Governance & Team

The Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children is governed by a Board and an Executive Committee. These governing bodies reflect the diverse nature of the Partnership and include governments, multilateral agencies, civil society and faith organizations, the private sector, foundations, academics and independent experts.

End Violence will transition to a new governance structure by the fourth quarter of 2020, following approval of the terms of reference and standard operating procedures in this governance document.

For the latest updates, announcements and meeting minutes, please:

Click here for the End Violence Board
Click here for the End Violence Executive Committee

The End Violence Board is the highest decision-making body aligned around a shared vision for the Partnership and Fund: to support the achievement of SDG 16.2

Dr A.K. Shiva Kumar

Co-Chair, Know Violence in Childhood

H.E. Åsa Lindhagen

Minister for Gender Equality, Sweden

Dr Daniela Ligiero

Executive Director of Together for Girls

Gary Cohen

Executive Vice President – Global Health, Becton, Dickinson and Co. and President, Becton, Dickinson and Co. Foundation

Henrietta H. Fore

Executive Director, UNICEF – Board Chair

Henrietta H. Fore

Executive Director, UNICEF – Board Chair

Henrietta H. Fore became UNICEF’s seventh Executive Director on January 1, 2018. She has worked to champion economic development, education, health, humanitarian assistance, and disaster relief in a public service, and has a private sector and non-profit leadership career that spans more than four decades.

From 2007 to 2009, Ms. Fore served as the Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and Director of United States Foreign Assistance. The first woman to serve in these roles, she was responsible for managing $39.5 billion of U.S. foreign assistance annually, including support to peoples and countries recovering from disaster and building their futures economically, politically, and socially.

Earlier in her career at USAID, Ms. Fore was appointed Assistant Administrator for Asia and Assistant Administrator for Private Enterprise (1989-1993). She served on the Boards of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation and the Millennium Challenge Corporation. In 2009, she received the Distinguished Service Award, the highest award the Secretary of State can bestow.

Howard Taylor

Executive Director, End Violence Partnership (Ex Officio Member)

Howard Taylor

Executive Director, End Violence Partnership (Ex Officio Member)

Howard Taylor is Executive Director of the Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children, an innovative public-private partnership launched by the UN Secretary-General.

Howard has lived in Africa, Asia, Europe and the US. He has led a global corporate foundation, established a creative social enterprise, built government teams, and led a UN-hosted global partnership – all to improve the lives of millions of people.

As Vice-President and Managing Director of the Nike Foundation, Howard was the driving force behind the successful spin-out of Girl Effect as an independent, a creative social enterprise that uses branded mass and social media, technology and data to tackle negative social norms and change behaviours.

Prior to Nike, Howard held senior roles across the UK Government, including at the Department for International (DFID), Cabinet Office and Foreign Office. He was Chief of Staff to two Secretaries of State and led DFID’s largest country programmes in India and Ethiopia. In Ethiopia, he co-chaired the Development Assistance Group, responsible for coordinating the most impactful investment of over $3 billion/year of development finance.

Howard serves on the Board of the WePROTECT Global Alliance and is a member of the International Telecommunication Union Broadband Commission Working Group on Child Online Safety. He is married with two children and enjoys sports, arts, politics, and pursuing inspirational ideas that can change the world.

Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca

Acting General Secretary, World Council of Churches

Dr Joanna Rubinstein

President & CEO, World Childhood Foundation

Rev. Keishi Miyamoto

President, Arigatou International

Kurt Ekert

President and CEO, Carlson Wagonlit Travel

Baroness Liz Sugg CBE

Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Development and Prime Minister’s Special Envoy for Girls’ Education, United Kingdom

Baroness Liz Sugg CBE

Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Development and Prime Minister’s Special Envoy for Girls’ Education, United Kingdom

Baroness Sugg CBE was appointed as Parliamentary Under Secretary of State in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Department for International Development on 13 February 2020. On 5 March 2020 the Prime Minister also appointed her as the Special Envoy for Girls’ Education.

