Skip to main content

Announcing the new ELRHA steering committee 2011-2012

We are pleased to announce the new ELRHA steering committee for 2011-2012. Thank you to all of you who voted and congratulations to the successsful nominees.

The new steering group structure

The steering group is a 13 member body. Steering group positions are divided as follows:

  • 6 humanitarian positions
  • 6 Higher education positions
  • 1 Higher Education funding council position

Academic representatives:

  • Professor Brian Hobbs, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research) of the University of Glamorgan- Fixed position, Welsh HE representative

    • Brian is the Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research) of the University of Glamorgan, and was previously the Dean of the School of Science and Technology and Professor of Construction at the University of Teesside in Middlesbrough. He is a Chartered Civil Engineer, a Fellow of the Institution of Structural Engineers, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a member of the EPSRC Engineering College, and a member of the Academic Stakeholder Forum for the Chemistry Innovation Knowledge Transfer Network.

    Brian is Co-Chair of the International Conference series “Dealing with Disasters” and is leading the development of a multi-disciplinary Centre for Disaster Management and Emergency Response at Glamorgan University. He is currently jointly supervising PhD research projects on early warning systems and on command and control systems for large scale emergencies. He is also a member of the Wales Resilience Forum Training and Exercise Group.

  • Steve Cannon, Secretary and Director of Operations at the University of Aberdeen- Fixed Position, Scottish HE representative
    • picture of Steve Cannon

    Steve Cannon began his career in higher education management at the University of Warwick in 1982 and in 1985 he became the first Financial and Administrative Manager of the newly established University of Warwick Science Park. In 1988 he moved to Scotland to take up the post of Financial Manager at Ninewells Hospital and Medical School in Dundee, at that time the largest purpose built teaching hospital in Europe. In 1992 he became Secretary of Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and led the negotiations that led to the College's merger with its neighbour, the University of Dundee, in 1994. Steve became Deputy Secretary of the University following the merger. In 1996 he was invited to join the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council as its Secretary and Director of Finance, Strategy and Corporate Affairs and in 1998 he was appointed Secretary and Director of Operations at the University of Aberdeen.

    Steve serves and has served on numerous task forces and committees concerned with higher education. He is a member of the Delivery Partnership Working Group. He was recently a member of the Advising Group that reviewed guidance on sector-wide institutional governance. He is a Board member of the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) and has been on the Boards of Higher Education and Research Opportunities in the UK (HERO) and Advanced Procurement for Universities and Colleges (APUC). He is on the Governing Group of the Institutional Management in Higher Education (IMHE) Programme of the OECD. He is a former adviser to the Ministry of Education in Ethiopia and the Tertiary Education Council of Mauritius.

    Steve has written several publications and given numerous domestic and international presentations on governance, leadership and management in higher education.Steve is a non-executive Director of a number of companies and a member of the Board of Governors of Strathallan School.

  • Dr Andrew Collins, Reader and Director at the Disaster and Development Centre, Northumbria University

    • My humanitarian assistance orientation includes through extended voluntary service in wartime Mozambique during the 1980s, and subsequently international engagements with development and disaster reduction initiatives globally. I partly entered academia to explore ideas concerning local and global crises, gaining a PhD from King’s College, London in 1996 on ‘Environment Health and Population Displacement in Mozambique’ which I later rewrote for Ashgate Press (1998). I have published widely on health, disaster and development related topics including ‘Disaster and Development’ (2009) for Routledge Perspectives on Development Series, used by teaching programmes internationally. Beyond traditional peer reviewed papers for journals I have written for various other outlets, such as IFRC World Disasters Report (2009) and other technical or alternative media. My current research interests concern the theoretical, methodological and policy aspects of disaster responses, health ecology, sustainable development, and human security. This engages interlinked issues of environment and society, population displacement, risk, governance, education, and disaster management. I have applied this focally to health, disease and community based risk, early warning and emergency response strategies variously funded by ESRC, DFID and others.

    I led the establishment of the first combined disaster management and sustainable development postgraduate programme launched at Northumbria in 2000, and the Disaster and Development Centre (DDC) launched 2004. I currently supervise a community of PhD students and post doc researchers alongside a varied group of DDC Affiliates spanning the disaster and development field. This has been active in more than 20 countries including the UK using people centred disaster reduction research, teaching and learning. It has required addressing hazards, disasters and complex emergencies in an interdisciplinary manner, interacting with multiple practitioner perspectives. I have carried out over 30 consultations and led more than 20 research and development project in the subject area. I am married with one child aged 18.

