About Us

Jamie has a background spanning over 16 years in aid programming, strategic development, NGO coordination, and policy formation. He joined ICVA in November 2023 after completing his tenure as Country Director in Iraq for the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC).

Throughout his career, Jamie has held roles across head office, regional, and country levels with various NGOs and the United Nations. He firmly believes that NGOs play a pivotal role in fostering solutions-based approaches to global challenges. With a doctorate from the University of Exeter, Jamie has contributed to research areas on gendered identities in conflict zones, aid accountability and transparency, and post-conflict nationalism.

At ICVA, Jamie brings to the table his expertise in strategic leadership, innovation, effective advocacy, and a steadfast focus on accountability and coordination. His forward-thinking approach and commitment to driving positive change in the humanitarian sector compliments the expertise already inside the ICVA secretariat and its broader membership.

Mirela joined ICVA in 2019 as Director of Policy where she leads a policy team focusing on forced migration, humanitarian financing, and coordination.

As a human rights lawyer from Albania, she has 15 years of professional experience on humanitarian and development issues working for both NGOs and UN Agencies. She worked with UNICEF as advocacy coordinator on the rights of refugee and migrant children in Europe. Prior to UNICEF, Mirela served as global protection adviser for Terre des hommes, covering programmes aiming at preventing child exploitation, trafficking and other forms of violence against children. For few years she provided direct legal services to vulnerable families and Albanian children exploited or living in the streets of Albania and Greece.

She holds an LLM degree and has authored various publications on human rights and migration law.

Susan joined ICVA in August 2022 as Chief Operating Officer. She has a range of experience in the private, public and not-for-profit sectors. Susan comes to ICVA from CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation where she was the Head of the Geneva office.

Over the last 10 years at CIVICUS, she has held a part programme and part operational management role. Before joining CIVICUS, Susan was a diplomat with the South African government (human rights and humanitarian affairs) and prior to that, she worked for a large public affairs consultancy firm headquartered in Washington DC.

Susan has a BA in Psychology, an honours degree in Political Science and a Masters in International Relations. She has various post-graduate management diplomas and is a published author on various topics. Susan is also a guest lecturer and enjoys teaching.

Reshma has over 20 years of experience in the international aid sector, having worked in Canada and abroad. Her most recent role was as the International Operations Coordinator and Head of the Humanitarian Diplomacy Team at Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). In this capacity, she chaired the International Platform of MSF Operational Directors, facilitating strategic operational discussions. As head of the Humanitarian Diplomacy Team, Reshma led a diverse group of representatives to ensure alignment between humanitarian efforts and operational priorities. She also provided strategic advice to the International President and Secretary General of MSF.

Prior to this, Reshma was the Global Humanitarian Coordinator for the ACT Alliance, where she focused on global advocacy and policy positioning. She managed the Emergency Response Mechanism, emphasising direct funding to local and national responders. Additionally, she supported the development of the first Humanitarian Encyclopedia through a collaborative project with the Centre for Education and Research in Humanitarian Action.

Reshma’s field experience with MSF included 8 years in Project Coordination and Country Management roles in countries such as Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Iraq, and Yemen. She also spent 2 years at MSF’s headquarters in Amsterdam, overseeing operations in Ethiopia, Myanmar, Yemen, Syria, Nigeria, Jordan, and Turkey.

Throughout her career, Reshma has held leadership roles in humanitarian advocacy and policy, contributing to the development of strategic positions with various international and interagency bodies. She has served on the board of ICVA, chaired the ICVA Humanitarian Policy Committee, and participated in the Steering Committee for Humanitarian Response Humanitarian Directors Working Group. Additionally, she represented both the ACT Alliance and MSF at the IASC Emergency Directors Group.

Davina has extensive experience working in NGOs on issues related to forced displacement, beginning with the British Refugee Council. She also worked with NGOs in MENA where she focused on development and humanitarian interventions.

Prior to joining ICVA, Davina worked for UNHCR in the Division of International Protection where she provided capacity building, policy development, and technical support to States on resettlement and complementary pathways programmes, as well as being the integration focal point. She has also worked with UNHCR in the Southern Africa region focusing on durable solutions.

Davina was a research fellow under the European Commission’s Marie Skłodowska-Curie programme as well as a research consultant. Her research specialised in refugee integration, inclusion, and participatory approaches and she has published on these topics. She holds an MSc in Global Politics and a degree in the Social Sciences.

