Who we are


Director’s Office:

Sálvano Briceño was appointed the Director of the secretariat of the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UN/ISDR) in June 2001.
His career spans over several decades and has focused on the management of environmental and sustainable development programmes at the United Nations, the World Conservation Union (IUCN) and the Government of Venezuela.
Prior to joining the ISDR secretariat, Mr. Briceño was the Coordinator of the BIOTRADE and GHG Emissions Trading Initiatives of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Geneva (1999-2001). Before that, he was Deputy Executive Secretary of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) secretariat (1996-1999), following several years as the Coordinator of Intergovernmental and Institutional Support of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) where he was responsible for assisting the Executive Secretary with management; legal; information support, external relations and interagency relations of the organization (1991-1996). Further UN experience includes five years with UNEP's Caribbean Environment Programme at Kingston, Jamaica, where he collaborated closely with the Pan-Caribbean Disaster Preparedness and Prevention Programme (1987-1991).
Earlier in his career, Mr. Briceño joined the World Conservation Union (IUCN) as the Executive Officer of IUCN's Commission on Education, where he focused on environmental education programmes and coordinated a worldwide network of experts (1985-1987). During the 1980s he worked as Research Associate at Harvard University's Energy and Environment Policy Center, following an active career with the Ministry of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources in Venezuela where he was Director General responsible for environmental education, professional development and international relations.
Mr. Briceño received a Doctorate in Administrative Law from the University of Paris II (Panthéon-Sorbonne) in 1975 and a Master's in Public Administration from Harvard University in 1984. A Venezuelan national, his languages are Spanish, French and English.

Helena Molin Valdés is currently the Deputy Director of the ISDR Secretariat in Geneva, since 2004.
She joined the Geneva based secretariat in January 2001 as senior policy advisor, after having been the regional coordinator for both the IDNDR and ISDR secretariats in Latin America and the Caribbean (Costa Rica) . She was responsible project coordinator and co-editor of the ISDR secretariat’s flagship publication Living with Risk: A global review of disaster reduction initiatives (2001-2004). She has promoted inter-disciplinary networks for disaster risk reduction, and been active on gender issues. Her fields of responsibility in Geneva have included sustainable development policy and Inter-Agency Task Force coordination.
Helena is an architect by training, with a master degree in development and physical planning, from Lund University, Sweden. She joined the United Nations in 1992, when she set up the regional unit for Latin America and the Caribbean of the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction in Costa Rica together with PAHO. She started in 1993 the regional magazine IDNDR/ISDR Informs-Latin America and the Caribbean as editor, and she was the founder of the inter-agency Regional Disaster Information Center for Latin America and the Caribbean (CRID), built on the PAHO Disaster Documentation Center in Costa Rica. She worked a period for the Pan-American Health Organization on disaster mitigation in health facilities. Before that, she headed for several years a Swedish development NGO (Association Nicarauac) focusing on local and municipality strengthening, local building practices and social development projects in Nicaragua, after practicing architecture in Swedish private sector.
Married with three children, she speaks fluent Swedish, English, Spanish and makes herself understood in German and French.

Yuki Matsuoka is the Special Assistant to the Director since April 2005.
She started in the ISDR secretariat as Programme Officer in April 2004 and engaged in the preparations for the World Conference on Disaster Reduction, including the coordination with the Host Government and the overall coordination of the civil society participation and the coordination of the Public Forum Segment of the WCDR.
Prior to joining in the ISDR, Yuki worked for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan as Special Adviser in the area of Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs at the Permanent Mission of Japan to the United Nations in Geneva. She was engaged in the inter-governmental processes of the human rights issues, including negotiations and discussions of international human rights legal instruments, compliance issues, and human rights related resolutions at the various UN human rights forum, ECOSOC and GA. Her interests lie in child issues in the humanitarian and human rights field. She was also involved with the Japanese Government national reporting procedures and its examination by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child for the International Convention on the Rights of the Child. From 1999 to 2001, she was posted to the Embassy of Japan in New Zealand from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, and in that capacity served as liaison officer for the preparation process of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit held in New Zealand in 1999. Prior to receiving Masters degree from New York University, Yuki, a Japanese citizen, worked for a Japanese non-profit organization and was in charge of projects for regional developments.
She speaks Japanese, English and understands some Chinese and French.

Aurelia Blin is Special Assistant to the Deputy Director as of May 2007. Before joining the Advocacy Unit of the ISDR secretariat in January she worked as Information officer at WTO and with public relations at UNCTAD. She is of French origin and holds a Master in International Economics Studies, with special emphasis on sustainable development.

Connie Brown is assistant to the Director. She worked for Citibank, London for many years. Prior to joining the UN/ISDR director's office in February 2006, she worked for UNCC in Geneva as helpdesk assistant.

External Donor Relations Unit

Marc Gordon For over ten years Marc has worked in the field of humanitarian intervention in conflicts, complex emergencies and chronic crises with both United Nations agencies and the international non-governmental organisations. In recent years his career has embraced the field of disaster risk reduction with the General Directorate for Humanitarian Aid (ECHO) of the European Commission, and as from October 2006, with UN/ISDR. Having spent many years developing multi-disciplinary intervention strategies to meet the needs of vulnerable populations in different humanitarian contexts, his recent work with DIPECHO (DG ECHO's natural disaster preparedness programme) and now with UN/ISDR, sees him dedicating increasing resources to the development and promotion of integrated sub-national, national, regional and global disaster risk reduction strategies and policies.
His work has seen him oversee direct intervention in Burma, R.D.Congo, Sierra Leone, Republique de Guinee, Ivory Coast, Mali, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Cambodia, Lao P.D.R., Vietnam, Philippines, Indonesia, East Timor inter alia. The recipient of a Bachelor's degree in Economics in 1994, a Masters degree in Water Resources Management (MSc) in 1997, Marc complemented this with a diploma in Community-Based Disaster Risk Management in 2003.
Marc is fluent in English and French .

Programme Support Services Unit

Glenn Mittermann joined the ISDR secretariat in September 2006 to manage the ISDR System Planning and Monitoring function of the secretariat to facilitate the implementation of the Hyogo Framework.
Mr. Mittermann came to the secretariat from the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) where he was Chief of the Planning and Performance Monitoring Unit (2003-2006). At UNAIDS his responsibilities included coordination of the development of the Unified Budget and Workplan, an inter-agency joint planning process covering the AIDS work of 10 UN organizations and the UNAIDS secretariat. Before that, he worked with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) where he held a variety of positions in policy planning (including coordination of support to governments for development of national drug control plans), evaluation and programme support (1989 - 2003). Previously he worked for the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in the field of environmental law, where he participated in development of the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal (1987-1989). Prior to joining the United Nations Mr. Mittermann worked as a private attorney in the State of Oregon in the United States (1975-1985).
Mr. Mittermann received a Bachelor's (Business Administration and Political Science) in 1971 and a Juris Doctor (Law) in 1975 from the University of Kansas, and a Master's (International Studies) from the University of Oregon in 1987. Mr. Mittermann is a national of the United States. He speaks English and French and has a basic knowledge of German.