  • Professor Anthony D Redmond OBE, Deputy Director the Humanitarian and Conflict Response Institute (HCRI), University of Manchester and Professor of International Emergency Medicine

    • I qualified in medicine (MBChB) from the University of Manchester in 1975 and gained a research MD in 1979. I trained in Emergency Medicine in the UK and the USA and am a registered specialist in emergency medicine with a special interest in the management of severe injury. I was appointed Professor of Emergency Medicine at Keele University in 1995 (where I am now Emeritus Professor) and Professor of International Emergency Medicine at the University of Manchester in 2007 where I am also Hospital Dean and Academic Lead for Global Health Education at the Medical School. I am a fellow of the royal college of physicians, the royal college of surgeons and the college of emergency medicine.

    I have been involved in international emergency humanitarian assistance for almost twenty five years, organising and leading medical support to natural disasters (e.g. earthquakes in Armenia, Iran, Pakistan, China, Indonesia, Volcanic eruption and Cholera outbreak in Cape Verde) major incidents (e.g. Lockerbie Air Disaster, UN Air Crash Kosovo), conflicts(eg Bosnia, Kosovo, Sierra Leone) and complex emergencies (eg established tented hospital on Iran/Iraq border for Kurdish refugees) throughout the world. Most recently I headed the UK surgical response to the earthquake in Haiti. In collaboration with the Department for International Development, Department of Health and MERLIN (the largest UK NGO) I have established the UK International Emergency Trauma Register. This will provide training and accountability for those wishing to respond medically to large scale humanitarian emergencies overseas.

  • Professor John McCloskey, Professor of Geophysics at the University of Ulster

    • John McCloskey studied at Queen’s University Belfast graduating in 1980. He completed a post-graduate certificate in education before spending 10 years teaching physics at secondary level. He was awarded the Institute of Physics Teacher of the Year award in 1992 and completed his Ph. D. in earthquake physics later that year. One of the papers he published from his Ph.D. was awarded the European Geophysical Society Young Scientist’s Publication Award for 1993. He was appointed as lecturer in Environmental Modelling in the Department of Environmental Studies in 1993 and was awarded a personal chair in Geophysics in 2001. He has served on the NERC Geophysical Equipment Facility for 4 years as a member and an additional 4 as chair; he was Head of the School of Environmental Sciences from 2002 to 2006 and was a elected member of the Senate of the University of Ulster until 2007. He has recently been appointed to the NERC Natural Hazards Advisory Group and has been named in the Times list of 100 most influential scientists.

    His research interests continue to involve the study of crustal systems and earthquake physics and he now concentrates on the study of stress interaction triggering, whereby earthquakes can communicate, one earthquake making another more (or less) likely. Following the great Sumatra-Andaman earthquake of 26/12/2004 his group used these techniques successfully to forecast the 2005 Simeulue-Nias earthquake (M8.7). Stress interaction calculations can identify those geological structures that are most likely to produce damaging earthquakes in the near future and can lead to forecasts of their likely consequences. McCloskey now concentrates his effort almost exclusively on Sumatra. He has published more than 10 papers in top journals and has been PI on 5 NERC funded projects on the earthquake threat there; he was PI on an ELRHA project on linking earthquake science to the NGO sector. His work informs DRR planning and he has become increasingly involved in attempts to communicate earthquake science to at-risk populations. He is a regular contributor to the national and international media where he argues for greater dialogue between the scientific and humanitarian communities for DRR in developing countries.

  • Dr Randolph Kent, Director and Senor Research Fellow at the Humanitarian Futures Programme, King's College, London

    • Dr. Randolph Kent directs the Humanitarian Futures Programme, Kings College, London, where he and his staff have worked since 2006 with various multilateral, bilateral and non-governmental organizations at headquarters and in country offices to enhance their strategic and planning capacities for dealing with long-term humanitarian threats.

