Hilligje van’t Land

Secretary General of the International Association of Universities (IAU), based at UNESCO House, in Paris. IAU, the global Voice for Higher Education, brings together universities from all around the world. When it comes to its work to foster Sustainable Development, IAU partners with the Association of Commonwealth Universities and the Association of Francophone Universities (AUF) at the United Nations and is committed to making higher education a key driver of societal change, including via education and research for sustainable development.

Lorlene Hoyt

Based in Massachusetts, US, Hoyt is Executive Director of the Talloires Network of Engaged Universities, whose mission is to work with heads of universities around the world to collaborate to confront societal challenges like diseases, famine, structural racism, gender oppression and climate change. She is also a Research Professor at the Tisch College of Civic Life at Tufts University, Massachusetts, US.

Maha Haidar Makki

Director of the MasterCard Foundation Scholars Program at the American University of Beirut (AUB), one of the oldest modern institutions of higher education in the Arab world and Global South. The programme supports students working with communities to tackle local challenges, such as COVID-19 awareness projects for refugees in Lebanon and campaigns against female genital mutilation in Africa.

Maryam Mohiuddin

Founder and director of the Social Innovation Lab, Lahore, Pakistan, which hosts Pakistan’s first social enterprise incubator. It partners with universities encouraging experiential learning and helping professors and students through engagement with the community to develop humanistic ideas for social interventions, drawing inspiration from local wisdom and practices, and concepts such as regenerative design, and commercialise them, ensuring sustainability.