2026 – UNCHARTED Speakers

Anisha Islam – Cancer Changes More Than a Body

A chemical engineering graduate, Kazi Anisha Islam is a PhD Fellow and HKU Presidential Scholar in the Department of Clinical Oncology at the University of Hong Kong. Her research in cancer molecular genomics focuses on advancing precision medicine for nasopharyngeal carcinoma, with findings presented at the Gordon Research Conference and the American and European Associations for Cancer Research. 

Anisha Islam explores how transforming complex, multi-dimensional cancer data into clear narratives can uncover hidden patterns, predict outcomes, and guide truly personalized treatment to provide hope for patients.

Gina Li – What We Don’t Know About Water

Gina Li is a certified water sommelier whose path – from journalism and banking to tea entrepreneurship – sparked a fascination with how water chemistry shapes taste. Trained at Doemens Academy in Germany, Gina now speaks and consults on water culture, partnering with institutions such as universities and consulates. Her work elevates hydration into a sensory craft.

Gina Li invites audiences to rediscover the “ordinary” by exploring how water chemistry shapes taste and transforms the way we drink and live. By learning to taste and pair water, Li reveals how embracing fluidity can help us find confidence in our multifaceted identities.

Helen Geng – What the Deep Past Teaches Us

Helen Geng is an Assistant Professor of Teaching in the Division of Science at Lingnan University in Hong Kong. She holds a PhD in geology, which has given her a distinctive “deep-time” perspective. Her expertise spans environmental geochemistry and interdisciplinary sustainability studies. Currently, she teaches general education sustainability courses.

Leveraging her expertise in geology, Helen Geng reframes sustainability through several deep-time stories drawn from the Earth’s 4.5-billion-year history.

Jane Houng – Losing a Daughter & What Must Change

Jane Houng is a Hong Kong-based author, speaker, and humanitarian educated at Cambridge University. She has published 16 children’s books, a memoir entitled Beirut is More Beautiful by Bike, and hosted the podcast Mending Lives. In 2017, Jane lost her daughter Rebecca ‘Becky’ Dykes to gender-based violence in Lebanon. She founded Becky’s Button, a UK-registered charity that educates young people on preventing violence and distributes free panic alarms to vulnerable communities worldwide. 

In this deeply moving and inspiring talk, Jane Houng explores how personal trauma can be transformed into meaningful action.

Jo Lodder – Limits Are Just Borrowed

Jo Lodder is a former professional jockey whose career ended after a back injury in his twenties. He built a successful career in luxury real estate across Asia before reaching a turning point—giving up drinking and committing to endurance running. In 2025, he ran 3,140 km from the Great Wall of China to Hong Kong with nine students facing life challenges. Their journey inspired Limits Are Just Borrowed, a philosophy that questions inherited beliefs. Where one exceeds expectations, others often follow.

Jo Lodder explores how shared belief expands possibility, helping us challenge labels and redefine the impossible.

Mary Schaus & Joanna Bowers – Invisible Differences

Mary Schaus is a former practicing lawyer, talent strategist, and founder of Talos Foundation, a Hong Kong–registered charity raising awareness of neurodiversity and invisible disabilities. Inspired by her son, she built Talos after witnessing firsthand the impact of limited awareness in Hong Kong.

Joanna Bowers is an award-winning British film director, screenwriter, and founder of Cheeky Monkey Productions. Her impact filmmaking highlights marginalized communities, with internationally acclaimed documentaries The Helper and reFashioned. 

In this joint talk, Mary Schaus and Joanna Bowers explore how a desperate Facebook post sparked an improbable collaboration – and what happens when people stop waiting for perfect conditions and simply begin.

Nance Lokos – Inclusive Design Is Good Design

Nance Lokos is a British designer and abstract artist with over 17 years in art direction. After moving to Hong Kong in 2016, she transitioned into User Experience (UX) design, combining creativity with logic. Living with a visual impairment, she experiences firsthand the barriers poor design creates. She advocates for a digital landscape where accessibility isn’t optional, but essential. Nance’s talk makes accessibility personal. While designers strive for beauty, exclusion often follows – through low contrast, small text, and overlooked usability.

Nance Lokos challenges us to rethink design as inclusive by default and shares practical ways to break down barriers and create spaces that are usable, thoughtful, and accessible for all.

Shiela M. Cancino – The Smallest Piece

Shiela M. Cancino is a former global financial services executive who competed in the Chess Olympiad and was awarded the prestigious FIDE Woman Candidate Master chess title. Navigating her career, she discovered profound parallels between the chessboard and life. Deeply dedicated to empowering others, Shiela founded the 4S Scholarship Foundation, Pinoy Impact Community, and Pinoy Chess Community Hong Kong.

Shiela Cancino explores the “Pawn to Queen” journey, illustrating how overlooked individuals can step into their potential and transform their future with strategy and self-belief.

Sofie Fella – Dare to be Big

Sofie Fella is a Chinese-German international rugby player, Harvard alumni, and entrepreneur whose work sits at the intersection of sport, culture, and identity. Internationally capped with Germany and competing around the world, she uses storytelling, community events, and her brand The 大 Collection—inspired by the Chinese character meaning “big”—to challenge narratives around strength, femininity, and body image, particularly for Asian women and girls. She also co-founded Girls Lift Girls, a global community bringing women together through sport. 

Drawing on her experience as an athlete, Sofie Fella challenges narrow ideas of strength and femininity, exploring why becoming a woman is not about becoming smaller, but about becoming bigger.

Stella Jiang – Finding Somewhere to Turn

Stella Jiang is a self-taught programmer who believes technology should serve people. After experiencing postpartum depression and anxiety, she turned to mental health, exploring how technology could support the mind during vulnerable moments. Stella rebuilt through constantly asking herself: “Can I do this?” Each “yes” transformed survival into choice. At 38, she taught herself to code and created AI tools that foster self-validation.

Stella Jiang shows how AI’s true power lies not in providing answers, but in how technology can help people rebuild trust in themselves.