About Us

Albanys is trained in general psychology and psychotherapy (Bachelor degree from Rafael Urdaneta University in Venezuela, Master in Psychotherapy from SEK University in Ecuador).

She has worked in disaster settings, carrying out community projects for affected population and humanitarian workers, during the eruption of the Cotopaxí Volcano and the April 2016 earthquake in Ecuador. In addition, she worked as a social worker at HIAS Ecuador with migrants. Her recent work with IRMA was as Research Assistant, managing the Triage process and conducting key informant interviews with migrants for an evaluation of UNICEF's CBI Response to the Venezuelan Migrant Crisis.

Albanys is fluent in Spanish and has an intermediate level of English.

Martha holds a Bachelor Degree in Social Work (Universidad de San Carlos, Guatemala).
She has 20 years of experience in humanitarian and international development projects with a large range of donor and implementing organizations (including UNDP, OIM, Trocaire, GIZ, Oxfam, Red Cross and CRS) in Guatemala.

She has coordinated, advised, implemented, monitored and evaluated numerous projects at national and local levels. Highlights of her career include the multi-country resilience program 'Oxfam CA-MEL' for which she was the Program Officer for Guatemala, implementing the risk management strategy for USAID’s SEGAMIL Food for Peace program, Single Year Assistance Program - SYAP – and Multiple Year Assistance Program under Title II - MYAPs). Her main areas of focus are migration, food security and disaster risk reduction.

As an IRMA National Research Associate, she is currently responsible for the field work component of a consultancy assignment on migration and environment issues for IOM Guatemala.

Peter holds a master’s in International Development Administration (Andrews University, USA) and a bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood & Primary Education (Kampala International University, Uganda). He is a dedicated, results-oriented Programme manager/ coordinator in South Sudan with more than seven years of experience leading projects in education in conflict zones. In 2013, he participated in the humanitarian response to floods in South Sudan.

As a country liaison officer, he successfully mobilized communities to implement Early Childhood and Development Program in Yei County; trained Stakeholders (local authorities, teachers cluster groups, etc.). He has been working closely with national organizations and faith-based organization in humanitarian response and participates regularly in INGO/NGO cluster meetings.

As an IRMA National Research Associate, he led applied research for the Accelerating Localisation through Partnerships Programme, 2018 - 2019.

Andrew is based in Nigeria and holds a Master of Science in Rural Development Planning and a PhD of Philosophy in Regional Development Planning. As a Research Fellow with the Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research (NISER) in the Environment and Physical Infrastructure Policy Research Department, Andrew has over 10 years of experience in international development as a consultant with a large range of donors (including EU/EC, DFID, various UN agencies, USAID) and across several countries.

His main areas of focus are rural livelihoods & socio-economic analysis, participatory rural appraisal and community needs assessment, poverty reduction strategies, climate change and adaptation strategies among rural households. Andrew is a member of several local and international organizations including Association of Nigerian Geographers (ANG), African Technology Policy Studies Network (ATPS), Environmental Behaviour Association of Nigeria (EBAN), International Association for Feminist Economics (IAFFE)  and a Fellow of Network of Earth System Governance. Dr Andrew is regularly attending local and international conferences and has over fifty peered reviewed articles to his credit.

As an IRMA National Research Associate, Andrew led applied research in Nigeria for the Accelerating Localisation through Partnership Programme effort, 2018 - 2019.

Isabelle holds a BSc in Aid and Development (IFAID, France, 1998) and an MSc by Research in Disaster Management (University of Coventry UK, 2001). She has over 22 years of experience as a volunteer, manager, advisor and consultant in the international aid sector and particularly in the fields of Disaster Risk Reduction, Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience.

She has worked in the Caribbean, Latin America, Africa and South East Asia. She has led and supported a diversity of resilience activities and processes – ranging from strategic planning to program design, advocacy activities and evaluations – but her particular interests and strengths are linked to the development of technical guidance for practitioners and capacity development.

Isabelle works in English, Spanish and French. She currently works as the Global Resilience Advisor for GOAL.

Elora holds a Masters degree in Disaster Management and has 12 years’ experience in management and advisory roles in the international aid sector. Elora is a Disaster Risk Management professional with excellent technical, analytical, and leadership skills. She has played a leading role in the integration of DRM into institutional and organisational strategies, programmes and campaigns, including for Oxfam and UNDP.