She was previously Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for International Development from 23 April 2019 to 13 February 2020, Government Whip (Baroness in Waiting) from 15 June 2017 to 26 July 2019 and Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Transport from October 2017 to April 2019. Baroness Sugg became a Conservative life peer on 30 August 2016.

H.E. Marcelo Ebrard

Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Mexico

H.E. Motegi Toshimitsu

Minister for Foreign Affairs, Japan

Dr Najat Maalla M’jid

Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General on Violence against Children, United Nations

Dr Najat Maalla M’jid

Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General on Violence against Children, United Nations

Dr Maalla M’jid, a medical doctor in paediatrics, has over 30 years’ experience in the promotion and protection of children’s rights. She was Head of the Paediatrics Department and Director of the Hay Hassani Mother-Child hospital in Casablanca. Dr Maalla M’jid was also a member of the Moroccan National Council on Human Rights and founder of the non-governmental organisation Bayti, the first programme addressing the situation of children living and working in the streets of Morocco. From 2008 to 2014, she served as United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography.

Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro

Independent Expert

Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka

Executive Director, UN Women

Dr Savitri Goonesekere

Emeritus Professor of Law, University of Colombo

Dr Savitri Goonesekere

Emeritus Professor of Law, University of Colombo

Savitri Goonesekere is Emeritus Professor of Law, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. She was formerly Vice Chancellor, University of Colombo in Sri Lanka, and a member of the Expert Committee monitoring the UN Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women from 1999 to 2002. A member of several regional, national, and International bodies on women’s issues, she has held fellowships in universities in the US and the UK. She served from 2005 to 2011 as a member of the U.N. Trust Fund for Victims of Torture.

Professor Goonesekere has contributed to advocacy and law reform initiatives in Sri Lanka and has also acted as a consultant for several international agencies, working on law and human rights projects in the Asian region. She was also a Member of the Editorial Advisory Committee, UN Secretary General’s Study on Violence Against Children (2005 to 2006). She has published widely on family law, women and children’s rights, human rights, law and development issues. She was a winner of the Fukuoka Asian Culture International Award (Academic) in 2008.

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus

Director-General, WHO

Dr Tufail Muhammad

President, ISPCAN and Chairman of Child Rights & Abuse Committee, Pakistan Pediatric Association

Dr Tufail Muhammad

President, ISPCAN and Chairman of Child Rights & Abuse Committee, Pakistan Pediatric Association

Dr Tufail Muhammad (MD, MCPS, DCH, DCPath) is a paediatrician by profession. Currently, he is the Chairman of Child Rights & Abuse Committee, Pakistan Pediatric Association and Director of Regional Training Institute Peshawar. He has postgraduate qualifications and training in Pediatrics, Clinical pathology, public health and Reproductive health. Dr Tufail Muhammad has more than 20 years of experience in the field of CAN and Child protection. He has more than 30 research papers to his credit and has presented more than 60 papers at international conferences in several countries around the world.

Dr. Tufail has also conducted and published a number of community-based research studies in collaboration with UNICEF, Save the Children Sweden, WHO, ILO and ECPAT International.. He has also co-authored a book (Your Amazing Baby) on the growth and development of Pakistani infants (published by Save the Children UK). He has also authored a number of booklets on various aspects of CAN and child labour.

Besides his official responsibility, Dr Tufail is also contributing his time to a number of organizations, including:

Member, National Committee on Child Rights, Govt of Pakistan
Member, National Steering Committee on Child Labor, Govt. of Pakistan
Councillor ISPCAN (2006-12)
Board Member ECPAT International
Chairman Board of Directors, SPO Pakistan
Member Boars of Trustees Fatimid Blood Transfusion and Hematology Services Pakistan
Chairperson, Working Group against Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation,Pakistan
Member Provincial Commission on Child Welfare and Development
Member Executive Board, Children First, Pakistan
Honorary Project Director ILO funded Project ”Combating Child Labor through Education and Training” Peshawar, Pakistan

Dr Tufail has twice received the Meritorious Services Award from the President and Prime Minister of Pakistan.

