About us

Heba Aly is the CEO of The New Humanitarian (formerly IRIN News), the world’s leading source of news and analysis about humanitarian crises. Heba spent one decade reporting from conflict zones in the Middle East, Africa and Central Asia before moving into management. Her work for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the Christian Science Monitor, Bloomberg News and IRIN took her to Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Chad and Libya, among others. Heba played a key role in planning and executing IRIN’s spin-off from the UN to become an independent newsroom. Her TEDx Talk Stop Eating Junk News drives home the importance of responsible journalism from crisis zones.

Living in Nairobi, Monica currently leads the British Council’s work on education, innovation and entrepreneurship. She is also a member of the UK’s Humanitarian and Stabilisation Operations Team implemented by Palladium. Amongst other roles for NGOs and bilateral donors, Monica was previously Director of Programmes at the UK’s Disasters Emergency Committee and Director of the Ethiopia-Canada Cooperation Office. Since her earlier UNHCR days, Monica has been involved in various initiatives to improve the quality and effectiveness of humanitarian action, promoting community voice, accountability to crisis-affected populations, and resilience.

Manisha Thomas is an independent consultant and the (part-time) Women’s Refugee Commission’s Geneva Representative. With over 20 years of experience in the humanitarian sector, she has worked in different networks and coordination bodies (NGO and inter-agency), including on quality and accountability initiatives and issues. Manisha has a strong understanding of humanitarian action and the challenges facing it.

Volker has represented the Danish Refugee Council (DRC) as the host agency since November 2020 at the H2H Board. Based in the DRC headquarters, Volker Hüls is globally responsible for several cross-cutting themes, including Monitoring and Evaluation, Accountability, and Learning. With over twenty years in humanitarian organizations, including in the UN, and later working as a consultant specializing in evaluating larger humanitarian responses, Volker brings a diverse perspective on the humanitarian system, its opportunities and challenges to the board.

Christina Wille founded Insecurity Insight, which examines threats facing people living and working in dangerous environments by using innovative data collection and analysis methods. Before this, she worked as a senior researcher at the Small Arms Survey in Geneva, completed a two-year diplomatic training programme by the European Commission in Slovenia and worked for UNHCR in Bangkok. Originally from Germany, Christina studied at Durham and Cambridge in the United Kingdom and became a Swiss citizen in 2019.

Mary Ana McGlasson’s humanitarian experience covers a range of contexts in Africa, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East, in roles including Country Director, Global Emergency Response Coordinator and Global Health Advisor. She has designed and managed humanitarian programmes including epidemic response; conflict, post-conflict, and refugee health systems; emergency WASH-related services for refugees and IDPs; natural disaster response; and community-based peacebuilding. Mary Ana has held leadership roles at MSF, Relief International, GOAL, Mercy Corps and now as Executive Director at the Centre for Humanitarian Leadership.

Meg leads Ground Truth Solutions, which aims to ensure crisis-affected people have a say in humanitarian action. She spent most of her career working to improve accountability to people in crisis from different angles, in Haiti, Pakistan, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq and Nepal, and more recently in global policy, holding advisory roles at UN OCHA, WFP, the Start Network and more. Meg sits on several boards, including the Core Humanitarian Standard Alliance, Danish Emergency Relief Fund and Bendigo Community Bank, and has advised many high-level processes on accountability and humanitarian reform. Within the H2H network, she is specifically interested in how non-traditional actors can support more accountable aid and systems reform.

Karin Maasel is the Executive Director of Data Friendly Space (DFS), an international NGO with the mission to ensure reliable data and responsible technology fuel humanitarian and development organizations. Karin has spent 15 years working with humanitarian organizations such as Save the Children and Finn Church Aid in the Horn of Africa, the Pacific and the Middle East. Prior to joining Data Friendly Space, she served as the Head of Africa Department at the Estonian Centre for International Development.

Caroline Vuillemin has been Director of Fondation Hirondelle since January 2017 with the effort of building connections between humanitarian and media actors, hence her interest in the work of H2H. Prior to Fondation Hirondelle, she worked for IFES in election support. Caroline holds a Bachelor's degree from the Institute of Political Studies in Lyon, France, and a degree in International Relations from Georgetown University in Washington, DC.