Elesha Kingshott

Elesha Kingshott is the Founder of Kingshott Consulting, a small women-led social impact consultancy working to ensure organizations have the strategy, financial resources, and political support to respond to the world’s most pressing challenges. Elesha has over 15 years of experience working as an advocate, strategist and fundraiser. 

In her work, Elesha has drafted congressional legislation, developed advocacy toolkits for the UN, led strategic planning processes for large nongovernmental organizations and secured more than a half a billion USD funding for health and development projects.

Mona Husemoeller

Mona Husemoeller has seven years’ experience in financial services and retail strategy, currently working for a leading UK Retail and Commercial bank where she helps small to medium-sized businesses develop their business strategies.  Mona has a keen interest in climate change issues and particularly how individuals and businesses alike can help address them.  Mona’s prior experience includes start-up organizations and think tanks as well as the UN refugee agency, UNHCR.

Mona has a Bachelor's Degree in Political Science from the Free University of Berlin, and a Master’s Degree in Global Politics from the London School of Economics and Political Science.  Mona has also spent time studying at universities in Helsinki and Paris.

Eliza Urwin

Eliza Urwin is completing her PhD research at Geneva’s Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies on peace and conflict processes in spaces which the state cannot, or chooses not to, access.  She is specialised in participatory research methods, with a particular focus on the measurement of subjective, difficult-to-measure concepts.

Eliza currently works on the Everyday Peace Indicators programme, collaborating with local communities to develop indicators of peace in Colombia, Tunisia and Afghanistan.  Prior to that, she worked as a Senior Program Officer for the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) in Afghanistan, where she managed a portfolio of peacebuilding research and programming, piloting projects and exploring research methods for evaluating programme effectiveness.

Eliza holds an MA in Political Science from the University of Paris, and a BA from Concordia University in Montreal and the American University in Cairo.

Jessica Rothman

Jessica Rothman is a Senior Specialist in Planning, Monitoring, Evaluation, Organisational Learning, Strategic Management, Adaptive Management, and Results-based Management. She is an outstanding facilitator and trainer, having worked as a consultant, manager and advisor since 2005 with a variety of organisations to develop their capacities and tools to better manage their social change programmes and development results.

She has 25 years of experience in international development from civil society organisations, multi-lateral and bilateral organisations, and state agencies. She has undertaken more than 40 assignments to support organisations with their management systems, and she has contributed to over 160 evaluations in the capacity of manager, evaluator or quality assurer. She has experience as a seconded expert to the EU, and as Technical Director at Niras. Jessica’s thematic expertise is within peace and security, gender equality, health, human rights, freedom of expression and economic development. Jessica has a Master’s degree in decision-making, risk and policy analysis, and is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP).

Dr Erika Wichro

Dr Erika Wichro is an international public health expert with over a decade’s professional experience in clinical work in her home country Austria and in humanitarian crisis management worldwide.  Dr Wichro is the CEO of Peacebuilding and Partners Sarl, a Switzerland-based consulting firm.

Dr Wichro’s expertise spans serving in health emergencies such as Ebola, Polio, Measles and Bird Flu for WHO, the European Commission and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  She has served as an International Public Health Expert in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, Turkey, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands and the Pacific Countries.  Dr Wichro is also a Senior Technical Expert for the EU Civil Protection Mechanism and an Acute Psychosocial Support in Crisis for the Syrian Government. She has received training and education in Economics, Ethics and International Law in Armed Conflict, and is fluent in Arabic, German, English, French and Spanish.

Sriya Coomer

Sriya Coomer is a Boston-based lawyer, working at Mass General Brigham where she assists physician-scientists and employees set up their activities with the pharmaceutical and biotech industry. Sriya advises on a variety of issues including intellectual property, confidentiality and non-disclosure agreements, fiduciary obligations, data and privacy, corporate policies and regulatory matters. Sriya is a passionate advocate of gender justice and serves as a volunteer attorney with the Women’s Bar Foundation of the Boston Bar Association, representing low-income clients pro bono on domestic violence related family law cases. Sriya was born and raised in Calcutta, India, and holds an LLM in American Law/Intellectual Property from Boston University School of Law, MSc in Global Politics from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and LLB BA Hons in Political Science from the University of Delhi.

Samira Tika Bavand

Samira is a protection and coordination specialist with more than a decade of experience in protection, law, advocacy, programme management and coordination. She currently co-leads the humanitarian Protection Cluster in Afghanistan. Having worked for over ten years in conflict-affected environments in public and private sectors, Samira brings unique insights into organizational development and gender mainstreaming within humanitarian coordination. She has experience in developing and implementing legal assistance and anti-corruption programme strategies in Iran, Myanmar, Syria, Libya and Iraq.

Samira holds an MSc in International Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science, an LLB from BBP Law School in London and a BA in Political Science and Iranian Studies from the University of California. Samira is fluent in Farsi/Dari.

Shadi Safavi

Shadi Safavi has over 17 years’ experience working internationally in the fields of law, judicial and legal system reform in transitional, project and programme management, human rights, gender mainstreaming, advocacy, as well as international donor management and fundraising.  Shadi has worked with UN agencies and missions such as UNICEF, UNDP, UNODC and the UN Mission in South Sudan. At UNDP and the UN Department of Peace Operations, Shadi focussed on programme management, gender-based violence, political affairs and policy making in conflict-affected conflict countries in Africa and the Middle East. 

Shadi holds a BA in Law (Sharia and Civil law), an MA in International Law and an MA in International Studies and Diplomacy from London’s School of Oriental and African Studies.Shadi is fluent in English, Farsi (Dari, and Tajik) and can read, write and understand spoken Arabic language.

Dr Roya

Dr Roya (name changed to protect identity) is a medical doctor with years of experience working with humanitarian and international organizations in Afghanistan.  Her many fields of expertise include sexual and reproductive health, maternal, newborn and child health, communicable diseases, healthcare system assessment and evaluation and health policy making. 

Dr Roya has excellent knowledge of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and Social Determinants of Health (SDoH).  She is fluent in Dari, Pashto and English. She holds a Masters degrees in Public Health and in International Health.

Sahar Jahish

Sahar Jahish has over two decades of experience in bringing across the message. Any message. She started her career as a freelance journalist for various media outlets in the Netherlands, reporting on human rights, women’s rights and cultural issues. She has extensive experience in communications and media relations in Afghanistan, including at UNFPA. Back in the Netherlands, Sahar decided to utilise her experience as a refugee and started working for NGOs to empower refugees and advocate and raise awareness about their potential. Sahar is experienced in setting up a variety of online and offline strategic communications campaigns, developing communications and social media strategies and content, combined with strong data analytics. Sahar holds a BA in Journalism and a postgraduate certificate from Leicester University in Media, Communications and Public Relations. She is fluent in Dari, Dutch, English, German and understands Russian and Arabic.