Research Report: International Emergency Response 2011

Tom Alcedo is the Country Representative of the American Red Cross. He was previously the Country Director of Save the Children, Country Director of India of CARE USA, and Director of Emergency Group of CARE USA.

Victor Bai is the President of BCEM Consultants. He is also the Asia President and China Representative at International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM). The International Association of Emergency Managers, which has more than 5,000 members worldwide, is a non-profit educational organization dedicated to promoting the "Principles of Emergency Management" and representing those professionals whose goals are saving lives and protecting property and the environment during emergencies and disasters.

Abdel Karim Bensiali became director of Middle East and North Africa (MENA) for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) in November 2009 – based in Amman, Jordan. He is responsible for managing the IFRC’s humanitarian activities covering 18 countries throughout the region. A graduate of Aston University in Birmingham, United Kingdom, Abdel Karim holds a BSc and MSc in occupational health and safety, and a PhD in the use of artificial intelligence expert systems in the management of health and safety. He started his career in 1981 as a lecturer and director of the Health and Safety Institute at Batna University in Algeria, before moving on as an associate professor and president of the Scientific Council at the Universities of Batna and Constantine. He is also a research fellow on health and safety management and risk assessment at Aston University. His international experience comes from working in more than 40 countries worldwide and specific emergency operations in areas such as Albania, Bosnia, Mali, Palestine and Sudan in the area of development and emergency response. He is currently Senior Staff and Advisor to UAE Red Crescent Authority.

Lane Bunkers is Catholic Relief Services' Country Representative of Ethiopia.

Nan Buzard is the Senior Director of International Response & Programs for the American Red Cross. In this role, she oversees a staff of more than seventy people in Africa, Asia and Latin America, who specialize in disaster preparedness, emergency response, health and post-disaster programs. Prior to joining the Red Cross, Nan worked for the United National High Commissioner for Refugees in Geneva, as their Senior Policy Advisor and as a consultant. One of Nan’s most distinguished and cherished roles was the Manager of the Sphere Project, an initiative to improve the quality and accountability of disaster response. Leading up to this point, Nan had several influential positions with the International Rescue Committee in Bosnia Herzegovina, the United National Fourth World Conference on Women in New York and Beijing, and the South-North Development Initiative in New York. Born in New York, NY, Nan holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in philosophy and anthropology from the New School for Social Research and a master’s degree in public administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Over the years, Nan has worked on extensive field missions in Indonesia, Pakistan, Lesotho, Kenya, Ghana, Uganda, Jordan, Afghanistan, Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe, East Timor, Sudan, Sri Lanka, Georgia, India, Rwanda and Tanzania. Nan is the recent recipient of the 2009 World Association for Disaster and Emergency Medicine Award for Global Leadership in Emergency Public Health. In preparation for global warming, she lives on a boat on the Potomac River.

Matthew Carter is the Head of the Humanitarian Department at CAFOD. Matthew Carter, has wide experience across the humanitarian sector and has worked in many of the world’s most complex humanitarian crises. He has built CAFOD’s response over the past 12 years developing multi-sector programmes in countries including Darfur, East Africa, Somalia, Sri Lanka, DRC, Zimbabwe, Haiti and Papua New Guinea. He is currently the Chairman of the Board for the Humanitarian Accountability Partnership, Geneva, and the Chairman of the Board for the Consortium of British Humanitarian Agencies (CBHA).

Nan Dale has had a distinguished career in both international public health, as well as in child welfare and juvenile justice. Before joining Action Against Hunger | ACF-USA, Ms. Dale served as President and CEO of Helen Keller International, managing an agency devoted to the prevention of malnutrition and the elimination of preventable blindness around the world. Prior to that position, she served for 22 years as the President and CEO of The Children’s Village (CV), a multi-service agency for children, adolescents and families, located principally in Dobbs Ferry, New York. She also created and ran the Children’s Village Institute, a separate not-for-profit corporation to house the Center for Child Welfare Research, initiated to bridge the gap between practitioners, academics and policy makers. During her tenure at CV, she brought the agency from a fledgling organization with an annual budget of $3 million to a multi-service $43 million agency with a national reputation for program excellence and innovation. Ms. Dale’s international work began when she took a leave of absence from CV in 1993 to see if she could be of service to the victims of the ethnic cleansing taking place in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. She developed The Croatia Project to improve conditions in the refugee camps, develop schools and psycho-social supports and train local personnel and NGO staff members in post traumatic stress syndrome and conflict resolution work with adolescents. After returning to CV, Ms. Dale became engaged in a range of international programs, including assisting Doctors of the World in Sierra Leone to assess the efficacy of providing support services to war victims testifying before the world court, working with the American Friends Service Committee in Iraq in 1999 to assess the effect of the United Nations Sanctions on maternal and child health, implementing programs to bring troubled youth from New York City to Ghana to install computers in local schools, and developing youth exchanges between Croatia and Children’s Village. Ms. Dale has published extensively, particularly in the area of child welfare, is sought after as a speaker and panelist and has also received numerous awards for her work. A complete list of publications and awards is available upon request. Ms. Dale was awarded a bachelor’s degree in psychology from New York University and a master’s in Special Education from Yeshiva University in New York City. She has also completed coursework towards a Ph.D in neuro-biology.

