Meet the team

Genspect was set up and is run by a wide range of people from different backgrounds. Read about them here.

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 counselling and writing focuses on mental health and the importance of well-being and she is a regular contributor to the media. She is also the resident psychotherapist for the current TV series, Raised by the Village, a family programme that helps troubled teenagers reconnect with themselves and their families.

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. Stella’s latest book ‘Fragile’, was released in 2019 and focuses on overcoming anxiety and stress.

Stella was the 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’.

The Jungian analyst, Lisa Marchiano, and Stella launched ‘Secrets of the Motherworld’ in September 2019, offering thoughtful exploration of the most intimate aspects of motherhood in a bid to help mothers feel less alone. 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 is a Clinical Advisor in the Society for Evidence-based Gender Medicine and a founding member of the International Association of Therapists for Desisters and Detransitioners.

Stella holds a B.A. in Counselling and Psychotherapy and a M.A. in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy.

Carrie D. Mendoza, MD, Director Genspect USA

United States

Carrie D. Mendoza, MD is the former Director of FAIR in Medicine with the Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism, the current Director of Genspect USA, and a practicing Emergency Medicine physician with over 20 years of experience working in rural, suburban, and urban hospitals treating snakebites to gunshot wounds to Covid-19 patients. Her practical experience provides unique insights into the American medical system and how the modern healthcare bureaucracy can scale harmful policies while ignoring the negative side effects. Dr Mendoza will share her experience with the opioid epidemic and how the lessons learned about its origin, scale, and mitigation can inform our understanding of medicalizing radical gender ideology and how to stop its harm.

Nancy McDermott, Team Member Genspect USA

United States

Nancy McDermott is writer, speaker, and expert on American parenting culture. She is an affiliate of the Centre for Parenting Culture Studies (CPCS) at the University of Kent at Canterbury, and a former advisor to the Park Slope Parents online community where she earned the moniker “the voice of reason”.

She became concerned about the impact of therapeutic child-rearing while writing her history of American parenting culture since the 1970s, The Problem with Parenting (Praeger 2020). ”What began as a well-meaning attempt to free children to ‘be themselves’ has undermined our ability to transfer key cultural values and norms from one generation to the next, Gender distress is the most profound expression of this disorientation. As adults we need to take responsibility for helping our youngest citizens to find their way.”

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 recognised gender ideology as a threat to the public sector, to social cohesion and to women, children and same-sex attracted people. She helped found some of New Zealand’s gender-critical organisations 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.

Saoirse Connolly, Tech & Media Manager

Ireland

Saoirse Connolly is a 26-year-old woman from Ireland with a background in disability advocacy.

In March 2021, when she was in the final year of her degree, Saoirse was a prominent disability campaigner, and as head of the Disability Crew, she objected to Students Union referring to women’s rights groups and LGB rights groups as “far-right extremism”. This blew up and ultimately she was de-platformed and cancelled for her views on gender, women’s rights, LGB rights and free speech.

Saoirse is visually impaired and had been building a career in disability, law and policy for over five years. She had a paid position in her college and she was a keynote speaker at conferences and a published author on disability however after this event she was completely shunned.

Despite this, Saoirse enrolled in her Masters in Disability, Law and Policy however she was disappointed when she didn’t get any of her positions back, nor was she offered any new ones. The ostracization continued and when Saoirse realised that identity politics were shaping the entire disability sector, she concluded that her bright future had been derailed. Saoirse left her course and sought a career elsewhere. She is now working with Genspect to counter the damaging effects of an ideology that seeks to silence civilised discussion. Saoirse believes that silencing and shunning has no place in modern society.

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 as to 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

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 23-year-old 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 Ronstad 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 1990´s 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 childrens 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 30-year-old 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 counselling 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. 

The Anonymous Parent

The World

This space represents the dozens of parents who work with Genspect behind the scenes — and the many thousands more who support what we are doing.

In many cases, parents cannot speak out about their concerns. They are scared that their relationships with their children will suffer; many worry about other personal and professional consequences which might follow if they speak out about what is happening in their families.