Virginia Gamba

UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict

Virginia Gamba

UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict

Virginia Gamba is the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, to which she was appointed in 2017. Ms. Gamba brings more than 30 years of experience and professional leadership on issues relative to disarmament, peace and human security. She served most recently as Assistant Secretary General, Head of the Joint Investigative Mechanism Syria (SC Res 2235 and 2319). She previously served as Deputy to the High Representative for Disarmament Affairs and Director of the Office for Disarmament Affairs.

Ms. Gamba has a long career in peace and security, human security and disarmament issues. From 2007 to 2011 she served as Deputy Director and Senior Coordinator on Safety and Security at the Instituto Superior de Seguridad Publica, Ministry of Justice, Government of the Autonomous city of Buenos Aires. From 1996 to 2006 she was based in Africa serving inter-alia as peace and security consultant to the Africa Union, Deputy Director of the Institute for Security Studies in South Africa and Director for South-South Interactions of Safer Africa. Ms. Gamba holds an MSc (Econ) in Strategic Studies, University College of Wales, Aberyswyth and a B.A. (Hons) in Spanish and Latin American Studies, University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, United Kingdom.

The Executive Committee is an essential coordination and decision-making body responsible for the overall Partnership strategy development and implementation, funding decisions, fundraising for the field and the Secretariat, and oversight of the Secretariat.

Amanda Melville

Senior Child Protection Officer, UNHCR

Bidisha Pillai

CEO, Save the Children India

Bidisha Pillai

CEO, Save the Children India

Bidisha Pillai brings over 20 years of experience as a social development and policy specialist working on a range of issues, including child rights (child labour, trafficking, education, violence against girls), women’s empowerment, food and nutrition security, substance use and HIV prevention, and ICTs for development. She started her career in the financial sector and moved on very early to the development world, working with organizations such the United Nations, the UK Government Department for International Development (DFID), and several national and international NGOs.

Bidisha joined Save the Children in 2015 and was overseeing Programmes and Policy Impact before taking over as CEO. Prior to joining Save the Children, Bidisha was working as the Head of Strategy, Results and Communications at UK DFID for India. She has a Master’s in Sociology and enjoys music, theatre and travelling.

Dr Daniela Ligiero

Executive Director of Together for Girls

Dr Débora Cóbar

Regional Director – Latin America and the Caribbean,  Plan International

Dr Débora Cóbar

Regional Director – Latin America and the Caribbean,  Plan International

Dr Débora Cóbar is Regional Director for the Americas and the Caribbean for Plan International, a development and humanitarian organisation that advances children’s rights and equality for girls. Debbie is a Guatemalan national with a long history of defending and promoting children’s rights in Guatemala and the wider region. She was child rights advisor to the First Lady of Guatemala, and then the national Child Rights Ombudsman. She has worked for Plan International for nearly 20 years, and in this time she has championed a child-centred, rights-based approach to development. She is a Medical Doctor and has a Master’s Degree in Social Development.

Emily Travis

Deputy Head, Children, Youth and Education, UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office

Christian Papaleontiou

Deputy Director, Tackling Exploitation and Abuse Unit Serious and Organised Crime Group, UK Home Office & Safe Online Working Group Chair

Dr Etienne Krug

Director of the Department for Social Determinants of Health at the World Health Organization & Chair of End Violence’s Executive Commitee

Dr Etienne Krug

Director of the Department for Social Determinants of Health at the World Health Organization & Chair of End Violence’s Executive Commitee

Dr Krug is Director of the Department for Social Determinants of Health at the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland. He leads global efforts to prevent violence and injuries, to address social determinants of health and promote healthy ageing. He oversees the development of intergovernmental resolutions and global reports, the implementation of multi-country development projects, and advocacy campaigns. He chairs the International Organizing Committee for World Conferences on Injury Prevention, the United Nations Road Safety Collaboration and co-chairs the Executive Committee of the Global Partnership to End Violence against Children. He is a member of the Editorial Board of several scientific journals. Before joining WHO, Dr Krug worked at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, USA, with Médecins sans Frontières and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Dr Krug holds a degree as Medical Doctor from the University of Louvain in Brussels, Belgium and a Masters Degree in Public Health from Harvard University and has received many awards.

