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Yvette J. Alberdingk Thijm, Executive Director, leads WITNESS' 30 person team of human rights activists in fulfilling its mission: to empower people to transform personal stories of abuse into powerful tools for justice, promoting public engagement and policy change. Alberdingk Thijm joined WITNESS in 2008 after having served on the WITNESS Board for 4 years. She has nearly two decades of experience in media, strategic partnerships, and new technologies. Prior to joining WITNESS, she served as Executive Vice President of Content Strategy & Acquisition at Joost, a global online video platform start-up launched by the founders of Skype. Previously, Alberdingk Thijm spent more than a decade at MTV Networks International and was instrumental in its international growth and forays into digital media. Alberdingk Thijm currently serves on the Advisory Boards for Lioness, a social documentary and outreach program about America's first female soldiers in Iraq, and for Uncensored Interview (uncensoredinterview.com), a web site for independent musicians. She is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Foundation Center, a national nonprofit service organization recognized as the nation’s leading authority on organized philanthropy.

Rose Anderson, Program Assistant, graduated from the Global College Program of Long Island University, where she majored in Peace and Reconciliation studies, focusing on issues of women in conflict. Before coming to WITNESS, Rose worked with the PeaceWomen Project, which monitors and works toward the implementation of UN Resolution 1325 on women, peace, and security. Rose speaks English and intermediate Spanish.

Miyoko Brunner, Development Associate, graduated with a BA in Economics from Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. Prior to WITNESS, Miyoko has worked on fundraising and development projects with the Women's Housing and Economic Development Corporation in the Bronx and the Hough Foundation in Washington State, a not-for-profit inner city community service organization. Her interest in women's issues also led to her involvement with the Campus Advocates Against Sexual Harassment and Assault. She is a native New Yorker.

Matisse Bustos Hawkes, Communications and Outreach Coordinator, spent two years at Aperture, the fine photography foundation, as the publicist. She later worked as Outreach Coordinator for PixelPress, a multimedia company for social change where she co-managed projects such as "The End of Polio," with UNICEF and WHO which featured the work of world-renowned photojournalist Sebastiao Salgado. She joined WITNESS in 2003 and works to increase public awareness of the organization and engage participants in human rights campaigns both online and offline. She speaks English and proficient Spanish.

Ricky Cortez , IT Coordinator, has worked as Director of Technology for OWN Charter School, where he also was involved with community outreach, and a teacher media training initiative. He was the Professional Services Manager at Tekserve and Volchok Consulting as manager of the onsite and help desk teams. Ricky is the current Board President of LGBTfamilies.info and has worked with the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center's Run/Walk. He also started Media Star Productions, a multi-media video production company, which is where he developed his technical skills using online, video, audio, graphic and social media tools to reach a global network.

Sara Federlein, Development Manager, Institutional Relations, comes to WITNESS with over a decade of experience in nonprofit development, administration, and outreach. Prior to WITNESS, Sara worked on socially-driven photography books and exhibitions for five years at the Aperture Foundation, and before that on community development initiatives at the Community Service Society of New York. She received a BA in English from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and speaks English and conversational French.

Erin Gardner, Office Services Coordinator, specializes in office/organizational management, integration of staff scheduling, facilities liaison and executive support. Before working at WITNESS she managed a successful site seeing company in NYC for over three years. Prior to this, Erin worked on various political campaigns, coordinating the organization’s canvassing efforts, managing correspondence and performing support work for the New Jersey Bergen County Executive. She received a BA in History from the Marist College with Minors in Political Science and Communications. Erin grew up in the New York City area and currently lives in Brooklyn.

Sam Gregory, Program Director, is a video producer, trainer, and human rights advocate. In 2005 he was the lead editor on Video for Change: A Guide for Advocacy and Activism (Pluto Press), and in 2007 he lead the development of the curriculum for WITNESS' first ever Video Advocacy Institute. Videos he has produced have been screened at the US Congress,the UK Houses of Parliament, the United Nations and at film festivals worldwide. In 2004 he was a jury member for the IDFA Amnesty International/Doen Award. He was a Kennedy Memorial Scholar at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government, where his Master's in Public Policy focused on international development and media. He has worked as a television researcher/producer in both the UK and USA, and for development organizations in Nepal and Vietnam, and holds a BA from Oxford University in History and Spanish. He is on the Board of the US Campaign for Burma, and the Tactical Technology Collective. He speaks fluent Spanish, conversational French and basic Nepali.

