AFTTAP-Hosted Webinar on Digital Storytelling

Amy Hill, MA

Amy Hill is the Program Director of StoryCenter. Amy is a fourth generation Californian, with deep roots in Sonoma County. After spending 12 years coordinating women’s health and violence prevention projects for the California Department of Health Services, Amy discovered digital storytelling and launched the Silence Speaks initiative, which since 2000 has used oral history, participatory media, and popular education strategies to support people in countries around the world in sharing personal stories of gender, health, and human rights. She has authored several journal articles and books chapters about this work. Amy lives in Berkeley, where she continues to lead Silence Speaks and oversees much of StoryCenter’s communication work.

Mariya Taher has worked in gender-based violence for over a decade in the areas of teaching, research, policy, program development, and direct service. In 2015, she cofounded Sahiyo, an award-winning, transnational organization with the mission to empower Asian and other communities to end female genital cutting/mutilation (FGM/C). In 2018, Mariya received the Human Rights Storytellers Award from the Muslim American Leadership Alliance for her innovative approach in using storytelling to engage communities in abandoning FGM/C. In 2020, she was recognized as one of the six inaugural grant recipients for the Crave Foundation for Women. Since 2015, she has collaborated with the Massachusetts Women’s Bar Association to pass legislation to protect girls from FGM/C. After starting a Change.org petition and gathering over 400,000 signatures, Massachusetts became the 39th state in the U.S. to do so. She has been instrumental in establishing the Connecticut Coalition to End FGM/C, to support Connecticut in building education programs and passing a law against FGM/C as well. As of 2021, Mariya serves as an expert consultant for the Office of Victims of Crime (OVC) Addressing Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting Training and Technical Assistance Project.