Howard Taylor

Executive Director, End Violence Partnership (Ex Officio Member)

Howard Taylor

Executive Director, End Violence Partnership (Ex Officio Member)

Ian Drennan

Executive Director, WeProtect Global Alliance

Dr Jim Mercy

Director, Division of Violence Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Dr Joan Nyanyuki

Executive Director of the African Child Policy Forum & Co-Chair of End Violence’s Executive Commitee

Karin Strandås

State Secretary to the Minister for Gender Equality, Government of Sweden

Kul Gautam

Independent Expert / Former UNICEF Deputy Executive Director and UN Assistant Secretary-General

Martin Niblett

Deputy Head of the Protecting Children Hub, UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office & Safe to Learn Working Group Chair

Maureen Greenwood-Basken

Interim Director, Global Children’s Rights: Realizing Rights for Girls and Boys, Wellspring Philanthropic Fund & Safe to Learn Working Group Chair

Dr Najat Maalla M’jid

Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General on Violence against Children, United Nations

Dr Najat Maalla M’jid

Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General on Violence against Children, United Nations

Sanjay Wijesekera

Director of Programmes, UNICEF & Pathfinding Progress Working Group Chair

Sanjay Wijesekera

Director of Programmes, UNICEF & Pathfinding Progress Working Group Chair

Mr Sanjay Wijesekera is currently the Director of Programmes at UNICEF Headquarters in New York. Prior to this, he was UNICEF Representative in South Africa. Before that, he was serving as the Chief of Section for Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), and Associate Director of Programmes in New York.

Before joining UNICEF, from 2005 to 2011, Mr Wijesekera was working for the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID), where he was responsible for managing overall policy and global programmes related to achieving the water and sanitation Millennium Development Goals. He also worked for DFID in Ghana as an infrastructure adviser, where he helped coordinate a Joint Assistance Strategy for the donor community and was the lead donor representative for the water sector. Between 2003 and 2005, Mr Wijesekera worked for UNICEF as a water and sanitation adviser in Nigeria. From 2000 to 2002, he worked for the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry in South Africa, supporting newly formed local governments to take on the responsibility for delivering water and sanitation services, and helping to regulate public and private sector service providers. He also worked on emergency programmes in Rwanda for Oxfam in 1994 and for UNICEF, supporting post-tsunami reconstruction, in Sri Lanka in 2005.

Working Groups are flexible arrangements that bring together strategic partners with resources and an ability and willingness to support delivery at scale on a priority area of work. We currently have three working groups: Safe to Learn, Pathfinding Progress and Safe Online.

The End Violence Secretariat is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the Global Partnership’s work around the world. Based in New York, Geneva and other locations across the world, the team connects individuals, organisations and governments to get violence against children on the global agenda and grow the resources and political will to make the world safer.

Ace Aceron

Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, & Reports Specialist

Ace Aceron

Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, & Reports Specialist

Ace Victor Aceron leads the coordination and engagement of the Board and Executive Committee of the Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children. He supports the monitoring, reporting and evaluation of the Partnership’s key performance indicators to inform effective governance, strategic planning and investor relations. With over 10 years of experience in the field of international relations and education for sustainable development, Ace has been part of numerous country-level, regional and global initiatives of the United Nations, with previous engagements at the UN Academic Impact (USA), UNICEF (Philippines) and UNESCO (Viet Nam and Thailand). On top of his development expertise, Ace was awarded a research fellowship in disaster preparedness education by the Japan Foundation in 2015, where he designed learning activities for children in disaster-stricken areas in Indonesia, Japan, Thailand, and the Philippines.

Earlier in his career, Ace was a high school teacher and a university lecturer in Asian History, Economics and Academic Writing. He was also a speechwriter for C-level executives and head for executive education in one of the Philippines’ biggest conglomerates. Ace has a master’s degree in International Relations, major in Peace and Global Governance from the Graduate Institute of Peace Studies, Kyung Hee University, Korea and a graduate diploma in European Studies at the University of Vienna, Austria. Ace enjoys lifestyle and travel photography, and all sorts of contemporary digital art. When available, he joins his mother’s medical missions in indigenous populations and disadvantaged communities in the Philippines.