Luna Abu-Swaireh joined ISDR Platform for the Promotion of Early Warning in September 2005. With background in socio-economic development and programme management, Luna coordinates the evaluation, donor reporting and promotion of activities within the Tsunami-related Early Warning Strengthening project. Luna supports the team work on the Early Warning Information System and the identification of future initiatives and projects. She holds a Masters degree in International Development from the University of Pittsburgh and a Post-Graduate Diploma in Feminist Development Economics from the Institute of Social Studies in The Hague. Luna first joined the UN in 1996 as a UN Volunteer in Gaza managing a community-based development project and later on joined the UNDP Gaza office to support the overall UNV Palestine programme. Prior to joining ISDR, Luna worked for UNV headquarters in Bonn (2001-2004) as a Programme Specialist managing the South Asia & Balkans portfolio. She has contributed to the establishment of UNV operations and programme in Afghanistan following the peace process, facilitating the capacity building of Afghanistan National Authority, and development of regional multi-partner programme initiatives in the Balkans to enhance social cohesion and integration.

Vanessa Buchot joined the ISDR secretariat as Associate Programme Officer since September 2005. She studied administration and business in Lyon, France (Masters degree). In 1999, she started as a temporary staff in WHO. She moved to Mexico for five years (from 2000 to 2005) to work for a private company in the textile industry as an international trade manager, and became an administration manager two years later. She is French and speaks Spanish, French and English.

Admininstration/Finance Section

Christine Alessi is Programme Management Officer at the ISDR secretariat in Geneva. Since joining the United Nations twelve years ago, she has held various positions related to programme management within the Department of Humanitarian Affairs (DHA, now OCHA), the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (IDNDR) and the ISDR secretariat. Christine holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business and Management. Prior to joining the United Nations, she worked, in the U.S., in the private sector as a sole proprietor and senior vice president in the field of real estate title insurance for ten years. Besides English, she is fluent in Spanish and French.

Stéphanie Boubault has been working as an Administrative Assistant within the ISDR secretariat since June 2002, focusing on finance.
Stéphanie has a diploma in Tourism and studied English for one year in the United States of America. After working several years in the private sector in France where she comes from, she joined the Budget Division of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 1999 in Bonn, Germany before relocating to Geneva to the ISDR secretariat.

Sam Hammond has been Administrative Assistant at the ISDR secretariat in Geneva since May 2001.
Prior to relocating to Geneva to join ISDR secretariat, Sam spent five years in various administrative/logistics positions involving procurement, logistics, government liaison, airport operations and fleet management for two field operations of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Kigali, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where he was Officer-in-Charge of Administration for field offices in Goma and Kinshasa for a period of 18 months.
His past experience also includes two years as Treasury Officer in the Ghanaian Civil Service and seven years as Sales Administrator for a private publishing company in Paris.
He holds diplomas in accounting from the University of Ghana (Legon) as well as in international trade and EEC law from the American University of Paris. He has been living between France and his native Ghana since 1982, enjoying a unique bicultural experience of both countries.

Xiaoqing Yu has been working as a Team Assistant within the ISDR secretariat since February 2006.
Xiaoqing obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration (BSBA) in La Tour-de-Peilz, Switzerland.
Before joining the ISDR sectretariat he worked as data entry operator and reviewer at the United Nations Compensation Commission (UNCC) from Feb 2003 to Dec 2004.

Advocacy and Outreach Coordination Unit:

Feng Min Kan is currently Senior Coordinator for the Advocacy and Outreach Coordination Unit within the ISDR secretariat in Geneva since September 2005. Prior to the current post in Geneva, she was the Senior Regional Officer for Africa of the ISDR secretariat since August 2002. She set up the ISDR Africa office in Nairobi, Kenya, in October 2002.
Feng Min has worked for many international organizations in different capacities, but with progressive responsibilities for programme management within the UN system, including OCHA, UNOPS, UNDP, UNCHR and IOM. She has accumulated rich working experience in programme planning, management, monitoring, evaluation; fund-raising, and liaison with donors, UN agencies, Governments and NGOs. Before Feng Min joined the ISDR secretariat she represented OCHA as the first Regional Disaster Response Advisor in Asia based in Kobe, Japan, where she set up the OCHA’s regional office and advanced OCHA’s partnership and networks with national governments, regional organizations and Asian NGOs in Asia.
Before joining the UN, Feng Min worked in the Government of China, and she holds a PhD in social science and education from the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands, with a master degree in women and development studies, and additional studies on international law, social justice and human rights. She speaks Chinese and English, with good knowledge of French.

Lars Bernd joined the ISDR secretariat in February 2007 to provide support to National Platforms for Disaster Risk Reduction from ISDR Headquarters.
Lars came to the secretariat from the ProVention Consortium secretariat/ IFRC, where he was involved in implementing three regional fora on Disaster Risk Reduction in Africa and, among other things, contributed to the Consortium's Strategic work plan, Annual report and Annual Forum taking place in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania. Previously, he has worked for UNAIDS on mainstreaming AIDS in development, for UNDP as Communications specialist and for the UN Volunteers programme as Programme Specialist managing UNV projects and human resources and promoting volunteering. Beyond frequent missions to his portfolio countries in Central and Southern Africa, Lars has gained field experience with the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation in Burkina Faso and through short-terms stints with German development cooperation organisations in Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana and Togo.
Holding an advanced degree in development studies from ETH Zurich, an M.A. in Political Science from Freiburg University and a degree in int. administration from Grenoble University, Lars also completed the CERG course on Disaster Management. A German national, he speaks English and French and has a basic knowledge of Spanish.

Brigitte Leoni is the Public Information and Media Officer for the ISDR secretariat. She was recruited in July 2004 to handle public information, communication and media relations for the World Conference on Disaster Reduction (WCDR). As a member of the conference team, she spearheaded a very successful media campaign in the preparatory phase and during the Conference (January 2005, Kobe, Japan).
A French national, Brigitte holds a post graduate degree in foreign languages and management (BAC plus 5). She studied in Nantes (France), Guildford (Great Britain) and Madrid (Spain). She has been a journalist for the past 15 years, acquiring a solid experience in print, radio and television international media networks.
She worked as the London correspondent for many French and European newspapers before joining the BBC World Service in London (Great Britain) where she was a radio producer for five years, delivering international news in live programmes. She then spent four years in Brazil where she was the local correspondent for the French department of the BBC World Service. During her stay in Brazil, she wrote the first biography of Fernando Enrique Cardoso, former Brazilian president, that was published in French and Portuguese. After a year in Italy and two years in Great Britain as a free lance journalist working for TF1, the BBC and various newspapers, she spent three years in Mexico where she co-founded a private TV production company. With her Canadian partner in the company, Brigitte produced a number of documentaries, among them a 45-minute film on the assasinated women from Cuidad Juarez, Mexico, for Canadian TV and a 30-minute reportage on the Mexican haciendas for France 3's "Des racines et des ailes" programme.
Brigitte Leoni speaks French, English, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese.

Mario Barrantes is the Webmaster and in-house graphic designer of the ISDR secretariat in Geneva since 2002. His first job at the secretariat in Geneva was to design Living with Risk and he has developed an image for ISDR in its publications and awareness raising products both in print and electronically. He redesigned the website in 2003.
A Costa Rican national, Mario studied information systems at the Pan-American University in San José before commencing with the Costa Rican Ministry of Housing and Human Settlements where he worked on its geographical information system.
Mr. Barrantes provided freelance services since 1996 in graphic design and the development of websites for the IDNDR secretariat, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the Regional Disaster Information Center (CRID), UNICEF, Global Water Partnership and Refinadora Costarricense de Petróleo (RECOPE), IUCN, among others. He also contributed to the US National Library of Medicine’s project with CRID in capacity building throughout Central America. He speaks Spanish and English.

