Simone Leid is a Trinidad and Tobago national who has worked in the field of Gender and Development and International Development for over 8 years. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Sociology and Management from the University of the West Indies and a Masters degree in Sustainable International Development from the Heller School of Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University in Massachusetts, USA.

As a former Project Officer with the Gender Affairs Division in Trinidad, and in her capacity as a consultant with the Division and other Women’s NGOs, she has worked on a number of projects aimed at building awareness and understanding of gender issues and how they affect the lives of men and women in society.

Simone developed The WomenSpeak Project to provide a place for women to share their stories of discrimination and in so doing, help them to process their feelings and think critically about the ways in which these incidents have affected them. 

As a poet and 2008 Fellow of the Cropper Foundation Caribbean Writers Workshop, she has, in her own life, experienced the power of writing to improve cognition, communicate complex emotions and stimulate self-motivation and personal growth.