Aida Mendez

Finance & Operations Specialist

Aida Mendez

Finance & Operations Specialist

Aida is the Finance & Operations Specialist for End Violence, she joined the team in September 2019. She worked in UNICEF’s Latin America and Caribbean Regional Office as Regional Budget Officer. Her experience is around programme management, planning, budget and operations. She has provided technical expertise to country offices, worked in various global UNICEF initiatives, and in the private sector.

Aida has a Master’s in Operations from the Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, with a Postgraduate Degree in Project Management from Universidad Tecnologica de Panama. She enjoys doing puzzles, learning chess, and loves taking a stroll around New York City and admiring how building materials are perceived within a web of ideas and how they come together to blend in the puzzling skyline of New York City.

Andrew Hassett

Director, Communications and Advocacy

Andrew Hassett

Director, Communications and Advocacy

Andrew is a passionate child rights and international development leader with more than 20 years of experience leading teams in the areas of strategy, advocacy, campaigns, policy, communications and marketing. Andrew is currently the Director of Communications and Advocacy at End Violence. Prior to this, he held the position of Senior Director of Advocacy and Global Campaigns at World Vision International, where he led the organisation’s advocacy campaigns in the areas of child health and ending violence against children across 70 countries.

Andrew has also led global and national coalition campaigns in support of the Sustainable Development Goals and held the position of co-convenor of the Make Poverty History campaign in Australia. He holds a Master of International Studies and a Bachelor of Commerce and Arts and previously held the position of honorary research fellow at Deakin University.

Bess Herbert

Advocacy Specialist, Corporal Punishment

Carmen de Calisto

Programme Associate

Carmen de Calisto

Programme Associate

Carmen is with the End Violence Secretariat on a three-month stretch assignment until 12 February 2021 to assist the Secretariat team with general admin and finance work, including support for contracts, financial transactions, grant management, compiling documents, scheduling meetings and events, as well as travel when that resumes. Carmen has been with UNICEF since 2015 as a Programme Assistant in the Chile Country Office, providing administrative support to programme specialists and officers. She is fully bilingual in Spanish and English. Carmen enjoys working in teams and with other sections as well.

Before joining UNICEF, Carmen served as Assistant to the Regional Representative of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Carmen lives in Santiago, Chile and, in her free time, she likes spending time with her son Andre, 10, going to the beach, sunsets at the pacific ocean and rollerskating.

Catherine Maternowska

Data, Evidence and Learning

Catherine Maternowska

Data, Evidence and Learning

Using data and evidence coupled with human-centred design, Maternowska works to build coalitions of change with governments, practitioners and young people to co-create innovative new ways to make the world safe from the violence affecting children.

Maternowska joined the Global Partnership to End Violence Secretariat in August 2017 as Lead on Data, Evidence and Solutions. There she has built a portfolio of multi-sectoral, age and gender-sensitive approaches demonstrating legal and policy reform, positive shifts in national budgeting for children and improved practice. Her current work at the Partnership focuses on the co-creation of Pathfinding Cities as an exciting example of how young people are creating their own solutions to violence in municipalities around the world.

Maternowska has worked in for nearly three decades in the Americas, Africa and Asia. She has been an Executive Director of a non-profit organization, an academic leading over 12 international studies on gender and sexual and reproductive health, and a UN staffer working on violence prevention for children in over 20 countries. Chronicling this work Maternowska has written dozens of articles for the academic and popular press (including in the New York Times) and her book Reproducing Inequities: Poverty and the politics of population in Haiti is used in universities around the world.

From 2012 to 2016 she led UNICEF’s Office of Research—Innocenti global child protection research agenda on the drivers of violence affecting children. In settings as diverse as Italy, Peru, Viet Nam and Zimbabwe she helped governments move hidden and shaming data on violence against children into the light of public discourse (https://tandfonline.com/toc/rvch20/13/sup1?nav=tocList).