Alistair Dutton is the Humanitarian Director for Caritas Internationalis, the global network of 165 national Caritas members. A chartered engineer, Alistair has studied Physics, and Philosophy, Politics and Economics. Alistair has worked in the humanitarian sector for fifteen years, during which he has led several major responses and worked in over thirty countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Prior to working for Caritas Internationalis, Alistair was responsible for Christian Aid’s humanitarian programmes in Africa, and was the Senior Humanitarian Officer for CAFOD (Caritas England and Wales)before that. Alistair entered the sector when, working for the Jesuit Refugee Service, he was seconded to Caritas Nepal.

Mark Dyer is the Scout Coordinator for ShelterBox, an international disaster relief charity that delivers emergency shelter, warmth and dignity to people affected by disaster worldwide.

MS, International Development; Honours degree in Political Science. Career spans + 20 years experience in humanitarian assistance. Formerly: volunteer assisting internally displaced persons (IDPs) to build transitional shelters in Sri Lanka in the early 1990s; five years with the Australian Government (AusAID) managing humanitarian aid and development programmes in Asia and the Pacific, including the humanitarian response to crises in Papua New Guinea (Bougainville) and in East Timor; worked with CARE International in Jordan managing refugee camps during the 2003 Iraq crises, and with CARE in Myanmar and in Vietnam as the Deputy Country Director. With the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) for eight years: currently, Head, Disaster Services department (DSD); previously, programme coordination delegate in Uganda; head of sub-delegation in Vietnam; programme quality and accountability adviser in Sri Lanka (tsunami). Board member, Sphere Project; member, Steering Committee for Humanitarian Relief Working Group

Sarah Harrison is the Psychosocial Specialist (Humanitarian Team) at Church of Sweden/ ACT Alliance. ACT is an alliance of 125 churches and church-related organisations that work together in humanitarian assistance, advocacy and development. The alliance works in 140 countries and mobilises US$1.6 billion annually in its work for a just world.

Kevin Hartigan is the Regional Director for Asia for the Catholic Relief Services (CRS). Based in Islamabad, he oversees more than 1,000 staff implementing programs in 20 Asian countries. He has 24 years of relief and development experience in Latin America, Africa and Asia, and nearly 21 years with CRS. He was previously Regional Director for Central Africa, based in the Congo, and has also been posted in Haiti, Cameroon, and Angola. Before CRS he spent several years as a volunteer in Central America, Brazil and in a Thai refugee camp. Kevin is a native of Minneapolis, he has a B.A. from the University of Minnesota and an M.A. in Political Science from Stanford.

Elizabeth Hausler is the Founder and CEO of Build Change, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to greatly reduce deaths, injuries and economic losses caused by housing collapses due to earthquakes in developing countries.

Eric James, PhD is an aid worker, author and lecturer specializing in the management of humanitarian relief and disaster response. Dr. James began his career in international development with USAID in 1995 and has since worked for a number of NGOs. This professional experience spans over twenty countries including Afghanistan, Albania, Burundi, East Timor, Iraq, Liberia, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe. His research interests include improving humanitarian assistance, NGO management and civil-military relations. He taught previously at the University of Manchester's Institute of Development Policy and Management, DePaul University's School for Public Service and is an Adjunct Professor at University of Minnesota's Humphrey Institute of International Affairs. In addition to academic articles, he is the author of Managing Humanitarian Relief: An Operational Guide for NGOs (Practical Action 2008). Currently, he serves as American Refugee Committee's Director of Program Development and Emergencies.

