SYNERGY FOR JUSTICE - Key Persons

Job Titles:

• Communications Officer / Communications Officer With over 3 Years of Experience Working for Local and International NGOs

Communications Officer with over 3 years of experience working for local and international NGOs. Anna Dobrohorska Anna is responsible for managing external and internal communications for Synergy for Justice. She oversees content creation for all social media platforms, newsletters, website. With the beginning of a full-scale invasion in Ukraine, her focus of work shifted towards conflict-related and social issues communications for various organisations. Anna graduated with a BA in Humanities and is now pursuing her degree in Social Studies in Germany. She is a native Ukrainian speaker, fluent in English and is working on her German skills.

Job Titles:

• Executive Director

Christy Fujio is a human rights lawyer with more than 15 years of experience building and supporting global programs in diverse settings to improve access to justice and protection services, including medical, mental health, shelter, and livelihoods. She is a founding member of Synergy for Justice, and has been working with Syrian doctors and lawyers to document torture and sexual violence since 2013. Ms. Fujio has extensive experience training judicial actors, law enforcement, and other government officials to strengthen their capacity to uphold rule of law, human rights, and international treaty commitments. Ms. Fujio is a founding member of the Global Protection Cluster (GPC) Task Team on Anti-Trafficking in Humanitarian Action, liaising regularly with UN agencies, INGOs, and donors and stakeholders. Ms. Fujio's substantive areas of expertise include juvenile justice, trafficking, asylum and refugee law, torture, forensic medical documentation, sexual and gender-based violence, and women, peace, and security agenda.

Job Titles:

• Medical Director
• Executive Leader for Primary Care Services at the University of California

Senior physician executive leader for primary care services at the University of California, San Francisco. She is engaged in U.S. health policy, redesigning care, and public health. Dr. Coleen Kivlahan is a senior physician executive leader for primary care services at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). She is engaged in U.S. health policy, redesigning care, and public health. Dr. Kivlahan is a family physician with clinical experience in primary and complex care and has worked in health care at the local, state, national and international levels. Her special interest is health and human rights, and she has been a skilled trainer in the scientific documentation of human rights violations for the past twenty years. At UCSF, she is the lead faculty member for a new medical student rotation on immigrant health and forensic evaluations of torture, she leads the forensic evaluation clinic with UCSF faculty and students, and is a Chairperson of the UCSF Health and Human Rights Initiative. Dr. Kivlahan worked for five years in the Democratic Republic of Congo with Physicians for Human Rights, followed by more than five years training doctors during the Syrian conflict with Synergy for Justice. She has also worked in Guatemala, Sierra Leone, and Belgium on torture and ill-treatment medical consequences. She has authored multiple articles and book chapters on this subject.

Job Titles:

• Director

Criminal investigator and prosecutor with 25 years of experience, including investigating and prosecuting international crimes. Specialised focus on CRSV. Lead drafter of The Murad Code. Dr. Ingrid Elliott MBE is a criminal investigator and prosecutor with 25 years of experience, including investigating and prosecuting international crimes at the Bosnia State Court and then UN International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. She led the design and negotiation of the legal and operational framework of the Kosovo Specialist Chambers. She has been on the UK Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Team of Experts since 2013. She has worked on investigation and response to sexual violence in Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Turkey, Libya, Myanmar/ Bangladesh and Ukraine. Ms. Elliott has been working as part of Synergy's international multi-disciplinary team with Syrian doctors and lawyers since 2013 to build medical expert documentation and holistic community responses to Syrian conflict-related sexual violence, including initiatives to tackle stigma. She was co-investigator on a AHRC-FCDO research grant exploring the long-term radiating and unaddressed impacts of male CRSV in Syria. She has also worked closely with investigators and prosecutors across Eastern African and the Indian Ocean to help build systems, skills, and tools for better justice for wildlife trafficking and other organised crimes. She is the primary drafter of The Murad Code and Commentary, a Global Code of Conduct for Documenting Conflict-Related Sexual Violence. She also leads on the Synergy project targeting the reduction of stigma, myths and misconceptions in CRSV criminal justice proceedings.

Job Titles:

• Finance Manager / Finance Manager With over 16 Years of Experience Working in and Overseeing Financial Operations of Non - Governmental Organisations and Private Sector Organisations

Finance Manager with over 16 years of experience working in and overseeing financial operations of non-governmental organisations and private sector organisations. Juan Esteban Vivas provides overall finance oversight and support to the program team. Juan has over 16 years of experience working in and overseeing financial operations of non-governmental organisations and private sector organisations. He was the country finance manager at Medicines Sans Frontiers in the Central African Republic, Ethiopia, Colombia, Haiti, Niger, Paraguay, Bolivia, South Sudan, Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo and Mexico. Juan also worked with Case Matrix Network as a finance officer, and with CIJA as a finance project officer and operations and planning manager. Juan is a certified public accountant with a BA in Business Administration and a Master's degree in Project Management. He is a native Spanish speaker and is fluent in English and French.