Over her career Elora has specialised in gender equity and child protection; her passion is ensuring that humanitarian action is risk- and gender-informed, and that it promotes the active participation of women, men and children. Following a recent move from Bangladesh to Canada, Elora is applying her experience from South and East Asia to new contexts, such as with cross-border asylum seekers and in the national programme of the Canadian Red Cross Society.

Charlotte has an academic background in social sciences (Bachelor Degree in Sociology and Economics and European Studies Master Degree). She gained experience in the development and humanitarian aid sector while she worked in an NGOs' network representation office in Brussels and a donor organisation before joining the consulting world.

She has supported the implementation of multiple evaluation and research assignments, notably with research and data collection and visualization tools. Currently based in Turkey, she works for IRMA as a part-time Virtual Research and Administrative Assistant in addition to her volunteer work and other freelancer assignments. She is particularly interested in projects dealing with issues around localisation as well as migration, HRDs and refugee protection.

Charlotte is fluent in French (mother tongue), English and has an intermediate level in Turkish.

Floor is a Dutch/Kenyan artist and consultant who has lived and worked across the world, spending most time in Kenya and Indonesia. She has more than 15 years of experience working with UN organizations including UNFAO and UNWFP, as well as NGOs like Action Against Hunger (ACF), Save the Children, Oxfam, Cash Learning Partnership (CaLP), and the International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC).

Her main focus has been on participatory monitoring and evaluation, as well as training, grant writing, program management support and strategic planning related to food security and cash-based programming. She is a household economy approach (HEA) practitioner.

With a degree in Human Geography of low- and lower-middle-income countries, she brings in a holistic lens to her approaches. Floor also completed a Masters in Art and Social Practice at Queens College, New York, NY in 2017.

Floor is fluent in English and Dutch and has working knowledge of French, Spanish and Kiswahili.

Josephine is a highly experienced and effective senior manager, leader and advisor in development, humanitarian contexts and fragile states. She has over twenty years of experience  in programme, strategic and operational leadership and advisory work. She has worked with institutional donors, international organisations, and NGOs in the Middle East, Africa, Australia, the USA, Asia, Eastern Europe, and the Pacific.

Josephine’s specific areas of experience and expertise include: senior and operational management and leadership; strategic, programme, and organisational evaluation, review and development; programme development, management and oversight; humanitarian coordination; policy development; advocacy; review and development of strategic and organizational procedures and systems; change management; and capacity assessment and capacity building; facilitation and public speaking.

Josephine has a BSSc in Socio-Environmental Assessment and Policy, a Graduate Diploma in Education and an MSc in Violence, Conflict and Development. 

Carlos is a Senior expert in international public health with more than 17 years working experience in humanitarian and development contexts in Latin America, Central Asia and Africa.  He spent 5 years coordinating, advising and implementing national health programmes, policy and systems, working in HIV, Malaria, MDR TB, epidemic control and management - Cholera, ZIKV-, health promotion, mental health and strengthening primary health care.

For the last 10 years, proven experience in leadership, strategic representation and senior management positions at global and regional level with Doctors without borders, Oxfam and UNICEF, responsible for the strategic design, coordination, monitoring and evaluation of large scale multi-country public health strategies and programmes in developing countries, including high level advocacy and grant management.

Gail has worked in social science research for more than 25 years. She is an anthropologist with specialization in archaeology (paleoethnobotany, economic specialization through material culture).

As laboratory director of multi-year, multi-site archaeological research projects in South America her responsibilities ranged from data management and artifact registration to teaching under-represented groups in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. As a licensed archaeologist in Peru, Gail developed an inventory system for artifact integration and collection maintenance that the Intituto Nacional de Cultura of Peru adopted to improve management of the artifacts curated each year from numerous research expeditions. As guest curator she developed and mounted several museum exhibits including the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research, Arizona State University Museum of Anthropology, Tempe History Museum and the Casa Grande Museum of History.

Gail regularly supports the work of IRMA as a research associate, applying her detail-oriented research skills to help build systematic literature reviews and to classify, catalogue and interpret documented results across many fields within humanitarian action.

As practitioner in the humanitarian and development sectors for 15 years, Sebastian has rich fieldwork experiences with international NGOs such as Oxfam and MSF, mostly in Latin America and Africa. He has been involved in the implementation of high-quality programs with local community-based approaches.

