The team

Nicola Reindorp is a globally recognised leader in forging powerful collaborations to protect civilians from war. For more than two decades, she has united NGOs, governments and activists in collective efforts to save lives, shape policy and drive systemic change.

She began her journey on the Board of Crisis Action in 2006 while leading Oxfam International’s global campaign on conflict and humanitarian crises. At Oxfam’s New York office, she played a pivotal role in securing the historic UN agreement on the Responsibility to Protect, ensuring world leaders commit to preventing genocide and crimes against humanity.

Nicola later co-founded the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect and has held key roles as strategic consultant to the UN in Rwanda and the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in New York and an advisor to Avaaz. She was a Research Fellow at the Overseas Development Institute in London where she authored landmark reports on humanitarian and donor coordination.

Nicola is also on a mission to redefine how we think about leadership. Through her research and public speaking, Nicola is exploring how doubt should not be dismissed as a weakness but instead harnessed for its power to fuel self-awareness, drive inclusion, and better decision-making. She makes the case for harnessing the power of doubt to unlock better leadership, stronger teams, and more diverse voices in power.

Nicola holds a First-Class degree in Social and Political Science from King’s College, Cambridge, and an MSc in Development Studies from the London School of Economics.

nicola.reindorp@crisisaction.org

+ 44 7539 44 23 11

Janah Ncube has been the Deputy CEO since 2021, serving as the Global Campaigns Director for 5 years prior to this. Before joining Crisis Action, she was Pan Africa Director for Oxfam. Her work in the last 10 years has had particular focus on Africa’s regional integration with a particular focus on African institutions such as the African Union, the African Development Banks and Regional Economic Communities; working on civil society development and engagement with other non state actors on the continent. Her career spans over 20 years working on human rights with a particular focus on women’s rights; conflict reduction and peace building; reducing poverty and injustice with organisations such as the SADC Secretariat, the Centre for Citizens’ Participation on the African Union, Women in Politics Support Unit amongst others. In 2005 the University of Bradford presented her with the Hilary Rose Award for her contribution to issues of diversity and inclusion; 2006, she was nominated as a Archbishop Desmond Tutu Fellow of the Africa Leadership Institute (Afli). In 2011, Janah was named one of the Ten Outstanding Young Persons in Zimbabwe by the Junior Chamber International.

janah.ncube@crisisaction.org

@janahncube

Sacha is with Crisis Action since 2012. Before being appointed as Strategic Engagements Director he has held several positions within the organisation, including as Germany Director and EU Director.  Before joining Crisis Action Sacha worked as a consultant advising companies on political and regulatory frameworks for investments in new markets. Previously, Sacha worked for a Berlin-based communications agency where he worked with various political institutions, think tanks and NGOs focusing on strategic positioning and communications strategies. Sacha holds a Bachelor’s degree in Modern European Studies from the University College London, a Master’s degree in Contemporary European Studies from the University of Bath and Humboldt University Berlin as well as a PhD in Political Science.

sacha.dewijs@crisisaction.org

Divya is an experienced strategist, changemaker, and storyteller, with nearly two decades of demonstrated leadership and impact in journalism, human rights, strategic campaigning, and advocacy for change. She joined Crisis Action in January 2022 as our inaugural Director of Emergency Response, Learning and Innovation (DERLI).

Before joining Crisis Action, she was with Amnesty International for nine years, holding several leadership positions including Senior Adviser, Asia Pacific, Senior Research and Policy Adviser, and Director of Research. She is specialised in leading from the frontlines and working with marginalized and vulnerable communities, with a particular focus on structural inequality, criminal justice, women’s rights, justice and accountability issues. In the last decade, she has led and advised on impactful, innovative, and fearless human rights campaigns and advocacy; provided strategic leadership and training on human rights investigations and complex and multidisciplinary strategies for change; and built and mentored diverse, multi-cultural, and globally dispersed teams.

Passionate about gender rights, equality, and justice, she is a strong believer of harnessing the power of people, evidence, and storytelling to pilot solutions and advocate for change.

