Senior Associates

Arielle Tozier de la Poterie

Arielle is an interdisciplinary policy analyst and social scientist with nine years of experience in applied program evaluation and research for disaster risk reduction, science-based early humanitarian action, and climate change adaptation.

Her background studying the relationship between top-down scientific knowledge, bottom-up participatory processes, and program decision-making draws her to assignments that attempt to bridge the often difficult gap between natural and social science and program/policy design.

Whether studying new humanitarian financing mechanisms, horizontal cooperation, or the use of El Niño forecasts in humanitarian planning, she seeks to produce work that straddles the academic-applied divide. Her areas of specific expertise include qualitative research methods, livelihoods analysis, program monitoring and evaluation, participatory methodologies, and climate and weather services.

Arielle holds a B.A. in Anthropology, an M.Sc. in Sustainable Development (Utrecht University, 2011) and a Ph.D. In Environmental Studies (Policy Analysis, University of Colorado Boulder, 2017).

Arielle works in English (mother tongue), French, Portuguese, and Spanish.

Hannah Vaughan-Lee

A practitioner and academic, Hannah has more than 20 years in international humanitarian and development assistance and a PhD in Development Studies (School of Oriental and African Studies, U. of London). With a career grounded in extensive fieldwork in conflict-affected and fragile contexts as well as at HQ-level, she has worked with international and local NGOs, the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, UN agencies, donors and academic institutions. 

With strong foundation in qualitative and mixed methods, Hannah has expertise in research and analysis, including: systematic literature and evidence reviews; case studies; context, conflict and political economy analyses; and stakeholder and systems mapping exercises. She also has wide-ranging experience in monitoring, evaluation, accountability and learning (MEAL); conflict sensitivity/Do No Harm; training design and facilitation; developing guidance and policy materials; and country, program and project management. 

Recent highlights include designing and/or researching: conflict sensitivity guidance for development actors (MIHR, 2022-23); health-sensitive fragility guidance (MIHR, 2022-23) global Third Party Monitoring guidance(UNICEF, 2019-2022); MEAL frameworks for protection in fragile, conflict-affected contexts (NRC, 2021-22); scalability in DRR (Save the Children, 2017-2018); and co-lead for the Global Prioritization Exercise for Research and Innovation in the Humanitarian System (Elrha, 2017).

Based in Brussels, Hannah is fluent in English and has a good working knowledge of French. She is a strong presenter and writer, with a track-record of peer-reviewed publications.