Our Staff
Maryum Elnasseh
Masiyiwa-Bernstein Fellow
Dylan Farrell-Bryan
Yale Law Public Interest Fellow
Kate Harrison
Program Associate, VFAI and Democracy in Action
Madeline Meyer
Legal Services Coordinator
Caddie Noth-Folsom
Senior Staff Attorney
Elizabeth Prudente
Supervising Legal Service Coordinator, DOJ Partially Accredited
Justin Roberts
Accountability Legal Fellow
Laura S
Senior Director of Development
Astha Sharma
Supervising Senior Staff Attorney, Rapid Response, Refugee Representation
About
Recent Articles:
Eleanor Acer
Senior Director, Global Humanitarian Protection
As the Senior Director, Global Humanitarian Protection, Eleanor Acer oversees Human Rights First’s research and advocacy on issues relating to refugee protection, asylum, and migrants’ rights. Eleanor advocates, speaks and writes regularly on issues relating to the human rights of refugees and migrants, including legal representation, detention, U.S. asylum law and policy, U.S. global refugee protection and resettlement policies, and protection from xenophobic and bias-motivated violence. She works closely with Human Rights First’s pro bono legal representation team, conducts field research, has authored numerous reports and articles, and has testified before the U.S. Congress.
Eleanor was awarded the Louis J. Lefkowitz Award for Public Service by Fordham University School of Law in 2007. She was selected by the American Bar Association to serve on its Commission on Immigration, and serves on the Advisory Board of the International Detention Coalition. She was also vice chair of the Refugee Council USA from 2006 to 2008. She has taught classes on refugee protection and migrants rights as an adjunct professor at the New School’s Graduate Program in International Affairs.
Before coming to Human Rights First, Eleanor was an associate handling federal litigation at Kirkpatrick & Lockhart LLP. She has coordinated mentoring programs and has served on the International Human Rights Committee and Immigration Committee of the Association of the Bar of New York, as well as the Board of Advisors to the Crowley Program in International Human Rights at Fordham University School of Law. Eleanor received her J.D. from Fordham University School of Law and her B.A. in History from Brown University.
About
Savitri Arvey
Director of Policy, Refugee & Immigrant Rights
As Director of Policy, Refugee & Immigrant Rights, Savitri Arvey leads Human Rights First’s research agenda on refugee protection issues. She brings over a decade of experience at the intersection of immigration, U.S. foreign policy toward Latin America, and U.S.-Mexico border dynamics.
Savitri previously held the position of Associate Protection Officer at the UNHCR Multi-Country Office in Washington. Prior to that, she was a Senior Policy Advisor with Women’s Refugee Commission.
She has been a fellow with the University of Texas at Austin Strauss Center’s Central America and Mexico Policy Initiative and UC San Diego’s Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies, where she conducted research about access to asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border and Mexico’s policy towards returnees. She began her career at the Fulbright Commission in Mexico, managing U.S.-Mexico educational and cultural exchange programs.
Savitri holds a Master of Public Policy from UC San Diego and a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations from Connecticut College.
About
Recent Articles:
Robyn Barnard
Vice President, Refugee & Immigrant Rights
As Vice President, Refugee & Immigrant Rights, Robyn oversees Human Rights First’s congressional and administrative advocacy to protect the rights of refugees and ensure the United States commits to refugee protection, including access to asylum protections and resettlement, at home and abroad.
Robyn previously served as an attorney on our Refugee Representation team, where she focused on pro bono representation of asylum seekers in immigration detention, expedited removal, and those subject to policies such as Remain in Mexico and Title 42. She supported pro bono attorneys’ representation of asylum seekers at all levels of the immigration system. Robyn also worked as a staff attorney with the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies and was a C.V. Starr Fellow at Peking University School of Transnational Law.
Robyn has appeared in numerous print, television, and online media outlets and has testified in federal court as an expert on the detention of asylum seekers. She is a graduate of the University of Melbourne Law School and is admitted to the bar in New York State. Robyn serves on the board of Aldea – the People’s Justice Center.
About
Lilia Brooker
Senior Program Associate
As a Senior Program Associate for the Refugee Representation Team, Lilia Brooker works closely with the Program Manager on overseeing programmatic operations and spearheading projects that help support the team.
Prior to her role at Human Rights First, she founded an EdTech company that taught debate and public speaking to children during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as collaborated with the country’s leading environmental lawyers during her internship at the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School.
Lilia received her BA in Human Rights with a specialization in Public Health from Columbia University. Also during her undergraduate years, she completed a rigorous program in Copenhagen, Denmark, focusing on International Humanitarian Law and Armed Conflict. Lilia wrote her senior thesis on human rights abuses within the renewable energy supply chain and strategies to ensure human rights are respected in this growing industry. She is currently based in New York City.