Elissa Miolene

Digital Communications Specialist

Elissa Miolene

Digital Communications Specialist

Elissa joined End Violence in 2019. Since then, she has led storytelling and digital content efforts at the partnership, managing End Violence’s website and amplifying the impact of our 500+ partners. Prior to End Violence, Elissa used multimedia storytelling to boost the visibility of aid agencies in the United States, East Africa and South Asia, including UNICEF South Asia, UNICEF Maldives, Save the Children US, and Alive Medical Services, a Kampala-based HIV clinic.

As a journalist, Elissa has written for newspapers, magazines and online audiences, investigating topics like refugee resettlement in the United States, family reunification systems for South Sudanese children in Uganda, and child acrobats in Kampala’s largest slum.

Elissa holds a master’s degree in Politics and Policy and a dual bachelor’s degree in Journalism and Global Studies, both from Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Elissa doesn’t just love writing stories – she loves reading them, too. So far this year, she has devoured 35 books and counting.

Howard Taylor

Executive Director, End Violence Partnership (Ex Officio Member)

Howard Taylor

Executive Director, End Violence Partnership (Ex Officio Member)

Josee Nakhle

Visual Communications Specialist

Josee Nakhle

Visual Communications Specialist

Josee has been with End Violence since 2019. Since she leads on visual communication and branding. Prior to End Violence, she pursued a masters’ program in branding at SVA in New York City where she learned the ins and outs of the meaning of branding, the psychology behind it, and how to best communicate the message. Josee uses visual communication to tell a story and boost the visibly of the cause and brand. As a designer, Josee has worked in many sectors, from a web designer in an advertising agency, to an art director in a fashion magazine, to a consultant with various clients.

Josee speaks 3 languages French, Arabic and English and is currently learning Spanish going into level 3. She also loves to cook, paint, read and travel around the world to discover new cultures and places (which will soon be continued).

Kristen Hansen

Fund Portfolio Manager, Safe to Learn

Kristen Hansen

Fund Portfolio Manager, Safe to Learn

Kristen has been part of the Safe to Learn team since its introduction in January 2019. Initially working as a Policy and Campaign Officer, Kristen now manages the Safe to Learn window of the End Violence Fund, where she has direct oversight and provides technical guidance to ensure high quality and efficient projects to end violence against children in all learning environments.

Kristen has a passion for humanitarian affairs, community development and improving livelihoods. Prior to joining the team, Kristen served as a United States Peace Corps Volunteer in Tanzania. During her service, she planned and executed various projects and trainings focusing on gender empowerment, safe schools, WASH, improved health, including proper nutrition, and developed an income generating farming group for women and people living with HIV/AIDS. Following her Peace Corps Service, Kristen worked as a Project Officer on the Afya Bora (Better Health) programme with Save the Children, Zanzibar Office, where she focused on newborn and maternal health.

Kristen earned a Master of Science in Global Challenges, with a particular focus on Displaced Persons and Development from the University of Edinburgh, and received her Bachelor of Arts in Government, Law and National Security from Misericordia University. Additionally, Kristen holds the Girl Scout Gold Award. She is fluent in English and Kiswahili and enjoys travelling, outdoor adventures, and being active – so much so that she once ran and completed the Kilimanjaro Marathon – and has decided that one marathon per lifetime is enough!

Laura-Lee Sage

Policy & Advocacy Specialist, Safe to Learn

Laura-Lee Sage

Policy & Advocacy Specialist, Safe to Learn

Laura-Lee Sage is a policy and campaign specialist working with the Safe to Learn Team. Laura-Lee most recently served as a Senior Policy Officer in New Zealand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, which included a four year Posting to New York as the Human Rights and Protection Expert, as well as short assignments to support Posts in London, Geneva and Addis Ababa. Laura-Lee was on New Zealand’s Security Council team from 2015-2016, during which she represented New Zealand on the Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict and facilitated the first Security Council Resolution on Healthcare and Armed Conflict (SCR 2286). She has worked on a number of high-profile campaigns, including New Zealand’s United Nations Security Council campaign and Helen Clark’s bid for the United Nations Secretary-General position.

