UWE Executive Board

Griselda Kenyon
President UWE/GEFDU, elected September 2009
Phone/Fax: +44 19 59 56 24 47
uwepresident@ifuw.org
www.ifuw.org/uwe

Born and brought up in Edinburgh, Scotland. M.A. in English and Philosophy , Edinburgh University. Teaching certificate, Liverpool University. One daughter, one son, one granddaughter.

Joined the British Federation of University Women in 1969 and went to the Japan IFUW International Conference in 1974. I have been to all the conferences since.

When my husband joined the UK Diplomatic Service we were sent to Geneva in 1976 and on everybody’s advice, I went to the IFUW head office in Geneva and they suggested that  I should go with their representative to the UN to observe the Commission on the Status of Women to see whether I found it interesting. I have been observing the UN meetings, off and on, ever since, including international conferences on the Environment and the internet society.

After Geneva we were posted to Bogota, Colombia for three years and then back home for 6 years. We then returned to Geneva  and I was a member of the IFUW Status of Women Committee for 9 years. We lived in the Hague for 5 years, during which time I attended the Beijing World Conference on Women.

I have been CIR and then President of the British Federation, Vice-president of IFUW and then President of IFUW . During my time at home and since we retired to Kent, England I have worked with the UK Women’s National Commission which is the link between Government and women’s organisations in Britain.

Vice Presidents
uwevicepresident@ifuw.org

Elsbeth von Navarini (Switzerland)
Treasurer
uwetreasurer@ifuw.org

Elsbeth von Navarini-Marti is from Basel in Switzerland. She studied at the University of Geneva Social and Economic Sciences, majored in Sociology, worked in research at the same university and then at Yale University in the US. In 1970, she joined a management consulting company pioneering in location and market analysis for services, commerce and industry. In 1990, she opened her own company in this field, doing site and location consulting and other economic research in Switzerland and abroad. She is an active member of the Swiss Federation of University Women as a two-term treasurer. She is also active as a Vice-President of the Chamber of Commerce and the Employers' Association of the Canton of Grisons and a Board Member of the Foundation "Economic Forum Grisons". She has been treasurer of other Swiss associations and doing the accounts of private companies. She has been married since 1967 and has a daughter and two sons as well as a grand-son.

Gerda Leushuis (Netherlands)
Secretary
uwesecretary@ifuw.org

I am Dutch and I live in Amsterdam. I studied at the Amsterdam University UVA and have a degree in Dutch Law.

After having taken fulltime care of my young children for about 10 years and in the meantime working as a volunteer in the Executive of different organizations, I joined a German Chemical Multinational Company (Bayer AG). I worked for more than 20 years a.o. as an assistant of the CEO and as a sales-person in the department of inorganic chemicals (silicones).

After my early retirement, I worked as a senior consultant of political education in the leading Dutch political Party (CDA). Being so, I was a special advisor of the Amsterdam CDA Executive.

For about 45 years, I have been involved in advocating women’s interests and feminism. As a young mother of 2 daughters and 2 sons, I started being the president of a local branch of a national woman’s organisation. Some years later, I was invited to become a member of a group of “wise women” that gave strategic advice to the national board of that same organisation.

In 1989, I became a member of the Dutch Association of University Women (VVAO) and for some years, I was the delegate of the Amsterdam branch to the National AGM. More than anything else, I am interested in international networks and the international connections of VVAO. Therefore, my focus points within VVAO are  UWE and IFUW: I am a member of the VVAO committee that organises exchanges with other NFA’s.  Being a networker avant la lettre it is my goal to connect (graduate) women from all over the world in order to create female friendships and to enable women to make use of each other’s talents, capacities, qualities and potentials.

I am a grandmother of one grandson and three granddaughters and it is, above all, my concern for my daughters and granddaughters that motivates me to advocate womens’ interests.

National Coordinators for
European Relations (CERs)