It has been a pleasure to work with Els over the last 10 years of my PhD work and even afterwards in the various assignments arond research and capacity building. I have enjoyed her commitment, kindness, diligence and attention to detail that she put into the work that we did together. She is a good team player, resourceful, and a good mentor especially in the work to safeguard women and girls health and human dignity tackling Gender-based violence, Female Genital Mutilation and Child Marriage. I have also appreciated her great ideas that we have shared from conception to the actual delivery of work in these thematic areas, the research publications, training materials, partnerships and collaboration that she linked me up with actors in the field.

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Dr Tammary Esho, Director Centre of Excellence to end FGM/C, Amref, Kenya

I had the pleasure to work with Els Leye on a number of occasions over the past 10 years. I was truly honored to have her as one of my PhD supervisors. She has a broad network, including on the African continent, and I am very thankful that she opened up her network for me. Els is a well-known expert in the field of harmful practices and specifically Female Genital Mutilation. Her research has made important contributions to academic debates, but also to policymaking at the European and national level. I hope we’ll be able to work together again in the near future.

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Dr Annemarie Middelburg, Founder and Director of Middelburg Human Rights Law Consultancy, the Netherlands

I have had the honour and pleasure to work with Els over the past ten years. During that time we have collaborated of a number of projects including collaborating on two European Commission Daphne III trans-European Action Research projects that focussed on understanding the social norms that supported the continuation of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) amongst practising African Diaspora communities living in the European Union. Els made valuable contributions to these projects in particular with respect to evaluation.

Throughout our collaborations I have found Els to be a passionate researcher, with a particular flare for qualitative methodologies, which require sensitivity and high ethical principles when applied to sensitive issues, such as FGM in vulnerable marginalised communities, such as practicing communities in the EU and beyond. Els has a critical mind and is not frightened to question current thinking on topics associated with traditional harmful practices and to put forward counter arguments based on research evidence.

Els is a superb team player and is highly stimulating to work with. She is a true professional who is culturally sensitive and can work with and undertake research with people from various backgrounds. She has excellent communication skills both written and spoken. This ensures that her research has academic, policy and practitioner relevance and guarantees that her research has real societal impact. I really enjoy working with and interacting with Els. I am sure you will too.

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Professor Hazel R Barrett (BA(hons), MA, PhD, CGeog), Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations, Coventry University, UK

It has been a pleasure to work with Els over the last 15 years. During the first seven years of collaboration, when I was responsible for the World Health Organization portfolio on Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), we collaborated with Els, and she was as an excellent Primary Investigator for several studies on FGM in several African countries, mainly Burkina Faso and Sudan. I have experienced Els as a committed, kind, respectful and serious researcher and project leader, who has led projects with humor, kindness and flexibility. I have experienced Els as an excellent team player, and she is good in bringing up the best in her collaborating partners. She is a sincere researcher, respectful of problems, people and goals, always fulfilling her tasks with diligence and careful considerations as well as having a focus on practical implications for those concerned. 

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R. Elise B. Johansen, PhD/researcher, Norwegian Centre for Violence and Traumatic Stress Studies, Norway

I had the pleasure to work with professor Els Leye over the last 25 years as she was one of the pioneer founders of the International Centre for Reproductive Health (ICRH), Ghent University. It was not a easy journey for a social scientist as ICRH was housed in the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, where multidisciplinarity was a rather new and unknown concept in the early 90ties. Els developed interest in harmful traditional practices including female genital mutilation and child marriage, and worked undaunted in research, publishing, writing papers and books, setting up partnerships, building coalitions and raising the topic on the national, european and global agenda. She is a widely recognized expert in this area and a great team leader.

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Marleen Temmerman, MD, MPH, OB/GYN, PhD, MBS Director Centre of Excellence Women and Child Health AKU-UNESCO Chair Youth Leadership Science, Health, Gender and Education The Aga Khan University, Kenya.