Rev. Nicqui Ashwood

Rev. Nicole Ashwood is the Programme Executive with responsibility for Gender Justice at the World Council of Churches. A Caribbean native, her passion for justice, particularly gender justice, is rooted in memories of systemic and tacitly accepted domestic abuse normalized by cultural art forms that sometimes denigrated women (and men) in jest. Influenced by matriarchs who did not always accept the gender inequality status quo at home and the wider community, she subconsciously sought to upend stereotypical norms by accepting a call to ministry in a male-dominated vocation.

A trained teacher and a student of life, she has exchanged the formal classroom and pulpit for administering and supporting programmes to combat Sexual and Gender-Based Violence in its varied iterations, through awareness raising, advocacy and access-enabling, using the WCC Thursdays in Black campaign as the locus of her work.