SPSSI Celebrates 75 Years of Commitment to Human Rights and Social Justice at the United Nations

Thursday, October 20, 2022

Speaker Biographies

Liberato (Levi) Bautista is the assistant general secretary for United Nations and International Affairs at the General Board of Church and Society (GBCS). Rev. Dr. Bautista leads, manages, and represents international priorities for The United Methodist Church at the United Nations and other international settings. He also serves as President of the Conference of Non-Governmental Organizations in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations, which has some 600 NGOs accredited with the UN, including GBCS. Prior to GBCS, Bautista served in a variety of leadership positions at national, regional, and international levels, with church ecumenical and social movement groups. He pursued his undergraduate studies in Political Science, History, and International Affairs at the University of the Philippines and his graduate studies in Christian Social and Political Ethics and Religion at Drew University.

Maritza Chan-Valverde is a Costa Rican career diplomat, academic, and activist. She was appointed Ambassador, Permanent Representative of Costa Rica to the United Nations on 15 August, 2022. Maritza Chan-Valverde is the first Costa Rican woman to occupy the role since Costa Rica signed the UN Charter in 1945. Prior to her appointment, Ambassador Chan served as Ambassador, Deputy Permanent Representative of Costa Rica to the United Nations from 2020 to 2022. She has been recognized by the United Nations Regional Centre for Peace, Disarmament and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean (UNLIREC), as one of the leading agents for change advocating for arms control, disarmament and non-proliferation in 2014 and 2021. Her prior roles include Head of the Political Section of the Costa Rican Embassy in Washington, DC (2018-2020) and acting Coordinator of the Organization of the American States in San José, Costa Rica (2015-2017).

Florence Denmark is a past president of the American Psychological Association (APA) and a pioneering psychologist who has influenced the psychological sciences through her scholarly and academic accomplishments in both psychology and the feminist movement. She has contributed to psychology in the fields of psychology of women and human rights, both nationally and internationally. Dr. Denmark’s research has focused on status and gender, prejudice, leadership and leadership styles, and women. Considered an important leader in the field, Denmark has actively focused on women's issues, including helping and empowering disadvantaged women, dedicating herself to being an influential feminist leader. In 1987, Denmark received the first APA Award for Distinguished Contributions to Education and Training in Psychology. Other awards include: Distinguished Contributions to the International Advancement of Psychology, Distinguished Contributions to Psychology in the Public Interest, and the APA Centennial Award for Sustained Contributions to the Public Interest Directorate. 

Houry Geudelekian is a global leader in intersectional feminist network organizing, spear-heading collaborative movements to achieve transformational change in gender equality in the UN space. Currently, she is the UN Coordinator of Unchained At Last, an ECOSOC-accredited organization fighting to stop early marriage in the USA, and Chair of the NGO Committee on the Status of Women/New York (CSW/NY). Ms. Geudelekian has skillfully led campaigns, forums, and coalitions for global policy change. As Chair of NGO CSW/NY, she led the Beijing+25 campaign and convened a global Civil Society Advisory Group to support UN Women’s Generation Equality Forums. She leads high-level engagement with UN Agencies, civil society networks, Member States, and other actors to advance policy efforts on care work, child marriage, gender-based violence, sexual and reproductive health and rights, and other important topics. Prior to being elected Chair of NGO CSW/NY, Geudelekian served as its Advisor, Executive Committee Member, Communication Secretary, and Program Manager. She also served as Co-Chair of the Working Group on Girls, Co-Chair of NYC4CEDAW, and UN Coordinator of the Armenian Relief Society.

Lily Gray is a Senior Liaison Officer at UNESCO’s New York Office. There, she promotes UNESCO’s programs in the fields of education, culture, and social sciences. Her work focuses on major global, education-related partnerships and improving the relevance of the cognitive, behavioral, and social skills of young people—including through education for sustainable development and global citizenship. Ms. Gray has supported the establishment of a broad range of partnerships at the UN Headquarters in New York, in particular the Secretary-General’s Global Education First Initiative, which launched in 2012. Prior to this posting, Gray served at the Office of the Director-General of UNESCO as a focal point for the United Nations system, its reform, and its respective interagency mechanisms. Prior to joining UNESCO, she worked at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bulgaria, where she served as a diplomat responsible for human rights and humanitarian issues at the United Nations, New York. Gray holds an MSc in International Relations from the University of Sofia, Bulgaria.

