Meet the team

Killarney Group Think Tank can be viewed here

Genspect’s advisors can be viewed here

Stella O’Malley, Executive Director & Founder

Ireland

Stella O’Malley is a psychotherapist and author who works in private practice in Ireland. Her work focuses on parenting, family dynamics, and working with teenagers. Much of Stella’s counseling and writing focuses on mental health and the importance of well-being, and she is a regular contributor to the media. Stella’s first book, Cotton Wool Kids, was released in 2015 while Bully-Proof Kids: Practical tools to help kids grow up confident, resilient and strong was released in 2017. Fragile, was released in 2019 and focuses on overcoming anxiety and stress and What Your Teen is Trying to Tell You was released in 2023.

Stella was the writer and presenter of the documentary Trans – Kids: It’s Time To Talk broadcast on Channel 4 in November 2018 and she contributed a chapter to the 2019 book, Inventing Transgender Children and Young People. Stella also co-authored When Kids Say They’re Trans with Sasha Ayad and Lisa Marchiano which was published in 2023.

In December 2020, Sasha Ayad and Stella launched Gender: A Wider Lens, in a bid to explore the concept of gender from a psychological depth perspective.

Stella has co-authored several peer-reviewed publications:

Stella is on the board of the Clinical Advisory Network on Sex and Gender, the founder of the Gender Dysphoria Support Network, a founding member of Thoughtful Therapists and the vice-president of the Institute for Comprehensive Gender Dysphoria Research.

Stella holds a B.A. in Counselling and Psychotherapy and an M.A. in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and is currently a PhD candidate studying gender dysphoria in children and adolescents.

Jennifer Lahl – Director, Genspect USA

United States

Jennifer Lahl is an author, writer, speaker, and an award-winning documentary filmmaker. Prior to getting her master’s degree in bioethics, she worked in pediatric critical care nursing and senior-level hospital management. The focus of much of her writing, research, and filmmaking has been in the area of assisted reproductive technologies, but upon learning that minors were being offered fertility preservation, she knew she had to add her expertise to the “gender” debate. Since then, she has written, produced, and directed three new films, Trans Mission: What’s the Rush to Reassign Gender?, The Detransition Diaries: Saving our Sisters, and most recently, The Lost Boys: Searching for Manhood.

In February 2024, her book, The Detransition Diaries was released, which not only includes personal stories of detransitioners, but is also an exploration of medical ethics and past examples of times in medical history where doctors lost their moral compass.

Jennifer has her M.A., in Bioethics, and her B.S.N., and R.N.

Erin Friday, Esq, Board of Directors Member, Genspect USA

United States

Erin Friday is a licensed California attorney specializing in parental rights and educational advocacy. Her commitment to these causes deepened after her daughter briefly identified as transgender, motivating her to actively challenge policies she believes undermine parental authority and child protection. Erin co-leads the Western Region of Our Duty, an international organization dedicated to shielding children from the influence of gender ideology, and previously led a local branch of Parents of Rapid-Onset Gender Dysphoric Kids, offering crucial support to families facing similar challenges. She remains heavily involved in legislative advocacy, frequently working in Sacramento to propose and oppose bills related to gender interventions for minors. Additionally, Erin assists parents and lawyers willing to sue to protect children from what she considers gender-related harms. Her work and perspectives have been featured in respected outlets such as The Daily Signal, The Epoch Times, Prager U, and Post Millennial, establishing Erin as a significant voice in national discussions on parental rights and child protection.

Jude Hunter, Australia Spokesperson

Australia

Jude Hunter is a Commerce and Business Graduate and a Mum and Stepmum to 5 now adult children. She was shocked when Medical Professionals in Australia wanted to immediately prescribe her daughter testosterone without adequately considering her daughter’s comorbid mental health issues. She found the way that medical professionals treated her and her husband’s questioning of the proposed “treatment” pathway alarming and very damaging to the family’s dynamics. Jude has spent over 5.5 years researching the way gender ideology has impacted society and the harm it is causing to young people who are being rushed into irreversible interventions. She believes that a trauma-informed model should be used with young people to assess their distress properly, rather than ignore the source of their feelings and bury them under the false hope of a new “identity”. She has helped lobby for a Parliamentary Inquiry into the use of the “gender affirmation model” in Australia, something that has unfortunately been voted against by many Australian MPs.

Jan Rivers, NZ Spokesperson

New Zealand

Jan Rivers is a former public servant whose roles were in information management, library services, and information policy. She is also a lesbian, an activist on public issues, and works part-time as a meditation teacher. Passionate about the quality of public services and democracy in New Zealand, she was involved with others working on issues of the public good such as open government, trade agreements, media policy, and the use of big data and algorithms in government. In 2018, she recognized gender ideology as a threat to the public sector, social cohesion, and women, children, and same-sex attracted people. She helped found some of New Zealand’s gender-critical organizations and is the author of articles on the impact of gender ideology on government and the dangers to children and young people of gender medicine.

Travis Brown, Content Producer

United States

Travis Brown is a filmmaker living in the Pacific Northwest. He is the president of The Signal Education Project, which is a non-profit that creates engaging content that shines a light on how dogma and tribalism distort the truth. Since leaving his religious faith behind, he has been interested in how religious and political ideology shape our view of reality, how ideology affects our conversations, and what it does to relationships and society as a whole. His previous work includes The Woke Reformation, which features Peter Boghossian, Douglas Murray, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Vivek Ramaswamy, and many other brave intellectuals. He is currently exploring the difficult topic of gender identity in his upcoming docuseries Uncomfortable Truths: The Reality of Gender Identity Ideology and is making a feature-length documentary called When in Doubt, based around Peter’s book How to Have Impossible Conversations, which features three pairs of subjects as they navigate difficult topics in an attempt to improve their understanding of each other’s beliefs and find better ways to communicate.