Dr. Mukesh Kapila is Under Secretary General for National Society and Knowledge Development at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). He has served in many senior roles at the IFRC since 2006. Previously, he was special adviser to the United Nations in Afghanistan and to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. Other leadership roles he has fulfilled include UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in Sudan, Director in Health Action in Crises at the World Health Organization, and Senior Policy Adviser to the World Bank Global Facility for Disaster Risk Reduction and Recovery. Prior to this, he was the Head of Conflict and Humanitarian Affairs at the UK Government Department for International Development and also served the UK National Health Service. Dr. Kapila is a Senior Member of Hughes Hall College at Cambridge University, Associate Fellow of the Humanitarian and Conflict Response Institute at Manchester University and an Associate at the Centre for Global Studies at the University of Victoria in Canada. He is a council member of Minority Rights Group International and was a member of the UN Disaster Assessment and Coordination system. Previously, he was on the boards of the UN Institute for Training and Research and the International Peace Academy. He has advised several international organisations including the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction and UNAIDS. Dr. Kapila was born in India and is a citizen of the United Kingdom. He qualified in medicine and public health from the Universities of Oxford and London. He was honored for international service with a CBE from Her Britannic Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and has also received the Dr. Jean Mayer Global Citizenship Award from the Institute for Global Leadership.

Trevor Knoblich is the Program Coordinator for Emergency Response at Lutheran World Relief in Baltimore, Maryland. In 2010, he led a global quality and accountability evaluation of LWR’s GiK program, including interviews with more than 4,500 recipients and 30 Lutheran leaders, as well as an electronic survey of more than 25 global partners and 1,000 U.S. Lutherans. Trevor also serves as an advisor within LWR on compliance with international quality and accountability standards, including the Humanitarian Charter, Sphere minimum standards, and Humanitarian Accountability Partnership principles. He received his B.S. in Communications and Biology from The Ohio State University in Columbus, OH in 2004.

Bruce LeBel’s involvement with relief shelter began when he designed and coordinated a disaster relief shelter project in Guatemala after the 1976 earthquake, with a team from the Mohawk Nation. A year later Bruce became a student of Buckminster Fuller’s in a graduate tutorial program with an emphasis on design science and tensile structures (tensegrity). Bruce went on to become a production engineer and special projects engineer with The North Face - the first manufacturer of tents applying Fuller’s principles of tensegrity. LeBel has twenty-five years of hands-on management and executive and consulting experience for manufacturing companies. He has led divisions responsible for operations, production, quality, logistics and information systems from tent manufacturing with The North Face to positions in the electronics, medical, and automotive industries. He has also served a range of clients such as IBM, Honeywell and PPG as an independent consultant, providing business systems integration and management consulting. LeBel is responsible for overseeing the World Shelters organization.

Dominic MacSorley is the Operations Director for Concern Worldwide US. Concern Worldwide is an international humanitarian organisation dedicated to tackling poverty and suffering in the world's poorest countries. On October 17, 2011, USAID’s Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) recognized two non-governmental organizations (NGOs) for excellence in disaster risk reduction programming. USAID/OFDA Director Mark Bartolini presented the organizations with commemorative plaques at the 2011 Annual OFDA NGO Partner Consultations. Dominic MacSorley accepted on behalf of Concern Worldwide (U.S.) for its program to help village disaster management committees in Zambia clear and maintain a complex network of canals prone to flooding.

She has been with CARE for 11 years, most recently as country director for CARE Haiti, where she led relief efforts after a tropical storm killed thousands and left hundreds of people homeless. Her work has also taken her to Rwanda, Somalia, North and South Sudan, West Bank and Gaza, Burundi, and Eritrea. Her husband Charlie (also with CARE) and her son Michaux, age 4, will join Abby in Ethiopia this summer.Abby was born in Philadelphia and grew up in the suburban town of Mt. Airy. After graduating from Colorado College, where she met Charlie, she worked with the Peace Corps in the African nation of Lesotho.