Rio Hada is Chief of the Equality, Development, and Rule of Law Section of the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in New York. He coordinates the work of the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in the area of economic and social rights. Since joining OHCHR in 2000, Mr. Hada has worked on a variety of mandates related to the right to development and social rights, including housing, food, education, poverty, and foreign debt. Over the past several years, he led OHCHR’s human rights mainstreaming agenda in the UN system, and coordinated UN interagency efforts to: integrate human rights in the policies and programs of the UN development system; and promote human rights-based implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Prior to joining OHCHR, Hada served at the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs in New York, the UN Office in Vienna, UNDP, and the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific on a wide range of issues, including: Poverty and social development; post-conflict reconstruction and reconciliation; international trade; and South-South cooperation. He holds a Master of International Affairs from Columbia University in New York.

David Livert currently serves as SPSSI’s Main Representative on its United Nations team. He is also the current President of the Psychology Coalition of NGOs Accredited at the United Nations (PCUN), an organization representing 12 psychological NGOs around the world. Dr. Livert formerly co-chaired SPSSI’s Internationalization Committee, during which time he established the SPSSI-SASP Small Group Conference Series, which alternates each year between North America and the Western Pacific. A Professor of Social Psychology at Penn State University's Lehigh Valley campus, his research has examined intergroup relations, team dynamics, and inter-cultural contact. He also studies a variety of phenomena related to food preparation, including chef personalities, temporal conflict, teamwork, and well-being in professional kitchens. He is co-author of Making Dinner, published in 2019 by Bloomsbury.

Partrick Sciarratta has trained and empowered members of Civil Society to learn and exchange best practices for over a quarter century. He has also created substantive, public programming that has engaged youth leaders to help improve the world. Mr. Sciarratta has received consistent, senior-level, international recognition for his conference and fiscal management, and especially for his leadership training through international cultural exchanges. At the United Nations from 2014 through 2017, Sciarratta offered sustainable development conference programming as Special Adviser to the Permanent Missions of Suriname, and previously Sao Tome and Principe, where he was provided Delegate Status. In 2019, he was elected as a Board member to the Global NGO Executive Committee, where he serves as editor of the NGO Reporter, its main global communications organ. Sciarratta is Program Director at the World Development Foundation and President of the Vinculum Foundation, “the line that connects us.” From 2018 to present, he serves on the Board of Directors of the Westchester chapter of the United Nations Association. He also serves as its Communications Chair and edits its online magazine.

Daniel Seymour is the Director of UN Women’s Strategic Partnerships Division. He previously served as Director of UN Women’s Humanitarian Action and Crisis Response Office. Seymour began his career as Save the Children UK’s first Human Rights Officer. He has worked in government as an advisor on child rights to Robin Cook, the UK Foreign Secretary; with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s Kosovo Mission as a human rights monitor and head of office; and as Save the Children Alliance Representative to the United Nations in New York. Seymour joined the UN with UNICEF in 2002, working first in the Child Protection Section of Programme Division, then as Planning and Social Policy Officer in the Viet Nam Country Office, and finally as Chief of UNICEF’s Gender and Rights Unit. During that time, he was elected chair of the OECD/DAC’s Human Rights Task Team. In 2010, Seymour moved to UN Women to support its establishment. Seymour is a recognized expert on human rights and gender equality.

Abigail J. Stewart is President of the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI). She holds the Sandra Schwartz Tangri Distinguished University Chair as Professor of Psychology and Women’s Studies at the University of Michigan (UM), is Director of the UM ADVANCE Program, and also serves as a Senior Counselor to the Provost. Dr. Stewart holds degrees from Wesleyan University (B.A.), the London School of Economics (M.Sc.) and Harvard University (Ph.D.). Her research has focused on the psychology of women’s lives, personality, and adaptation to personal and social changes. Her current research, which combines qualitative and quantitative methods, includes comparative analyses of longitudinal studies of educated women’s lives and personalities; a collaborative study of race, gender, and generation in the graduates of a Midwest high school; comparative study of women’s movement activism in several national contexts; and research and interventions on gender and science and technology with graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and faculty.

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