Michele Cocchiglia has joined the ISDR secretariat in 2005 as part of the Associate Experts and Junior Professional Officers Programme (AE/JPO) of the Government of Italy. After spending an initial period of six months in the Information Management Unit, he is now serving as the NGO Liaison Officer of the ISDR secretariat. In this capacity, Michele is facilitating the development of a "Global Network of NGOs" for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR), and promoting NGOs' stronger engagement in DRR activities. Michele holds a Masters degree from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), and a Bachelor degree in Economics from Bocconi University, Italy. Prior to joining the ISDR secretariat, he has worked for the Presidency of the Council of Ministers of the Government of Italy (2004-2005), and for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Azerbaijan (2003). An Italian national, he is fluent in French and English and has a basic knowledge of Spanish. .

Ana Cristina Angulo Thorlund joined the ISDR in September 2005 as Associate Programme Officer for the preparation process of the Third International Conference on Early Warning. A national of Costa Rica, with a background as a biologist, Ana Cristina is MSc from the Université de Genève, and has further taken advanced courses in immunology at the Swiss Institute for Experimental Research in Lausanne. She also made a postgraduate course in Management Geological Risk, which programme she followed at the Université de Genève. Ana Cristina has broad experience working with international organizations, such as the WHO for the organization of the 58th World Health Assembly, where she displayed significant skill and diplomacy in negotiating practical details for the arrangements of the visit of V.I.P guest speakers. She also collaborated in conference organization and reporting for the Palliative Cancer Project in Africa at WHO/Programme on Cancer Control. She has also provided ad-honorem services to the Permanent Mission of Costa Rica in Geneva, as member of delegation for meetings in Geneva and Paris and reporting activities to the Foreign Affairs Ministry. Besides being a native Spanish speaker, she is fluent in French, English and Italian.

Elena Dokhlik provides secretarial support to the Advocacy Outreach and Coordination Unit.
A Russian national, she graduated from commercial school in Moscow, and worked at the USSR Ministry of Foreign Trade and at the Trade Representation of the Soviet Union in Germany. She joined the United Nations in Geneva in1989, with Operation Salam for Afghanistan, then with the IDNDR and subsequently with the ISDR secretariat. She was recently a member of the team for the World Conference on Disaster Reduction.

Interagency and Policy Coordination Unit:

Reid Basher is currently the Senior Coordinator of the Policy Development Unit in the United Nations secretariat for the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction. The Unit's work covers policy issues related to such things as the economics of disaster risk reduction, adaptation to climate change, ISDR institutional arrangements including the ISDR Scientific and Technical Committee and relationships with technical agencies, and terminology, trends and statistics in disasters. The unit provides analysis, briefings and advocacy on these matters, both internally in the UN system, and for external partners and media. Previously he established and headed the ISDR Platform for the Promotion of Early Warning, in Bonn, for the ISDR secretariat, where amng other things he led the design and execution of a $11M project to support the development of tsunami early warning systems in the Indian Ocean. In general, Reid's interests lie in the interaction of science, policy, and applications practice concerning climate risk and disasters, early warning and the management of seasonal variability, and adaptation to climate variability and change. Before joining the secretariat in January 2004, he was Director for Applications Research at the International Research Institute for Climate Prediction (IRI), Columbia University, New York. A New Zealand citizen, he has been responsible for a broad range of public and commercial climate services in his home country. His qualifications include a Diploma of Business Administration in addition to a PhD in atmospheric science and BSc (Hns) in physics. Reid worked in Fiji for two years, was an active participant in and consultant to activities of the South Pacific Regional Environmental Programme (SPREP), and developed an El Nino-related seasonal outlook scheme for tropical cyclones in the South Pacific islands. He has been a lead author in impacts reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and has held committee leadership roles in the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

Andrew Maskrey has a long-standing experience in the field of disaster risk reduction.
Prior to joining the ISDR Secretariat, he was Chief of the Disaster Reduction Unit of UNDP where, since 2001, he was responsible for supporting the development of disaster risk reduction and recovery programming in UNDP Country Offices as well as global initiatives, under the ISDR system such as the International Recovery Platform (IRP) and the UNDP Global Report Reducing Disaster Risk a Challenge for Development.

Between 1999 and 2001 he was Senior Advisor to the Emergency Response Division of UNDP. Prior to joining UNDP he was founder and General Coordinator of the Red de Estudios Sociales para la Prevencion de Desastres LA RED, a regional organization that produced comparative research, advocacy, training and tools to approach disaster reduction from a social perspective. He also advised the creation of similar networks in South Asia (Duryog Nivaran) and Southern Africa (Peri Peri). Previously he was director of a number of NGOs including the Intermediate Technology Development Group (ITDG) in Peru and Associated Housing Advisory Services (AHAS) in London, as well as founder of the Centro de Estudios y Prevencion de Desastres (PREDES) in 1983, one of first Latin American organizations to work on disaster reduction from a community perspective. His professional career started in government, where he worked on urban development and housing issues for the Instituto Nacional de Desarrollo Urbano (INADUR) in Peru, including a pioneering study on the seismic vulnerability of metropolitan Lima.

He has lectured at universities in Peru, the United Kingdom and Thailand. His publications include Disaster Mitigation a Community Based Approach (OXFAM, 1989) and a series of books and journals published by Tercer Mundo Publicaciones (Bogota) for LA RED. He holds an MSc. in geographical information systems with first degrees in urban and regional planning.

Pedro Basabe joined the ISDR secretariat in November 2001. Currently he is in charge of: strengthening the relationship and work with OCHA and the humanitarian sector in order to move forward the implementation of the HFA priority five on strengthen disaster preparedness at all levels; developing a drought risk reduction network and framework; promoting El Niño phenomenon research and international cooperation; landslide risk reduction issues; space technologies for DRR; terminology; yearly fellowship programme; backstopping the ISDR outreach office for Latin America and Caribbean; and develop partnership for applications. Pedro received a geologist engineering degree in 1980.

He started his career in 1978 at the National Institute of Technology in implementing the first seismic monitoring network of Ecuador. From 1979 to 1983 he worked for the Ecuadorian National Institute of Electrification as responsible for geological hazard identification, mapping and field research for feasibility studies of major hydroelectric dams and reservoirs. He also specialised in business administration. In 1983 he came to Switzerland to pursue his scientific and technical career, focusing on applied geology, including disaster reduction techniques. He obtained a Masters degree in hydrogeology in 1986, and the "Docteur ès Science" (PhD degree) in 1992 at the "Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne", also workingon project research and as an assistant for academic lectures on applied geology for civil engineer students between 1987 and 1992. Pedro has great experience in developing networks and projects for disaster risk reduction since 1978 in Ecuador, as mentioned, and later in Switzerland. During the 1990s he undertook projects on disaster reduction, preparedness and contingency planning for the former UN Disaster Relief Organization (UNDRO) and the former Department of Humanitarian Affairs (DHA) in Ecuador and Paraguay. He promoted and carried out projects for the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid Unit including multi-hazard risk identification, mapping and monitoring systems; capacity building, and implementation of mitigation measures in Ecuador, Nicaragua, Peru, Venezuela. Later on he advised on similar projects in Honduras and El Salvador.