About
Scott Busby
Senior Advisor
Scott Busby has worked for over 30 years on human rights, refugee, and migration issues with the U.S. government and United Nations (UN). Most recently, Scott served for ten years as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor at the U.S. Department of State, where he oversaw, at different times, the bureau’s work on East Asia and the Pacific, Africa, the Western Hemisphere, multilateral issues, business and human rights, labor rights, and human rights-based sanctions. In other U.S. Government positions, Scott served as a director on human rights and refugee issues at the National Security Council (1997-2000; 2009-2011), directed the Office of Policy and Resource Planning at the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration in the Department of State (2000-2005), and worked as an asylum officer and lawyer with the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service.
Scott has also served with two international organizations: as a lawyer at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Washington, D.C. (1992-1995) and as Coordinator of the Intergovernmental Consultations on Migration, Asylum and Refugees (2005-2009), which is administered by the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
Scott received the F. Allen “Tex” Harris Diplomacy Human Rights Award from the United Nations Association–National Capital Area in 2020 and was a Finalist for the Career Achievement Award of the Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medals (SAMMIES) in 2022.
He holds advanced degrees in sociology and law from the University of California at Berkeley and received his B.A. from Amherst College.
About
Peter Chan
Director of Information Technology
As director of information technology, Peter Chan oversees the technological environment for Human Rights First. He is responsible for designing and implementing technological strategies to provide solutions that align with the organization’s mission.
Peter earned a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from St. Johns University and is accredited as a Cisco Certified Network Professional.
About
Farida Chehata
Director, Refugee Representation
Farida Chehata the Director of Refugee Representation, where she oversees Human Rights First’s pro bono legal representation program, which provides indigent asylum seekers with high quality legal representation in the New York, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles metropolitan areas.
Before joining Human Rights First, Farida was the Director of the Immigration Practice Group at Inland Counties Legal Services (ICLS), where she oversaw direct legal representation of survivors of domestic violence and other serious crimes. Prior to that, Farida founded the Immigrants’ Rights Center at the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Greater Los Angeles Area (CAIR-LA) office. As Managing Attorney, she positioned CAIR-LA as a legal resource on immigration matters through varied publications, speaking events, and media interviews on issues impacting AMEMSA immigrants.
Farida has a dual degree in political science and economics from the University of California, Irvine. She received her Juris Doctor degree from Pepperdine Caruso School of Law and is admitted to practice law in California. She is fluent in Arabic.
About
Recent Articles:
Joshua Colangelo-Bryan
Special Counsel
As Special Counsel, Josh spearheads innovative impact litigation, legal initiatives, and advocacy efforts to advance international human rights, uphold democratic principles, and support defenders of human rights globally.
Josh came to Human Rights First from an international law firm where, for over 20 years, he maintained a pro bono practice focused on human rights, civil rights, and national security matters, while also engaging in criminal defense work and complex civil litigation. For example, beginning in 2004, he represented six now-released Guantanamo Bay detainees. He was counsel to peaceful protestors who were attacked in 2017 by Turkish security agents in Washington, D.C. He also defended parties named in Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs), including clients advocating for Palestinian rights and religious pluralism in India. Further, he conducted human-rights investigations in countries such as Yemen, Lebanon, and Bahrain.
Previously, Josh had served with the United Nations Mission in Kosovo, working on the prosecution of war crimes and serving as a liaison to Yugoslav and Serbian officials. In the late 1990s, he did post-conflict humanitarian aid work in the Balkans.
Josh has provided commentary regarding national security, human rights, and criminal law matters to media outlets, including CNN, ABC World News Tonight, BBC World News, NPR, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Yorker, and New York Magazine. He has authored op-eds on these issues for publications such as The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, The Guardian, and Politico. He has also presented on these topics, including at the U.S. Congress, the U.K. House of Lords, and the United Nations.
About
Recent Articles:
Brian Dooley
Senior Advisor
As Senior Advisor, Brian supports Human Rights First’s work with human rights activists in hostile environments.
Prior to serving as Senior Advisor, Brian directed Human Rights First’s engagement with the U.S. government and other partners to end threats and obstacles to human rights defenders.
From 2020 to 2023, he served as Senior Advisor to the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders.
Prior to joining Human Rights First, Brian spent twenty years working for U.S., Irish, and international NGOs. He led Amnesty International’s work on partnering with national NGOs in the global South. Brian has also worked as Head of Media for Amnesty International in London and in Dublin and as Director of Communications for Public Citizen in Washington, D.C.
He is the author of several books about civil rights and U.S. politics. He had early experience on Capitol Hill, serving as a legislative researcher for Senator Edward Kennedy in the mid-1980s when he contributed to what ultimately became the 1986 Anti-Apartheid Act.