Job Titles:

• Director

Multi-disciplinary expert addressing the global challenge of missing persons with more than 25 years of experience working in international relations, human rights, and conflict prevention. Kathryne Bomberger has worked in the field of international relations, human rights, politics and conflict prevention for over 25 years. Since 1998, she has led the development of ICMP, which is today the world's leading human rights and rule of law organization dedicated exclusively to helping governments and others address missing persons issues arising from war, human rights violations, migration, organized crime, natural disasters and other causes. She was appointed ICMP Director-General in 2004. Ms Bomberger has worked in conflict and post-conflict areas as well as in areas affected by disasters and by organized crime (including the Western Balkans, Cyprus, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Lebanon, Ukraine, Mexico, Colombia, Haiti, the Philippines and Vietnam), helping governments, courts, prosecutors, NGOs, scientists, academics and others to build capacity to address the cross-cutting issue of missing persons, including through the development of effective institutions and legislation. She has spoken on the issue of missing persons at countless public forums, including the United Nations and the US Congress, and she has been interviewed by the BBC, the Guardian, the New York Times, the Financial Times, the Economist and many other media outlets, as well as participating in TV and film documentaries. Her awards include recognition by the President of France as a Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur.

Mera Eftaiha Director of Programmes Director of Programmes with over 15 years of experience in human rights, humanitarian and international development programmes in north and central Africa and the Middle East. More Details Mera Eftaiha Mera Eftaiha oversees Synergy's portfolio of programming and has 15 years cumulative experience in humanitarian and international development programs in the Middle East and north and central Africa. Mera served in senior management roles in two complex emergency programs-Iraq and South Sudan, where she oversaw large program teams working on emergency health and human rights protection programming with a focus on access to justice, emergency protection, mental health and psychosocial support and women empowerment programs. Mera has also worked on overseeing emergency health programming in Central African Republic, Cameroon, Chad, Sudan, and Libya. Mera is a native Arabic speaker who is also fluent in English.

Job Titles:

• Programme Officer / Programme Officer With 7 Years of Experience Working With International and Local Organisations in Emergencies and Development Context.

Programme Officer with 7 years of experience working with international and local organisations in emergencies and development context. Nathalie Dermesrobian Nathalie Dermesrobian is responsible for overseeing and supporting project management of the project implementation according to the project workplans, budgets and timelines, monitoring and recording partner compliance and performance. Nathalie has over 7 years of experience working with local and International NGOs monitoring project implementation in humanitarian and development programmes. Nathalie was the legal field officer at the Norwegian Refugee Council in Lebanon and the program officer in the National Center for State Courts in Lebanon. Nathalie has graduated with a Master's degree in Security, Peace and Conflict studies after having completed her Master's in Public Law. She is native Arabic and Armenian speaker, fluent in English and French.

Job Titles:

• Director

Human rights lawyer with expertise in international humanitarian law, international human rights law, and civilian protection in the Middle East/North Africa.

Job Titles:

• Organizational Development Advisor and MEAL Officer

Organisational Development and MEAL professional with 15 years of experience working with international organisations and their local partners in conflict, emergencies and development context focusing on the MENA region Sari Bernardo oversees Synergy's Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) functions and supports the organizational development needs of the partner organisations through systematic mapping, benchmarking and monitoring of set milestones. Sari has over 15 years of experience working with INGOs managing multisectoral humanitarian programmes and teams in conflict areas and natural disaster affected areas including India, Afghanistan, Haiti, Iraq, Turkey/Syria and MENA region. For the past 5 years Sari has been focusing on consultancies building local partners capacity and organisational structures. She is a native Finnish speaker, fluent in English.

Job Titles:

• Director
• Investigator, Analyst

Stephanie Barbour Director International criminal investigator, analyst, and legal adviser with over 16 years of experience in domestic, hybrid, and international criminal justice initiatives. More Details Stephanie Barbour is an international criminal investigator, analyst, and legal adviser with over 16 years of experience in domestic, hybrid, and international criminal justice initiatives. Her work has focused on Rwanda, the Balkans, Nepal, Syria, Iraq, and the Central African Republic. Her expertise lies in design and delivery of capacity-building and mentoring programmes for national actors and building successful private criminal investigations, particularly in relation to the collection and analysis of sexual and gender-based crimes. She lectures, publishes, and consults on a range of issues.

Job Titles:

• Director
• Member of the NY Bar

Tejal Jesrani Director International lawyer with over 20 years of experience in human rights and rule of law, including trial monitoring and advocacy, capacity building, research and policy development in countering human trafficking, migrant smuggling and other transnational crime and criminal justice issues. More Details Tejal Jesrani is an attorney and member of the NY Bar with over 20 years of experience in human rights and rule of law, including trial monitoring and advocacy, capacity building, research and policy development in countering human trafficking, migrant smuggling and other transnational crime and criminal justice issues. She is the Director of the TrialWatch project at Columbia Law School's Human Rights Institute, where she monitors criminal trials in order to expose injustice, help those unjustly detained and convicted, and promote the rule of law. Previously, she was a Program Officer in the Crime Research Section of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime where she worked in various roles for 16 years. Her most recent research sought to amplify the lived experiences and voices of incarcerated individuals to inform better rehabilitation and reintegration programs and policies around the world in line with international standards and norms. Ms. Jesrani has also worked in the areas of immigration law, women's rights and international criminal law. She was a Dean's Fellow at the War Crimes Research Office at American University, Washington College of Law, worked as an Attorney Advisor at the United States Department of Justice, Executive Office for Immigration Review and at Human Rights Watch as Women's Rights Associate.