An Associate Professor in the Department of Security and Crime Science at University College London (UCL), Dr. Ella Cockbain is also a visiting research fellow at Leiden University in the Netherlands. Her research focuses in particular on human trafficking, labour market abuses, and child sexual exploitation.
Mădălina Boț is pursuing an MA in International Relations at Central European University in Vienna and supports the communications strategy and implementation of the International Forum for Understanding and its various projects, such as MESPERO: Impact for Resilience and SDG2030.me. She is interested in the specificities of lived experience and human rights, which she has been exploring in various Romanian NGOs and as an intern of leading public institutions.
@ International Forum for Understanding
Organising Team
Mădălina Bot is interested in what could be done with those glimpses of agency in countless structures and systems – is there any place for an honest empowering of individuals? Her background in a diversity of Romanian NGOs and public institutions kept her searching for concrete answers to this generic research question. Currently pursuing a Masters in International Relations at Central European University (CEU), Vienna, she focuses on those lived experiences that are usually left out from institutional analysis. Mădălina also works as Communications Officer for the International Forum for Understanding.
Les Simm founded the International Forum for Understanding and serves as its Executive Director. Les works in the business sector, with governments, the UN, INGO’s and other entities in areas ranging from security risk management and business resilience to humanitarian operations and disaster relief. He has expertise in nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons disarmament, non-proliferation, arms control and verification, security sector reform and countering transnational organised crime. Having trained as a psychiatric nurse in his early career, Les has long-term interest in mental health and wellbeing. Les is a passionate supporter of the SDGs with a particular focus on project implementation and making a demonstrable and direct impact on people’s lives.
Miriam is the advocacy manager at Freedom United, the world’s largest community taking action against modern slavery. She coordinates Freedom United’s advocacy and campaign work whilst leading successful advocacy efforts on a range of global modern slavery issues. She completed her bachelor’s degree in Spanish and Politics at the University of Bath specialising on the rights of indigenous peoples. Miriam holds a Master’s degree in Human Rights from the University of London, focussing on the rights of sex workers within the UK’s anti-trafficking framework.
Joanna is co-founder and Executive Director of Freedom United, a mass global community against all forms of modern slavery. Joanna is also a trustee at Labour Behind the Label Trust – campaigning for garment workers’ rights. As Chair of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative UK, she received an innovation award for the newly created Commonwealth 8.7 Network on modern slavery. Joanna is a contributing author and her international human rights experience spans the UK diplomatic service, academia, and philanthropy, managing multi-million dollar budgets. Joanna holds a Master’s degree in Human Rights from the University of London.
Dr. Ella Cockbain is an Associate Professor at University College London (UCL), and a visiting research fellow at Leiden University. Her research focuses on human trafficking, labour exploitation and child sexual abuse. She believes in the need for nuanced, evidence-informed and context-sensitive responses to complex social phenomena. She is the former co-chair of the UK’s Modern Slavery Strategy and Implementation Group on prevention, and a current member. A previous ‘Future Research Leaders’ fellow of the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), Ella currently leads a major ESRC-funded programme of research into human trafficking. She also heads up the Research Group on Human Trafficking, Smuggling and Exploitation at UCL.
Layla Barakeh is a humanitarian worker and disaster-management specialist based in Syria. She specializes in mental health and psychosocial support and livelihood training. Layla is the Director of Humanitarian Community Life (HCL), a capacity-building initiative for humanitarian settings in Syria and Yemen.
Peter Bach is a consultant, global executive and producer. He has worked, written and made films in countries as diverse as Afghanistan, Ivory Coast, Jordan, United States, Estonia, Latvia, Pakistan, South Africa, and the former Yugoslavia. In New York he produced and directed for PBS and BBC the documentary film ‘Bottom Line’. In the UK he made ‘The Man Who Sculpted Hares’ for BBC Four and has written features for the Telegraph, Guardian, Standard, Scotsman, Mail on Sunday. Today he writes regularly for CounterPunch in the US. In feature films he has led large digital teams for Danny Boyle, Michael Winterbottom, Harold Pinter and Ridley Scott. He also represented the UK film industry in Los Angeles.
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@ Director of Development
Heather’s career in public speaking, organizational development, human resources, education, cross-culture, and media has spanned five continents and multiple fields.
After completing an advanced degree in Clinical Psychology in her native USA, Heather carried out development work in the Philippines, then spent decades in Japan and Europe consulting academic institutions and international business groups.
A firm believer in Impact Tech and the democratization of knowledge, she is an expert in virtual learning. Heather also provides consultation on topics connected to organizational development (including digital transformation, leadership development, employee engagement, change management, strategy, and globalization).
Heather is also the Executive Director of MESPERO: Impact for Resilience and of SDG2030.me.
Rania Ali is an award winning journalist, public speaker, and human rights defender from Syria. Having made her first award-winning documentary with the Guardian in 2017, she works with several NGOs as a campaigner highlighting to governments the importance of protecting human rights defenders worldwide. She is an advocate for human rights generally and refugee and women’s rights specifically, engaged in that pursuit for the past five years. She has dedicated herself to speaking on many international platforms for said issues.
Currently, Rania Ali is pursuing a degree in international relations thus expanding her expertise in areas related to post-conflict peacebuilding and reconciliation.
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@ Founder and Executive Director
Les works in the business sector, with governments, the UN, INGO’s and other entities in areas ranging from security risk management and business resilience to humanitarian operations and disaster relief. He has expertise in nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons disarmament, non-proliferation, arms control and verification, security sector reform and countering transnational organised crime.
Having trained as a psychiatric nurse in his early career, Les has long-term interest in mental health and wellbeing.
Les is a passionate supporter of the SDGs with a particular focus on project implementation and making a demonstrable and direct impact on people’s lives.
