About the People Who Stutter Panel (in alphabetic order by first name):
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 Role Models, 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 Ciel Waagenes Udbjørg, I am 63 years old and I am a recently retired tram driver. I have always cluttered, but it might not have manifested itself before 4th grade, when I was 10. I have been a member of STOLT since 2017, having been formally elected to the board around 2020, a post I still have. I have been the editor of the Norwegian Association’s magazine “Stamposten” since 2024 and I became a member of the board of the ICA in 2024.
Gina Waggott is a writer, editor, disability advocate, and former TV professional from the UK. She is the author of Scatman John: The Remarkable Story of the World’s Unlikeliest Popstar, to be published by Bloomsbury on February 5th, 2026.
Gina is a covert stutterer who has been an active member of the stuttering community for 25 years. She is a former Vice Chair of Stamily, a diverse worldwide network for people who stutter and their allies, a former trustee of the European League of Stuttering Associations, and in the early 2000s ran StutteringChat, then the world’s largest online support group for people who stutter.
Hanan Hurwitz is a proud person who stutters, and former Chair and Executive Director of AMBI, the Israeli Stuttering Association. He lectures extensively on stuttering and is determined to help everyone understand stuttering in order to get past the limitations that the pervasive stigma about stuttering imposes on society in general and on people who stutter and their families in particular. He has been instrumental in arranging conferences on stuttering and was part of the team that curates the annual International Stuttering Awareness Day online conference. Hanan is the author of the book “Stuttering: From Shame and Anxiety to Confident Authenticity”.
Professionally, Hanan is an electronics engineer by training. Since 2019 he has been working as an independent Quality and Regulatory Management Consultant. His primary interests are learning Buddhist and Stoic philosophy, Blues guitar music, reading, and of course, stuttering.
Joze Piranian is a Beirut-born, Toronto-based global speaker, stand-up comedian, author, and lifelong stutterer. For over 25 years, the fear of being judged for his speech led him to avoid speaking whenever possible. Today, he shares his story through keynotes, TEDx talks, and comedy performed in four languages.
His journey is the subject of Words Left Unspoken, a documentary nominated for three Canadian Screen Awards. His book, Stop Holding Back: An Honest Guide to Turning Fear Into Action, was published by HarperCollins in January 2026.
Michèle Ayoub is a person who stutters from Lebanon and the founder of Stutters Bil Arabi, a community connecting and amplifying the voices of people who stutter across Lebanon and the Arab world. A member of the National Stuttering Association since 2020, she is also an interviewer for 50 Million Voices and part of the ISAD team. Active within the international stuttering community, she advocates for stuttering acceptance, authentic communication, and greater representation of lived experiences in conversations around stuttering.
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-six 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.
Shilpa Sagwal is a woman who stutters based in India and is the global coordinator for 50 Million Voices. She has co-founded and is currently managing a WWS (women who stutter) network in India. She has a background in engineering and has worked as a scientist in biotech industry for many years.