Laura-Lee holds a Bachelor of Laws, a Bachelor of Arts, and a Master of International Relations. She was admitted to the roll of barristers and solicitors of the High Court of New Zealand in 2012. Laura-Lee’s greatest achievements are her two young sons, William and Alexander.

Marija Manojlovic

Director, Safe Online

Marija Manojlovic

Director, Safe Online

Marija is working on the strategic alignment of Partnership’s priorities, governance engagement and leading on End Violence Fund’s investment approaches on child online safety. Marija believes in the power of multidisciplinary teams and that the key to achieving sustainable development is to work at the intersection of human needs and new technologies.

Prior to joining the Partnership, Marija has worked with UNICEF in East Africa and Central and Eastern Europe on issues that affect children through innovations in research, partnerships, and system reforms, testing new approaches with and for children and young people. Throughout her career, Marija has focused on shedding light on the nature, drivers and impacts of violence against children as part of a broader agenda on early childhood learning, quality education, innovations for young people, social and emotional skills of children, as well as through her work on the Violence Against Children Survey and information poverty of children in Mozambique. Marija holds a MSc in International Relations and Diplomacy from Leiden University, the Netherlands. Finally, Marija is a space nerd, vinyl lover and animal rights activist.

Miguel Garcia Egido

Grant Management Specialist, Safe Online

Miguel Garcia Egido

Grant Management Specialist, Safe Online

Miguel joined End Violence in July 2020. After five years working in the areas of Grants Management and Strategic Coordination at Madrid’s Regional Ministry of Family and Social Affairs, he joined UNOPS Cambodia Hub from 2015 to 2019, where he acted as Business Developer, Grants and Project Manager, covering Cambodia, Viet Nam, Lao PDR and the Philippines. His studies are in Law and Political Sciences
(Dual Bachelor’s Degree) and Public Management (Master’s). In addition to this, Miguel passed two Public Competitions to access the Spanish Civil Service, as a Senior Technical Officer within the General Administration and as Specialist in Human and Social Sciences. More recently, he has been upgrading his skills in the fields of emerging technologies applied to enterprise contexts and supply chain, as well as social innovation (design thinking and human-centered design).

Miguel is currently based in Madrid with his wife Sophia and will be relocating to Addis Ababa soon. In his spare time, Miguel likes bouldering, going to music festivals (pre-Covid), and when in Madrid, he loves just to chill with his nephew and niece, Daniel (9 years old) and Alba (7). In fact, Daniel is teaching him how to surf (!), while Alba is more into playing cards with him (dinosaurs are her favourite ones).

Natalie Shoup

Grant Portfolio Specialist, Tech Coalition Safe Online Research Fund

Natalie Shoup

Grant Portfolio Specialist, Tech Coalition Safe Online Research Fund

Natalie has recently worked with Nest Foundation in combatting child sexual exploitation and trafficking through engaging with communities of young people, educators, and experts in prevention education programs. Natalie has also supported the work of Developing Minds Foundation in various capacities over the past 8 years, most recently as Executive Director. She supported community-based NGOs in the US, Brazil and Colombia to provide access to quality education and psychosocial support for children, youth and families affected by violence. Previously, Natalie was Program and Training Manager at the Data-Pop Alliance, a coalition created by Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, MIT Media Lab and Overseas Development Institute. Natalie managed multi-sectoral projects and research partnerships and contributed to the creation and implementation of professional data literacy training workshops jointly with UN Systems Staff College. 

She recently completed a Master’s in Education and International Development at the University of Cambridge, focusing on the intersection of peace-building education, digital futures, and informal learning. For undergrad, Natalie received her BSE in Operations Research and Financial Engineering from Princeton University. 

Sabine Rakotomalala

Director, Pathfinding

Sabine Rakotomalala

Director, Pathfinding

Sabine Rakotomalala is since 2016 Senior Technical Adviser with the Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children, based in the World Health Organization. With an academic background in Child Psychology she has over a decade of professional experience in the fields of violence prevention, mental health and psychosocial support and child protection both in humanitarian and development settings. Since 2011 she has worked in the World Health Organization, Terre des hommes and UNICEF and spearheaded initiatives such as the Mental Health and Psychosocial Support Network and the development of the Minimum Standards for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action.

