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Geneva Staff

Jonathan Woolley Director

Jonathan Woolley joined QUNO Geneva in June 2011. He brings to QUNO more than thirty years’ professional experience of agricultural research, development and capacity building in some fifty countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, Asia and Oceania. Starting as a volunteer teacher in Kenya, he then worked directly with poor farmers in Nigeria, Costa Rica, Colombia and Mexico. Later, through a wide range of consultancies for multilateral and bilateral agencies, private firms and international organisations, he focussed on the preparation and review of projects that addressed farmer participation in agricultural services. From 1999 to 2009, he led two research networks directed at institutional reform, building cohesive small teams and strengthening innovative partnerships: a ground-breaking agricultural research fund in Ecuador, and the first phase of the "CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food" based in Sri Lanka and active in nine river basins around the world. Jonathan holds an MA in Natural Sciences and a PhD in Applied Biology from the University of Cambridge, UK. He originally joined Friends in the UK some forty years ago, and is a member of Mexico City Monthly Meeting. To read Jonathan Woolley's statement on taking up his post as Director of QUNO Geneva please click here.

Rachel Brett Representative for Human Rights and Refugees

LLB, LLM in International Human Rights Law with Distinction. She has been the Human Rights representative at the Quaker UN Office since 1993. She is the author of numerous publications – chapters in books, articles etc on human rights, the role of non-governmental organisations, child soldiers, etc as well as co-author of the books, Young Soldiers: Why They Choose to Fight and Children: the Invisible Soldiers. She is a Fellow of the Human Rights Centre of the University of Essex, and previously taught law and international human rights law there as well as initiating and acting as principal researcher for the Essex Project on the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (then 'The Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe'). She worked at the Quaker UN Offices in both Geneva and New York in the 1970s.

Caroline Dommen Representative for Global Economic Issues

LLM in Law and Development, London University. Caroline brings long experience in both international trade, environmental law and policy, as well as human rights and development to this position. Prior to joining QUNO she was with the NGO 3D => Trade - Human Rights - Equitable Economy, where she was founder and Director. She has also worked for the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD, Geneva) and the International Service for Human Rights. Caroline is a member of several professional bodies including the International Advisory Network of the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre, the IUCN-World Conservation Union Commission on Environmental Law, and the CUTS Geneva Resource Centre Stakeholder Forum. Since joining QUNO, Caroline has reshaped the programme to focus on food & sustainability, and human impacts of climate change.

Diane Hendrick Associate Representative, Peace and Disarmament

Diane Hendrick has been active in the field of peace and conflict for more than 25 years. For 16 of those years she worked as a freelance consultant, trainer and researcher in conflict transformation and has worked on peace related projects in Sri Lanka, the Middle East, and Albania. She has also co-directed a number of international peace education projects. Diane has lectured in peace studies at various universities in Austria, Ireland and England and has had extensive experience as a trainer in peacebuilding and conflict transformation working with a broad range of groups from Austrian police trainers to Israeli and Palestinian young adults to the Organization on Security and Cooperation in Europe. She most recently worked with Peace Brigades International in Indonesia. Diane has a First in Peace Studies from Bradford University, an MPhil in Development Studies from the Institute of Development Studies at Sussex University and a PhD in Conflict Resolution also from Bradford University. She has been carrying out research on complexity theory and its application to conflict transformation and on psycho-spiritual approaches to peace work and peace training and contributed several articles to the Oxford University Press International Encyclopaedia of Peace. Diane is a member of Manchester and Warrington Area Meeting in the UK.