Author of several papers and project implemented/reports, he received several awards from national and local institutions and authorities.
Finally, he also has experience in humanitarian assistance, assessment and coordination. UNDAC member (UN Disaster Assessment and Coordination Team) since 1995 and member of the Swiss Humanitarian Aid Unit since 1993, he participated in humanitarian and technical missions immediately following major disasters in South and Central America from 1993 to 2001, and took the opportunity to promote disaster reduction strategies and projects in affected countries.
An Ecuadorian national, he is married and father of two children. He is fluent in Spanish, French and English; and also speaks German.

Terry Jeggle is a Senior Advisor in the ISDR secretariat on disaster risk reduction policy and training/education matters. He also contributes to advocacy and information issues.

He has compiled examples of global endeavours in disaster risk management, and contributes actively to productive exchanges among professionals, fosters institutional relationships in capacity development and professional practice through extensive networking, including with the private sector. He has co-edited many of ISDRs flagship publications such as Living with Risk: A global review of disaster reduction initiatives (2004), the "Yokohama ten-year review" (2004) and Know Risk (2005). He has been engaged in international development, disaster risk reduction and management, and earlier emergency assistance field operations for more than 35 years. During this period he has worked with NGOs, training institutions, UN programmes, and in private advisory roles particularly in East and Southern Africa and across much of Asia and the Pacific.

For the past twelve years he has worked largely within IDNDR/ISDR secretariats on disaster risk reduction policy formulation and the promotion of multidisciplinary and inter-sectoral activities, frequently in dialogue with national government officials. Prior to working in Geneva, Terry was the Director of the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC) in Bangkok, Thailand, where he worked for five years. Before that he served in 12 overseas assignments related to development activities, disaster management and refugee emergencies in Asia and Africa over 16 years for CARE.

An American national with educational background and interests in history and political science, he has undertaken professional activities in 50 countries and maintains multi-sectoral contacts with officials or organizations in many more.

John Harding has been a Programme Officer with the ISDR secretariat since early 2001 working on policy and strategic planning issues such as sustainable development, climate change, early warning and water related disasters. He has backstopped working groups of the Inter-Agency Task Force on Disaster Reduction. Prior to joining the ISDR secretariat he also worked with the IDNDR secretariat, since 1997. John supported activities of the United Nations related to the study of the El Niño phenomenon, and supported the work of the IDNDR and then ISDR regional activities in Africa and Asia. He also assisted on seismic risk assessment in the RADIUS initiative in 1997-2000.
A Swiss national, John graduated from the School of Oceanography, University of Southampton, and holds a Masters degree in hydrology/hydrogeology from Birmingham University. He later undertook a postgraduate course on the Analysis of Geological Risk at Geneva University.

Gabriella S. Buescher joined the Inter-Agency and Policy Coordination Unit at UN/ISDR in March 2007 after 16 years in the UN system. She is charged with reporting on policy issues related to the follow-up to the Hyogo Framework for Action; she provides analysis on the national progress reports received from national authorities. Her responsibilities mainly include overseeing the reporting area - in addition to reporting on progress on implementing the Hyogo Framework, she also reports to the General Assembly via the SG's report on the ISDR.

Gabriella has experience with OCHA, UNICEF, and UN partner agencies in humanitarian assistance, protection, programme management and political analysis, at HQ, regional and country levels. Her most recent job was as Senior Programme Officer and Deputy Chief of the UN Division of Human Rights in ONUCI, Cote d'Ivoire (2006-07) running an office of 50+ staff with 9 regional offices. Previously she headed the OCHA Office in Haiti (as part of the integrated UN Peacekeeping mission MINUSTAH) in 2005-06. She also has field experience in Colombia, Angola, Iraq, South Africa, Somalia, Kenya, Sudan, as well as HQ oversight coverage of: Western and Central Africa; Eastern & Southern Africa; DRC/Great Lakes; NIS/CEE; Latin America and Middle East. She has also worked as a Political Affairs Officer in the UN Department of Political Affairs, NYHQ.

Gabriella is fluent in English, Italian, French, Spanish, German; she also speaks Portuguese and Norwegian/Danish. She recently completed a Master's of International Affairs at Columbia University, and in addition has a Master's of Arts in Political Studies and a Bachelor of Journalism. While completing a second Master's at Columbia in 1999-2000, she also ran the UN Studies Program at the Columbia International Center for Conflict Resolution. She has also taken two other sabbaticals from the UN, working as a Senior Adviser at the International Peace Research Institute in Oslo (PRIO) in 1997-98 and more recently working as the Africa Director at the International League for Human Rights in New York (2003-04).

Yuichi Ono is a Programme Officer of the Policy Coordination Unit of the ISDR secretariat. Yuichi joined the ISDR secretariat in Geneva in 2003 as a Junior Professional Officer from Japan. He is a physical geographer (PhD from Kent State University), having conducted research on synoptic climatology, applied meteorology, wind-related disasters such as tornadoes and tropical storms, urban heat island phenomena as well as climate impacts on health. He undertook research on world's deadliest tornadoes in Bangladesh for more than 10 years and is currently developing a strategy to reduce risk by establishing a tornado early warning system with partner agencies such as ADRC and WMO. Yuichi commenced his UN career at the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in 2002. He has experiences working for the private sector using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in Japan, and has teaching experiences at Kent State University in the United States as well as Utsunomiya University in Japan. He speaks Japanese and English fluently. He speaks French and a little Bengali. He spent almost three years in Bonn (2004-2007) to help establish the Platform for the Promotion of Early Warning.

He is currently assisting with the development of the Scientific Committee to provide vital information on hazards and disasters based on sound science. He continues to work on subjects related to hydro-meteorological disasters such as tropical cyclones, severe storms, and water-related disasters. He is a focal point to work with WMO.

Silvia Llosa joined ISDR in April 2005 as a temporary Programme Officer to backstop the work of the Inter-Agency Task Force on Disaster Reduction, in particular the Working Group on Climate Change and Disaster Risk Reduction and the Tsunami recovery efforts, among other duties.
Since arriving in Geneva in 2002, she has worked with UNITAR's Chemicals and Waste Management Programme and most recently with UNCTAD on climate change efforts. She was an associate in the climate programme of the World Resources Institute, a U.S.-based research institution, where she specialized in forestry issues (LULUCF) within the climate change context and the architecture of the climate change regime. She has also worked with NGOs in Brazil on climate change awareness raising, LULUCF and the development of sustainability indicators for greenhouse gas reducing projects.
A Peruvian and British national, Silvia focused her master's studies at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, USA, in international environmental policy and natural resource management.
She holds a bachelor's degree in Anthropology and speaks English, Spanish, Portuguese and some French.

Carolin Schärpf joined the UN/ISDR Platform for the Promotion of Early Warning in Bonn, Germany in July 2004. In October 2006, she moved to the Interagency and Policy Coordination Unit of the ISDR Secretariat in Geneva where she provides support for the Policy Unit's publications and the development of the Global Platform for Disaster Reduction.
Carolin is a German national and holds a Diploma in Geology/Palaeontology from the University of Würzburg. After graduating from university, Carolin completed an internship at the German Technical Cooperation (GTZ), within the sector project "Disaster Management in Development Cooperation". Before joining the Early Warning Platform in Bonn, Carolin undertook a postgraduate course at the Centre d'Etude des Risques Géologiques (CERG) at the University of Geneva on the Analysis of Geological Risk.