    Dr Kent accepted his present post after completing his assignment as UN Resident/Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia in 2002. Prior to his assignment in Somalia, he served as UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Kosovo [1999], UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Rwanda [1994-1995], Chief of the UN Emergency Unit in Sudan [1989-1991] and Chief of Emergency Prevention and Preparedness in Ethiopia [1987-1989].

    Over the past three years, he authored Dimensions of Crisis Impacts: Humanitarian Crises in 2015 [2007] for the UK Department for International Development, and Responding to Catastrophes: US innovation in a vulnerable world, dealing with the roles that the corporate and military sectors should be playing in light of exponential changes in futures types, dimensions and dynamics of humanitarian crises. [Center for Strategic and International Studies, Washington, DC – 2008]. In 2009, he authored Mapping the Models: The roles and rationale for the Humanitarian Coordinator, which he prepared for the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs; and in that same year, he completed a joint study with ICVA on a study entitled, Collaboration: Twenty Years Past and Twenty Years Future.

    Dr. Kent is a member of the ALNAP Steering Committee, ODI/HPG’s Advisory Board and is serving on the Senior Advisory Board for DFID’s Humanitarian and Emergency Response Review. He has been a member of ELRHA’s Steering Group since it was founded, and is a Patron of the medical NGO, Merlin. At present he is participating in the CERF review, and is a reviewer for the SIDA evaluation to be concluded in 2010.

Humanitarian representatives:

  • David Wightwick, Head of Emergency Capacity Building & Preparedness at Save the Children - Fixed position (as official project host)

    • David Wightwick is Head of Emergency Capacity Building and Preparedness for Save the Children UK. Prior to working for Save the Children David worked as a consultant in Emergency Operations and Preparedness for various International NGOs. From 2001-2006 David worked for Merlin, starting as Regional Operations Manager for East and Central Africa before moving on to become the organisation's Operations Director where he co-ordinated a number of successful emergency responses, including the South Asia Tsunami response and established the Merlin intern training programme. David has experience of working in over 28 countries, across Africa, the Middle East and Asia. His areas of expertise include Humanitarian policy, strategy, operations management and preparedness, emergency needs assessment, programme development and capacity building. David is also a guest lecturer for the Diploma in Humanitarian Assistance at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and is a RedR Associate Trainer.

  • Benoît Silve, C.E.O of the Institut Bioforce

    • Benoît Silve has been C.E.O. of BIOFORCE since 2003. In that period and with a team growing to more than 50 full time staff, BIOFORCE has confirmed its position as the leading humanitarian learning organization in France. Since his joining of the organization Benoît Silve has striven to develop collaborative strategies to strengthen the humanitarian community through training, capacity building, and public awareness building actions. His strategy has been to open BIOFORCE to international aid learning initiatives; to expand in-country training; to adapt humanitarian logistics to the specifics of health in low income countries; and to create new tools for awareness building and community development.

    With his team Benoît Silve’s main accomplishments have been:

    • Creation of Humanitarian Program Manager Masters programme with Liverpool University, and with other partners such as Sphere, HaP, People in Aid, Mango;
    • Creation of WASH Masters with the 2IE foundation in Burkina Faso;
    • Set up and implementation of DRSS Haiti programme with RedR, HaP, Sphere;
    • Development of Central and West Africa WASH cluster training with UNICEF;
    • Implementation of SCM training for Health Logisticians in Ouagadougou, in partnership with USAID/DELIVER.
    • Registration of 3 humanitarian specific professional certifications in Logistics, Administration, and Programme Management; upcoming certification on WASH Program Management and Health Logisticians;
    • Raising the participation of international students, mostly Africans, up to 30%;
    • Set up and implementation of a three year training programme for Tsunami victims in Sri Lanka; more than 1.000 people trained;
    • Partnership with WHO, UNICEF and West African health ministries for development of health logistics;
    • Development and implementation of a regional training programme for national staff in West Africa.

    Born in 1958, married and father of 4 children, Benoît Silve completed a Naval Career before retiring as a Captain, with distinction, and joining Bioforce.

  • Jonathan Potter, Director of People In Aid

    • Jonathan Potter is the Executive Director of People In Aid, a not-for-profit organisation committed to helping humanitarian and development organisations to enhance the quality of support and management they give to their staff and volunteers. People In Aid has more than 180 NGO members in over 40 countries and a global programme of work (research, conferences, trainings, information-exchange, networking) supporting improvements in HR and people management practice. Jonathan's role at People In Aid encompasses internal agendas such as governance, management and finances as well as external-facing activities such as network-building, developing partnerships, fundraising, public speaking and advocacy.

