Humanitarian Relief

Adriana is a researcher from Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, with eight years of experience in the non-profit and international cooperation sector. She earned a Master ‘s in Communication from Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, as well as a B. A. in Sociology from Universidad Nacional de Colombia. Her work has been focused on the development of monitoring and evaluation tools of different types of public policy directed to vulnerable people and groups for nearly a decade. She has knowledge and experience of intercultural communication, particularly in relation to the ethnic and gender approaches for the attention and reparation of conflict victims.

Adriana has developed participatory tools and other research methodologies for the assessment of public policy that broadly fits into development and more specifically into peacebuilding and transitional justice. Through her experience in international aid, especially OIM, MSI, and FAO, where she has worked with topics as varied as rehabilitation and satisfaction measures, climate change, ethnic justice, public health, land restitution and food security, she has engaged with different conflict-affected regions.

Adriana has volunteered as a support link in the Colombian Red Cross during emergency situations, such as floods and earthquakes, in the Caribbean region and is trained in first aid assistance. Through these experiences, she developed strong research and communication skills in widely varied cultural contexts, allowing her to quickly develop rapport while implementing projects on the field. Adriana enjoys focusing on research with communities for peace building and policymaking, and has a passion for advocating for human rights and women empowerment.

Host Organization: American Red Cross

Role at Host Organization: As a Research and Engagement Fellow, Adriana will work under the Knowledge Management Program Manager to conduct and coordinate research and learning activities of the Global Disaster Preparedness Center (GDPC). The fellow will gain hands-on experience in qualitative and quantitative research activities relating to disaster preparedness and cutting-edge technology innovations, as well as knowledge management, information dissemination, and learning outcomes. In addition, the fellow will assist with outreach and engagement with Red Cross and Red Crescent National Societies and external partners to help raise the profile of GDPC’s work. An interest in and basic knowledge of disaster preparedness and international humanitarian assistance is essential and experience working in or with the Red Cross is preferred. Our fellows work alongside us as integrated members of the GDPC to carry out professional level work in a supervised atmosphere.

Ifrah Faiz has 10 years’ experience in the development sector and has a Master’s degree in development studies. She currently works as a service administrator with a resettlement agency. Her work involves providing resources for refugees, asylum seekers, and other new arrivals to the U.S. to assist with their integration into their new community. Previously, Ifrah worked with the UNHCR and was involved in Refugee Status Determination. She headed the United Nations Women’s project. Her work included gender related policies, conducting and organizing trainings, engendering disaster phases, advocating for female Internally Displaced People in the camps. Prior to that, she worked in Afghan Commissionerate, where she designed a database and analyzed results of a household survey of all the Afghan Refugee Camps in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. This provided data to specifically address the needs of men, women and children related to water, sanitation, health, education and protection. Ifrah started her career in the Pakistan Air Force as a General Duty Pilot. She is a proficient solo pilot with experience on K-8 and MFI-17 aircrafts. She is the first female from PAF’s GD(P) branch to have done Para-trooping. In November 2014 she got a opportunity to participate in the prestigious Emerging Leaders of Pakistan Fellowship in USA, in 2016 she was selected by as Queen’s Young Leader highly commended runner-up and she is also a 2020-2021 Asia Foundation Development Fellow. She is particularly interested in refugee case management, women empowerment, humanitarian relief and leadership.

Nyanshi Mbua is a humanitarian and development professional. Nyanshi earned a Master’s degree in International Cooperations, Humanitarian Action and Sustainable Development. Currently, he is with the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) as the Information, Counselling and Legal Assistance Program Coordinator. He manages and implements the ICLA program in the Northwest and Southwest regions of Cameroon in line with strategies and donor requirements, ensuring high technical quality of the programme. He has also served for four years as Child Protection Officer and Case Worker respectively with Plan International where he effectively managed over 300 child protection cases. Mbua worked with Support Humanity Cameroon as the Programme Coordinator. In this role, he engineered strategic partnerships with funders and other organizations.