In 1981 and 1982, Brian lived and worked as an English teacher and community organizer in a black township in South Africa, which was prohibited under apartheid’s racial segregation laws.
Brian earned a PhD in the transnational history of rights from the University of East Anglia, an MPhil in Government and Politics from The Open University in London, and a B.A. with honors in Political Science from the University of East Anglia.
About
Diyerly “DJ” Duque
Human Resources Manager
As HR Manager, Diyerly Duque oversees all human resources processes and programs. She manages the overall recruitment and hiring process — benefits management, onboarding, payroll administration, and our internship and fellowship programs.
DJ joined Human Rights First in 2018 as a Bilingual Administrative Assistant Volunteer at the Washington, DC office, and then served as HR Assistant, HR Coordinator, and HR Generalist. In addition to currently serving as our HR Manager, DJ is the organization’s DEI Council Co-Chair.
Prior to joining Human Rights First, DJ served as a Human Development Intern at the Venezuelan National Assembly, where she was responsible for training employees in professional tools, improving work culture, and developing a citizen participation project to promote democracy and government accountability in communities.
DJ is passionate about freedom and committed to defending human rights and social justice. In 2017, she was a speaker at the HDCA Annual Conference held in Cape Town, South Africa where she presented her thesis work, based on Amarya Sen’s perspective of freedom, on emigration and its relationship to Human Development.
DJ is SHRM certificated and has earned a Management Certificate from Harvard Business School Online. Diyerly graduated cum laude from Lisandro Alvarado University of Venezuela, where she received a bachelor’s degree in human development.
About
About
About
Recent Articles:
Rebecca G
Senior Research and Policy Counsel, Refugee Protection
As Senior Research and Policy Counsel with Refugee Protection, Rebecca supports Human Rights First’s efforts to promote the protection of refugees and reform the U.S. asylum system.
About
Recent Articles:
Shala Gafary
Managing Attorney, Project: Afghan Legal Assistance (PALA)
Shala leads Project: Afghan Legal Assistance, Human Right’s First’s nationwide coordination of legal stakeholders responding to the resettlement of at-risk Afghans by the U.S. government. She also oversees the pro bono program that provides legal screenings and representation to Afghans eligible for asylum, Special Immigrant Visa (SIV), and other forms of humanitarian protection.
Prior to joining Human Rights First, Shala served as Director of Mercy Center’s Immigrant Services Department and as Supervising Attorney with Catholic Charities, Archdiocese of NY. Previous to that, she was a Blossom Hill Legal Fellow with Refugee Rights Turkey in Istanbul, and worked in Greece for Greek Council for Refugees and HIAS, serving Afghan and Iranian asylum seekers. Shala worked on a report documenting reconciliation following the genocide in Srebrenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina and served in anti-poverty projects in Guatemala and Costa Rica.
Shala obtained her B.A. in Political Science and Middle Eastern Studies from New York University, and her J.D. from Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. She is admitted to practice law in New York and is fluent in Dari, Farsi, and Spanish.
About
Sara Gormley
Chief of Staff
Sara joined Human Rights First with seven years of experience in logistics and project management, most recently as a senior associate at UNICEF USA and as a volunteer with HIAS, where she worked with immigrant detainees. Previously, Sara worked for the United Nations Secretariat in New York, managing operations for the UN General Assembly meetings.
She received her B.A. in International Relations and Political Science from Northeastern University, and her MSc in International Development from the University of Edinburgh. Sara has spent many years of her professional and academic career living outside of the United States, where she studied French, Spanish, and Arabic. She is currently based in Washington, D.C
About
Recent Articles:
About
Navid Hewadwal
Legal Services Coordinator, Special Projects
Navid serves as a Legal Service Coordinator with our Project: Afghan Legal Assistance (PALA) team. He provides legal support for the newly arrived Afghans in the U.S. by assisting the PALA team and attorneys with screenings, research, coordinating interpreters, handling translation requests, organizing legal clinics and client check-ins to name a few of his day-to-day tasks.
Prior to joining Human Rights First, Navid worked for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in Kabul, Afghanistan. He has years of experience working with local and international non-profit organizations in Afghanistan. Navid completed his B.A. in Economics, Political Science, and Sociology at Bangalore University in 2016. He is fluent in English, Pashto, Dari, and Hindi.
About
Recent Articles:
Anwen Hughes
Senior Director of Legal Strategy, Refugee Programs
Anwen Hughes helps oversee Human Rights First’s pro bono representation program for indigent asylum seekers. Anwen provides training and support to volunteers from law firms in New York and New Jersey who represent asylum seekers through our program and assists in Human Rights First’s local and national advocacy on asylum issues. She also provides information and legal services to asylum seekers in INS detention, and helps coordinate their legal representation.