Prior to joining the human rights sector, Divya was an award-winning, bi-lingual broadcast journalist for a decade, reporting across leading national and international media networks in India. She holds a Master’s in Journalism from Symbiosis University in India, and in Human Rights Law from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in the UK.

divya.iyer@crisisaction.org

Elvis started working as the Senior Management Team Administrator at Crisis Action in April 2024. Prior to this, he had worked at Crisis Action in the roles of Campaign and Research Assistant and Executive Assistant Consultant. He has over five years of experience in executive support, research, campaigns, and organizational development. He worked with Oxfam International and Amnesty International Kenya prior to rejoining Crisis Action. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Public Administration

elvis.salano@crisisaction.org

With over a decade’s experience working for INGOs in a variety of senior fundraising, project management and strategic roles, Laura Whitby joined Crisis Action in 2016 as Senior Development Manager. The last ten years have seen Laura working in a diverse array of contexts including Sierra Leone, Arctic Alaska, Qatar and Aberdeen and she has particular expertise in environments impacted by oil and gas development. Laura has most recently worked at Living Earth, an international NGO that works on environmental and development issues from Nigeria and Mali to Russia and Iran.

Laura holds an MA in Cultural Heritage Studies from University College London, where she focused on Indigenous people’s rights, and has since taken every opportunity to further brush up on her international knowledge with additional study at Birkbeck University.

laura.whitby@crisisaction.org

+44 207 269 9450

Will is a Chartered Accountant who qualified through financial audit. Now four years post qualification, he has previously worked as an Auditor at KPMG and as a Management Accountant at The British Museum. He has extensive experience financially reporting to donors and is passionate about streamlining and improving financial processes and systems. Will has a keen interest in History, Philosophical Ethics and Geopolitics and is a strong advocate for charitable work, having previously volunteered as a Samaritan.

will.whitwell@crisisaction.org

Joyce has accumulated over 20 years’ work experience in the Human Resources field having worked for profit and non-profit sectors. Prior to joining Crisis Action, she worked with Food for the Hungry as the HR Africa Lead.  She has experience working at operational and strategic level in supporting teams, HR systems, policies, communications, change management and general human resources.

Joyce is a servant leader who is passionate about serving others, connecting with teams and ensuring HR contributes to organizational outcomes. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Human Resource Management, a Masters in Development Management and an Executive Masters in Organizational Development.

joyce.mwangi@crisisaction.org

Peter Duffy is a media and communications strategist with Crisis Action. He previously spent five years with AIDS-Free World, an international advocacy organization dedicated to tackling the inequalities that allow HIV to flourish. He has worked in newspaper and magazine journalism and published four books of narrative nonfiction. His freelance journalism has appeared in The New York Times, Politico, The New Republic, Slate, The Atlantic, and other publications.

peter.duffy@crisisaction.org

Ahmad is a seasoned information technology professional with 7 years of experience in the non-profit sector, both locally and internationally. He firmly believes in the transformative power of effective information management in achieving organizational objectives. In his most recent role as an ICT Officer at the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), Ahmad collaborated closely with the organization’s head office in Norway and its regional office in Jordan to enhance service quality through the development and refinement of IT protocols, standards, and guidelines. Additionally, he played a pivotal role in ensuring data and system security, as well as compliance with the stringent data privacy regulations outlined in the EU’s GDPR framework.

ahmad.aliahmad@crisisaction.org

Hesphina Rukato is an expert on Governance, Peace and Security, and International Relations. She has worked in this area for over 25 years. She was Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development from 2002 to 2009. Following this, she led the African Union’s “Make Peace Happen” campaign in 2010. In 2012, Dr. Rukato led the team that conceptualised, coordinated, and delivered the inaugural Conference of the Tana Forum on Peace and Security in Africa. She subsequently served as a Technical Committee Member for the Forum from 2016 to 2019. Dr. Rukato’s practical experience with governance includes her various roles on election observation missions in several African countries. She has also worked in different capacities at the African Union, including as Deputy Chief of Staff in the Bureau of the then Chairperson from 2012 to 2014. Hesphina’s roles in academia include her role as an Academic/Associate Lecturer at the Thabo Mbeki African Leadership Institute between 2015 and 2018. She worked as a consultant on “Capacity Building of the African Union for the implementation of Agenda 2063” and was a key expert for the AU’s “Silencing the Guns” theme for 2019.

She has published extensively, including papers in peer-reviewed journals and chapters in edited volumes. Key amongst her academic publications are books titled: Tana At 10: Reflections On The 10 Years Of The Tana High-Level Forum On Security In Africa (2024) and Future Africa, Prospects for Democracy and Development Under NEPAD (2010). In 2024 she co-authored a chapter titled Challenges and Triumphs for Women Leaders in African Diplomacy in the book Key Issues in African Diplomacy: Developments and Achievements”. Hesphina has two papers under review for publication in 2025 titled The African Union and its Pan-African Agenda, and Foundational Governance Challenges in Africa.

hesphina.rukato@crisisaction.org

Sarah has campaigned at multiple human rights and international development NGOs in the UK – including the UK Committee for UNICEF, Save the Children, and ActionAid. At the global level, she was Plan International’s Head of Youth, Movements, and Campaigns. Her focus has been women’s and girls’ rights (in all their diversity), along with youth voice and participation.

