Daniel Wolf Executive Director
Lifeline’ s founder, Daniel Wolf, has been executive director of the organization since its creation in late 2003. A graduate of Northwestern University and the University of Michigan Law School, Dan has served as an attorney-adviser in the Office of the Legal Adviser at the U.S. Department of State (1987-1988), has been a partner at two prestigious law firms (Hughes Hubbard & Reed, LLP, and Sprenger & Lang, PLLC), and, for the past six years, has operated his own law office.
Throughout his career, Dan has devoted a great deal of his time to the pursuit of pro bono human rights and refugee work, including as founder and general counsel of LAVAS, Inc.—an organization that provided free legal assistance to thousands of Vietnamese asylum-seekers in Southeast Asia during the 1990s—and as a consultant for Refugees
International.
Vahid Jahagiri Deputy Director
Vahid Jahangiri was appointed deputy director of Lifeline in March 2008. Prior to assuming that position, he served for nearly two years as Lifeline’ s program director in Darfur, where he launched projects in five different locations and presided over the production of about 15,000 fuel-efficient stoves. Before joining the organization, Mr. Jahangiri served as a senior representative for the American Iranian Cultural Society, where he coordinated the provision of assistance to refugees and displaced person from Afghanistan, and was responsible for overseeing programs that provided assistance to street working children in Kabul and Qazni. Mr. Jahangiri received his B.A. in business administration from the University of Baltimore in 1994 and has extensive managerial experience in the private sector, including as general manager of his own restaurant and of the Maryland Eye Institute.
Deborah Terry Creative Director
Lifeline’s creative director, Deborah Terry is a free lance photographer. Deborah established herself as a fashion photographer in New York City in the early 1990s and, subsequently, expanded her creative energies into music photography. Since 2004, Deborah has participated on numerous missions to Africa for both Refugees International and Lifeline, where she has utilized her artistic vision to capture the desperate plight of refugees and other impoverished peoples by exposing and uncovering the beauty of their everyday life in all of its simplicity and grace. Her images from Sudan and Uganda have been exhibited at the Lincoln Center in New York, at the Institute for African Affairs of New York University and at Art Basel in Miami.
For more information on Deborah Terry visit: http://www.deborahterry.com/
Rachael Reichenbach Program Assistant
A graduate of George Washington University with a B.A. in International Affairs concentrating in International Development and Africa, Rachael joined Lifeline as an intern in the fall of 2010 and is happy to now be a full time member of the team. Prior to joining Lifeline, Rachael traveled extensively throughout India, studying anthropology and literature, volunteering with special needs children and Dalit communities, and researching the role of local governments in the reintegration of child-bonded laborers into their home societies upon their return from captivity. Rachael first made contact with the Lifeline team while she was studying International Development at the School for International Training in Kampala, Uganda. While in Uganda she also worked closely with the National Organic Agriculture Movement of Uganda (NOGAMU) to research the benefits and challenges small-hold farmers face as they try to gain access to the international organic market.
Yoko Kuroiwa Environmental Program Officer, Kenya
A former newspaper reporter, Yoko has devoted much of his life building trust with people from different cultures. He left his home country, Japan, at age 15, completed a high school and a Bachelor’s degree in U.S.A, and obtained a Masters degree on Migration, Ethnic Relations, and Multiculturalism from Utrecht University in the Netherlands. For his master dissertation, he spent six months living with 30 Burmese refugee youth in Thailand as a volunteer teacher and researched their ethnic identity. This field experience was published in a 250-page book in Japanese, titled “Soul At The Border”.
In 2006, he flew back to his homeland and worked for Mainichi Newspaper, one of the biggest national daily newspapers in Japan, for three and a half years. He published various articles on socially-marginalized people, such as refugees, migrants, homeless, disabled, and survivors of sexual violence.
In 2009, he was selected by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Japan to be one of the 15 trainees for their newly- launched program “Human Resource Development for Peace-Building.” He was dispatched to Dadaab, Kenya for one year, as a youth officer for UNHCR. He implemented various programs, such as youth festivals and speech contests, to empower the youth in the camp. In June 2011, he returned to Dadaab as an environmental program officer for ILF.
Amandine Desaunay Country Director, Uganda
Amandine Desaunay Country Director, Uganda Amandine started as ILF’s new Country Director in Uganda in May of 2010. She has been living and working in Uganda since 2002, predominantly in war affected Northern Uganda as well as Southern Sudan. Amandine’s work has taken her to IDP camps where she has witnessed the atrocities of the LRA attacks first hand and seen the associated confinement and trauma experienced by the local population. She continues to be inspired by the resilience of those affected persons she has had the opportunity to know and work with. Amandine holds two masters degrees, one in social science and another in humanitarian assistance. She firmly believes that NGOs should not be run like companies; rather, every team member is important to the smoother and effective running of the organization.
Nate Antoccia Environmental Program Manager, Uganda
With a passion for supporting vulnerable populations and international development, Nate joined ILF Uganda in August, 2011. An M.A. graduate in International Relations from the University of Kent – Brussels School of International Studies, Nate applied his previous experiences to support his dissertation on the connection between West African (WA) regional development and irregular migration from WA shores to Europe. He posses a B.A. in Communications and Anthropology and is an Alumni of the Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity from Weber State University in Ogden, Utah, USA.
Nate has a professional background working closely with disadvantaged persons with non-profit organizations in Salt Lake City. He began his international career as a U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer in Health, Community Development and Capacity Building in The Gambia. This provided him the opportunity to integrate, work and live within a rural community. Since then, he’s assisted refugees resettle into their new environments with the IRC in Utah, implemented child protection projects with Save the Children in Zimbabwe, and supported the Migration Health Program with IOM in Zimbabwe. As a firm believer in the ‘world community’ – Nate is convinced that it is through human exchange and compassion that will bridge the cultural, economical and social divide.
Nicholas Salmons Environmental Program Manager, Uganda
A graduate of McGill University and the School for International Training, Nick has an academic background in International Development and Social Justice. Nick has led varied careers – as an activist with the Landless Workers Movement (MST) in rural Brazil, as a campaign manager for a City Council campaign in his hometown of Providence, RI, as the youngest member of a crew of five to trans-navigate the Atlantic Ocean, as the operations intern for refugees International in Washington, DC, and as the head field organizer for Barack Obama’ s 2008 Presidential Campaign in Concord, NH.
Nick first joined ILF in early 2009, when he moved to Washington, DC to help set up the organization’ s US headquarters. He rejoins the team after working for the past year and a half as an independent contractor and natural builder with New Frameworks Natural Building, a collective of builders pioneering the construction of sustainable, all natural cold-climate homes in central Vermont. Nick proudly represented ILF when he recently won the “ Best in Class” award for his first-ever charcoal stove design at this year’s Stove Camp 2010, an annual gathering of cook stove experts and enthusiasts hosted by the Aprovecho Research Center in Cottage Grove, Oregon.
Christine Roy Program Director, Haiti
Christine first joined the ILF team in 2008 working as the program officer in Uganda. Christine happily returned to ILF in 2011 as Program Director in Haiti. A graduate of the University of Ottawa and the University of Amsterdam, Christine has a background in International Politics and Gender Development studies. Over the last 4 years, Christine has worked with a varied number of organizations in Ethiopia, DR Congo, Burundi, Rwanda, and Uganda working on gender rights, social engagement, public health, and environmental protection. Christine enjoys the nomadic life, helping to improve lives through her work, discovering new places and meeting new people with every destination reached.