Linus Neufville is a public health and monitoring and evaluation professional with over nine years of experience in nonprofit programming and data systems management. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Public Health from William V. S. Tubman University, a Postgraduate Diploma in Monitoring and Evaluation from the Development Dimensions Africa School of Distance Learning, and a Master’s degree in Healthcare Management from UNICAF University of Zambia. Linus is a champion of women’s rights and empowerment through sexual, reproductive health, and rights (SRHR) programming by showcasing evidence-based results for programmatic and policy change. His advocacy for continuous SRHR/family planning (FP) services contributed to an increase of 69.1% rate of FP needs met among married women and a decrease of 18.9% rate of teenage pregnancy among adolescents in Maryland County. Presently, the Reproductive Health and Monitoring and Evaluation Program Manager at Partners In Health. He facilitated advocacy and led the coordination, planning, and implementation of SRHR/FP programs that enhanced women’s services, increasing their confidence in social change. These advocacies have secured about $500,000.00 U. S. dollars to support ongoing SRHR/FP programs effort in 2023. He also implemented an integrated maternal and child health (MCH) outreach program that helps reach adolescents, pregnant women, and children in remote sites, increasing access to MCH services and has led to a 67% reduction in maternal mortality from 2018 to 2022. With these experiences gained and passion for promoting women’s rights and empowerment, Linus seeks to achieve social impact by reducing health inequality in marginalized communities.

Zainab Oluwabukola Atta has eight years of experience in the humanitarian aid sector and nine years in the developmental sector. She holds an LLB from Ahmadu Bello University, a Bachelor’s of Law from the Nigerian Law School, a Postgraduate Diploma in Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution from the National Open University of Nigeria as well as certifications from the London School of Economics, Harvard Business Publishing, and Humentum. Zainab currently works with the International Rescue Committee (IRC), an organization she has worked with since 2015 as a capacity building officer, a senior protection officer, a protection manager, and now a protection and rule of law coordinator. She works to ensure that the human rights of affected populations in Northeast Nigeria are protected and they receive support when they experience harm. Zainab serves as the Coordinator of IRC’s Women at work platform that promotes female IRC staff’s career growth and emotional well-being.

Nay Win Myint has over twenty years of experience working in the UN and other international non-governmental organizations. He is currently working for Norwegian Refugee Council in Myanmar as an Area Manager. He oversees the humanitarian activities and supports functions in South-East regions of Myanmar. He is also interested in reading and playing tennis.

Originally from the Washington DC area, Bernard Wiseman received his Bachelor’s degree in History from the University of New Orleans. He is currently completing his master’s degree in Humanitarian Practice MSc from the University of Manchester UK, as part of the MSF LEAP program. Bernard’s international career began with the United States Peace Corps, where he worked as an environmental education extension agent in Senegal, West Africa. After gaining experience in environmental issues, he returned home to contribute to sustainability initiatives for the US government. In this role, he focused on reducing the environmental impact of government building operations and became a LEED accredited professional. Since 2015, Bernard has worked with Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in various capacities, including Logistics Manager, Coordinator, and most recently Head of Mission. He has served communities in the Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan, Papua New Guinea, Bangladesh, and most recently Ukraine. Currently, Bernard has transitioned back to the United States and works full-time with MSF in the New York City office as the US Association Coordinator.

Yi Yi Soe was born in Myeik, Myanmar. She has completed her Bachelor’s degree in psychology from Yangon University, Myanmar. She is a clinical therapist that specializes in EMDR (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing) for traumatized clients. She completed this course through the Mekong Project. She started working at Medicines Sans Frontières, MSF-CH (Myanmar) with various positions (Health Educator, Counsellor, and Project Coordinator Assistant) for twelve years. She is also the Board member of Medicines Sans Frontières (Swiss) since 2013. Later she joined the Norwegian Refugee Council as Project Officer in 2015 and then she was promoted to Project Manager of Information, Counselling and Legal Assistant (ICLA) from 2017 till now. Her areas of interest include rights of minority people from Myanmar, especially citizenship. She is also interested in exploring the trauma of minorities who were discriminated against in Myanmar. In addition to her professional activities, she’s passionate about cooking, doing yoga, making organic soup, traveling, meeting new people, and experiencing new cultures.