Sabine loves to spend time with her 3 kids, swim in freezing water, read and play tennis in the sun. She dislikes negativity, driving slowly and cooking.

Sally Burnheim

Deputy Director

Sally Burnheim

Deputy Director

Sally joined the End Violence Secretariat in March 2018, where she oversees programmes and operations, including investments from the Fund to End Violence Against Children.

Prior to this, she worked for UNICEF, most recently leading diverse advocacy initiatives with governments and business, as well as through multi-stakeholder platforms, such as the World Economic Forum. She led the development of UNICEF’s strategic framework for partnerships in 2012, and managed relationships with some of UNICEF’s major government partners. She worked in the office of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in 2002-2006 on special political assignments and as Executive Officer.

An Australian national, Sally began her career in external relations and communications, including with the UNICEF-led Operation Lifeline Sudan, based in Nairobi, and later in support of the Balkans team during the 1999 Kosovo crisis. She worked with UNICEF’s Division of Communication in New York; the UN-UNICEF joint office in Sydney (covering Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific); and with three National Committees for UNICEF – Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. She holds a Master’s degree in human rights from the University of London’s Institute of Commonwealth Studies.

She enjoys spending time in nature and in her younger day she climbed three of the four volcanoes on New Zealand’s north island.

Sandra Daniels-Harte

Senior Administrative Associate

Serena Tommasino

Knowledge & Advocacy Specialist, Safe Online

Serena Tommasino

Knowledge & Advocacy Specialist, Safe Online

Serena has been with End Violence’s Safe Online team for the last two years where she provides technical guidance to support the investment portfolio and strategy, and the learning, knowledge dissemination and advocacy across the End Violence partners.

Serena has 15 years of experience in violence prevention programs, policy dialogue and partnership development at national and international level. At UNICEF India, Serena led the country office’s violence prevention program, and at UNICEF Tunisia she conducted an in-depth situational analysis to support the development of the new cross-sector program for adolescents. Prior to joining UNICEF, Serena supported the work of the South Asia Regional Partnership to End Violence Against Children and spent four years working as a Child Protection Advisor for the Safeguarding Children Board in England. She also worked in East Africa coordinating the work of a USAID-funded regional project and as Advisor to the European Union Presidency at the United Nations Headquarters in New York.

Fluent in English, French, and Italian, Serena received her Master’s in Sociology from the University of Naples, a Master’s in Non-Profit Project Management from Catholic University of Sacred Heart of Milan and completed a Research Fellowship at the University of Toronto. Serena is based in Tunis with what she loves the most, her two daughters Sofia and Laia, the sun and the sea!

Sonia Vohito

Legal Policy Specialist, Corporal Punishment

Sonia Vohito

Legal Policy Specialist, Corporal Punishment

Sonia joined the End Violence Partnership as Legal Policy Specialist (Corporal punishment) in October 2020. Prior to this, she worked for the Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children for 11 years as Africa Project Coordinator. In this role, she promoted law reform and supported national campaigns and research for the eradication of legalized violence against children, particularly in Africa. Sonia is a long-standing human rights activist committed to the promotion and protection of human/ children’s rights. She has over twenty years of advocacy and management experience in the not-for-profit sector in the UK and in Africa (e.g. Ethiopia, South Africa). She worked for Amnesty International, Women’s Aid, Women Living Under Muslim Laws. Sonia holds a Master’s in International Law from the University of Paris XI, a Master’s in Non-Profit Administration from the London South Bank University and a PhD in Constitutional Law from the University of Pretoria, South Africa. She speaks English, French and Sango.

Sonia holds a Master’s in International Law from the University of Paris XI, a Master’s in Non-Profit Administration from the London South Bank University and a PhD in Constitutional Law from the University of Pretoria, South Africa. She speaks English, French and Sango.