona State University majoring in film and filmmaking practices. She recently graduated from Interlochen Arts Academy as a Creative Writing major. Zoe is passionate about LGBT+ rights, menstrual equity, and reproductive rights. Zoe is a Girl Up Leader and a member of the Girl Up Teen Advisory board where she advocates for awareness of the intersections of gender equality and queer justice.
Shanum Sarkar (she/they)
Shanum Sarkar is a Girl Up Leader and gender justice advocate from Dhaka, Bangladesh. Passionate about SRHRJ, tackling gender biases in healthcare and education, Women in STEM, science communication, and mental health. Shanum actively contributes to projects promoting menstrual equity, mental health awareness, accessibility to inclusive resources, gender-safe spaces, and financial independence for marginalized communities through vocational training. Additionally, she plays a crucial role in multiple fundraising projects dedicated to sending children entrapped in toxic cycles of sexual abuse and human trafficking back to school. Besides advocacy, Shanum finds joy in flipping through pages of fiction, writing meaningful articles for her country’s leading English daily, splashing colors on canvas, taking pictures of everyone and everything, and, last but not least, embarking on coffee shop escapades wherever she goes to fuel her love for caffeine :)
Aria Kim (she/her)
Aria Kim is a student at the University of Sydney and a passionate gender equality advocate. Rooted in her interest in women’s education, reproductive rights, and racial justice, she believes in incorporating intersectionality with advocacy to centre the voices of those experiencing concurrent forms of marginalisation. As an avid public speaking representative for her high school, Aria hopes to empower girls to voice their perspectives and inspire action towards a more inclusive and equitable society. In her spare time, Aria enjoys reading, rewatching her favourite movies, and writing stories and film scripts. She aims to study literature and law at university to pursue a combination of her interests.
Saundarya Nair (she/her)
Saundarya Nair is a Girl Up Leader from India, who is passionate about SRHRJ, gender-based violence awareness and women in sports amongst other issue areas. She is an active part of multiple missions and projects based on climate action, menstrual hygiene, promoting gender-safe spaces, cultural awareness, and financial independence for rural women. She is also an enthusiastic public speaker and has represented both Girl Up and Girl Up India in events ranging from The Pad Project's annual Bleed Green event to UNA-USA's InterGenerational MUN and YOUNGA's delegate training programmes. Her favourite Girl Up memories include interviewing WNBA star Candace Parker, leading an INSPIRE Session on intersectional feminist history at Girl Up's Global Leadership Summit, co-hosting a Summit workshop on the mental and reproductive health of female athletes, presenting at the inaugural Sports Innovation Lab, facilitating the GBV pilot programme and being a Teen Advisor in 2022-23 class.
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