Marie McGrath is currently co-Director of the Emergency Nutrition Network (ENN), a UK based international charity concerned with accelerating and strengthening learning in the area of emergency nutrition and food security. ENN activities include production of the flagship publication, Field Exchange, that is distributed tri-annually to 120 countries and also available online, research, policy guidance and training material development, and technical meeting facilitation and reporting. Marie currently sub-edits Field Exchange, coordinates and interagency collaboration in infant feeding in emergencies, and manages a number of research/training related initiatives. Previously she has worked with Save the Children UK and UCl CIHD during the 1999 Kosovo crisis, and spent a couple of years with the NGO, Merlin, as a nutritionist in emergency programmes in Sierra Leone, Congo-Brazzaville, Afghanistan and Sudan. She originally studied Human Nutrition and Dietetics (Trinity College Dublin) and interspersed field trips with UK based work as a paediatric dietician. Special areas of interest and work in recent years have been on infant feeding in emergencies and management of acute malnutrition in infants less than 6 months of age.

Carlos Padolina is the Deputy Executive Director of Citizens' Disaster Response Center (CDRC). CDRC is a non-government organization that pioneered and continues to promote community-based disaster management in the Philippines. CDRC operates nationwide through a network of regional centers affiliated with the Citizens’ Disaster Response Network and through people’s organizations.

Jonathan Potter is the Executive Director of People In Aid, a not-for-profit organisation committed to helping humanitarian and development organisations to enhance the quality of support and management they give to their staff and volunteers. People In Aid has more than 180 NGO members in over 40 countries and a global programme of work (research, conferences, trainings, information-exchange, networking) supporting improvements in HR and people management practice. Jonathan's role at People In Aid encompasses internal agendas such as governance, management and finances as well as external-facing activities such as network-building, developing partnerships, fundraising, public speaking and advocacy. Jonathan has led People In Aid’s growth since 2001, has chaired EPN (the Emergency Personnel Network), and is currently co-chair of ELRHA. Jonathan was in business throughout Africa and the Middle East before changing to the not-for-profit sector in 1991. He worked at ActionAid-UK and subsequently as Director for External Affairs for BESO, a volunteer-sending agency. Jonathan has a degree from Oxford University in oriental studies and a Masters in international relations from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University.

As CRS' vice president for overseas operations, Annemarie Reilly is directly responsible for supervising three headquarters-based departments that provide emergency operations, program quality and management quality support for CRS country programs around the world. In addition, she oversees staff safety and security worldwide. Ms. Reilly joined CRS in 1992 in El Salvador, primarily working in the health sector. She quickly advanced to senior management positions in Haiti, Burundi and Liberia, managing challenging programs in complex emergency environments. She returned to CRS headquarters to use this experience as the agency's first emergency response technical advisor. In this position, Ms. Reilly was instrumental in the creation of CRS' world-wide emergency response team (ERT) in 1999. Subsequently, she moved to Nairobi, Kenya to take on the role of first team leader of the ERT. Under her leadership, the team responded to a variety of high-profile natural and man-made crises, providing strategic planning and technical expertise to country programs to respond to humanitarian needs. In addition to short-term assistance in the midst of disaster responses, the ERT provided leadership in development of agency standards and training to building the agency's overall emergency preparedness and response capacity. After three years of service as regional director for Southern Africa, Ms. Reilly once again returned to Baltimore to work as director of overseas operations strategy. She led development of an agency-wide, five-year strategic plan in the area of emergency preparedness and response. She served as chief of staff to the president through 2009, which included responsibilities for guiding agency strategy implementation, organizational learning and staff safety and security. Ms. Reilly holds a B.A. in government and French from the University of Notre Dame and a master's in international affairs from the Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs, with specializations in economic and political development and Latin American studies.

Matthias Schmale became under secretary general, development, for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) in March 2009 - based in Geneva, Switzerland. In this position, he oversees IFRC field offices and their membership services, as well as Geneva-based technical teams in health, principles and values and organizational development. Matthias holds a PhD in development economics with a focus on building sustainable organizations from Berlin Free University. He has spent the bulk of his career with the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. He began in field operations, programme management and organisational development (1985-1998) – with initial short missions for Lutheran World Relief and the German Agency for Technical Cooperation - and since 1992 has worked with IFRC in Ethiopia, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Sudan and Kenya with the Movement. Matthias first came to the IFRC secretariat in Geneva in 1998 where he developed his expertise in organizational development, later becoming the head of department (1998-2003). Matthias then spent a year at the Save the Children Alliance as deputy CEO before joining the British Red Cross, where he served as its international director from 2005 to 2009. Born in Mochudi, Botswana, he speaks German and English, as well as some Kiswahili and French.

