JCOGT - Key Persons
Ana Arana is an investigative journalist with extensive international experience. A former US foreign correspondent, she was the director of Fundacion MEPI, a Mexico City-based investigative journalist project that promotes binational and regional investigative projects on drug and arms trafficking.
Arana was a media trainer for various international groups, including the Inter-American Press Association and the International Center for Foreign Journalists. She conducted training in Africa, Latin America, and South and East Asia. Between 2007-2008 she was a Knight International Journalism Fellow in Mexico, where she worked with various dailies, training journalists and building investigative units - one of which won Mexico's National Press Award in 2008.
Her journalism work has appeared in Foreign Affairs, Marie Claire, Newsweek, Salon.com, The Columbia Journalism Review, the New York Daily News, Business Wee k, and The Village Voic e, among others. Between 1987 and 1993, Arana was a foreign correspondent in Colombia and Central America and reporting for The Miami Herald, CBS News, and The Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel. Between 1993 and 1996 she served as the Americas coordinator for the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), where she helped to create regional press freedom groups, including the Fundacion para la Libertad de Prensa, FLIP.
Job Titles:
- Trustee
- Senior Editor in the Program Office at Human Rights Watch
Danielle Haas is senior editor in the Program Office at Human Rights Watch. She is responsible for report editing, developing writing-related training and tools, and production of the organization's annual World Report review of abuses worldwide.
Before joining Human Rights Watch in 2010, she taught at New York's Columbia Graduate School of Journalism and worked as a journalist based in Jerusalem for eight years covering the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and social and social and political issues in Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza for Reuters, the Associated Press, and the San Francisco Chronicle. She also covered the build-up to the war in Iraq, from where she reported in 2003.
Danielle has a BA in History from Oxford University, and an MSc in Journalism, and an MA and MPhil in Communications from Columbia University.
Job Titles:
- Founder and Managing Director of Liberty Shared
Duncan Jepson is the founder and managing director of Liberty Shared (previously Liberty Asia), a leading global anti-trafficking nongovernmental organization working on counter modern slavery and wildlife trafficking. Established in 2011, Liberty Shared won a Google Ideas Award in 2013. With the support of the US State Department, Liberty Shared has developed and implemented the only victim case management system for NGOs to manage, store and analyze victim data and to create larger data sets on trafficking. Liberty Shared has also designed and runs the primary global anti-trafficking community platform, Freedom Collaborative.
Duncan was regional general counsel and head of compliance in the financial services industry across Asia Pacific for nearly 15 years, responsible for a wide range of issues, including M&A, investment products, white-collar crime matters, and corporate governance. He is a qualified solicitor of England and Wales and has an MBA and bachelor's degree in accountancy and financial management. Jepson is currently a director of Fair Rubber Association, the Traffik Analysis Data Hub, and CINTOC (The Center on Illicit Networks and Transnational Organized Crime).
Francisca Awah from Cameroon is the founder and executive director of The Survivors' Network. This organisation, which is led by survivors of human trafficking, rescues women from national and international situations of exploitation and empowers them to rebuild their lives and be reintegrated into society. The network also runs awareness-raising campaigns among vulnerable communities in Cameroon, especially in rural areas of the country. Since it was launched in 2015, the network has supported the rescue of over 2,000 victims of human trafficking. In 2018, Francisca was honoured by the US Department of State for her work against human trafficking.
Josh Meyer is the domestic security correspondent at USA Today. He reports on terrorism, black markets and trafficking, counternarcotics, organized crime, corruption, and intelligence and law enforcement reform. Meyer is a frequent speaker on national security and investigative reporting issues, and a regular guest on NPR, BBC, PBS, CNN, and other major network TV and radio outlets. He is also frequently invited by intelligence, law enforcement, and military agencies to talk about issues of national security and terrorism. He also leads the Medill National Security Reporting Project, an annual three-month undertaking in which 10 postgraduate students investigate a topic of current national security interest and build an innovative multimedia/interactive project in collaboration with professional news organizations like The Washington Post and McClatchy News Service. Meyer continues to work as a national security journalist, writing for Reuters, Der Spiegel, The Boston Globe, Salon, and other media organizations, as well as writing books.
Job Titles:
- Trustee
- Senior Vice President at Pursuant
Kelley Hect Stewart is a senior vice president at Pursuant. A leader in non-profit fundraising, Kelley is committed to helping solve the real-world challenges of today's increasingly competitive environment. With more than a decade of strategic planning, marketing, and fundraising experience, Kelley's emphasis is on healthcare, multi-affiliate health, and human services organizations. Her strength is working alongside nonprofit organizations regardless of their size or tenure, and helping them achieve their vision and goals through strong leadership and a balanced revenue portfolio.
On behalf of Pursuant, Kelley currently collaborates with partners including Cleveland Clinic, SOS Children's Villages, the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and Children's Miracle Network. Prior to joining Pursuant, Kelley led a $60 million digital program for the American Cancer Society (ACS) and helped the Avon Foundation for Women conceive and implement a strategy that activated philanthropic leaders in 50 countries in celebration of 50 years of impact in their global crusade to fight breast cancer. Kelley lives in New York City is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Mariana van Zeller is an award-winning correspondent and investigative journalist. She is the host and executive producer of National Geographic's original documentary series "Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller," which explores the complex and often dangerous inner-workings of the global underworld, smuggling networks, black and informal markets.
