Professor Nigel Cantwell is a Geneva-based international consultant on child protection policies who has been working in the field of the human rights of children for over 40 years, and holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Strathclyde.

The main focus of his current work is on safeguarding children’s rights in intercountry adoption and alternative care.

Professor Kathleen Marshall is a child law consultant based in Scotland. She served as Scotland’s first Commissioner for Children and Young People from 2004-2009; and was Director of the Scottish Child Law Centre.

Kathleen has undertaken a variety of research, consultancy and voluntary projects on issues such as historic abuse, youth justice, and the guardianship of separated children seeking asylum.

Professor Ann Skelton is an elected member of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, a Professor of Law at the University of Pretoria, where she holds the UNESCO Chair in Education Law in Africa, and has an established track record as a children’s rights lawyer in South Africa for over 25 years.

Ann is a respected global figure in academia and across international children’s rights practice, in the areas of youth justice and alternative care in both research and legal practice. We are honoured to have Ann as Chair of our International Advisory Board.

Dr. Dimitar Karadzhov is an Honorary Research Fellow at the Institute for Inspiring Children’s Futures.

Dimitar is a Lecturer in the School of Health & Wellbeing at the University of Glasgow. His areas of expertise include mental health recovery and health inequalities; global mental health; public health; homelessness; child welfare and human rights; qualitative and smartphone-assisted research methodologies; and learning technologies.

Dimitar previously worked with Inspiring Children’s Futures on the award winning COVID 4P Log smartphone app for children’s wellbeing project.

Kristen Hope is an Honorary Research Fellow at the Institute of Inspiring Children’s Futures.

Kristen is a Research, Participation and Advocacy Advisor at Terre des Hommes Foundation, and has over 15 years of experience working with children to help them express their voices. Her areas of expertise include research methods; community-based mechanisms for child protection, diversion and alternatives to detention; and customary justice systems.

Kristen is working with Inspiring Children’s Futures as part of the Justice for Children, Justice for All SDG16+ project, convening the project’s work on children’s participation.

Dr. Olga Ulybina is an Academic Visitor at the Institute for Inspiring Children’s Futures.

Olga is an Academy of Finland Research Fellow at Tampere University, Finland. Her areas of expertise include Transnational Global Sociology and Global Governance.

Dr. Lidia Panico is an Academic Visitor at the Institute for Inspiring Children’s Futures. 

Lidia is a Professor at Sciences Po, Paris, and an Associate Researcher at the Institut Na National d'Etudes Démographiques (Ined) in Paris, France. Lidia’s research focuses on socioeconomic inequalities in health and well-being. Her expertise includes child outcomes and family processes, using longitudinal methods and data.