Simon is the Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for Oxfam covering Eastern Asia. He holds a first degree in geology as well as an MSc in development practice. Simon has worked internationally on humanitarian aid and development programmes for the last 15 years with the United Nations, Red Cross, and international NGOs. His primary experience is rapid onset emergency relief programmes and he has worked in Africa, Europe, South and East Asia, Central Asia, the Caucasus, and the Middle East. Simon is also a member of the Steering Committee of The Humanitarian Forum, Steering Group of the Enhancing Learning & Research in Humanitarian Assistance initiative, and a member of the Humanitarian Aid and Development Conference and Exhibition Scientific Advisory Board.

Sara Sywulka is the Disaster Risk Reduction Specialist for Food for the Hungry. Food for the Hungry’s Emergency Response Unit (ERU) responds to help meet the needs of the poor and vulnerable by providing: 1. Food and non-food item (NFI) distribution: meets basic needs in the early days of a disaster providing necessities like food, water, blankets, cooking sets, and sanitation kits. 2. Medical support: provides emergency services in the early days of a disaster as well as supporting local clinics or hospitals as they respond to the needs of their community. 3. Water/sanitation: helps communities remain healthy after a disaster by restoring access to clean drinking water and sanitation systems that may have been destroyed or interrupted. 4. Child protection: prioritizes the needs of children, who are among the most vulnerable in a disaster, by making sure they are getting enough food as well as creating “child friendly spaces”. Examples include centers where children can learn and play in a safe and structured environment after a disaster 5. Shelter: helps families whose homes have been destroyed find shelter from the elements. Examples include providing tents as temporary shelter or supporting repair or construction of new homes. 6. Psycho-social support: provides emotional and spiritual support to those who have been traumatized by suffering and loss. Examples include working through the local church and providing training on how to help children cope with loss. 7. Agricultural rehabilitation: helps farmers rebuild their capacity to provide for their family and community through seed and tool distributions and training. 8. Livelihoods: helps restore the dignity of work to families and communities who have lost their businesses. Examples include helping shopkeepers, seamstresses, mechanics or carpenters with vouchers to reestablish their livelihoods. 9. Infrastructure rehabilitation: helps communities re-establish basic infrastructure like roads, ditches and electricity that may have been destroyed in a disaster.

Aaron Tate is the Haiti Emergency Response Coordinator for Church World Service. He oversees all CWS programs and projects in Haiti following the 2010 earthquake, including work with housing repair, agricultural sustainability, protection of children, and integration of people with disabilities. There were in total 15 different initiatives with a total budget of $5 million. He was previously Director of Refugee Services for the Interfaith Ministries for Greater Houston and directed a staff team of nearly twenty people from a dozen countries in providing integration support to refugees who were resettled to Houston. In this position he managed a dozen government grants for a total budget of $1.2 million. He also held the position of Church World Service Representative at PROSIR--Santiago, CHILE where he represented CWS in a partnership with Chilean organization FASIC in implementing the PROSIR program, to benefit refugees coming to Chile.

Miguel Urquia is the Senior Emergency Shelter Coordinator of the UNHCR. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees was established on December 14, 1950 by the United Nations General Assembly. The agency is mandated to lead and co-ordinate international action to protect refugees and resolve refugee problems worldwide. Its primary purpose is to safeguard the rights and well-being of refugees. It strives to ensure that everyone can exercise the right to seek asylum and find safe refuge in another State, with the option to return home voluntarily, integrate locally or to resettle in a third country. It also has a mandate to help stateless people.

Rudolph von Bernuth is the Emergencies Director of Save the Children International. As such, he has the overall responsibility for the humanitarian work of Save the Children International’s 29 members. Most recently, Rudy served as Vice President at Save the Children (US) for the Children in Emergencies and Crisis Department, where he supervised all programs and policies related to emergency response, humanitarian assistance and food assistance. With 40 years of experience in international development and emergency relief programs, he has directed response efforts in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Croatia, Iraq, Rwanda, Sudan and Tajikistan, among others. Rudy also held the positions of Vice President of CARE where he coordinated major emergency initiatives throughout Africa, Executive Director of the International Council of Voluntary Agencies, based in Geneva, and served a term on USAID’s Advisory Committee on Voluntary Foreign Assistance. Throughout his career, Rudy has gained 37 years of experience working in every aspect of managing international development and emergency relief programs.