Nneka Nicholas
Nneka Nicholas is one of the co-founders of Intersect Antigua. She is passionate about the environment and creating a world where people of all genders feel safe and respected enough to express themselves as they so determine. Although she has been leading the legal work at the Department of Environment since 2015, she is a newly called Attorney at Law, having been called in December 2021.She hopes to use her newly acquired advocacy skills to champion environmental and human rights causes.
In her years at the Department of Environment she was instrumental in crafting and passing the Environmental Protection and Management Act, the first comprehensive environmental legislation in the region. She has also lead the region in developing a model agreement for access to genetic resources in Antigua and Barbuda under the Nagoya Protocol as well as negotiating on issues related to biodiversity under the UN Convention of Biological Diversity and its related protocols.
Through Intersect she has worked closely with the Directorate of Gender Affairs, most notably to organise the Orange Rally for the opening of the 16 Days of Activism in 2015. She has also participated in outreach to high school and college aged students about the importance of consent, human trafficking and respecting personal boundaries. She continues to be vocal about police brutality against vulnerable members of society, homophobia and domestic violence and push conversations about classism, racism, homophobia and transphobia and the way in which these intersect to create oppressive systems.
Nneka currently serves as secretary on the board of a newly-formed non-profit organisation called H.E.R. (Humanity. Empowerment. Respect) in Seattle, Washington whose main goal is provide sanitary products to persons in shelters who menstruate.
She loves exploring the world through reading, especially by Black authors in the African, Caribbean and African American diasporas. She enjoys travelling to new countries and experiencing their cultures (especially the food!) and is an enthusiastic Carnivalist with a goal of participating in every carnival in the Caribbean. You can find her on Twitter @thedreadempress tweeting about her dogs and feminism.
