October 17, 2008, Washington, DC: The Advocacy Project (AP) is pleased to announce the addition of three new members to its Board for the upcoming year.
The new members are intended to address several important constituencies that AP works with, and that have, until this point, not been adequately represented in its Board structure. These include AP partner organizations, AP Peace Fellows, and the United Nations.
The three new members are:
Suvash Darnal is the founder of the Jagaran Media Center in Nepal, an AP partner, and until recently the Coordinator of the Collective Campaign for Peace (COCAP) a network of over 40 Nepalese human rights groups. He is currently a Fellow at the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) in Washington DC.
Devin Greenleaf is a freelance journalist, film-maker and human rights advocate living in Washington DC. He joined AP as a 2007 Peace Fellow and served with the Jagaran Media Center (JMC) in Nepal. Devin holds a Masters degree in International Politics from American University, focused on Global Human Security and International Communication.
Soren Jessen-Petersen is currently the Director of the Washington office of the Independent Diplomat, a lecturer at the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, and a Guest Scholar at the United States Institute of Peace (USIP). Prior to Washington, Mr. Jessen-Petersen had a long and distinguished career in the United Nations. A lawyer and journalist by training, he began his service in 1972 with the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Africa. Among this many positions at the UNHCR since, he has served as Chef de Cabinet of the High Commissioner in Geneva, Director of External Relations, Director of the UNHCR Liaison Office at the UN Headquarters in New York, Special Envoy to the former Yugoslavia, Assistant UN High Commissioner for Refugees. He also served as Chairman of the European Union Stability Pactfs Migration, Asylum, Refugees Regional Initiative (MARRI), and Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General in Kosovo and head of UNMIK (August 2004 to July 2006).
The three join Executive Director Iain Guest, Scott Allen, Teresa Crawford, Susan Martin and Claudia Fritsche on the AP Board.
The new board members attended their first meeting Oct. 16 at the AP office in Washington. AP hopes to add an additional Board member in 2009.