Beverley Coult joined the UN/ISDR secretariat in January 2007. For the last 20 years she has worked on a freelance basis for the UN and its specialized agencies, primarily on conference organization and administration, travelling all over the world. She has also worked regularly in Geneva for UNEP, WTO and ILO, covering a wide range of administrative roles. She is English and speaks English and French.

Regional Programme Unit:

Praveen Pardeshi is the Senior Officer in policy and strategy at the ISDR secretariat in Geneva since 2004. Since he joined the ISDR he has been working on institutional issues related to disaster risk reduction within the UN, and on promoting disaster risk reduction as a more defined component of the Millennium Development Goals; and guidelines for disaster risk reduction in the Common Country Assessments and UN Development Assistant Framework. He has coordinated a process, at the initiative of Japan in 2004, to set up an International Recovery Platform which is solidly anchored in the key UN agencies dealing with post disaster recovery, including UNDP, ILO, the World Bank, regional organizations and both developing and developed countries, in particular donors.

An economist with MSc from London School of Economics with a thesis on disaster recovery as a source of institutional change, he was a civil servant in India for 15 years. He managed a World Bank rehabilitation project in Latur 1993-1995, and managed the UNDP rehabilitation project in Gujarat in 2001. He was the head of the UNDP/BCPR recovery unit in Geneva from 2002-2004. Praveen speaks English and Hindi.

Madhavi Malalgoda Ariyabandu joined ISDR Secretariat as Programme Officer - South Asia in May 2007. She brings in a rich combination of experiences in programme management and planning, research, writing, training, networking, community interactions, and partnership building. Over the last ten years of her career she was engaged in disaster risk reduction in different professional capacities, and has extensive field level experience. She served as the Programme Manager of the Disaster Mitigation Programme at Practical Action (formerly ITDG South Asia) for over five years, led the Reducing Vulnerability Programme team and was the coordinator of the South Asia network for disaster mitigation 'Duryog Nivaran'. She worked for the government of Sri Lanka as a Research and Training Officer at the Agrarian Research and Training Institute, Colombo, from 1982- 1992. Prior to joining ISDR, she served as National Gender Advisor and Project Manager for Micro Enterprise Recovery in the Tsunami Recovery Team, UNDP Sri Lanka during 2005-06. She has authored and co-authored a number of publications on varying aspects of disasters; 'Defeating Disasters: Ideas for Action', 'Disaster Communication, A Resource Kit for Media', 'Livelihood Centred Approach to Disaster Management; A Policy Framework for South Asia' and the most recent being 'Gender Dimension in Disaster Management; a Guide for South Asia', which is translated into four South Asian languages; Hindi, Urdu, Tamil and Sinhala, from the original English edition. Madhavi is the 2004 recipient of the Mary Fran Myers Award, presented for 'advancing women's careers in emergency management and the academy and for promoting gendered disaster research', awarded by the Gender and Disaster Network (GDN) and the Natural Hazards Center, at the University of Colorado, USA. Madhavi, a national of Sri Lanka is married with two children. She holds a MSc. in Agriculture Economics from the School of Development Studies, University of East Anglia, UK, and a MSc. in Agronomy from the Peoples Friendship University, Moscow, USSR. She speaks English and Russian, and has a fair knowledge of Hindi. Her other interests include research and writing with special focus on political economy of development.

Andrei Iatseni, Senior Advisor

Paola Albrito joined the secretariat during the preparations for the World Conference on Disaster Reduction in 2004. She analysed the national progress reports received from national authorities. She assisted the inter-governmental drafting committee and main committee of the Conference. Since March 2005 she is a Programme Officer of the Secretariat working on policy issues related to the follow-up to the Hyogo Framework for Action, indicators and the CCA/UNDAF guidelines. These policy efforts will also support the Tsunami recovery efforts in the Indian Ocean.

Paola holds a Masters in International Relations and Political Science, University of Turin, with research conducted at the International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS), London. She worked at the International Training Centre of the ILO for a short assignment and then at the United Nations Staff System College (UNSSC) in Turin, Italy, where she supported UN country teams in developing CCA/UNDAF at country level and facilitated training of UN Country Teams on CCA/UNDAF processes, in consultation with the government, Bretton Woods institutions, other non-resident UN organisations and other CCA partners. In 2000 she joined the UN Resident Coordinator Office in Djibouti as Coordinator/Programme Analyst. She also worked as an independent consultant with programme evaluations. She speaks Italian, French, English and some Russian.

Information Management Unit:

Craig Duncan Craig Duncan joined the ISDR in September 2006, and is the Senior Information Management Officer for the Secretariat in Geneva. The information management unit of the ISDR provides IM support services for both internal and external clients and is primarily responsible for the development of a global information clearing house for disaster risk reduction, known as 'PreventionWeb'. Prior to joining the ISDR Secretariat, he worked for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs as the Project Manager of ReliefWeb which he joined in 1996 as part of the original team.
A Canadian national, Craig has an Engineering degree form the University of Guelph, and is an active member of the global humanitarian information network as well as the web for development communities.

Sujit Mohanty joined the UNISDR in February 2006 as an Information Programme Officer in the Information Management Unit of the Secretariat. In this capacity he is working on development and management of PreventionWeb.
Prior to this assignment Sujit worked with UNOCHA in Sri Lanka, in the aftermath of the Indian Ocean Tsunami. His primary responsibility was to provide technical advisory services to the Government of Sri Lanka in establishing a comprehensive risk information management system. Sujit started his career as a software engineer before joining UNDP India in April 2000. As Manager, Disaster Information Systems, Sujit developed and managed a countrywide Response Preparedness system. Additionally he worked extensively on multi hazard mapping and risk identification programmes in the South Asia region. At UNDP, Sujit led the development of several ICT based systems for knowledge networking, data warehousing, risk information management, GIS mapping and community led ICT initiatives.
Sujit is an Indian national holding a MSc. degree in computer science and is fluent in English and Hindi.

Sarah Wade-Hutman joined the UN/ISDR secretariat in May 2007.

Joel Margate joined the secretariat in June 2007.

Sylvain Ponserre joined the secretariat during the preparations for the World Conference on Disaster Reduction in September 2004. He contributed to the elaboration of the country profiles and disasters statistics. Since June 2005 he serves as an Associate Information Officer for the ISDR secretariat working on database and disaster statistics together with the development of the Prevention Web.

Sylvain holds a “Diplome d’Etude Approfondie Interface (DEA) - Nature-Société”, in geography, from the University of Lyon II, France. He started his career in an International Company (Vicat), writing reports on the environmental impacts of the stone extraction Industry and developing Geo-strategy Oriented Geographic Information System (GIS).

After arriving in Geneva in 2000, he worked in close collaboration with UNEP/DEWA/GRID-Europe and the University of Geneva analysing GIS open-source cartographic and statistical tools and web mapping applications for the disaster risk reduction. A French national, he speaks French and English.

Sarah Landelle joined the UN/ISDR secretariat in April 2004. She is currently information assistant, working on the ISDR intranet, the contact database and the development of the Prevention Web. Sarah worked for four years for the UN Conference Services in Geneva and gained experience in administration and conferencing.
Prior to that Sarah worked for the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office and a UK based airline. A UK national Sarah trained as an English teacher, she speaks English, French and a little Spanish and Japanese.