    Jonathan has led People In Aid’s growth since 2001, has chaired EPN (the Emergency Personnel Network), and is currently co-chair of ELRHA. Jonathan was in business throughout Africa and the Middle East before changing to the not-for-profit sector in 1991. He worked at ActionAid-UK and subsequently as Director for External Affairs for BESO, a volunteer-sending agency. Jonathan has a degree from Oxford University in oriental studies and a Masters in international relations from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University.

  • Laura Walker Hudson, Director, Core Team at FrontlineSMS

    • Following a Masters in Development Law and Human Rights at Warwick, I spent three years working on humanitarian policy and learning at the Red Cross. During this time, my Masters dissertation was published in a peer-reviewed journal, and I have maintained my interest in and engagement with academia. Since March 2010 I have worked for FrontlineSMS, a social enterprise based in London and Washington, DC providing free, open-source software enabling community-based organisations all over the world to easily use SMS, or text messaging, to interact with the people they’re working with and for.

    My focus at FrontlineSMS has been to start the shift from a start-up to a legally registered social enterprise with a costed, fully-funded two-year strategic plan and salaried staff; clear governance structures and robust oversight of finances and activities. I have been able to draw on strategic planning experience gained at British Red Cross and elsewhere, a legal background, and project management skills to move these agendas forward substantially in a little over six months

  • Martin McCann, Chief Executive of RedR

    • Martin McCann is the Chief Executive of RedR since January 2007. RedR trains over 3000 Humanitarians a year across 20 countries. It works in support of the whole humanitarian community counting not just NGOs but multi-lateral agencies and DFID staff among its clients. It works closely with a number of universities including Oxford-Brookes, Kings College and it is a DARA stakeholder. Its courses in the Essential of Humanitarian Practice, Managing People in Emergencies and Managing Project in Emergencies and Security Management are all credit rated within the UK system as credits at the Master’s Level. RedR is also about to launch a Diploma in Humanitarian Assistance.

    Martin was the Program Director (1988-95) of a £350 million a year NGO, Plan International, overseeing all aspects of technical work, monitoring and evaluation and grant management. Martin has spent over 30 years working for international NGOs with 4 years out working for the University of Toronto. He has worked and lived in both Nigeria and Indonesia and has for work purposes visited over 60 countries.

    His last academic qualification is a Masters of Rural Development (Administration) (1987-88) from the University of East Anglia where his dissertation was the Professionalisation and Bureaucratisation of Northern NGOs.

    Martin has extensive experience on committees ranging from the student rep on the council of the University of Toronto’s Department of Philosophy to presently serving on three committees ranging from a private foundation to WarChild UK to PM4NGOs ( a transatlantic NGO to promote Program Management skills). He has served on numerous other co-ordination bodies

  • Simon Springett, Regional Humanitarian Coordinator Middle East, Eastern Europe, and the Commonwealth of Independent States at Oxfam

    • Simon is the Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for Oxfam covering the Middle East, North Africa, Eastern Europe, and the Commonwealth of Independent States. He has worked internationally on humanitarian aid and development programmes for the last 16 years with the United Nations, Red Cross, donor governments, and international NGOs.

    Simon’s primary experience is rapid onset emergency relief programmes in insecure environments and he has worked in over 50 countries in Africa, Europe, South and East Asia, Central Asia, the Caucuses, and the Middle East.

    Most recently Simon was seconded to the UK Department for International Development (DFID) to support the UK government’s efforts after the Haiti Earthquake.

    Simon is also a member of the Steering Committee of The Humanitarian Forum, a Steering Committee member of the Enhanced Learning and Research for Humanitarian Assistance, a Board Member of People in Aid, and a Board Member of the Humanitarian Aid and Development Conference and Exhibition Scientific Advisory Board.

    Simon is a member of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee Humanitarian Coordination Pool.

The HE funding council representative is a shared seat across the UK funding councils.

Chairs:

The new steering group will elect one academic and one humanitarian co-chair at the first meeting; to be held on the 15th December 2010.