Staff Directory
Hossein Alizadeh is the IGLHRC's Regional Program Coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa. From 2006 to 2009, Hossein worked as IGLHRC's Communications' Coordinator, while monitoring LGBT rights violations in Iran and Iraq. He previously worked as the Fellowship of Reconciliation's Coordinator for Iran and Iraq. Hossein is bilingual in Persian (Farsi) and English, and has an advanced comprehension of Standard Arabic. He has an M.A. in International Relations from the National University, Teheran, Iran and an M.A in International Peace Studies from the University of Notre Dame.
Lindie Botha has been working in the development sector since 1998, gaining experience in Europe, West, East - and Southern Africa. She holds an MSc in Development Management and has designed, implemented and evaluated award-winning projects and worked with a variety of international donors. Her areas of expertise include: Donor development and grant compliance; Technical assistance and capacity building; Organisational Development and management training; Project management, monitoring and evaluation. Lindie has a passion for supporting grass-roots organisations to implement innovative projects leading to real-world change. She has assisted a variety of NGOs, many in deep rural areas in South Africa, to create evidence-based programmes, to exhibit and market their work at international conferences, to expand funding sources, and to implement projects more effectively.
Ging Cristobal brings 12 years of LGBT activism in the Philippines and Asia to her position as Project Coordinator for Asia and the Pacific Islands at IGLHRC. She co-founded Lesbian Advocates Philippines (LeAP), and has lobbied for laws to protect LGBT rights, researched and documented LGBT discrimination cases, and facilitated various local and regional groups and networks on LGBT sexual health and rights. She is currently an active member of Asia Pacific Rainbow, a regional LGBT organization and Ang Ladlad, a national organization for LGBT people in the Philippines. She is committed to addressing the intersections of violence and poverty in LBGT communities.
Blakeley received her J.D. from CUNY School of Law in May of 2012 where she worked in the International Women’s Human Rights Clinic. Through her clinic work she collaborated with grassroots organizations in Guatemala, Colombia and Haiti and worked with International and Regional Human Rights treaty bodies to address human rights violations against women. In the summer of 2011, Blakeley interned at Women's Link Worldwide in Bogotá, Colombia where she worked on implementation of precautionary measures from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to prevent gender-based violence in the displacement camps following the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. Prior to attending law school, she worked at Kurland, Bonica and Associates, an LGBT civil rights firm in New York City.
Michael Hartwyk, IGLHRC's Executive Assistant, dates his LGBT activism back to his time at the University of Pennsylvania where he majored in Sociology with a concentration in Structures of Opportunity and Inequality. While at PENN, he was a student leader in the LGBT and theatre communities on campus. Since his graduation, he has worked in higher education, K-12 education, software marketing, and market research.
Floriane Lefebvre is currently pursuing a master's degree in public administration at the Paris Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po Paris). She also completed a BA at the same institution, with a minor in Latin American Studies and spent one year in Mexico City as an exchange student. She previously worked as an intern at the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), for the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders. She is actively committed to feminist and LGBT movements.
Kate Muwoki has eight years of international research and project management experience. In Europe she worked for the Terrence Higgins Trust, where she designed and implemented HIV Prevention and Social Care strategies for LGBT and African communities, later replicated at regional level and conducted research on the stigma and discrimination of African MSM. In Africa, with Restless Development she worked to implement a youth led peer education programme that led to the introduction of sexual health lessons in Zambian education policy. At the African Union in Addis Ababa Kate worked with human rights documentation and produced shadow reports on the use rape as a weapon of war; at the South African Department of Health, she managed a team of researchers for a strategic information project making policy recommendations on the retention of health workers in under-served areas. As Visiting Researcher at Wits University, Kate designed an independent research study on access to justice for victims of xenophobic crime. She is a member of several pan-African initiatives including Movement Building Boot Camp, UHURU Spirit, and Khemets for Change and Section27. Kate holds a BA in Anthropology and Communications, a post-graduate certificate in Research Methods, and a MA in International Development and Business from the UK.
Grace Poore, from Malaysia, is the Regional Program Coordinator for Asia and the Pacific Islands at the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC). She oversees multi-country documentation and advocacy projects in Asia, conducts trainings on human rights documentation, and facilitates LBT engagement with UN mechanisms, specifically the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). She co-wrote the video, “Courage Unfolds” about LGBT activism in Asia and the Yogyakarta Principles. Her other two documentary films on domestic violence and surviving child sexual abuse have been viewed in eighteen countries. Ms. Poore holds a Masters degree from Syracuse University, Newhouse School of Communications. She is a frequent contributor to online journals such as the Huffington Post and The New Civil Rights Movement.
Andreas first joined IGLHRC as a Development Intern in the Spring of 2010 while pursuing his Master’s in International Relations & Foreign Diplomacy from the John C Whitehead School of Diplomacy at Seton Hall University. While studying at SHU, he specialized in Human Rights and Foreign Policy Analysis and completed his Master’s dissertation on the effects of Western views of homosexuality on Eastern Politics vis-à-vis Russia during the inter-war period. He joined IGLHRC as the Executive Assistant in March 2010. He works with IGLHRC and volunteers with other LGBT organizations to promote justice and end discrimination both globally and domestically. He has a Bachelor’s of Art in Spanish and Political Science from Saint Peter’s College.