Ryan Kautz, Post-Production Coordinator, has worked at WITNESS since 2004. He has conducted production and editing trainings in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and North America. He has edited several WITNESS productions including "Outlawed" and "Darfur Destroyed." His film, "Born an Exile," about Tibetan youth living under Chinese occupation and in exile, won the best documentary award at the Dusty Film Festival. Ryan has worked as a freelance cameraman and editor in the New York area and also for an independent film shot in Sikkim, India. He has a BFA in film/video from the School of Visual Arts in New York City.

Violeta Krasnic, Program Coordinator for Europe and Central Asia, is a human rights advocate and trainer for NGO management. Violeta worked as a gender violence counselor in the former Yugoslavia and organized campaigns to strengthen civil initiatives against nationalism and war. In the U.S., Violeta has conducted research and advocacy on the impact of U.S. government foreign policy on women's human rights globally. Violeta holds an MA from the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University and a BA also from Columbia. Her native language is Serbo-Croatian; she is also proficient in Russian and Spanish.

Rebecca Lichtenfeld, Creative Advocacy, is a human rights advocate and musician. She has worked on projects in both activism and the arts in the United States, Latin America, Africa and Asia, since graduating from Wesleyan University. Prior to joining WITNESS, she worked at the International Center for Transitional Justice where she assisted countries pursuing accountability for past mass atrocities. She put together (and performs on) the CD "For The Lady", which includes artists such as Paul McCartney, Coldplay and Ani DiFranco, and is raising awareness for imprisoned Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma. Rebecca has created and executed advocacy projects with luminaries such as Paul Simon, Angelina Jolie, Youssou N'Dour, President José Ramos-Horta of East Timor and President Evo Morales of Bolivia. Rebecca speaks Spanish and is proficient in French and Portuguese.

Grace Lile, Media Archive and Distribution Manager, has worked with nonfiction film and video collections at CNN in New York, where she established and oversaw the bureau’s first video archive and news library, and at the Worldwide Television News Archive. She studied theater at Sarah Lawrence College, received a BA in Cinema Studies from Hunter College, and an MS in Information and Library Science from Pratt Institute. She is a member of the Association of Moving Image Archivists and the Society of American Archivists. She speaks conversational French.

Kelly Matheson, Program Coordinator for North America, is an attorney, filmmaker and human rights advocate who previously worked with WITNESS to launch the first Video Advocacy Institute. As an attorney, she worked as a Law Fellow in Tanzania researching citizens’ rights to bring suit against their governments when governments broke their own laws. She also practiced throughout the western United States working on issues where environmental and human rights converge. She began creating films in 2003 as part of Montana State University’s MFA Documentary Filmmaking program. Her film projects focus on indigenous and environmental rights in Central America, the United States and the Congo Basin. Kelly returns to WITNESS after working as a Fulbright researcher in Congo-Brazzaville where she collaborated with a video-centered outreach project to determine the effectiveness of video to change health and conservation practices.

Chris Michael, Hub Community Coordinator, comes to WITNESS with years of experience designing, leading and coordinating innovative and high-profile local, national and international social and environmental justice campaigns for organizations such as Global Exchange and Rainforest Action Network. Much of Chris' work has been focused on creative and effective campaigns that utilize technology to promote justice. Additionally, Chris has worked as a field archaeologist, architectural historian and writer. Chris, a graduate of the University of South Florida with a degree in Interdisciplinary Social Science with specializations in International Relations and Anthropology, speaks English and conversational Spanish.

Marianna Moneymaker, Online Production Associate, spent eight years in the Navy & as a government contractor before obtaining a BA in TV/Film production with an emphasis in New Media. She has worked on more than fifty–eight video projects in different capacities for both online & TV with organizations such as DCTV, NY/NJ AIDS Education & Training Center, St. Vincent's AIDS/HIV Education Department, as well as with documentaries including the 2008 Academy Award winner "Freeheld.". With the LGBT Community Center in NYC, she trained over fifty LGBT activists in video production. She is working on her MFA in Creative Writing.