Folashade Abimbola has over nine years of experience working with women, children, adolescents, girls, and other marginalized and vulnerable groups in society. Her expertise includes early childhood development, child protection and safeguarding, HIV/AIDS prevention, community and stakeholder engagement, and program monitoring and evaluation. Folashade has worked on various program teams who implemented projects and programs with Save the Children International, USAID, AIDS Prevention Initiative in Nigeria (APIN), Positive Action for Children Fund (PACF), Mercy Corp, and Management Sciences for Health (MSH) among many others. Presently, she is on the Monitoring, Evaluation, Research, and Learning (MERL) team of Women for Women International (WfWI). Folashade is passionate about the rights of women, girls, and marginalized groups and continues to add her voice to ending biases, and long-seated social and cultural norms which impede these marginalized and vulnerable groups from living full and fulfilling lives.

Roman Shynkarenko has over five years of experience working in organizations dedicated to improving the social sphere within communities. Roman holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from Dnipro National University in Ukraine. He currently serves as a Referral Officer at Humanity & Inclusion, where he collaborates with other organizations involved in humanitarian missions in Ukraine. Previously, Roman served as the Chairman of the Dnipropetrovsk region organization of the political party “”UDAR Vitaliy Klitschko”” and worked as a manager at the company Operational Sociology. Throughout his career, Roman has been driven by a strong commitment to helping vulnerable individuals affected by the war in his country. His primary focus lies within the field of protection, as he currently works in the protection department at Humanity & Inclusion. Roman is dedicated to ensuring that vulnerable individuals receive the necessary support and protection they need in the aftermath of the conflict.

Kris Reinhardt is a digital health and data science specialist with experience in the humanitarian and international development fields. Kris holds a Master’s degree in Development Practice from Columbia University. Kris currently works for Médecins Sans Frontières or Doctors Without Borders (MSF). In her work with MSF, she has gained expertise in the field of digital health through supporting the development, implementation, and use of multiple digital health platforms. She has extensive technical and implementation knowledge of DHIS2, a health management information system for the collection, storage, and analysis of data. She also has worked on and supported projects to analyze data from Bahmni, an Electronic Medical Record platform. Prior to working for MSF, Kris worked for an inter-United Nations initiative focused on governance, policy, and planning for nutrition. She supported data projects for several countries with the objective to provide multi-sectoral and geographical data analysis around nutrition to impact policy and government planning for nutrition.

Dione Sharon has five years of experience in peacebuilding and humanitarian coordination programming. She has a Master’s Degree in International Relations and Social Science from the Protestant University of Central Africa and a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of Buea. She is also Certified in Disaster Risk and Humanitarian Management from the Pan African Institute for Development – West Africa and is an alumnus of the Young African Leaders Initiatives (YALI). She currently works as INGO Forum Officer, fostering coordination initiatives, collaboration, joint research, analysis, and advocacy among 24 international NGOs advancing emergency relief and development response within complex security contexts in Cameroon. Prior to this role, Sharon volunteered with the Commonwealth Youth Peace Ambassadors Network as a Program Consultant where she facilitated joint program coordination, collaboration, and learning for effective peacebuilding by youth organizations within the Network in Cameroon. Sharon previously led as the program team lead for a National Peacebuilding NGO, implementing peace and conflict management initiatives including USAID-funded community peace and security initiatives, peace research and policy, as well as community dialogue, and mediation processes. She is a lifelong learner, passionate, and committed to supporting collaboration and partnership in delivering humanitarian assistance and peacebuilding.