Resource Centre

Marie-Lou Darricau is the documentalist and library manager of the ISDR secretariat. Using experience gained while she worked at ReliefWeb, Marielou managed the IDNDR and ISDR websites until 2001. Following training in the library integrated management system Voyager, she has advanced the ISDR library as a satellite of the UN Geneva Library. Her interest is in library management and networking, as well as compilation of UN documents on disaster risk reduction and related issues.
She began her career as a teacher at the French Ministry of Education and later on in Vienna. She joined the United Nations Office at Vienna in 1976, where she worked at UN Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB). Marie-Lou has worked at the UN Office at Geneva since 1985, with UNDRO, DHA and IDNDR. She has 20 years’ experience specialising in information management and documental research in the field of disaster reduction.
She initiated a virtual library on disaster risk reduction - a set of 3CD-roms released recently at the WCDR. She speaks French, English and Spanish.

Lydie Echernier joined the ISDR secretariat in September 2004 as documentalist for the ISDR Library. Lydie studied in Paris information and documentation management as well as Asian languages and worked as librarian at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes (EPHE) from 2001 to 2004 and as documentalist at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientific (CNRS) in 2002. She also provided freelance services in website design and as teacher in computer science for adults. She is French and speaks French, English, Tibetan and a little Chinese.

Mosfeka Chowdhury joined the ISDR secretariat in April 2007.

Capacity for Disaster Reduction Initiative Team (joint initative between UNDP/OCHA/ISDR):

Joanne Burke

Geraldine Becchi is CADRI's Programme Analyst. Before coming to CADRI, she worked from 2001 for the United Nations Development Programme as a programme officer in the good governance unit spending more than one year in Cape Verde and two years in Ecuador. Since 2005 she joined UNDP's Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery in Geneva working with the Disaster Management Training Programme and after that with CADRI. Between 1999 and 2001 several internships brought her to Belgium, Italy, Northern Ireland, and Bosnia Herzegovina where she worked for a local level organisation, two non-governmental organisations, INCORE and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe respectively. She has a Political Science degree from the University of Bologna and holds a Masters degree in Humanitarian Assistance (University of Rome - Uppsala) and in Intercultural Communication (University of Lugano). She is fluent in English, French and Spanish in addition to her mother tongue, Italian.

New York Liaison Office:

Elina Palm is currently ISDR Liaison Officer in New York (since July 2005) and is also assisting the USG and ASG for Humanitarian Affairs in policy and advocacy of the area of disaster risk reduction.
Over the period from July 2005 until December 2006, she was also assisting the office of the Special Envoy for Tsunami Recovery for the Indian Ocean Tsunami, President Bill Clinton, in the area of disaster risk reduction and early warning. Prior to the current post in New York, she was the head of the Regional Office for the ISDR secretariat since 2001, based in San José in Costa Rica, where she was responsible for the Regional ISDR Unit for Latin America and the Caribbean. Over the past 11 years, she has gained international experience in the field of disaster reduction, working both in headquarters and field offices of the ISDR and IDNDR secretariats. She has also participated in several training courses related to risk management and disaster reduction, both as a lecturer and a trainee.
Ms. Palm holds a MSc in Development Studies of the Institute for Development Studies at the University of Geneva, and a DEA (Diplome d'Etudes Approfondis) from the University of Geneva. She is fluent in English, Spanish, French and Finnish. Prior to joining the IDNDR secretariat, Ms. Palm worked with the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Departments for International Cooperation and Department for Press of the Finnish government as well as with international NGOs in addition to working with local authorities in Karnataka, southern India.

Regional Office for the Americas :

Dave Paul Zervaas is UN/ISDR regional coordinator for the Americas, based in Panama. Prior to this, he was coordinator of CRID (Regional Disaster Information Center for Latin America and the Caribbean) and regional information officer for UN/ISDR.
Dave has over 15 years of experience in working with international organizations and NGOs, mostly as a manager of programs and projects in sustainable development, information management, drug control and humanitarian assistance in Latin America and Europe. His educational background includes postgraduate studies in systems and information science, as well as in psychology. Other studies and interests include aviation, project management, computer programming and languages.
Born in the Netherlands, Dave has lived in 8 countries and has been involved in professional activities in more than 30. He speaks several languages fluently (Spanish, English and Dutch) and several other less fluently (German, Portuguese, French).

Haris Sanahuja, is currently Programme Officer of the regional ISDR outreach programme for the Americas, and is based in Panama since July 2005.
Prior to the current post in Panama, he was a Programme Officer working in the area of strengthening national platforms for disaster risk reduction worldwide, and in the follow-up strategies for the Hyogo Framework for Action and with Latin America and the Caribbean. He contributed to Living with Risk: A global review of disaster reduction initiatives in 2002. He was recruited as a staff member of the ISDR secretariat in 2003. In 1999, Mr. Sanahuja pursued doctoral studies in Germany. Postponing his programme, and moving to Geneva in 2001, he joined the UN Development Programme’s (UNDP) Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery as technical coordinator for the development of a global disaster risk index and the UNDP report Reducing Disaster Risk: A challenge for development.
With a B.Sc. in Biology, he worked until 1993 as a governmental advisor in Patagonia, Argentina, his home country. He moved to Washington D.C., and joined the World Bank (Environment/Sustainable Development Division) for research and analysis in coastal zone management. Haris moved to Costa Rica in 1996 for his M.Sc. in geography, consulting in disaster reduction/sustainable development for regional and academic bodies. He speaks Spanish, English and a little German and Arabic.

Julio Garcia recently joined the regional ISDR outreach programme for the Americas with special emphasis to support the climate change adaptation agenda, in addition to regional activities.

Margarita Villalobos is a locally recruited Awareness and Promotion Assistant at the ISDR regional outreach unit for the Americas based in San José, Costa Rica. Her educational background commenced in the area of communications (journalism, public relations and marketing), followed by post-graduate studies in international relations and diplomacy, where she majored in environment and sustainable development.
Margarita joined the IDNDR secretariat in 1997 as Communications Consultant and continued her work in social communication with its successor, the ISDR secretariat. She is involved in a range of projects promoting disaster risk reduction throughout the region, including training workshops for the radio soap opera programmes and assisting in the production of the bi-annual magazine, ISDR Informs – The Americas.