Issie is an advocacy and communications specialist with a focus on ensuring documented policy outcomes for the protection of displaced populations globally. Joining ICVA in November 2024, Issie brings over eight years’ experience engaging diverse stakeholders, across crises and contexts, for the promotion of International Humanitarian Law, principled humanitarian access, and civilian protection from violence. Prior to ICVA, Issie was leading Action Against Hunger’s advocacy and communications in the occupied Palestinian territory.

As part of ICVAs Forced Migration team, Issie supports members in their work to ensure people are protected, and can access timely, quality and sustainable assistance and solutions.

Issie holds a master’s degree from the London School of Economics and Political Sciences in International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies.

Elise brings over 24 years of experience in the humanitarian sector, including 19 years at the International Federation of Red Cross and Crescent Societies (IFRC) and 5 years as an entrepreneur and consultant specialised in strengthening not for profit organizations. At IFRC she served as General Counsel and Global Director of Policy, Strategy and Knowledge. After a move to Nigeria, she worked in an advisory capacity to strengthen and enhance the funding capacities of the Red Cross Societies in the West Coast of Africa.

She is the co-founder of the Nigeria PLRCAP program providing capacity support to Nigerian NGOs and the author of numerous reviews and studies including on pooled fund mechanisms, scaling of the CHS verification processes, and several pieces related to advancing locally-led action. Elise began her career as a corporate lawyer with the law firm of Coudert Brothers in their New York and Paris offices, specialized in project financing. She holds a Juris Doctorate from New York University School of Law and attended both the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva, Switzerland and St Anselm Colleges in the United States. She is French/American, based currently in Geneva, Switzerland.

Manon joined ICVA in 2022 as Humanitarian Finance Policy Officer, her work focuses on Quality Funding and Partnerships in addition to other humanitarian finance topics.

Over the past seven years, she has worked with several NGOs in the humanitarian sector in advocacy, policy analysis and research. Prior to joining ICVA, she worked with MSF International as well as country-level NGOs such as Lebanon Support and INSAN in Lebanon.

Manon holds a bachelor’s degree in War Studies and a master’s in International Peace and Security from King’s College London University.

Building on his background in coordination, community engagement and network development, Jeremy is a strong advocate for NGOs in interagency coordination, policy and advocacy mechanisms. He previously served as ICVA’s Regional Representative for Asia and the Pacific, and worked in partnerships for UNOCHA, following 15 years working in development for government, NGO and private sectors across Asia-Pacific region and in his home country of Australia.

Jeremy previously led ICVA’s policy work on the localization of humanitarian action including authoring several papers on this topic. He holds a master’s degree in International Development Studies and a degree in Behavioural Science.

Eileen Morrow supports the Humanitarian Coordination team, with a strong focus on COVID-19 vaccination. Prior to this she was funded by ICVA as the Ethiopia Humanitarian INGO Forum Director. She has worked as Country Director for Concern Worldwide in Ethiopia and Nepal and has a wealth of experience leading and coordinating humanitarian response with NGO and INGO partners in contexts as diverse as Kenya, India, Uganda, Tanzania and Haiti.

She holds a masters in Humanitarian Assistance (NOHA) from the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, and a bachelor of arts in Psychology from University College Dublin. She is based in Dublin, Ireland.

Albert-Philip joined humanitarian action in 2005, during the Darfur crisis. Since then, he has deployed for various NGOs on a number of humanitarian crises, including South Sudan, Chad and Pakistan, but has also worked on development in contexts such as DPR Korea and post-Ebola Sierra Leone, and on mine action in Guinea. He was a country director for over 10 years, and the coordinator for the INGO forum in Mali in 2020.

He was ICVA West and Central Africa Representative in 2021, before joining the Humanitarian Coordination department in 2022.

Alon is Senior Policy Officer for PSEAH and Diversity, overseeing ICVA’s work on safeguarding, gender, considerations of age, and inclusion of persons with disabilities . He has been leading the network’s work on safeguarding since 2018 and sits in forums such as the IASC PSEAH Technical Advisory Group, The IASC Field Support Team, the CSSG and the Safeguarding Resource and Support Hub Executive Steering Committee. Alon established and manages the PSEA Community Outreach and Communication Fund in partnership with UNHCR. He previously covered for ICVA the subject of humanitarian financing and partnerships, including topics such as donor conditions, risk and innovative funding mechanisms.

Prior to ICVA, Alon worked on human rights, gender and peacebuilding and holds a master’s degree in International Affairs from the Graduate Institute in Geneva (IHEID).

Gabriela joined ICVA in April 2023 as Senior Policy Officer. Her work on Forced Migration focuses notably in supporting NGOs to collectively participate in and influence global processes and mechanisms to ensure these are inclusive, contextualised, and effective in supporting NGOs to meet the needs of those affected by crisis.

