Young Humanists International

Anya Overmann is President of Young Humanists International and has held multiple roles in the American Ethical Union, specifically in the youth section. She was raised in the Ethical Culture movement and attended the Ethical Society of St. Louis since she was a young child.

Anya received her Bachelor’s degree in Communication from Truman State University and is a freelancing writer currently living as a digital nomad. Her passion lies in advocating vigorously for humanist and progressive values both within and beyond the United States.

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As the Young Humanists International Coordinator,  Javan works closely with young humanists worldwide, focusing on their development and growth as humanists.

Before joining Humanists International, Javan has been active in community work zeroing on environmental conservation, climate justice, human rights, and civic engagement advocacies since 2012. He is currently the Chief Executive of Humanists Alliance Philippines International. The co-founder and former pioneer president of the Association of Young Environmental Journalists, a youth-led environmental media organization. He is also the former Director for Design and Creatives of ATO-ClimatEducate Project, scholar alumni of Temasek Foundation International – Specialists Community Action and Leadership Exchange program in Singapore, and represented the Philippines during the ASEAN Plus Three Youth Environment Forum 2019 in Thailand.

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An organic chemist by training, DJ now works in a bioprocessing laboratory investigating cultured meat. He also founded Starter Culture, a Singapore-based food biotechnology start-up, which crafts novel fermented food products and upcycles food waste to create alternative sources of protein.

He currently serves as Vice President of the Humanist Society (Singapore), where he champions interfaith harmony, advocates for civil discourse, and defends secular spaces.

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Larry Tepa is the current president of Humanists & Atheists of Zambia. He has been part of the humanist movement for a large part of his adult life and has volunteered in various roles, for various duties, in order to further the cause of secular humanism.

As a young humanist, Larry believes in the power of reason, science and how beneficial it is for humanists to work together in order to normalize humanist values in Africa.

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Ana Raquel Aquino is a Guatemalan lawyer specialized in public policies, good governance, and Human Rights by the Autonomous University of Madrid. She is the president and member of the board in Humanistas Guatemala. She has worked in the public sector and for several Non-Governmental/International Organizations advocating the topics of the right to health for indigenous communities in Guatemala, gender equality, legal empowerment, accountability, and social justice.

For her, humanism is not just a philosophy but a way of living with empathy with others. She does not believe you have to be religious in order to be a good-ethical person. Her ultimate goal and wishes for the whole American Continent: the separation between church and state in order to defend democracy.

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Andrea is an activist involved in many fields, all linked by the life experiences encountered. Andrea was born in Palermo, Italy, in 1992; when they was very young, they felt the humanist push and the need for a commitment in this direction. After freeing himself from the religious sect in which the family raised them, Andrea declared himself an atheist and approached the Italian Union of Rationalist Atheists and Agnostics (UAAR).

Today Andrea is the youngest member of the Board of the association and its first non-binary member. Andrea is the UAAR contact person for LGBTI+ issues and writes for a thematic column for the youth section of the association. Andrea also sits on the Board of Gruppo Trans, a large empowerment group of trans* people, Centro Risorse LGBTI, a thematic research group, and NaKa, a youth center they helped found in a tough neighborhood in their hometown. Since May 2021, they has taken on the role of Regional Coordinator for Europe for Youth Humanist Internationals.

Andrea lives in Bologna and works as a fundraiser at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.

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