Before joining Human Rights First, Anwen was a staff attorney with the Passaic County Legal Aid Society in Paterson, New Jersey, where she represented recipients of public benefits and coordinated legal services for the elderly.
She graduated summa cum laude from Yale University (1993) with a B.A. in Classics, and from Yale Law School (1998).
About
Sarah Hwang
Senior Litigation Counsel
As Senior Litigation Counsel, Inyoung (Sarah) Hwang advances Human Rights First’s strategic impact litigation and other advocacy initiatives.
Sarah is an international lawyer and human rights practitioner with over 15 years of experience at the international and domestic levels. Sarah has worked with the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court in various capacities during her career, including as pro bono counsel while in private practice and, most recently, as legal consultant. She also previously served as Senior Legal Fellow to the Center for Justice and Accountability (CJA), where she focused on the pursuit of accountability for atrocities perpetrated by the regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria after 2011. Sarah began her career in private practice with an international law firm specializing in complex litigation and (internal) investigations. Her practice areas included commercial disputes, regulatory inquiries, foreign corrupt practices, human rights, and international justice. Her work included representing clients in a federal lawsuit against Syria for the extrajudicial killing of journalist and war correspondent, Marie Colvin. Sarah was co-counsel to CJA on the case. She also collaborated with the U.N. Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect and with the Cyrus R. Vance Center for International Justice.
Sarah holds a Master of Studies in International Human Rights Law from the University of Oxford. She also received a J.D. from the George Washington University School of Law.
About
Recent Articles:
Jung Rae Jang
Full Stack Developer
Jung Rae Jang is a Full Stack Developer; he is responsible for the development, testing, maintenance, and launching of Innovation Lab projects.
Prior to joining Human Rights First, Jung Rae was a software development analyst at Citi. Before becoming a software engineer, Jung Rae worked at various non-profit organizations as a community organizer working on issues including affordable housing, immigration reform, and language access for immigrants with limited English proficiency.
His previous experiences compelled him to combine his passion for technology with the goal of fighting injustice. He earned a B.A. at Hunter College.
About
Piibe Jogi
Managing Attorney
Piibe Jogi is the managing attorney of the Refugee Representation team at the New York office of Human Rights First, overseeing the pro bono legal representation of indigent asylum seekers. She mentors pro bono attorneys from New York and New Jersey law firms who represent asylum seekers at all levels of the system.
Before joining Human Rights First, Piibe was a senior staff attorney at Immigration Equality, a nonprofit organization that represents and advocates for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer (LGBTQ) and HIV-positive immigrants. She co-managed Immigration Equality’s pro bono asylum program, mentored pro bono attorneys, and also directly represented clients in affirmative and defensive proceedings.
Prior to joining Immigration Equality, Piibe worked for several years as a corporate attorney at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, then briefly as a solo practitioner. She also worked pro bono for several nonprofit organizations in Westchester County, assisting undocumented immigrant survivors of domestic violence and human trafficking to gain legal status in the United States.
Piibe has taught law courses at Tartu University in Estonia, Uppsala University in Sweden, and Seton Hall Law School’s online program. She is the author of the textbook “Law and Ethics” (in Estonian) and several other publications.
Piibe’s degrees include an LL.B. (with the highest distinction) from Tartu University, Faculty of Law in Estonia, an M.Phil. from the University of Cambridge, England, and an LL.M. and a J.S.D. from New York University School of Law, where she was a Fulbright Scholar.
About
Vladimir Kara-Murza
Senior Advisor, Human Rights Accountability
Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Russian activist, politician, and filmmaker, has been a senior advisor to Human Rights First on human rights accountability since 2020. He was arrested in Russia in April 2022 for speaking out against the Russian government’s brutality in Ukraine and at home, and he remains arbitrarily imprisoned after being convicted in a sham trial and given a 25-year prison sentence.
A longtime colleague of Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, Vladimir played a key role in the passage of the original Magnitsky legislation, which imposed targeted sanctions on Russian human rights violators. Twice, in 2015 and 2017, he was poisoned and left in a coma; the attempts on his life were widely viewed as the Russian government’s retribution for his work on the Magnitsky sanctions. Since his imprisonment, governments around the world have imposed Magnitsky sanctions on his persecutors.
Vladimir is a contributing writer at the Washington Post and has continued to write op-eds from prison. He previously hosted a weekly show on Echo of Moscow radio, and has worked for the BBC, RTVi, and Kommersant. He has directed three documentary films, They Chose Freedom, Nemtsov, and My Duty to Not Stay Silent, and is the author of Reform or Revolution: The Quest for Responsible Government in the First Russian State Duma.
