Dr Gianna Avellis
Gender Equality Work Group
Giovanna Avellis is leading researcher in ICT at InnovaPuglia SpA, Italy, and has a large experience in project management of EU projects in Software Engineering, Multimedia Educational Software, and Mobile Telecommunication. She spent a Marie Curie Fellowship at Imperial College London, UK and founded in MCAA a Gender Equality Working Group which she chaired for three years, and received the Best Contributor of MCAA in 2016 for her work on Role Models of MCAA. She is an Italian Delegate of Women20 engagement Group of G20 representing ICORSA, and is vice-President of ITWIIN Italian Women Innovators and Inventors Network. She is member of CREIS and Donne&Scienza dealing with Gender Equality. She is member of the Advisory Board of GETA (Gender and Talent) observatory on GE at CNR, Italy. Current research interests are Gender and AI, RRI, Gender Based Violence against Women and Girls.
Dr Lucia Martinelli
Gender Equality Work Group
Lucia Martinelli is a biologist with a Ph.D. from Wageningen Agricultural University and a Master’s degree in Science Journalism and Communication. As a senior researcher, recently retired, her long career has extended across public and industrial research institutions in Italy and abroad. Her research focused on plant biotechnology, gene transfer, GMO traceability, risk communication, gender studies, Science in Society and Responsible Research and Innovation. She has developed and coordinated national and international multidisciplinary projects and participated in several COST Actions. She is the President of the European Platform of Women Scientists (EPWS) and a board member of the Italian Association of Women Scientists, the European delegation to the G20 (EUW20), and ICoRSA. For the Autonomous Province of Trento (Italy) she has been president of the Commission for the Equal Opportunities, a member in the ‘Supervisory Committee for the Promotion of Equal Opportunities and of the Wellbeing at Work and Against Discrimination, she coordinated the working group for the ‘Gender Equality Plans – GEP’ for the Trento Science museum-MUSE. Her publications are available on ResearchGate and Google Scholar, and her profile is featured on Wikipedia.
Dr Rosarii Griffin
Gender Equality Work Group
Dr Rosarii Griffin is the Company (and Legal) Secretary and Board Director of ICoRSA. She is also Secretary of the national Researcher Staff Association (IrishRSA) and Chairs her University’s Researcher Staff Association (UCCRSA) at University College Cork, Ireland. Rosarii’s expertise lies in International and Comparative Education (DPhil, Oxford University). She has undertaken research capacity-building projects in Uganda, Malawi, Lesotho, South Africa, and Rwanda, receiving research funding from Irish Aid, UNESCO/World Bank, EU, and Government of Ireland Research (formerly IRC). Rosarii has published five books in ‘International and Comparative Education’ and is currently working on a sixth. Rosarii’s books foster an interdisciplinary approach embracing different cultural perspectives. She advocates for researchers, especially safeguards protecting researcher careers, gender equality, disability, STEM, science communication, and science diplomacy. In addition to research capacity building in developing contexts, Rosarii’s current research focus is on the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in relation to pedagogical practices, including teaching, learning, assessing and research. She is specifically interested in ethical practices and AI. Rosarii is a longstanding Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, London, UK.
Dr Silvia L. Vilches
Gender Equality Work Group
Silvia L Vilches is interested in the experiences of women as mothers, as heads of family, and as community members. She has studied the experiences of low-income female lone parents with young children in Canada, and has continued with research in the female dominated profession of early childhood educators in rural areas. Her current work focuses on menstrual equity, experiences of women who have been commercial sexual exploitation, and motherhood experiences of incarcerated women. Her background leads to a focus on the bridges between research, policy and thriving communities.
Dr Angela Agostiano
Gender Equality Work Group
Angela Agostiano is Professor Emeritus of Physical Chemistry at the University of Bari, Italy. She was the first female president of the Italian Chemical Society between 2017- 2019, and now she is the President of EuChemS, chairing the EuChemS Task Group on Inclusion and Diversity. She is also the organizer of The Global Women Breakfast, an event that fosters a global network to break barriers to gender equality in science.
Dr Sveva Avveduto
Gender Equality Work Group
Emeritus Research Director of the National Research Council (CNR). She focuses her activity on science policy, gender and research talent. She is Italian delegate at Women 20 – G20 Engagement Group – she is or has been the head of working groups at the OECD Paris, of numerous European Commission projects, advisor at the Women7-G7 and Italian Ministry of University and Research. She is the director of the CNR’s GETA (Gender and Talent) Observatory. President of Donne e Scienza and co-director of the journal Quaderni di Comunicazione scientifica. She is the author of numerous research papers and books.
Dr Carla Petrocelli
Gender Equality Work Group
Carla Petrocelli is Associate Professor in the Department of Ricerca e Innovazione Umanistica at the University of Bari Aldo Moro in Italy. Her theoretical research interests focus on the History of Computer Science, specifically the History of Technology and Programming Languages. She has also been involved in Gender Studies for several years, aiming to highlight how connections between gender and technological change alter the narratives of IT history. She has participated as a chairperson and invited speaker at national and international conferences.