Regional Office for Africa:

Martin Owor is currently Senior Regional Officer for Africa of the ISDR Secretariat since February 2006 based in Nairobi, Kenya.
Prior to this Martin worked as Assistant Commissioner and Head of the Disaster Risk Reduction and Emergency Division in the Office of the Prime Minister of the Government of the Republic of Uganda for four years 2001-2006 collaborating with UNDP, UNICEF, OCHA, UNHCR, FAO, WHO, WB and EU. He established the Uganda National Platform for Disaster Reduction in 2003 and wrote both the Uganda National Policy for Disaster Management and the National Policy for Internally Displaced Persons. He also served as the Uganda National Institutional Development Officer for Conservation of the National Wetlands 2000-2001, working closely with IUCN, UNEP and BSF.
Martin served the Government of Uganda for ten years (1990-2000) as District Chief Administrative Officer in the Ministry of Local Government and was the Head of the District Public Service and Administration of decentralized Government services at Hoima District. He has accumulated rich working experience in decentralization, programme planning and management, monitoring and evaluation; Inter-Governmental relations and NGOs having been chairperson of most Inter-Governmental Mechanisms on disaster risk reduction in Africa between 2000 and 2006 including; (1) Founder member and first Chairman - Executive Committee of the Eastern and Greater Horn of Africa Regional Center of Excellency for Disaster Risk Management based in Kenya (Comprising Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Kenya, Tanzania, DR Congo, Rwanda, Burundi and the Seychelles); (2) chairperson of the African Union, (AU/NEPAD) symposium for development of the Africa regional strategy for disaster risk reduction and implementation plan; (3) chairman of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) forum for national disaster managers 2001-2006 and coordinated the development of the IGAD Sub regional Disaster Preparedness Strategy on training, information sharing, policy and legislation and mechanisms for harmonizing cross boarder risk reduction programmes.
Martin holds a Masters Degree in Management Studies of Uganda Management Institute, a Bsc Degree in Public Administration and Management of Makerere University, a Post graduate Diploma in Public Administration and Management of Uganda Management Institute, a Postgraduate Certificate in Poverty Alleviation of the University of Manchester, UK, a Postgraduate Certificate in Administrative Law of Makerere University Law Development Centre and a Post Graduate Certificate in Disaster Risk Reduction of Witwatersrand University, South Africa.
He speaks English and currently studying French.

 

Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific:

Jerry Velasquez received his PhD from Nagoya University in Japan where he majored on environmental studies and water resources. His PhD dissertation received the "outstanding thesis award" in 1994 from the Japanese Association of Water Resources. He has previously worked for the United Nations Centre for Regional Development (UNCRD), the United Nations University (UNU), the Global Environment Information Centre (GEIC), the UNEP Division of Global Environment Facility Coordination (UNEP/DGEF), and the UNEP Division of Environmental Law and Conventions (UNEP/DELC). His two main areas of specialization are: a) Environmental governance, in particular inter-linkages and synergies among Multilateral Environmental greements (MEAs; and b) Social aspects of disaster vulnerability. On environmental governance issues, he has worked in 17 countries in the Asia-Pacific region, including the 10 ASEAN countries, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, Palau and Cook Islands, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Pakistan. On social vulnerability, he has worked in the Philippines, Japan, the US, India, South Africa, Mexico and Colombia. His published work includes edited books, journal articles, interactive software, and policy briefs on MEA synergies, environmental governance and social vulnerability. Two of the more interesting products that he co-developed over the years are the Internet-based sustainable development gaming simulation "Pangaea", and the interactive disaster awareness education software for children "Quake Busters". His latest book is titled "Innovative Communities: People Centered Approaches for Environmental Management in Asia and the Pacific" published by the UNU Press in December 2005.
He is currently Regional Coordinator for UN/ISDR Asia & Pacific, based in Bangkok.

Angelika Planitz joined the Regional Office of the ISDR Secretariat, based in Bangkok, in early 2007 as Programme Officer for Asia and Pacific. Her main responsibilities include coordinating the Southeast Asia & Pacific deliverables of the "Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR)" - a partnership activity of the World Bank with UN/ISDR. With more than 11 years of working experience in the field of disaster risk management and development, she has extensive expertise in the design and implementation of regional and in-country disaster reduction strategies and programmes; community-based disaster risk management; participatory methods; capacity building; post disaster assessment and early recovery; gender roles in disaster risk management as well as all aspects of programme design, management and monitoring. Before joining ISDR, Angelika was Disaster Reduction Programme Specialist with the UNDP Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery in Geneva (2003-2007); and Programme Manager with Concern Worldwide's Disaster Preparedness Programme in the Lao PDR (2000-2003). Angelika started her career with the South Pacific Disaster Reduction Programme, United Nations Disaster Management Programme based in Fiji (1996-2000).

Christel Rose joined the Bangkok office for the regional ISDR outreach programme in Asia in July 2005 as Regional Programme Officer. Prior to that she worked as the Special Assistant to the Director at the ISDR secretariat since the outset of ISDR in 2000. Christel has been responsible for the UN-Sasakawa Award on Disaster Reduction since 2000, organizing the nomination process, the jury meetings and the award ceremonies. In 2004 she joined the special unit of the secretariat for the World Conference on Disaster Reduction that organized the substantive and logistical aspects of the World Conference on Disaster Reduction. Christel was in charge of coordinating the participation of Member States and UN agencies, and assisted in the Bureau meetings.
Christel, a French national, graduated in 1995 from Sorbonne University (Paris IV) with a "Diplôme d'Etudes Supérieures Spécialisées (DESS)" in Economics and Business Administration. She also pursued pharmaceutical studies in France, and a Bachelor of Arts in Valencia, Spain, with the European ERASMUS Programme. Before joining the United Nations in Geneva in 1996, at the Department of Public Information, she worked at the Department of Information and External Relations at the European Parliament in Brussels in 1994 where she contributed to the organization of the first European elections. She joined the IDNDR secretariat in 1997 as a Junior Policy Officer.
Christel speaks French, English and Spanish, as well as some Portuguese.

Akshatvishal Chaturvedi joined ISDR secretariat for Asia and Pacific outreach office in March 2006 as Regional Programme officer for information management and advocacy support, working for the establishment of an effective regional information management system for disaster risk reduction.
Prior to this he had been working with UNDP India for five years. Under the Disaster Risk Management programme lead by the Government of India and UNDP in India, he worked at the grassroots level with rural and urban communities to develop their own disaster risk management plans that would become an essential part of District's overall Disaster Risk Management plan, in the Gujarat state. At the same time, he provided technical guidance and support to the provincial government, NGOs and stake holders for organizing training and capacity building to understand the concept of Disaster Risk Management from local community and global perspectives. He was also involved in UNDP India's programme for earthquake response in 2001under the UN Volunteers assignment as an information management officer, where he was responsible for NGO coordination for relief and sharing information related to rehabilitation and recovery process.
Akshat has a Bachelors degree in English literature and Law, also holds Masters Degree in Disaster Mitigation from various universities of India. He speaks English, Hindi and very basic French. He has written many articles in newspapers and worked with community radio programmes as well as other performing artists groups in India to organize awareness rising campaigns on many human developmental related issues. He made a presentation on Disaster Volunteerism in the public forum section at the World Conference on Disaster Reduction held in Kobe, Japan in January 2005.

Kanokporn Dechnarong joined the Bangkok office in September 2005 as Team Assistant. She is mainly responsible for the publications, database and workshop arrangement. Prior to her current post, she was an intern at the UNESCAP in conference management team. She is currently persuing her Masters Degree in Environment Economics.

Benchawan Pongurgsorn joined ISDR-Bangkok in December 2006 as a Team Assistant. She holds a Bachelor Degree in Business Administration, major in Marketing. Prior to joining ISDR, she worked with Oxfam GB, Regional Management Center in Bangkok as an Administrative Officer. She does meditation for her leisure.

Regional Office for Central Asia:

Goulsara Pulatova is Senior Advisor for UN/ISDR Central Asian office in Dushanbe, Tajikistan since 1 March 2007. During the last fourteen years she has gained experience with international humanitarian organizations including five years with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) as Program Officer and Head of Office for Tajikistan, a short-term project with UNHCR (Coordinator of National NGOs), four years with FOCUS Humanitarian Assistance (USA) as Program Director, Project Coordinator for the "PMP International" NGO (Prevention, Mitigation, and Preparedness), and Senior Consultant for the World Bank (Environmentally and Socially SustainableDevelopment Unit).
She has gained solid understanding of project development, design and implementation, fundraising, monitoring and evaluation, liaising with donor agencies, governments and NGOs, as well as in grants allocation and sub-contracting national and international NGOs. Goulsara speaks Russian and English, she also masters Farsi and French.