He has received several awards, including the Sakharov Prize for Journalism as an Act of Conscience, the Magnitsky Human Rights Award, and the Geneva Summit Courage Award. He holds an M.A. (Cantab.) in History from Cambridge. He is a Russian and British citizen and a U.S. permanent resident.
About
Recent Articles:
Adam Keith
Senior Director, Accountability
As Senior Director for Accountability, Adam Keith is responsible for Human Rights First’s work advancing human rights in U.S. foreign policy, with a focus on tools and institutions that help promote accountability for serious abuses and corruption. He oversees our work coordinating a coalition of NGOs that use the Global Magnitsky Act and other targeted sanctions tools to pursue such accountability.
Adam worked for ten years as a career civil servant for the U.S. Department of State, including an assignment to the National Security Council staff’s Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights directorate as director for war crimes and atrocity prevention (2013-14). He also served as principal policy advisor to the Ambassador-at-Large for Global Criminal Justice; a desk officer for the African Great Lakes region and for Iraq; and a short-term political officer in Juba, South Sudan.
After leaving the U.S. government in October 2017, Adam consulted for the Open Society Policy Center, Open Society Justice Initiative, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, and Human Rights First. He is the co-author of the Holocaust Museum’s 2019 report, “By Any Other Name,” on the U.S. government’s policy and practice in making genocide determinations.
Adam has a Master in Public Affairs degree from Princeton University’s public policy school and a Bachelor of Arts from Rice University. He was a Fulbright fellow in Ghana, where he worked for the Ghana Center for Democratic Development, and he interned at the Office of the High Representative in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina. He has lived and worked in Zimbabwe and South Sudan and studied in France. He speaks French, holds on to fragments of other languages acquired in the course of his travels, and lives in New York City.
About
Jason Long
Technical Director
Jason Long provides technical and strategic guidance to Innovation Lab projects and manages the Lab’s tech partnerships. Jason founded and built Blue Witness, an AI tool incubated at Human Rights First’s Innovation Lab to combat police violence in the United States.
Jason Long is a software engineer, founder, and technology executive with a passion for social change. He served as Chief Technology Officer at the digital product firm Sevenstar. Born and raised in Chicago, Jason is active in organizations providing opportunities to formerly incarcerated and otherwise marginalized people.
About
Andrea Martinez
Legal Services Coordinator, DOJ Partially Accredited
As a Legal Services Coordinator in Human Rights First’s Los Angeles office, Andrea Martinez supports the Refugee Representation team by assisting clients and their pro bono attorneys on asylum cases. Andrea conducts screenings of potential clients, writes case assessments, and helps manage the Los Angeles office’s client database.
Andrea previously worked at an immigration non-profit as a paralegal, assisting clients with U-Visa applications. Born and raised in Los Angeles, Andrea attended UCLA where she studied Political Science and later went to receive her Master of Public Administration from CSULB.
About
About
Madhavi Narayanan
Staff Attorney
As the Associate Attorney in the Black Immigrant and Refugee Equity (BIRE) Project in Los Angeles, Madhavi provides provides pro bono representation of Black asylum seekers, particularly those in immigration detention and expedited removal. She is a member of the New York State bar.
Prior to joining Human Rights First in 2023, Madhavi worked at Lawyers for Human Rights in Johannesburg, South Africa as a fellow with funding from the Promise Institute of Human Rights at UCLA School of Law where she represented and assisted asylum seekers and refugees from all over the African continent, as well as assisting in strategic litigation cases.
Madhavi earned her J.D. from UCLA School of Law in 2022 where she was a member of the International Human Rights Law Clinic and co-Editor in Chief of the Indigenous People’s Journal for Law, Culture, and Resistance. Madhavi also worked as an intern for the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative in London and New Delhi, Mwatana for Human Rights in Yemen, and the Danish Refugee Council in Ethiopia and Djibouti. She previously worked as a Teach for India fellow for two years in an under resourced school in Chennai, India.
About
K. Nelson
Senior Finance Manager
Ms. Nelson is the Senior Finance Manager at Human Rights First.
Nelson constructs programmatic, departmental, and grant budgets, providing cost analyses, fiscal allocations, and budget preparation. She oversees the administration of restricted grants, including preparation of financial reports.
Nelson has experience in nonprofit and government accounting and holds a B.A. in Public Accounting and an MBA.
About
About
About
Dennis R
Systems Security Analyst
As Systems Security Analyst, Dennis is responsible for maintaining and supporting the direct user environment for Information Technology operations at Human Rights First. He works with the IT Director to ensure that all our staff has access to a secure and stable computing environment.
Dennis has over 20 years of experience in information technology, having worked in high-profile and time-critical environments. A United States Air Force veteran, Dennis supported missions in Bosnia and the Persian Gulf.
