Anita Blom, born and raised in the Netherlands, is living in Sweden. She worked as an operation manager for the Workers’ Educational Association. She has been a board member, incl chairperson, of stuttering organisations on local, national, European and International level, and an advisory board member of several international stuttering organisations.  She was a national and international keynote speaker on stuttering, was one of the Stutter Social hosts, a project leader of several stuttering projects and a leader of national and international children and youth camps for over 20 years. She has been an award-winning stuttering activist, acknowledged by Voice Unearthed on the Wall Of Inspiration, Stamma, and many others, on local, national and international level. 

Anita, aka Scatsis, has stuttered since she was 9 and had a troublesome youth because of her stuttering. She went from being silent, to giving stuttering a voice, from pre-school children to the European Parliament, now inspiring people who stutter of all ages, they can make a difference. Do check out her previous papers to the ISAD online conferences. Due to health issues she now has to take it slow, but is still an inspiration to many, especially young people who stutter and those with ME/cfs. Her device, that’s now been used all over the world is “Sure I stutter. What are you good at?”.

My name is Elias Apreko and I am a person who stammers (PWS). I have a decade of experience in stammering awareness and disability rights advocacy. I helped set up the Ghana Stammering Association (GSA) in 2013 to meet the needs of PWS in Ghana. As the leader of the GSA, I have collaborated with the few speech and language therapists (SLTs) in Ghana and organized many events (seminars, conferences, workshops, etc.) to raise public awareness about stammering and provide practical guidelines for living with a stammer. I have led several media awareness campaigns on mainstream media (TV & Radio), social and print media. We have been able to bring in high-profile personalities, such as ministers of government, journalists, and lawyers to assist in the awareness-raising campaigns. As a direct result of our efforts, the stigma surrounding stammering is gradually reducing in Ghana. I also serve on the National Executive Council and Advocacy Committee of the Ghana Federation of Disability Organizations (GFD); an umbrella organization for Disabled People’s Organizations (DPOs). My core responsibilities are to help devise the strategic direction of the GFD to help promote the rights of persons with disabilities in Ghana. I currently serve on the board of the International Stuttering Association (ISA), and am also a Trustee of 50 Million Voices; a global initiative that seeks to improve the world of work for PWS.

I work in the financial sector in Ghana. My experience spans across business development, sales & marketing, customer relationship management, investment banking, and pension administration. 

Paul Goldstein has studied in quite a few fields, including music composition, mathematics, and speech-language pathology.  He spent his first 46 years in the United States, during which he worked as nightclub and concert pianist, concert director, music instructor, computer programmer, and speech-language clinician. Twenty-three years ago he moved to Norway to marry.  Since then, he has worked in social services as a foster “weekend father”, and as a pianist-composer. 

Paul has stuttered since his first sentences at age 3.  His journey has taken him through decades of speech therapies, including various fluency shaping programs.  Through intensive practice, he enjoyed many extended periods of fluency. However, he now simply accepts himself peacefully as a person who happens to stutter.

Active for decades in national and international stuttering organizations, Paul has attended numerous stuttering conferences, and has published a number of stuttering-related articles.  He is also an administrator in Facebook’s largest stuttering forum.

Ezra Horak is 32 years old from Portland, OR, and has stuttered since age six. They believe in reshaping societal expectations about stuttering, and creating an environment where stuttering is not seen as something to fix – just something to listen to. Ezra recently launched Stutterology, a digital content creation and podcast. The platform is dedicated to educating all people about stuttering with bite-sized content from lived experience. You can follow them on instagram at @Stutterology

Ryan Cowley has been a sportswriter and is an author of three books — including his first, All the Right Words: My Journey as a Sportswriter Who Stutters — and is now a podcaster, having just launched his first podcast, All the Right Words, this week on Spotify. Ryan is also a public speaker, having spoken to over 70 schools across Canada and the United States. He has also been named by the World Stuttering Network as one of 2023’s Top 100 Influencers in the stuttering community.

My name is Ylva Sevilhaug-Schjølberg and I am from Norway! I am 21 years old. My passion within stuttering is how we talk about it in public and how we can advocate about stuttering in social media. I started a social media channel called “Stammesnakk” this January where I shared some of my own experiences together with answering a lot of direct messages from fellow youths who stutter. I held a workshop at this year’s Nordic stuttering seminar, about advocating about stuttering in social media, which I really liked doing.

I have stuttered my whole life, with some periods finding it extremely difficult to tolerate. I have seen several speech therapists throughout my life, but I finally found an effective one who could help me with my stuttering last year. He also stuttered and taught me about covert stuttering. I have worked hard and challenged myself and am now experiencing and handling my stuttering well overall. My treatment plan primarily focused on building my tolerance for the extent and nature of my stuttering, while also embracing the fact that this is who I am, and that I should focus more on using it to my advantage rather than feeling restricted.