Oliver Robertson Associate Representative

Oliver leads QUNO’ s work in two areas: children of prisoners, and human impacts of climate change. He has worked on policy related to children of prisoners since 2006, extensively researching and writing on the issue for QUNO. He holds an MSc in criminology from Oxford University, where his dissertation focused on babies living in prison with their mothers. He led QUNO’s contribution to the EU-funded COPING Project on children of prisoners and mental health, whose pioneering research ran from 2010-2012. In the climate change work, Oliver brings knowledge about climate change and refugees/migration issues, understanding of Quaker attitudes to sustainability, and experience of QUNO’s methods of bringing diverse groups together. Oliver has also worked as a news reporter for the Friend, the weekly Quaker magazine in Britain, and was a Programme Assistant at QUNO Geneva in 2006-7

Lynn Finnegan Project Officer

Lynn is from Northern Ireland, and has a background in Geography, outdoor education and International Environmental Law. She is an Attender of Quaker meeting. She studied BA Geography at Oxford University, with a dissertation focused on Indigenous Peoples rights and conservation strategies in South Australia. This allowed her to live with the Nepabunna Adnyamathanha community, and she has also lived with the Karen Hill Tribe in North West Thailand. In 2011 Lynn completed an LLM in International Environmental Law at Edinburgh University, focusing on REDD, natural resource law and ecological economics, whilst also conducting research in biomass and large scale land acquisitions with the International Institute for Environment and Development. After a year as Programme Assistant with QUNO Geneva, Lynn has joined us as Project Officer from September 2012, focusing on work around global economic issues, particularly on food & sustainability and climate change.

Haifa Rashed Programme Assistant, Human Rights and Refugees

Haifa has a BA Hons in Spanish and French from the University of Exeter and an MA with Distinction in Understanding and Securing Human Rights from the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London. During her studies, Haifa spent a year teaching English in a secondary school in Ceuta, a Spanish enclave in Morocco. After her undergraduate degree, Haifa completed a Policy internship at Barnardo’s (a UK children's charity) and an International Projects internship at Solidaridad Internacional de Andalucía in Seville, Spain. She then worked for an MP and volunteered as an Immigration Adviser to asylum seekers and refugees with Slough Refugee Support. Subsequently, Haifa worked in the Campaign Management Department at Comic Relief for three years, alongside her postgraduate studies. She then worked as Fundraising and Administrative Assistant for Alternatives to Violence Project Britain, as well as volunteering with Detention Action, providing regular emotional and practical support to an immigration detainee. Haifa is particularly interested in refugee issues and childrens rights. She is an Attender at Uxbridge Quaker meeting, UK.

Ellie Roberts Programme Assistant, Human Impacts of Climate Change

Ellie has just graduated from the University of Exeter with a Joint Honours Degree in English and Politics. Over the course of her degree, she developed a particular interest in the politics of climate change and also in human rights and conflict in the Middle East, completing a research project on democratisation in Iran. At University, she volunteered for the student nightline and for local care homes, and during her final year she co-edited the University's politics journal. In 2011 Ellie spent six weeks in India, where she volunteered at a play centre for pre-school children in KV Kuppam, a rural village in Tamil Nadu. Ellie is an Attender at Nailsworth Quaker Meeting in the UK.

Sylviane Trousseau Office Manager

Sylviane Trousseau joined QUNO in August 2009, with responsibility for office administration. Amongst her many essential day-to-day tasks, she coordinates upkeep of Quaker House and its accounts, manages meeting room bookings, organizes lunches and evening receptions, makes travel arrangements, and organizes seminars. Sylviane holds a degree in law from Lausanne University. Before joining QUNO she worked in different industrial companies as assistant to the management and brings her experience as multi task collaborator.

René Lejeune  Finance Officer

René studied at the International School of Geneva before starting his career in international banking in Geneva and Johannesburg. He has worked as management consultant for an American company, as a coffee and cocoa trader in Africa and Madagascar, and in administration and finance with international companies in Geneva. He completed his studies as Swiss specialist in finance and accounting in 2006 and is now member of the Board of a dozen SMEs. He also works as a consultant in finance, human resources, fiscal issues and organization with both small and large companies. René joined QUNO Geneva as Finance Officer (on a part-time basis) in June 2008.