Roberta Sklar is a leading communications strategist and media relations’ specialist. A veteran of social justice media campaigns, she has worked to advance LGBT civil rights, sexual and reproductive health rights, and global female empowerment.
Sklar is the former communications director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and Empire State Pride Agenda. During her tenure, the Task Force re-established itself as a leading national voice for LGBT rights. At the Pride Agenda Sklar conducted media campaigns supporting the delivery of groundbreaking statewide nondiscrimination law, a hate crimes law, and NY’s first state funding for LGBT health and human services. As a consultant, she worked with NYC Anti-Violence Project, Freedom to Marry, the National Sexuality Resource Center, National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance, NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund, Queers for Economic Justice, and others.
Sklar developed and implemented global advocacy campaigns addressing the status of women and girls with the United Nations Population Fund, Family Care International, Saving Women’s Lives Project, Women ARISE, and the International Association for the Study of Sexuality, Culture and Society.
Jessica Stern is the Executive Director of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission. As the first researcher on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) human rights at Human Rights Watch, she conducted fact-finding investigations and advocacy around sexual orientation and gender identity in countries including Iran, Kyrgyzstan, South Africa, and the United Arab Emirates. As a Ralph Bunche Fellow at Amnesty International, she documented police brutality for what became its landmark report on police brutality in LGBT communities in the U.S., “Stonewalled.” She was a founding collective member and co-coordinator of Bluestockings, then New York’s only women’s bookstore. She has campaigned extensively for women’s rights, LGBT rights, and economic justice with the Center for Constitutional Rights, Control Ciudadano, the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force, and the Urban Justice Center. She holds a masters degree in human rights from the London School of Economics. She is frequently quoted in the Mail & Guardian, Al Jazeera English, the Associated Press, Reuters, Agence France Presse, Deutsche Welle, Voice of America, The Guardian and The BBC.
Brian Tofte-Schumacher joined the IGLHRC communications team in July 2011. Originally from Washington state, Brian moved to New York City after earning his Bachelor degree in Business Administration and Spanish Language & Literature from Western Washington University in June 2010. Brian is a 2011 alumnus of the New York City Civic Corps, an AmeriCorps program sponsored by NYC Service, an initiative to make New York City the easiest city to volunteer. Since 2007 Brian has served on the Board of Directors for the Sean Humphrey House, a non-profit HIV/AIDS adult family home in Bellingham, Washington and is currently the board's Vice President. Brian has participated in LGBT, HIV/AIDS, anti-racism, and feminist advocacy in various capacities throughout his life and is honored to join the international LGBT movement.
Damian Ugwu, described as one of the "best human rights researchers in Nigeria" by his peers, holds a Masters Degree in International Law and Diplomacy. For the past 10 years he has held leadership roles and consulted with social justice organizations. Damian worked for seven years with Civil Liberties Organisation, Nigeria’s largest human rights group as the Head of Police Project and the Head of Advocacy Program. Most recently, Damian served as Director of the Social Justice Advocacy Initiative in Lagos, Nigeria. He has consulted with organizations including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the Open Society Justice Initiative. Damian has contributed to publications on the current state of human rights of Nigerians including topics on torture, violence and impunity, extrajudicial killings, and children’s rights. Damian has been an active member of the LGBTI rights movement in Nigeria, working with other activists to oppose attempts to introduce homophobic laws in the Nigerian parliament. He leads IGLHRC’s global advocacy and capacity strengthening work in Africa and is based in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Debbie Watson brings extensive managerial, marketing, and television production experience to our team. During her tenure at The Electronic Media Network (M-Net) Debbie held roles from Executive PA to Project Coordinator to Supervising Producer and ultimately Commissioning Editor, producing shows such as Miss World, Miss SA, Red Nose Day, Face of Africa, M-Net Cares and many more. She has also worked with Wisdom Keys Group, a marketing company dealing with such clientele as SA Tourism and Eskom, and in 2007 worked with the Southern African Rail Commuter Corporation now known as PRASA.
Debbie is especially pleased to be able to turn her full-time attention to an organization with a dedicated Human Rights agenda. She firmly beliefs that the support for LGBT human rights will continue to climb and that all people deserve to be treated with dignity and have their human rights respected, no matter who they are or whom they love.
Dan Werner brings a diverse skill set to IGLHRC. After graduating from the University of California, Berkeley with a BA in International Political Economy, he joined the Teach For America program and worked in the Los Angeles public school system. He left the classroom to gain public policy experience and worked in Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s cabinet office as an Executive Fellow. During this time, Dan became engaged with various LGBT causes and volunteered his time and skills with Equality California, a leading LGBT rights advocacy organization within the state. He is currently actively involved with AIDS Memorial Park, a coalition of individuals and organizations dedicated to the recognition and preservation of the history of the ongoing AIDS crisis. Dan also volunteers his teaching experience by tutoring LGBTQ youth at Harvey Milk High School through the Hetrick-Martin Institute.