Oshoveli Munashimue, Development and Archive Associate, graduated with a BA degree in Law, History and Politics from the University of Cape Town. It was in college that her interest in social justice was cultivated and she was actively involved with organizations that endeavored to empower women and children in particular and marginalized groups in general. Before coming to WITNESS, Oshoveli worked for the UN with the Department for Disarmament Affairs and the Office for Project Services. Oshoveli is a native of Namibia and speaks Oshiwambo and conversational French and Afrikaans.

Tamaryn Nelson, Program Coordinator for Latin America and the Caribbean, has trained numerous local organizations to produce films on gender-based violence, torture, slavery, migration, disappearances, health, and water, among other issues. These films target high profile decision-makers in Latin America, U.S. Congress, the United Nations and the European Parliament, while also reaching millions of people via film festivals, music concerts, and major broadcast networks worldwide. Prior to WITNESS, Tamaryn managed violence prevention programs at the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), and oversaw fundraising and coalition-based advocacy at the Center for Justice and international Law (CEJIL). Tamaryn began her career in West Africa, where she assessed development projects and created innovative policies to mobilize grassroots participation. She has a degree in International Relations/African Studies from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. Originally from Brazil, Tamaryn speaks fluent Portuguese, Spanish and English, and is proficient in French.

Priscila Néri, Hub Content Coordinator, is a Brazilian journalist and documentary filmmaker that comes to WITNESS with a strong background in media and activism. Prior to joining the Hub, Priscila ran the NY office of the Brazilian-based nonprofit CDI (Committee for Democracy in Information Technology), a network of grassroots Technology & Civic Engagement Schools in urban slums and other low-income communities throughout Latin America. Before that, Priscila worked as a reporter for Brazilian newspaper O Estado de S.Paulo and as a freelance journalist for several media outlets including Reuters and Carta Capital. In 2005, Priscila studied film and went on a six-month expedition throughout the Sertão Nordestino, poorest region in Brazil, to shoot an independent documentary about lives of seven women. That project is now in post-production. Priscila is also currently pursuing a Masters in Fine Arts in Media for Social Activism at Hunter College.

Yvonne Ng, Archivist, is a graduate of the Moving Image Archiving and Preservation program at New York University. Previously, she worked with audiovisual collections at the New York Public Library, NYU Libraries, and the Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre. She is a member of the Association of Moving Image Archivists and the Society of American Archivists. Yvonne hails from Toronto, and speaks English as well as basic French and Cantonese.

Bryan Nunez, Technology Manager, has expertise in strategy, design, emerging media technologies, database administration, and systems implementation. Prior to WITNESS, he worked as a Technology Strategist and Consultant on a variety of projects ranging from online banking to interactive television. He attended the graduate program at New York University’s Interactive Telecommunications Program and received a BA in Anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley. He speaks Tagalog, and some Spanish and Portuguese.

Sameer Padania, Hub Manager, has ten years' experience in working with media, civil society and new technology. Before joining WITNESS in New York, Sameer was the lead author on Reflecting the Real World 2, a report documenting the impact of new media on British public television's global coverage, and he also wrote and edited WITNESS' award-winning human rights vlog at Global Voices Online. Sameer spent six years at the international media development organization Panos, designing and managing initiatives to support and strengthen local radio and online journalism worldwide – ranging from supporting local networks of radio stations in Africa and South Asia, and bringing African journalists to report on and blog the 2005 G8 Summit, to supporting networking among European ethnic media. He has also worked in film distribution, for Twentieth Century Fox, in film and television production, including a stint interning for Atom Egoyan, and as a journalist for UK film magazine Kamera. Sameer is a graduate in English and Modern Languages from Oxford University, and comes from London.