Sarah has an MSc in Political Theory from the London School of Economics, and an MA in Art Psychotherapy from Goldsmiths. She is a proud Trustee for the Donmar Warehouse theatre, as a champion for their young people’s program. And she currently volunteers with young women who’ve survived sexual violence at the grassroots Women and Girls Network. She is a committed intersectional, anti-racist feminist.

sarah.carson@crisisaction.org

Hayley leads Crisis Action’s networks and partner advocacy in the UK. Before joining Crisis Action in 2015, she spent over a decade campaigning for fairer health, social care, welfare and education systems in the UK, most recently at Save the Children and Macmillan Cancer Support. Hayley is passionate about building partnerships for social change, and has led major coalitions including the Disability Benefits Consortium and the Richmond Group of leading health charities. Hayley holds a law degree from Cambridge University, with an Erasmus year studying international law and human rights at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. She sits on the board of trustees for NRC in UK.

hayley.davidson@crisisaction.org

+44 207 2699450

Joe Keyrouz is a political science and international affairs specialist, dedicated to the protection and promotion of human rights. He studied political science and international affairs and has an MA in Studies about Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism from UNIR in Spain.

Since June 2017, Joe is the elected chair of the Global Network of Domestic Election Monitors (GNDEM) which is a network of 250 election-monitoring organisations in 89 countries across the globe. Moreover, he is an elected member of the Board of Directors since June 2013 at the Lebanese Association for Democratic Elections (LADE), which is a rights-based organisation that works to promote electoral rights in Lebanon and the MENA region. LADE has extensive experience in monitoring the Lebanese elections, awareness raising, legal research and in advocating and lobbying for electoral reform.

Moreover, Joe has been fully engaged in the promotion and protection of refugee rights in Lebanon and Jordan since June 2011. Among others, he led a team of more than 200 individuals (100 paralegal staff, 15 lawyers and 120 volunteers) to provide legal aid and support evidence-based advocacy across Jordan, as part of the Norwegian Refugee Council’s (NRC) Syria response.

joe.keyrouz@crisisaction.org

Racha joins Crisis Action having served most recently as the Yemen Researcher with Amnesty International where she investigated human rights and international humanitarian law violations in Yemen, she notably authored a report on restriction to humanitarian access. Prior to that, she worked with Human Rights Watch in Beirut and Physicians for Human Rights in New York where she conducted research and related advocacy on a range of human rights abuses in Syria. Racha holds a master’s degree in Social Development and a BA in law from the Sorbonne University.

racha.mouawieh@crisisaction.org

Gareth manages Crisis Action partner advocacy at the UN in NY. Gareth was formerly Global Advocacy Manager at Transparency International (TI), representative to the UN in New York and Geneva, Chief Editor of the Global Corruption Report and Head of the Corruption in Sport Initiative. He was previously Deputy Manager of the Human Rights Defenders Programme at the International Service for Human Rights (2006-2010) and Senior Legal Officer for the South Asia Human Rights Documentation Centre (2003-2006). He has also consulted on governance challenges in global climate finance. He holds an MLitt (history) from University College Dublin and LLM (IHRL) from the National University of Ireland.

gareth.sweeney@crisisaction.org

Hannah joined Crisis Action full-time in 2022, having previously served as a consultant for the Washington and UN offices supporting the Yemen and Sahel campaigns. During the 2020 U.S. presidential elections, she worked as the Deputy Director of the Voter Protection Hotline for the DNC in Michigan to promote voting rights and ballot access across the state. Prior to that, she was a research fellow for the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) constitution-building team based in Tunisia, providing support to the UN Special Envoy to Yemen developing mediation strategies. From 2016-2017, Hannah was a Fulbright research scholar in Morocco where she completed a case study of the new Mohammed VI Contemporary and Modern Art Museum in Rabat, examining the institutional politics of artistic production and human rights.

Hannah holds a MA in Middle Eastern Studies from Harvard University and a BA in Art History and African Studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She also completed two-years of study at the Corcoran College of Art & Design in Washington D.C. with a concentration in Photojournalism and Museum Studies.

hannah.clager@crisisaction.org