Amanda Miller, Digital Content Manager

United States

Amanda Miller is the Digital Content Manager at Genspect, responsible for content creation and management across Genspect, Stats for Gender, and Beyond Trans platforms. She manages social media, updates websites, and edits educational and policy materials. For inquiries related to content, statistics, or website updates, please contact amanda@genspect.org.

Pamela Buffone

Canada

Pam Buffone became an accidental activist after trying to raise concerns about how gender ideology was being taught in her daughters’ Grade 1 class.

Her 6-year-old daughter had become distressed about the lessons because she was being told “there’s no such thing as girls and boys” and “girls are not real and boys are not real”. In one of the lessons, all of the children were asked to write their names on a gender spectrum at the front of the class. Her daughter had written her name at the “girl” label. No one at the school was open to understanding the family’s concerns, and the only option they were given was for her daughter to be removed from class for the lessons on gender. The family filed a discrimination case and will receive a full hearing at the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal.

Pam is a software executive in the field of data analytics and firmly believes people make better decisions with data and evidence. She started looking into the research behind “gender affirmation” and soon discovered that this practice is not based on any objective evidence. After her family’s human rights case became public knowledge, she was contacted by many Canadian families who shared personal stories and concern for their children’s well-being. In all cases, parents expressed frustration at the healthcare and education systems that are intent on enabling, and even celebrating any child that transitions, without questioning whether this is in their long-term best interests. She founded Canadian Gender Report to analyze and document the impact of gender ideology in Canada.

Kathleen H. Dooley

United States

Kathleen is an attorney, having been in private practice with international law firms as a civil defense lawyer for several decades before taking on a general counsel role for a tech startup for one year.

She is currently on hiatus as she seeks to (1) serve the community of parents of ROGD kids where she can; (2) educate her local school board officials on the need for appropriate school board policies that include, inform, and involve parents; and (3) educate her community as a whole on the dangers of ideologies that seek to convince vulnerable children, tweens, teens, and adolescents that they were born in the wrong body – all with compassion, care, and respect.

Claire Graham

United Kingdom

Claire Graham is a qualified teacher with over 20 years’ experience, who now works in SEND education in the UK. She is also an “intersex”/DSD advocate.

She began writing about her experience of growing up with a DSD a few years ago after she grew frustrated with how people like her were often spoken about in debates about identity and gender. She created a blog and started tackling people’s misconceptions about what “intersex” is, or isn’t. She strongly believes in the importance of evidence-based healthcare and policy, along with good quality education and accessible information that enables people to make informed decisions. She also advocates for peer and mental health support for people born with DSDs and their families.

Her other interest is how current debates around sex and gender are having an impact on academic freedom and free speech in general. She spoke to the Scottish government, in opposition to their controversial hate crime legislation, and is interested in elevating the voices of others who often don’t feel heard.

Helena Kerschner

United States

Helena Kerschner is a detransitioned woman who identified as transgender during her teenage years and eventually was prescribed testosterone shortly after her 18th birthday.

After being on testosterone for a year and a half, she realized that transitioning was a misguided way of dealing with her social and emotional struggles. Now, years later, she is interested in exploring the cultural and psychological factors that contribute to the sharp rise in adolescents identifying as transgender and choosing to medically transition with hormones and surgeries.

Julia Mason, MD

United States

Dr. Julia Mason has been a pediatrician for over 25 years, primarily in private practice, but also as a hospitalist and urgent care provider. She has a Master’s Degree in Nutritional Sciences and a special interest in ADHD and its management.

She was pulled into the pediatric transition medicine debate in 2018, the same year the American Academy of Pediatrics issued a non-evidence-based position statement on care of the gender dysphoric child.

Marit Rønstad

Norway

Marit Rønstad from Norway is an art teacher and has worked with children of all ages for over 20 years. The last 8 years her experience is mostly with teenagers in public school settings. She has a wide range of experience working with children in groups and learning communities.

As a result of working with children since the 1990s, she has experienced the changes brought to the new generations of kids who’ve grown up in the quickly changing online and social media eras.

One of her observations is children’s increased alienation from reality and ability to differentiate between roleplay and real life. Marit believes this plays an important part in the exponential rise in children and young people identifying out of their birth-sex.

Marit has met a large number of parents seeking answers to their children’s often rapid urge to change sex through the Scandinavian network GENID – genderchallenge.no. These parents are often more than willing to go all the way with their child, but find that the help being offered puts the parent-child relationship at risk. Marit is engaged in connecting practitioners and parents across Norway, Scandinavia, Europe, and other parts of the world.

Sinéad Watson

United Kingdom

Sinéad Watson is a detransitioned woman from Scotland who underwent medical transition between 2015-2019.

Her personal experience of having been evaluated, diagnosed, and treated at a gender clinic has given her some insights into the process that others may not have.

As a detransitioned woman who has spent many hours discussing and dissecting her transition with her mother and father, she is very aware that the parents of gender-questioning people may have questions and concerns that have been ignored or dismissed. For that reason, she is happy to advise anyone from a personal, rather than a professional, position.

Vincent Deboni

South Africa

Vincent Deboni is a mental health advocate focusing on crisis counseling and identity formation through an Existentialist lens.

Vincent has presented to the Critical Therapy Antidote Network, published with Psychreg.org, and Male Psychology Network UK. He has appeared on podcasts with Benjamin Boyce and Thirdfactor.org and co-hosted the Transpsyche podcast. Vincent has his own experience with identity formation crisis through chronic orthorexia in early adulthood. He was an accomplished entrepreneur for the first half of his life until he committed to a new path by completing an undergraduate degree in applied psychology at age 48. He is a Registered Counsellor in South Africa.