Suvasini Patel, Communications and Outreach Manager, has worked as a journalist and a communications professional designing community outreach, web, educational, and promotional campaigns using socially conscious media as a catalyst to inspire engagement and action for well over a decade. Prior to WITNESS, she worked for Bill Moyers as Deputy Director of Special Projects and as the Director of Outreach for “NOW with Bill Moyers,” the PBS public affairs series. She also launched dozens of educational, web, and outreach campaigns as Director of High Impact Television at P.O.V., the acclaimed independent documentary series on PBS. Suvasini has a BA in Political Science and speaks some French.

Ryan Schlief, Program Coordinator for Asia, is a life-long activist and campaign strategist who first picked up a video camera and began editing in his teens. Ryan has been a local community organizer on racism and discrimination and worked as a staff person on international issues and immigration for the progressive political leader, US Senator Paul Wellstone. He received his MA in international law from the University of London, School of Oriental and African Studies, where he focused on economic, social and cultural rights and the rights of minority populations. He subsequently joined the Asia-Pacific program at the Amnesty International, International Secretariat in London. Ryan volunteers as a video producer and editor for community television in New York City. Ryan speaks English, German, intermediate French and basic Hindi.

Tina L. Singleton, Video Advocacy Institute Coordinator, has over 15 years of experience in international program design, planning and management, with a focus on international disability and development and NGO capacity-building and training of local and international NGOs. Tina is an experienced international trainer, workshop facilitator and speaker and has consulted for a variety of organizations including the Peace Corps, Interaction, Mobility International USA, The World Bank, Landmine Survivors Network, Rehabilitation International, and American Friends Service Committee. Tina has lived and worked in Africa, South Asia and Europe and prior to WITNESS, she spent a year in Kabul, Afghanistan working as a Technical Advisor for the French NGO Handicap International where she provided technical assistance to a local Afghan disability NGO. Tina's master's degree in Community Disability Studies for Developing Countries is from The Centre for International Child Health, University College London. She is fluent in French and American Sign Language.

Martin Tzanev, Post-production Associate has a background in performance videography and postproduction work. As a WITNESS intern, he assisted the production of “Equal Access”, a documentary on Romani activism for desegregation of education in Bulgaria. Martin has a BA from Hunter College, New York, and graduate coursework in International Studies with a Human Rights focus at CUNY Graduate and University Center. He has worked for Teach for America as a post-production assistant and has a strong interest in film activism.

Christine Umali, Outreach & Administrative Associate, graduated from Barnard College and then worked as the Production Manager for the college’s Department of Theater for two years. She next worked for Learning Matters, Inc., a non–profit production company focused on public education, where she produced weekly podcasts. She also assisted with the production of segments for "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer," including "Lessons of War" a profile of an elementary school located on Fort Bragg and "Stricken Schools" a series about the reopening of public schools in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. She has also worked with DCTV, Cinetic Media, and MTV Networks. She speaks some Tagalog & Spanish.

Bukeni Tete Waruzi, Program Coordinator for Africa and the Middle East, is a native of Uvira, eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where he worked for over eight years on child soldiers and children affected by armed conflict. He founded and served as the Executive Director of Ajedi-Ka/Child Soldiers Project, an organization working to demobilize and reintegrate child soldiers in the DRC. Bukeni produced several films on child soldiers and the spread of HIV/AIDS in the DRC during his organization's partnership with WITNESS. He also implemented the use of cell phones as a means of monitoring and reporting child rights violations. Bukeni holds a BA in economics from the Evangelical University in Africa in Bukavu (DRC) and a Master's degree in Human Rights and Conflict Resolution from Chaire Unesco in Bujumbura (Burundi). Bukeni speaks English, French and Swahili and is conversational in five languages and dialects of the Great Lakes region of Africa.

Jenni Wolfson, Deputy Director, spent 12 years with the UN Department of Peacekeeping and Department of Political Affairs, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and UNICEF. She worked for UN human rights field operations in Rwanda and Haiti, investigating human rights violations and training the military, police, judiciary and NGOs in human rights standards. At UNICEF, she developed the emergency learning curriculum and trained staff around the world to respond to humanitarian disasters. Jenni has also written, produced and still performs a solo play about her experiences as a human rights activist. She has a Masters in Human Rights from the University of Essex and an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Strathclyde. A native of Scotland, she speaks fluent English, French, and Creole, and is proficient in Spanish and Portuguese.