OUR TEAM
The Cova Coalition
Meet our teams on the ground: an incredible coalition of local partners leading menstrual health education and care in their own communities. Their local knowledge, trusted relationships and dedication are at the heart of our work.
Irise Institute East Africa
Uganda
We Empower Her
Uganda
Educate West Point
Liberia
Our Team
Founder and CEO · Australia
Geena Dunne
Writes and speaks as G.D Anderson
Geena Dunne is the Founder and CEO of The Cova Project, an Australian charity combating period poverty through menstrual cups and reproductive health education. Geena and The Cova Project have ended period poverty for thousands of girls and women, keeping them in school, in work and in charge of their own futures.
Writing as G.D Anderson, she penned the globally recognised feminist quote, "Feminism isn’t about making women stronger, women are already strong, it’s about changing the way the world perceives that strength."
She is also a co-founder of Women Who Innovate, a community accelerating Australian women in business, tech, sports, impact, culture and innovation. In 2022, she founded Honey Badges and Philanthrop3 to merge blockchain and impact, leveraging crypto philanthropy and the power of decentralised communities to create a global giving circle funding grassroots change-makers.
Her work has earned Silver in the Global Impact category of the Women Changing The World Awards and finalist honours in the Telstra Best of Business Awards and the Women’s Agenda Leadership Awards.
Communications and Operations Lead · Australia
Sebastian Parker
Sebastian leads communications and operations at The Cova Project. He brings experience from London’s startup scene and from communications in Australia’s deep tech sector, helping founders and emerging teams tell their stories and be heard.
Having grown up across several countries, he is drawn to culture, community and creativity, and to storytelling that builds trust and shifts outcomes. He shapes the organisation’s voice while strengthening the systems behind delivery.
Project Consultant · Ghana
Abena Benewaa Fosu
Known as The Menstrual Queen
Abena is a project management and development communications specialist with over a decade of experience leading impactful programmes across West Africa. Her expertise spans programmes design and project management, development communications, advocacy, resource development and capacity building, particularly in the areas of gender equality and social inclusion, sexual and reproductive health and rights, youth development, media and information literacy.
She’s led multi-country initiatives, designed advocacy campaigns that have shaped national policy, and built the capacity of grassroots partners to implement and sustain community-driven solutions.
Board of Directors
-
Dr Samantha Malcolm
Non-Executive Director
-
Louisa Beale
Non-Executive Director
-
Geena Dunne
Director and CEO
-
Nell Anderson
Company Secretary and Governance Adviser
Advisory Board
-
Tara Croker
Tara Croker, a proud First Nations Wiradjuri woman, is a trailblazing entrepreneur who seamlessly merges her Indigenous heritage with the dynamic world of business. Her career trajectory includes coveted roles in high profile global corporations such as Google, YouTube and News Corp. She is the founder of Yaala Sparkling, a multi-award winning beverage company that celebrates the rich flavours of native Australian plants.
-
Tina Tran
Tina Tran is currently the Healthtech Customers Lead at Google Cloud Australia, based out of Sydney. Tina has 10+ years of experience in the Tech industry. Tina works with founders and CTOs to fuel the ambitious growth trajectory of their startups. Passionate about the startup ecosystem, she is also an angel investor and leads a number of VC & startup community initiatives as part of Google for Startups.
-
Jackie Rabec
Co-founder and Chief Product Officer at ThinkMD.ai, building intelligent clinical tools for frontline healthcare workers in underserved communities globally. Medical doctor turned product leader at Google, Heidi Health and Prospection historically. Experience building digital products across population-based predictive analytics, clinical decision support tools, ward task management, mobile patient engagement, patient-reported outcome measures at scale.
-
Ebony Westman
Ebony is an experienced gender equality advocate with over a decade of experience promoting the rights of women and girls in all their diversity, in Australia and internationally. Ebony has a Masters in Gender Studies and a Masters in Development Studies, specialising in Peace and Conflict Studies, in the Netherlands. Ebony has worked across state and territory governments in domestic violence prevention and policy reform, and disability inclusion reform.