Dennis studied Business Administration at Towson University and Communications-Computer Systems at the Air Force’s Air University. He holds various information technology certifications including MCSE, MCP, and Security+.
About
Recent Articles:
Sydney Randall
Senior Communications Strategist
As a Senior Communications Strategist for Human Rights First, Sydney works to amplify the objectives of all pillars of the organization through social media, digital content creation, and other outreach efforts.
Before joining Human Rights First, Sydney worked at a variety of nonprofits as an educator and communicator, including The Safina Center, The Rockaway Institute for Sustainability and Equity, The Audubon Society, and Girls Inc. She also worked as an editor at the American Institute of Physics and studied shorebirds in Canada with the Quebec Labrador Foundation.
Sydney recently graduated with a master’s in marine conservation and policy from Stony Brook University. She has a bachelor’s degree from Skidmore College in Environmental Studies and Sciences.
About
Perris Richter
Senior Director, Innovation Lab
Perris is a social innovation strategist and leader with expertise applying design methods, behavioral science, and advanced technology to complex social challenges. Perris joined Human Rights First to lead the Innovation Lab, which brings together technologists and product designers with human rights advocates and impacted communities to co-design force-multiplying technologies that support immigrant justice and democracy protection.
Prior to Human Rights First, Perris was Head of Design at MIT’s Center for Constructive Communication, where they led interdisciplinary teams in the design of civic technologies and ‘pro-social media’ environments that address the effects of deepening societal fragmentation in the United States. In earlier work, Perris co-led a USAID and Nike foundation funded accelerator for social technology enterprises in Southeast Asia, developed a vision the future of smart parks with the City of San Francisco, and launched a pioneering civic technology initiative, Real Talk for Change, that amplifies under-heard community voices in local elections.
Perris has taught human-centered design methods and storytelling workshops to social entrepreneurs and non-profit organizations all over the world, and holds a Masters in Behavioral Science from London School of Economics.
About
About
Enrique Roig
Vice President, External Relations
Enrique Roig is Vice President for External Relations at Human Rights First, where he leads the organization’s efforts to build partnerships, shape external engagement, and amplify the voices of human rights defenders in the United States and around the world. A bold and strategic leader, he brings more than two decades of experience in diplomacy, development, and civil society engagement across Latin America, Africa, Eastern Europe, and the Caucasus.
Before joining Human Rights First, Enrique served as Director of Policy and Strategic Initiatives at the Seattle International Foundation, where he spearheaded initiatives to strengthen democracy, defend civic space, and advance equitable development across Central America. He also sits on the Board of World Connect, supporting grassroots innovation globally.
Enrique’s public service includes senior leadership roles at the U.S. Department of State, where he served as Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor overseeing the Western Hemisphere and Africa portfolios, and as Senior Advisor to the Under Secretary for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights focused on migration and security issues. At USAID, he coordinated the Central America Regional Security Initiative (CARSI), pioneering community-based violence prevention strategies. His leadership was recognized with four USAID awards for outstanding performance.
He has also directed democracy, human rights, and citizen-security programs in Colombia, Serbia, and Central America, where he worked directly with governments, civil society, and international partners to reduce violence, strengthen democratic institutions, and resolve conflict.
A frequent public speaker and commentator, Enrique’s insights on democracy, migration, and authoritarianism have appeared in CNN, BBC, Univision, Telemundo, DW, and NewsNation. He holds an M.A. in International Relations from American University and a B.A. in Political Science from Westmont College. He is fluent in English, Spanish, and Catalan, and proficient in French.
About
About
Robin Saunders
Grants Manager
As Grants Manager for Institutional Giving, Robin develops strategies to secure new grants, stewards existing relationships, maintains current foundation and government funding, and cultivates new institutional support.
Robin brings more than 20 years non-profit leadership experience in donor cultivation, program development and evaluation, strategic planning, and non-profit board governance to her role. Prior to joining Human Rights First, Robin served as the Director of Operations and Grants Administration for a non-profit business incubator where she aligned the organization’s mission with strategic plans for fundraising initiatives. Robin has directed grant operations for multi-million-dollar federal demonstration projects, state funded grants, and large national voluntary healthcare foundations.
As an extension of her professional career, Robin is committed to volunteering in her community. When not spending time with her family, Robin can be found swimming or listening to Spanish guitar and classical jazz.
About
About
Recent Articles:
Hanah Stiverson
Director, Democracy in Action
Hanah Stiverson, PhD is the Director for the Democracy in Action program at Human Rights First where she focuses on the mainstreaming of extremism in the United States, misogyny, anti-LGBTQ+ extremism, and attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Prior to joining Human Rights First, her research focused on the rising fascist movement in the U.S. and how it has integrated into mainstream spaces through digital recruitment, branding, and social networking.
