The Heaviest Load biographies

Moderator:

Carol Jenkins, President, The Women's Media Center, and Board Member, AMREF/USA 

Carol Jenkins is President of the Women's Media Center and a Founding Member of its Board of Directors. She is an Emmy award-winning former news anchor and correspondent who covered presidential politics as well as international issues.

She is a national spokeswoman for women and the media, arguing the case for inclusion of women throughout the media.

Among Ms. Jenkins' interests is promoting the cause of the women and children of war ravaged Africa. She serves on the USA board of AMREF, the African Medical and Research Foundation.

As president of the Women’s Media Center, Ms. Jenkins has testified before Congress and the FCC, and written about what she calls The Invisible Majority—the 51 percent of the population (women) who occupy only 3 percent of "clout" positions in media.

As a media and political analyst, she has appeared as a guest and in debates at top national outlets. Her commentary, written for www.womensmediacenter.com, has appeared in The Nation.com, The Huffington Post, Television Week, and other print and online sources.

Ms. Jenkins enjoyed a 30-year, award-winning tenure with several New York City news departments, including 23 years at WNBC-TV, where she co-anchored the pivotal 6 p.m. newscast. She hosted her own daily talk show, Carol Jenkins Live, on WNYW-TV.

Carol Jenkins is the author, with her daughter Elizabeth Gardner Hines, of Black Titan, A.G. Gaston and the Making of a Black American Millionaire. She is an executive producer of the PBS documentary, What I Want My Words To Do To You, which won the Freedom of Expression Award at the Sundance Film Festival in 2003.

Panelists:

Clarissa Brocklehurst, Chief of Water & Environmental Sanitation, UNICEF

Ms. Brocklehurst was appointed as Chief, Water, Environment and Sanitation, Programme Division of UNICEF in April 2007.

Prior to this appointment, Ms. Brocklehurst was a consultant in water and sanitation based in Ottawa, Canada.

Ms. Brocklehurst started her career with research into the water and sanitation needs of aboriginal communities in Canada.  She was a public health engineering consultant with Cowater International Inc. in Ottawa, Canada between 1986 and 1987 and then worked overseas as a Technical Adviser for Small Sanitation Projects on a CIDA-financed rural water and sanitation project in Togo from 1987 to 1989. 

She returned to Cowater International between 1989 and 1996, and during that time was posted to Sri Lanka for two years on a project to plan rural water and sanitation investments.  In 1997 she was appointed the Country Representative for WaterAid in Bangladesh, serving in that country for two and a half years, working on a mix of rural and urban programs.  Ms. Brocklehurst then became the Regional Urban Specialist for the Water and Sanitation Program (WSP) at their Regional Office for South Asia in New Delhi, India, returning to Canada in August 2001.  

Netsanet Mengistu, Founder and Director, Zema Setoch Lefitih (Voice of Women for Justice), Ethiopia

Zema Setoch Lefitih is a leading, pro-woman, Ethiopian NGO that works in partnership with WaterAid in Ethiopia.  In her work Ms. Mengistu mobilizes women to strive for social development and establishes community projects in healthcare, education and legal consultation for marginalized Ethiopian citizens. 

Most of the projects designed by Zema Setoch Lefitih help its women beneficiaries to undertake participatory rural appraisal methodologies, which ensure they are fully involved in all aspects of planning, implementing, monitoring and disseminating  research products designed to address their needs. 

Zema Setoch Lefitih seeks to promote the education of girls and adult women by facilitating their access to all levels of education, training.  It also encourages the active participation of women in human rights issues, assists women in gaining access to productive employment and supports measures for food security for rural women and their children. 

Ms. Mengistu has a BA in Management and Administration from Haile Selassie University.

Lydia Zigomo, WaterAid's Head of Region for East Africa

Lydia Zigomo is a human rights lawyer from Zimbabwe. In her current position she manages the region's strategic direction relating to increasing access to water, basic sanitation and hygiene education, while championing the equity and inclusiveness of WaterAid's programs organization-wide. 

With 13 years of program and policy experience, Ms. Zigomo has focused on reproductive health and rights, HIV/AIDS, rights-based approaches, gender mainstreaming and women and children's rights in the African context.  Prior to her time at WaterAid, Ms. Zigomo was the Regional Program Manager for Africa at Interact Worldwide, where she was responsible for managing a portfolio of projects in Malawi, Madagascar, South Africa, Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda. 

Ms. Zigomo also served as the National Director of the Zimbabwe Women Lawyer's Association Trust, a women's rights organization based in Harare, where she was responsible for legal aid for poor women; advocacy and lobbying on gender issues; legal education for the empowerment of communities on issues related to gender-based violence, women's property and inheritance rights, and the plight of AIDS orphans and children subjected to sexual and physical abuse. 

Ms. Zigomo is on the Board of the Just Children Foundation UK, the Zimbabwe Institute, and the Chairperson of the Zimbabwe Women's Network.  She was also a member of the AIDS Consortium Working Group on HIV/AIDS Work Place Policies and HIV/AIDS Mainstreaming. 

Ms. Zigomo received her JD from the University of Zimbabwe and a Masters of Law Degree in Civil Liberties and Human Rights from the University of Leicester, UK.

Listen to Lydia Zigomo's recent interview on BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour about women and sanitation.