-
Paul Johnson
Paul is a leader in Australia’s risk management sector. He was a financial, accounting and forensic skills expert for 19 years at Deloitte. For the last 20 years, he has been responsible for working within the Insurance Industry and leading large consulting teams to consult to business operations whether corporate, government and not for profit on risk management.
-
Melanie Caffrey
Melanie has over 20 years' experience as Head of Marketing within various asset management and alternative investment groups across the UK and Australia. Melanie is passionate about improving the health and well-being of girls, firmly believing every girl deserves to menstruate safely and with dignity. Through the Blair Caffrey Foundation, Melanie supports initiatives that empower girls and women within their communities.
-
Scott Malcolm
Scott Malcolm has over 25 years of experience in investment banking and corporate finance in Australia and the USA. He is Chairman of the Sydney based corporate advisory firm, Greenstone Partners which he founded in 2003. Prior to Greenstone Partners, Scott was a Director in Credit Suisse’s investment banking department in Sydney.
-
Victoria Tulloch
Head of Marketing at Archie Rose Distilling Co., board advisor at the Maggie Beer Foundation and an advocate for female leadership, Tori is a true partner in purpose, bringing innovation and vision to The Cova Project’s mission.
-
Alex Kelso
Developer with 8 years experience building and executing strategies for global businesses. Led development of the Cova Affiliate platform, helping grassroots organisations to launch menstrual cup initiatives.
-
Sam D'Souza
Samantha is a culture storyteller and leader who builds communities of change through vibrant brand identities, dynamic communication strategies, and artistic content. As Managing Director of act.3 Australia, she’s leading the agency’s expansion across APAC while driving cultural marketing for brands like adidas.
-
Nina Schultz
Partnerships and Activations Manager at Archie Rose, Nina is an experienced events, partnerships and sales manager specialising in hospitality. She is skilled in brand management and food and beverage operations and an experienced sommelier.
-
Tim Murphy OAM
Founding Director of Fugen with 40 years of experience in the construction industry. Leader in business, with a deep commitment to excellence, and a passion for continued innovation, growth and giving back to the community.
Trusted Allies
-
Diana Lidforsen
Cup supplier · Sweden
Diana started FlowCup in 2017, hoping to bring the economic and environmentally friendly menstrual cup into the mainstream. Her business philosophy is ‘Impact over Profits‘, which is why Flowcup became the ideal supplier for The Cova Project.
I believe that access to comfortable and safe sanitary protections should be every woman's right, no matter where in the world she lives. Contributing to this has always been obvious to me
To find out about FlowCup, click here
-
Gabriella Amini
Former project leader and trainer · Nakivale Refugee Settlement
Gabriella is a 27 year old Congolese refugee who lives in Stockholm, Sweden. She is a poet and a writer, and was one of the scholars of the entrepreneurship program run by the organisation Opportunigee. She now mentors women from several different nationalities in reproductive health and women's sexual education. Gabriella is a social changemaker, and founded a collective in Nakivale called We Empower Her, thats mission is empowerment and development for women.
-
Abena Benewaa Fosu
Former project leader and trainer · Ghana
Abena, affectionately known as ‘The Menstrual Queen’ is a Feminist Activist with particular interest in women's sexual pleasure, bodily rights, queer rights, sexual and reproductive health, economic liberation and political participation. She envisages and works towards a world where women can be anything and everything they want without judgement or discrimination. A world where patriarchy is only a once upon a time in history state of affairs.
Cova Affiliate Team
-
Ebony Westman
Ebony is based in the Netherlands, completing her Masters degree in Development Studies, in The Hague. Ebony's research focuses on care-based practices, gender-responsive humanitarian programming, peace and human security. Ebony has her Masters in Gender Studies and through paid and non-paid roles, she has had the opportunity to work alongside feminist organisations to advance gender justice. Ebony is committed to approaching challenging issues of intersectional justice with joy, curiosity and collaboration.
-
Alex Kelso
Alex is a Product Manager with full-stack training, he has spent the past eight years building and executing strategies for dozens of global businesses.
Alex has spent the last year developing the Cova Affiliate platform. The platform expedites the onboarding process for 'project implementors' (grassroots organisations in Africa), enabling swift registration, training, and launching of their initiatives in areas impacted by period poverty. Central to the platform's functionality is its role as an integrated hub offering education, resources, training, and support.