Stiverson has served as a mentor and fellow at a variety of organizations focused on inequity, including the Institute for Research on Male Supremacism (IRMS). She also served as a senior member of the Digital Inequalities Lab at the University of Michigan where she co-authored a publication on the COVID crises. While at the University of Michigan she designed and taught undergraduate courses focused on the U.S. far right. Stiverson has presented at major national and international conferences on topics including extremism in the military, right-wing digital fascism, and extremist social movements. She has also briefed members of the U.S. Congress on anti-LGBTQ+ hate and the mainstreaming of extremism through rhetoric and policy.
Her co-authored book, “Racist Zoombombing,” details the racist hate speech and online harassment faced by users of the Zoom platform during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Her upcoming edited volume “Banal Fascism Online: Weaponizing the ‘Everyday’ for Extreme Ends,” addresses the rising mainstream fascist movement in the U.S. and how it intersects with online culture and technology. Stiverson received her PhD from the University of Michigan, her dissertation was titled, American Patriot: The Social and Political Networks of Banal Fascism in the United States.
About
Emma Storm
Digital Director
As Digital Director, Emma Storm (she/her) leads Human Rights First’s digital strategy across all pillars to uphold and amplify human rights domestically and internationally.
A lifelong advocate and digital specialist, Emma has worked in both the progressive movement and the arts. Most recently, Emma was the Digital Communications Manager at the Tahirih Justice Center, specializing in immigration and gender-based violence.
Prior to that, she was the Director of Marketing and Communications at Opera NexGen, Digital Marketing Manager at OPERA America, and a Marketing Consultant for Opera Philadelphia. Emma is also a founding contributor of A Modern Reveal: Songs and Stories of Women Composers.
Emma has been published in The Philadelphia Inquirer and Opera America Magazine. Her work has been featured by Capacity Interactive, Digital Marketing Consulting for the Arts, and her speaking engagements include sessions with the New York Opera Alliance and the Career Blueprints for Singers program. Emma has been trained by Arena Academy and Becker Digital Strategies.
Emma holds a B.M. from Temple University and is based in Brooklyn, NY.
About
Recent Articles:
Amanda Strayer
Senior Counsel, Accountability
As Senior Counsel for Accountability at Human Rights First, Amanda Strayer coordinates the Targeted Human Rights and Anti-Corruption Sanctions Coalition, a group of more than 330 NGOs using the Global Magnitsky sanctions program and other legal authorities in the United States, UK, Canada, EU, and Australia to hold human rights abusers and corrupt actors accountable. In this role, she serves as the primary liaison with U.S. government personnel, assists NGOs working to produce recommendations for sanctions, and develops research and policy analysis on how these tools are used in the United States and multilaterally.
Throughout her career, Amanda has engaged in advocacy on a wide range of human rights issues, including political prisoner cases, transnational repression, attacks on journalists, LGBTQI+ rights, gender-based violence, children’s rights, and more. Before joining Human Rights First, she served as the Dale and James J. Pinto Fellow at Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights and worked with the South African Human Rights Commission in Johannesburg and Women for Women International.
Amanda received her juris doctor from Georgetown University Law Center and a Certificate in Refugees and Humanitarian Emergencies. She has a B.A. in Foreign Affairs and a minor in French from the University of Virginia. In 2023, she received the UN Association of the National Capital Area’s Emerging Human Rights Leader Award.
About
Marc Ian Tobias
Chief Operating Officer
As the Chief Operating Officer, Marc strengthens and aligns Human Rights First’s central administrative and infrastructure functions, providing leadership on a range of operational functions including human resources; performance management; diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts; office services; facilities management; and information technology. He empowers the staff to advance the organization’s objectives by ensuring Human Rights First is equipped with state-of-the-art policies and procedures.
Marc has a diverse background in the nonprofit sector, with over 30 years of experience in trade and membership associations, advocacy organizations, and association management companies. Before his tenure at Human Rights First, he served as the Chief Operating Officer for the New York Bankers Association. Previously, Marc served in various roles with Americans for the Arts, culminating in his role as Senior Vice President of Business Operations.
Marc’s commitment to excellence is underscored by his professional achievements, including earning the Certified Association Executive (CAE) credential from the American Society of Association Executives in 2007 and the Certified Meeting Professional (CMP) designation from the Convention Industry Council in 2003. He is a proud alumnus of The University of Maryland, which has played a significant role in shaping his career in the nonprofit sector.
About
Recent Articles:
Suchita Uppal
Consultant, Human Rights Defenders
As a Consultant with Human Rights First’s Human Rights Defenders Program, Suchita Uppal supports the organization’s work with Human Rights Defenders operating in hostile environments, particularly in dangerous contexts such as war zones, revolutions, and repressive countries.