He has also been a consultant for evaluation and research projects, notably around Disaster Risk Reduction activities.

One highlight of his career has been his role as General Coordinator in 2010 for the first Enhanced Register of Refugees in Ecuador-Colombia border areas (the first humanitarian initiative of this type in South America, sponsored by UNHCR and the Ecuadorian Government).

Sebastian works fluently in Spanish, English and French.

Era is a Development and Management Consultant based in Kathmandu (Nepal), with over 15 years of experience working closely with various development agencies and civil society organisations.

Era has been particularly involved in grassroots movements applying rights-based approaches to empower marginalized groups such as women, children, Dalits, people with disabilities and landless people. She has undertaken several studies and assignments on such subject matters as well as emergency relief and disaster recovery programmes. 

As an Organisation Development (OD) practitioner, she has supported organisation assessments, monitoring and evaluation, strategic planning, and institutional learning. She has also contributed to developing rights-based programmes and strategies.

Era has worked in Bahrain, Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Lao PDR, Liberia, Tajikistan, and Sri Lanka. She is fluent in English, Hindi and Nepali (mother tongue).

Currently enrolled in a PhD programme in Transformational leadership and holistic Development in Ivory Coast, Dr Crispin Siwamunda is a medical doctor from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

He is a Senior expert in development and public health with more than 10 years working experience in humanitarian and development contexts in insecure environments and fragile states in Africa, especially in the Great Lakes region.  He worked recently on an assignment in WCAR (West and Central African Region) as an IRMA associate.

Throughout his career, he has been coordinating, advising, implementing, monitoring and evaluating numerous projects at local, national and regional levels on epidemic control and management, peace building, HIV, health promotion and strengthening primary health care. He has been working closely in partnership or in consultancy with national, international NGOs and UN Agencies including UNICEF.

He is fluent in French, English, Swahili, Lingala, Kinyarwanda.

Samantha holds a B.Sc. degree in Agriculture (majoring in Economics), an MBA (Technology Management), Post-graduate Diploma in Economic Development, Post-graduate Diploma in Corporate Finance as well as a Diploma in Mass communication. A Fulbright Scholar, he is a scholarship winner of the International Diploma in Humanitarian Assistance (IDHA), the flagship program of the Institute of International Humanitarian Affairs, of Fordham University, New York.  

Recipient of the prestigious the Outstanding Young Person (TOYP) of the Junior Chamber International Sri Lanka,  Samantha is a researcher, consultant and trainer with a wide experience engaging with the government, private sector, UN agencies and other international organizations in Sri Lanka and abroad.

He is Chairman and Lead Consultant for PASSAsia – a multi-disciplinary and multi-cultural Research, Consultancy and Training company in Sri Lanka. 

Sammantha is a member of Sri Lanka Evaluation Association, contributor for Global Eval4Action initiative and is a pioneer in the use of latest mobile data collection technology to produce real time monitoring and designed the Results Based Progress Review Model (2020). 

In 2019, he was one of IRMA National Research Associates for the Evaluation of Start Crisis Anticipation Window. 

Andrew holds a MSc in Development Education and Training (University of Wolverhampton, UK), PGD in Agricultural Development (University of London), BSc (Hons) Agricultural Economics (University of Ibadan, Nigeria), and a Post Graduate Certificate in Project Planning and Management (University of Bradford, UK).

For over 25 years, Andrew has facilitated development education training and capacity building for NGO staff on key development issues for NGOs in Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger, Liberia, Sierra Leone and The Gambia. In addition, he has carried out needs’ assessment, programmes/project planning design and facilitated strategic planning processes for over fifty organisations since 1999, including Global Fund, Oxfam UK, and Tearfund. Amongst his key achievements, he planned and implemented the Ebola Virus response which included Education, sensitisation, prevention and the Post-Ebola Rehabilitation; coordinated the implementation of the DFID’s Capacity Building for Decentralized Development project in the Middle Belt of Nigeria ; facilitated the development of the Gender Strategic Plan for the Nigeria Labor Congress ; led a team of four consultants to carry out an Organisation Mapping exercise for 28 Oxfam GB partners in Nigeria. He also conducted a research into the work and impact of the Church Development Departments in the North-East Nigeria, commissioned by the Church Development Service (EED, Germany). This resulted in the publication of ‘Signs of Hope’ in 2010.

In 2019, he was IRMA National Research Associate in Nigeria for the Evaluation of Start Crisis Anticipation Window.