Over the past five she has worked with several NGOs and foundations in the development and humanitarian sectors in advocacy, coordination and external engagement. Prior to joining ICVA, she worked with World Vision International on Education in Emergencies on advocacy as well as on technical front through a deployment to support the Ukrainian crisis response.

Gabriela holds a bachelor’s degree in Multilingual Communication and a master’s degree in Standardization, Social Regulation and Sustainable Development from the University of Geneva.

Keya joined ICVA in 2020 and hopes to translate her experiences working in gender and health across the development and humanitarian space into an asset for the work of ICVA in the region.

She has over 12 years of experience working with local and international NGOs in the Asia Pacific Region including the Red Cross and International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF). She has worked with a diverse country portfolio, including Myanmar, China, Indonesia, Afghanistan, Nepal, Philippines and PNG.  Her work has focused on strengthening engagement of local NGOs in the humanitarian system, emergency preparedness and partnership development.

Asma has over 10 years of experience working with the government, NGOs, and private sectors on organizational development, partnerships, and community development. In her role as Deputy Regional Representative for the Asia Pacific, Asma provides support in setting the direction of ICVA’s work within the region and strengthening meaningful participation and linkages of regional and local actors in humanitarian coordination, preparedness, climate action, and partnership development.

She holds M.Phil. degree in International Relations and a bachelor’s degree in Behavioral Sciences.

Adeline has worked for over 5 years in the Sahel region, first as INSO’ director in Mali, Burkina Faso and opening Niger, and then with the INGO forum in Mali. Before that, she worked around project and mission management in the positions of project manager and technical reference. Further, she has also held coordinator to country director positions in different countries (DRC, CAR, Haïti, Lebanon), sectors and INGOs.

She joined ICVA in 2022 as a Representative for West and Central Africa, based in Dakar. She holds a master’s degree in Social and Humanitarian Projects Management.

Addis represents ICVA in East and Southern Africa.

Since 2019, Eman has been representing ICVA in MENA and is the focal point on localization.

With over 15 years of experience as an emergency and development professional leader working in the humanitarian sector, private and government sectors Eman has an extensive knowledge on localization, emergency and refugee response, community mobilization, NGO capacity building and Nexus. She is a certified trainer on PSEA and Leadership in Humanitarian and Fragile context.

Stephanie has 10 years of experience working with local and international NGOs in the MENA region on different advocacy initiatives and research.

Before joining ICVA in 2020, Stephanie worked as the Country Program Manager for HelpAge International in Jordan, with a focus on policies and strategies related to ageing and disability.  She has also worked in the United States House of Representatives as Immigration and International Affairs Specialist. Stephanie has experience on promoting inclusion and localization agendas. She also has experience in conducting trainings on inclusive approaches to humanitarian and development interventions.

She has a degree in International Relations focused on the Middle East, and a masters in Public Administration, both from universities in the US.

Lina has a B.A in International Studies and a Master’s degree in Gender Studies. She worked on the “Mexican Migration Project” coordinated by PhD Jorge Durand and PhD Douglas Massey. She is currently a professor at the University of Guadalajara in the Department of International Studies where she teaches international migration and gender studies. She is part of the advisory group of UN Women in the Safe Cities program in Guadalajara. She also collaborates at the Inmujeres Guadalajara Advisory Council.

She works for Dignidad y Justicia en el Camino A.C. a local NGO member of ICVA located in Guadalajara where she serves as coordinator of the political and social advocacy area and as a focal point for the Americas.

Fiona brings over 30 years of invaluable experience in membership NGOs, dedicated to fostering a more equitable, fairer and sustainable future.

She joined ICVA in 2014, Fiona has leveraged her expertise in membership management, communications and governance support. Her prior role at the World YWCA provided her with a solid foundation for her work at ICVA. Before transitioning to the NGO sector, Fiona gained experience in the private sector.

Originally from Scotland, she has an educational background in Social Psychology and Social Anthropology, complemented by a Master’s in Business Administration.

Nana brings over nine years of expertise in finance, grant management, audit, and security. His leadership, business acumen, and analytical skills enable him to effectively address and resolve underperformance from multiple angles.

Since 2023, he has served as the Cost and Management Accountant at ICVA. Nana is fluent in English, French, and Mandarin Chinese.

He holds a doctorate from Geneva Business School, a MSc in Management and International Business from Nottingham Trent University, and a BSc in Accounting from the University of Ghana. In his free time, he enjoys exploring new sports.