Arezoo Riahi

Arezoo Riahi

For the first podcast about women working at the intersection of tech and foreign policy, The Women in Diplomacy Podcast's Kelsey Suemnicht and Women in Foreign Policy's Lucie Goulet interview TechWomen program director Arezoo Riahi. Arezoo talks about the program's achievements, how tech is changing international relations by bringing people closer and how to build a successful mentoring relationship. 

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Kelsey Suemnicht

Kelsey Suemnicht

Introducing a new dynamic partnership between Women in Foreign Policy and Kelsey Suemnicht's The Foreign Policy Project. In this exclusive career interview, Kelsey talks to us about launching her career podcast on women working in foreign policy, explains why San Francisco needs to take foreign policy more seriously and discusses advice she got from the women she interviewed at NATO. 

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Jessica Weir

Jessica Weir

PROGRAMME SUPPORT OFFICER | CHILDREN IN CRISIS

What do you do as Programme Support Officer at Children in Crisis(CiC)?

I work across all of our country programmes in Afghanistan, DRC, Sierra Leone and Liberia. This includes everything from evaluation of projects, research, report writing and financial management to travel arrangements, supporting in-country field staff and working with our communications team. I also work on a small project in Kabul, Afghanistan, supporting the needs of children and young adults with disabilities who are living in orphanages.

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Clare Saxon

Clare Saxon

GLOBAL DIGITAL EDITOR | THE CLIMATE GROUP

What do you do? 

I manage editorial, social media and digital content for The Climate Group, an international, not-for-profit organisation which connects the world’s most powerful governments, brands and public figures to drive what we call a 'clean revolution': the rapid scale-up of low carbon energy and technology to reduce emissions and secure a safer future for all. We work with our partners on high-profile events, visual reports and technology pilots, to help develop the finance mechanisms, business models and policy frameworks we need to achieve this.

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Erin Stuckey

Erin Stuckey

GLOBAL HEALTH FELLOW | PROGRAMME OFFICER | BILL & MELINDA GATES FOUNDATION

What do you do as a Programme Officer for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation?

I work on the malaria team, which has the ambitious goal of eradicating malaria. We do this by making investments in new programme strategies and new technologies to accelerate the progress towards eradication of the disease. This involves not only grant making, but also strategy development. On the grant making side, my role as a programme officer involves managing the relationship between our grantees and the Gates Foundation: making investments, managing those investments, and ensuring the outcomes are aligned with strategies that will help countries eliminate malaria. 

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Meredith Hutchison

Meredith Hutchison

PHOTOGRAPHER | INTERNATIONAL RESCUE COMMITTEE

How did the Vision not Victim (VNV) project begin? 

I had been working with adolescent girls in the Democratic Republic of the Congo as part of an internship in grad school – working on some participatory media projects. One afternoon, as we were having a discussion, I asked the group of girls I was with who their role models were – who were the heroes that inspired them. After thinking for a few minutes, they went around the circle and each named a western man – Benjamin Franklin, Martin Luther King, etc. These men, these individuals they saw as role models – were extraordinary leaders who we can all look to, but there was a disconnect between their life journey and the obstacles these girls were facing in present day Congo.

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Emma Herman

Emma Herman

SENIOR OFFICER FOR COMMUNICATIONS AND OUTREACH | MAMA CASH FUND FOR WOMEN

You are the Senior Officer for outreach and communication at Mama Cash. What does that entail?

Mama Cash is a fund for feminist activism. We support women, girls and trans people around the world who courageously organise themselves to fight for their human rights. As head of the comms team I try to bring their voices and stories to a wider audience. Since joining the organisation in 2013, my projects have included a sold-out 'artivism' festival, an online solidarity campaign that became trending topic on Twitter and a content partnership with The Guardian.

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Jennifer Tobias

Jennifer Tobias

COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER | INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE OF THE RED CROSS (ICRC)

You’ve been working as a Communications officer for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in London for over two years now. What does it entail? 

As an important player in the international community and one of only five states with a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, it is important for the ICRC to have a presence in the UK in order to be able to deal directly with the government and make its voice heard on humanitarian issues. My role is to support the work of the organisation by communicating about humanitarian crises in countries experiencing conflict and other situations of violence and gather support among policy makers, legislators, diaspora organisations, academia, and the public for the work of the ICRC in responding to those crises. The ICRC first opened its office in London in 2003, at the time of the Iraq war, and now also has an office in Belfast, where our team works to address the legacy of the Troubles. 

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Rebecca Sharkey

Rebecca Sharkey

CO-ORDINATOR | ICAN UK

You’re currently working for the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) as a UK co-ordinator. What does it entail?

As the only member of staff in a coalition of NGOs, I tend to do a bit of everything. I organise research, publications, meetings, parliamentary engagement, a social media presence, events and outreach – all with the aim of promoting ICAN’s international strategy to outlaw and ban nuclear weapons in the UK.

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Kate Tickel

Kate Tickel

GENOCIDE PREVENTION STRATEGIST AND OUTREACH OFFICER | GRASSROOTS RECONCILIATION GROUP

You’re the co-founder of Congo-Sourced, Conflict-Free (CSCF). Why did you decide to launch your own organisation rather than join one?

It happened completely organically; there wasn't really a deliberate moment of decision. I was already doing work that I really loved, working with shelter dogs and programmes for low-income dog owners in Los Angeles, when I first read about the civil conflict that was happening in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). I had always tried to be aware of the relationships between commerce and conflict, but as I read on about the scale of the war that happening there – the biggest since since World War II, with more than 6 million casualties – and how Western demands for the minerals native to DRC were fuelling the conflict, and that rape was being used as a weapon of war, I had a sort of reckoning.

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Dr Laura Zahra McDonald

Dr Laura Zahra McDonald

CO-FOUNDER & DIRECTOR | CONNECTJUSTICE

What do you do as the Director of ConnectJustice?

ConnectJustice is a social enterprise working with communities, civil society and state agencies to build trust and collaboration around issues of social justice, with a focus on extremism and exploitation. We achieve this through research, evaluation, training and facilitation. This means I get to work with people from many different backgrounds and sectors, on a range of projects at any one time. This might include: research with academic partners, such as our study with former violent extremists and their families; our regular forums to facilitate learning and trust-building between different community organisations, activists and state agencies; and our training projects for young people around political and social engagement

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Sharon Reed

Sharon Reed

CONSULTANT / FOUNDER & CHIEF EMPOWERMENT OFFICER | THE GLOBAL GIRLS PROJECT

You describe yourself as a bridge builder, collaborator and idea architect. How does that translate, career-wise?

Whether working on a long-term economic development plan, leveraging policy to create local economic opportunity or developing a large scale advocacy campaign, it’s about seeing points of connection between ideas/people/data, solving problems, cultivating strategic relationships with others, and leveraging them for collective impact. It’s figuring out where there’s a gap, a need or a problem, then harnessing resources to create new opportunities for growth and development.

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Hannah Wright

Hannah Wright

GENDER, PEACE AND SECURITY ADVISER | SAFERWORLD

You advise Saferworld on gender, peace and security. What does that entail?

I’m a member of Saferworld’s policy team, based in our headquarters in London. I do research and analysis looking at the relationships between gender and conflict in the various countries where Saferworld works. I then use those findings to influence policymakers in governments and multilateral organisations like the United Nations in order to shape their approaches to building peace and security. I also advise my colleagues at Saferworld on how to include a gender perspective in their work – that is, I help them to think through how to take into account the different needs, interests and experiences of women, men, boys and girls and promote gender equality.

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