Introducing the team that weaves IRfJ to gether ! …
Wanda Hall is IRfJ’s Founder and Director.
Wanda has worked, mostly with video, television and radio, to promote civic society and justice through community level projects for over 15 years, starting her overseas work in Russia in the early 1990s. She has consistently found that mass-media is the most effective means to promote an educated and involved citizenship in societies which are experiencing profound transition. She has worked in Russia, Kazakhstan, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Cambodia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Central African Republic. Wanda is American and earned her BA in Political Science and International Relations at Simmons College, in Boston MA, and her MA in International Policy Studies at the Monterey Institute for International Studies, in Monterey CA.
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Lewis Mudge is IRfJ’s Field Manager
He is based in Goma, DRC. Lewis graduated from the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill with a BA in History and Anthropology and earned his MS in International Politics at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies. From 2002 – 2005 he was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Africa, where he established an HIV/AIDS outreach center in the rural mountains of Southern Lesotho. In Malawi Lewis worked as a technical assistant for the Ministry of Local Government focusing on public healthcare and microfinance projects. After two years in the private sector, working on a risk assessment desk for a large multi-national corporation, he decided that he wanted to return to Africa and is excited to be back on the ground in the DRC.
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Sarah Katz-Lavigne is IRfJ’s Impact Assessment Analyst
She is currently working on a two-year assessment of IRfJ project activities from her base in London. A native of Montreal, Canada, Sarah has a long-time passion for development and conflict studies, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. She has previously travelled and worked with local communities in Kenya and Uganda in the areas of development and forest conservation. She is very excited to be getting to know the Central African region, which she researched with the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) and Human Rights Watch’s Great Lakes team before joining IRfJ. Sarah holds a bachelor’s degree from McGill University in International Development Studies and master’s degree in Development Studies from the London School of Economics, where she focused in particular on armed conflict, peacekeeping and gender issues. Sarah’s hobbies include reading, long-distance running and, when in the field, meeting with as many communities as possible!
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Sandrine Gaillot has been translating IRfJ programs
She has been providing English transcripts to our international audiences, since we began the project in 2005. Sandrine is a lawyer specialising in international human rights law, and she’s worked at the International Criminal Court, with MONUC in the Democratic Republic of Congo and most recently at the Special Court for Sierra Leone. She enjoys being involved with the IRfJ project because working with the programming keeps her in touch with the daily concerns of people who are living in places where the worst crimes have taken place and where the international community has seized itself to bring justice and a semblance of rule of law.
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Richard Pituwa is the founder and director of Radio Canal Revelation
Radio Canal Revelation is IRfJ’s primary partner-radio in Ituri, DRC. As local team leader for IRfJ in Ituri, Richard has been an integral player in designing and implementing IRfJ activities since 2005. IRfJ’s diversity in programming and popularity with Iturian listeners is due in large part to Richard’s enthusiasm, creativity and hard work for the project.
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Sébastien Damery is IRfJ’s webmaster
Currently living in the south of France, he graduated from London’s Middlesex University with a BA in Music. After working and managing housing projects across London with the Depaul Trust for nearly 6 years, he spent 5 years working as a Music Therapist for the North London Forensic Service before returning to his birth country with his family. He works as a freelance web designer and is involved in communication work in the public sector. He is passionate about good communication and its paramount importance in bringing people together. He has followed the IRfJ project on the web from the beginning and is excited to be able to be part of its expansion.