For her reporting, Mariana has earned some of the most prestigious awards in journalism and storytelling. Her 2016 investigation "Death by Fentanyl," which tracked the pharmaceutical and clandestine sources of the deadly opioid was honored with a DuPont Award. For her report "Rape on the Reservation," which examined the increased incidence of rape and sexual violence on American Indian reservations, she received the Livingston Award for Young Journalists. And her documentary on prescription drug abuse and pill trafficking, "The OxyContin Express," received a Peabody Award, a Television Academy Honor, and an Emmy nomination.
In 2011, Mariana began her coverage of the drug war in Mexico and for years, attempted to interview drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, only to be scooped by the actor Sean Penn. As a consolation, Penn reported that he and Guzman discussed Mariana's 2015 documentary, "Chasing El Chapo," in which Mariana traveled to El Chapo's hometown in the mountains of Sinaloa. Mariana hosted Travel Channel's "Breaking Borders", where she journeyed to conflict zones around the world with acclaimed chef Michael Voltaggio. Mariana began her journalism career in her native Portugal and moved to the US to attend Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism, where she met her husband and producing partner Darren Foster. They live in Los Angeles with their son Vasco. Mariana is fluent in Portuguese, English, Spanish, Italian, and French.
Priya M Menon is an award-winning writer and journalist based in Chennai. She has worked 24 years as a print journalist. She began her career with The New Indian Express, Chennai, in 1999, and also worked with The New Sunday Express, Chennai. She was part of the launch team of The Times of India in Chennai and worked as Features Editor with the edition.
Though she writes on a wide range of issues, Priya specialises in writing about human rights and gender issues, mental health and animal welfare. She has received several awards and recognitions, including The Second Anjali Gopalan Srishti Social Justice Journalism Award (2019), Ally Award from Orinam, for being one of the first to write about LGBT issues in media (2018); the joint second prize at SCARF Media For Mental Health Awards 2017, the TAI-VHS award for working for transgender welfare (2014), the 'Rainbow Ambassador' award for writing sensitively on LGBT issues (2013); the Nirangal Award for Excellence in Journalistic Coverage of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Issues (2012) and the Jaigopal Garodia Voice For Animals Award from People for Animals (PfA) in 2005.
Priya has also authored a book, ‘Hand of God: A Biography of Dr K M Cherian' (2015). She loves animals, painting and loves to travel.
Job Titles:
- Senior Journalism Advisor, Africa
As a journalist, Hamadou Tidiane Sy has reported throughout the African continent for the BBC, BBC, AFP (Agence France Presse), Global Radio News, Channel Africa, etc. etc. He later founded a news platform
Job Titles:
- Senior Investigative Journalist
Tobore Ovuorie is a senior investigative journalist and documentary filmmaker with a niche for development and solutions-driven multimedia stories. A human trafficking survivor, she investigates human rights abuses, corruption, health and regulatory failures and has reported extensively on sex trafficking throughout Nigeria. Ovuorie is the 2021 winner of the Deutsche Welle Freedom of Speech Award, given to investigative journalists of great courage. She is the second female but presently the only African and Nigerian recipient of the award which honours a person or initiative promoting freedom of expression and human rights in an exceptional way. One of her investigative stories "Rejected, stigmatized, trafficking survivors shun Libyan horrible experiences, ready to travel again", was published, April 2018, in The Nation newspaper.
Mariana van Zeller is an award-winning correspondent and investigative journalist. She is the host and executive producer of National Geographic's original documentary series "Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller," which explores the complex and often dangerous inner-workings of the global underworld, smuggling networks, black and informal markets.
For her reporting, Mariana has earned some of the most prestigious awards in journalism and storytelling. Her 2016 investigation "Death by Fentanyl," which tracked the pharmaceutical and clandestine sources of the deadly opioid was honored with a DuPont Award. For her report "Rape on the Reservation," which examined the increased incidence of rape and sexual violence on American Indian reservations, she received the Livingston Award for Young Journalists. And her documentary on prescription drug abuse and pill trafficking, "The OxyContin Express," received a Peabody Award, a Television Academy Honor, and an Emmy nomination.
In 2011, Mariana began her coverage of the drug war in Mexico and for years, attempted to interview drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, only to be scooped by the actor Sean Penn. As a consolation, Penn reported that he and Guzman discussed Mariana's 2015 documentary, "Chasing El Chapo," in which Mariana traveled to El Chapo's hometown in the mountains of Sinaloa. Mariana hosted Travel Channel's "Breaking Borders", where she journeyed to conflict zones around the world with acclaimed chef Michael Voltaggio. Mariana began her journalism career in her native Portugal and moved to the US to attend Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism, where she met her husband and producing partner Darren Foster. They live in Los Angeles with their son Vasco. Mariana is fluent in Portuguese, English, Spanish, Italian, and French.
Job Titles:
- Program Associate
- Associate at Journalism Centre
is a program associate at Journalism Centre on Global Trafficking, where she manages the social media accounts and assists with program development and design. A graduate of journalism and mass communication at the University of Nairobi, Zena splits her time between Spain and Kenya. In her free time, Zena tutors students in English and loves traveling, reading, and dancing.