Previously, Suchita served as an Accountability Legal Fellow at Human Rights First, where she contributed to efforts to hold human rights abusers and corrupt actors accountable through targeted sanctions.
Suchita earned her law degree from Government Law College in Mumbai, India. She began her career as a litigation associate at a boutique Indian law firm, focusing on civil and human rights litigation, and later established and led the firm’s Pro Bono Department, providing legal assistance to civil society organizations and underserved individuals.
She holds an LL.M. in International Legal Studies with a Certificate in International Human Rights Law from Georgetown University Law Center. During her master’s program, she was part of the Human Rights Advocacy in Action Practicum, collaborating with Nadia’s Initiative to support accountability and reintegration efforts for the Yazidi population in Iraq, including conducting project-related field research in Berlin, Germany, and The Hague, Netherlands.
About
Hazal Y.
Development Manager
As the Development Manager at Human Rights First, Hazal’s focus revolves around supporting the management of a dynamic portfolio of corporate donors and law firms.
She holds a B.A. in Arts and Cultural Management from Istanbul Bilgi University, graduating with high honors. Throughout her academic journey, she actively participated in the Cultural Policy and Management Research Center at Bilgi University, pursuing her passion for minority rights in Turkey. She completed her M.A. in Sociocultural Anthropology at Columbia University. Hazal’s academic pursuits center around Kurdish culture and language, ethnicity, and patterns of nation building. During her graduate studies, she extensively explored the underground Kurdish press in Turkey, analyzing its resistance and resilience in the face of an authoritarian state.
Committed to making a positive impact, she dedicated her time to various nonprofit organizations in Turkey, including Rotary International, where she spearheaded cultural development projects as the Committee Coordinator. Prior to joining Human Rights First, she contributed her expertise as a Program Assistant at the American Turkish Society (ATS). In this role, she managed a diverse portfolio of corporate donors, assisted in membership development, played a key role in New York Turkish Film Festival (NYTFF) programming and operations, and contributed to the planning of the annual gala. Her background in arts and cultural management, sociocultural anthropology, and experience in nonprofit work collectively fuel her dedication to advancing Human Rights First’s mission.
About
Recent Articles:
Uzra Zeya
President and CEO
Uzra Zeya is an internationally renowned foreign policy and non-profit leader with decades of expertise at the forefront of international peace, security, and human rights. From 2021 to 2025, she served as U.S. Under Secretary for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights. In this Senate-confirmed role, she led U.S. global diplomatic efforts to strengthen democracy, advance universal human rights, support refugees, promote rule of law and counternarcotics cooperation, fight corruption and intolerance, bolster civil society, and counter human trafficking. Under her leadership, the United States rebuilt the U.S. Refugee Admissions program to reach a 30-year resettlement peak; launched the first-ever, U.S. private sponsorship program for refugees that drew in over 100,000 American volunteers from all 50 states; elevated the global fight against corruption as a core national security priority; expanded global partnerships to fight gender-based violence and increase disability and LGBTQI+ inclusion; introduced new accountability tools to curb transnational repression and misuse of commercial spyware; and helped secure the release of hundreds of political prisoners from across the globe. From 2021 to 2025, she served concurrently as the U.S. Special Coordinator for Tibetan Issues, rallying international partners to support the human rights of the Tibetan people and help preserve their unique cultural, religious, and linguistic identity.
Zeya is former President and CEO of the Alliance for Peacebuilding, a non-partisan global network of more than 150 organizations working in more than 180 countries to end conflict by peaceful means. In this role she co-led a NGO coalition that secured bipartisan adoption of the landmark Global Fragility Act, a comprehensive strategy to pivot the U.S. approach to conflict resolution towards locally-led, upstream prevention and away from costly, military interventions.
Her distinguished diplomatic career includes senior leadership roles at U.S. embassies in France and India, the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor; and offices of the Deputy Secretary of State and Secretaries of State Rice and Clinton. As DRL Acting Assistant Secretary, she doubled foreign government contributions to and recruited the first private sector stakeholders to join the Global Equality Fund to advance LGBTQI+ equality, led U.S. human rights dialogues with China, and launched the first-ever U.S. government public-private partnership to fight gender-based violence. She also served as a human rights officer in Syria, in addition to diplomatic postings in Egypt, Oman, and Jamaica, and speaks French, Arabic and Spanish.
Zeya co-authored a 2021 Council on Foreign Relations report on Revitalizing American Diplomacy that shaped subsequent State Department modernization efforts. She is on the Advisory Board at the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre-Dame, and served recently as a commissioner of the Congressional-Executive Committee on China and an ex-officio Board member of the U.S. Institute of Peace. She was awarded the French Legion d’Honneur and the Cross of Commander of the Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas in recognition of her diplomatic leadership advancing a more just and peaceful world.