Kitakaya holds a Master of Development & Communication Studies (Ohio University) and is an International Ford Fellow. He has more than 20 years of experience working in the humanitarian and development sectors. as an innovative and results-oriented expert supporting organizations and governments across sub-Saharan Africa. He has proven technical expertise in international development cooperation focusing on capacity building and facilitation, EU-EDF procedures, project cycle management and results-based/performance management and communications.

Kita has demonstrated expertise in needs assessment, project design, operational planning, key performance indicators, data management methodologies, risk assessments, evidence-based protocols, and performance optimization. Above all, Kita has the proven ability to design and oversee quantitative and qualitative research studies to evaluate programmes and projects. Versed in leading-edge data collection, aggregation, and analysis technologies. Readily deliver data-driven insights into programme impacts and predicted outcomes.

With IRMA, Kita has contributed to the Save the Children Anticipatory Action research in Somalia and Kenya (2023) and the DRR ACP Mid-term Evaluation (2018). Since 2017, Kita has served with IRMA’s founding partner, Lezlie Moriniere, as co-Chairpersons of Africa Risk Capacity’s Technical review Committee (TRC).

Kita is fluent in Swahili, Maa and English and has an intermediate level of Arabic.

Ginna holds a master’s degree in Accounting Science and Business. She is currently enrolled in a master’s program in Risk and Disaster Management at the University of Antananarivo Madagascar.

She has acquired expertise in the fields of Risk and Disaster Management and Reduction, Sustainable Development, Climate Change and Conservation by working with International NGOs (7 years) in support of the Malagasy government as an independent consultant in Evaluation and Impact Assessment with donors, UN agencies and the public sector (20 years). She has extensive experience working for community projects, and in policy and strategy development at the national level as well as in modelling hazards and implementing tools relevant to community resilience building. She is a member of the stakeholder platforms CRIC (Comité de Réflexion des intervenants en Catastrophes/Cataclysme) and GTCC (Groupe Thématique en Changement Climatique) in Madagascar

Ginna is fluent in French and all Malagasy dialects and has an intermediate level in English.

Chandler has a bachelor’s degree in Global Politics from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, and is a Coverdell fellow and Development Practice master’s candidate at the University of Arizona. He has worked in development both in Southeast Asia with the U.S. Peace Corps and in Uganda as the Director of Communication Management for an education NGO. Employed as a Coverdell assistant with IRMA, Chandler also works as a refugee mobility researcher at the University of Arizona.

Chandler has experience in program development and implementation, mixed-method research, corporate and nonprofit communications, and workshop facilitation. His main areas of interest are climate adaptation, natural resource management, disaster risk reduction, climate migration, and rural education.

Chandler is fluent in English and has a working knowledge of Thai and Lao.

Sehdia Mansaray is a Sierra Leonean-American development practitioner with over 8 years of experience in qualitative research, project design and implementation, project management, and program evaluation. Her areas of focus in rural livelihoods, food security, and conservation, are centered in community empowerment through equitable and inclusive decision-making processes.

Sehdia has applied these interests internationally through ethnographic field work on protected area management and value in Guatemala; agroforestry extension with farmers, students, women’s groups, and local extension agents in Senegal; and, through program support to humanitarian and environmental organizations in the United States.

She is currently pursuing a master's in Development Practice at the University of Arizona and holds a B.S. in Environmental Science and B.A. in Anthropology from North Carolina State University.

Sehdia is fluent in English, French, and Wolof and has working proficiency in Spanish and Krio.

Anjelica studied pre-med at the University of Minnesota Rochester, obtaining a Bachelor of Science Degree in Health Sciences. She is currently enrolled in a Master of Development Practice program, University of Arizona.

Her experiences studying alternative forms of medicine in Japan and India, and then serving as a Healthcare Advisor in the Peace Corps in Madagascar, have guided her towards working with women and health. She is particularly interested in research on how perspective, resource allocation, and environment impacts individual and collective health.

During her service with the Peace Corps, Anjelica worked with development projects such as PSI, CRS, CAID, CRMF, and Marie Stopes in the areas of Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH), Maternal and Child Health and Nutrition (MCHN), Malaria Initiatives, and Family Planning. She completed a Peace Corps Partnership Program (PCPP) grant to build a maternity ward for the local hospital and supported community-level prevention, early care-seeking, and treatment of malaria.