Adiba Arbobova - Administrative Assistant

Regional Office for West Asia and North Africa:

Mostafa Mohaghegh is the Regional Coordinator for West Asia and North Africa. He joined the UN/ISDR in January 2006 to plan and coordinate ISDR's cooperation with the West Asia and North Africa. Before joining the ISDR, he was Operations Coordinator for Africa and Middle East region at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) in Geneva from 2004 until 2006. He has also served as Director General of International Affairs of the Iranian Red Crescent from 2001 until 2004. His career also includes working as programme coordinator (IFRC, Geneva,), Deputy Director General for International Affairs in Iranian Red Crescent (Iran), Head of Research and Training of Iranian Red Crescent (Iran), IFRC Regional Delegate in Central Asia, and other responsibilities and functions in the field of disaster management, humanitarian action, and refugees from 1990 to 2000.
He has been coordinator of emergency response to a number of major disasters and crises such as Bam earthquake of 2003 in Iran, Afghan and Iraqi refugees crises in 2001 and 2002, drought and food insecurity operations in Western and Southern Africa in 2005. He holds a Master degree in Political Science and has written a number of papers in the field of disaster risk reduction, disaster management and humanitarian action. His papers and speeches were presented to several international forums including UN High Level Humanitarian Forum (Geneva, March 2004), UN ECOSOC Humanitarian Segment (New York, July 2004), Wilton Park Conferences, Red Cross and Red Crescent international meetings and conferences, and appeared in international publications. He is also a member of the editorial board of Crisis Response Journal, a quarterly published in UK. He is fluent in Farsi, English and Arabic and good in French.

Tine Ramstad is currently a Regional Programme Officer for UN/ISDR, WANA responsible for communication, education/scientific networks, hospital campaign and community based disaster risk reduction.  Tine joined UN/ISDR in 2004 to facilitate the set up of a sub-regional office in Central Asia, based in Tajikistan, Dushanbe. During the three years in Central Asia, Tine worked closely with the governments, which resulted in establishment of national platforms, long term DRR strategies based on Hyogo Framework of Action and educational curriculums for DRR. Before joining UN/ISDR, Tine has international work experiences from Australia, South Africa and Armenia within the field of development and higher educational.  She holds a post-graduate, professional degree from University in Oslo in psychology and a Bachelor in Social Sciences from NTNU.  She is fluent in Norwegian and English with good knowledge of French and Russian.

Representative Office - Pakistan

Karim Nayani - UN Advisor

Representative Office - Iran

Seyed Mohammad Sadatinejad - UN Advisor. Seyed Mohammad entered the Ministery of Foreign Affairs of Iran in 1998. He continued his diplomatic work in the Iranian Mission in Geneva as the Humanitarian Officer from 2003 -2006. He was a member of the Bureau of WCDR in Hyogo, Japan and the Rapporter of the PrepComs and the Conference. From February 2007 he joined ISDR system as ISDR Special Coordinator in Tehran. During his mission in Tehran, since February, the Asian Seismic Risk Reduction Center was launched.

Platform for Promotion of Early Warning, Bonn:

Douglas Pattie is the new coordinator of the Platform for the Promotion of Early Warning. Holding a PhD from Colorado State University (USA), he is coming to the position having held the post of Environmental Affairs Officer in the Secretariat of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) in Bonn, Germany. At the UNCCD, he was responsible for scientific issues related to desertification in drylands where policy work relates to early warning, migration, natural disasters and traditional knowledge. From 1993 to 2003 he worked as Projects Manager at the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO) in Yokohama, Japan monitoring forest industry projects in Malaysia, Indonesia, Brazil, Philippines and the Congo Basin. He has served in the USDA Forest Service and NOAA. He is also a former US Peace Corps Volunteer in Nepal. Pattie's research interests lie in the promotion of traditional knowledge systems for risk reduction and the blending of high-technology with indigenous settings. He remains a promoter of technology transfer pathways and community-based GIS approaches to disaster reduction and the creation of alternative futures.

Stefanie Dannenmann joined the UN/ISDR Platform for the Promotion of Early Warning in Bonn April 2005. She mainly coordinates and supports ISDR System partners in their assistance to Indian Ocean Governments to strengthen regional and national tsunami early warning system.
She holds a PhD with focus on paleoclimatology from SUNY Albany, New York, and has been working in the hazards and risk management field for several years. First employed by Swiss Reinsurance in New York with the Catastrophe Perils Unit, she has been dedicated to the understanding of and quantification of potential loss due to naturally occurring hazards. Some of her accomplishments include multi-national hazard and risk assessments with an emphasis on Latin American countries. Later, as a member of the Swiss Federal Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF natural hazard team located in Davos, Switzerland, her work mainly focused on evaluation of operational policies for natural disaster management at major international financial institutions, integral disaster risk management and risk financing topics in developing countries.
She is German, fluent in English and has basic knowledge of French and Spanish.

Yoko Hagiwara joined the ISDR PPEW in mid December 2006. Before joining the PPEW, Yoko worked in three UN agencies, UNDP, UNEP, and the UNCCD Secretariat at four different duty stations (Delhi, Jakarta, Geneva and Bonn) with specific focus on advocacy of the global environmental agenda and management of sustainable environment/energy projects including the ones on climate change and land degradation under the Global Environment Facility. In Jakarta, she served as a UNV environment specialist. In 2004, she was involved in UNEP's preparatory work for the World Conference on Disaster Reduction highlighting the importance of environmental protection in reducing disaster risks and vulnerability. In 2005-2006, she assisted LDC-SIDS in the Asia, Pacific and Caribbean regions in formulating UNCCD's national action programmes and/or national reports for fighting against droughts, land degradation and desertification. Yoko holds M.A. in International Relations from the Johns Hopkins University (USA) and B.L. from Kumamoto University (Japan). She also has 6 year work experience in the private sector (oil industry) in Tokyo.

Sandra Amlang joined the ISDR Platform for the Promotion of Early Warning (PPEW) in Bonn in September 2006. Sandra completed her master's degree in Geography in February 2005. The focal point of her study was disaster risk management, including natural processes, hazard awareness and vulnerability. In her master thesis "Regional modelling of natural hazard related to landslides in New Mexico, USA" she prepared different susceptibility maps at the national scale. In 2005 she was involved in preparation of the post-graduate course "Disaster Reduction and Management" (KaVoMa) provided by the University of Bonn and Federal Office of Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance (BBK). Afterwards she worked for the German Committee for Disaster Reduction and assisted in organising the "Third International Conference on Early Warning" (EWC III) held in Bonn.

Debra Hickson joined the ISDR Platform for the Promotion of Early Warning in Bonn in January 2006. She assists with the daily administrative tasks. Her background lies in the field of Human Resources and Finance where she has spent the last 7 years with UNFCCC and UNCCD in Bonn, in their Administration Team as Human Resources Assistant. Before joining the UN in 1999 Debra was a Personnel Assistant for the Management Section at the British Embassy in Bonn.